Accurcy

[cardboard_killer]

I'm getting to the point where I feel I'm almost competent . . . except in gunnery. I practice and practice deflection shooting, but I always seem to pepper the enemy without putting him down (or alternatively, the AI belly lands and I don't get credit). It seems like the only time I can get a clean kill is to pilot snipe. I'm a bit used to RoF where knocking wings off was my preferred method of shooting, but here, I tare holes at the wing root and  . . . nothing. Even knocking off control surfaces results in a glide to belly land by the enemy.

 

I'm trying not to learn bad habits, like point blank six o'clock shots on bombers that invariable render my plane inoperable with one bullet, but long range gunnery feels like spray and pray, and deflection shooting is tough to get pilot snipes.

 

And then there is strafing, or, as I like to call it, ploughing for grain the hard way

[69th_Mobile_BBQ]

If you're in single player, bombers will dogfight you almost as well as fighters can, it's very difficult to do anything other latch onto their 6 and accept they are probably going to hit you.  They are over-aware of their position in your gunsight and will always try to turn away at the last moment.  To take deflection shots, you have to catch them in maneuvers that they are stuck having to follow-through on before they can turn again. 

 

If you're shooting in multiplayer, forget it. Just take what you can and hope to get lucky.   It seems that if the server is not running in a very specific set of performance parameters, shots that obliterate planes in single player often times barely cause enough damage to make the pilot believe he should go land and get a new plane.  I've filled more than one multiplayer enemy plane with 10 lbs. of .50 cal bullets just to have them keep fighting like it was a mere scratch only to have a single mk.108 30mm hit anywhere on the top side of my plane and inflict an instant PK.