Andy- I need to clarify at the beginning of this that my intent is not to discredit you, but to offer a system that will take people to the next level. Tho I'm not familiar with your work you appear to have done a great deal for the community and that's greatly appreciated. In that vein I wouldnt want this to get personal and drive a resource like you out.
You appear to know a great deal about the subject at hand, but in following your responses here I get the impression that if it doesnt fit with what you have been taught you get to feeling a little threatened...
I am willing to try to show you and others what can be accomplished, but I really dont have time to overcome closemindedness. If you dont want to accept what I have to say, if it makes you uncomfortable that's fine. But truth be told Andy, it IS the next step in ability, and it can be taught.
As you will see if you read through this thread. It was decided that the natural progression, the "learning curve" if you will started with a sighting aid and progressed to a single dot. In that vein I have no argument. You make a point in closing that Sight aids are essential to newbies. Again I have no argument. My only point of contention has been that letting go of those aids will allow you to progress farther than hanging on to them.
Here's the bottom line for your technique. You use a single dot and maneuver into a firing position that "looks about right" based upon your previous experience. Then you shoot. If you miss, your tracers will show you how much, and that info can now added to your sum experience. You have paid attention!
Adding to your sum experience is a perfect way to illustrate how practice affects ability. The difference here is that we have let go of excess aids or crutches and have opened ourselves up to observing the visual ques that will allow us, with practice, to sight and shoot on more of a subconscious level. The only conscious effort being the decision itself to shoot.
To accomplish this, focus only on the target, and where you want to hit the target. The dot sight, the tracers you will see, all of that will be peripheral to the the focus on the target.
Then you try again. While you have said this to set up your argument in your next paragraph you are absolutely right.
In approaching the firing solution as I illustrated above. Repeated exposure to those visual ques will allow us to experientially build our ability.
I'm not interested in trying again or correcting for a poorly estimated aiming point.Then you will never grow in ability past the built in limitations of your sighting aid.
You will be able to handle simple firing solutions and nothing more.
The complex solutions that you would pass on, to have to reset up on your target, will easily be made by the learned student.
You will call the shot "luck" because you cannot explain how the shot was consciously aimed and made. But it isn't luck
Most RL pilots that I flew with didn't want to get the bandit on the second or third attempt.The benefit of practice. But all else being equal. A student using the method Im talking about, in time, will have to set up fewer times because he is able to make the first opportunity count. An opportunity that may have fallen outside of what a sight could have helped us with.
To wrap this thought up, in a pass where you were "almost" able to get a firing solution and are now working to get angles again, I am grabbing alt because the fight is over.
The ability comes from experience. We have the luxury of unlimited practice.
All of this reminds me of a guy I knew in RL. He was good...probably the best A2G bomber I ever saw. Good enough to win the USAF top award in the world-wide gunnery competition.
Naturally, we all wanted to know his techniques...if he could be that good, maybe we could too!
How did he do it? His words..."Well, I just think like the bomb...when I am at the right release point, I just let 'er rip!"
"Errr", we said..."when is that?" "I don't know", he said..."I just know when".
Well...I'm telling you, I went right out and tried that technique.
And I had about as much luck as the folks here will have if they try your single dot technique. You acknowledge here that this gentleman's ability exceeded the abilities allowed from the teaching and use of sighting aids. Unfortunately you probably chalked him up as a phenom or maybe even an idiot savant.
Then, in going out and trying to "Be the bomb" you dismiss the technique because your initial results were poor.
There IS a learning curve to this. You are approaching the problem with an entirely different thought process. But I can assure you, with a little practice, and target focus, you will quickly surpass what you were able to do with the sight aid.
The important point here is, "You cant get there from here" Meaning, you cant get this ability while hanging onto the mindset of conciously aiming. You have to let it go. Yeah you will be very poor initially, you can use this as ammunition to support your case, or you can push through and realize what your true potential is. Your choice.
I open class in archery with a demonstration of shooting quarters out of the air with my long bow which of course has no sights.
This ability flies in the face of what modern archery has to teach us about what is required to be accurate. And in fact, the shot I am repeatedly making is considered pure luck, though I rarely miss.
The students and onlookers consider me a phenom of unsurpassable / unobtainable skill. Yet by the end of class, starting with archers who have only rudimentary archery ability, the students are performing the same feat.
It's a different approach to the same problem that will allow you virtually unlimited ability, while what you are teaching has very finite limitations.
So...how about an article or two? Make a few track files, grab some screenshots, fire up that word processor and shine a little light unto us all. LOL, I just get a visual here, though hopefully inaccurate, of some cheezy prosecuting attorney seething with contempt bowing to the jury and confidently turning the case over to the defense
You coulda been a drama major Andy
I think this thread itself has been a learning tool for those who have waded through our sparring. There has been some very good info divulged here.
If anyone is interested I can do a more in depth article on the principles of this technique and how to accomplish true ability and success.
That request will come from the community.
