Ideal angle for fighters making ground attacks

[Youtch]

What is the ideal angle to perform guns/canons attack on ground target with fighters, like Bf109.

 

I often find myself going too low to maximize accuracy, high angle makes reaction time and going close and personal more challenging.

 

Thanks for your expert advice.

[ShamrockOneFive]

I usually start with about 1,000 meters or about 3,000 feet. I tend to put targets somewhere between 9 and 11 or 1 and 3 o'clock. Then when I'm in range I roll in on the target and do an approximately 20-30 degree dive. Guns on target and then pull out.

 

The most important part is the part that, due to target fixation, is sometimes forgotten about. What you always want to do is have a planned egress from the strafing run. What's the local terrain look like? Is there more flak to the left or the right of the target? Is there something you can hide behind in-case of flak? Always have a plan about where you're going to go after the strafing run.

[BMA_FlyingShark]

Maybe these may help:

 

HvB's channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/HvB_ground_attack

 

Requiem's channel has tons of vid's (ground attack among others):

 

Col Ninny:

 

None of the above are my work, credits go to the appropriate creators of those vid's.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[Youtch]

Thanks for the videos. I was not referring to bombing but to attacking with guns and cannons.

[BMA_FlyingShark]

Ah sorry.

But Requiem and HvB also have vids about guns and cannons on their channels, check 'em out.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[Leftenant_Soap]

Strafing with Bf 109, here is how I do it.

Keep manifold pressure 1.15-1.2 ata, I don't really look at airspeed as I go by feel but it's 250-350 km/h.

Start your pass at 500 m or so keeping the target lined up with ailerons and making sure you're trimmed decently - no rudder!

By the time you are close enough you'll be going pretty fast so hit the target then pull up before it's too late, as long as you are above 300 km/h you can pull up hard without causing a stall and crashing.

With the Friedrich standard loadout you have enough ammo to blow up about 13 parked aircraft, I find trucks and artillery guns take even less hits to destroy.

I wouldn't bother going after AA that is firing at you, Bf 109's engine is too fragile and it's not really your job to deal with that anyway.

 

I don't play attacker aircraft but in the OG IL-2 you would start higher and spiral down since AI gunners had a hard time keeping track of you turning and descending.

[R33GZ]

I try to use about a 30 degree dive like shamrock said. This gives you a good angle on the target and exposes more of it in your sight picture than low and level.

 

I've not tried it in the 109, but in the duck, you can drop 20 degree flaps in the dive. This puts positive pressure on the stick and makes the pullout much easier... might be too difficult in the 109 withe manual flap control and much higher speeds

[oc2209]

I was going to show my usual haphazard, needlessly dangerous attack techniques, when the 109's glass wing ruined my plans:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Exterior view of the incident itself:

 

Spoiler

 

 

I'm guessing the first explosion I flew through might've weakened the wing.

 

Still kind of odd, though.

[Knarley-Bob]

Trees.........watch for them trees..........they will snag you every time. Don't ask how I know this, it ain't pretty............

[JG27*PapaFly]

The approach I take on a gun run depends a lot of

1) The density and types of air and ground threats

2) The weapons I plan to employ

3) The terrain

4) The level of friendly support I have at my disposal

 

In a strongly aaa-defended area, I strongly suggest to stay below 300 m above ground (above that you will pick up a ton of the heavy aaa), use terrain to mask your approach as much as possible, and plan which target to strike, as well as your ingress and egress routes. Target prioritization is of massive importance, medium cal aaa usually being top of the list. Flying slow or using flaps are not viable options. Doing it solo is already pretty suicidal.

Trim a bit tail heavy.  Having to maintain slight pressure on the stick improves control precision compared to trimming all stick force away (this is a blue angels trick). It also helps you with the pull up after strafing. Plan to open fire from longer distance. Set your convergence accordingly and zoom in fully. Train to kill static ground objects from 800 m away. The further the better, as this minimizes the time you are on a predictable flight path and reduces the depth by which you must penetrate the enemy defense perimeter. After shooting,  start jinking right away, while moving in the planned general egress direction. Use low to moderate G loads in order to keep your speed up.  Change direction and altitude every 3 seconds. Aquire and visually track the most threatening aaa asap, in order to use the tracers to time your jinks. When you see that it has just about dialed in the correction to your current motion vector,  it's time to jink again. Try to combine turns with altitude changes as much as possible.  If a low valley presents itself as an egress route, take it.

[Hotaru_Ito]

I don't worry much about the exact angle, like others I'm more concerned about avoiding flak and giving myself a clear shot. Especially with all those trees lining every road in Europe--luckily they're not quite so ubiquitous on the Normandy map.

 

Somehow it always seems like coming in along the line of the road should be the easiest way to strafe a convoy, but I never have much luck that way. It makes you an easy target for gunners, and the trucks are easier to hit from the side anyway.

 

 

1 hour ago, oc2209 said:

I was going to show my usual haphazard, needlessly dangerous attack techniques, when the 109's glass wing ruined my plans:

 

I'm guessing the first explosion I flew through might've weakened the wing.

 

 

Still kind of odd, though.

Wow, glass wing is right, it's not like you were pulling some crazy Gs there. I've only ever had that happen (usually in the Typhoon/Tempest) when I really yanked back on the stick to avoid a tree or something. Might be right about the explosions, I've been knocked around by them a little when I cut things close like that before.

[oc2209]

6 minutes ago, Hotaru_Ito said:

Wow, glass wing is right, it's not like you were pulling some crazy Gs there. I've only ever had that happen (usually in the Typhoon/Tempest) when I really yanked back on the stick to avoid a tree or something. Might be right about the explosions, I've been knocked around by them a little when I cut things close like that before.

 

Yeah, and also the port horizontal stabilizer was cracked too, hence my suspicion that concussive blast force was the cause. Didn't snap off, however.

 

I recall when they first released those ammo trucks that created huge explosions; I was disappointed when I tried to attack a few convoys and they were just regular trucks. Now I got two in the same convoy.

 

As for shooting things that won't buckle your wing when they blow up, I tried a genuine airfield attack this time:

 

Spoiler

 

 

I would say I come in far too low on all my attacks, but then there are examples of P-47 pilots 'shooting' themselves down when their props hit the dirt.

 

Flying above tree-top level makes me feel nervous and exposed. There were several P-51s and P-47s in the immediate area, but they hadn't attacked us yet, as a pair of Fw-190s were running interference.

 

At any rate, my advice would be to fly as low as your reflexes allow. If you're in a 109 or anything with cannons, you can afford to make 'snap shots' at ground targets. Whereas an American plane with .50s would need to stay on target a little longer.

 

I was credited with the AAA unit I attacked on my approach, as well as 4 other planes I attacked during the recording (and a couple more after). Seems like they don't need more than a short burst (and yeah, my accuracy isn't great; I waste a lot of ammo).

[Hotaru_Ito]

1 hour ago, oc2209 said:

I would say I come in far too low on all my attacks, but then there are examples of P-47 pilots 'shooting' themselves down when their props hit the dirt.

 

Flying above tree-top level makes me feel nervous and exposed. There were several P-51s and P-47s in the immediate area, but they hadn't attacked us yet, as a pair of Fw-190s were running interference.

 

Think that's what happened to Gabreski, in fact. Clipped his prop on a strafing run.

 

Personally I rarely come in that low, although I've definitely seen gun cams that showed runs like that. I also never make more than one or two passes unless there's not much flak, and I avoid attacking AAA unless I know it's busy firing at someone else.

 

Unfortunately, vanilla career often doesn't have much AA, especially on "easy" (and on harder settings, there are so many enemy fighters you never get to strafe anything anyway), so attack missions are pretty much milk runs. Hardly ever get hit, rarely lose a plane in the flight except to crashes and the occasional enemy fighter. PWCG and Vander's are both better in this department.

 

PS. And I love those ammo truck explosions.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Hotaru_Ito

[RedeyeStorm]

Use Stonhouse’s AAA mod and you will fear triple A even om easy.

[zan64]

https://www.youtube.com/c/HvB_ground_attack/videos

 

maybe not precisely what you looking for with fighters, some good fast and quick tutorials 

[Talon_]

16 hours ago, Hotaru_Ito said:

Hardly ever get hit, rarely lose a plane in the flight except to crashes and the occasional enemy fighter.

 

This is actually very realistic

[Hotaru_Ito]

4 hours ago, Talon_ said:

This is actually very realistic

 

True. Wish there were more AA, but less accurate, really. Careers are kind of boring when you never even get shot AT.