planes being main gunned

[Wiley]

I did 24+ years in Armored unit in the Army, once every few years we would go fire at Target drones......... never seen one shot down by a tank.

And not talking one tank vs a drone... the whole "FN" company 12 tanks... main guns... 7.62 .. .50 cal 5.56 M16's ... rocks.   Never seen one knocked from the sky.

But then again we have laser-guided 5-inch guns on naval ships....... before proximity fuses you needed 2500 rounds to get a hit on a moving plane... after proximity fuses you needed to fire 500 rounds to get a hit on a plane in WW2.

CAV

What was their approach like, and was it repeated?  How many attempts?  Not trying to be a smartass, genuinely curious.

I have no trouble believing it never happened IRL.  I agree wing shooting it from odd angles like a duck is likely in the realm of "nigh impossible".  The way we can go from commander to gunner and fire from commander puts what we can do in game outside what was possible IRL.

However I just don't see why if you are in the sight and happen to see something low flying straight or nearly straight toward you in enough time to get the sight aligned, it wouldn't be in the realm of possibility to hit it.

Wiley.

[Lusche]

Even if you are setting on million rounds, you can shoot all you want, but the chance of hitting an airplane is very, very slim, in real life. (very slim).

Pilots in AH don't behave like those in real life.
 
Hitting a plane with the main gun 1K away on a plane flying anything but a direct course down the barrel is very difficult in AH either. It's quite rare to get a plane kill that way. Most of the time planes are maingunned because of a major carelessness on the pilots  side.
Some older folks may remember me doing thousands of attack runs with cannon armed tank busters. And even with that 'close & personal' attacks, I don't think I was maingunned more than like a dozen times in total. Most of the time it was all my fault by presenting a fat, slow, low angle target coming right at the gunner. Getting really shot out of the air happened, was exceedingly rare.

The one thing that makes maingunning planes easier in AH is the enhanced situational awareness the single tank driver has. He can scan the sky, switch between stations in an instant and is not burdened by a myriad of routine tasks in a much 'clearer' battlefield. But then, the same goes for the pilots, which also kill tanks WAY easier than in RL.

[SPKmes]

As lushce says... mostly pilot error... I have had a plane kill in a shore battery due to the very same reason.... I'm picking the guy would have died from his bomb splash anyway with how he came in.... I have also killed a plane with the shore batt whilst planes were flying low over the field vulching...the round hit the ground at just the right time...... I do find it a little hard to take when...even though it is my fault for flying so low when strafing a tank....they shoot into the ground and take me down.... that surely should cause some kind of damage to a tank.... but now I am diverting from the main gripe...

some people do make a main gun kill easy by flying straight down the barrel

comparing to real life tactics is futile.... we all have way more hours of time in these things than any driver/pilot had..... had they spent as much time as us ...I'm quite sure they could do some of the things we do...not all as some things are just due the virtual/real world differences... but things that just take time and practice would have been attainable

[flippz]

Main gunning a plane has to be real. I mean it’s advertised on the steam page. So it ya to be.

Most gamey part of the game.

[ONTOS]

I have been main gunned flying at an angle to the tank and the tank was not my objective.

[Lusche]

I have been main gunned flying at an angle to the tank and the tank was not my objective.

So now what?

[flippz]

I have been main gunned flying at an angle to the tank and the tank was not my objective.

Charger 5 got me at 800 yds crossing shot. Was unbelievable. I had to go watch the film because there were no other planes with in about 2k and I couldn’t understand what got me. Hell of shot

[Fencer51]

You guys need to understand that the creator of this "game" is the same person who in Air Warrior back in the 1991ish timeframe, spawned a tank in the pacific terrain (3x3 sectors very small, this was back when 37 people online was a thing) and figured out how to shell the spawn point on the runways of the other country's fields.  I can testify to this because I was the idiot who spawned jeeps and called corrections on his shots until he killed me.  He approves of tank gunnery initiatives.

Ah the good old days..

[FBKampfer]

Most pilots being shot down by tank guns are using horrific attack profiles.


If you're getting shot down from quartering shots at long range..... Why are you flying level at low altitude? This is contributing to your poor ground SA, and makes you an easy target.

If you're getting shot down attacking a tank.... Why are you flying below his angle of elevation?


Literally any time you get shot down by a tank main gun round and it's not a fluke (which happens. I've both shot down others and been shot down completely unintentionally).... You were doing something stupid.

[save]

The reason you get main-gunned is you can sit in commanders position, with a gunsight reticle to aim with - while sitting button-up.

you are basically doing all 3 essential tasks made by 2-3 people, for spotting/aiming/shooting/loading as one nervous system and from a hawk-eye position.

Try to do it with 2 people, one in gunner position with very limited FOV, and the commander sitting with or without binoculars, giving commands how to turn turret to an proximate clock position, and also give elevation in degrees- at a target moving 200-500mph, that also changes it's altitude.

I served as a tank platoon commander 79-94, we managed during all these years to get a confirmed 'kill' on slow-moving transport  helicopter, using laser ranged gun sight and lead-computer at short range in an exercise.

Neither laser ranging, nor lead computers existed in WWII.

[Slade]

I wonder if some of the guys that defend and divert the topic of shooting guys down in main guns are they guys that are effective at it.  Its their $/month.

I play this game tending to fly using the techniques close to WWII (basically Boelcke rules).

I respect that some peeps need it to be more vid game like than WWII-like.  Funny though when some get bent out of shape if I dont turn fight a Spit in a 190 and the like. 

Actually, the most gamey thing in this game is how the rearm pad is abused.  Changing the definition of a "sortie" in doing so. 

[Shuffler]

I laugh if I get main gunned. I mean I deserve it for putting my 38 right there.

[Wiley]

I respect that some peeps need it to be more vid game like than WWII-like.

Are you talking about the people who don't see an issue with the fact that it's possible to main gun an airplane, or are you talking about the people who magically want the main gun round to not affect their aircraft because it makes them feel bad?

Wiley.

[Slade]

Wiley,

Are you talking about...

My preference is that I wish tanks could not shoot down planes in main guns as they did not do this (at these frequencies at least) in WWII.  Modeling the game closer to WWII is my pref. 

[Mano]

At least they modeled the tanks as they were in WWII with the big red holographic I.D. and distance proximity glowing directly overhead

.........and do not forget how accurate the GV dar was back in WWII.

  JC 


If you get main gunned by a tank it is your own fault. Don't come in so low. The T-34/76 and T-34/85 can have turrets that can point up allot higher
than the other tanks in the game. Avoid them. Also, many gv'ers load HE rounds when they are strafed by an air con. If they bounce an HE round off of a tree, building, hillside, ect......... you go boom when it explodes. There is nothing more fun than bouncing HE rounds on the runway when planes are taking off.