It matters alright. Be it vs SPAA or in a plane on plane scenario. Hence f.e. BI is almost impossible to hit as it’s like 50% of what normal plane is. It’s like trying to shoot a mosquito with a pistol
Of course it matters. If you are shooting something huge, there is a much higher margin of error allowed vs when shooting a tiny plane. The Yak-9 is tiny.
As long as you properly predict plane’s path given enough shots you will hit it. And most AAs only need 1 or 2 hits to entirely cripple enemy aircraft.
And it just so happens that planes flying low, in straight paths and spend a long time over the battlefield are by far the most vulnerable. If i have to choose between a TU-2 at over 1km altitude doing circles over the battlefield and a Yak-9 doing nose dive on the enemy and then going straight up, often getting pretty slow at the end of regaining altitude i will always choose the Yak, since it’s much easier to hit. It’s not any rocket science. It doesn’t matter that TU-2 is huge and Yak is half it’s size. It is still easier to hit.
And if TU-2 wants to kill me, he just needs to more or less approximate my location, fly over at 1,5km altitute, go into bomb sight, press space once and immediately turn away. If yak wants to kill me, he needs to commit and fly directly at me becoming the easiest target in existance.
It is not A2A combat where regardless of type of plane, all are at more or less same distance from you when you fire. Larger planes more often than not will stay away from you if you are an AA, so their size doesn’t matter as much. In same circumstances they will obviously be easier to hit, but that’s not what happens.
If your aim is perfect and enemy will not change his course, you’ll hit every time.
How simple and briliant.
I guess when playing 37-40mm SPAA you just single-click people out of existence, creating a no-fly zone.
ABSOLUTE LEGEND.
Meanwhile in real world - you make a tiniest mistake, you miss. Vs bigger plane - you hit and kill allright.
Except it’s simply easier to aim at a closer and predictable target than one that is 3 times further away and can do all sorts of maneuvers while still performing it’s CAS role.
This is not ARB and you aren’t a fighter. You can’t just get closer to the enemy you want to kill. You are stationary and larger planes with bombsight will stay away from you. It’s as simple as that.
At same distance larger planes are obviously easier to hit, but this is not what very often happens.
A yak at 500m is much easier to hit than TU-2 at 1,5km
Again, this is about margin of error. If there’s a Pe8 coming straight at me, even if he’s keeping his altitude, in a Duster or Ostwind I can easily slap him out of the sky.
I have been able to kill fighters 1000m up w/ the Zestorer 45. Thats only 4 30mms. And Flakbus, and some other large gunned SPAA undercover TD can kill bombers and that was their role.
When did i compare PE-8 to Yak? I only ever compared TU-2 to Yak, which is a fair match.
PE-8 was only brought up by someone trying to deny the Yak being much easier target for AA. And it just so happens that staying over battlefield for longer contributes to that
You can.
Step 1. Find range with the super good rangefinder
Step 2. load the AA HE round
Step 3. Lead and fire and at least 50% of the times the wing or half the crew gets turned into tomato juice.
You find the range, oh sorry, dude is now 40m closer than before because he’s doing 150m/s, shell flies for a second, dude is 80m closer still, shell explodes, dude is 120m from the explosion, gg.