I've spent a good two/three hours practising flying helos on a standalone server. Figured I'd share a little of what I've learned so far.
Controls:
Unless you're a god with your joystick, use keyboard and mouse! I'm not kidding. The controls are clearly optimised for the keyboard and mouse combination and the chopper naturally hovers in that setup (with only a very slight, very slow descent). I started off with my Saitek X52 and I was crap. On keyboard and mouse, after all that practice, I mostly get where I'm going and usually only die when I have a total flid.
Assuming you're using the ol' keyboard-mouse combo from now on...
Different Helos:
I've practised in the Little Bird, Little Bird Gunship and Blackhawk. I've also taken the Cobra up for a spin but I can't claim to have "practised" in it. Both Little Bird variants work pretty much the same and there are some generic things that appear to apply to all those helos.
For all...
General Helo Flight:
When you take off, expect the nose of the helo to tilt forward slightly. If you don't control this, you will roll straight over and die. Sucks. Be warned. The Little Bird has a more extreme version of this.
Remember, helos have three freedoms they move in.
You've also got thrust/torque. Apply torque with W. Torque gives more pull to the rotors. In a level helo, this results in the helo gaining altitude. PR (and BF2?) have a "negative torque" as well, by pressing S. This allows you to drop power from the rotors a bit so that you tend to float downwards, in a level helo.
The helo can take up to 30 seconds to power up when you first get in to the pilots seat (with a pilot kit, right?). Wait 'til you here a steady whop-whop-whop sound from the rotors. It's distinctive and obvious when it's steady and you're good to go.
Basic Maneuvers: take-off, straight up:
Apply torque (W), push your nose up gently (mouse forward) to keep your horizon level, hold torque and watch your altitude go up.
Basic Maneuvers: take-off, combat stylee
Apply torque, push your nose up just a little, release torque and then tap-apply torque (slowly press W, then release, then press, then release).
You'll have a slight forward tilt, meaning your rotors are pulling you forward, and the tap-application of torque means you shouldn't gain too much altitude and so not make yourself a huge target.
Basic Maneuvers: simple landing:
I figure there's various methods of doing this, depending on the terrain. Let's assume a flat, straight approach to a flat landing zone (e.g. sea approach to a beach, or to a carrier).
You're not flying high, because that'd make you an easy target for AA, but let's say you're a bit higher than your LZ and coming in fast (nose down, torque maximum, level flight).
Release torque; your speed will drop and your altitude will start to bleed away. Slowly push your nose up. Your speed will drop further but you'll maintain altitude. Judge your line of approach so that you're not going to be sitting 10/20 metres above your LZ (you're landing, remember?).
If you're coming in low and short, apply a little torque and tilt your nose forward, but not too much or you'll over compensate. If you're coming in long and high, apply some negative torque but keep your nose tilted forward so you keep approaching. Alternate between these to keep on approach aiming to be 2-5 metres above your LZ.
As you arrive at your LZ, push your nose up carefully above your horizon just a touch to bleed off the last of your speed. Come to be level and at as much of a complete stop as you can manage. Apply negative torque to bleed off the last of your altitude.
As you come within 1 metre of landing, stop applying negative torque. If you over apply negative torque when landing then expect PR to flip your helo over and/or do other crazy shit that causes it to explode. You should drift slowly to the ground without any further intervention.
Some pilots argue that you should just remain in hover and let people jump in. That's good if you're over rough terrain and confident in your control. If not, a drift-landing is probably just as good.
I've also seen some recommend jumping out to stabilise the helo. My recommendation: don't! The helo powers down as soon as you leave the pilot seat and will take 30 seconds to power up again. That's suicide in a hot zone. Drift-land or learn to hover.
Once you've got the timing right, you can use negative torque to land all the way but that'll take more practise.
Little Bird specifics:
The Little Bird is small, light and agile. She has a good rate of yaw and, I find, she's twitchy on the roll. Small moves have big effects.
Her top speed isn't as good as some of the bigger birds but she'll still pick up enough speed to get you where you need to be.
Be very careful when you flare (i.e. push your nose up with torque high) as you'll gain altitude very quickly and expose yourself.
Stay low, move quickly, don't take fire if you can avoid it.
More so than any other bird I've flown, remember to push your nose up on take off or you'll flip over forward and die embarrassingly inside 3 seconds.
There is a state the Little Bird gets in where she's moving fast and losing altitude and her nose is really slow to come up. In that state, you're going down fast. Solution? Stop applying torque. Your nose will come up much easier all of a sudden and you can pull yourself out of this death-dive (though that same maneuver is great for rapid escape behind a hill).
Watch your tail rotor when yawing in tight spaces. Remember to turn the tail away from obstacles. This can feel counter-intuitive at first as your nose seems to head there instead, but it's easier to keep your nose out of trouble than your tail (which you can't see).
The Little Bird carries 6, including the pilot, or 2 in the gunship.
Black Hawk specifics:
Where the Little Bird is twitch, the Black Hawk is sluggish. Slow rate of yaw but still has a powerful roll. Can get a very good top speed but is slow to lose that speed.
Never, ever over-commit the Black Hawk to any particular direction. If you over-maneuver then you're probably screwed as she doesn't recover well. Just as with the Little Bird, use small moves and accept you're a big bird and not dancing through the air.
Look for big, flat ground to land for pickups/drop-offs. Alternatively, rumour has it that the Black Hawk has a fast-rope system for cool belaying out of helos. Not seen this work, though, so it might be just a rumour.
The Black Hawk carries 7, including the pilot, where 2 man side-facing miniguns. This means she can carry a full squad and still fly away afterwards.
That'll do for starters. Maybe I'll take a break from squad leading and fly the transport instead?
Controls:
Unless you're a god with your joystick, use keyboard and mouse! I'm not kidding. The controls are clearly optimised for the keyboard and mouse combination and the chopper naturally hovers in that setup (with only a very slight, very slow descent). I started off with my Saitek X52 and I was crap. On keyboard and mouse, after all that practice, I mostly get where I'm going and usually only die when I have a total flid.
Assuming you're using the ol' keyboard-mouse combo from now on...
Different Helos:
I've practised in the Little Bird, Little Bird Gunship and Blackhawk. I've also taken the Cobra up for a spin but I can't claim to have "practised" in it. Both Little Bird variants work pretty much the same and there are some generic things that appear to apply to all those helos.
For all...
General Helo Flight:
When you take off, expect the nose of the helo to tilt forward slightly. If you don't control this, you will roll straight over and die. Sucks. Be warned. The Little Bird has a more extreme version of this.
Remember, helos have three freedoms they move in.
- Pitch (that's nose up/nose down) -- I suggest sticking with non-inverted controls here so pushing forward on the mouse pushes your nose up. In a helo, pitching forward gives you forward acceleration.
- Yaw (that's nose left/nose right) -- left/right turns are handled on the A and D keys. I found this the hardest thing to get to grips with as a helo in hover flies a little different to a helo in motion.
- Roll (imagine this as tilting your head left/right) -- roll in a helo slews the helo left/right in a straight line. It's like pitch, just sideways.
You've also got thrust/torque. Apply torque with W. Torque gives more pull to the rotors. In a level helo, this results in the helo gaining altitude. PR (and BF2?) have a "negative torque" as well, by pressing S. This allows you to drop power from the rotors a bit so that you tend to float downwards, in a level helo.
The helo can take up to 30 seconds to power up when you first get in to the pilots seat (with a pilot kit, right?). Wait 'til you here a steady whop-whop-whop sound from the rotors. It's distinctive and obvious when it's steady and you're good to go.
Basic Maneuvers: take-off, straight up:
Apply torque (W), push your nose up gently (mouse forward) to keep your horizon level, hold torque and watch your altitude go up.
Basic Maneuvers: take-off, combat stylee
Apply torque, push your nose up just a little, release torque and then tap-apply torque (slowly press W, then release, then press, then release).
You'll have a slight forward tilt, meaning your rotors are pulling you forward, and the tap-application of torque means you shouldn't gain too much altitude and so not make yourself a huge target.
Basic Maneuvers: simple landing:
I figure there's various methods of doing this, depending on the terrain. Let's assume a flat, straight approach to a flat landing zone (e.g. sea approach to a beach, or to a carrier).
You're not flying high, because that'd make you an easy target for AA, but let's say you're a bit higher than your LZ and coming in fast (nose down, torque maximum, level flight).
Release torque; your speed will drop and your altitude will start to bleed away. Slowly push your nose up. Your speed will drop further but you'll maintain altitude. Judge your line of approach so that you're not going to be sitting 10/20 metres above your LZ (you're landing, remember?).
If you're coming in low and short, apply a little torque and tilt your nose forward, but not too much or you'll over compensate. If you're coming in long and high, apply some negative torque but keep your nose tilted forward so you keep approaching. Alternate between these to keep on approach aiming to be 2-5 metres above your LZ.
As you arrive at your LZ, push your nose up carefully above your horizon just a touch to bleed off the last of your speed. Come to be level and at as much of a complete stop as you can manage. Apply negative torque to bleed off the last of your altitude.
As you come within 1 metre of landing, stop applying negative torque. If you over apply negative torque when landing then expect PR to flip your helo over and/or do other crazy shit that causes it to explode. You should drift slowly to the ground without any further intervention.
Some pilots argue that you should just remain in hover and let people jump in. That's good if you're over rough terrain and confident in your control. If not, a drift-landing is probably just as good.
I've also seen some recommend jumping out to stabilise the helo. My recommendation: don't! The helo powers down as soon as you leave the pilot seat and will take 30 seconds to power up again. That's suicide in a hot zone. Drift-land or learn to hover.
Once you've got the timing right, you can use negative torque to land all the way but that'll take more practise.
Little Bird specifics:
The Little Bird is small, light and agile. She has a good rate of yaw and, I find, she's twitchy on the roll. Small moves have big effects.
Her top speed isn't as good as some of the bigger birds but she'll still pick up enough speed to get you where you need to be.
Be very careful when you flare (i.e. push your nose up with torque high) as you'll gain altitude very quickly and expose yourself.
Stay low, move quickly, don't take fire if you can avoid it.
More so than any other bird I've flown, remember to push your nose up on take off or you'll flip over forward and die embarrassingly inside 3 seconds.
There is a state the Little Bird gets in where she's moving fast and losing altitude and her nose is really slow to come up. In that state, you're going down fast. Solution? Stop applying torque. Your nose will come up much easier all of a sudden and you can pull yourself out of this death-dive (though that same maneuver is great for rapid escape behind a hill).
Watch your tail rotor when yawing in tight spaces. Remember to turn the tail away from obstacles. This can feel counter-intuitive at first as your nose seems to head there instead, but it's easier to keep your nose out of trouble than your tail (which you can't see).
The Little Bird carries 6, including the pilot, or 2 in the gunship.
Black Hawk specifics:
Where the Little Bird is twitch, the Black Hawk is sluggish. Slow rate of yaw but still has a powerful roll. Can get a very good top speed but is slow to lose that speed.
Never, ever over-commit the Black Hawk to any particular direction. If you over-maneuver then you're probably screwed as she doesn't recover well. Just as with the Little Bird, use small moves and accept you're a big bird and not dancing through the air.
Look for big, flat ground to land for pickups/drop-offs. Alternatively, rumour has it that the Black Hawk has a fast-rope system for cool belaying out of helos. Not seen this work, though, so it might be just a rumour.
The Black Hawk carries 7, including the pilot, where 2 man side-facing miniguns. This means she can carry a full squad and still fly away afterwards.
That'll do for starters. Maybe I'll take a break from squad leading and fly the transport instead?
