Yeah, I’ve unlocked the bombers and damn, they play havoc on the enemy if it’s aimed properly. Even if it’s not aimed properly but is relatively it tends to kill/wound at least 1+ enemies but when it’s on-target and they’re there in droves, I’ve had multiple occasions where I scored 7+ immediate killed (sometimes including a tank) in just one bombing. Pretty awesome, but yeah, for players it sucks.
Firstly, at least in my experience, you cannot be a bomber for an entire match. You run out of fuel over time and eventually you struggle just to keep the plane in the air. Inevitably, you either have to land or crash, usually crash, at least in my experience. It’s damn hard to land those things without hitting something or just falling/going too quickly. But yeah you can get SEVERAL bombing runs done within that time.
Secondly, granted I haven’t used the AAA guns in quite a while but I’ve taken down a few planes with it. I find that my best opportunity to get some hits is to turn it in the direction the plane is going and shoot at it from behind. Very rarely am I able to be facing where the plane is coming from. For some reason, even with my quite nice headset giving me stereo sound, judging WHERE the plane is is very difficult unless I manage to see it with my own eyes (which are nearly better than 20/20 vision based on when I did my medical trying to join the Military), but often I don’t know until the triangle appears and by then if I’m not already aimed in that direction I find it’s often too late. Better to just go and aim at where the plane will be flying away. It can be decently effective, but yes it is difficult, and multiple times when I failed to take down the enemy plane, it then comes around later and bombs the bajeezus out of me and/or my squad.
Thirdly, the bombers are a BIT defenseless in the air I find, you REALLY want a capable fighter up there in a nimble plane that can fly fast and turn quick. The bomber is far slower at turning, I find in comparison to the rocket-firing planes, the bomber that holds I think four 250lb bombs or whatever it is feels like you’re flying a conveniently-shaped stone that is more inclined to fall than to fly or turn. Those smaller planes that are less capable at attacking the ground, seem much more adept at attacking in the air. Many times I’ve spawned as the bomber, got one load of ordnance delivered, sometimes resulting in few-to-no kills, and then an enemy plane manages to gun me down. Quite annoying, but that’s just how it goes it seems.
Ultimately, planes go fast. That’s why for air combat you want as high a rate of fire as you can get, which is why the M1919s made for planes have a ridiculous rate of fire of like 1300-1400 RPM or something like that. The ‘Stinger’ firearm that won someone a medal of honor, it was one of those aircraft M1919 firearms with an M1 Garand stock on it and an M1918A2 (or A1 I guess, don’t know which, probably A2) bipod. The reason for the high rate of fire for aircraft is because your window of opportunity for hitting an enemy aircraft can be quite brief so you want as MUCH firepower sent to them as possible. Being on the ground probably don’t make it much easier, so the difficulty in getting hits is inherent. Just follow the crosshair that shows where you have to aim to get a hit, and practice.
Like any skill, the more time you spend on something, the better you will get, and bombers ought to be easier to hit since they’re bigger and slower than the smaller planes with the rockets.
Also, since every shot has four barrels firing, those 10 rounds at a time that you shoot is apparently 40 rounds. The 40 rounds you have at the ready is actually, apparently, 160 rounds, and isn’t it 20mm or something? Not sure, I know WAY more about small-arms than about AA stuff, I’m still trying to see if it’s even possible to shoot down aircraft with an M1918A1 or BREN. Thus far it seems I haven’t managed though when I have the opportunity, I do unload a mag or two at an enemy aircraft, judging for myself just how far ahead I need to aim in order to hit it. Either I’ve yet to actually HIT an enemy aircraft in flight, or you don’t get an ‘X’ when you’re actually successful in hitting it with small-arms.
