Rogue Trooper

What is your take on the front nose castor wheel and the tail castor wheel admiki? Do you think a tail castor is harder to steer than a nose castor?

Do a firmware update in your target software either as is with the AVA or with the original setup. It is very odd for a thrustmeter product to not recognise one of its products... in fact it is spooky strange. UPDATE EVERYTHING!

From the Wags' mouth: actual. It will not be a MFD laden airframe. Personally I would have Liked the UH-60 to be on par with the Chinook as their MFDs are the same. But an earlier bird with a a lower SCAS system in an older airframe, with a cranked tail rotor would indeed be a fantastic thing in DCS!...... probably not for the DEVS. Hopefully I am not hearing what I want to hear but basically this will be the only cranked tail rotor chopper in DCS.

Cranked tail rotor and all!

It must be a firmware thing. Contact Thrustmaster.

Good point, KA-50 is probably the same except its rotational turn is around the the centre of gravity (main coaxial rotors). Which leaves the centre of turn point for the hind and MI-8 roughly around the main left/right wheels, do you agree admiki? Where is the Apache's centre of turn, is it closer to the tail?

Yep the old throttle is a keeper, for me Its duties now are pure helicopter throttles whilst the main workload has passed onto the newcomers... virpil. Seems strange that the F16/Hawg grip is not recognised... could it be that your grip is so old it's electronics is not recognised? For sure under normal circumstances this is not normal for the AVA and hawg, firmware upgrade perhaps? Was there a change in the connector configuration? ( I briefly read this somewhere).

When you get to grips with the Apache you will be ready for our UH-60 Blackhawk and maybe in the very long future, the MI-28. Out of interest, our blackhawk will be older with steam guages and older SCAS, but will have the cranked tail rotor, meaning when you push the tail rotor left or right it will also push the nose up or down.... fantastic! Nothing is easy in DCS!

Hi Ddg1500, You understand that for taxiing, you are comparing aircraft that have nose wheel steering (Hind, MI-8, KA-50) to aircraft that are have tail wheel (castor) steering (Apache). You do get that these are very different ways of controlling an aircraft on the ground... yes? You understand that the steering mechanism of a nose wheel (hydraulically driven) is just in front of the pilot and reacts quickly to pilot input. The Apache has a castor tail wheel (free floating, unpowered) and is many meters behind the pilot and these many meters amplify the power coming from the tail rotor thrust.... you get that? You understand that they designed it this way to allow for the installation of the downward looking, free floating, 30mm cannon close to the centre of gravity of the airframe....Yes? For me these are obvious, indeed massive contrasts of helicopter ground control and must be modelled in DCS!. You simply have to work harder and sort it out.

Hi Ddg1500, I also only use the damper on my MFG crosswinds (spring removed), I have set the damper to maximum on the "damping Knob" so that any inflight adjustments to yaw are smooth and deliberate. Also my pedals are BF-109 WWII pedals so my feet sit on them so it was important that my pedals were stiff to avoid accidental movement. Having said that I was surprised how stiff (but smooth) real life helicopter pedals are and I guess they do this to reduce the risk of pilot induced oscillation with the yaw pedals. I set all DCS helicopters to no pedal Trim. Hopefully you can re-install the springs quickly for winged flight. The MFG takes around 3 to 5 minutes to reinstall the springs and set the damper to a much lower setting. Once they bring out the main rotor torque fix, this for sure will reduce the amount of pedal required to offset torque and especially reduce the crab the aircraft has.

For sure keyboard controlled pedals must be a nightmare on the Apache... any helicopter really.

You need to push the right pedal forward (and hold the pedal) around 20 to 25 % in order to have no tail rotor thrust acting on the unlocked castor wheel. This will then allow you to drive forward in a straight line. If you leave the pedals neutrally balanced then the nose will swing left because it is being pushed that way by the tail rotor, the real Apache's tail rotor is biased this way by design, Pedals in the middle is NOT no tail rotor thrust. When taking of into a hover: You should trim the cyclic slightly left and slightly back, pedals 20 - 25 % right forward. when you start slowly Increasing the collective you should start slowly pushing forward the left pedal, the ratio of pedal to collective adjustment can actually be seen via the horizontal window frame just above the CPG's head, this is because you trimmed the cyclic slightly left and as you increase collective the rotor blades start pushing down on the left wheels suspension and this tilts the entire airframe left, push the left pedal forwards to balance the window frame level again. keep repeating collective pedals and all of a sudden you will slowly and beautifully drift into the air. (at take off I think you are around 10% left pedal forward (?)) Do you have analogue pedals, Twist stick or keyboard? Personally, I love the pedals in the Apache and have absolutely no problem with the yaw.

How are you chaps getting on with the new rudder trim settings?

I am right eye, and I need to offset my LOS left to just outside the first hollow circle, I only fly VR. How did you manage to calibrate right eye dead on centre and it was perfect? Or are you talking about CPG position?

It would be nice if they could copy and paste George from the Apache or Petrovitch from the Hind. If you call "Chief" you get the "george" style menu pop up and a small Line Of Sight circle in the middle of your view, align the circle on the place of interest and hit "This point" and then the next menu allows you to choose: pinnacle landing, landing or suspended cargo drop. Cargo pick up is already in place and works well with voice comands. The first tier could have: this point, take off, ROE or something like that etc... It would be nice to have the door gunners/crew verbally clearing you for take offs or landings.