Air to air rocket aiming ( rs82 )

[BrickBat]

I'm enjoying flying the I-153 in the scripted Odessa campaigns, single missions, and QMB. I note that in some scenarios the plane is equipped with rs82 rockets to be used for air-to-air use. I've noticed here and there some scenarios also have other VVS aircraft employing them in some situations.

I'm just curious as to the optimal range, using the 100 mil gunsight as a guide. Obviously they aren't precision weapons and it's not as though I'm going to do any defection shooting, but I've found that at distances where the rocket explodes aren't very clear. Trying to adjust by trial and error to allow for impact right in line with the center or correcting for droop or up is tedious to the point I should live a long enough life until I get it right.😀 Even firing into masses of bombers hasn't worked. I find myself just salvo-ing them just to get rid of them so I can lessen drag and weight and go all guns.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Kubert]

I finished Odessa campaign yesterday and from 16 rockets fired at planes, scored one hit. Rocket didn't explode, just went stright through IARs wing and left big hole in it. My aiming was basically "shoot and hope".  In past I played campaign Ice Ring and there were my rocket hits against planes more common due to three things.

First, IL-2 has wing mounted MGs. I sprayed target with tracers from MGs and adjusted my distance from target to reach proper convergence point.

Second, IL-2 is heavily armored. I could camp behind formation filled with rear gunners and laught at theirs pitiful 7mm MGs.

Third, my targets were big, slow, unarmed paper planes...JU-52s. Food for IL-2 armed with cannons and rockets.

All of this is imposible to do with I-153. You can't check proper convergence point, because MGs with tracers are in the nose, while rockets under wings. It is not healthy to camp behind enemy formation and laugh at their gunners as I-153 pilot. And targets are better armored, smaller or more nimble than JU-52s. So when it came to I-153 and rockets, I stay with my current "shoot and hope" tactics. 

Edited August 16 by Kubert

[BrickBat]

I'd sure settle for spearing aircraft with unexploded rockets 🙂. I just wish I knew the distance the rocket travels before exploding, that is, the time fusing. As it is, I see them explode more or less along the path of the enemy A/C but I can't determine if the rocket exploded aft of the target, or in front of it. For now, as I guess it was then, it's a desperation weapon in air to air service. 🙄

[Kubert]

In Ice Ring campaign, I was using rockets with contact fuses and they always exploded in contact with enemy plane. In Odessa campaign, that one hit I mentonied was also contact fuse, but probably from very close range and didn't explode...in the other mission I used rockets set at 600m as they were set by mission design, but failed to determine my distance to target and they were exploding way in front of a target. Probably around 300m would be better for me. 

Edited August 17 by Kubert