Bat,
The 2.75" rockets were the money weapon, longer range, lots of punch. We would engage in diving fire at an altitude of about 1200 to 1800 feet AGL, usually starting to shoot at about 2 Km, and break away at about 1 Km. The turret was used to cover the break as we turned away (and as our wingman started putting fire on the target).
At night, the rockets would make an enormous ball of flame on launch that would last about 1 second and of course follow the rockets downrange. The turret would make a continuous ball of flame about 5 feet in diameter, a weird yellow-green color. Believe it or not, we would shut our eyes momentarily when shooting to preserve what night vision we had! After the rockets were gone (easily told by the sound) we would open back up again to see the effect. When the turret was fired, the back seater would duck below the glare shield to avoid direct view of the flame. None of this avoidance worked very well, after a few runs, we would have to regain our night adaptation.
The flares were very effective, a Huey would drop them above us, timing them so that we almost always had one or two illuminating the scene. They were very effective, each one lighting a circle about 1/2 mile in diameter, so a good Huey crew could keep the whole mission in almost-daylight. It was a miracle that no flare chutes fell into rotors, but that was not our biggest fear by a long shot (pun intended).
The enemy's fire was easily seen as his tracers arced upward and his muzzle flashes winked along the ground. The biggest green tracers were 12.7mm, an awsome weapon for us to face. I had to engage a 50 cal pit once at night on a Night Hawk mission. The Night Hawk was a Huey with a starlight scope and a ring of C-130 landing lights that were able to be focused into a spot on the ground below. We all taped our lights out, with the upper rotating beacon allowed to glow upward only. This kept us invisible to those below until we shot. The Huey was at about 800 feet and about a mile ahead, I was in a position just above his altitude to see the red dot of his anti-collision light. All I had to do was just rock forward and be in a gun run to the point just below him. At the right time, the Huey would flip the big light on, and we would engage the bad guys below. On one mission, the target was a 50 cal, and his tracers passed both sides of my windows for the whole dive, as I walked 20mm around the base of the lights for the 20 seconds of the dive (felt like a decade) as we literally were jousting each other. The 20mm HEI explosions were winking small circles of light around his muzzle flashes, and I am sure he was guiding on my muzzle flashes as well. I could not break, he had us too well sighted, and if I turned, the 3 foot wide Cobra would present too much area to escape unhit. I broke at about 500 feet, and when I did, there was no fire from that pit. I am sure their lack of response was not voluntary.
The turret was also used for immediate fire, as we covered the LOH in a recon mission. We would fly a circle around him at about 800 feet for the low snake and 1200 feet for the wingman. The low snake could put immediate gun fire around the LOH by keeping the turret continuously pointed on the LOH's tail. It would take about 1 second to start shooting in such circumstances.
Here is a web site from those night hawk guys that I worked with that night:
http://www.gruntonline.com/US_Forces...us_helos11.htm