Assigning helicopters for missions?

[Scarmax 10]

Okay, so, up to now, I've flown two different career missions where it presents me with a panel where I can select a helicopter for the mission. Well, I should say, that's what it appears to be.

For example, in the mission, "The Shakedown", when I choose to play the mission, a panel pops up that shows a list with two helicopters. The top one shows "Light (Tom Larkin)". The second one is "Heavy (Civil)".

I'm assuming I can pick between them, but when I select the "Light (Tom Larkin)", the OK button is grayed out and it will not start the mission, and I'm forced to pick the "Heavy (Civil)" helicopter instead. If I click Cancel, I get a message that says, "You can assign the helicopter in the Helicopter menu".

Yeah, well, I went to the Helicopter Menu, but the Light helicopter is already assigned to me. (Probably why it said "Light (Tom Larkin)" in the Assign Helicopter panel, huh?) I've looked through the manual, but can't find anything that addresses this topic.

Questions about this issue:

- Why does the Light helicopter seem to be unusable for this mission even though it is assigned?

- If I'm able to select the Light helicopter, how do I do that?

- If the Light helicopter is NOT selectable for the mission, then why would it present me a list to choose a helicopter? I mean, if the required helicopter has already been pre-selected for the mission, why make it appear as if I have a choice??

- Is this a bug? (Ooh. What a surprise that would be.)

- If the Light helicopter is not intended to be selected for this mission until after I've completed the mission with the Heavy, then again, why go to the trouble of confusing the player by showing the helicopter selection panel AT ALL the first time??

- S -

[firemane 0]

The quick answer: The light doesn't fulfill the mission requirements.

If you have multiple helicopters capable of supporting "fast roping" then you'd be able to select one of those.

Before you say it... Yes, I realize it would be faster to just land the light (wearing side-boards) "ala" "Blackhawk Down" than waiting painfully until half a dozen guys do the so-called fastrope one-by-one. But you know spec-ops guys. They can't survive without a show of "flash".