Aiming in the Me262 (Or any 30mm bird)

[grizz441]

I am by no means the best at doing this but I figured I'd try to help some other guys with this type of shot that might be having trouble with it.  I used to suck at this a few months ago when I was getting familiar with the german rides but practiced and got better.

Your traditional situation in a 262:

You are coming in on a bogey going straight and he turns his wings and breaks one direction.  The instinctual thing to do is to track his turn with your gunsight and by the time he gets into firing range he is out of 30mm gun solution.  You fire at him, undershoot and he flies off and you continue straight kill-less.  If you could connect on this shot consistently you will at least quadruple your average Kills/Sortie in the Me262.

Here's the trick:  Once you see him tilt his wings to turn, you immediately turn your jet as far out in front of him as you can visualize.  It's also a good idea to use your full rudder in the direction of the turn to get your nose even further ahead of his turn path.  You want to be visualizing where he will be in five seconds.  To put it simple as moot and scotch told me, you almost want to try to ram him.  Once you get your nose way out there, it's a waiting game as he continues to turn into your gun solution.  This gives you about a second to line up the shot and fire on time.  Hopefully you connect with a tater, this is how it's done.  95% of the battle is won in the shot setup, not the actual shot itself.  Set yourself up for the easiest shot possible.

http://www.dasmuppets.com/public/Grizz/How To Set up 262 Shot.ahf

Film of me setting it up.  I still didn't get my nose far enough in front as evident by the 250yd tater.  You want to try to get that shot in the range of 100-200 yds.  Hope this helps anybody that has trouble with the taters as I once did.   salute

[Obie303]

I would also add that you should only be firing one cannon at a time.  Not both.  Conserving ammo is key when you fly the 262.

[Wobbly]

that view you use out on the left wing - does AH film exagerate the "move head left" or am I missing something?

[sunfan1121]

I would also add that you should only be firing one cannon at a time.  Not both.  Conserving ammo is key when you fly the 262.

you have 360rds of 1 ping kill, that's plenty. Also remember that your rate of fire is low , it's easy to have guys fly in between your tracers even with 4 guns. The only shots I fire 2 guns on, are the ones i know i have.

[moot]

I would also add that you should only be firing one cannon at a time.  Not both.  Conserving ammo is key when you fly the 262.

It may be up to player preference, but I'll beg to differ.  The 30mm is a dodgy thing, and in snapshots where relative speed is often 600mph+, you're better off shooting all four cannons for ~2-3 rounds each. The snapshot doesn't last longer than that.  Once you know how to aim the 30mm and don't need to compensate by flying yourself into a dead-easy shot, then it's another story... But for starters, it's easier and more efficient to shoot everything for short bursts from a very easy position like in Grizz' film.  There's enough for 20 kills in one load of ammo fired at 4x.

[Lusche]

I would agree - keep all thoughts of conserving ammo until you are really good.
When attacking fighters, you often have just one clear chance of hitting them. Grizz advice on hoft to aim in succh a situation is absolutely on spot, but then don't hesitate to blast away.
Personally, I have chosen to set my convergence in a very unthriftly way: one pair at 650, one pair at 250 for maximum shotgun effect vs fighters. Remember, it takes only 1 hit to kill.

[Spikes]

Remember, it takes only 1 hit to kill.

2 with Spits

[Motherland]

I use Lusche's method, although setting the upper set to 300 yards and the lower set to 600, it works pretty well.

[BnZs]

Good post Grizz!

You know, there is a lot of advice on the net about the broader theoretical aspects of ACM, but some of the nuts and bolts stuff, like how to set up shots like this on slower, better turning planes can be a sticking point.

[grizz441]

that view you use out on the left wing - does AH film exagerate the "move head left" or am I missing something?

The film viewer exaggerates it.  I do use the left arrow and look out the left side of my cockpit in that particular shot for better visibility but it isn't a requirement.

[Scotch]

Good.

[grizz441]

Another example.

http://www.dasmuppets.com/public/Grizz/How to Set up 262 shot2.ahf

http://www.dasmuppets.com/public/Grizz/Hoq to Set up 262 Shot3.ahf
Another easy setup.  A8 is stalling out and turning downward.  Simply nose down at meet him at 100yds.  Can't miss.

[moot]

This is something I put in another thread and in the 152's wiki article, but here it is for a bit of extra perspective on this.  It's not quite the same thing, but the basic principle is the same.

If you're fairly new to close snapshots, one easy way to start is picturing it this way:  A collision course will have the target at a fixed position on your screen.  Whether you're flying straight at a hangar, or at a Lancaster head-on, it'll be staying put in one position.  Whereas if you're flying on an intersection just ahead or behind of the target, it'll be moving slightly in one direction on your screen.  What you want to do is practice this (you don't die for real and planes are free, don't be afraid to find the limits by breaking them) till you fly just past the target, without touching or damaging yourself from the 30mm explosions.

[maddafinga]

Excellent guys, thanks!  Among several other thing, gunnery (especially with the 30mm) is something I really need to work on.  I know for a fact that I miss a lot of kills by just plain missing shots that I should have made.  Sometimes I even lose fights because I missed my one or two good shots.  I'm starting to get more in the habit of flying for a shot and not flying the gunsight, but stuff like this is really helpful, not only in terms of instruction but also in the re-enforcement of good habits.  Hopefully in the coming months my hit percentage will start to go up. 

[grizz441]

Excellent guys, thanks!  Among several other thing, gunnery (especially with the 30mm) is something I really need to work on.  I know for a fact that I miss a lot of kills by just plain missing shots that I should have made.  Sometimes I even lose fights because I missed my one or two good shots.  I'm starting to get more in the habit of flying for a shot and not flying the gunsight, but stuff like this is really helpful, not only in terms of instruction but also in the re-enforcement of good habits.  Hopefully in the coming months my hit percentage will start to go up. 

Even with poor aim, you can still have a high hit % by making it a higher priority to set yourself up for the easiest shot possible.  The focus of this thread is to show you how to do that with the 30mm instead of relying on laser guided aim to get kills.