BF109 sweet spots
 

Trying to get used to spits only having mgs in COD and I am finding it hard to bring down 109s during gameplay. I have reduced my convergence to around 150 and understand that good long -ish bursts are required.

I was trying to find a good 109 cutaway drawing to see where various components are e.g. fuel tank, ammunition. What area is considered to be the weak point to bring em down as quickly as possible?

Also any advice on trying to get to grips with inverted shooting (upside down). It seems that the reticle disappears in COD when inverted (i cant understand why at the minute - surely it should be protected from sunlight reflection when inveted). Is this a must skill for a budding ace?

What ammo are you using?

Mainly a mixture of APs, incendiary and ball. Have tried a number of combinations, I cannot decide whether having each of these in every mg (AP, incendiary and ball in all gun belts) is better than having individual loadouts in each gun (e.g. AP only, ball only).

I have staggered my convergence so that the inside is slightly longer than the outside (assuming guns 1 and 2 are the inside)

Keep it at default converg..

dont fire until your foe is filling the gunsight and let him have it..your find your get a lot of Pk's with Ap loaded..

Id stick with De-wilde,AP and tracer mixture in guns 1 & 8 as you dont need tracers in every gun..the rest de-wilde and AP

hth

Distance over accuracy... If one goes up, one goes down.

Eight machineguns! Eight!

Try coming from an angle instead of hanging on his dead 6 o clock. This way you can direct your stream of bullets directly into the cockpit/engine area bypassing the tail. The weakest part of any aircraft is the meat in the cockpit. Sounds harsh, but it's true. Other things to look for are the water coolers beneath both wings, you need to take them both out though, 109 can run on 1 water cooler if needed.

Right at the moment, a damaged water cooler doesn´t have any effect on a 109 (=bug). So you have to wait for that...

I use flame projectiles and try to hit the engine. If you hit the fuel tank with a flame projectile, 2 seconds of firing can be enough to make the engine explode...

Errr yes it does work, a 109 with both water coolers down will have an engine seizeure!!!

And how long does that occur because I regularly shed both coolers only to see the 109 perform like nothing has changed.

Have you got the gun sight on? If the reticle is blue then it's only a reflection using ambient light you need to turn the bulb on with ALT + L.

No i never had the gun sight on

Thanks for the tip :grin:

Online advice
 

I fly the 109 a lot and I can tell you that if you just get five or six rounds in the plane you can seriously damage it. The trick is to make more then one pass. Any damage to the 109, no matter how minor it seems, does serious damage to the 109's flight characteristics but, you have to give them time to take effect. Any hits to the wings will either puncture the water radiator or break the water hose. If that happens the pilot will probably open rads all the way to make use of only one radiator. Once he's wounded he can't turn and he can't outrun you unless he can shake you using negative G's or a really steep dive. If you are in a Spit Ia or a Huri(Rotol), you will finish him. I wouldn't even worry about getting a pilot kill because you don't really need one, unless he's close to base. I wouldn't bother with AP ammo in that respect because you don't really need it for the 109. Its pretty soft everywhere, with the exception of the pilot's rear armor. Just shoot the wings, load all incendiary and tracer (Boetchtung or W/E if you have it) One tracer for every 4-5 incendiary. Its just like a shark with a little seal pup. They charge in and bite the seal and then wave off to let it bleed out. The 109 is so easy to kill, but you have to wait for the damage to take effect.

With regards to the water radiators...

I don't think it's a bug.

Getting a hole in the radiator means one thing: a coolant leak. That's far from an instant kill and it's not really unrealistic.

As long as you have enough coolant in the lines (check the pressure gauges to get an idea), the engine will keep running.

The more you push the engine, the more heat the cooling system needs to absorb. In other words and roughly speaking, a higher rate of coolant circulation from the engine to the radiator and back---> more cycles per minute of coolant passing from the leaking area---> faster leaking.

If on the other hand you disengage and try to fly back home on conservative settings, you can usually make it before you run out of coolant.

I've had this tested on many occasions when flying QMB missions against the AI. Radiator damage will bring you down, but it's not an instant kill. You need to get to the point where the coolant quantity is too low to keep the engine cool.

I've had this happen to me with every kind of water cooled aircraft in the sim, 109s, 110, Hurris and Spits, so it's definitely working and it's definitely not restricted to a specific type of aircraft.

I had the same thoughts as everyone else initially (that it's bugged), so i just decided to set the course autopilot on my 110 to fly straight and level and engage time acceleration. Well, not long after the coolant was completely depleted and the engine was cooked.

I then experimented with other aircraft whenever i got a damaged rad and it turns our that as long as you keep pushing the engine and leaking coolant, you'll get an engine seizure sooner or later.