Advice on ground target strafing?

Here I am again asking for some advice.

I'm trying to practice against ground targets, and am not sure that I'm making great progress!

What is the best technique for hitting ground based targets in terms of approach, gun setting, short or long blasts, etc.?

I'm set with unlimited ammo on a practice missions with around 10 targets, and I still struggle!

Part of my issue is that the nose seems to float all over the place, even with perfect trimming. This makes getting a straight sight on a target pretty difficult.

I use the zoom feature, which helps, but the floaty nose makes it difficult to use.

Any general advice on this aspect?

Floaty nose is always going to be a problem.

1. Don't dive too steep. Steep dives mean large airspeed changes. Airsped changes throw off your balance. You need to be balanced to get guns on a tiny little truck in a field. Aim for about a 10 to 20 degree nose down dive. (top of the gun sight reticle on the horizon).

2. Set a standard boost/ rpm setting for strafing, say 8lb and 2700 rpm. Get the engine set early in the diver.

3. Practice a few dives where you observe the slip indicator. Does it do the same thing every time? You might find you need full rudder defelction by the time your airspeed is around 360mph. You'll get a sore leg from holding the rudder in. Using this knowlegde you should be able to plan your attacks so that you can trim for balance every time, knowing what trim you will need. The more often you fiddle with the RPM, boost or dive angle, the more often you will need to adjust trim. So try and keep the variables to a minimum.

4. Don't expect to hit eveything in one pass. Focus on one vehicle at a time. Trains are a great target to use. They should spawn automatically in railyards if you have civilian traffic enabled.

5. Aim above the target and "walk" your fire onto it with short bursts. OR just wait until the last second, and then let him have it, when you cant miss.

6. The guns converge at 250 yards. Your max effective range is about 600 yards.. so at 360 mph (160m/s) you have 3.5 seconds to line-up, shoot and break off.

Use the first second to get confirm stability and aim just above the target.

Use the second second to fire a short burst

Use the third second to fire a final burst with tiny correction for the previous burst

Break off the target in the final 0.5 second before collision

7. Lock/ hold the elbow of your joystick arm in against your ribcage. This will reduce the amount of "play" in your arm and help to get control inputs to a minimum.

8. Vehicles present an easier target form the side. So try hitting the side of a vehicle.

Thanks again, Phil, for your detailed help.

I will give it a go later on!.

"5. Aim above the target and "walk" your fire onto it with short bursts. OR just wait until the last second, and then let him have it"

Dont you mean aim below the target?

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"5. Aim above the target and "walk" your fire onto it with short bursts. OR just wait until the last second, and then let him have it"

 

Dont you mean aim below the target?

 

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I would say, no, Phil is right, you aim above the target as gravity kicks into the ammo flight.

"5. Aim above the target and "walk" your fire onto it with short bursts. OR just wait until the last second, and then let him have it"Dont you mean aim below the target?

No, I do mean above.

The bullets already drop short. If you aim short, you'll waste even more ammo.

My technique is to not use rudder at all :)

Yeah sorry your right. I was thinking of when Im flying modern attack aircraft with CCIP and I tend to aim below the target and walk the pipper up to the target.

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["Part of my issue is that the nose seems to float all over the place, even with perfect trimming. This makes getting a straight sight on a target pretty difficult."]

This does not sound normal from my experience. Do you have a good joystick? I do have floating nose when firing in level flight but when diving for a ground target it is pretty stable.

slyfly

This does not sound normal from my experience. Do you have a good joystick? I do have floating nose when firing in level flight but when diving for a ground target it is pretty stable.

 

slyfly

HOTAS Warthog!

That's what I use but I have a 5 1/2 inch extension..

slyfly

I Have a standard length WH, but find that when I need a bit finer control, adjusting my grip up the stick a couple of inches, helps, as long as I only need to press the trigger or Weapon Release button. I fire with my little and ring fingers rather than index. I do have big hands though.

Generally, I found that in the Spit at least, it was the rudder that gave the most trouble, and I remember seeing a post by one of the devs that the rudder was too twitchy and that it was going to be adjusted. If it was, then perhaps not enough for me. I do think that you should be making fine adjustments to your aim by easing in a little yaw rather than with roll.

I do find that the nose tends to react to the rudder a bit too much, for me, and have reduced the Y axis Saturation to 60% and Curvature to 30, with a small deadzone of 4 Seems to make thing a lot less twitchy, but still giving a good range of movement. This is with CH Pro Pedals, and my equally big feet.

Going back to my original question, what is the best tactic to use against AAA? I'm finding them difficult to deal with!

At the risk of stating the obvious, I would say don't let them shoot you ;)

Perhape take a sacrificial wingman to distract them while you do the shooting or vice versa.

If you can find the max range afrom where they start shooting, and circle around, changing height and speed constantly, then you might survive long enough for them to run out of ammo, and press home an attack. I suppose that it depends on how many there are, and what type, and if you are trying to attack, or just avoid. The Spit isn't going to outrange them or be able to spoof their radar if they have it.

I always approach them while doing maneuvers because if you fly striaght at them they will shoot you. You can avoid their fire a number of different ways but you do have to maneuver. Only line up for a shot for a short period of time. Turn away from the target after firing and continue to maneuver. Make them have to move their guns and they won't be able to hit you very easily. I often approach them in a circular pattern. Changing dive pitch also works. Some of both is even better. Circle in on them from a distance until they start firing and when you see the tracers you can see how to avoid them as they are moving their guns trying to follow you. When you get close in if you are taking heavy fire don't line up for a shot. Instead try to scrape them while maneuvering and live to make another pass.

slyfly

If you can find the max range afrom where they start shooting, and circle around, changing height and speed constantly, then you might survive long enough for them to run out of ammo, and press home an attack. I suppose that it depends on how many there are, and what type, and if you are trying to attack, or just avoid. The Spit isn't going to outrange them or be able to spoof their radar if they have it.

I always approach them while doing maneuvers because if you fly striaght at them they will shoot you. You can avoid their fire a number of different ways but you do have to maneuver. Only line up for a shot for a short period of time. Turn away from the target after firing and continue to maneuver. Make them have to move their guns and they won't be able to hit you very easily. I often approach them in a circular pattern. Changing dive pitch also works. Some of both is even better. Circle in on them from a distance until they start firing and when you see the tracers you can see how to avoid them as they are moving their guns trying to follow you. When you get close in if you are taking heavy fire don't line up for a shot. Instead try to scrape them while maneuvering and live to make another pass.

 

slyfly

That all sounds like great advice, guys. Thanks a lot. I'll give that a try!

Going back to my original question, what is the best tactic to use against AAA? I'm finding them difficult to deal with!

My advice... fly against flak that isn't from the 1970's or newer!

The ground units in 1.5 are NATO/ Warsaw pact. Packing a "ww2" mission with "modern" flak units is just... nonsensical.

Will have to see what the flak is like in the Normandy asset packs (and yes, I know that the germans had some awful nasty (radar assisted) flak late in the war...)

Going back to my original question, what is the best tactic to use against AAA? I'm finding them difficult to deal with!

I used to feel the same way, they would keep shooting me down. Then I discovered that if I kept my eye on their cones of fire, and then proceeded to make small adjustments in my attitude and heading I could reliably evade them, 100% of the time. It's actually really easy. You don't even have to overdo it. Just make small adjustments every 2-3 seconds.

Obviously once you are lined up on a target you won't be able to do that. So make sure you take that into account. You will only have a couple of seconds tops to line up, and fire, before you have to jink.

My advice... fly against flak that isn't from the 1970's or newer!

 

 

The ground units in 1.5 are NATO/ Warsaw pact. Packing a "ww2" mission with "modern" flak units is just... nonsensical.

 

 

Will have to see what the flak is like in the Normandy asset packs (and yes, I know that the germans had some awful nasty (radar assisted) flak late in the war...)

Very good point, Phil. That never occurred to me!

I used to feel the same way, they would keep shooting me down. Then I discovered that if I kept my eye on their cones of fire, and then proceeded to make small adjustments in my attitude and heading I could reliably evade them, 100% of the time. It's actually really easy. You don't even have to overdo it. Just make small adjustments every 2-3 seconds.

 

Obviously once you are lined up on a target you won't be able to do that. So make sure you take that into account. You will only have a couple of seconds tops to line up, and fire, before you have to jink.

I'll give that a go. Also, from looking at videos of ZU 23 IRL, looks like they can't fire at too great an angle, maybe designed for low flying aircraft. Maybe worth giving it go taking them out from high above them.

Going back to my original question, what is the best tactic to use against AAA? I'm finding them difficult to deal with!

depends against which AAA

the AAA (forgot the name) which is controlled by a person with "steering wheels" is easy. Just wait until he has to reload which is indicated by a much shorter burst than normal, then attack.

Against more modern one, I don't recommend going in guns unless you want to spray and pray from far distance

depends against which AAA

 

the AAA (forgot the name) which is controlled by a person with "steering wheels" is easy. Just wait until he has to reload which is indicated by a much shorter burst than normal, then attack.

 

Against more modern one, I don't recommend going in guns unless you want to spray and pray from far distance

They seem to be mostly ZU 23s that I encounter. I can't just avoid them either as they are usually integrated into target convoys!

They seem to be mostly ZU 23s that I encounter. I can't just avoid them either as they are usually integrated into target convoys!

Well, make the AAA top priority then. But if you really want to go guns on a shilka, I can give you one tipp that can save your life: Try to time your attack that way, that you turn in when he shot his burst, then turn in, look at it, when he fires, pull up or down and when his burst finished, aim again and fire and GTFO

note: it is possible to survive without damage this way but you'll most likely take damage or die

I wouldn't get close enough to shoot a shilka or a geppard with guns or rockets in any aircraft. They use radar to aim their guns and they will kill you.

slyfly

I wouldn't get close enough to shoot a shilka or a geppard with guns or rockets in any aircraft. They use radar to aim their guns and they will kill you.

 

slyfly

Pretty difficult to avoid when they are in the middle of a target convoy! I take your point though/

Imacken, do a search for "Dart's Page", he did a lot of entertaining videos about how to do stuff in the old IL-2 series. Under Movies, look for the one on how to use the sight to determine range. He uses some simple rules of thumb based on how the sight works (and Bag the Hun), including how to judge when to open up on soft targets like trucks, given that in aircraft with wing mounted guns, awareness of your convergence distance is imperative for effective strafing.