Choosing the right sight for air-air gunnery is more of a personal choice than it might seem since your flying and fighting style will directly relate to your success in aerial gunnery. The key is find a balance between the amount of information displayed (pippers, cross hairs, rings, range lines, rocket aim points, bomb aim points, angled lines, ladders, etc) and its practical usefulness. Every extra line, dot or dash in a gunsight ultimately covers up some part of the target picture. If you like to get really close to a target before firing, you can likely use a sight with big and easy to see graphics. If you are a long distance sharpshooter, thinner and smaller graphics will allow a distant target to be seen easier. A thick line might obscure a target completely at long range, for instance.
Do you like to use high velocity machine guns or low velocity cannons? Either of these choices will noticeably affect the amount of lead (how far in front of the other airplane you must aim) needed to hit a target when you are both turning. The slower the projectile, the greater the lead. So, range lines that work for a turning shot with a machine gun armed airplane may not work very well if the same sight is placed on a cannon armed aircraft. Try flying both the P-51 and FW-190D9 with the same sight. The armament in these two aircraft will allow you to see the extremes that will illustrate this point.
From a personal perspective, I like to use sights that are historically accurate for the planes I fly. Others find that customized and unique sights work better for them.
Experiment with many different sights to see which style suits you.
MiG
[This message has been edited by MiG Eater (edited 05-10-2001).]
