No counter against taking fire in the air!

[iWoundPwn 10]

I believe they should add the eject button in the scroll wheel while you're in a helicopter so if you were taking fire if you had a parachute or not (oops) you could get out, right now in the beta if you were taking fire and you were pilot you're screwed the only case I have seen were you can eject in the air is if you're in the back of a transport vehicle.

[kylania 568]

While I absolutely wish they'd bring back Eject for all vehicle slots there are other ways of dealing with fire.

Use terrain to mask your approach. Fly lower and faster. Land quicker. Basically be a target for as little time as possible.

[D_wolf 1]

First you shouldn't be taking ground fire if you are flying and if you are well... deal with it, you runaway to a safe zone and don't simply eject and waste a chopper/plane.

Don't use helicopters to taxi yourself to the battle... :)

[MadocComadrin 12]

Likewise, chances are, unless you take an AA missile, You're either dead already (shot through the glass) or you have engine+hull damage, so you can autorotate to a landing.

[trent 14]

What exactly is the counter to ground fire in real life? Flares for long-range guided AA and not flying smack into the middle of an enemy stronghold for the rest. Use cover, fly low, and don't be surprised if flying blindly at 200kph in unknown territory means you come up on mounted machine guns before you notice them.

[Qosmius 10]

since when were helicopter pilots able to eject out from theyr helicopter? i only know of the ka50 that has that capability. i do not believe the comanche or the ghosthawks have that ability.

it is only realistic that the pilot goes down with the heli, it is the price you pay for reckless flying...

that is why there have been helicopter casualties in the iraq war, downed transport helis that cannot eject from theyr seats, apaches that cannot eject

[nodunit 397]

Except that bailing as a pilot is A. not realistic, B. promotes "easy ejection" IE "OH no I'm going down, better bail out" rather than skillfully landing the aircraft.

As Trent said, there really is no counter..you have flares against heat seeking missiles but those only work once the missile is on your tail and each flare has a life of 3 seconds each.

Vehicles with ground radar can be shown as tracking you due to their radar but shoulder fired AA won't show up until the missile is fired your way. Radar locks can be countered with jammers but only for a time and at that point everyone knows you're there.

And shells..there is no way to deal with small arms or machine guns other than to stay out of their range, this is part of the reason aircraft tactics in the US changed dramatically in Afghanistan. Methods such as hiding in trees and bobbing up trained to evade radar against a conventional enemy in a heavily forested area don't work so well in a place where cover is scarce and enemy range is relatively short, replaced by constant movement and keeping high in the air to remain out of range of their rifles and machine guns. Like anything else, the tactics to be used are situational.

If anything they should work on pilot safety, doesn't have to be a fancy simulation of the shock absorbing seats with G negating harnesses and crumbling airframes to absorb the impact, just a % of survival rather than "ground=dead"

Typically a real life scenario is that if you do take fire as a pilot, your engines cut out, and you are not able to safely land the aircraft...you are screwed.

The seats between the frame and dash don't offer enough room for them to wear parachutes, not to mention that if the aircraft is going down the last thing you would want to do is jump out the door where the heavy beast would fall faster than you and dice you into pieces.

Only reasons they work on the KA-50 and KA-52 is due to the height of the rotor assembly, the lack of torque and fact that the seat is built with the chute, similar to that of a jet fighter, whereas Mi-28 just like AH-64 lacks this feature.

Edited July 28, 2013 by NodUnit

[MadocComadrin 12]

the last thing you would want to do is jump out the door where the heavy beast would fall faster than you and dice you into pieces.

Galileo would disagree with you. You'll actually drop faster due to less air resistance (until you pop your parachute).

[nodunit 397]

That still leaves the problem of having room to have the parachute in the first place.

And frankly I've seen enough pilots bail out of helicopters online in Arma 2 to know that they just abuse a feature like this.

[Ulanthorn 10]

That still leaves the problem of having room to have the parachute in the first place.

And frankly I've seen enough pilots bail out of helicopters online in Arma 2 to know that they just abuse a feature like this.

Because on the ground those "pilots" usually turned into "AT missile sniper saboteurs", very common in CTI and quite annoying. I fact it would be even more of an improvement if you could not board any vehicle crew seat with a secondary weapon at all.