Jaximus Decimus

This campaign sounds pretty interesting. When can we expect it to become available on Steam?

The thing you would really have a problem with is any kind of pre-flight inspection. Unless you've done one on a Huey before and you have the cheat sheet right there you're going to miss a lot of stuff. Even if there was a problem, could you tell by looking? If you don't know what a component is supposed to look like when it's in flyable condition how are you supposed to tell if anything is amiss? It would basically come down to: Are the rotors attached? Check. Begin startup. Also, what if it's out of fuel? Dead battery?

I just spent the last 6 hours turning my G940 joystick into a Huey cyclic. This is what this sim will do to you. My pedals are next!

Penetration is relative, though. Just about anything will penetrate the body of a vehicle that doesn't have armor. Automotive sheet metal doesn't provide anything resembling ballistic protection. As far as a certified incendiary tracer NATO round I have no clue.

In my experience incendiary tracer is easy to come by. Not API, but you don't need API to kill a light vehicle and set it ablaze. I'm not sure what the US military's official loading for the M134 is, but incendiary tracer was easy to come by in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I've seen 7.62 incendiary light vehicles on fire pretty easily. In fact, a quick youtube search reveals; There isn't a great deal of incendiary compound in each round, but you're not going to be hitting a target with an M134 with just one round. If it's inflammable, the M134 will light it on fire. Probably, anyway.

Nice find, Sundowner. Where's that info from?

Ok, I'm not the only one. Thanks, Bear.

I haven't got out my stopwatch and checked or anything, but the spool-up time on the M134's seems way too long. In my experience it only takes a couple tenths of a second to get wound up and start firing, but in the Huey it feels like it's at least half a second or more. I can look out the window and watch the barrels just spinning. I don't know if this was a characteristic of the older M134's, but current models definitely don't behave that way. At first I just thought there was a delay before my fire command would go into effect, like I had to hold it so long before the guns would get the command to fire, like a safety. But I can look out the window and clearly see the guns spool-up the moment I press the switch. That half second feels like an eternity when you've got your pipper locked on a moving vehicle and you need to get rounds out.

Is this a flight simulator or an engineering simulator? How is this six pages?

Hey, thanks a lot, jotaele. I'll have to give that a try. Seems worth the trouble to get this working with ToH. Thanks again.

I know I'm way late to the party here, but I've just got to chime in and say this program is amazing. My G940 has never felt better. Truly an excellent job you have done, AP. My only regret is that is doesn't seem to work with Take On Helicopters. I spent some time yesterday trying to get it working, but ToH just won't relinquish FFB control. The two programs just kind of fight each other and I never was able to figure out a way to completely kill ToH's FFB. WHat a shame, because this is really excellent. I give it an 11 out of 10.

MSI Afterburner is free, has a ton of options and you can record for as long as you want. I haven't used Bandicam, but file sizes are much smaller than FRAPS. Great video, BTW!

Short answer, no. It is not more economical for helicopters to fly at higher altitudes. Long answer; While planes and helicopters do indeed have to obey the same laws of physics, the construction and operating principals of airplanes and helicopters are very different. Airplanes have engines to generate thrust and wings that use that thrust to create lift. When a plane climbs into higher thinner air it becomes easier for the engines to push the plane. This allows the plane to go faster, which increases the lift generated by the wings. So, even though the wings technically produce less lift in thinner air the speed increase makes up for it. So the plane is now easier to push through the air, is travelling faster and has just as much lift as it would in denser air. That adds up to better fuel economy. Helicopters, on the other hand, have a spinning rotor that is responsible for generating lift and thrust. At high altitudes the loss of lift created by the thinner air forces the engines to work much harder to make the rotors spin faster. Eventually you can get to a point where the engines can't spin the blades fast enough to generate more lift. This is why helicopters can't hover at higher altitudes and tend to have a much lower service ceiling than airplanes. Helicopters get the best fuel economy when flying fast enough to generate translational lift at altitudes where the air is dense enough for the rotor blades to efficiently generate lift.

Hey, Peter, where can I get a form to place an order for one of these bad boys?

Well, peter, I've looked at that mixer about 50 thousand times and Black Shark wasn't even showing up, but your post got me curious about it. I had to open the mixer, launch the game, launch a mission, go back to the mixer control panel and that caused Black Shark to show up on the mixer and I instantly got sound. Didn't even have to move the slider. Pretty weird, but whatever works, right. Thanks for your help, Peter. You are an invaluable source of information and a true asset to this community.

Ok, guys, help me out here. I'm on Black Shark version 1.02. Just built a new system and can't get any in-game audio after 3 installs of Black Shark. The menus all have the appropriate clicking sounds and music, but once I actually launch a mission I have no audio. I've got integrated audio and I've got the Realtek HD drivers and all that good stuff installed. I am completely stalled out on what to do here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nuh uh. Check pages 79-80 of the manual. Unless the manual is wrong and I'm also wrong, the trimmer is the button that your thumb wants to naturally rest on. The pinky switch is for auto-hover engage. I know, I'm a helicopter nazi.

Bushmanni is absolutely right. The reason they don't use small lightweight projectiles in anti-tank mines is just a matter of damage. Sure, you can get a small lightweight projectile to pierce the armor, but that would be like sticking a needle in an elephant. It's just not going to do enough damage to stop the elephant. I have a background in small arm ballistics and I can say with certainty that standard FMJ bullets have poor penetration at close range because of bullet failure. If the bullet is traveling too fast it will just shatter when it hits its target. If you give the bullet enough time to slow down, a few hundred yards, it can penetrate without breaking up. Now, sure, the physics get a lot different when you start talking about shape charges and depleted uranium discarding sabots fired at extremely high velocity, but as far as standard projectile weapons go, this holds true.

If you watch part 2 of "Datalink" in the producer's notes you'll see that when he orders them to attack the targets they fly to the ingress point, then immediately start attacking their respective targets. In part one he sends a wingman to a target point and he stays there in a hover. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

If you send your wingman to attack a datalink target he will normally just make a beeline for the target. This could take him right over enemy ADA or otherwise leave him exposed to attack. If you send your wingman a datalink target, then an ingress point, when you tell him to attack the datalink target he will first fly to the ingress point, then attack his target/targets. This can be used to help overcome your wingman's stupidity.

You can't make a wingman go to an ingress point. Once you've set up a datalink target for your wingman you can set an ingress point. That's where he'll stage his attack. You can't just set an ingress point and tell him to go there.

The KA-50 only allows you to select between internal or external pylons. There is no means by which to select a specific pylon. Sorry, renders.

Quick tip for programming the mode buttons: Select the mode number you want to assign the function to, 2 or 3 with the slider switch. Then select the button you want to assign the keystroke or command to in the profiler. You'll notice that when you select assign keystroke/command it will default back to mode one. Just slide the mode selector switch back to mode one, then back to the mode number you would like. Select the command or keystroke and click ok. Again, it will reset you back to mode one, but you should find that it assigned the function to the mode switch you had selected when you clicked OK. Make sense?

As long as you're below the cloud deck you shouldn't have any problems locking the targets up. Even if you can't get a lock you can designate and fire manually in a pinch. The difference between attacking "Target" or "Targets" is that when attacking Targets your wingman will attack targets in a 3 kilometer radius from your locked target, datalink point, or target point. When just attacking Target he will only engage targets in the direct vicinity of the specified point. If you use the "By Type" modifier he will only attack the type of targets you tell him to, be that ADA, Ground, or Other. For more info on commands you can check out section 14-3 of your manual. As far as the funnel goes, if you're going for a clockwise funnel you will need right rudder, left bank and negative (nose down) pitch. You have to balance these all out until you're flying in a nice little circle. I'm sure the more experienced guys here could explain it better.