DCS Black Shark 2 - Canon Shooting with Translational Drift

I haven't abandoned the virtual skies ... But most of the flying these last days has been practice.

The Ka-50 is a fantastic weapons platform once you get past a point where you fly without thinking of it. The demands of situational awareness, target acquisition and weapons delivery are high and I have become too dependent on doing everything from a hover. It is not rare for me to get sucked into my own downwash when I am engaging from a hover and instinctively floor the collective to duck into cover.


In a previous entry I mentioned how I am now preferring to perform cannon runs with forward speed. Translational lift can save my butt if I get my engines busted and need to autorotate into safety.

But flying head on into an AAA system is not kosher either. The Shilka has a radar targeting system and is deadly if your attack is sloppy.

In this entry I am engaging a Shilka with the cannon, closing in but not flying straight into it.

I've just acquired a Shilka with the Shkval (left window). Range is 4 kilometers, too large compared to the recommended cannon employment range (2 km)

Left cyclic, right pedal. The Ka-50 flies (almost) southbound but the nose stays (almost) west. Note the flight path in the moving map (ABRIS, right panel, flight path is the black line coming out of waypoint 1). I am closing and the range is now 3.4 km. My speed is around 70 km/h.

Range is now good for starting shooting.  The Shilka shoots a couple of bursts but they all pass through my right. Target destroyed. Note my flight path and nose position in the moving map (right panel). My speed in 108 km/h.

External view. The flight path goes straight from the viewer's point of view to the background.

There are some quirks into this shooting method. One is that it requires a steady control of the pedals so the the nose of the helicopter stays aligned with the target (the cannon has some very tight gimbal limits). Second, the pilot has to keep a close eye on the terrain on his sides (in my case it was the hills on my left).

Cheers,