MAYDAY MAYDAY MAGIC GOING DOWN FILMS

[mikev]

DEATH NUMBER 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2KLNEVG1FU

[mikev]

DEATH #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VydVijBZW58

[mikev]

DEATH 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QZJgtSs3HE

[mikev]

DEATH 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZCW6pZtJuE

[mikev]

DEATH 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv2XOFqDYLM

[mikev]

DEATH 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKAC-kkknqo

[The Fugitive]

DEATH NUMBER 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2KLNEVG1FU

SA and throttle control. Even in a spit you can use throttle control to help you. Yours didn't move through the whole film. Bottom side of a loop and especially when turning on a bogie, chop your throttle.  You could have slowed enough to turn with the spit5 to get lead enough for a good shot. Same goes for the run on the 190. As you dove in and he turned low left you should have chopped your throttle and using your rudder side slip and slow down to follow him. As it was you came close to losing parts as you can hear the wings creak a bit in that turn.

SA, the second time the spit5 made a pass on you you didn't know he was back until you heard the sound. He was the biggest threat as he was the highest and closest when you got there. He was one of those that if you don't shoot down, you have to keep checking on to know where he is. 2nd part, as you dove in on the 190 he turned toward the field and you followed. I know its hard, but you have to realize that he has just turned to the ack and you should let him go. Some planes can run through the ack with out falling out of the sky, not the spit.

Greed and ack finished you off.

All planes have a sweet spot for "best turn". FLS can give you the actual details, but lets use 1G as a ruler here. At 200 mph you can pull pretty hard on the stick to get to 1G. At 350 mph you can't pull that hard, 1G comes up pretty quick. Thats why as your going in for a turn you chop your throttle. You follow a guy flat out and you KNOW hes going to turn. Watch him and when he breaks, chop and follow. 

[The Fugitive]

DEATH #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VydVijBZW58

Dont climb to an enemy. He has the perch and all the advantages. Fly away from the group trying to get someone to follow. Climb slowly if you have speed to get to their perch, or dive slightly to build speed. Do not build too much speed, keep it in that sweet spot for turning. If nobody follows you out, climb and go back. Repeat until you get up to their perch or someone does follow you out.

In this film you climbed to the 190 while the P47 engaged you. By the time you spotted him you were already in a bad spot, slow enough to not be very maneuverable. Then you split S and gave him a full top down plane form to shoot at. As you can over in your split s roll and point your wing at him, give him the smallest profile/view of your plane to hit as you can. 

You turned your Spit S into a loop and came out at the top at 170 mph. Only time you want to be that slow in a fight is if your trying to ditch/land. Even then you were more interested in the 262 than the P47. He was still engaged and you didn't look at him until he HOed you. As he zoomed you didn't do much to better your position. You slowly added some speed but not enough. When he made his next pass you were pretty lazy in you maneuvering. Chop your throttle and pull a turn, make it hard for him to follow or get a shot. At this point "saving E" is out the window and your just trying to survive.

Bad SA, and not keeping your speed up killed you here.

When a high guy dives on you get your plane to that sweet spot for your turn and watch him. 2-3K out start a turn, even a flat turn works ok here. Turn easy, less than 1G as he gets closer turn harder (its a descending radius turn, much like the on ramps to a high way, it gets tighter as you get closer to the highway). The idea is to have the top of your plane pointing at him (your lift vector) giving him a nice jiucy looking shot. As he is going to shoot 600-400 out roll level pointing your wing tip at him this gives him very little to shoot at. While he is shooting pull up and continue the roll to complete a barrel roll and if you timing is good you'll get a shot at him as he goes by. Two or three passes like this will get him to burn enough E that you'll be on an equal footing.

Even when under attack you have to know where the other threats are, and maybe even help. A nose down turn and run toward Oddball or one of the other Ronin would have helped if you don't think you have the upper hand. Get clear, reset, and re-engage.

[The Fugitive]

DEATH 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QZJgtSs3HE

This fight you did pretty good. Your first merge while timed well turning back into him was too close to a HO and had he been a good shot you would have been down. The second merge was better in that you didn't give him a good HO shot but your speed was a bit low. A bit sharper nose down down before the merge would have brought that up a bit better. Even so, you got around good on him and after the second turn you through away position for a crossing shot. This is ok but you have to HIT on that shot. The spit is a forgiving plane and while you lost position you were not so far out that it gave him command. Had the other guys not jumped in to "save you" I think you had the fight in hand.

If your not going to HIT on those crossing shots you have to be patient and wait for the shot you WILL hit on. Instead of holding your line and waiting for him to come across you could have rolled and pulled in behind him. With him already committed to a turn fight you had him burning E like crazy. It was only a matter of time before you would have saddled right up 200 out and blew his wing off with a short burst.

You did well in this fight and would have won had you not had help. 

[The Fugitive]

DEATH 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZCW6pZtJuE

This one you spend too much time in the ack. You keep and eye on the spit8 and control yourself not to go up after him. Good SA, the Yak is a nice target but you dive in too soon and take enough hits from the ack. The spit16 just isn't tough enough for that. Stay high and let the yak get away from the field. If someone else chases him back don't waste the E or take the chance to "beat him to the kill". Be patient.

[The Fugitive]

DEATH 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv2XOFqDYLM

You missed the mossie because you were firing over 600 out. Unless that is what your convergence is set at (and it shouldn't be) your bullet streams have crossed and are spreading back out. Effectively you will only be hitting with one cannon. But your aim was bad along with the range being so far adds up to a miss.

While cannons on a spit are pretty good you still want to hit at convergence as well as having them set in closer. Even cannon rounds loose a lot of punch out past 600.

And if you want to fly IN the ack, fly a hog or jug   

[Skyyr]

You missed the mossie because you were firing over 600 out.

There's nothing wrong with firing from 600 out (or even 800yds or 1000yds out). In addition to convergence, you have divergence past the convergence point. On most planes with wing-mounted guns, divergence typically allows for effective kills to an additional 50% of the convergence distance. This means that if your convergence is 400, you can reliably expect hits roughly to 600yds, where your guns should still hit within 1/2 of their spread. Convergence primarily is used for optimum damage, not hit probability.

All of that said, you can still reliably hit targets out to 150-200% of your convergence distance. Whether you should or not depends on the situation and how much ammunition your aircraft has.

[mikev]

actually i think the mossie got lucky . even though it was 600 out it found a hole in my bullet stream which does happen, " I needed mini guns lol".
 i have flown the dora and taken out bombers from 1000 with convergence set at 400 so i know it can be done. just my luck the mossie made it threw untouched lol.

[The Fugitive]

actually i think the mossie got lucky . even though it was 600 out it found a hole in my bullet stream which does happen, " I needed mini guns lol".
 i have flown the dora and taken out bombers from 1000 with convergence set at 400 so i know it can be done. just my luck the mossie made it threw untouched lol.

OK, lets word it this way, for the most part your wasting ammo by shooting outside your convergence. Sure you can score hits, and sometimes you can get a lucky hit and drop someone but for most of us convergence is where it's at. You said it yourself, "it found a hole in my bullet stream", due to dispersion and bullet drop there will be lots of holes the farther out the target is. Learn to plan better shots that you CAN hit at. In the case of the mossie as soon as you saw him turning to move right to left across your nose you should have rolled left, pulled hard to get a big lead, roll level and shot at where his is going to be. You would have had closed more and had a bigger, closer target.

The best gunners in here shoot when they are up close and personal, learn to do that and you miss less and knock more guys out of the sky quicker.

[Muzzy]

I generally shoot at 200 because of my main ride, but I can shoot at 4-600 if I'm in a Mossie or a 38, or if I have convergence set at 400 in a 6x50 cal or a jug. For me it's a question of hitting power at point of contact.  On a maneuvering target I find its hard to put enough rounds on to do significant damage, although it's possible if I'm lucky.