A20 havoc

[bojc]

Flew a havoc for the first time this weekend and had a blast with it! Any vets out there with some tips on this bird. How are ya aiming for the bmb runs, what loads are you hauling etc???

She really reminds me of the hard nose mitchell we had back in WBs, really fun on noe and pop up missions.

let me hear from ya!.............bojc

[Pooh21]

Shes pretty good at the a2g role, fun as heck for NOE raids. I usually carry the full  8x500 load, select the wing bombs on takeoff cause you wanna get rid of them first. The part of the gunsight post when it narrows makes a fine dive bombing sight. You wanna avoid pulling 4gs above 300 or your wings will part company. She can dogfight somewhat as well with those nose .50s all it takes it is a quick snapshot

[Innominate]

Stay fast, go in at about 12k.
Ignore these jackoffs, drop your bomb-bay bombs first, otherwise a steep turn will rip your wings off.  If you empty the bomb bay, you'll be able to turn better than ditching the wing bombs.  

The little triangular thing supporting the gunsight gives a good cue for shallow-angle divebombing.

The A-20 is fast.  It's speed is its main defense.  But don't be afraid to mix it up a little bit once you have dropped your bombs.  The A-20 can turn well enough to catch people off-guard.  If you can convince someone to ride in your turret, great, but don't try and use it for defense unless you're shooting at someone who is far enough behind that they can't shoot ya.  When they're that far behind though, a good trick is to get into the turret, use your rudder to keep them in your gunsight(Without turning TOO far) and crack off a few shots at em.

[gofaster]

I saw a guy dogfighting in an A-20 once.  I followed him up into a loop, he came over the top and shot me in the cockpit before I could bring my guns to bear.  He then managed to outrun 3 of my countrymen by staying low in the valleys and dodging their fire.  They got one of his engines and then I was able to re-up and catch him low, slow, and smoking.

Reminded me a lot of Bob Hoover's demonstrations in the Shrike Commander.

[Innominate]

Bit more to add.

The a-20 is fast.  The a-20 will hold it's speed for a long time.  You can out-run even an la7 or p51 for a few minutes as long as you have a few thousand feet of alt.

Do a zero G dive till your indicated speed approaches 400, then start to level out the dive to hold your speed there.  You can blast your way through dense furballs to hit an airfield.

[Epsilon 5]

Innominate, I love that movie you got in the sig link