Hi all: The first of all, i must say that if we play for free at russian Freehost server is by their dessire, they spend their effort, time and money to let us play, everybody must remember it before make criticals to freebirds. Of course that things can be better, all is improvable but we have more features like V1, commandos... than IEN server(the original server), gunnery is far better, last night I get 5 kills with a 109F, not too common but is an example, the trick is shot from d1 and of course don't miss, if you spray hits for all plane you will do nothing, but if you get a consistent burst in a plane area, sure you get damage on it. For me the gunnery is right, let me explain: In my opinion, with german cannons loaded with HE, the question of penetration is very important, by definition a HE round lose his speed more faster that a AP round by his aerodinamic, Kinetic energy is lower beacause the low weight, and penetration capability is lower beacause the round is more soft than an AP and suffers deformation. All things do that you must shot from near and with an angle near to ortogonal was the ideal to get penetrate. If the round explode outside the plane does nothing, like a firecracker near a wall, but if the round get penetrate into the plane and explodes there, the damage is big, HE shells are designed to break hidraulic pipes, electric wires, control cables, blow up the coat panels, make fires... Remember the tanks where the angles are very important to avoid the penetration of the shells, a shot with an angle of 30 has 1/2 the penetration than a perfect ortogonal shot, only a componet of the speed vector is applied to penetrate, do you remember physic at school?. If you see an AP round, usually they have a ultra hard steel nucleo and a plumb coat, an hispano AP round has a weight about 120 gr, a mg 151 HE round minen type has a weight about 92 gr, the idea is that the plumb helps to retain kinetic energy, and at moment the impact is produced, the steel nucleo is which penetrate, as is it very hard it doesn't suffer any deformation an all energy is passed to the plane, i have read from a spitfire pilot who shot at a 109 from the 6 clock position, the 20mm penetrate the tail, pass across fuel tank, pass the seat 7mm steel protection for the pilot, kill the pilot, and at the end, the round stopped into the engine block. What is the conclusion about this: If you shot HE rounds, shot as near as you can and to surfaces that are perpendicular to your trajectory, like root wings or under the fuselage. Sides of fuselage will make your rounds bounce without any damage by the angle question. If you shot AP rounds, shot to fuselage to have more things to penetrate. Angle is not important as in HE rounds, and a lone hole does not do much damage. In the actual state, the gunnery model in freebirds simulate all theese efects well, and the damage model is each time better than before. All in all, as I say before, it is just my opinion. Again i want say that i am very grateful to all people that make Freebirds possible, sometimes when i think it, still i think that is a dream, how good is to have a cheap place to play what I dream from when i was a kid. I based my opinion in my experience as mechanical industrial enginner, with several years of experience with laminated steel stamp process and mechanical quality controls in Volkswagen making VW polo cars. Salute all, anitax & pasao Pd: To the freebirds crew, all you are doing a ultra great job!!!!
