Convergence

[Guano]

I have been fooling around with setting the convergence.  Are there any thoughts on the subject?  If set the convergence short, say 275, but the plane you are shooting is 400 yards then it's like a shot gun, but if convergence is set to 400 then it's a rifle shot. I was on Aces High early on. Before that I was on Air warrior, but have been away for some time.

Thanks

[Animl-AW]

I have been fooling around with setting the convergence.  Are there any thoughts on the subject?  If set the convergence short, say 275, but the plane you are shooting is 400 yards then it's like a shot gun, but if convergence is set to 400 then it's a rifle shot. I was on Aces High early on. Before that I was on Air warrior, but have been away for some time.

Thanks

400-450 is common. Shotgun means some will hit, but scattered. A stream will do more damage, like sawing a wing off.

I’m sure others will have their take on it

IE set to 450 as and don’t take a shot over 500. The closer your shot the more power the round has to cause more damage. At 600 that round has lost a lot of power and is dropping. Even worse with 30mm, a heavier round

[DmonSlyr]

All depends on the bullets you are firing and the range you like to shoot. If you are always hitting crossing shots, you'll probably want your convergence at closer range to connect more bullets on a plane at close distance as they zip passed you. Usually best with cannons. If you are a lead shooter type guy, usually in a plane with 50 cals, you may want to put out to 400 to give you some help in the lead shot and connect more shots from further away. The lower your convergence, the further out you'll have to lead.

[The Fugitive]

The thing with convergence is that what ever you set it at is the range you should shoot at.... just one more thing to think about while your flying your plane, using flaps, adjusting throttle, kicking rudder and so on and so on.

What works for me is to film a bunch of fights. Find a furball and take your best shots. After you have a couple dozen shots taken go watch the film. Pause it at each time you pull the trigger and check the range in the list of the target your shooting at. Do this for everytime you pulled the trigger, the more the better to get a good sampling. Write down all the ranges for each shot. Im willing to bet they are all going to be pretty close to the same range.

You already have a picture in your mind as to when you say to yourself "Yes fire now!".  Thats why Im thinking they will all be about the same range. Now as long as that average range is under 450 your good and can set your guns to that convergence. Your already shooting at that range, so nothing to think about or learn, just do what your doing. If that range is OVER 450 will then you have some work to do because most rounds loose a lot of their energy out past 450 as well as figuring the lead with the drop that gravity adds in. I forget who said it but, "when shooting get close, and when you think your close enough, get closer THEN shoot". So while you can hit at 600+ and it will do some damage your basically wasting rounds.

[Shuffler]

I fly a 38J all the time so mine are set all the way out. 

[Eagler]

Sometimes I think it rests on how good your connection is that day...

Sometimes k4 30mm takes a plane down with one ping..

Other times you can see several hits and the plane flys on with seemingly no damage..

Not sure of it's my connection or theirs or probably a combination of the two..

Eagler

[icepac]

I worry only about whether bullets are too high or too low.   

Spread doesn't matter if half of your bullets are going over or under your opponent.

[Guano]

Thanks all for the help. If you film flights how do you play them back?

[icepac]

You know about the .target command?

[diaster]

I have been fooling around with setting the convergence.  Are there any thoughts on the subject?  If set the convergence short, say 275, but the plane you are shooting is 400 yards then it's like a shot gun, but if convergence is set to 400 then it's a rifle shot. I was on Aces High early on. Before that I was on Air warrior, but have been away for some time.

Thanks

In aces high, the bullets do have drop, that said 50 caliber effective range is concentrated fire within 400 yards as for cannons the fire does not be need to be concentrated as much. However, their fall off rate is greater any plane with a nose mounted gun set to 650 and adjust as necessary when shooting Wing mounted guns are set to 400 if there’s a plane like a P 47 with eight guns then I’ll set six of them to 400 and the other 2 to 600 just to ping people long distance for a reaction. Exception to this is the Nikki for some reason the Cannons don’t seem to fall off and I set those to 600. Also one other note I believe with the cannons every fourth round is an explosive round and the other three are kinetic that’s why the Nikki and the Tempest another for Cannon birds are so deadly because when you pull the trigger, you’re getting three kinetic rounds and one high explosive round for each salvo. So when flying a German plane like the bf series you need a good one second squeeze to get those high explosive rounds out.