Air to Air Gunnery

[NatCigg]

get comfortable with leading a target offline or in the training arena.  In game, trust you training and keep a steady aim.  if you don't have a steady hand try flying with you fingers and try to limit your inputs.

GL

 

[Kingpin]

The aim small, miss small idea of trying to hit specific areas of an aircraft does not work either. It works fine in non-combat and training situations, but the second you introduce stress, you'll find it becomes unreliable. In a higher-stress situation (such as the adrenaline rush from wanting to win a dogfight), fine motor control goes out the window. All that is left is coarse motor control. Want to see this in action? Run for 30 seconds and then hold a pen, as if you were trying to write with it, and attempt to keep it perfectly still for 10 seconds - you can't. This is loss of fine motor control and it happens when you undergo stress, regardless of whether it's for positive or negative reasons.

Since some of these comments appear directed at me and, in particular, the name of one of my introductory gunnery exercises, I will respond to this.  (There are additional opinions stated with the quoted comment that are also misleading, but don't apply to the OP, so I will refrain from debating them here.)

With regard to the exercise that I named "aim small, miss small" or "take the gear off the Mossie", at no time am I suggesting that this exercise is meant to teach or promote "trying to hit specific areas of an aircraft" during fighter combat.  That assumption would be entirely incorrect.

The purpose of the exercise, which is clearly stated at the beginning, is primarily to measure and hone the ability to "fly smoothly" to the shot.  It uses aiming and shooting at a very small target to determine the level of ability to hold a stick steady under the simulated stress/pressure of a test and provides one way to further train that ability through practice.  Players who struggle with flying smoothly are quickly identified during the exercise, and they are told that they can improve their stick control either through scaling (if they wish) or through practicing exercises like this one to hone their stick control skill.  

In addition to flying smoothly, there are also other aspects of gunnery introduced via this exercise that I believe come in helpful later on, but none of them involve "trying to hit specific areas of an aircraft" during fighter combat.

I hope this clears up this misinterpretation.

<S>
Ryno

[Puma44]

I may not be a CFI but I stayed at a holiday inn last night!
 

 

[darkzking]

how does the lead gunsight in game work it usually shows 2 different crosshairs in my p39 and i don't know what to aim for 

[The Fugitive]

one crosshair is the primary guns the other is the secondary. You have to guess which is which   

[MrKrabs]

CyPi gets flap-happy

Such a thing is why he has a bouncy nose on crossing-shots and even rear-quarter shots.

He has a bit of a flap-addiction which tethers him to mostly American rides or rides with combat flaps and keeps him away from flying 190's. In short he has trouble with the idea of yo-yos and how they work.

Two things:

Calm down and breathe. People can catch themselves holding their breath while over-concentrating or making split-second decisions. I learned this from playing Billiards of all things. Like practicing your stroke in Billiards, you must practice smooth relaxed flying which leads to number 2.

Spend a little time offline or in the TA flying through fighter hangers. Do a few sets working with efficient turns featuring high yo-yos. Work on making the turn as quickly as possible trying to retain the most energy. After that or back and forth do a few sets of tight tactical turns using flaps or coordinated turns. This will require some throttle work. Your goal is to make your turn and fast as possible and to have no nose bounce by the time you fly into the fighter hanger.

Once you get a consistent feel do a few mock fights in-between sets to work what you learned into your combat.

Hint: You don't have to have your flaps out the entire turn, flaps are not a substitute for energy.

[NatCigg]

Spend a little time offline or in the TA flying through fighter hangers. Do a few sets working with efficient turns featuring high yo-yos. Work on making the turn as quickly as possible trying to retain the most energy. After that or back and forth do a few sets of tight tactical turns using flaps or coordinated turns. This will require some throttle work. Your goal is to make your turn and fast as possible and to have no nose bounce by the time you fly into the fighter hanger.

I like this one. 

[Kingpin]

Spend a little time offline or in the TA flying through fighter hangers. Do a few sets working with efficient turns featuring high yo-yos. Work on making the turn as quickly as possible trying to retain the most energy. After that or back and forth do a few sets of tight tactical turns using flaps or coordinated turns. This will require some throttle work. Your goal is to make your turn and fast as possible and to have no nose bounce by the time you fly into the fighter hanger.

Good suggestion, Crabby.  In addition to getting used to the stick input to fly smooth and level, flying through hangers with flaps out is also a good way to "dial in" your analog elevator trim wheel (if you are using one) so that when you toggle off combat trim you are not fighting to push the nose down as much.

I have a little routine I do involving precisely what Crabby is talking about, flying through 4 hangers at A1 in the TA, using lag displacement rolls and yo-yos to maneuver from one hanger to the next without really leaving the perimeter of the field.  It's fun to fly though the small fighter hanger, then do a quick displacement roll to the left to line up on the hanger on the opposite side of the field.  It's a nice little warm-up that also helps let me know if I have my gear calibrated for smooth flight.  I do it both with flaps out and flaps retracted and at full throttle and half throttle.

<S>
Ryno

[MajWoody]

Different brands of sticks react different from each other. I used to fly with a sytech cyborg evo and the control inputs were very fast and bouncy. I later upgraded to Ch gear and with the same stick scaling the Ch gear was much slower and smoother than the sytech. It made a world of difference. What stick are you using?

[darkzking]

heres another dumb question how come when i fire right on the crosshair of the lead computing gunsight it still misses? 

[Someguy63]

heres another dumb question how come when i fire right on the crosshair of the lead computing gunsight it still misses?  

For that P39, to hit with the 37mm aim at the one farthest in front of the enemy

Also I have been offline and I have noticed that the gunsight has been off before.

[xPoisonx]

heres another dumb question how come when i fire right on the crosshair of the lead computing gunsight it still misses? 

Solution: get a better plane. Like a 152. P39s are garbage.

[MrKrabs]

Solution: get a better plane. Like a 152. P39s are garbage.

Yes! Something that might be able to escape a boston 

"Might"

[xPoisonx]

Yes! Something that might be able to escape a boston 

"Might"

HEY I WAS BLACKED OUT OK 

[MrKrabs]

HEY I WAS BLACKED OUT OK 

The twitfire died too trying to save you 

Twitfire get no mercy from bebe monster 

Twitfires are the gingers of AH, they have no soul  That is why Bruv likes them