HMSSURP

One more: When performing a two wheel landing avoid bringing the nose up too high. You will hit the aft rotor system on the ground.

Another tip. In the chinook if you find yourself in a settling with power situation the best way out is left stick. The forward most part of the rotor arc and the aft most part are both spinning towards the left. By rolling to the left you get them most lift and will recover quicker. If you roll right the only area of lift you are getting is over the tunnel.

I thought I should clarrify something. In an earlier post you heard me say Tandem Rotor aircraft are very stable but in my last reply I said they are inherinetly unstable. I know that sounds a bit contradictory so I would like to explain. 1. WIth load carrying a tandem rotor aircraft is the easiest and by far the most stable platform you will have. CG control is extremely lax compared with a conventional aircraft. This is not to say that we didn't have to consider it, just that it was eaiser. In fact, prior to any flight we had to computer a PPC (Performance Planning Card) that considered everything from weights, altitudes, torques, etc. We also were required to compute a weight and balance form. We generally had a stack of "standard load" variant cards of each that we carried that we could reference, usually just to knock out our hover power checks and verify everything was capice. But outside of that we never were all to concerned with it. It was only with the heavier, non-standard loads that we would actually really have to dig into the weeds on that stuff. For example, hauling another aircraft under us or the gun crew loads I mentioned. Otherwise, the Chinook is incredibly stable as a lift platform. 2. Flying, with AFCS is incredible. When I tried on the AH-64D simultor I was shocked at just how little stability providing systems that aircraft had. I had to think "Is this how those barbarians live!" The Chinook has pitch control, roll control, altitude hold, heading hold and that was in the old CH-47D models. You get into the CH-47F the aircraft literally can do EVERYTHING for you. So with AFCS (or more correctly DAFCS in the F model) she is an INCREDIBLY stable platform. 3. Flying, with AFCS off. That is an entirely different story. As I mentioned before, the best way to describe it is trying to balance the aircraft on a pin set in the middle. There are these things called strakes and spoilers and a blunted aft pylon which provide a bit of change of the airflow over the airframe giving some stability but you will be dancing on the on controls to keep her straight and level. Don't try to do any abrupt maneuvers as you will likely find yourself facing a direction you had not intended. Each control inputs needs to be deleberate and thought through with counter movements in all the other channels at the exact same time. And once you get to were you want to be you will find she keeps wanting to go in different directions so you will constantly be making counter movements. To be honest though, if you can fly the Huey you can fly the Chinook AFCS off. In fact, hands down the best sticks in the Army were Kiowa Warrior pilots. They have no stability systems that I am aware of and man, can they fly! The one problem people tend to have when coming over from a tail rotor aircraft to a tandem rotor aircraft is remember DO NOT USE PEDALS when taking off! We had a huey guy who came over to chinooks. His first few flight taking off was a nightmare as he instinctively would kick in pedal to counter torque. All that does in a Chinook is cause you nose to spin! I can say, as the newb in this world of DCS but having tried a number of airframes, have faith! ED will give you a good product. Everything I have seen so far has been amazing and I am positive that even if the EA is missing a few things they will get it to you and I am positive you will love flying the Chinook! Some maneuvering tips and tricks for all of you in the chinook: To turn the tail around the nose use counter pedal/stick controls. So Left pedal, right stick should cause the tail to spin right around the nose. To turn around the center hook, just use pedals. To turn around the tail, use coinciding stick and pedal movements. So left pedal, left stick should cause the nose to spin left around the tail.

Tadem Rotor aircraft are inheriently unstable. Early Tadem Rotor aircraft were notoriously bad and difficult to fly and you will notice many had "wings" to help remedy this. The AFCS systems (I keep calling it AFCS as that is what it is called in the D model. It was not called DAFCS until the F model in large part because many of the gyros were replaced with laser systems. But this should also prove that any terminology I use take with a grain of salt. A vast majority of exerience I had was in the D's and I carried a lot of the terminology over with me into the F's) was a game changer. It really helped relieve the workload on the pilot flying the aircraft. Anyways, to answer your question. If they include basic stability and trim functions, you will be fine. If they have NO AFCS functions, the aircraft is certainly flyable but it will be a challenge.

DAFCS is the Digital Automatic Flight Control System. Trim is what I described earlier, beep trim in the pitch and roll channels. Force Trim, hell, I only flew the F model for about 200 hours so I could forgetting offical names and I have to say ED seems to do pretty darn good research on their modules so it is very possible they are right and I haven't flown a chinook for nearly a decade. But going off my old memory, I really don't remember anything called force trim. We had beep trim for the inflight modes and hover hold and hover beep for hovering modes. Of course, what we could be seeing is me remembering slang and forgetting actual names. If that is the case, I would put money on the table to say they are refering to the Flight Director system. If that is all that is missing, yeah, it is a significant part of what made a difference from the CH-47D to CH-47F and when they do get them up and running I am sure everyone will be most impressed with the stuff. But I would say you will have more fun. My heart belongs to the CH-47D were I was a pilot and not the CH-47F were I was a system manager. Of course, to each their own on that. I know many who couldn't get rid o fthe D's fast enough. But I for one loved flying. Heck, even in the CH-47D I used to spend a large part of my time flying with the AFCS off. Actually, that reminds me of something that happened to me in flight school. Flying AFCS requires a LOT of attention to everything the aircaft is doing because you can quickly loose control if you don't. For short spurts this is not usually to much trouble for most. But the longer you go you get tired. While in flight school my instructor pilot had me do AFCS off and I was pretty good at it. I also had a pretty big ego. She told me "You really fly AFCS off very well." My dump butt said "Yeah, of couse. I am awesome!" I got to spend the next two hours flying AFCS off performing all my maneuvers for the training that day AFCS off! I learned from that point on when complimented just say "Thank you!"

Maybe? But all the Centering Device Release button did was release both mag brakes in the pitch and roll channels allowing you to position the stick where you wanted, then release and it would hold it there. Same as with the Huey. The trim switch, which we called "Beep Trim" was used to fine tune the position. If what you say is true I would think they are refereing to altitude hold and heading hold. But I am not a developer so I could be totally off here. Thanks for the input!

As a former Hooker I have to ask, what is force trim? I only flew chinooks for about 13 years with about 2000 hours but I really do not remember a force trim anything. The Ch-47F had a trim switch which used Mag Brakes in the flight control closet to hold the flight controls in a specific position you set with mag brakes. The trim switch just "inched" the stick forward and back or left and right using drive motors inside these Mag Brakes. A series of Extensible Link Actuators (ELAs), springs, Control Position Transducers (CPTs) and a DASH Actuator helped maintian a general attitude and airspeed without needing to much attention. Additionally, the system was tied into the AFCS to allow for heading hold. You turned the heading bug, the aircraft turned to that heading. The thrust had something similiar but it was called a CCDA (Cockpit Control Driver Actuator). It did pretty much the exact same thing as the Mag Brakes except it was also tied into the Altitude Hold feature and would move the thrust channel of the flight controls to maintain either baro or radar altitude depending on which was selected. Anyways, very simple stuff that the CH-47D before it had and provided for a VERY stable platform without the need of to much pilot attention. What you are probably hearing that may not be available with the EA release is the Flight Director (FD). In the CH-47F, you can literally take a PIMCA card out to the aircraft, load a route you programed on a laptop, pick the aircraft up to a 10 foot hover, engage flight director and the aircraft will fly the entire route controlling heading, airspeed, altitude, without the pilot ever touching the controls and then come to a 10 ft hover within 3 meters of your plotted land point. All you have to do is land. This feature also provides features like hover hold, hover beep (alows you to beep your hover positon fwd, back, left, right by a foot at at time with trim switch), hover altitude beep (allows you to beep the altitude up or down about a foot at at time at a hover). It is very awesome and we older pilots hated it. First, because we saw all the young pilots loose their control touches and stop being able to do things like pick up a load without it and second because it made for some pretty debatable tactical practices that I won't get into. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to be able to fly a cross country flight eating my lunch while the aircraft did all the work and they are certainly impressive toys to have but it is not real flying. We even called it system management, not piloting. If that is what is missing from the EA release, trust me, you will survive. You will still get a chance to feel the impressive nature of a Chinook without it. Now, I will say this, the one bummer thing about the FD not being up, if that is the case, is you will miss the very sexy voice of the Chinook. I had a stick buddy through the CH-47D to CH-47F transition course who used to like to turn it on and off just so he could hear her voice!

I was reading some of the posts here and I thought I may hit on some of the thoughts, concerns, etc. 1. Missions: Yeah, if you are of the attack mindset you will find the chinook a bit tame for your tastes. Though there was an attack version of the Chinook in Vietnam (Gun's-A-Go GO) they only made 4 and it was a short lived program. The chinooks primary bread and butter is lift. Now, in real life I would say this gets pretty darn exciting. I remember screaming into a zone literally at tree top level, hitting the brakes, slamming the aircraft onto the ground, troops running off the ramp to engage the bad guy, and then yanking the guts out of her to rip out of the zone as quick as possible. This in large part due to the fact that when you are sitting on the ground you are, as the pilots, actually sitting six feet above the ground in a very large, very noisy, stationary target. This deffinetely adds some pucker factor to such missions. But in a simulator, well, there realy is no skill to sitting as a stationary target and there really is no price to be paid in a game for doing such a thing. So, I personally loved the missions we did but not likely a thing for those of the attack mindset that think the only cool thing in life is going "pew, pew." Some of the missions that you may be called upon though: 1. Troop movements (both administrative and direct action). 2. Cargo movements (internal and external). The most challenging of these is the gun crew movement. This is were you picket up an artillery gun crew in your cabin, then you pick up the 155 Howitzer as a duel point pick up under the bird, which in turn has a single penant ammo net slung under it. 3. Mass CASEVAC. 4. Fat Cow 5. Aerial Refueling (MH-47 only) 6. Deep penetration of enemy areas (MH-47 only) 7. Gun platform (MH-47 only) 8. Fire fighting. Yep, even active duty guys partake in this though not often in a combat zone 9. Search and rescue. 10. And not at all a smart one but I have been asked to do it. Recon. Seriously, I was asked to do this in an unarmed CH-47D while conducting a maintenance test flight when an oil rig near our base blew up. I was the only aircraft in the air in the area and the only crew available at the moment so they sent me out to see what was what. I was young and invincible so I accepted. But looking back on it I have to wonder at my own sanity! As for flying the Chinook, with AFCS on it is probably the easiest aircraft to fly in existance. It is incredibly stable and forgiving. I actually got really spoiled in it because of all the power it has and how stable it is. So when I tried on the AH-64D simulator I was having a rough go of it for a while while trying to remember how to fly a convential helicopter. Being aware of tail rotor effectiveness, being concerned with torque even with the lightest of loads, worrying about torque effect.....none of this had been on my radar for a very, very long time and I had some catching up to do. With AFCS off, it is like trying to balance the aircraft on a needle. It takes a lot of work and practice. Now, as for power, this thing has power for days. I remember one time I was told I needed to get my aircraft moved even though there was no taxi way open around me and I was surrounded by partially dismantled aircraft. The only way for me to go was up but hovering a Chinook puts out a LOT of wind and could have caused problems for all the aircraft around me. I got the brain child idea to pull max tq. My idea was, "I am empty, If I pull 99% tq I will climb so high so fast I won't disrupt anything around me." So I had my co-pilot guard my thrust and told him "As soon as you see the TQ hit 95% start pushing down. Do not let me go past 99%" I then yanked the guts out of the Chinook and once I dodged the overflying Airliner and re-entered orbit (joke) I found I indeed had not even so much as fluttered a packing label I wad exited the area so quickly! My point, with the exception of the heaviest of loads you are not going to have to be overlly converned with power. Airspeed. The UH-60 and AH-64 are indeed faster then a Chinook........when they are completely empty and flyig at sea level. The nice thing about a Chinook is you can move fast empty, you can move fast heavy. You can move fast at sea level, you can move fast at altitude. Loading up with cargo and climbing high doesn't really affect your ability to move fast. The exception to this is external loads but that is more an aerodynamic thing with the load then the ability of the aircraft. Now, with that being said, a Chinook does like to vibrate at about the 150kt mark and flying that fast in real life was not really my thing. But that was mostly due to the comfort of it rather then the ability of the aircraft. I would say most people like to cruise at between 100-140kts, depending on mission factors, though I myself liked 120kts. But this was because of the ease of math when computing time distance heading stuff rather then any real need. Now, here is the real advantage to the Chinook over every other platform out there. But, again, unfortunately not something you can simulate. When you conduct field exercises and all the Apache and Blackhawk crews are sleeping in their cold tents and eating MREs we were sleeping in our heated cabin and rolling our BBQ off the ramp to cook up some burgers and steaks. To say we became the cool kids on campus, especially at BBQ time, would be a massive understatement!

Sir or ma'am, I just wanted to bring to your attention two problems I found with this campaign. First: The second to last mission when you destroy the convoy and are supposed to move down the valley, the game gets locked up here with your flight lead just doing circles obove the destroyed convoy. Second, many of the missions do not allow for editing load out in the mission planner prior to the start of the mission. This is problematic because the last two missions also do not allow for changes in mission in the farp and you are started with radar guided missiles but no radar. Thank you for your time and consideration!

Sir or Ma'am, I just wanted to bring it to your attention that the final two missions of the UN Campaign get locked up. The second to last the convoy you are flying cover for points out the first target, you engage and destroy them, and then nothing. The mission gets stuck there. The final one the troops move to the open field for pick up and one of the troops gets stuck in a literal "running in circles" mostion and the game does not progress from there. Thank you for the time and consideration!

As a former Hooker myself I can not say how excited I am to see this on the way. Already made the pre-purchase. So far everything I am seeing in trailers and videos looks pretty good. At the risk of being a nit picker I did notice one problem in the Afganistan Pre-Purchase video. You had the ramp extentions straight out from the ramp. Those are just small hidges that hold them on. No hyraulics, electronics, anything. If I recall the wire for the hidge itself was something like a MM or two thick and really is only mean to keep in in a resting postion between the ramp and the ground. Basically, they flipped down to allow the loading and off loading of wheeled vehicles into the cabin. But they were manual and, if not folded onto the ramp would have been dangling straight down in flight. Again, total nit pick and I think you are all doing a wonderful job! EDIT: I must hang my head in shame here and admit I just learned something new about the Chinook I never knew. Those ramp extenstion would indeed stick out straight. I have seen ramp surfing before but never with the use of the ramp extentions. I found this picture and realized I still have stuff to learn! null Edit to my Edit. One of my Flight Engineer co-workers that I am sitting with told me that this is a photo shop. The extensions would indeed drop down. I think the general thing we can be sure of here is I am not sure at all now so do as you wish. Maybe some other Hooker can come in here and set the story straight! (Oh, and yes, he is laughing at me for being so guilible)!

I am having an issue now were George has a target, weapons are armed and WASD. He lases a list of targets. I select one, check for solid box. Got it. Choose consent to fire and nothing. No resonse, no nothing. Am I doing something wrong?? Update: I figured out what I was doing wrong. You also need to click George right to lase the target. I wasn’t. Got it working now!

Awesome! Thank you so much. Glad it is not me. Well, you are awesome and thank you again!

This is in regards to the UH-1H UN Mission 6 Patrols. The lead aircraft performs a high hover at the start base and then sits there without starting mission progress. I tried shutting down and restarting the mission, game and my computer a couple times each and I got the same problem on all but one of my attempts. On The one attempt that the lead aircraft did actually launch we got all the way past my leads drop, my drop, and to the point were we were supposed to orbit while two other Huey's dropped troops. Those two hueys came in, stopped at about a 1 foot hover and then they game failed to progress further. All my controls functioned normally. The previous 5 missions performed normally. Just this one mission is bugging out. Any suggestions (I am hopiing it is not me and that I will have to delete and reload the game!)? Thank you so much!

More a question than a bug report or complaint. I’ve been learning the AH-64 and things like Chucks Guide or YouTuber CosmoTV show when the APU comes on line the right MFD should be up the DTU page. But mine is not and I am unable to access the DTU page? Is the problem on my end or is this a change? Thank you!