Kaja

Excellent stuff, no doubt it will be well worth the wait. Quick question, anyone know which UH-1 addon is shown in the Ia Drang screenshot for the dust script on the BAS page? Thanks all.

In response to the posts from NavyEEL and Harnu, I decided to do some testing with the AH-64 at the lovely Malden airport. I found 2 things, Harnu is correct, you can certainly complete a turn without loosing airspeed. However, it's a really unnatural feeling, totally flat turn (even a little visual roll, if it did nothing else, would make it feel a lot more normal). Also, I apologize for exaggerating the speed loss in my initial reply. Second, the hit point damage model seems to consider the damage of the helicopter more than the speed of the aircraft at impact .This can also be made very clear in game by ramming into trees at 200 kph with nary a scratch as a result (it's not as rare as you may think). At about 21 meters, a damaged helo is very likely going to explode after a crash. A healthy one, which has simply had it's engine turned off, will survive with only minor damage from a greater fall height. This may seem reasonable at first thought, but a proper autorotation can make an emergency, engine-out landing as soft as a normal one. As to the "usually explodes in real life", I doubt it's likely to happen. Fuel/Ammo probably only explodes after a crash one would not have escaped from otherwise. Autorotations are much safer than most people think, I've been through a 180 auto (granted, intentional), and it was quite enjoyable.

I never fly with a mouse, I prefer to use my HOTAS joystick I may be misunderstanding your reply, but turns at speed aren't accomplished with the anti-torque rotor, which is mostly used for turn coordination. In addition, while helicopters do loose airspeed in a turn (everything does), most don't loose upwards of 120 kph in a 90 degree turn.

All in all I have to say BIS did a good job on the OFP Helicopters, but there are some problems I have questions about. There are no coordinated turns for the helos (or simply, you can't roll them into a turn), leading to huge losses in air speed whenever you have to make a hard turn. Would fixing this and making the helos better able to side-slip be that difficult to patch? Also high on my list, is the lack of emergency landings for the helos in game. The real helicopters depicted in OFP were designed for very heavy vertical crashes. However, the helos in OFP always seem to explode on touchdown in an engine out crash, pretty much regardless of how "soft" the landing was. Other than as a bug, I can't see much reason for it, am I missing something? Thanks in advance.