Flying Heli's is just good clean fun

[Sleepdoc]

OK. so i suppose that topic leader could be followed by something like "Gosh golley willikers". It sounds a bit corny.

But flying helis is a really nice change up in pace from time to time to the hectic pace of Squad leading or grunting it on boots. I HIGHLY recommend it to any one who hasnt tried it yet.

I have a few hours in real Heli's, and I am not saying the models are by any means perfect (nor am I an expert on heli models), but they feel nice and are just challenging enough to be lots of fun.

a couple of nights ago, i learned about flying in FOG at night. Holy smokes what a surprise and a challenge. killed of a whole LB full of guys before i knew what was happening to me. Then i remembered to fly my instruments (in particular, the artificial horizon and the VSI and the altimeter.) I am now a much better pilot than the night before.

I lowered gradually in the fog until i could finally see the ground. i was very surprised when the first thing i saw was the tree tops, just underneath my skids. Wow that fog can be thick.

Great stuff. perfect challenge.

HINT:

Get a joystick with a throttle. if they can be seperate pieces, all the better.

Make sure the throttle works in reverse to other games like airplane sims. in other words, as you push the throttle forward, your Heli should sink toward the ground. it is more natural to fly that way. Just one man's opinion though. It makes flying more intuitive.

Develop a "site picture" for how much to raise the nose to slow it down. Start slowing early so you don't have to raise your nose to much and lose sight of the world below. Rather, start raising your nose early and lowering your throttle so you gradually descend to the spot on the ground (way out in front of you) that you have decided to land on. The earlier you can pick out your landing zone visually, the easier it is to make a gradual approach to it with no sudden "nose high" manuevers required.

This rambling blurb is now over. But boy and howdy .... Helis in this game are immersive and fun.

[WhiskeySix]

Also - add a hot key to "toggle Auto-Hover"... I use Q. It saves lives... especially in fog.

[Sleepdoc]

Yea. Autohover is a great feature when you are learning. and I am all for learning.

But i have tried not use it in last couple of weeks. So i'm actually trying to do all my flying these days without autohover. and that night, I discovered how to keep my cool when the fog rolled over me, keep my heli upright, and carefully get it back into safety. that was part of the "fun' I was talking about. the challenge of actually flying it........

[boudreux]

Sleepdoc, I appreciated your post, and it helped bring a couple things into focus.

[TheBigC]

I am a fan of the auto hover, but of late found it to be more of a hamper when flying in a hot zone.

[John CANavar]

I did some cleaning and thread is open.

I agree with Sleepdoc, being a chopper pilot is a lot of fun. Lets talk about it more.

Let me get my "chopper pilot procedures" notes

[PanzerHans]

For all it is worth if you have the extra bucks to spare blow it on a TrackIR setup. I just got one and it is amazing. The extra innersion you get when you can look out the side window or down on the gauges is marvelous.

[John CANavar]

All right lets see, which one of you "role-playing" chopper pilots turn on their lights before takeoff and touchdown and contact main base tower to take clearance? Well, I do

[Evil Koala]

For those interested in learning to fly the helicopters or become more proficient at it, there is a TGU ArmA Rotary Wing Training Module in the works

Not sure when it'll be ready, but it'll be Soon™

[John CANavar]

Was wondering where Koala is? Great news about that training module !

[Sleepdoc]

Great news Koala !! I'll be there for sure. I'm at that point now where I am learning by "stumbling" onto things for shear volume of flying. I could use a few hours of being taught the right way from the get go......

@Panzer.

I have a Trackir and I use it all the time in Falcon 4.0 and aircraft sims. But I (shamefully) admit that my breif use of it in the helicopter was a bit disorientating at first. That was most likely due to the fact that I was still learning the helicopters, so it was one variable too many for me at that time. I turned it off.

But now that I am much more controlled in the helis now, thanks for the reminder. I may now have the presence of mind and finesse with my controllers to reopen the TrackIR variable. It has been sitting on my monitor and headset gathering dust these last few weeks. Tonight, i'm turning it back on.

<come to think of it, I better practice offline with it first to make sure I don't dump a bunch of buddies sideways into a shear cliff while purporting to be "dedicated transport" pilot>

[John CANavar]

Couple of nights ago I was transporting a squad to frontlines and forgot to get weather report before taking off. It was after midnight and somewhere near Obregan we found ourselves in a thick fog. It was not possible to see anything and I changed the course to leave the fog as quickly as possible. As soon as we got out, a huge mountain appeared in front of the little little bird... I pulled the stick, maxed the throttle...skids of the chopper gave a gentle kiss to the mountain right before I got full control. It was close and one of the best gaming moments I had.

Lessons Learnt:

- Make a flight plan (you can mark the map) before take off:

> Destination

> LZ (a clear area you can land, not in the middle of a thick forest or rocky hill)

> Waypoints (Avoid enemy zones, consider rain/fog and bypass them)

[Raptor82]

Thanks for the tip about the Throttle Sleepdoc I will set that up this evening

[Sleepdoc]

Originally Posted by John CANavar

Couple of nights ago I was transporting a squad to frontlines and forgot to get weather report before taking off. It was after midnight and somewhere near Obregan we found ourselves in a thick fog. It was not possible to see anything and I changed the course to leave the fog as quickly as possible. As soon as we got out, a huge mountain appeared in front of the little little bird... I pulled the stick, maxed the throttle...skids of the chopper gave a gentle kiss to the mountain right before I got full control. It was close and one of the best gaming moments I had.

Lessons Learnt:

- Make a flight plan (you can mark the map) before take off:

> Destination

> LZ (a clear area you can land, not in the middle of a thick forest or rocky hill)

> Waypoints (Avoid enemy zones, consider rain/fog and bypass them)

Yep planning really pays iff for overall safety. and it can be done fast. you just need to look at teh map and make smart choices.

the other day, once of the first things i did with my new training mission (see the other post i just made on that), was a buddy grabbed me on Xfire and asked me to teach him everything i knew about the map and how to read it. You may recall an earlier post where you posted some marker meanings for me? well anyway...

We grabbed a littel bird in the training sanbox mission, and after reviewing the basics (countours, scale, etc), we actually flew all over the map, relating certain textures to what we actually saw out the window etc. correlating the individual bushes, trees, dense forrests, combed grass lands, vineyards, rocks etc etc to the map markers. It was a great run for both of us...... He got his first lesson in a big way, and i started to even notice little nuances of the map and the textures and the symbology that I had never paid such close attention to before. So I got a little more knowledgable too.

This level of understanding is paying off well in determining insertions and LZs that give the guys im tranposrting a tactical advvantage (or at least greater safety from cover etc) when I bring them in.

Knowing the little nuances of the map and providing safe transport go hand in hand.

And BTW John_C. I learned to flash my headlights/tailights at night, just last night. Saw some other guys doing it at base last night and thought ..wow. good, simple idea. But i wish there was some way to use the tail and side lights (red and green ones) without flashing that blinding headlight!!!

[SloppyJoe]

Originally Posted by John CANavar

All right lets see, which one of you "role-playing" chopper pilots turn on their lights before takeoff and touchdown and contact main base tower to take clearance? Well, I do

I do, the lights help avoid collisions