@Scrim:
I wonder if e.g. small arms and HMG damage isn’t abstracted. Take a look in Tacview at how much fire is directed towards you should you e.g. overfly a hostile airfield. I think the case could be made that you’re only actually informed about the Golden BB, and hits that don’t cause any failures or particular structural damage are left out.
From personal experience I can say that hitting a fast moving jet with infantry weapons is usually more luck than judgement. Soldiers aren’t usually taught how to fire at a fast jet and rarely when they are do they get to practice the dark-art. In the Vietnam War the Vietnamese used to have whole companies fire at a/c usually with the result of converting rounds to empty cases, although they got enough results to warrant the tactic.
I think BMS has it about right … a quick flight over a ground unit and ducking into cover is unlikely to result in any damage to your a/c. Start loitering around at low level over troops, or make your run over a strung out battalion then the likelyhood of collecting the “golden BB” starts to go up markedly.
BTW in the British Army you are taught to aim 2-4 a/c lengths in front of a helicopter, 6 lengths in front of a prop a/c and up to 12 lengths in front of a Jet. You’ll never see your fall of shot so you’ll have no idea how to adjust for your next shot. The most effective way to hit an a/c (or at least the target drones we (rarely) got to practice with) is to put a load of rounds up in front of the a/c and let it fly through them.