Question arising from Agent's Thread

[SunBat]

Don’t want to hijack Agent’s thread ( http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,238513.0.html ) so I started a new one…


Here is a somewhat more rudimentary question that is not all-together related to properly leading the target as Agent addressed, but is not completely unrelated.  May seem like a silly question to most of you, but in Agent’s first 2 screen shots, the plane is not in view due to the cowling blocking the plane.  My question for Agent or any others that would care to answer is the following.  Are you simply guessing where the plane is going to be, extrapolating his likely position from his last-seen flight path, or are you using trackIR (or some other means) and are able to sit up and to the left to see him?  In a plane with more ammo I might pop off a couple of bursts in an attempt to guess/extrapolate where he will be and get a lucky hit, but not in a K4 where my taters are precious.  In other words, I wouldn’t even try the shot I see in the first two screen shots unless I could clearly see the plane.  Are there any tips for this situation that you guys can offer?  Typically, I just try to work into a lag position so I can get a clear shot, but often times this is not practical and leaves me at a disadvantage against a better turning plane especially if I stay in the turn too long. 

[RATTFINK]

Personally, I anticipate the direction the plane below my nose is going. 

I have TrackIR and you can get to a position where you can see over the cowling; but you can not see completely over and down.  In some planes like the 109’s & F4U’s it is REALY hard for me to see over the cowl w/ my TrackIR.

[Spatula]

With any aircraft, I get 'in plane' with them, pull guestimate amount of lead then relax G slightly and fire even if that means the well under my nose and/or im near totally blacked out. You'll be suprised at how effective it can be, and just how many opponents dont evade by constantly adjusting their plane of manuever.
With the tatergun, you have to lead more and i tend to fire only one or two taters, but occasionally you will hit, and IMO its worth 2-3 taters to end the fight even if its only a 10-20% chance of hit - YMMV. One tater-strike is enough usually.

[Motherland]

In Agent's SS's, the view IS actually moved the whole way up. That helps a little bit, (I have my forward hat switch view set to this for that reason), but you still have the enemy under your nose when your shooting.

[Agent360]

The short film I posted under the images in the original thread really shows the shot much better. You can see early that he turns hard to the right and into me. I see this with plenty of time to point my nose where he is gonna be. I am actually firing before he goes under my nose. My sight is on him and I just pull the sight up and around to where I think he will be.

It happens quickly. I see the turn then roll and pull lead and fire. Because I am 400 out I have time to make a good track on his flight path. Besides in this case where else is he gonna go. He already commited to the turn so I know he will be there in a sec or two.

In the beggining I could not ever hit these shots. In fact I just didn't take them at all. But because I started taking these kind of shots anyway, over time I have learned how to lead it correctly. I score a kill about 50% of the time I take these shots.

Take the shot. Any shot. You will probably be surprised at how many you can make. But only shoot 1 to 3 taters and dont do it over and over. If it looks good take it. Point is dont waste ammo on hopeless g shots. But if you have the angle fire of a few rounds.

[SunBat]

Good stuff.  Thanks for the responses fellas.   

[RATTFINK]

TrackIR AHII demo:

http://media.naturalpoint.com/video/gamedemo/trackir4_and_aces_high_2-500kbps.wmv