jubuttib

While we're on the subject of this, I would also appreciate an implicit T0 if neither T1 or TV Fix is being pressed. I did "solve" it for my own use case by setting up Joystick Gremlin to press a virtual button when I let go of the trigger, but would be nice if it was supported straight up. EDIT: Also fwiw, if we get the implicit T1 when TV fix is pressed, that'll save one button press for the Maverick, but you do kinda need the T1 binding when using the radar. So you might still want to bind it _somewhere_, even if it's not as accessible as TV Fix.

Just put it on anonfiles or something. FWIW I get the warning light popping up even during shallow turns when using accelerated alignment, and as you say I never get it with precise alignment. Despite that though the accelerated alignment drifts WAY less. I've also noticed that the backup ADI keeps going on the wonk even when letting the autopilot fly the helicopter, with fairly nonchalant turns. Sometimes during my testing it just went all over the place after only a couple of turns and never recovered, sometimes it actually managed to sort itself out after a full lap. Gonna also test what happens when if I fly a figure of 8 instead of constant clockwise patterns.

Startup videos for how I did my tests, "fast" and "Precise" with APU power. Precise without APU power is basically the same, except that instead of turning on the batteries etc. I just connect the ground power and turn on external DC and AC.

They did explain elsewhere that Wag's comments were about using what they've learned with Petrovich and George to make smarter AI wingmen for the Ka-50. So no, not a two-seater Ka-50.

The manual does say that you should only do the magnetic compensation when airborne, as there can be disturbances on the ground that affect it. FWIW I have had the magnetic heading correction work quite well without using double value. I'll try to record a video tomorrow.

Yeah, interesting question. I guess it could be similar to the Hind, which has microswitches on the pedals, you can push them in to tell the autopilot you're intending to change heading. Not seeing those visually in the cockpit but I guess it could in theory be a similar system? Doubt this would work for me though, since I have unsprung pedals, so they're _always_ pushed.

Haven't noticed this behavior, brakes have been quite effective on my end. =/

Yup, but since it wasn't mentioned in the guide then I'm not doing it for the purposes of the test. EDIT: oooh you mean in terms of drift, since the track doesn't actually show where the waypoints are... Gotcha.

Oh, and here are the tracks. Two runs with the 3 minute alignment with APU, one Precision with APU and one Precision with just ground power. And just for kicks, here are also the TACView files for the runs, put them up on Anonfiles due to size: https://anonfiles.com/D8Nf11N6y9/Ka-50_drift_tests_TACView_zip The 4 soldiers are there to mark the waypoints. Ka-50 INU drift test tracks.zip

Gonna have to be tomorrow, still need to edit the recordings etc. But I what I can say is that I started to see very significant drift with Precision alignment, whether done via ground power only or APU, and doing the most basic alignment of just turning the INU on and waiting for the 3 minute alignment (and then doing the manual heading correction on the ground) was working GREAT this time. I have no idea why the results are so different from last time... I made a new test pattern that's not above water (that might interfere with the doppler system), a near square that's almost perfectly North, East, South and West, for 10 nautical miles each, and flew around it 3-4 times per run (comes out to something like an hour or more flying the route). I used barometric altitude hold and desired track autopilot, BUT I only started on the second waypoint, instead of WP1, because WP1 for whatever reason always seems to lead to the helicopter shooting past it and oscillating heavily on the way back, which can cause increased misalignment. So I manually flew to WP1, then around 1-1.5 km before it I selected WP2, put the helicopter on desired heading for the initial turn, and turned route mode on. After the helicopter had more or less turned towards WP2 and settled down, I switched to desired track for the rest of the test. No other inputs were really used, other than by accident, except turning the altitude hold on and off every now and then and adjusting the collective, to keep within the control authority of the alt hold channel. Burning fuel affects how much collective you need after all, and I didn't want to balloon to the sky. Oh, and to repeat the loop, what with the 6 waypoint limit on the Ka-50, I made waypoint 5 the same as WP1, and WP6 the same as WP2. So after the aircraft had settled on its track towards WP6, I switched the target to WP2, which made the loop restart. I'll try to make a more comprehensive post tomorrow, but I'll just post these two images now. The one that gets heavily out of whack is the Precision alignment, done with just ground power, and the other is a quick and dirty 3 minute alignment done with the APU powering things. One difference I did notice between the two was that the error/warning light for "aircraft position is being roughly calculated" didn't come up ever during flight when using Precision alignment, and came up during every single turn when using the 3 minute alignment. nullnull

Interesting, maybe I should record a video showing my exact process and then results. Xmas break going on, so not really much else to do either...

Fair, though I wouldn't expect Petro to ever manage a direct hit on an aircraft. The AA ones seem to work fine.

91 to 23 km?! That's pretty immense. I tested the Precision alignment also with engines turned off while aligning, as per the manual, and got some tens, maybe 100 meters of drift over two laps of a 3 waypoint route, a total flight distance of about 100 km and about half an hour of time. The aircraft does some weird stuff when in "desired track" mode, not really following the track the way I'd expect/remember from BS2, but the routes align decently. Another thing that throws it off is that when heading to WP1 in DT, the helicopter will fly all the way to the waypoint and THEN start turning, whereas for waypoints 2+ the DT mode will start turning before reaching the waypoint, as it should. I'll need to devise a new test around this... I also tested by using the fastest alignment, i.e. just the basic one that happens once you turn on the INU. I did this with the APU running and powering the heli, out of interest. WIth this I got WAY more drift, but even so by the end it was "just" a couple of km off. EDIT: Just to note, I did do the manual heading correction for the fast align.

And I assume you've tried with the air-to-air variant of the missiles, not the anti-tank/personnel ones? I think the only real reason why the Vikhr works as well as it does is because in AA mode it switches to a proximity fuse, which the Hind's ATGMs lack, unless you pick the specific AA ones. Back on the subject of the IGLAs and their effectiveness: I'm not 100% convinced it's just a question of the IGLAs being ineffective, at least when used against other helicopters. I just tested in a mission with a BS3 vs. a Ka-27, and even expanding all of my HE and API rounds into it (hit % about 50-70%, I got REAL CLOSE before opening fire), after slapping two IGLAs on it already, I could not destroy it. I finally destroyed the Ka-27 by taking Vikhrs onboard as well, and after 7 Vikhrs hits and one IGLA (laser burned out so had to swap to IGLAs) I managed to kill the damn thing. Has anyone tested successfully how the IGLAs fare against planes? From experience with the Hind I can say that the R-60s barely seem to scratch the Mi-8s and Ka-27s, but take down planes with ease.

I don't think so, BUT the BS3 version easily turns into the BS2 version. In the mission editor you can select the configuration of the helicopter, selecting the older option makes it identical to the BS2 version. But I guess that doesn't really help you if the campaign or server you want to use it on doesn't support BS3 yet...

Just to clarify, are you talking about shooting aerial targets with the anti-tank missiles, using Petrovich or a human gunner guiding them? On the main subject, I just ranted a bit elsewhere on how effing tough AI helicopters are, and have ranted in the past. I play a lot of Foothold, and you need to be killing helicopters all the damn time there...

True, though the shaped charge also needs to hit something that can be destroyed with a stream of molten metal like that, the cargo space of a Chinook might not be the greatest for that. Also from what I read, terrorists had gotten somewhat good at employing the self-destruct mechanism on the RPG-7 warheads, and making them explode right next to helicopters. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1998/infantry-rpg.htm And they do have plenty of HE warheads available too, AFAIK.

Honestly, it's IMO significantly more stable than the Apache in a hover and at low speeds. Cruising and fast attack runs the Apache takes the cake.

Being built and tested, sure, but AFAIK only adopted at all in block 3?

There's been a fair bit of discussion about how hard it is to kill AI helicopters. Helicopters might be harder to kill than fighter jets, but we know from real life that often a single RPG-7 projectile is enough as well. But be that as it may, the main problem really is that right now the AI helicopters can take a LOT more punishment than player operated ones. I've lost Mi-8s to infantry small arms fire in seconds, while I've also put 8 M151 rockets and a decent burst from the GAU-8 into an AI Mi-8 and it just flew away... In Foothold enemy helicopters are in fact a constant problem, Ka-27s and Mi-8s servicing target areas and enemy helicopters making attack runs, and I've seen situations where a Hind eats multiple Patriot missiles without going down, Mi-8s take 3 Sidewinders and fly away (on fire all the way home, some 200 km away...), and Ka-27s take 3 A-A Vikhr shots and fly away. I've also seen friendly AH-1Zs and Gazelles absolutely shot to shreds with multiple missiles and AAA fire, and they refuse to go down. AI helis, apart from maybe the Huey, can just take an enormous amount of punishment right now. Admittedly you do sometimes get lucky and down them in one hit, but you also see the opposite.

Wrong block, but yeah. Getting the dedicated TGP hardpoint and the HMD would be tastylicious, but probably not in the cards.

Shrug, they were originally supposed to come, until the whole BS3 project was thrown for a loop by Russian regulations changing. I wouldn't bet on anything they dropped from the original plans, even visual stuff, resurfacing anymore. Could be wrong, of course.

Just confirmed that it was broken the same way in another mission with unlimited weapons, and works just fine after you disable it. Looking foward to a fix, not that I use unlimited weapons too often. Good for practice tho.

Hmm, I wonder if this is what was causing this... I was on the Maverick training mission (because I couldn't get the video to show up in my previous tests, now I know why, I guess...) and after firing the first Maverick, I briefly got video on the second one, but it went away momentarily, and I couldn't get it back. The mission has unlimited ammo, so what I'm thinking happened is that the Mavs were pre-aligned at first, then after shooting the first one and cycling the safety I got video from the second Mav, until the first Mav got replenished, but wasn't aligned?

I've always had this issue with BS2 as well, and have had to adjust with pedals, or go manual authorization. I'm surprised to hear some people _haven't_ had this before. =/