Gunnery Course 1: 6/25 or 6/26 -- Interested?

[Kingpin]

Ryno, After watching your filmed training course I realized that a large part of the time I just thought I was aiming.  When I try aim small miss small it is like a few moments of intense concentration.  Tough to do consistently, and so easy to backslide to aim big.  
I need to practice more than I do.

Thanks for your time.

Hi Randy,

Thanks for the feedback.  One of the several purposes of the "Aim Small, Miss Small" exercise is to get people thinking in terms of "sight picture" so that they are "flying to the shot" as much as they are "aiming".  Once you learn the correct sight picture at different ranges, you will be able to fly to set up that sight picture and will only be shooting when there is a very high probability of hitting, which both conserves ammo and keeps your initial rounds from essentially being warning shots.

Of course shooting in close is always best, but the "sight picture" concept works for longer range shots as well.  One way to extrapolate the Aim Small, Miss Small exercise is to shoot at the offline drones at various longer ranges.  For example, I have learned where to place the target in my gun-sight relative to the 2 rings in the US MK9 gun-sight (for my convergence settings) at 400, 600 and 800 on the icon.  I don't necessarily advocate shooting at those longer ranges on a regular basis, but the idea is to see how you can use your gun-sight to measure lead.  The drones are always flying in a 30-degree bank angle, so that is just one static "sight picture" out of a virtually infinite number, but doing this exercise I believe helps lay the groundwork for good deflection shooting, as you begin to see how you can use the gun-sight to measure the correct amount of lead, and how lead is dependent on range (among other things).  Hope all this makes sense!

<S>
Ryno

[mikev]

Hi Mike/Magic,

There are several threads on the forum about stick-scaling, so I haven't posted mine.  As I mentioned in our walk-through, scaling is about personal preference/habits/equipment etc., so what one person uses may not be the best for you.  That's why I prefer to show you not only how to modify your scaling, but more importantly, explain the thinking behind the setup, so you know when and why to make changes later as your flying improves.

Glad to hear that one session helped a little.  There's a steep learning curve so keep at it, try not to get frustrated (this game can be humbling, even to veterans), film your sorties and try to learn from every lost airframe.  Also, continue working with trainers, especially if you have specific issues to address like your stalling problem.  It is my understanding trainers like when you come to them with a specific problem/issue.

Oh, and another tip: I noticed you had issues with transitioning your views, as you lost sight of me several times.  This is totally normal for new players.   Getting good views and keeping sight of your enemy is probably the #1 priority.  So a good way to practice that is to do that Cuban-8 maneuver I showed you, staying in line with the airfield runway, while keeping an object (like the radar tower) in view the entire time.  This will train your brain to fly a maneuver by feel while looking in a different direction and transitioning the views as you maneuver.  It will take some practice, but is a great way to develop that skill.

<S>
Ryno

yup have to agree i think part of my stalling prob is not watching the interments of the plane. im so busy trying to find the eny i lose track of what my plane is doing  and then if i am watching the gauges thats when i get shot down because im not looking where the eny is. seems i have more problems when we are outnumbered then when we have an advantage when people have time whether its a check 6 or watch the guy etc.  i have a feeling 1 of these days things are going to click into place for me. for me i like to jump the eny when they are chasing down 1 of us and i am surprised we dont play a more watch your wingman type of game because in ww2 they sure had to. but i guess scoring hits and kills is easier when nothing is at stake MAGIC58