4.12 development update discussion and feedback

[Treetop64]

Originally Posted by Spudkopf

...a deliberate act by the pilot (like a sign of surrender)...

...In a naive, fairy tale world.

In the video, it is the real world, in a real war. The pilot doing the shooting doesn't have time to assume that the gear dropping is a sign of surrender. His job is to destroy the aircraft, and he sees signs of that occurring.

What if he thought "Oh, his gear is dropping. That means he surrenders. I'll leave him be now.", only to end up being shot at by the guy he just left alone after he had a change of heart. Kinda silly.

On the other hand, fighter vs. bomber situations over western Europe could sometimes play out differently, as there have been documented cases fighter pilots escorting badly damaged enemy bombers home, though that occurred very seldom.

Originally Posted by Spudkopf

...the fact that the pilot does not seem to take any evasive action at all just raises far too many questions as to the true circumstances of whats actually happening here.

Yes, it does raise questions. The pilot could already be wounded and unable to maneuver. He could have panicked and "froze". Maybe it's a novice pilot and he has no idea what to do. Maybe he's just given up to the apparently inevitable.

However, what is obvious is that a pilot in his aircraft is being shot down. No reason to imply that something else is going on here. It's war, and it's hell.

Originally Posted by Spudkopf

Further you can only see the starboard wing at the moment the gear begins to drop so it is also unclear what is happening on the port wing.

So, what?

Originally Posted by Spudkopf

I'm not in any way disputing the possibility or non-possibility of a gear failure drop and do not have an opinion either way, but I do have to question the validity of the video evidence presented.

Well, you're certainly free to do so. No real reason to bring the video footage to the fringes of conspiracy theory, however. It's fairly straight-forward.