Teach me how to fly, i keep crashing..

[zeep 3]

One can be intimidated by the level of flight-sim reality in arma! But it's what i want and need to know so i keep practising!

Thanks for your tips all. Track IR is a possibility but not in the near future because my pc needs a new gpu and psu first. Maybe after that.. Otherwise i have been thinking about getting a 360 controller, so maybe i'll give that a go soon.

With a heli i can now land reasonably well. Like many suggested here, i open the editor and practise landing at some random points i select for myself. Fixed wing is still very hard to control but that has to do with my limited viewdistance aswell. (Due to framerate issues).

My keybind that I have deemed perfect:

W/S - nose down/up

A/D - roll left/right

Q/OEM 102 (left of Z) - throttle up/down

Z/X - rudder left/right

Mouse - pwnage

This turned out to be a good setup for me, albeit with some small changes to key layout. What exactly is the mouse bound to?

I wrote this about flying the Transport Helicopter Multi-player in ArmA some time ago.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Transport_helicopter_Role

As others have said read Dslyecxi's manual!

I'm all over this now! I'm also using ALT a lot to look around and it's a big big help.

Again, thanks all! Some great tips in this thread i'll take with me in the cockpit.

[celery 8]

This turned out to be a good setup for me, albeit with some small changes to key layout. What exactly is the mouse bound to?

Nose up/down and turn left/right. In helicopters it's useful because at low speeds it uses the rudder so you're not limited to the keys.

[Amuro 10]

Isn't the F-35 supposed to be really easy to fly IRL because of the digital fly-by-wire flight control system it is using? Not so in this game, LOL.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Fly-by-wire versus "wire-flying" (?) isn't an issue for us sofa pilots. It makes heavy airfoils easier to handle for the pilot, but the construction is still what makes and aircraft easy or difficult to fly. :D We are always fly-by-wire. Yes, I've flown a few small GA aircraft to know the difference from my CH products :p

[tuocs 10]

I play a lot of Flight Simulator X flying the 747, 737, and the bell heli from time to time, and their's a lot more to do flying in that game lol. In ArmA in general I fly low with a sister aircraft if possable (Helo's that is) working togeather lasing tgt's for one another using trees and terrain for cover and concealment (best way to fly I think in PvP). I generaly don't fly to fast that low but if I'm at 100 plus feet I move fast changing my alt and spd so its harder for me to get shot down. I use the Saitek X52 Pro Flight Control System Joystick /w throttle, peddles, the famous IRTracker /w 3 monitors (Great view the irtracker helps a lot). The throttle works great at keeping altitude. I go for the accurate stable flight controls because of FSX. I some times use my yoke and throttle setup for FSX on the C130J It works out good for me.

I think a lot of people learning to fly ingame watch their artificial horizon trying to maitaine their pitch/ speed, using it to ensure they got that perfect hover (it's a heli it dosen't hover perfectly your still going to move. You just gotta learn to compinsate for it). I would say if you cant fly, or have trouble in arma games flying practice to get the feel of the games avation responces for any 1 aircraft, how realistic the simulated fight is for example: (it sims the lift of helis, so if you try to do a barrel roll ect the heli (if you dont have enough alt) will crash because it couldn't regenerate enough lift in time before hitting the ground.

NOTES ON WAYS TO HELP PEOPLE FLY IN THE ARMA GAMES:

You'll also notice once you get going fast enough you lose rudder contol in a heli. This is true in real life. So you gotta turn the aircraft at an angle to turn. (The more of a bank/turn the faster/harder you'll turn). When making hard banks your heli will slow and slightly loose alt. (At that point you'll have rudder control to help you turn) Use your throttle to help you regain/maintaine alt.

The Landing :(

When learning to land a heli you should approch slow, and at a low alt flying straight in where your intending to land. As your slowly/slightly pitching the nose up to help you slow down. (when pitching up you will notice you gain alt to help correct that problem ease off/back down the throttle slowly so you don't go to fare), As you get closer to where your landing give it less throttle/back the throttle down slowly, giving it a harder/more nose up pitch if needed. As you get close to the ground probibly around 50-15 feet, level off (dosent have to be a hover/perfect) keeping it in one spot or manuvering the aircraft over your landing area slowly back the throttle down till you touch down. Don't worry about looking at your artificial horizon try getting hte feel of landing first by looking at your surrounding's. You can tell if you moveing/drifting in any direction. (If you have a gunner, crew chiefs, or a Co Pilot have them help guide you down have the gunner/Co Pilot callout alt, directions tohelp land on your targeted landing area. Have the crew chief's/gunners tell you if your in the clear to land and not going ot hit anything. (After all that's one of their jobs in real life make them earn their pay lol)

Firing Unguided Rockets at Targets:

I forget what its called all I can remember at the menent is the aircrew saying "Were abeam" this tell the ground forces to lift and shift fire so that don't hit the aircraft when it moves in. What they do is fly in low and as the gunner/pilot ID the target and are ready they will rappidly gain alt (this 1 slows the aircraft down so he gains more control of his rudder controls) and will fly most of the time straight when firing the 60mm cannon, or when firing the rockets the aircraft will pitch downward (loseing alt slowly to maitain it's rudder control) while the pilot lines up the aircraft with the target as the gunner/pilot begin's to fire, and bails out of it's desent quickly to gain speed as the aircraft pass over/by its target. If you have a sister aircraft it would normaly (depending on the target/situation) follow the lead aircraft in to re-engage the same target. This same procedure can be done with ground crews first calling up a CAS mission (Close Air Support) marking their pos using smoke, IR strobe, kemlights, and more (use what works in game)as the ground forces mark the target by lasing the target/target area. Using smoke, tracer fire. You can even discribe the target/target area and the aircrews will try and find it (just remember what you see on the ground is different then what they see in the air) but this method work's just a well. You can even use aircraft it any type of aerial reconnaissance. Such as route, zone, and area reconnaissance.

I hope the above information helps people out their that have trouble flying.

One thing That needs fixing is the fixedwing aricraft's rudder controls. Once you get going fast enough you lose it too. That not true in real life infact rudder control on a fixedwing aircraft becomes extremely touchy the faster you go. Anyways just my thought.

Edited January 6, 2010 by tuocs

[tuocs 10]

I always thought most planes were fairly capable of level flight without constant elevator input through design.

Might have to look into a joystick. Now to think of excuses to justify the purchase with the missus. I shall use your post for this Celery

All aircraft require adjustments in the pitch to maitaine level flight. The air flow that passes over and under the wing's of the aircraft which in turn grenerats an aircrafts life causes the aircraft to be unstable such as the pitch, and roll. When encountering rought air (turbulance) it shakes the aircraft and it will move off course if not being manualy flown (hands on) or on auto pilot. I've been taking flight lessions for a little while now and playing a lot of flight simulator x where take off's flying, and landings are alot of work between the wind, the weight of the aircraft, the electronics, communicatos to atc's, the difference type of navigation VOR or IFR flight rules I could go on. Sorry rambelng on here lol hobbies ya know. But that about raps it u pfor me.

[Nuttex 10]

Well, I fly with keyboard and mouse since OFP and everything's fine (except first time in Armed Assault, when the game just came). Just try to fly at high attitude and accustom. Then try at lower attitudes. Then do the same with different speeds (from low to high). And, finally, fly as low as possible with high speed with enemies to become a really good pilot

[Dodgeboy328 10]

I had to reverse my mouse axis. Move mouse back to pull up and move it forward to dive is what I'm used to and the default was the opposite. Made for some interesting first flights. In Arma 2 though I find myself using the keyboard primarily for flight. All I use the mouse for pitching aircraft left of right and then I use the keyboard to actually turn. (My flight terminology is probably wrong, but I hope you get the idea) Also, in my experience good aircraft to start off or practice with is the harrier (not using VTOL) and huey. The harrier is hard to stall out and the huey seems to fly very smoothly.

[mosh 0]

I flew (pretty well I thought) with keyboard/mouse in OFP. In Arma I switched to joystick (bought the X52 PRO, but stuck with more basic logitech extreme 3d pro) and never really was happy with my abilities. In Arma 2 I am still using 3d pro, but have fiddled with xbox 360 controller (and actually fly better with that).

After reading all this I think I'll go back to keyboard/mouse for awhile. I'm surprised so many people use it still.

[Touch Off 10]

Best to use the mouse to stear in combination with the cursor keys for quick manouveurs.

yes, you can't go to quick in a dive and pull up without just ploughing into the trees or grass etc...

The flight model in arma2, and the feel of ground vehicles is pretty abysmal. The helicopter should be able to LIFT itself out of a dive much easier than it does in this 'sim/game'.

But yeh, as I said, the best method for me is use the mouse to stear, carefully and sensitively and if you need to pull a high G turn etc, utilise your cursor keys at the same time.

I'm growing more and more dissapointed with this game, to be honest. I'm getting a bit sick of the sluggish/heavy/unresponsive feel of the units.

I need this sorted before I play this anymore. I'm not so much into the visuals of things and I can still have a good coop game over the net with a mate or two. It's just something that makes me not as bothered as I thought I was about Arma2.

[EricM 0]

I find the flight model pretty pleasing myself. It's simplified, but it gets the job done for a combined armed game, especially for helicopters. Try it with a proper joystick maybe ? And driving is nice too since 1.05. The analog throttle system is fubar though.

Abysmal is an clear overstatement. Have you tried Battelfield series ? or Dragon Rising ?

[shadowhunter388 10]

For any of you that want to learn to fly then go to our clan server. We teach for free and help anyone. We have two servers their called

Utes International Aviation Training Center

Chernarus International Aviation Training Center

To visit ous go to http://www.shadowhunter388.webs.com :)