Re: helicopter flying tips?

**Marco de Pollo** · 08-12-2005, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by Levi

but that your rockets actually shoot right between the crosshair and the horizontal lines.

Hmm, I wasn't aware of that. I must have one of the lower hitrates ever rekorded and now I know why..

But I'm amazed of how skilled some people are with the chopper. How many hours of flighttime do you have!?

**cabledawg1** · 08-12-2005, 03:47 PM

Here are some of my Tips.
I agree with keeping the high ground. I allways try to stay higher than the other chopper.
Allways keep the other chopper in sight by using rudder only and backing up. If you back up and are higher than he is, you will lose sight of him, but I will follow my gunners eyes.
If we come across a chopper from the side or rear, I let my gunner know not to fire guns right away and I will line him up for a cam shot.
If you the hear the tone that someone is aiming at you, you must do 3 things quickly.
1. pop flares immediatly if you believe its a jet, wait 2 seconds if you believe its inbound ground unit
2. tell gunner to cycle camera view so he can tell where its coming from (actually you would have told him this before hand so he does it automatically)
3. lose altitude quickly. Youll have to practice this. I believe the correct altitude to do this is 60-80 in an attack chopper. Do a barrel roll while aiming for either low ground or behind cover like a building. Each chopper has its own minimum altitude you can do this on. If I am higher than 80, Ill linger just a bit at the top of the barrell.

When the tone goes away, your gunner should know about where it came from.
If you are being harrased by jets....allways face him. You know he will be coming back around. Turn into him where he will be coming head on. Dont save those missles, let loose a barrage on that jet as hes coming back in while juking left or right. Your gunner should be firing a cam shot. Imagine the jet coming straight at you as a gunner. Hes allmost like a stationary target thats not moving from side to side. Fire the cam shot directly at him and dont correct. The closing ratio is sooo fast, the jet cant correct.
Control your kill death ratio. You arent helping your team if you are dying. Here are some ways to help that ratio.
1. Watch that chopper health meter and repair often. Also know where you can repair. On a few maps, there are multiple repair spots. If a flag is neutral at the enemys helo base, you can repair there as well. You can hover over an engineer. Fact is, you should be a medic and your gunner should be an engineer or vice versa.
2. Take out empty AA if you have the oppurtunity.
3. Try coming in and attacking from different angles.
4. Against a better Helo pilot and gunner....get that height before engaging
and the first shot better be a cam shot on that helo.
5. The gunners cam shot aiming center is about an inch below yours, line him up for shots often.

Last tip: Dont eat cheetos while naked. It gets in every crack and crevice, not to mention it gums up the cockpit controls.

**Cantina_Fly** · 08-12-2005, 04:13 PM

Thanks Levi, that WAS my problem, I was diving in at almost 45 degrees or so like I was bombing with a jet. As far as aiming the rockets, I use the cross-hair as my reference point. If I'm coming up behind the tank, I put the cross-hair ahead of him, if we're head on, I put the cross-hair in front of him.

And I agree with having a gunner. NEVER take off in the attack heli by yourself unless you absolutely have too. Save the diving rocket attack for when you're out of hellfires, or you have a bad gunner. Even a bad gunner is better than no gunner. If nothing else it's an extra body to help cap a flag and someone to put lead in the air and keep infantry moving for cover.

That said, if you're the gunner and the pilot seems to be hovering for no reason, switch to your missile cam and see if he's lining up a shot for you. And know where the AA is on a map. Twice now, I've got caught because the pilot came in quick and hovered expecting me to take out the AA and I shot the chaingun at the infantry manning it, instead of putting a hellfire into the AA itself. Those Hellfire's take practice too, so use them every chance you get.

**TheMuncher** · 08-13-2005, 01:53 PM

Whenever I get a lock tone, I don't hit the flares immediately. If it's a jet then I'll do a diving turn and try to head at him but below him as fast as I can (usually between 325-410kmh, depending on height) and close the distance until it's a no engage zone or he can't get a lock.

**Levi** · 08-13-2005, 04:54 PM

I have alot of flight-time, but I don't know how much of my time in game I spend in a helo. I also snipe alot, and the headshots are coming baby!

Don't pop your flares as soon as you hear the lock on tone. A good AA gunner won't shoot until you pop flares anyway. Also-when you hear the tone stay steady but switch towards the view that puts you looking at the nearest AA. You should be able to stay steady and even fly some while in 3rd person, also you should know where the AA is. If you only see one missle fly towards you and you pop flares you better take out the AA or get out quick because the other one is on it's way once your flares disappear.

On a related note, pilots and gunners both should know where the AA is. The pilot should hover out of visual/lock range of a hot zone and let the gunner use the TV Guided missles to take out that AA before he even goes in. As a pilot, if you know your gunner just shot a TV-guided missle and you haven't heard the reload yet but need to get into an armor heavy hotzone, go in low and relatively even, you won't be as fast but it doesn't matter, then ping any tanks or APCs you can with rockets from range. At a level flight path you can shoot more accurately from further away. A few rockets will severely damage, if not kill, them and then your AT guys on the ground can take care of it. If the AT on the ground doesn't get him, fly fast over the area, while climbing and then do a half-roll so that you come facing the opposite direction-giving your gunner a perfect hellfire position. If your gunner misses, strafe the tank with rockets again. You should always be moving unless you're actually lining up a shot for your gunner. Which leads me to the point of you and your gunner being in the same squad (preferably seperate from the rest of the Air squads etc.) the pilot, at the least, should have voice comms capability. Because the gunner may not see the tank that you see, even though it's clear as day. Popping off a rocket makes you change your attitude too much to be a good indicator. The gunner can shoot at things to point them out, but ideally should have voice comms as well. Try not to stay in one place for long. Also try picking up a gunner who at least can attempt to missle snipe into hot areas. If you have 3 buggies spread out waiting to rape the assault chopper heading in then you're in trouble, because you can't get all of them before they can get you usually. But if you can missle snipe 1, or even 2 if they don't all spawn in that area, and then go in with rockets and chaingun, you'll kill them off before they even see you. It's damn near impossible to see that TV guided missle coming in, but if you're in a buggy you better be looking for it.

**duckilama** · 08-16-2005, 01:14 PM

There are some really good tutorials/informational posts over at totalbf2.com (IIRC) that really helped me a lot. I'm not confident enough to declare myself a "good" pilot, but I have definitely practiced quite a bit.
If you don't want to practice in a "real" game, the co-op mod is good for practicing against ok, but not genius opponents.

**Riki_Rude_BTYC** · 08-18-2005, 04:11 AM

can someone give me ionfo on how to do a barel roll?

im going to practice right now, because its the only manuver thats come un in this that i havent tried using.

**Legato895** · 08-18-2005, 04:56 AM

just wanted to throw this out there, but a barrel roll isn't when you pull up on your nose and do a back flip... its when you rotate on you x axis and roll to the left or right. (jets do this often)

also, i would like to suggest a helicopter jousting ban effective immediately! my lord its such a sluggish and crappy waste of your time! i think all gunships should ignore each other's presence and focus on hitting the ground pounders. no more of this "race to a higher altitude while firing rockets at each other" crap!

**Riki_Rude_BTYC** · 08-18-2005, 05:13 AM

yeah i know what a barrel roll is, i just got done playing some single player and have it figured out. its ahrd to explain. press A while moving your mouse left produces a nice barell roll.

whoever first posted about hitting where your crosshair is and the horizontal line, your correct, but i found out that its slightly off

...._______....________
..............^..^
.left missle^..^right missle

when in close range this is where your missles will hit, im not sure if they ever intersect, but if you keep a close watch on which missle you fired (left or right) you can hit with pin point accuracy.

say you jsut shot off your left missle, to take out an infantry youd line up

..._______....________
.............^..^
left missle^..^right missle <your right missle and youll hit them dead one =)

uhm ok, for some reason this forum doesnt except spaces, so they will be replaces with dots

. = empty space

**Levi** · 08-18-2005, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by Riki_Rude_BTYC

yeah i know what a barrel roll is, i just got done playing some single player and have it figured out. its ahrd to explain. press A while moving your mouse left produces a nice barell roll.

whoever first posted about hitting where your crosshair is and the horizontal line, your correct, but i found out that its slightly off

...._______....________
..............^..^
.left missle^..^right missle

when in close range this is where your missles will hit, im not sure if they ever intersect, but if you keep a close watch on which missle you fired (left or right) you can hit with pin point accuracy.

say you jsut shot off your left missle, to take out an infantry youd line up

..._______....________
.............^..^
left missle^..^right missle <your right missle and youll hit them dead one =)

uhm ok, for some reason this forum doesnt except spaces, so they will be replaces with dots

. = empty space

It was me, and yeah, the left-right dichotomy has been discussed before in other threads, but it's difficult to remember which rocket came off last, pin-point accuracy isn't really needed most of the time-even though the splash damage is tiny it's close enough for infantry, and that's not my seat.

Also, you don't have to do helicopter jousts most of the time, jousts hardly ever turn out good for anyone. The preferred tactic is to avoid then hit them with a tv-guided missle, and only engage when they do. I'm all about hitting a hostile helo with a TV-guided missle though. Oddly-I have a harder time hitting a blackhawk than I do another attack chopper at range.

**slugslinger** · 08-18-2005, 01:39 PM

i dont know how all u guys fly soo dman well holy **** choppers are a bitch to take out man. and wen ur good like santa u gotta have every 2 firein at the chopper to take tha **** down

**duckilama** · 08-18-2005, 01:59 PM

On the barrel roll, if I leave the throttle on, I lose a huge amount of altitude at the apex, when I'm fully upside down. I seem to keep a lot more altitude if I knock my throttle down to basically zero as I approach the fully inverted position, and then just as I pass inverted, start adding throttle again, rather quickly.
I'm sure there's a flight physics explanation for this, but I'm also sure I'm not the one to give it.

**Riki_Rude_BTYC** · 08-18-2005, 05:28 PM

^ thanks, ill have to try that, i have just been giving no throttle at all when i try it.

**Legato895** · 08-18-2005, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by duckilama

On the barrel roll, if I leave the throttle on, I lose a huge amount of altitude at the apex, when I'm fully upside down. I seem to keep a lot more altitude if I knock my throttle down to basically zero as I approach the fully inverted position, and then just as I pass inverted, start adding throttle again, rather quickly.
I'm sure there's a flight physics explanation for this, but I'm also sure I'm not the one to give it.

think about it. if your throttle is on your chopper is 'sucking' itself up, so when your upside down, your blades are still sucking the same way. this time tho it just happens to be downward

**Levi** · 08-18-2005, 11:42 PM

correctamundo.

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