Quote:
Originally Posted by IceFire
All good stuff Max but I wanted to highlight that. Quote for truth!
Energy fighting doesn't involve that sitting on the tail tactic at all... and that's a mistake that a lot of pilots make. The aim is to shoot to kill in the first burst and if you miss then you start over again.
With a Wildcat or a Corsair you may not obliterate the Zero but you can aim for his wing, a rather large target on a Zero, and either cripple his ability to turn fight or de-wing them and score the kill. If aimed well at a good deflection angle... you can cripple or de-wing with a quick burst from the guns. All it takes.
And if you miss... then you re-position. It's not a rally race.
|
I see some problems with getting on the tail, closing in and shooting:
1) in IL2 structure = armor. Tail wheel assemblies can soak a lot of hits and that's not the only hard to destroy pieces depending on the plane.
2) to stay behind the target's six you have to be co-speed and co-alt. If you can maneuver quicker and harder at that speed/alt then you're at a disadvantage.
3) on someone's tail and closer than 200m, every jink they make displaces them wide from your sights.
I like to come in from one side. If they turn away then they become an easy shot, if they turn into me then I have a harder shot but nose and cockpit stand out, a longer burst generally gets some oblique hits on thin to no armor or IL-2 bullet sponge parts.
I learned the one-side approach from reading Hartmann, BTW. I think that he showed it is better to be a aerial hunter than an aerial fighter.