Gunsight range indicator seems off - by a LOT!

[v81]

Gunsight range indicator seems to be off my a massive amount.

Paused the sim mid flight to check and if my understanding of the sight is correct that's supposed to be an Su24 at approx 1100ft distance.

Switch to the F10 map and i measure 1.7NM or 10,330 ft

If my understanding is correct it's not out by just a little.
Rather it's out by an order of magnitude.

Could be very well an extra zero got lopped off, meaning sight bars ~1,100ft = distance of 11.000 ft.

Just getting to know the F5-E and this is making it hard.

Also sight reports in range if i understand the dot correctly, but really???   In range at a map distance of 1.7 miles on an A-A target at 300 kts?

[=475FG= Dawger]

5 hours ago, v81 said:

Gunsight range indicator seems to be off my a massive amount.

Paused the sim mid flight to check and if my understanding of the sight is correct that's supposed to be an Su24 at approx 1100ft distance.

Switch to the F10 map and i measure 1.7NM or 10,330 ft

If my understanding is correct it's not out by just a little.
Rather it's out by an order of magnitude.

Could be very well an extra zero got lopped off, meaning sight bars ~1,100ft = distance of 11.000 ft.

Just getting to know the F5-E and this is making it hard.

Also sight reports in range if i understand the dot correctly, but really???   In range at a map distance of 1.7 miles on an A-A target at 300 kts?

The most obvious explanation is that you are in missile mode instead of gun mode. If this is the case, what is presented is correct.

 

The easiest way to switch between Dogfight Guns (DG) and Dogfight Missile (DM) is using the Dogfight/Resume Switch in the controls setup. Aft is DG and Forward is DM.

Edited October 19, 2022 by =475FG= Dawger

[Bob1943]

Plus, as I am sure that you have noticed, the visual distance on your gunsight image is definitely not 10,330-ft from you to the Su24.  At that range, the Su24 would look way smaller.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Bob1943

[=475FG= Dawger]

3 hours ago, Bob1943 said:

Plus, as I am sure that you have noticed, the visual distance on your gunsight image is definitely not 10,330-ft from you to the Su24.  At that range, the Su24 would look way smaller.

 

You are incorrect.

There is enough information in his photo to roughly determine range without radar.

The SU-24 wingspan is 58 feet.

The gunsight reticle circle is 50 mils diameter. The pipper dot is 2 mils.

About three pippers will cover the wingspan which is about 6 mils.

58 feet distending 6 mils is about 3333 yards away.

10,330 feet is 3443 yards

 

The same approximation can be done with the fuselage at 74 feet distending about 8 mils which would give a guess of 3100 yards.

Of course, you would have to be pretty handy with numbers to do all that in a dogfight but it really doesn't take too much practice to estimate ranges using the apparent size compared to the reticle.

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by =475FG= Dawger

[Bob1943]

Sure doesn't look nearly 2 miles away to me.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Bob1943

[=475FG= Dawger]

13 hours ago, Bob1943 said:

Sure doesn't look nearly 2 miles away to me.

 

The key is comparing the apparent size of the aircraft to the reticle.

If the 74 foot fuselage from nose to tail fills the diameter of the reticle (50 mils), the aircraft is 1500 feet away.

If the fuselage is covering 1/7th of the diameter, the aircraft is 7 times as far away or 10,700 feet.

Learning these relationships makes the radar ranging a luxury.

[Bob1943]

I am well aware of the reticle relationships.  I am just commenting that the visual perspective in that image (assuming that the reticle was not in the screenshot} does not look like the plane is 10,330-ft (1.96 miles) away.  Perhaps it has something to do with the way the screenshot is rendered in DCS.  Regardless, just a personal visual perspective from my eyes.

Hope the OP got his issue sorted out with your detailed response.

[=475FG= Dawger]

15 hours ago, Bob1943 said:

I am well aware of the reticle relationships.  I am just commenting that the visual perspective in that image (assuming that the reticle was not in the screenshot} does not look like the plane is 10,330-ft (1.96 miles) away.  Perhaps it has something to do with the way the screenshot is rendered in DCS.  Regardless, just a personal visual perspective from my eyes.

Hope the OP got his issue sorted out with your detailed response.

While you prompted the post, there are lots of other people who can benefit from the information.

In any case, I don't think you quite understand the concept from your response here.

All that matters is the apparent size of the target in relation to the reticle. The reticle IS in the photo so a range estimate is possible. 

Without another object of known size in the photo, no range estimation is possible.

[v81]

On 10/20/2022 at 8:14 AM, =475FG= Dawger said:

The most obvious explanation is that you are in missile mode instead of gun mode. If this is the case, what is presented is correct.

 

The easiest way to switch between Dogfight Guns (DG) and Dogfight Missile (DM) is using the Dogfight/Resume Switch in the controls setup. Aft is DG and Forward is DM.

 

If the purple text was your edit i much appreciate you took the time to do that.
On you're initial post i was still unsure how I'd gone wrong as i had the switch under the sight set to AA guns.

The last part of your post i think explains it all... i was fiddling with the DG / DM switch.

On 10/21/2022 at 10:47 AM, Bob1943 said:

Plus, as I am sure that you have noticed, the visual distance on your gunsight image is definitely not 10,330-ft from you to the Su24.  At that range, the Su24 would look way smaller.

 

Both images in my OP were captured while the sim was paused.

I highly zoomed the in pit view to make sure the reticle and target were clear, so maybe that is throwing you astray.

The distance we seen in the pit screen cap is as shown in the F10 map cap, 1.7nm +/- any error on the bearing/range line i drew on the map.