A4sForever said:
Good job for "manual" dive bombing for someone so young and innocent .... were they 45 degree/450 KIAS runs ??? Your early CEP's were basically a "learning experience" ... so it looks like you were getting the program figured out toward the end. Good progress from the low 100's CEP's to the middle 60-70's in only, what .... ???? ..... 7 hops??? What do you drop --- is it still 6 Mk 76's per hop?? How were the winds, etc. ??
Ok, I goofed up my CEPs. The actuals are 115, 155, 137, 127, 130, 62.5, 75, 67.5. I was doing them from memory and my memory was wrong... oops. They were 30 degree/450 KTAS runs. I only dropped one bomb in the 10 degree pattern and that was a shack

We drop 8 Mk 76's per hop (on the 75 and 67.5 CEPs, that was computed with 5 and 4 Mk 76's, respectively. The remaining bombs were CCIP and didn't count for the CEP calculation). The winds SUCKED for most of the flights. Anywhere from 20-40 knots at release altitude and 25-60, yes I said 60 knots at pattern altitude. Made for some interesting hops. One day we had about 5 knot winds at release and another with 15 knot winds at release. That sharp drop in CEPs is because I finally hammered out my "tip in point" on the attack cone. It kept falling out of my scan in some of the earlier ones, making me throw long bombs. That 127 CEP could have been a 70, easy, if I was paying attention like I should have been. Once I got that hammered out though, it all fell into place
The trend is what I would be pleased with, were I you. It used to be quite "normal" for a STUD to plunk 'em in @ 100-150' CEP. Not great, but --- HEY, you're learning. But to get your last three hops ("manual" dive bombing --- we used to call it "Iron Sight", i.e., no bells or whistles) significantly under a 100' CEP, to my way of thinking (and grading, back-in-the-day), is ABOVE AVERAGE, Fly-Guy.
Thanks A4s, I'm happy with what I did. I learned a lot, especially at the end. I loved dropping bombs, can't wait to do more of it

Here they award a "Weapon's E" for CEP under 75 feet. An above average is any CEP under 100 feet. I got 3 E's... a buddy of mine nailed 6 of them. He rocked it. Watch out for that guy!