You are quite correct, Santiago, most of the shots were fired from at or near the six o'clock position. There were however, some notable execptions.
Steve Thomas talks about a high angle off shot against Jorge Senn on 21st May and my shot against Raul Diaz on 24 May was about 90 degrees off. There may have been others.
From memory the AIM9L used a feature called lamda compensation to cut the corner on a turning target and thus make the acquisition easier for itself. This was a major technology jump from the AIM9G. The Lima also had the capability of detecting the heat on the leading edges of a supersonic target and thereby gave you a limited head on shot.
I believe the accuracy of the proximity fuzing may also have been a factor. The shot I took at Danilo Bolzan on 8 June was from below 100 feet and I was unable to put him on the horizon so he would have been well below. The time between missile impact and ground impact was less than a second so I have always assumed he was at extremely low altitude. Would an AIM9G have fuzed on the ground prior to the hit?
I regret I don't remember the specifics of the AIM9G as I had just joined the squadron from training and only worked up on the AIM9L. The weapons experts out there would have to determine if a 'G' would have achieved kills in the instances I have mentioned above.
ES
Last edited by Edmund Spencer; 17th Feb 2009 at 00:52.