Grünherz - please help - 109G10 Spud Cannon deflection shots

[beet1e]

Hiya Grünherz - well anyone, really. I need yet more advice on the spud cannon. Since receiving advice from the experts, I have ditched the gondolas - did that about a month ago. So now it's those get-up-close shots with the spud cannon. I save it till within 200 yards, and then fire off about 3. That's ample for any fighter, but buffs need quite a bit more. (See the film in my k/t thread - I hit a B17 tail with a couple of spuds from the side, and did no visible damage)

Now I'm doing fine when there's a 3-v-3 type of fight going on. I like to engineer a surprise attack, and the G10 is very good at zooming up and closing in for a surprise attack. But what about those 1-v-1 duels? I have two particular problems here. [list=1]

• Enemy pilot makes break turn. Happens a lot. Get to 250 yards, and maybe his engine sound is turned down so that he hears me approach. Something like a Spit will make a hard break turn, presenting me with a very difficult angle, especially as the G10 has a somewhat leisurely roll rate, and sluggish elevator. I did get one kill yesterday, in which a Spit rolled and dived to my low 11oc, but it was a damned lucky shot. callisto. Does Grünherz or anyone else have film to show how it's done?
• "Vertical HO". The other scenario is the vertical HO, if I may call it that. In a pursuit situation with a bogie on my 6, I'll use the G10's superior "zoominess" to go vertical, and flip over at the top, then come down to face my quarry. Problem is that some planes, like Spit ix, also have great e-retention. In the G10 I try to wait for the magic 200 yard separation, but that means that the other guy has longer to line up a spray-and-pray from a much greater distance. ( Rino - I'll get you next time!)The other problem is that even if he does not quite get guns solution, landing one spud is awkward, but firing a S&P barrage is hugely wasteful. What do you do?

Now remember, guys. 10 secs. of film is worth 5,000 words. Yeah I know that's rich, coming from me. I've mentioned Grünherz because he has supplied excellent film before, and I remember his comments about "getting a feel" for the spud cannon.

[SlapShot]

Don't have any film  but ...

1) If the Spit has performed a hard break turn, then it has scrubbed some serious E. I would do a high yo-yo. That gives you back the alt advantage and the potential to put some E back in the bank. During the yo-yo keep the target in sight (if possible) and reasses the situation. In most instances, you should be able to get back on the Spit very quickly with some decent speed and the possibility to get a good deflection shot. If not, rinse and repeat.

2) If I am in a Spit IX, 200 yards off your 6 in a zoom, its too late as far as I am concerned. I hopefully would have ripped you up at 300 yards with the hispanos. If you have a Spit on your 6 that also has good E, you probably shouldn't go vertical. I have only done this a few times (working on it) but chopping the throttle and doing a barrel roll just might cause an overshoot and now the situation is reversed.

The BK's have films on their site. Drex made a film of a 6 V 1 or 5 V 1 where he executes the barrel roll quite effectively (on Steve in a zooming P51).

http://films.aceshigh.furballcentral.com/

That link has films made by Leviathan, Drex, AKAK, Shane, etc ... many good films with a lot of visual information. Not all are flying the G10, but I believe that the moves apply to all planes.

[GRUNHERZ]

Ill try to get a film for you, but it might take awhile as I dont feel like flying in the MA much right now.

But some general pointers.  For the vertical headon - if you are having trouble hitting with one or two bullets and feel you wanna shoot some more but dont wanna waste ammo then you gotta tap the cannon trigger instead of hold it down. If you tap tap tap, three times in a second,  maybe you'll get off five to six rounds instead of ten if you held the trigger down for the whole second.  Intersetingly in my experience the spread of a tap tap tap with six rounds is just as likely to hit. In fact for long range horizontal shots with the MK108 the tap tap tap is much better.

For the tight breaking spitfire you can try to anticipate his break direction and roll early. You could cut throttle and keep speed under 400mph which will help keep your roll rate pretty decent. And finally you can roll to follow his break, pull hard into blackout, and fire off a few rounds - you just might get a lucky hit and the MK108 Minengeschoss will take care of the rest. And of course you can just refuse to attack that time, climb back up and try again.

[gofaster]

Originally posted by beet1e
I'm doing fine when there's a 3-v-3 type of fight going on. I like to engineer a surprise attack, and the G10 is very good at zooming up and closing in for a surprise attack. But what about those 1-v-1 duels? I have two particular problems here. [list=1]

• Enemy pilot makes break turn.
• "Vertical HO". The other scenario is the vertical HO, if I may call it that. In a pursuit situation with a bogie on my 6, I'll use the G10's superior "zoominess" to go vertical, and flip over at the top, then come down to face my quarry.

For the first one, if the guy breaks, don't follow him.  Spit pilots always always always go into as tight a turn as they possibly can.  Apparently they heard that they can outturn most of the planes in Aces High, so they immediately go into a hard black-out turn.  I fly a G10 with gondolas, so turning is not an option. As soon as I see my target's wings go 90 degress to the horizon, I climb up and wait for him to finish his turn and settle down.  Once he's established a new course, I'll drop down on his head.  If he turns, just rinse and repeat.

For the second one, if you're going downhill, your 30mm will have a longer-distance accuracy, so feel free to drop a few shells on the guy's face as he's looking up at you.