RodBorza

Approach speeds: Vertical speed, as per the pictures shown on the post, must be below -500 ft/min. No more than that. Otherwise you will fall out of the sky. Regarding forward speed, less than 40 mph. It is trick though on the Huey, because below 40 knots you lose lots of lift, and below 20 knots you lose even more. I usually come at 40 knots, and then, close to the ground I reduce to 20 knots, then it is all visual from there, because below 20 knots, the pitot tube is not reliable to tell you the speed that you are travelling. For touch down, vertical speed must be around -100 ft/min and forwars speed very slow, tottally dependent on visual cues. With time you'll get it, as you do when parking a car.

In order to the Co-Pilot/Gunner or the Door Gunners engage targets you need to open the Gunners AI Panel by pressing Lwn+H. Also, all the commands necessary to issue orders are under Gunners AI Panel on the command list. And in the manual, page 110, it shows how the Artificial Intelligence works.

No problem, mate. We are here to help. Regarding real life, as other stated here, I believe they are quiet, depending on the situation. Also, we need to remember that the Apache was originally created to do exactly that: hover behind cover, find targets, shoot, run away, in a Cold War scenario. So, yes, they must be relatively quiet.

In real life... no idea. In game, you can do a test first to determine the sound detection range. Find a point of reference, a building, an airport, whatever and put your waypoints on defined distances from the reference, ie., 2 km, 5km, 8 km, 10 km and so on. Get to the choppa... and move to the waypoints you set. At each one you get into a hover, go F2 for external view and zoom out to the reference point. This way you will be able to determine at which distance the chopper can be heard or not. Do it in daylight to facilitate things. Then you can do the same, with enemy units located at the reference point, set your chopper as Immortal and do the test again, this time for sound and visual detection. Do the same for night and day and then you can determine if detection range changes during the day and at night. Usually enemy units don't have good detection at night.

I've noticed that after update 2.8, the panel seems more crispy and clear, now I can see the number son the speedometer without having to zoom into it. Also, from the pilot position, I can see the fuel gauges perfectly on the right panel. Maybe they've changed the panels or is the new illumination, but the end result has been very good for me so far.

I've found out abou them today. Had never noticed the settings on the cockpit before. I'll test to see if they work. It will need some creative thinking to properly test them, but it's ok.

Is it in Multiplayer? I've tested in SP and he is engaging the targets you give him.

Thanks for the info. I am now flying with the FTR pressed in speeds above 40 knots and the helo is behaving very well, easy to control, no more SAS saturation (since I'm pressing the FTR to move to a new attitude, naturally the SCAS will reset while I press the FTR, so no more SAS Saturated warnings, which is good). However, at low speeds, in take off and landing conditions I do not press the FTR because the system becomes very loose, and I tend to lose control of the helicopter. What I do when coming down to land is to set a desired attitude, then move, tap the FTR, move tap the FTR, adjusting trim in small incrementes and then no FTR pressed, no tapping the Trim, just moving the controls to fine tune the landing. Maybe it has to do with the Heading Hold always present below 40 knots, and I confess that I didn't understand how it affects the helo behavior at these low speeds.

I agree completely with this. Also I agree that most people do not understand how to use rockets, either in real life or in DCS. I also had the same questions, "why would I ever waste a pylon to carry these useless rockets?". But then I started to test them out, both in the Huey and on the Apache. On the Apache, in Cooperative mode with the CP/G it is very easy. On other modes, not so much. In the Huey, it is an art and a science, but when you get the hang of it, it becomes a good stand-off weapon for that platform. The point you made of rockets being a middle range weapon for the Apache is a good one. This I learned from my Huey tests. I'm looking forward for you article on rocket employment, also I'm really curious how you can launch them form 10 km or so.

Yep, I found it easier to control and no more 'SAS Sturated' thing. The only thing that I found to be more twitchy were the pedals. For the rest it works fine (even George improved in SP).

DCS is an amazing sim. Yeah, it has bugs, many things on the core game do not work. But once you stop to watch it, listen to it, you'll notice that you have in hand is an amazing piece of computer engineering. People tend not to realize it. Also, people ask, scream, complain, demand for realism! And then when they get realism they scream, complain and demand for it to be less difficult. DCS, for me at least, conveys this 'realism". Modern jets are very easy to fly, hard to learn the systems. Older airplanes, warbirds included, are hard to learn. No wonder why the numbers of accidents in training were relatively high. Because they are unforgiving. Like you said, you made a stupid mistake, but by the way the aircraft was configured, it became very, very difficult for you to recover it. That's the beauty of this sim, say what you say, but DCS is amazing.

Hello all, I'm new to this scripting world, so I would like to know if it is possible to create a trigger zone around a smoke marker that I released. I'll explain: I want to use the Huey or the mighty OV-10 Bronco as player controlled FAC, and using the AI as attack aircraft. The idea is to find a target, send a WP rocket near it, and then let the AI go in for the attack. The idea is to create a trigger zone around the smoke marker, then the AI would search for and attack targets within that trigger zone, not paying attention to other targets.

Yep, I can abide by that. I took off the spring from my rudder pedals, and became a better rotorhead, or any other plane for that matter. The only thing I'd suggest is to know if you will be able to reinstall the springs in case you don't like the result.

You don't have the Humvee TOW? Strange, that comes with the core game. Anyway, in order for your FAC to lase correctly, you need to watch the proper Line of Sight (LOS). I usually put a TOW Humvee on a mountain top, or even a building, set it to Invisible and Green (Not engage) Rule of Engagement. That's not realistic in any way, but that's the way it is in game. The FAC needs to have LOS clear to the target. It means, no trees, no buildings, no terrain, no obstacles of any sort to block its view. If you are shooting at targets that are moving or will move, make sure that the FAC will be able to see them at any position. The FAC also has a distance limit of 3 nm. Yep, sometimes, due to this, you will need to put the FAC right in front of the enemy. And of course, at night, DCS FACs can't see nothing, won't see nothing. JTACs at night do not work and it seems that ED was working in a solution to this, but it is not ready yet.

So, I was having this problem too, and tried find out what's going on. @BIGNEWY said: George must be happy. Then I want and tried to find out what makes George tick. What makes him happy. After some testing, my results: 1. Speed: From 70 to 110, he seems to always engage. Sometimes even above it. 2. Altitude. He seems very (trigger) happy above 300 ft. Then, there is an important note I want to make: George likes to shoot at things below the helicopter, way below. I was trying out at the Syrian Range Mission on Instant Action. In that range, if you come low, he won't fire because either the gun traverse up limits are reached or he does not see the target. He needs to have a clear Line Of Sight to shoot at things. So, in order to have some rule of thumb I could use, I do attack runs at 500 ft AGL on average, so he sees the target and engage. On The Syrian range, which is on a hill, you need to come even higher, so he can see and shoot. 3. Range: from 1,000 meters to 3,000 meters seems to work fine. Below 1,000 is hit and miss. He sometimes does engage, sometimes doesn't. 4. Mode of operation. Free Fire or Consent to Fire works the same, since you follow some practical rules. See below. 5. Attitude. I believe it is the most important parameter of them all. From what I've tested, you need to give him a very stable platform from where he can shoot. - You need to select targets way earlier. - You need to be at straight and level flight. - You need to be trimmed. If you give him the command to fire and you are wobbling around or maneuvering, or decides to engage a target that is too close and you turn to it or from it, he won't engage. The attack runs I've tested were straight and level, trimmed, 300 feet above, stable. He is happy, he engages. It would be good if someone else tests it to see if what I found out makes sense and can be repeated.

They do change in the P-51 and P-47, if the engine RPM is low enough so the vacuum pumps do not work. Above a certain RPM they work fine. I tested as you showed and couldn't replicate. Below 1000 rpm it will be different of course, due to the vaccum suction being too low. Above 1000 rpm, it works independent of the rpm. Tested it on the ground, parking brake set, rpm lever full in, and varying only the engines boost.

I don't know abou the firing sequence, but that may be right, since the Mosquito uses a pneumatic system for its cannons and guns, maybe the system resets and goes back to the first gun and does not starts over from where it stopped. Regarding the firing sequence, firing all guns at once would defeat the purpose of volume of fire. What they thought at the time (and still do) was having a significant volume of fire over the target, so you fire a gun first, while it is ejecting the cartridge and recocking, the second is firing, the third one is priming, the fourth is ready to go and so on. If they fired all guns at once would have a time interval without any rounds being fired down range.Also, you would have to have perfect aiming every time you fired, in order to properly use all the guns potential. It would be, fire...wait...fire...wait... The way it is is fire..fire...fire... And all the cannons are adjusted to hit the center of the sight, no matter their position on the aircraft. So, what I believe their logic in WWII was (and still is), is to have as many rounds per second thrown down range as possible. If the first round misses the target, the second would miss also, but the pilot is correcting, the third and fourth will be on target, and then it goes all over again. And it is no exclusive to the Mosquito. If you fire all the ammo on the Mustang for instance, you will see that some MGs end their ammunition before the others, and when it is ending, only two or three MG of the six will be still firing. I don't know this is the case because some guns carry more ammo than the others in the wing or if it is a case of firing sequence, with ones always coming before some others, but a MG or cannon running out of ammo before others was a common thing in WWII aircraft.

I don't have a Force Feedback controller, but Scaley answer might help you. Regarding curves, mines are at 30 for Pitch and roll and no curvature for rudder. The secret with rudder is to lower the Saturation value and use no curves. None at all. I lowered the saturation to 80 and it helped a lot. Of course, she still very difficult to takeoff, and gets squirly at low altitudes. You need a light touch with her. Regarding takeoffs, the best thing is to put on collective very slowly until you are light on wheels, then push it more decisively and she'll takeoff. Otherwise she'll rol and you will have a dynamic rollover on your hands. Not good. Also, the SCAS is there to help you but sometimes it will try to kill you. In a chopper like the Huey you input pedal, turn, then take out the same quantity of inputted rudder to stop the movement. In the Apache you input rudder, turn, and then start to slowly taking out rudder until you stop. And you don't take out the same amount you had put in, because the SCAS will start compensating as soon as you turn. It takes time and practice to learn how to work with the computer but can be done.

Cool! I'll try it. Enviado de meu SM-A127M usando o Tapatalk

Thank you for this Chuck! I got the last version only because I was away from the Mossie for a while. Time to re-learn it. And when I opened the Guide...wow, a whopping 300 + pages! I just imagine the time and effort that it took to make this. Amazing work.

This is good advice. The only thing I would add is to pull the controls to the up position and keep them there when you do the initial throttle up. Release them when the speed gets to 60 MPH. It is easy to see since it is the very first speed showing in the speedometer. This way it seems easier to control, for me at least.

I was messing around the ME making an Apache Mission and noticed the "Hidden in MPD" option. For the Apache, if you put a SAM on a mission, it will show up on the Apache TSD and on its target list, no other action required. I wonder if you can do the same thing for targets, pre-briefed targets on the Mission Editor that would show up on the Apache TSD or even on te F/A-18 JDAM PB Mission list. Is there a way to pre-brief targets through the Editor?

No problem with your mission. The problem is that JTACs on DCS 2.7 are really blind at night. They cannot see, any AI JTAC won't lase or mark the targets. I thought by seeing Wags JTAC video with the Apache that they did fix it. But they didn't. They are still blind. But they work ok during the day, up to 03 miles away.

What worked for me was to down the Video Contrast mode. I turned it down, and voilá, the green backdrop showed up.

Yes, you are right. It is agile but not Kiowa level agile. And as you said, it is slow, and takes long to get it to speed.