Here's a quick guide to range estimation using the Revi gunsight

100 meters - 0 degrees up or down - on his 6

1) Fighter Large - Hurri - Wing tips OUTSIDE of ring halfway to stadia line


2) Fighter Medium - La5, La7, Laggs - Wing tips right ON ring


3) Fighter Small - i16 - Wing tips just INSIDE ring


4) Ground Attack - IL2 - Wing tips to END of stadia lines


150 meters - 0 degrees up or down - on his 6

1) Fighter Large - Hurri - Wing tips just OUTSIDE of 2nd stadia line


2) Fighter Medium - La5, La7, Laggs - Wing tips right ON 2nd stadia line


3) Fighter Small - i16 - Wing tips just INSIDE 2nd Stadia line


4) Ground Attack - IL2 - Wing tips right ON ring lines


200 meters - 0 degrees up or down - on his 6

1) Fighter Large - Hurri - Wing tips just INSIDE of 2nd stadia line


2) Fighter Medium - La5, La7, Laggs - Wing tips right HALFWAY between 2nd and 1st stadia line


3) Fighter Small - i16 - Wing tips just INSIDE 1st Stadia line


4) Ground Attack - IL2 - Wing tips just OUTSIDE of 2nd stadia line lines


250 meters - 0 degrees up or down - on his 6

1) Fighter Large - Hurri - Wing tips HALFWAY between 2nd and 1st stadia line


2) Fighter Medium - La5, La7, Laggs - Wing tips ONE THIRD WAY between 2nd and 1st stadia line


3) Fighter Small - i16 - Wing tips barely OUTSIDE of 1st stadia line


4) Ground Attack - IL2 - Wing tips almost TO of 2nd stadia line lines


all screen caps are from the program Sniper's Corner_2.xls by Bruno & Abraxa

Very nice!

My own movie on the subject (25 MB, .wmv format, zipped).

(right click and "save as..." obviously)

And soon an article on basic gunnery on the front page of SimHQ.

Nice visualization JakeSnake ... At least I feel confident my convergeance range and the range I most like to shoot at are pretty close (150m-250m). The downside to that is when trying to get the best shot afforded in the game -the deflection shot- you almost always need your convergeance set out just a bit further (250m-300m). At least that's been my experience.

Can't wait to see that gunnery article Dart. All the maneuvering and fancy flying aren't worth a damn unless you can hit the target, and thus my constant preoccupation with gunnery results. That's one reason I still keep that old chestnut SturmoLog running, it does a fairly decent job of tracking gunnery results (some of the other tidbits it doesn't track as well though...).

A look at any mission's log files will show you quite graphically the two most important factors:

1) Staying alive

2) High hit percentage

Whichever pilot manages to succeed in both will no doubt be the hero of that mission. And to do that consistently will make that pilot very successful indeed.

bump number 1

General Galland's fighter hand book suggested that your cross over need not necessarily match your best firing range.
He suggested cross over at 550m and getting in close.
For example;



Granted you aren't getting as concentrated a hit zone, but you gain some latitude for less than perfect shooting and ranging.

Bravo Jake Snake!

Just my two cents worth.

I absolutely must try this out - thanks

Yeah, you don't need all your cannon shells going to the same place. I leave my convergence set at 230 or so, but usually open fire much closer.

I find with a 500m convergeance (cross-over) and a close-in shot on target (150m for example) that my shells straddle the target (down both sides of the fuselage), or plink the wings rather pathetically. I think the effect is somewhat exaggerated in IL-2, in that the game seems to prefer firing at the cross-over range for maximum hit 'points'. Fire from closer or further out and it seems the effect of your fire is abnormally diminished. This seems especially apparent with Allied fighters making use of light or heavy machine guns instead of cannons.