Tuesday 4-23 WWCOOP Mission #9 & #10

[WWDriftwood]

This confuses me as well with the Mk.V, I have the horizontal on my stick hat, and the range on a throttle hat, and one of the range in/out is mapped to my wheel brakes as well. So I have to remember to reset the range on the sight. The thing is, doesn't the in game setting for setting up the plane dictate the range setting, and then changing the range for the sight just adjust the lines in/out to give you a reference as to when to shoot? 

Adjusting the sight in the cockpit has no affect on the "guns range" just the "sight marking" yes/no?

Mk.IX I thought was different? 

I need to check the couple of video sites, Tactical Air Combat and such. 

Haven't flown the Spit for more than 30 min over the past week, tonight will be interesting. 

[WWBrinson]

Thank you, Sir.  Depends on the plane you are going to shoot.  You set the wingspan and the range.  The 109 is 32 feet.  I just goto 40 (if I even remember to do it) and then set to 300.

[WWBrinson]

11 minutes ago, WWDriftwood said:

This confuses me as well with the Mk.V, I have the horizontal on my stick hat, and the range on a throttle hat, and one of the range in/out is mapped to my wheel brakes as well. So I have to remember to reset the range on the sight. The thing is, doesn't the in game setting for setting up the plane dictate the range setting, and then changing the range for the sight just adjust the lines in/out to give you a reference as to when to shoot? 

Adjusting the sight in the cockpit has no affect on the "guns range" just the "sight marking" yes/no?

Mk.IX I thought was different? 

I need to check the couple of video sites, Tactical Air Combat and such. 

Haven't flown the Spit for more than 30 min over the past week, tonight will be interesting. 

It does initially, but you can change it to whatever.

[WWDriftwood]

13 minutes ago, VonBrinson said:

Thank you, Sir.  Depends on the plane you are going to shoot.  You set the wingspan and the range.  The 109 is 32 feet.  I just goto 40 (if I even remember to do it) and then set to 300.

If you set the convergence to say "300" in your plane setup, then I assume it means just that, guns converge at "300" only. Then adjusting the sights is just your range reference as to when to fire based on the plane filling the gun sight and but doesn't change the convergence. I read some guys find it useless but I'm not good enough to judge. 

I need to figure out my best practice SOP for doing this, then adjust plane by plane.

Edited April 30, 2019 by WWDriftwood

[WWBrinson]

Sounds logical

[WWDriftwood]

Logical? Is it accurate? Wasn't sure if some planes you can change the convergence in the cockpit, maybe that's the better question. 

[WWBrinson]

You can set the range in the cockpit as well as the wingspan.

I'm ingame now.  It set it for me at the autostart.  Then I dialed it to whatever (in a Spitfire IX).

Edited April 30, 2019 by VonBrinson

[WWSandMan]

No, convergeance is hard-set on the ground. There's no physical way to alter the angle of the guns within the wings while in-flight. 

In real life, they set the guns to do a shotgun pattern unless a specific ship was assigned to a specific pilot (very rare.) Then the pilot could specify how he wanted the guns "harmonized" (convergeance set.) It's interesting to note that all the great aces used a very close convergeance (100-150 meters or yards.) This puts maximum firepower onto a single point at the given range. Too close or too far, and the effect is more shotgun than rifle, with closer being better. As Erich Hartmann said in a post-war interview: "Fill the windshield with the enemy aircraft and you won't miss."

Most reflector gun-sights had some form of wing-span setting, so that the pilot could set the retical to the wingspan of his target in order to know when he's in range of his guns. Problem being that most folks fired from so far away their bullets or shells had comparatively little effect, if they did hit.  I figure I'm in range when the enemy aircraft's wingtips are well outside my default reticle ring. Doesn't mean I hold fire until then, but the effect is usually immediate and highly effective when close. 

[WWSittingduck]

the only time I can get that close to the ai is when I am winchester..

Still, has always baffled me.  Unless I am 200m or less from the ai in a turn, my aim point is when the ai is out of sight, and below my cowling.  Why didn't these guns shoot higher???

[WWCraven]

1 hour ago, WWSandMan said:

 Problem being that most folks fired from so far away their bullets or shells had comparatively little effect, if they did hit.  I figure I'm in range when the enemy aircraft's wingtips are well outside my default reticle ring. Doesn't mean I hold fire until then, but the effect is usually immediate and highly effective when close. 

I have noticed that some of us do have that tendency to fire at long range, need to get closer.  Having said that sometimes I get so close that the debris blows back and puts me out of action.  Have to find the happy medium so that doesn't keep happening

[WWSandMan]

And here I thought my demise in the second mission was because of a mean ol' 110 getting a lucky shot. But no... 'twas simply a lucky shot by flak. Dangit.

[WWDriftwood]

double post?

Edited May 1, 2019 by WWDriftwood

[WWDriftwood]

15 hours ago, WWSandMan said:

No, convergeance is hard-set on the ground. There's no physical way to alter the angle of the guns within the wings while in-flight. 

In real life, they set the guns to do a shotgun pattern unless a specific ship was assigned to a specific pilot (very rare.) Then the pilot could specify how he wanted the guns "harmonized" (convergeance set.) It's interesting to note that all the great aces used a very close convergeance (100-150 meters or yards.) This puts maximum firepower onto a single point at the given range. Too close or too far, and the effect is more shotgun than rifle, with closer being better. As Erich Hartmann said in a post-war interview: "Fill the windshield with the enemy aircraft and you won't miss."

Most reflector gun-sights had some form of wing-span setting, so that the pilot could set the retical to the wingspan of his target in order to know when he's in range of his guns. Problem being that most folks fired from so far away their bullets or shells had comparatively little effect, if they did hit.  I figure I'm in range when the enemy aircraft's wingtips are well outside my default reticle ring. Doesn't mean I hold fire until then, but the effect is usually immediate and highly effective when close. 

Thanks Sandy, this clears things up, though the discussion went on a bit on comms last night as to the confusion of what the sight adjustments did with regard to convergence but for me this is how it's always worked. Get's confusing as you hear different things form different sources. 

 

14 hours ago, WWCraven said:

I have noticed that some of us do have that tendency to fire at long range, need to get closer.  Having said that sometimes I get so close that the debris blows back and puts me out of action.  Have to find the happy medium so that doesn't keep happening

Yup, seems like the only way I can get my shot is up close, still have trouble judging my speed so I catch debris, run into the bandit, or blow by. Did that last night after following my injured bandit waiting for his engines to blow or crash, flew in front of him just for a moment and he killed me with a shot to the head. grrrrrrrr. 

 

Duck - Spitfire - Spinning

Been a week or so since I flew the Spit, forgot a few of my references for safe taxi/takeoff. Like not running the RPM before rolling and over throttle on my taxi. 

Try this, seems to help "provided I remember to do it" 

After startup/ radiator open - then choose to run RPM up before or after taxi, but Prop RPM's up before rolling. 

If I keep my RPM needle at the bottom, no more than "1 line on the RPM gauge or so it barely registers on the RPM gauge" makes it easier to taxi and control with differential braking. I always have to add throttle to get rolling then reduce it and try to maintain just enough throttle to see the RPM needle move and then don't move the throttle much at all unless you stop and have to get rolling again. If it's set right it's hard to spin provided your ready on the brake and rudders. 

Ever