Air To Air Gunnery – Theory and Application, Part Three Page 7

By SimHQ on February 11, 2000 in _air9, hide

We place the gun line in front of the target and vary our G to allow the target to move towards the approximate lead point. One technique is to start out with a little more lead than necessary…then relax G slightly to move the target ‘forward’ towards the gun line. As the target nears your lead point, squeeze and hold the trigger down. Maintain your attitude steady and allow the target to continue to move forward slightly. By letting your aim point drift to the target, you are allowing for small errors in your lead estimation.

Fixed Sight Snap Shot

A ‘snap shot’ is when the shooter fires without attempting to track the target. It is similar to skeet shooting in that the shooter fires a burst across the target’s flight path. This results in fewer rounds having a chance to hit the target. Because of this, the snap shot has a lower probability of kill than a tracking shot. But a snap shot is better than no shot at all…and in an intense, swirling knife fight, it may be the only shot you get.

Determining Target Range
The dynamic nature of the snap shot situation means that the target will not be in the HUD area prior to your pulling the trigger. Consequently, you will not be able to use the reticle to range with. Instead, you will have to estimate target relative size, always keeping in mind that the objective is to take a close range shot.

To achieve this close range, you will have to pull your nose out well in front of the target. If you underestimate this lead point, then the target will cross your nose too far away. While no two situations are the same, we can suggest a ‘window’ that will put you in the ballpark. From then on, practice and experimentation will lead you to good results. Here is a forward view with a ‘window’ drawn that shows the approximate area that you would want to place the target as you pull your nose out in lead. Think of the edge of the monitor as the beginning of the window. The end of the window is about one half the distance between the monitor edge and the reticle.