Flying in ArmA 2

[celery 8]

Can someone explain to me how exactly are you supposed to use flaps while taking off? Practiced today a bit landing and taking off with SU-25 and especially the taking off was hard for me, it just didn't want to lift. Tried to start with full flaps to speed up and then gradually get them up but still I just barely could get to air and if there would have been trees on the way I would have died for sure :S.

The flaps are useless, just accelerate to around 180 and gently pull up.

[odjob 0]

Can someone explain to me how exactly are you supposed to use flaps while taking off? Practiced today a bit landing and taking off with SU-25 and especially the taking off was hard for me, it just didn't want to lift. Tried to start with full flaps to speed up and then gradually get them up but still I just barely could get to air and if there would have been trees on the way I would have died for sure :S.

Flaps are used to generate more lift at slower speed, at the same time they generate drag witch slows you down. So for take off dont use flaps/only use one step down. For landing use full flaps to reduce speed/generate more lift at slow speed. An other benefit off using flaps at landing is that you can keep the nose down almost horizontal with the ground, makes it easier to see the runway :)

[Zenu 10]

Okey, thanks for the tips. Have to practice some more without flaps.

[LJF 0]

I highly recommend changing the rather odd keyboard setup for the choppers in A2. I've se mine up like battlefield and they work great:

A/D - Rudder left/right.

W/S - Throttle up/down

Mouse left/right - roll left/right

Mouse forward/backward - pitch down/up

For me it's the most intuitive way to fly.

I've got a question for those who [unlike me] actually know how helicopters fly: does it seem like the choppers are underpowered and feel a bit like flying bricks? I know from experience with RC choppers at least that if you cut the power you're in for some serious trouble (it's like a 1-way ticket right into the dirt), in ArmA it seems sluggish and unresponsive, I actually nosedive to lose altitude instead of down-throttling, which seems a bit stupid. Another thing is the rudder, at 100km/h I completely lose rudder control, is this realistic?

[columdrum 11]

I highly recommend changing the rather odd keyboard setup for the choppers in A2. I've se mine up like battlefield and they work great:

A/D - Rudder left/right.

W/S - Throttle up/down

Mouse left/right - roll left/right

Mouse forward/backward - pitch down/up

For me it's the most intuitive way to fly.

I've got a question for those who [unlike me] actually know how helicopters fly: does it seem like the choppers are underpowered and feel a bit like flying bricks? I know from experience with RC choppers at least that if you cut the power you're in for some serious trouble (it's like a 1-way ticket right into the dirt), in ArmA it seems sluggish and unresponsive, I actually nosedive to lose altitude instead of down-throttling, which seems a bit stupid. Another thing is the rudder, at 100km/h I completely lose rudder control, is this realistic?

I also played a lot BF2, and even it isn't a simulator i think that the air controls where good enought in bf2. I also use that config to fly in arma2, and i was wondering about the rudder control lost after 100km/h and the "auto-center" in the direction that you are moving( simply lean your chopper one way until you get enough speed an it will auto turn, if you dont avoid it), its really annoying when you are trying to aim with choppers and planes :S.

Anyone who plays sims can confirm if that is reallistic please? thx

Edited November 27, 2009 by columdrum

[max power 21]

I also played a lot BF2, and even it isn't a simulator i think that the air controls where good enought in bf2. I also use that config to fly in arma2, and i was wondering about the rudder control lost after 100km/h and the "auto-center" in the direction that you are moving( simply lean your chopper one way until you get enough speed an it will auto turn, if you dont avoid it), its really annoying when you are trying to aim with choppers and planes :S.

Anyone who plays sims can confirm if that is reallistic please? thx

The fuselage and tail surfaces build up aerodynamic stability in the yaw axis as the speed of the helicopter increases. Think about a wind vane. Also I think the tail rotor decreases in efficiency over certain speeds. It may not be absolutely correct for all helicopters at all speeds, but as a general phenomenon it is realistic. This is what the vertical stabilizor is for.

Edited November 27, 2009 by Max Power

[LJF 0]

The fuselage and tail surfaces build up aerodynamic stability in the yaw axis as the speed of the helicopter increases. Think about a wind vane. Also I think the tail rotor decreases in efficiency over certain speeds. It may not be absolutely correct for all helicopters at all speeds, but as a general phenomenon it is realistic. This is what the vertical stabilizor is for.

So it would be impossible to fly at 90' (sideways) when anything over 80km/h or so?

And the rate of descent, is this realistic or anything near it in ArmA2?

[76 0]

Vehicles look smoother when turning with the mouse but I find I over correct them all the time so i've mastered it with WASD, now.

For this you can go to:

Options\Controls select 'Vehicle Control' and un-bind 'mouse left' and 'mouse right' from 'Car more left' and 'Car more right' and bind them to 'Car Right' and 'Car Left' :)

[max power 21]

So it would be impossible to fly at 90' (sideways) when anything over 80km/h or so?

And the rate of descent, is this realistic or anything near it in ArmA2?

It depends on the helicopter.

As for the rate of decent or other issues of cyclic authority, I don't know. There are a couple of helicopter pilots on these forums that sometimes talk about helicopter issues in ArmA, but the general feeling I get from them is that the helicopter flight model is so vague that inconsistencies such as absolute cyclic control authority are niggling and besides the point.

[grub 10]

For this you can go to:

Options\Controls select 'Vehicle Control' and un-bind 'mouse left' and 'mouse right' from 'Car more left' and 'Car more right' and bind them to 'Car Right' and 'Car Left' :)

Dude I didn't even think of this. Cheers for the post :D

[SFJackBauer 10]

So it would be impossible to fly at 90' (sideways) when anything over 80km/h or so?

As MaxPower explained, the aerodynamic forces over the airframe will eventually force it to align with the movement vector. So Arma2 is correct in this respect.

And the rate of descent, is this realistic or anything near it in ArmA2?

A chopper pilot must manage his rate of descent to carefully not enter in a VRS - vortex ring state. It occurs in near-zero forward speed - once past a certain descent rate (numbers vary slightly from chopper to chopper), it sinks into its downwash. In Arma2 you can't put your chopper in this dangerous situation because the sim limits your descent rate to a safe zone. If it is accurate down to m/s is questionable, but far more accurate than other "sims" like BF2, which are not sims at all.

So yes, to drop down quickly a chopper in real-life you would nose-dive. You must be careful however to not overload the engines in the recovery maneuver. That can happen in Arma2 - where you built so much speed that can't recover from the diving in time.

Another thing, even if it wasn't questioned - you simply can't evade a guided missile with a chopper by maneuvering. There is simply no way to accelerate quickly enough to evade it. You have to either stay out of range, or put the terrain between you and the missile. However countermeasures like chaff and flare are sometimes effective, and I see them working in some servers out there for great measure.

[gabe_ruckus 5]

The biggest problem with the choppers is that when you get up to speed they should handle more like an airplane in that the rotors act like a large wing. If you go into a dive with the helicopters and pull up, you'll probably still hit the ground because the inertia of the dive will pull you right into the ground, even if you pull up so that the nose is pointing skyward and you have a forward speed in excess of 150 kph, you'll still dive right into the ground. At those speeds, the helicopter should be able to pull up out of the dive and gain altitude easily. As it is, this creates a large challenge for nap of the earth flying because the translational lift of moving at high speed is so under-modeled. This also makes clearing hills very difficult, since climbing takes so long, even at speed, and often you end up careening into the side of a hill instead of nosing up and flying over it.

[SFJackBauer 10]

The biggest problem with the choppers is that when you get up to speed they should handle more like an airplane in that the rotors act like a large wing.

For Arma2, that oversimplification may be still suficient. But its still an oversimplification. Rotors do not act like a large wing... They act like a large rotating wing. As a result they have narrow windows with respect to rotor speed and engine throttling.

However I feel that the inertia is a bit much in Arma2. Also I dont think it models weight, so an empty and lightly fueled chopper would be much more nimble than a fully-loaded one.