Aircraft steering

[thierry007 10]

( i searched on aircraft steering no hits ) Why cant you steer in aircraft/steer badly my plane's take me 50km to steer 1/4th of a circle and a little shorter with helo's How can i steer those dumb things good? ( A and D roll them over )

[Simon C 0]

Roll it to one side and then use W to pull up. At least I think it's W, I use a joystick myself.

[Daniel 0]

To bank left, hold A until you plane is on its side. now hold Q and S to power away until you turn as far as you intend. Now hold D until you level off again. Suggest practising in the AV-8 Harrier as this is the most forgiving aircraft.

[delevero 10]

ahhh you properbly mean the c-130 herculer it has a stering bug when it taxi, as well as the osprey are incredible slow to make a 360 when you use the pedals...

I belive it related to a bug.

I cannot remember if it was fixed in a patch lately i did not fly the c-130 for some time now...

[thierry007 10]

Ahh okay thanks. always found it hard to fly a plane =p Ill go into editor and place several helo's and planes to learn it.. edit: how to i take of with some aircraft without exploding? ( ie shortly after take of i always manageto get the plane on the ground upside down ) another edit what is the flaps up flaps down thing for?

Edited August 21, 2009 by thierry007

[Hedo 10]

Play the tutorial. I think it's called boot camp. (not sure, i've got czech version)

[thierry007 10]

the tutorial is wortheless they dont even say how to lift of they say turn engines on then nothing And how to i get a Helo to hover withot moving ( no not auto hover since i cant shoot then) I want to practice side by side movement and ground firing from a KA-52 (i think) and a AH-1 but i cant figure out how to aim at the ground while keeping 0 speed as a pilot

[bogdanm 0]

the tutorial is wortheless they dont even say how to lift of they say turn engines on then nothing And how to i get a Helo to hover withot moving ( no not auto hover since i cant shoot then) I want to practice side by side movement and ground firing from a KA-52 (i think) and a AH-1 but i cant figure out how to aim at the ground while keeping 0 speed as a pilot

You can't do that because its gunner's job. If you play as the gunner you will be able to move the MG while the heli is in auto-hover.

[thierry007 10]

i know about the MG of the Helo's but the rockets etc to fire at infantry ( like the FFAR/hydra rockets ) how wouldi fire those as a gunner onto infantry positions from auto hover?

[bogdanm 0]

i know about the MG of the Helo's but the rockets etc to fire at infantry ( like the FFAR/hydra rockets ) how wouldi fire those as a gunner onto infantry positions from auto hover?

The FFAR rockets are unguided so you can fire them at the enemy only if you point the entire helicopter at the enemy. If you lean forwards the nose of the helicopter its logical that the heli will start to move forward. I don't understand how you want to fire the FFAR rockets while hovering. It just doesn't work that way.

[Alex72 1]

Like Bogdan says. FFAR's are point and shoot. If you want to hover and use them then go somewhere low (cover from enemy targets) then go into hover and pop-up - FIRE! And then drop behind cover again. But manual hover so you can fine tune your shots. Auto hover with FFAR's is wrong way.

Standing above a target isnt how you do it. Then you have to push forward hard and shoot off and pull up again. Wrong way really.

[thierry007 10]

Ive seen real apaches done such a thing i think.. or is there a way to hover to the ground safely to fire the rockets atleast decently? i only need to know why the SU aircraft need an entire runway to get 5m in the air? and a A-10 only half (of the biggest one) and i still cant figure the flaps up and down thing i know thyere needed for lift but most planes dont need em? (and it takes long to use em ) edit ohh wait Sorry didnt see your post Alex ( i must have posted mine while shorty after yours =p )

Edited August 22, 2009 by thierry007

[Feint 137]

So my aircraft steering seems to have shifted from oversensitive to not as sensitive. This is good and bad. Good because most planes now seem to turn at a believable radius. Bad because now the C130 takes for ever to do a 180 while taxiing.

This seems to have just happened all on it's own. I was working my my AC-130 mod and all of a sudden the plane won't turn while taxiing. I have tried reinstalling all of Arma2, reinstalled patch 1.3, changed sensitivity of my HOTAS in Arma2, recalibrated the HOTAS through windows, rebooted, etc.

I've finally started to edit the "steering sensitivity" of the C130 directly in the config, but I don't want to do that since it worked fine yesterday.

Any ideas? Reinstalling Arma and making a new profile didn't seem to help. I even reassigned the controls to other parts of my HOTAS.

Help!

EDIT: One of the addons I was using seems to have edited steering sensitivity. I'll have to track down which one. When I stopped using it, the planes must have gone back to their BIS defaults of crappy steering. Never noticed that before!

Edited September 11, 2009 by Feint

[Alex72 1]

still cant figure the flaps up and down thing i know thyere needed for lift but most planes dont need em?

Yeah the flaps arent really needed in ARMA. Not like in flight sims or the real world. Landing is flaps full out and take off flaps to step one. Maybe bit different here and there not sure, but you can land perfect in ARMA without the use of flaps. They should be out to break the speed and keep the nose up.

[thaFunkster 0]

Ahh okay thanks. always found it hard to fly a plane =p Ill go into editor and place several helo's and planes to learn it.. edit: how to i take of with some aircraft without exploding? ( ie shortly after take of i always manageto get the plane on the ground upside down ) another edit what is the flaps up flaps down thing for?

Helicopters are easier to learn on, leave the jets for now, cause u can end up going to fast.

Easiest wat to learn to fly:

Get in a helicopter,

Press q once to turn engine on. Wait for engine to reach max rotations.

Slowly press q, this will add power, you will rise off the ground. The more you press q, the higher you will go.

Now, leave it, you are hovering. to turn right (while at low speed or hovering) press c, press x to turn left.

Now, facing the direction you want to go, press W and you will start to move forward. DO NOT press for too long, or you will push your nose right down into the ground. The more you press W, the more your nose will angle downwards, and the more speed yyou will pick up.

If you want to slow down or stop, just leave hands off controls for a while, and the chopper will slowly come to a stop. Or, press S and you will lift up the nose, which willl slow you.

When you are stopped, and want to decend, press A to reduce power.

These are the basics, play around with this, and you should get the hang of it.

---------- Post added at 11:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------

Yeah the flaps arent really needed in ARMA. Not like in flight sims or the real world. Landing is flaps full out and take off flaps to step one. Maybe bit different here and there not sure, but you can land perfect in ARMA without the use of flaps. They should be out to break the speed and keep the nose up.

I dont bother with flaps for takeoff in Lock On, and can easily get away without them for landing.

Conclusion, Flaps arent even needed even in real life, though they do help slow your stall speed a lot which is a big bonus. (OK, well Cessnas need them cause they dont have airbrakes like an F15 does...)

[MadCatChiken 10]

I really don't see why BIS just give us full control of the planes, non of this auto-throttle, auto rudder crap. Flaps in ArmA are not needed one bit cos the flight models suck so bad.

Ive seen real apaches done such a thing i think.. or is there a way to hover to the ground safely to fire the rockets atleast decently? i only need to know why the SU aircraft need an entire runway to get 5m in the air? and a A-10 only half (of the biggest one) and i still cant figure the flaps up and down thing i know thyere needed for lift but most planes dont need em? (and it takes long to use em ) edit ohh wait Sorry didnt see your post Alex ( i must have posted mine while shorty after yours =p )

I've got the su34 off the ground without damage off a field. The Su34 can lift off the ground at around 175-180.

[tractorking 10]

The nose wheel dosent move on the C130, it just using rudder steering like an old PiperCub. The C130 should be able to turn on a dime if the nose wheel worked,, in fact thats true for most large aircraft as the nosewheel turns greater than 90 degrees ussually, otherwise a taxiway would be more like a Nascar track in size.

Also, Aircraft have independent braking for right and left wheel so by tapping or holding the brake on the inside of the turn wheel you initiate a tighter turn like a tank or catapillar tracked vehicle.

So the short answer is, its not your doing and BI needs to add nosewheel steering and independent braking to make a plane like the C130 stay on the taxiway.

FLAPS

-Flaps allow you to decend at a faster rate without increasing airspeed(Drag)

They also reconfigure the wing allowing more surface area and greater camber(curve) thereby increasing lift and lower the aircrafts stall speed.

For Take off

-1 increament of flaps is ussually sufficient to provide the extra lift and lowering stall speed to allow for a faster(shorter distance) lift off. Most Jets use flaps for takeoff as the wing shape (plan/form) is desigened and optimised for the higher speed of cruise flight.

You should probably start rotating(Vr)(bring the nose up) at 140kts, get the nose wheel off the ground but dont force it...the airplane will fly when its ready, probably at 160kts

Once airborne and safe speed and altitude are gained the flaps will be retracted to reduce drag.

For Landing

-Introduce the flaps one step at a time as speed deteriorates until you have deployed full flaps about 1 mile of final apprroach. For most of the Arma planes a starting speed of 160-180kts for the approach and reducing airspeed with flaps and gear (drag) down to about 140kts with full flaps.

If you put the C130 at limited speed you will notice extensive use of flaps to stay slow and flying.Without flaps the plane would have to fly with a high angle of attack (pitch/nose high) and full power to maintain a slow airspeed. This is the back side of the power curve and you are "hanging" on the prop using thrust to maintain altitude. By introducing the flaps the aircraft can fly at a more normal pitch attitude (level) and since the stall speed is lower with flaps you can fly at lower airspeeds and since the flaps add lift we dont need as much power.

Hope that helps, You can find out all you want to know at FAA.GOV in the learning section, all the materials are posted for free.

If you have anymore aviation related questions feel free to ask..

I am a flight instructor when Im not killing things online.

Oh and BTW-Helicopters are not even close to real in ARMA and Planes are easier than Helicopters in real life. But they still look cool in ARMA

Edited September 13, 2009 by tractorking

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

I'm going to flight school as we speak to get my instrument rating certification for helicopters in order to get my golden wings for the United States Marine Corps. I already have my private and commercial certifications. Ask away people! I'll do my best to answer.

Edited September 13, 2009 by JuggernautOfWar

[thaFunkster 0]

Hah, well answer me this: What do you think of the Chopper flight models in this?

Particuluary doing a sharp turn bleeding off ALL Your speed and leaving you ditching a hole in the ground even with full power?

[MadCatChiken 10]

Hah, well answer me this: What do you think of the Chopper flight models in this?

Particuluary doing a sharp turn bleeding off ALL Your speed and leaving you ditching a hole in the ground even with full power?

The helis in arma are too sturdy, and not responsive enough imo. But i've never flown a real heli (very very very very much want to learn to fly heli's) so my experiance of comparing is just that of FSX. :p

[tractorking 10]

The Helos fly nothing like the real thing.

They turn and fly like fixed wing planes not helicopters.

For the game its ok as most people use keyboards and the amount of small tactile input to keep a helo stable would drive you insane tapping keys.

In the book "Chickenhawk" he describes flying Hueys like "standing on a football and juggling at the same time" and the Hueys are really stable helicopters.

The worst part is the rudder/tailrotor/yaw/pedal turn. If you push the rudder key the aircraft yaw about 10 degres and that it. you should be able to turn 360s with pedals all day long. Also remember the tail rotor is a counter torque rotor that offsets the forces of the main rotors so if you add more power you should have to add more pedal or the torque would make the Aircraft yaw. This is not modeled at all.

All the aircraft use way too much angle of bank to make turns.

The AI throw the C130 into a greater than 60 degrees of bank turn, the nose drops they pull back agressivly add power and make potatoe chip turns in the sky and ussually crash into a tree or mountain while trying to recover.

A steep turn in Aircraft is 45-50 degrees and I believe 60 is considered aerobatic flying (high load factors). You will bleed off lots of speed in steep turn and stall speed doubles at 60degrees of bank, so yes it does require alot of power to maintain or recover a steep bank angle and tight turn radius.

To scratch the surface....Lift is always pointing out of the top of the wing, when you bank you change the lift vector from straight up to say 30-45 dgrees using some of that lift to pull you sideways in through the turn. SInce your using some of that lift to turn the nose will drop and the aircraft starts to decend. At this point you apply back pressure on the controls (pitch nose up) but when you do that the combination of forces cause the plane to be heavier (load factor) and you are inducing more drag with the higher angle of attack(AoA) required to maintain altitude. If you do not add power the drag will slow you to a stall and possibly a spin condition, you must add power in the turn to maintain a safe flying airspeed.

Thats why the AI fly potato chip turn profiles, because the never learn that the nose drops when they bank so they are always correcting behind the action as opposed to making control inputs prior to the nose dropping etc. to keep a nice level turn.

If you would like to see what happens with excessive load factor, google/youtube that CDF C130 doing the forest fire drop. His wings folded like a mousetrap.

*(no not Chedaki Defence Force...California Dept of Fire.....lol... I saw some CalDeptFire trucks on the highway and laughed because all I could think about was the Chedaki. I mean, they have CDF decals everywhere on theyre trucks)

Acctually..Here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDNCac2N1o

On the good side, the have really captured to atmosphere of flying low level.

The Helos and Aircraft look great both in and out and the sounds are cool.

I watched Bear Grills jump from a hind and was amazed at the detail in game after seeing the cockpit of the real one. (I love the fans)

Some bank limiting and more pedal turn capability would make the AI fly better and certainly add more realism to the flight model.

Having said all that, its not a flight simulator and I do play this to get away from the Flying Work that I do so I dont fly too much in A2.

I think if a few minor things were sorted its a very fun flying experience, but not realistic in flight model.

Edited September 14, 2009 by tractorking

[andersson 285]

From the beta-changelog, now as the 1.04 soon will be released:

[58998] Fixed: Autocoordination caused rudder oscillation in high speed flight.

[MadCatChiken 10]

From the beta-changelog, now as the 1.04 soon will be released:

Yeah thats the fix i've been waiting for, for ages.

[[aps]gnat 28]

C-130J Taxi and Take-off Fix

DOWNLOAD

Fixes runway taxi / turning circle issue and the other bad where it crashes back into the ground shortly after taking off.

Excuse me if someone else has already done this ....

[vengeance1 50]

Gnat;1449792']C-130J Taxi and Take-off Fix

DOWNLOAD

Fixes runway taxi / turning circle issue and the other bad where it crashes back into the ground shortly after taking off.

Excuse me if someone else has already done this ....

Gnat your the Man! This was very needed and it works GREAT with AI. One suggestion if possible, the C130 can not taxi around the end of the runway at the Chernarus Airport and come back as it hits the buildings. Could one script AI to take the first exit Taxi runway and disembark?

Thanks

Edited September 28, 2009 by vengeance1