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    The Black Art of Deflection Gunnery...Leading the Target
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Many players find that this is at first some kind of *magic* skill
that seemingly eludes them as easily as the *sharks* cruising round
seem to be able to invoke it. But it is in reality quite simple :)

AW models several aspects of REAL gunnery such as "time of flight"
and "gravity effect" as well as "muzzle velocity" which will decrease
over the time of flight your bullets/cannon rounds remain in the air.

What this means is that you must "lead" your target by an amount that
takes into consideration :

Your airspeed.
Your opponents airspeed.
Distance to target.
G forces evident.
Direction of flightpath relative to the earth.
Degree of turn you are in.
Degree of turn your opponent is in.
Difference in vector between you and your opponent.

I bet you're saying "oh yeah...obviously quite simple!" but the simplicity
is how you determine all of this and judge your target point....not the
number of issues (above) that you address when targetting an opponent :)

If you put the boresight (dot) ON your opponent, you will only score hits
if your wings are aligned "in plane" and flying straight behind while the
enemy (at least momentarily) flies the same vector (flight direction) as you.
Obviously, this doesn't happen very often and usually only when a reversal
is made by an enemy in front, and your two vectors momentarily "crossover".
A lot of kills are actually made on enemies that do just this while in front
of you...and is considered a "gift" by myself and others when you choose to
pull a reversal "right in front" of us as new players often do. It's one of
the MAIN reasons they die so often. Have a look at the Topic*.txt's for tips
on avoiding this kind of death. Now...onto deflection gunnery, what you DO
need to do to score all but the dweeb kills :)

The "pipper"...that floating box in your gunsight is a valuable aid in being
able to understand deflection and how much to "pull" on your opponent. After
you understand it though...most better pilots choose not to use it as it is
only a guide and only works at a set range, which you can set with the "]"
keys. Better once you can determine "lead" (deflection) to use your eye not
the pipper. But, if you choose to use it at first, a good idea at least till
you understand what's involved, the following will become clearer perhaps.

Remember when you were a kid, and you played with the garden hose ? When the
stream of water was solid as opposed to a spray...you could point it in the
air and make it land on a leaf or something some distance away. This is sort
of what you need to imagine with deflection gunnery. Turn your tracers ON and
choose a colour that stands out to your eye against the backround. White, red
or whatever. Now...imagine that garden hose. There is a leaf on the ground in
front of you. The water is falling short. You lift the hose a bit and the water
runs further away towards the "target"...as you go past it you adjust the hose
down until you are once again on target. This is basically it. There is a point
where adjustment TOO far will come back at you, after you have exceeded that
point where water pressure (muzzle velocity :) no longer overcomes gravity or
range. Just think of that hose, you'll remember what I mean.

When you are following an opponent, usually in a turn you have to aim the bore
sight IN FRONT of their plane, the amount will vary depending on airspeed and
degree of turn etc., at very close range in tight turns they can dissappear
completely below the nose with the correct amount of deflection (lead) applied
although the cockpit tracking icon should still be visible at the top of your
screen...if it dissappears you have overshot them (too fast/too gentle a turn)
or they have reversed and gone out of plane the other way.

Try using your tracer stream as a "water" stream, adjust the angle of the
"hose" by pulling the nose of your plane "up" or "down" with the joystick.
Remember this applies when banked over in a turn..."up" is now sideways :)
You will see the sparkles as you get the deflection right...this is the "water"
hitting that "leaf" we spoke of in our analogy. Watch the tracers and send them
"away" or pull them "back" with adjustment of your nose attitude.

You will need to practice a lot...remember that deflection at 700yds or greater
is for the most part a complete waste of ammo...the real killers wait till they
are in the cockpit with you :) Remember also to turn OFF "local hits" as this
only shows you the hit requests from your front end (computer) and are the ones
that the "host" (AW server) throws out...in other words the hits your computer
"thinks" you got but when online (warp etc) the host says "no dice" to :)

You will soon realise that you can kill opponents BELOW your nose and out of
sight (except for the cockpit tracking icon) which is nowadays many of my kills.
You just have to judge airspeed, closure, angle of turn etc. and apply the
desired amount of "lead" (deflection) for the situation, viola ! *BOOM* :)
Headon shots are the MOST DIFFICULT to judge, usually a total waste of ammo.

Get in behind them, and get in close, you use less ammo that way :)

DoctorDoom 956
CHIEF FLYING INSTRUCTOR 
AWTA OZhost Australia.
Squadron Leader Jg26.