Floyd1212

You will notice in the video that he is in the front seat, and George is flying from the back seat. It sounds like he asked George to take it down to 700 ft, and he wasn’t able to maintain a heading. That is what he meant by “AI”.

In the screenshot you are seeing a white line for the LOS of the TADS. This would indicate that George has found an actual target, and is lasing in that direction, though you obviously won't have a good return at that range. When he doesn't find a target, he continues to look in that direction and the TADS can appear to drift all over as you maneuver the aircraft, but he doesn't lase in that situation.

"Starting over" seems like a bit of an exaggeration, no? I suppose it depends on how much time you are able to spend in the seat, but I imagine most will be able to adapt to the incremental changes in the flight characteristics within a couple hours. It's not like they have changed the direction of rotation on the main rotor or something.

I'm not sure if it's worth going back and forth on this topic anymore, but it may be that we are just talking past each other about different things? You keep using the term "automation" in your discussion, and then you just made a reference to "automation" as like flying a DJI drone. Perhaps you mean to suggest a pilot learning to fly the Apache might refrain from using ALT Hold and ATT Hold modes as a crutch, until they are more comfortable manually holding a hover? I would consider the hold modes more like the automation you are referring to, which is different than using "trim" in the Apache. I don't have any experience flying a serious R/C helicopter (just the cheap versions you would probably consider toys), but I believe your cyclic stick on your transmitter does not have a spring-return to center, correct? In layman's terms, the "trim" function in the Apache is the way you tell the flight controls not to spring back to center.

More info can be found in the manual around page 306. Casmo also has a good video that explains how this works. (Maybe he didn't have his whiteboard at-the-ready to go into detail when you asked him last night? )

It sounds like you are only partially taking advantage of your lasing partner, but are still in LOBL mode? You should definitely be able to launch at a target from behind complete cover that someone else is lasing for you. Are you switching over to LOAL mode for these shots, and aligning the aircraft to the known location of the target? This thread might help, but there are many others that discuss LOAL techniques, with or without George.

I think the argument about learning to fly the Apache with or without the computers assisting you might be similar to learning to drive for the first time on a race track in a modern sports car, and then suggesting it should be done without traction control and ABS and other driver aids on to assist you. Yes, you can argue this will make you appreciate the basics of car control and handling and braking, but these aids are there to help make your life easier, and to stay out of trouble, and those aids are on by default for a reason. Learning with them off, and then switching them back on will only require re-learning how to control the car at the limit, as it will most definitely feel different with them on. Perhaps a better suggestion is for someone who wants to learn the fundamentals of helicopters to do it in the Huey, then move on to the Apache. In our sim world, that isn't a requirement; we get to skip that "trainer" step of our flight education and go straight to the real deal, and learn to fly for the first time in a Hornet or Apache, where it's more about the muscle memory of how the inputs on our peripherals control the aircraft in the sim world, and we aren't worried about losing lives or a $$$M aircraft. @LowOnCash It was interesting to see the Apache flying some of those maneuvers in your video that you might not see every day, then it made more sense when I looked at your impressive background in the R/C helo world. Do your insights come strictly from your experience designing/building/flying scale models, or do you have seat-time in "full-scale" helos as well?

I posed a similar question here in August, but never got a suitable response. If anyone has come up with a solution in the meantime, I would also love to know. I don't fly night missions very often because of this, but when I do, I just have the in-cockpit displays cranked way up and blinding me so I can get my exports to work properly.

There are two hold modes in the Apache to help you maintain a hover. The Attitude Hold does a pretty good job of maintaining your heading, once you have trimmed the aircraft down to less than 3 knots of ground speed. Get into your hover manually, trim the aircraft, and then apply the ATT Hold. Altitude hold is a problem, at the moment, and can't be trusted. Make adjustments to your collective manually to maintain your desired altitude, and check back often to make sure you aren't settling with power, or climbing too high above your cover. You can put your head down for a bit to manage TSD points, or check the F10 map, but it isn't rock solid like it used to be with ALT Hold a couple patches ago. Or you can set the Apache aside, and check back later for improvements.

Ah, so the "radar tracking, 10 o'clock" is on the RLWR knob, and the "missile, missile" warning is on the ADF knob?

We've been flying hot start missions recently and went back to a mission with a cold start last night, and this bug is still occurring when the CPG powers up the laser from a cold start. Has the team been able to confirm this yet?

This new implementation is not really a "bug" per se, as it was discussed that the previous implementation was not totally correct either. Just a different approach that is still being worked on. It would be nice if there was a video/picture/illustration of the real thing to understand this mystical phenomenon...

That is the correct volume knob, but there was also this bug mentioned in June. Not sure the current status, though.

I wouldn't say Redfor is supper aggressive about it, but they do launch some strike missions against your zones, and if one does go neutral, they will send a HIP to capture it. This is more of an issue early-on, when you might only have a single blue group defending a zone you just captured; once you are further down the road with 3-4 groups defending a zone, they don't strike with enough firepower or coordination to really recapture an established zone.

Scroll to the right? Looking for the "Mouse" column. Oh, I see, you don't have those 4 "Camera" functions shown.

You can check that the camera axis are bound to your mouse for the CPG seat, which is a different set of control bindings than the PLT seat.

To answer the OP's question: It doesn't look like the LST is implemented yet, so the LST Mode switch on the RHG probably doesn't do anything at this time.

Glad you were able to get it worked out. Sometimes it's hard to tell if the issue is a genuine bug, or if it's someone new to the module that is still discovering how things work. One more gotcha you might not be aware of: when doing a cold start, the CPG will need to take the extra step of powering on the laser on the WPN > UTIL page.

It's relatively easy to modify the mission to remove the UH-60L player slots, or there is also a way to modify the .miz file so that the UH-60L is optional, and clients that don't have the mod will see some other model in its place. The SAM Site Asset Pack is a little more involved as I am using those assets for the barriers and statics at the Northern FOB. You could go in and view the list of units and find all the assets that require that module and delete them, though. Everything will still work, but the FOB will look a little bare.

Are you saying you can't lase targets? This sounds like an issue with your binds, not the module. Many people are out there lasing targets and shooting Hellfires all day long.

There appears to have been a change made in the last patch such that George cannot tell where you are looking unless you have TADS as the active Acquisition Source. This is how the CPG temporarily slaves the TADS to the PLT's helmet sight, and then de-slaves to start looking in that area for targets. You can set the AQC Source with R6 on either the main TSD page, or WPN page. This is already done for you in a hot start aircraft, but needs to be done manually in a cold start.

Yeah, I much prefer the cover of the trees and hills of the Caucasus map over the flat and barren regions of the Syria map. The mountainous regions are good though. I found Cyprus is a great area for helo ops on the Syria map, though.

Thanks for the write-up! And I couldn't agree more; down low at the treetops is where the fun is. I need to do better at being aware of my egress options, and planning accordingly, though. When I do find myself climbing to higher altitudes it is often to engage a target that is tucked in a valley or on the other side of a small hill, where to engage at a safe distance means a much higher altitude. What is the recommended tactic in that situation? Stay low and get closer to engage, or stay at a safe distance and climb higher? I suspect the right answer is probably to mark the target and wait until I have a better angle on it from another position, but that requires discipline and patience.

As a work-around you can press "up" twice quickly and get it to change and stay on Transition Mode. Fidget with the timing to get it to stick.

Isn't the whole reason the radome is mounted atop the mast is so you can hover behind cover with just the radar exposed and see what's out there? At least that's how they sold it in the brochure. Each method of engagement has its time and place, you just have to know when to use them. You do not what to come to a dead stop and hover directly over the target area, unless you are going to attempt a Death Blossom.