Basic flying instructions please.

[Joe98 90]

1. What is the difference between "turn left" and "bank left"?

2. What is the left pedal used for?

3. Are the flaps used to assist in changing direction?

4. I now have a joystick. Turn left, Bank left, Left pedal and Left flap are all bound to the same left movement. Thoughts?

/

[[frl]myke 14]

1.: "Turn left" uses the rudders while "Bank left" uses the ailerons. Usually in planes and choppers, turns are achieved by banking the vehicle in the respective direction. Extremely said: bank the vehicle to a quarter roll then "pull up". Also "Turn left/right" is also used to steer a plane on the ground.

2.: Pedals are usually used for the rudders. Some Joysticks do have a twist axis which also can be used fur rudders.

- push joystick left/right = bank left/right

- push joystick forward/backward = dive/climb

- twist joystick left/right or use left/right rudder pedals = rudders/steering wheel left/right

3.: Flaps are used to have more lift with reduced speed. So the meaning is to use them when teaking off and landing and retract them while flying to reduce drag.

4.: Is completely wrong. Each of them should be assigned to a separate Joystick axis.

[Joe98 90]

OK, I have now learnt that Turn Left and Right can be done with a helicopter when it is hovering. Those keys are now bound separate from the joy stick.

The post above says Turn Left and Right can also be used by a fixed wing aircraft durng taxi.

When a fixed wing aircraft is sitting on the runway, how do I make it move forward? (The "thrust" key works in flight but not on the ground.)

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[[frl]myke 14]

Thrust should work on the ground. At least it does at my side. Are you using a Joystick? If so, which one?

[Joe98 90]

Logitech Attack 3

The Thrust key is bound to a key on my keyboard. Thrust works in the air with helicopters and with fixed wing..

With fixed wing aircraft thrust does not work on the ground.

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[[frl]myke 14]

Logitech Attack 3

The Thrust key is bound to a key on my keyboard. Thrust works in the air with helicopters and with fixed wing..

With fixed wing aircraft thrust does not work on the ground.

.

Hmm....either the key is pressed or it is not, the game doesn't differ if on ground or not.

Did you tried to bind analog thrust to your Logitech Attack 3 slider on the front?

[Joe98 90]

I have now learnt there is :

Increase Thrust

Thrust Analogue

Fast forward

Thrust Analogue makes fixed wing aircraft go faster. No effect on helicopters.

Fast forward causes both types of aircracft to nose into the ground.

I am sure with practise I could figure it out. Except:

My aircraft is travelling north and I wish to turn to the west. At the moment all I can do is barell roll.

How can I change the heading?

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[[frl]myke 14]

Roll your plane 90 degrees to the left (or a bit less ;) ) then "pull up" until you head west. Thats generally how you do turns.

Fast forward

IIRC this is command mode, say when your tank commander and you want to tell your driver to go full speed. Not needed for planes.

[Joe98 90]

I have now changed the mapping of the joystick. Bank Left and Left Rudder are now separate.

This is useful as not every helicopter has a rudder!

Each fixed wing aircraft has different flying characteristics! Each helicopter has different flying characteristics! What is needed, is a separate thread for (almost) every aircraft and helicopter in the game!

1. Some helicopters and some fixed with aircraft allow the player to double as pilot and gunner. In such aircraft I find it impossible to shoot at any target in the Armoury.

2. I find helicopters very difficult to fly. In the Tutorial the helicopter flys so fast I cannot complete the tutorial. In any other scenario helicopters fly so slow control is difficult. The "more power" button has no effect"

3. I can fly fixed wing aircraft but I cannot seem to manoeuvre as I ought to. The Opforce spotter aircraft seems to lose speed when I hit the "more power" buttton. Jets go faster when i hit the "more power" button.

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[On_Sabbatical 11]

If i were you,i would go play DCS series :D

Flying in arma can be done easily with mouse +keyboard

[-=Grunt=- 10]

I just use WASD and QZ to fly a helicopter. Try setting those keys to whichever you're comfortable with.

W and S - Tilt forwards and backwards

A and D - Bank left and right

Q and Z - Higher or lower torque/power

To fly jets and planes, I use the same keys. It's just that this time, with the mouse wheel for flaps and gear and rudders to turn while on the ground.

So it's like I bank my chopper or plane to the desired direction then use the tilt backwards to make it turn.

[Joe98 90]

In a helicopter, how do I increase the speed?

Note that "nose down" = crash into ground.

How do increase speed?

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---------- Post added at 11:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------

I just use WASD and QZ to fly a helicopter. Try setting those keys to whichever you're comfortable with.

W and S - Tilt forwards and backwards

A and D - Bank left and right

Q and Z - Higher or lower torque/power

The point nobody seems to get is that any combination of keys throws the aircraft into the ground. Its not me! I even went to the trouble of getting a joystick!

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[EDcase 87]

...Flying in arma can be done easily with mouse +keyboard

Not properly. ie. You can't fly sideways in a helicopter without a joystick (with twist/pedals)

Besides its not 'authentic' ;)

Joe98: From what I can see your joystick has no twist/rudder or throttle control. Unfortunately that makes it much less useful.

You should map as follows:

Stick forward=Nose down

Stick back = Nose up

Stick left = Bank left

Stick right=Bank right

Key for increase power (not analogue)

key for decrease power (not analogue)

Key for left pedal and turn left (both on same key)

key for right pedal and turn right (both on same key)

[Joe98 90]

I changed the key bindings as suggested. Also we change the sensitivity of the Y Axis, X axis and Z axis of the joystick just as you can with a mouse. This too makes a difference.

It seems that every aircraft and helicopter in the game have different flying characteristics - I had expected them to all be the same!

Each individual aircraft requires lots of practise to master!

As for the helicopters;

1. after take off they often fly backwards, why is that?

2. I can fly straight but if I turn it is very difficult to fly straing again - the helicopter seems to fight me. What am I missing?

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[Echo38 1]

"Turn left" and "turn right" are more or less autopilot functions. Using these two functions, with helicopters, the computer chooses whether to bank or yaw, depending on your airspeed. For this reason, I recommend not using them. They are an arcade aid and limit the control one has over one's aircraft. (I don't even have them bound.)

"Bank left" and "bank right," and "yaw left" and "yaw right," are the functions which should be used for as realistic of control as one can get with Arma's rather limited flight model. To be fair, it has pretty decent basic motion physics, mostly, but complex aerodynamic & rotary phenomenon are not modelled in Arma 2. We'll have to wait 'till Arma 3 for that. (Although I believe the fixed-wing F.M. will still be simple.)

You can't fly sideways in a helicopter without a joystick (with twist/pedals)

You can, if you rebind your controls as I recommended in my last paragraph. Using the mouse to bank left and tapping a key to yaw right, you can fly sideways just as though you were using joystick and pedals. It's less precise and smooth (especially the keys, being a binary switch instead of an axis), but it's quite doable.

Edited June 30, 2012 by Echo38

[Echo38 1]

In a helicopter, how do I increase the speed?

Note that "nose down" = crash into ground.

How do increase speed?

The point nobody seems to get is that any combination of keys throws the aircraft into the ground.

You need to be more gentle. You only nose forward slightly, and perhaps increase the collective a bit ("thrust up," default key Q, I believe--I rebound mine), although fiddling with the collective is technically not necessary in this game on level ground, because, unlike in a real helicopter, the Arma helicopters automatically increase collective slightly when you pitch forward a little bit.

If you nose down steeply, you will begin to lose much altitude, as you noticed. So do not nose down steeply--only lower the nose a little bit, and hold it there until you are moving forward at a comfortable pace. Then raise the nose back to level. Same for slowing down--raise the nose until you stop moving, then lower it. This is, by the way, why you are going backwards after taking off--you are inadvertently raising the nose.

Flying a helicopters is a little bit like balancing a plate on your finger. But not altogether--bear in mind that you have an upwards lift vector, so any bank or pitch (tipping the helicopter in any direction) will cause some of your upwards-force to be sideways-force, and so you will start to lose altitude if you do not also increase your upwards-force by adding thrust (increasing collective). See?

[pipscouse 10]

Wouldn't it be easier to use a joystick?

[chrisb 196]

I would get yourself out in the desert in the ‘editor’ and practise.

Choose the ‘Desert Map’ put yourself a heli on there (not flying) and give it a go. Lift to around 500m using your up thrust & auto hover, then turn that off and nose down at different levels to see how much height is lost. It will soon come to you and you can practise all the other heli commands without worrying about hitting too much.

I use a Razer Nostromo for my left hand and Rat5 in the right, no need for a KB much..

Once you do get it there is nothing better than a run through some valleys, say on ‘ilhamarrom’ rksl island, its unfinished as yet maybe always will be, but it has great valleys for flying through and very little to bump into, hone your skills there..

[rksl-rock 1300]

Once you do get it there is nothing better than a run through some valleys, say on ‘ilhamarrom’ rksl island, its unfinished as yet maybe always will be, but it has great valleys for flying through and very little to bump into, hone your skills there..

Please dont make comments about projects you are not involved in and know nothing about.

[Echo38 1]

Wouldn't it be easier to use a joystick?

In a realistic flight sim, yes. Even in TOH (which doesn't claim to be a "hardcore" flight sim, but does a pretty good job regardless), I'd say a joystick and pedals are a must (or at the very least, a joystick with twist). I don't fly flight sims unless I've got my joystick and pedals hooked up. However, Arma 2 is not a flight sim, and it's quite controllable with mouse and keyboard alone.

I can't use a joystick at present, due to a hand injury, but there's another problem with using a joystick for Arma: last time I checked (which was, admittedly, in old OpF), the game was lacking something that every flight sim must have: an option for direct controller input (that is, no curve). By default, and apparently hard-coded, there's a hefty curve and/or dead zone in the BIS games I've used a joystick with, which makes joystick worse than mouse. In a real aircraft (of any kind), you get a response with the tiniest motion of the controls. In OpF, I had to make huge, ham-fisted joystick motions before I got any response, because it wouldn't let me remove the curve for the more realistic direct input. These ham-fisted motions result in much less precision. With mouse, I get a response from a tiny motion, like in a real aircraft, so in Arma (unlike in flight sims), I prefer mouse to joystick.

Maybe I should plug in my joystick and see if they've improved on this since Flashpoint.

[chrisb 196]

Please dont make comments about projects you are not involved in and know nothing about.

My apologies, but I do love the island and wish it would be finished. Are you saving it for A3 ?

Anyway sorry and I do like your mods, they shout quality, which I like, but there again most mods for the series have, and do, shout quality..

Oh and a forum is for comments :p

[rksl-rock 1300]

Oh and a forum is for comments :p

Ah yes but some comments lead to "misunderstandings" which lead to rumours and lies and inevitably trouble.

RKSL's intentions with Ilha Marrom are something you are not privy to. I nor any member of the team have posted and comment anywhere about it's future. If you wish to comment it might be best to restrict your comments to things you do actually know something about or at least can prove.

PS nobody likes a smartarse.

[Echo38 1]

I know neither of you two, nor the project in question, but you, Rock, are coming across to me as excessively touchy. Just sayin'.

[slatts 1978]

..

Delete what you wrote ASAP, take it as friendly advice (trust me)

[chrisb 196]

PS nobody likes a smartarse.

Comments like that are, well pointless & childish..

Also, read the Eula you put in the docs!:rolleyes:

---------- Post added at 04:38 ---------- Previous post was at 04:37 ----------

Delete what you wrote ASAP, take it as friendly advice (trust me)

What does that mean ?