How to aim Unguided Rockets, Guns, Gunpods

[ekg]

I've been doing the Su-25 training. I find that aiming the rockets and guns is really difficult. Any suggestions on how to keep the aiming reticle steady on the target? Should I change my joystick curve or should I trim more? What about wind?

 

Really curious how to do this right since it's frustrating when I keep missing the target with these weapons.

[Frosty]

change the curve. stay entirely level

[PiedDroit]

Don't use rudder!

It will throw your aim away quickly.

If you need to do lateral corrections, bank the aircraft slightly, or abort and retry.

Try approach from far away first (heading directly on target), then try putting target at 10 or 2 o'clock and rolling on target closer and closer.

This way you'll become better at doing a good, steady approach.

Practice ;)

Edited November 5, 2015 by PiedDroit

[Johnny Dioxin]

Without seeing your attack method, it's difficult to know where you are going wrong. You may be firing from excessive range - in which case you need to wait longer before firing and aim slightly above the target.

 

I suggest firing 'through' the target in a practice situation, when you are not being fired at.

 

Come in slow and walk your fire through the target. That will enable you to see at which point the rounds or rockets are hitting and give you a starting point. Then practice a lot!

Edited November 6, 2015 by Brixmis
spelling, speling, spellling...

[PiedDroit]

For better answers, attach a track :thumbup:

[ekg]

Don't use rudder!

It will throw your aim away quickly.

If you need to do lateral corrections, bank the aircraft slightly, or abort and retry.

Try approach from far away first (heading directly on target), then try putting target at 10 or 2 o'clock and rolling on target closer and closer.

This way you'll become better at doing a good, steady approach.

Practice ;)

 

What about in cross winds? I actually find that the rudder helps a bit especially last minute (second :) )

[PiedDroit]

What about in cross winds? I actually find that the rudder helps a bit especially last minute (second :) )

If you use it at the very end I guess it's okay (for a snapshot or to spray on a wider surface).

 

In crosswinds I don't remember how I do it... I suppose I would approach normally (i.e keeping the ball centered, with target slightly off the piper) and use it only at the end of the attack, to put the piper on target. I need to check what is actually happening though.

 

Bottom line is, try to do a good approach without slipping.

[ekg]

Attached is a track of my attempt. I modified the training mission so that it would skip the tutorial. Anyways I manage to get the first one but he still gets a hit. The other two I fail on miserably and I end up landing out of ammo and my right engine damaged

Note that this was DCS 1.5 and the track is slightly off (landing might be different based on damage since its not deterministic )

gun_pod_fail.trk

Edited November 6, 2015 by ekg

[Johnny Dioxin]

The tracks are nearly always off, unfortunately. I'll have a look, though.

 

I'm no expert by any means, but I usually get my rounds on target.

 

Okay - had a quick run through a couple of times. Conditions are certainly not favourable, are they!

 

Anyway, it would require more views to say more, but for starters I would say:

 

1: You are starting to fire too early for your altitude and where you are aiming. If you want to start firing at that distance, you need to aim above the target - takes practice.

 

2: You are too low in your attack run. Okay, sometimes you need to be low for either surprise or to keep under cover, but not in this instance. Your dive is rather shallow.

 

3: Try using the first stage of your flaps for speed control as well as your brakes.

 

4: You are not holding the aircraft steady enough - this takes some practice. Again, flaps help with this on the first stage, but the weather is pretty bad, so that may well be a factor in this case. I didn't notice your rudder moving, but the pipper was all over the place.

 

 

As an aside, try not to overfly the target - I'm surprised you didn't get more damage. Dive in, fire at the target and roll away before overflying. You are getting way too close. It's fine if you've destroyed him (though still not recommended) - but if you haven't and there's a SAM down there (especially manpad) you are toast.

 

That's just a quickie from my desk - I'm sure others will have more detailed advice when they see the track.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Brixmis

[pepin1234]

The question is what kind of target you want shot.

 

2500 to start a diving from 5km distance, try to have 350 km/h at the moment of you diving start. You can't make flight correction at the very last moment of your shot, this make not accurate the ballistic calculation. Use the laser for better ballistic calculation.

 

For infantry use S-8OFP or S-5 rockets. Here you can shot just when authorizing light is on, or even you can make an override to shot in an approximately effective distance, because in the case of the infantry could be better spread rounds.

 

For armorers use S-8KOM or S-13 rockets (for more accuracy you should hold the shot for a closer distance than the initial Authorization)

[PiedDroit]

2: You are too low in your attack run. Okay, sometimes you need to be low for either surprise or to keep under cover, but not in this instance. Your dive is rather shallow.

This is indeed a big cause of jumpy piper ;)

The computer has troubles finding the good impact point and alternates between two solutions, a deeper dive will solve it.

[PiedDroit]

Hello,

I took some time to go through the track in more details.

 

1

Dive angle, a little shallow but not too dramatic, I could get good precision when I tried (the jumpy piper will occur at much shallower angle, almost NOE).

 

2

What is really killing your aim is the wind.

A short burst at a distance will tell you that your shells are pushed a lot to the right.

In that case it's better to do another attack from a different angle (try 90° first if you don't know the wind direction then make corrections, with rain it's easier to estimate it).

If you still want to make the shot, then proceed by short bursts until you get the correction right, but in that case it will be difficult to put a decent amount of ammo on target (in that case you have no choice but to use the rudder to adjust the aim...).

 

3

I took control and tested it myself for about 20 minutes, while I could take out the first target on first or second pass, no matter how much hits I could put on other targets they weren't destroyed.

The pods are useful on very lightly armoured target, for anything equal or bigger than an APC it's better to switch to main gun or go back and rearm.

It's still possible to take out APCs with the pods, it requires concentrated fire which puts you at risk of return fire since you need to be very close.

Pods are better used as area weapons from a distance.

 

Also, I remove the burst limiter (LShift+C), personal preference (otherwise each burst is limited to 25 rounds IIRC).

 

Hope this helps ;)

I can post a track later if it might help, using your same setup.

[ekg]

Do you do a pop-up attack as described in the rockets training? That is go up and then invert to go down and then invert again to aim? I haven't done this since it's hard to keep steady and aim fast enough.

[PiedDroit]

Do you do a pop-up attack as described in the rockets training? That is go up and then invert to go down and then invert again to aim? I haven't done this since it's hard to keep steady and aim fast enough.

You can put your target on the side of the nose, on the side you plan to roll (eg. 11 o'clock if you plan to roll left), this will help you to keep sight on the target while climbing and rolling.

With practice you'll do it eventually ;)