ava bombsite

[Chilli]

Yeah Larry, you left out the altitude selection "shift left click on target".  Oldman you were right......  oh oooooh 

Okay, two things Larry you can clarify if I am not correct.

1)  Air starts at 72 will shorten the time to target.  On air start retract gear immediately and do not hit auto climb.  Give it a few seconds and the plane should start to level off.

2)  Bomber calibration is more complex.  So, either come early and practice or recommended you wing with a lead pilot who is confidently accurate and drop on his cue.  Calibration:  Shift left click on the map, the target that you will drop on (to set altitude), move the bombardier view forward and zoom all the way in, use the joystick to keep the crosshairs pinned to one spot while pressing and holding down the Y key.  Notice the calibrated speed if not within @ 2 mph adjust your throttle or recalibrate.

Now, be there or be 

This worked for me yesterday practicing and knocked out a bomber hangar with precision with 3 500 lb bombs selected. 

I forgot to mention that whenever switching to another target you must recalibrate with all the steps above.  Steering from the bombardier position only after calibration was something I have just learned from you guys 
  Good post

[RTR]

Here's what I do, and it's pretty old school.

Open the bomb bay doors way early (like at least a half a sector from the target). Set your throttle to where you want it. Let Your airspeed
stabilize before you calibrate.

F6 to enter Bombers position

U to enter calibration mode.

Bring up the map,  shift click on your target to set target altitude.

Zoom in the map and pick a point your cross hairs are on, press the Y key and hold it down while keeping your crosshairs on the point you selected for calibration. The longer you hold this the more accurate your drop will be. I'm like Larry here, I will hold it for 15 to 30 seconds..

Once calibrated you must press the U key again to get out of calibration mode before you drop or your drop will go wild.

The important thing for better accuracy is not to allow your airspeed or altitude to change once you are calibrated. Get your self set up on the heading you want to approach your target way, way early, before you calibrate. When in Calibration mode you can slew the bombsight, zoom in etc to get a lay of the land at the target.  But remember, once you are calibrated only minor course corrections should be carried out and only from the bombardiers position.

Any change in altitude / airspeed will affect your drop.

As a side note, when I bomb like this I do not do it at low altitude. Low altitude leaves you no wiggle room. I bomb from 20K most times.
Also, once in the bombardiers position you are pretty much commited to the run from there. We used to call in "in the pipe" back in the old days.

Always a good idea to take a gunner with you too.

Hope some of this makes sense and helps.

cheers,
RTR

[Chilli]

I was told that if you move the crosshairs forward near the horizon and zoom all the way in, you have an easier time of pinning your target with the joystick while in calibration mode. 

_{I like Larry's idea of aiming at a sheep, but they did away with most of the sheep balloons.}

[frank3]

I was told that if you move the crosshairs forward near the horizon and zoom all the way in, you have an easier time of pinning your target with the joystick while in calibration mode.

You do not neccessarily have to pinpoint your target in the crosshairs.
Any spot on the ground will do, so you can calibrate hours before reaching your target 

Also, it takes lots of time to traverse your bombsight all the way horizontal. So by the time you actually have a visual of your target, it might already be too late to do that.

[Strip]

Doesnt really matter how accurate you are when intially calibrating your bombsight. Afterwards just make sure E6B matches your bombsight. No need to be level for a sector or not turn after calibrating. If you do come off autopilot make sure your altitude is back where the bombsight is calibrated for.

Strip

[Lusche]

Doesnt really matter how accurate you are when intially calibrating your bombsight. Afterwards just make sure E6B matches your bombsight. No need to be level for a sector or not turn after calibrating. If you do come off autopilot make sure your altitude is back where the bombsight is calibrated for.

Strip

Entering and exiting calibration mode by hitting U twice without actually calibrating with Y adjusts your drop alt in a split-second. No need to go back to original calibrated alt.
I use this feature a lot, giving up or gaining alt to adjust my actual speed after turnign around for a second attack. Works both with MA as well as the AvA bombsight setting.

[frank3]

Entering and exiting calibration mode by hitting U twice without actually calibrating with Y adjusts your drop alt in a split-second. No need to go back to original calibrated alt.

Won't that un-calibrate your sight?
I've noticed the same thing, after hitting U twice. But somehow my aim was off afterwards.

[SEraider]

The AvA bombsight used to be the bombsight for the whole game but because you have to actually stay level and keep your speed right some people whined about it and HTC made the 'easymode' MA one. I for one like it and it would be a lot more fun if we had some wind layers to add to the realism.

Isnt there windlayers past 15k?  I thought there was.

[Oldman731]

Isnt there windlayers past 15k?  I thought there was.

Maybe yes, maybe no.  Whoever puts the setup in place can control the wind speed and direction at various altitudes.  Generally we don't do this at low altitudes because people complain that it makes landing too difficult.  For a similar reason (guess!) we usually don't put it in at higher levels.

Evil geniuses like Fork and Soda, however, will put wind into their setups quite frequently.  Probably we should get some popular input on the subject.

- oldman