Wow. Bombing's Hard!

[redboot]

I recently chose the P-51 as my first warbird. I've got a pretty good feel for the aircraft now, but man, the only thing I can hit consistently with those 500 pounders is my own plane. :(

 

It's going to take a while to gain some proficiency I can tell. No questions, just venting. But if you have any advice, it wouldn't go to waste.

[DD_Fenrir]

Typical Allied dive bombing tactics of WW2 - and you'll need to dive bomb as the only bomb fuses currently available are instantaneous - involved rolling in from 6,000 to 10,000ft in a 45-60 degree dive and releasing somewhere between 2,000 to 4,000 ft.

 

Sounds impossible? Actually with practice you can land bombs reasonably consistently using this method, provided you do three things:

 

1. Be as consistent as you can with your dive angle - if you make one pass at 36 degrees, the next at 60, and a third at 80 you will struggle with knowing when to pickle the bombs during the pullout because the ballistic arc and time of flight of the bombs will differ in all three cases. If you can make the trajectory of your dive consistent you will start to see your craters falling in specific offset ref the target and can start to adjust your bomb release point to compensate.

 

2. Rudder rudder rudder RUDDER! Trim is of the essence here; as you dive you build airspeed; as you build airspeed your directional trim changes, requiring increasing left rudder to compensate. If you do not do this the bombs do not fall the direction you are pointing and you miss the target to the left usually.

 

3. Make your attack run either into or out of wind. It is far easier to make adjustment for longitudinal wind by either delaying or preempting the drop point than trying to make lateral aiming point corrections for wind whilst in the dive.

[Pikey]

Steep...

centralising sideslip as your speed rapidly changes is something very hard for sim pilots, since we have no feeling of force on us, but, sideslip is a massive reason for missing.

use common, easily repeatable references in the canopy

repeat and repeat. You have the luxury of having a sim that can be started in the air, over a target that doesnt shoot back, make use of it with the mission editor.

[Frederf]

Do some practice dives and find out what are good trim values for the release condition. Set these before the dive at altitude and the airplane should get easier to fly just when your attention is strained.

[Silent Film]

It seems that the simulation counts only direct bomb hits, if bomb falls near the target, it won't damage it at all.

[razo+r]

It seems that the simulation counts only direct bomb hits, if bomb falls near the target, it won't damage it at all.

 

No, even a miss substracts hp from the unit.

 

It just depends on what kind of unit of course.

 

Trucks dont need direct hit, MBTs need a direct or nearly direct hit

[DD_Fenrir]

Heavy armour is very resistant to blast damage in real life and DCS reflects this; near misses will deal very little damage (if any) to tanks. Softer targets such as trucks, troops and AAA be damaged or destroyed by a close indirect bomb detonation however.

[Silent Film]

In the free ground attack practice, no target is damaged by a close indirect bomb detonation, not even that large tent.

[Mr_sukebe]

Option B, use the rockets, I know that I’m more accurate with them

[zcrazyx]

I would echo what others suggest, use the same tactics repeatedly and dont change on the fly until you're comfortable with a particular method, get to know the gunsight, theres fixed and gyro, the markers on the sight can be used for ground attack though i dont remember the angles, it will show on the manual somewhere.

 

another thing is to not expect to be pinpoint accurate, start on buildings, they're actually harder to hit with dumb bombs then you would expect, then work your way down to smaller targets, nail the speed, nail the altitude, nail the attitude and release point and you shall see consistent results.

 

i've done bombing with most ww2 aircraft, the migs 15 to 21, sabre, mirage, harrier, f14 and f5e. even with manually adjustable sights it is very hard to be consistent. its defo an art.

 

if you are struggling to keep a certain profile control wise as the speed might climb fast in a dive then it could be worth looking into the control scheme to see if the curves can be used to help in getting the fine control. also trim, personally i like to pre trim for high speed and then manually compensate, messing with trim is just another thing to worry about and in that situation i believe having your hands on the stick and throttle is priority.

[Emmy]

Pre-Dive .. Develop a consistent picture of where the target is relative to an arc from your 12 to your 3 or 9 (depending which way you’re going to tip in on the target)

 

For instance: If you set up your offset such that the target hits your leading edge right at your .50 cal machine guns but your dive ends up being too shallow or too steep, then you know you want the target to hit your leading edge closer to the wing root or outboard your .50 cals

 

Developing a consistent sight picture will lead to more consistent attacks.

 

I fly the A-10C almost exclusively and I can easily perform a 30- or 20- degree dive bomb attack because I know from experience where I want my target relative to its height above my canopy rail and where it comes into view against my canopy bow. If I put my target in those same points every time, then I know my attacks will be the same every time.

 

Practice, practice, practice!

[Silent Film]

Rockets work fine. But bombs are not finished yet. When a bomb falls near a wooden barracks or a truck, it should destroy them completely by blast and shrapnels. But these bombs just do little "puff". One reason you should use a bomb instead of a rocket is that a bomb covers larger area and you don't need a direct hit every time.

[Silent Film]

That is, it looks like rocket and bomb effects have been swapped, so that rockets explode like bombs should, and bombs explode like rockets should, I would really like some of the developers to check this issue.

[Silent Film]

Oh my God, it was my error, I forgot to arm the bombs before releasing them, roflmfao, I apologize for bothering you, the bombs work just fine, and the Mustang is amazing! I hope my error will be helpful for other new users if they encounter the same "problem". Have a nice day!

[msalama]

it was my error

 

One lives and learns ;) FYI, blast damage is actually modelled in DCS, whereas shrapnel damage is not.