Help with training mission 5

[unpossibl1 10]

Hi,

I've been playing Arma II and never understood how on earth you fly on the training level for mission 5. To be clear I mean the one where you got to fly though hoops, I can fly helicopters fine and everything but not the VETOL. I managed to turn the engine on and turn auto hover on, I can hover off the ground but the jet just seems to fly around everywhere... Can't get any control out of it at all, I'm using the PC version of the game that I pruchased from Steam. Any help would be greatly appricated.

Thanks

Edited December 6, 2009 by unpossibl1

[paajtor 10]

Do you fly with keyboard+mouse, or with a joystick?

[unpossibl1 10]

With a keyboard and mouse.

[jasonnoguchi 11]

joystick didn't make it better... still over compensate suddenly when I think I had it right.

[ajsarge 10]

Remember that "Auto-Hover On" in VTOL-STOVL (Vertical Take Off/Landing-Short Take Off/Vertical Landing. the F-35 is the former, harrier is the later. You still need a rolling start in the harrier) simply points the thrust downward. It doesn't keep the plane steady like it does in choppers.

Once you're in the air, keep your flaps down, gear up, and turn off auto-hover. Give it a little forward tilt and you'll start moving. Keep the power up to prevent sliding down, and you'll eventually get to forward-flight. At this point, the plane will automatically transition into the exhaust facing rearward, and you'll be flying. Just keep your speed under control. You don't need to be zipping through the air at 105% all the time. This goes for the F-35 and V-22 Osprey only.

The harrier, on the other hand, handles slightly differently. Like "normal" planes you need a straight and level stretch of land to take off from. This can be a runway, a good road, or even a field. You set your flaps down only one notch (you can set them down one, or two. For take off or landing) and power your engines up. The plane will start moving, and will get off the ground fairly quickly. If you want to speed it along, keep it on AH-off, then when you have some speed set AH on. Once airborne, turn it off again to go back into level flight.

The A-10 and C-130 require full runways. While the A-10 can get off the ground at the balota/krasno fields, the C-130 has such a long takeoff that you need to be at the north-western runway (this is really odd, the 130 in RL is designed to get off the ground quickly, and even quicker with JATO rockets attached. Ever seen the Blue Angel's "Fat Albert" do a takeoff during a show?). It works the same as the harrier, but just takes longer to gain lift.

Finally, you're going to ask about landing at some point. Three ways you can do it; VTOL (F-35, AV-8B, or V-22 only), standard, or ILS (Autopilot Landing).

First VTOL. When approaching your landing site, you need to come WAY back on the throttle. Set your flaps down full, and the plane will automatically go into VTOL mode (you can also turn this on before, to have it act like a heli, but you won't have any roll/yaw control once you slow down). At this point, you need to remember to treat the plane like it is still a plane. You won't be turning, or hovering into position to get that perfect landing. Nose up, power down, bring it to a hover. Lower the power, and bring it down nice and gently. You'll get better at this and will be able to come to a hover at around 20 meters (ingame units are always metric-Meters, Kilometers, KM/H, Etc.) before setting down. With the harrier, if you throttle back up, the plane will start moving forward as well. So spot your landing before hand.

Second, ILS, or Instrument Landing System. Ingame, this is represented as an autopilot. You hit the button, and it will land you at the nearest airfield. Simple as it gets, but be ready to correct for the computer's mistakes every once in a while. I almost clipped a tree doing an ILS into krasno with the C-130. Remember that trees are deadly to any aircraft, and don't hesitate to get in your way at the most inopportune times.

Finally (and lastly), standard landings. It will actually go through the VTOL/Standard landing procedures in the tutorial, but I'll cover them in depth anyways. Start off by spotting your landing site first. Whether you use the Shift-LeftClick marker on the map or not is your choice. Once you have it spotted you need to get yourself in-line with the runway. This is sometimes easier said than done. But simply remember the direction that it's going, and get yourself close. You can make corrections on your approach. Once in-line, slow down to at least 300 xph (personal reference to in-game speeds) and lower your gear. You want to be close (50-75 meters) to the ground all the way through this. Keep decelerating, and lower your flaps fully. You want to keep your speed at roughly 180-200 xph on approach. Most planes in Arma will stall/go into hover around 150-160. Keep your nose lined up, the little circle-with-lines (it's an airplane from the back BTW, two wings, a body, and a tail) centered on the runway. Steady speed at 180, when you're almost to the end of the runway, lower your speed to 160, nose up to keep the heading indicator on the runway, and (hopefully) set down nice and gently. Your nose will come down, throttle down fully, and taxi off the runway at one of the exit points.

Throughout this, you may see two lines that intersect. This is the actual ILS that you may want to follow. By following this (and keeping your speed at the correct level) you will flawlessly land each time. Just remember that it points to the indicator lights on the side of the runway and not the runway itself. When one line is in one direction (say the vertical line is to the far left) that is the direction that you need to go to make the glide-path (so if it's left, ease the plane left until the line is centered). With both lines crossing at the middle, you're set to land. Follow them in, and remember to flare (bringing your nose up and throttle down) before touching down.

If you've gotten through this wall-o-text, good for you. I just wrote this verbatim. If it needs better explaining, or anything else, let me know. And if anyone knows of a good combined sound/video recording software that I can capture my voice on, and possibly edit in extras (text, freeze-frames, etc.), I might go and make a video or two.

[jasonnoguchi 11]

^... Video please!!! :) Put it up somewhere downloadable so I can download and crunch it through my practise sessions. :)

[ajsarge 10]

^... Video please!!! :) Put it up somewhere downloadable so I can download and crunch it through my practise sessions. :)

I would, but I have nothing to record video/voice with, or anything to edit it. I may put up a text/picture guide, however, if I can find the time and willpower to do it.

[unpossibl1 10]

I would, but I have nothing to record video/voice with, or anything to edit it. I may put up a text/picture guide, however, if I can find the time and willpower to do it.

If you could do that man it would be great, this thing seriously is really hard to fly and can make someone litrally pull their hair out. Thanks lot for the advice, I will give it a try tomorrow.