Buznee

Looks like this may fix the Springfield going in circles issue. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=113723 Has Belsimtek spotted this as a bug? Also please please please slow the AI down some. It will make following the leader much more practical and realistic.

Attempted Mission "Good Evening" with issues. Considered unplayable. The helicopter AI behavior really needs work. They flew within an envelope in which you would be toasting the engines. I had to run my exhaust gas temperatures continuously at about 700°C and roughly 90 to 95 knots to keep up with my leader (Springfield 1) which is only permitted in reality for 5 seconds. I was also on max power since I was on the verge of drooping the rotor speed if I pulled any more collective. He was also continuously going in circles around the airport. I heard communication from all the other guys, colt, ford etc and we were just stuck going in circles for about 10 minutes. I finally decided to steer away from my leader in which it promptly informed me that I failed the mission.... Bit frustrating here. Mission considered unplayable. Please fix the routing and triggers for Springfield 1. Also please set a much slower obtainable cruise speed for Springfield 1. If not, lower the weight, starting fuel, or weapon loadout to make for more practical loading. Something around 70 knots would be realistic for a heavy and draggy helicopter. Please also try to make the AI helicopters do a realistic takeoff where they accelerate to speed in ground effect before climbing out. It seems the AI likes to do vertical climbs, and they are definitely redlining the engine in the process. Then they accelerate out and expect you to follow, forcing you to redline the engine as well and failing the mission if you choose not to.

Hey guys, finally finished the mission Aurora in the campaign. Definitely issues with taking out the 2 RPG guys up on the rooftop. Seems that shooting them does not kill them. I tried my side gunners and the mini guns with no luck. I finally was able to continue by landing on them with my helicopter. Yes that's right, the only way to kill these guys was to physically crush them with my helicopter. I have a saved track I can provide if email is provided to send it to.

Thanks Nate. Making a great sim even better =)

Any news regarding this?

Has anyone been able to communicate with their wingman in the campaign? I'm not sure if I should be on UHF, VHF AM, VHF FM and what frequency to set. I have had no luck with getting any type of reply from my wingman. He just stays in formation but I can't get him to follow any type of orders or mission objectives.

Agreed that this should be a failure. Including actual drive shaft failure as well tail rotor control failure. For the drive shaft failure the tail rotor would no longer be connected to the rest of the drive system and would no longer receive power. You would still be able to control the pitch of the tail blades with the pedals but there would be no tail rotor effectiveness since the tail rotor is not being turned to produce thrust. The control failure would be where the pilot no longer had tail rotor pitch control function even though the tail rotor is still connected the drive system. Another variation would be to have a tail rotor blade failure, the blade would effectively be shot off throwing the tail rotor out of balance or sheering the tail rotor off completely.

Thank you thank you thank you! Your video shows it much more obvious than mine. It definitely tends to jump in different directions as well. Good job capturing that all. On your second video that odd flight dynamics start around 2:04 time stamp. Everyone watch carefully and you can see the discontinuity in the way the aircraft behaves as it jumps around.

Understood. Is it a smooth transition though? In the sim it's currently showing a jump and also it's very inconsistent. This only happens sometimes. The aircraft will seem to have a jump in thrust output and then it goes away again. Doesn't seem right. I don't see this happening in blackshark either. The blackshark shows a nice smooth transition into ETL. And by smooth I don't mean that there are no vibrations in the cockpit, but the fact the thrust output acts a continuous smooth function while entering and exiting ETL. This seems almost like a discontinuity in the model that is erratic.

I was curious if there is an interest having a checkbox in the options menu that allows you to start the campaign missions with dark cockpit. This would add to the immersion of the campaign in IMO. I don't like the idea that you currently have to edit each mission in order to get this feature. It should be an overall option.

Interesting.... I tried the mission a second time and the trigger seemed to work.

I'm glad I'm not the only crazy here :) can the real Huey pilots and/or belsimtek developers weigh in on this?

The inlet body of water coming from the main water source near Batumi seems to be rendered in a displaced manner below the ground elevation. Anotherwords the texture is offset below ground level. The collision model for the water is still at the ground level though. Therefore doing low level flying over the river/inlet is deceiving, you think you can get lower to get near the water but then crash into the boundary where the water texture is supposed to be.

I had the same issue, Is this mission broken?

Videos as promised. As promised, here are the videos. Both internal and external views. Notice the abrupt jump with no change in collective. I understand the aircraft enters translational lift as well as transverse flow effect of the rotor but is it really that abrupt to cause you to jump in this manner uncommanded? It almost feels like you just got slingshotted up over 10 ft. It doesn't seem right. Overly exaggerated effect if anything. Almost like a step function in the power required. Its not consistent either, sometimes it won't do it, sometimes it will. Not sure if ground effect is playing a role in this.

You are correct, the approach and landing can be the hardest thing to learn on helicopters. Flying within the limits of the aircraft is key. How are you setting up your approach? The trick is start with shallow approaches and shallow flares as you approach ground effect. Also below 40 knots get ready to check the collective. You have to keep bumping the collective up in a increasing manner as the speed drops to zero in order to keep your rate of descent in check. Do not exceed 500 fpm. first practice getting into ground effect at 40 knots and then flaring gently to decrease your speed to 0, while keeping the altitude the same. Keep the flare going until you enter a hover. You will notice you will be slightly aft stick and left stick in the hover. You will also be using left pedal. Do not do aggressive flares with steep approaches, you will overspeed the rotor, and droop the rotor heavily as you arrest your descent as you fall out of translational lift. You also have the risk of entering into vortex ring state during aggressive flares or steep descents at low speeds. Just remember, keep the collective in check and focus on doing shallow approaches with shallow flares! Practice is key!

Small bug but when you call for a hover check you don't hear your voice as compared to calling in for engine start up clearance, taxi clearance or takeoff clearance. Another bug relating to ATC, not sure it handles air taxi very well. Is it normal in a helicopter to stay in ground effect when reaching the hold short line for the runway? IF so it would be nice to be able to request a takeoff while in the hover instead of having to touch down at the hold short line. If instead it is normal for the helicopter to land at the hold short line before requesting takeoff clearance then ignore this request. Another note though, if you do touch down at the hold short line and request takeoff, then air taxi to the runway and takeoff, The ATC does not seem to recognize a takeoff.

If this is a spring loaded switch does it activate the spring when the rpm goes into the green? Therefore in the real huey if the rpm goes into the green does the switch automatically move to the alarm on position? Seems to occur this way in the sim.

a video is worth a million words so I'll see if I can get one together. It's definitely something funky going on. If the real helicopter does this I would be shocked...

Not sure if anyone else has seen this phenomenon in the sim but I notice the aircraft behaves as if it is overly contrained when in ground effect and starting to enter into translational lift. By overly constrained I mean it almost looks like the aircraft moves or translates and doesn't rotate for a small portion of time during this regime of flight. It feels very unnatural. The aircraft also rises quite rapidly as if the ETL is almost a step function. If you'd like all try to get a replay that I can share with you guys. If you've ever flown Microsoft flight simulator and watched a replay you know how unnatural the replay looks, the overly-constrained effect I'm referring to is shown similarly through fsx replay. I see a similar temporary motion out of the aircraft during this condition. Once you pass through this regime the aircraft feels free and alive again. Thoughts? :huh:

Any chance DCS is going to incorporate weight and balance for the current modules being offered? It would be great to be able to see the center of gravity with respect to the allowable CG envelope. It would be cool to also see the effects of weapon, crew, and fuel loading on the CG and the effect it has in flight. Not sure if the current model assumes a fixed CG with only a variation in weight or if it already exists and it is not displayed.

+1 for the log window. It would be great to be able to see the history of messages for the mission. It would be like asking the guy, "say again, I didn't hear you"

I have some issues with the formation flying missions that are quite frustrating to me. Some of these issues may be limitations or issues within the DCS engine and out of Belsimtek's control but they really need to be fixed because they detract from the realism and can be quite frustrating. When flying many of the formation missions, flying behind the group leader, I find that you start quite heavy. To the point where the recommend beeping the rotor speed up for takeoff and landing. I understand this is a real operational occurance, The problem is that when in cruise, 100 knots is the target formation speed, the aircraft is not able to achieve this with adequate margin and keeping the engine in the continuous power setting. Most of the time up in the mountains the aircraft seems limited by the exhaust gas temperature. You are supposed to keep it in the green but to stay in formation you end up running above the green into the 30 minute power or higher. Especially because you end up having to keep accelerating and decelerating due to AI erratic behavior. This can be improved by simply lowering the targeted cruise speed to something more reasonable like 80 knots. I believe the huey actually has VNE limitations with altitude and weight, the AI may actually be exceeding these limits. Check the flight manual! Other issues, I notice the AI is very erratic in it's behavior when performing NAP of the earth flying. Worse is, because they are close to the max capability of the aircraft they are forced to trade airspeed for altitude which causes large changes in trim. Very bad for formation flying. They also climb at unrealistic rates, only way to keep up with them is to pull into high powers and droop the rotor. Can you set a more reasonable climb profile for these guys? You find them getting near a mountain, setting up the climb profile too shallow initially and then stopping and climbing vertically. Not realistic and quite frustrating. They then get over the mountain, accelerate rapidly, descend like crazy and slow down. A group leader would never fly in this manner unless he wanted to get himself rear ended by his wingmen. Please fix this especially since the campaign has quantity of formation based missions. I can complete them but I am not amused. Another option is to allow for a much looser formation promoted by the group leader "Loose formation guys, we don't want to run into each other while in the mountains" Thanks for listening.

I guess it's more of a mismatch than a typo but the general asks you to go to checkpoint 5 where in fact he really means checkpoint 4 when referencing the map. I believe the mismatch continuous a few more times in the mission. Confusing. Also this may be more of a matter of opinion but the general asks you fly along the river through the town and then go to the next checkpoint. I misinterpreted that as keep following the river until I tell you otherwise. I ended up following it all the way to the mountains. After repeating the mission I tried going to the next point after the town ends and had no issue. Maybe the words can be a little clearer? Or you can have the general tell you, "I told you to turn after the town, did you not listen?"

Funny, I did absolutely nothing in this mission but follow the leader "springfield 1" I believe and I completed it. I was told through the radio to attack from the rear but then when I try to break formation I get yelled at saying that I should stay in formation. I was confused. I figured if I left formation I would get a mission failed for not following orders so I ended up not attacking anything. Eventually "Miguel" which I believe is my name in the campaign said that the targets have been neutralized. I didn't do anything. We then returned base and got a mission complete. There are definitely issues with this mission. Also the Blackhawk team almost decided to collide into us on our way home. This has been said before but the missions that require formation flying have been very frustrating. The AI decides to follow a constant height AGL and they seem overly gained. Trading height and speed way too aggressively. I almost collided into my group leader countless times because of the jagged movements. On top of that the fact that we are way heavy in loading and cruising at 100 knots means that I am marginal in power and cooking the engines all the time in order to stay in formation. I suggest for these missions where you are loaded heavy and flying in mountain areas to reduce the cruise speed to 80 knots rather than 100 knots. If there's anything that can be done to smooth out the AI logic while in formation, please do so. Also change the rate of climb that the group leader targets, this will also reduce the demand the player has to do in order to stay in formation. AI does not plan their climbs over mountainous terrains very well. They decide to start their climb too late, get near the mountain side and finish the climb vertically. This would be a big no no in real life.