Second Crosshair in Cockpit mode
 

What's that second iron crosshair to the left of the normal gunsight in most airplanes? I mean in real life. It's never actually used for anything in the game.

Is it used as a backup if the main sight stopped working?

Also, while I'm on the topic, why are the gunsights in the russian planes so awful? The lines are so thick and their are way too many hash marks, it makes it difficult to see whatever you're shooting at because it's usually obstructed by the sight.

Yeah...I agree about the Russian gunsight. VERY difficult to see through, and makes me not want to fly in cockpit view sometimes. I wish the gunsight was smaller or lighter like the Hurricane. It's a shame because I really like flying the Russian planes except for this aspect...

+1

If it's accurate for the planes, then it sounds good to me!
If not...well it's not as odd as a P-47 cockpit in a P-51. :-P

The sight your talking about, is called a "Ring and Post". They were just a back-up sight for the pilot if the reflector sight quit working for whatever reason. P-51s, P-47s, P-40s etc. etc. all had "Ring and Post" sights. So in game, unless they added the affect of the reflector sight going out, then the "Ring and Post" sight is just useless.

And what I do to compensate for the Soviet fighters reflector sight. Just get in close enough to the enemy, that you can just open up. I always fill my sight with my enemies plane. Then I just let loose!! And another way of getting the Soviet fighters sights to work, is using the zoom. Then the little bars aren't so thick, and you can deflect better.

Though I've already seemed to have mastered the way of deflection without having to zoom. :cool:

In the PC version, if you take hits to the cockpit, the deflector sight can get taken out, along with any of the other gauges in the cockpit, but you can't switch sight view to the iron sight.

Do guages not get shot out on the console version?

Cool. Thanks. I thought it could either be a backup or a bomb sight, or something along those lines.


I just can't imagine what the reason behind making the sights like this in the real planes was. Especially since the "Circle with a dot" that the Americans and British used is , in my opinion, perfect.

But it's really cool to actually be in these cockpits. Documentries on planes don't usually show you what the cockpits look like and it's shocking to see how much of a difference little things like a bubble canopy and a good gunsight make.

Can't wait for the German cockpits.

Well the Yak cockpits aren't all that accurate. And neither is the control. None of the Yaks ever had rings, they just had sticks. And the three large circles surrounded by blue in the left corner. I dunno what those are, I've never seen them in my Yak book, or anywhere else? I think they got the La and Yak cockpits mixed? Or they used a later Yak cockpit from after WW2?

The back up gunsight is also found in the Zero in Battlestations Pacific and a few other simulators.

It is a back up incase the bulb fails in the reflector gunsight, though it isn't aligned with the guns as accuarately as the reflector sight. More akin to the vane sights on a pistol.

Ironically, on the Soviet LaGG-1 and LaGG-3 fighter the "gunsight" was a crude circle painted onto the windscreen on the majority of the type, Things were that desperate back in 1941-1942.