Drifting on take off

[Harag 1]

Hi All

I've just downloaded the game from steam and doing the take off tutorial, I've noticed when I increase the collective to "light on the skids" the helicopter starts to drift mostly to the right and back, even though the wind direction is left. the 3rd take off lesson (crowded area) is proving very difficult as it drifts out of the area and when I try to correct it, it then just goes all wrong.

I'm playing in trainee mode with a Saltek evo force stick, vista 64bit and downloaded the latest drivers, but this didn't help. So not sure if it's game mechanics or my stick.

Cheers,

[jedra 11]

No, that's the physics of the flight model. Most pilots here assure me that it is 'reasonably accurate'. Bascially, you need some pedal to counter the torque when you take off - you will also need a bit of forward cyclic to counter the backwards movement.

[Harag 1]

Thanks, I'll give it a go, not used the joystick in a long while so think I might have to get used to it again, I tried twisting it left, but seem to start spinning, too much twist me thinks... going to load it up again now and keep trying.

[rumrunner 10]

I was initially confused by this drift on take off too, thought I was doing something wrong. Then I took a real helicopter ride over the weekend, it really is like that. The pilot has to gently counter it with the pedals and cyclic. Keep practicing, you can get really good at it. Make sure to remove all the deadzones in your joystick under the controller options in the game menu. It made a world of difference for me.

[LeftSkidLow 1]

That drifting is known as translating tendency. In a helicopter with a counter-clockwise rotating main rotor, the tail rotor thrust will cause the helicopter to drift to the right if the helicopter were to remain level in a hover. So the pilot has a slight amount of left cyclic in a hover. That's why you'll see american made helicopters hovering with the left skid lower than the right. So obviously the opposite is true for a AS-350 with a clockwise rotating main rotor and you would see no translating tendency in something like a chinook.

[Harag 1]

Thanks all for the advice, I'll remove the dead zones on the stick to see if it helps any more, I did finally manage to beat the lesson, but I used auto hover - so is that classed as "cheating"?? do helicopters have auto-hover features?

For the stick, I've basically left the sensitive / dead settings the default, I will of course keep trying without the autohover for practice.

[max power 21]

Some helicopters do. Small ones usually do not.

But, another thing to consider is that from what I've gathered, when you're sitting in a helicopter at the controls, you can feel what's going on with it and can react to its little perturbations well before they become visually evident. I guess in that way, reacting late and over controlling the helicopter, pilot induced oscillations, and other control problems are more likely in a desktop sim.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Max Power

[mr burns 132]

But, another thing to consider is that from what I've gathered, when you're sitting in a helicopter at the controls, you can feel what's going on with it and can react to its little perturbations well before they become visually evident. I guess in that way, reacting late and over controlling the helicopter, pilot induced oscillations, and other control problems are more likely in a desktop sim.

Not a Take:On owner here, so you could assume i´m talking out of my arse, but i remember from the IL2 days that there´s a technique called force feedback which helps users feel whats going to happen.

Worked pretty damn good if you ask me. I hear it´s a big factor in racing games aswell :D

[liquidpinky 11]

Some helicopters do. Small ones usually do not.

But, another thing to consider is that from what I've gathered, when you're sitting in a helicopter at the controls, you can feel what's going on with it and can react to its little perturbations well before they become visually evident. I guess in that way, reacting late and over controlling the helicopter, pilot induced oscillations, and other control problems are more likely in a desktop sim.

I would also imagine it would be like getting used to your own car's clutch etc if you were always operating the same heli you would have familiarity and have your pedal inputs already dialed in to match your collective inputs.

I just cheat with my RC heli and blip it up a couple of feet before the tail rotor wash gets a chance to drift it, flying helis indoors can be fun. ;)