Bombing in the F6F5

[waystin2]

I have just recently begun dabbling with JABO planes and flying in attack mode  instead of fighter mode.  I started with the 190 family, and moved to the F6F5 and fell in love!  My problem is bombing accuracy in the F6F5.  I could pretty much hit most of the time in the 190’s, but the F6F success is eluding me.  I have been diving at 65 to 70 degrees, letting the plane settle with the pipper a sliver past the intended target, releasing at around 1500 to 2000 feet.   Any and all help is appreciated!

[Ghosth]

Try closer to a 45 with the F6f, its actually one of my most prefered rides for that role. Will handle the same load as a fully loaded F4u off the carrier with much easier handling.

Come into the TA and the training site will show you where to drop.

[Scca]

I love the F6F for the JABO role.  When the GV's are in town, I am deadly ask the LTAR's  I also use it to take out CV's and hangers on a regular basis.

We can take a trip to the TA if you like.  I helped one of my squad mates in this plane, and he hits almost 100% now.

[Gulp]

My favorite for dive bombing.  For hangars and cvs, I like to come in steep (75+)  from 10K (get fairly slow first),  salvo for 6, drop bombs, switch to rockets, realign sight and let them go on the same dive.

Filming and reviewing is good way to see if your over/under shooting your target.

[BaldEagl]

The F6F and the Ju-87 are the only planes I use in this role.

With the F6F at full level speed I start my dive from 8-10K over my target at anywhere from a 45-60 degree dive angle.  I allow it to start buffeting and drop with my pipper directly on the target (usually somewhere around 3000 feet), slightly ahead of target if it's a moving vehicle.

WEP in a full climb to set up your second drop.

One thing to be careful of is pulling out as the F6F will snap half of one or both wings under that type of load if you pull out too hard.

My kill accuracy is well over 90% (stats don't show it as I then kill my hit % throwing salvos of rockets with limited success as well as dogfighting after my ord is gone).

[airspro]

Might watch this .

I usually hit a VH etc with one pass . 2k bombs and 6 rocks just after and fly away .



Link

I practice on the TA map offline .

Won't be long you'll love the Hellcat but for the rear view .

gl
spro

[BaldEagl]

Oops, I guess I should say i was talking about killing GV's, not objects above.  Yep, 1 pass, 2K bombs then rockets for a hanger.  I prefer 2 passes, one with bombs spaced and a second with 3 spaced rocket salvos of 2 each for strat targets.

[splitatom]

you dive at like 80 degrees and get down to about 5000 feet and relese the bombs at the botom of the gun sight i save my rockets for another pass just in case i miss after releseing my rockets wich will make you manuver like a f 6 that took off with nothing on it

[sgt203]

I use the F6F alot for Dive Bombing I usually come over target...

Roll inverted chop thorttle and dive in around 80-90 degrees..

I fire rockets first ( in targets not known as being soft) then use my 2 1000lbers ( salvo 2)..

Works pretty good and I have no problems in hanger banging this way.


Edit--- However the best advice in the thread is go to the TA and work on it with the aid till you get it right.

[LYNX]

Doesn't really matter which plane you use for dive bombing the principle is much the same.  You need speed.  A path of least resistance.  A decent dive angle and a clear exit.

Speed is required so's the bombs go where you want them.  Anything slower than 300MPH is risking accuracy in my experience.  A clear path to and from target.  No point going over 15 flak panzers to a vh when you only need pass one or two.  No need to dive in on a field to exit full length of all the acks.  Cut the corners, watch the cons, pick the spot and keep your speed up exiting flak or ack range before ascent.  You invite serious damage or the dreaded pilot wound climbing to soon.

I favour the one pass method which is rockets first then bombs when going for VH's or hangers.   My reason being is two fold.  1) You have to pull up anyways,  which is ideal for the bomb release after rockets are fired.  2) You want to get into the cons with as much "E" in your favour after going so low.  No reason in my mind other than screwing up for looping around for another pass and blowing "E".  

Set dot command .salvo 5 and .delay 0.05 (default delay).  VH's / Hangers go down with 2,500Lbs of ords. This will leave you with a rocket to clear an ack or a Rocket Vulch in the case of the F6f.  More on other American planes.  Hello P47's

Now lets look at some screen shots

In this shot we see the gun site centre pipper on the VH.  American rockets in AH are very accurate and will hit the mark.  A handy tip is to use default zoom.  "Z" is zoom but if you have ever changed it default is shift Z.


[/IMG]

IGNORING the pretty rocket explosion this screen shot depicts the moment of bomb release.   What I hope to convey in this shot is the aiming technique.  Notice the bottom of the gun site ring is on the vh.  That's what you aim with.  The bottom of the ring

[/IMG]

Here we see the entrance and exit path.  Notice the exit is fairly flat to extend beyond the cons or flak panzers.  The gap in the trail is where rockets are fired first then quickly cycled to bombs and then released.  An angle of 45 degree is ideal but 35 to 50 will do.  You may want to look at the speedo in the other shots.

[/IMG]

[LYNX]

Killing Gv's is fairly simple if only for a couple of principles.  Altitude, speed, angle and ords type.  

I recommend being no lower than 3,000 feet above the GV and no slower than 300 MPH when starting the dive in.  Using dot command .salvo 1  Use nothing less than a 500 Lb'er in case of a near miss.  Others will say 250's will do the job and they are correct but only in the case of a direct hit on anything but a Tiger.

Tigers are tough little cookies so a couple of 1,000 Lb'ers is ideal.  I don't mess about with Tigers.  Their getting it good an proper.  Lost count of the near misses with 500's only to see the Tiger trundle off or only wounded / tracked.

In this screen shot which I deliberatly over zoomed in on for depiction, we see the moment of bomb release.  Note again targeting with the bottom of the gun site ring.  Effective from 1,000 feet into 600 feet.  Any lower and the ords won't arm.  Too shallow of a dive angle and you're tossing the bomb.....not so accurate for the American planes.  I have witnessed countless people bombing to shallow or to slow.  Why miss ?  Why have to re-arm ?  Why waist your time and have to do it again when just a little attitude and speed will assure accuracy.

I realized one bomb as the ring passed over the target and then released the other as the ring went beyond the Tiger.

[/IMG]


And here's what it looks like for the Tiger a moment before atomizing  

In this instance I passed the GV from it's 4 O'clock to 10 O'clock as seen above.  Look where the bombs are about to impact.  So even if he was moving or about to move he wasn't likely to avoid the inevitable.

[/IMG]

[LYNX]

Rocket kills on the whole are lucky hits but there is a couple of principles and techniques to increase success.  They are dive angle, range and salvo.

As for salvo in F6f there are 3 kinds.  Dot salvo 1 for Jeeps, M3's, M16's and M8's.  Usually a near miss will get a kill.  All other Gv's require salvo 3 or salvo 6.  Using two salvo's of 3 is to damage or track moving GV's.  This then renders them useless or easier to kill when stationary.  Dot salvo 6 on the other hand is extreme prejudice  

Speed and dive angle isn't so important so long as it isn't to shallow. However stick with a 35 to 45 degree until you become more confident.


RANGE the all important range.  The true secret to success 650.  I maybe wrong but I believe the convergence is 650.  I hold my hands up here.  I did read some years ago what it was but in all honesty I have a vague recollection of 650.  However, with this in mind I fire from 800 to 600.  I wait to see 800 and give it a fraction of a second then fire just in time to see 600.  This is what makes it for me at least, more luck than judgment.

In this screen shot the gun site centre dot is on the panzer.  I have lined from a distance awaiting the count down on icon range.  Here we have a full salvo of 6 at default delay.  Tip:-  again is default zoom "Z"

[/IMG]

[LYNX]

Oh buggery.  I wanted to post the screen shot of the rockets hitting the panzer but the blasted things will not load.

[Murdr]

LYNX, very nice posts sir.

If I may clear up a couple details for you though:

Rockets do not converge.  I have tested and posted screen shots previously to show this.  I agree however that firing at a consistant range is important.  If one fires at a specific range, they can consistantly judge where the impact point is.

Based on 1/1000th of a 1K bomb, the hardness of hangers are 2781.2 lbs.  

Here is where it gets confusing, bomb weight and bomb strength values are not linear to each other.
2 x 1000lbs + 1 x 500lbs (2,500lbs of bombs)bomb = 2.568x1000lbs bomb = hanger survives
3 X 1000lbs (3,000lbs of bombs) bombs= dead hanger
5 x 500lbs (2,500lbs of bombs) bombs = 2.840x1000lbs bomb = dead hanger
9 x 250lbs (2,250lbs of bombs) bombs = 2.835x1000lbs bomb = dead hanger
2 x 1000lbs + 5 x 5"HVAR = 2.7815x1000lbs bombs = dead hanger (with .3lbs to spare)

My point is that "2,500 lbs of ordinance" destroys a fresh hanger only when using the right combination of bombs.

[LYNX]

still can't get the other screen shots to load.  Maybe photo bucket is on the fritz.