Firing aircraft would start their attack from a "perch" position on a parallel course to the target, and about 3,feet above, and 3, yards abreast of the Meteor. In the early days, Vampires and Venoms would aim to fire with their gyro gunsights set at a 'pegged' range of around yards.
With the advent of the Hunter , radar ranging enabled firing accuracy over a wider range bracket. A metal reflector was attached to the banner's spreader bar to assist the radar locking on to the target, and generally this would occur at a range of about 3, feet.
Then it was a case of steady tracking with the pipper on the bullseye and give it a short burst at about 1, feet. Judging range was much a matter of relative size ratio of the pipper to banner width. Mac says on his site: "This is how we used the ranges at Sylt.
The two seat Vampire T11, we had no two seater Venoms on Sqn , is being used for instruction. The Vampire is shooting its cannons at the banner. In fact he has just reached the Minimum angle-off at which he is allowed to fire and would now cease fire and break up and over the flag.
He would then continue right and back out to the "perch" on the shoreward side. He would always attack from shore to open sea to avoid spraying the beaches with cannon shells.
