How do you do it.. A bit of advice here please

[wehyam]

I've developed a dogfight tactic which works fairly well but its not what I read in the books..

I'm flying Camels agains Fokker DVII's.. and I've developed a strategy that is quite successful.. The camel out turns the Fokker but is out climbed (and out run) by the Fokker So while the EA tries to ZOOM and BOOM, I slither, stall and spin around inside it, cut off the corners and we go round and round and mostly I grind it out and get on its tail quite quickly or at least my guns are pointing ahead of it.. so.. I sort of win ..
provided I dont lose too much height and hit the floor... it works with Veterans and Aces too though of course they are cleverer at changing the direction of the circling.. but I just cut across the bowl and get inside again..

The other advantage of this is that since he is up above me most time I want to attack .. I can see him.. my nose isnt in the way..


What I dont see is quite how the most successful tactic apparently.. diving into the enemy's six can work.. even as a sneak attack.. unless the guy is flying dead straight and you come in at quite a shallow angle.. when I try coming in steep.. I lose ... the nose is in the way.. so .. he's moving at speed, I'm moving at speed.. Unless I'm going to 'home' on to the target through the 'gunsight' I have to lay off a deflection.. Is that what people do.. ie try and keep the 'target' EA on the same bit of the windshield until you're in range.. this will guarantee a collision .. but you've still got to put the plane in the proper line up..

I'm OK at shooting trees but I cant dive down on a moving target.. .. any guidance guys.. videos.. how to do it tips.:ernae:


Meanwhile I'm going to give the enemy a real soggy plane slow and low and practice .. but I know what he'll do.. he's just going to stall, spin and slip around grinding it out in the bottom half of the bowl (just like I do )
till I lose energy and he shoots me or I dive into the mud!!!

regards..

 

[77Scout]

I find that if you stay sitting in the middle of the cockpit you really can't see anything below you, as the down views are blocked by the plane. Under these circumatance you are right that it is extremely difficult to approach and see a target below you, because he is below the nose of the plane and in a blind spot.

To view things below you, you have to move side to side in the cockpit, and look over the side like real pilots did. I am constantly doing this to keep enemy planes in view during a dogfight (it helps with navigation too, landings etc). I have two buttons on my joystick dedicated to eyepoint left and right (I don't have TrackIr yet)

So in a diving attack you could try moving your head to the side of the cockpit and look forward along the side of the plane and you should be able to keep the target plane in view.

The trick then is to get your head back to the gunsight once in firing position. You may have pass your plane behind the target at the last minute so that he pops up into your windshield view and then swoop up from below his tail to get your shot.

Or forget about the gun sights completely and just keep him in view by looking down the side of the plane the whole time, and aim and fire at very close range using tracers to guide you.

Not easy, but I guess real pilots would have had the same issues.