BeachAV8R

The shadows show up near the center hub during flight RPM...which seems to be just fine. As rotor RPM slows the shadows become more distinct and the full chord of the blade casts a shadow.

Yep..same problem for me. Actually, I *can* get them to work, but the problem is the collective axis is being reported as the little slider there under your thumb on the throttle. The cyclic works fine..and I actually learned to fly the helos using that little slider. By the way, the trick to getting the X52 to work *at all* in Vietnam MedEvac, for me, was to leave the controller unplugged until you start a mission, then plug it in right when it goes to the splash screen where it says the mission is loading. If I left my X52 plugged in, the controls would default to a diving left bank. The lack of controls mapping is a shame..and the fact that the UH-1 sounds like a Eurocopter Dauphin... ;) BeachAV8R

The Kiowa screenshots? I don't know..I didn't take those screens..but they don't appear to reflect the new airbase textures. The texture modding is an ongoing process and they are doing a great job (as you've seen in some of the other threads with screenshots..).. BeachAV8R

:) No..you don't need a twist handle. I just meant the rotor speed decayed because I had accidentally turned something off while I was doing my hover taxiing. You get a beeping sound and a warning light as the rotor RPM falls.. When you land and let off some of the power the rotor RPM increases. I can't remember what I hit that caused the rotor RPM to fall off, but it must have been some key combo that did something to one of the engines. I remember I was either trying to get the info bar at the bottom of the screen off (Alt or Ctrl Y I think it was) OR I was hitting CTRL and the / and * to zoom in the view and missed a key and did something. So no worries..no twist grip needed..

She's still in beta testing too... :D (We are engaged..) BeachAV8R Uh..well..maybe she's beta testing me now that I come to think of it.. Hmm..better go and clean up the house.. :D

:) I think the 3 styles will compliment each other well. GA's "Hollywood" to get us pumped, Wags Producer's Notes to show us technical features & developments, and mine to see how even a dumb ole' fixed wing pilot can sort of clumsily manage to "divinely hover" for a while... ;) And Roger that on the babes..maybe we can get some video of my girlfriend flying it: Talk about dynamic! :photo:

It's gonna sound like a stupid suggestion..but in the interim, if you haven't tried out the old classic Vietnam MedEvac or Search & Rescue 4..they are actually quite good in the helicopter physics department. Not exactly cutting edge graphics..but maintaining a hover in crappy weather or sling loading supplies into a base can be pretty cool. Short article I wrote a few months ago here: http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_322a.html And a short movie: http://www.simhq.com/_downloads/air/Vietnam_MED_EVAC/vietnam.zip I know it isn't a real good substitute..but it might get you in "rotorhead" frame of mind.. ;) BeachAV8R

Alright..just verified it by going back into the FRAPS movies I had captured. Indeed the rotor shadows are affected by the speed of the rotor system. As a matter of fact, in the video posted with the preview, you can just barely see the rotor shadow near the helicopter..because near the center hub the rotors aren't going as fast as the mid point and tips. I found another video clip where I got a low rotor RPM warning and sure enough..as the rotors slowed the shadows showed up on the ground. So it is rotor speed dependent.. :thumbup: BeachAV8R

I honestly don't know. Could be because I'm running on MED settings on some of the stuff instead of HIGH (?)..or it could be due to the rotor speed. I'm really not sure. I'll try to get back to you though.. Regards.. BeachAV8R

Yeah..you know, I remember seeing a video a couple years back that the developers released of Flaming Cliffs and the Su-25T. I don't remember all of the details about it..but I remember it showed the -T taxiing around on the Kuznetsov and I remember seeing the struts compressing and it rolling backwards and the nose strut bouncing up and down..and I was impressed. The Ka-50 is the same way..very impressive. Wish I had included just a short segment of tilting the rotor back and forth on the ground so you could see the airframe rocking around and the struts moving and the rotor disk arcing in different planes. Very dynamic feeling.. BeachAV8R

I'm Glowing Amraam's biggest fan.. He gets me pumped up to fly! He's got some unbelievable movie making and editing skills...

Oh man..that is awesome. The Kiowa is one of my favorite helos. Small, nimble..but packs a punch. One of my favorite things in the old Longbow 2 was to fly the Kiowa and drag along an AH-64 as my wingman...then just use him as I spotted targets. Very cool helicopter... I mean, look at the size of it..looks like you strap it on instead of getting into it: http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/Csa/oh-58d2.jpg BeachAV8R

Yeah..might have been my fault too though because using FSScreen the "PrtScrn" button is the same one that triggers the in-game screenshots too. Wish I could post more of the fantastic screens I took for the article. It was hard to cull them from a hundred down to just four. We weren't asked to limit the shots (the number that appeared in the article)..but I think it is keeping with the spirit of the "preview" to not saturate the community with them. Regards.. BeachAV8R

Oh, it blows it away. FSX has "helicopters lite" (in my opinion). Seems they had made them easier to fly since FS9 and while I rather enjoyed flying around in the JetRanger I somehow get the feeling that in real life it isn't that easy. With Black Shark you definitely get the feeling of activity on the controls..lots of little subtle corrective motions necessary and if you get ham-fisted it will bite you pretty good. In the video in that first article I had set up the minimal level of turbulence (1) and just a very slight wind. I haven't experimented with the higher levels of turbulence and wind..but I'd imagine (based on flying the Su-25T AFM) from past experience that things could get pretty exciting in poor weather conditions.. I haven't tried landing on anything other than the taxiway and the runway. In fact, I haven't even flown anywhere away from the airport yet. I've been too busy bouncing around the ground a watching in awe from the external views. The flyby view is just...incredible. The nice thing about helicopter ops is the subject stays in view much longer than the fast jets..really gives you a chance to stare.. :D Regards.. BeachAV8R PS - And just one other thing. I'm still bound by an NDA..so while I'll talk freely about some of this stuff related to the video, the write-up, and previous Producers Notes, I hope you'll appreciate that I can't answer all questions on all features and plans.

Thanks for the heads-up..we put another image in there that didn't have the artifact...stupid me for not looking closely enough at the captures before I sent them off to get published.. :poster_oops: Thanks for the catch..! BeachAV8R

That was an artifact that crept in because I was using FSScreen to take the screenshots and I think Black Shark was also saving the images in its own directory. I had a few other screenshots that came out with pieces of fuselage missing and I'm pretty sure it was due to conflicts between the external screenshot utility and the internal one. I can't believe I didn't see the line before you mentioned it though... Doh! Rest assured the artifact doesn't show up in the game while playing..only in the screenshot..

:D I can't tell you how many times I've pedal turned into a vehicle or lightpole and knocked pieces off my tail. And by no means have I mastered hovering or landing.. :D There are things like autopilot (for hovering and other modes) that I'll get to in coming articles, and I now there is a position keeping box that can display in the HUD to help you maintain your hover position (as seen in Matt Wagner's excellent 3rd Producers Notes video). There is still much, much more to learn and share... :joystick: Regards.. BeachAV8R

Indeed. I finally sat down with the checklist the other night and went through the full start-up procedure..and man..it is so cool. Just hearing the APU spool up and doing all the avionics and systems checks and all of that is really immersive. It has been a long time since some of those old Janes sims..and with the advent (since then) of TrackIR, 3D cockpits, and the stunning graphics..well, this is a whole new ball of wax and it will blow your socks off. I mean, the Su-25T was awesome..I fell in love with it - and Black Shark is an order of magnitude beyond that just for the sake of the clickable cockpit alone. I look forward to continuing with the series.. Regards... BeachAV8R

Sean Connery made us do it. :thumbup: Glad people are enjoying the article. As I posted over at SimHQ, it is intended to be a "lite" article..not hugely in-depth for various reasons (mostly to keep the length of the article reasonable..I have a tend to go long-winded..). As the article states, the intent is to just show some basics. Just showing the hovering around shows the fidelity of the flight model. We'll be doing more articles about once a month or so touching on different aspects of the sim..again, sort of lite stuff that doesn't take ruin the experience for all of you once Black Shark is released. I'm pretty jazzed about it though..it is fantastically fun to fly and it is going to be a handful to fly AND fight.. Regards.. BeachAV8R

Well, from a real piloting perspective, I can tell you that even after flying for 10 years in the same airplanes in our company fleet, I wouldn't be able to tell you where every switch and button was in the aircraft by memory. Certain switches, over the years, become instantly recognizable and your hand just travels to them automatically, but others require me to put my head down and look. For instance, in the Citation V, which I've been flying for 12 years now, I still have to lean down and read the writing on the EL panel (Electro-Luminescent lettering) to make sure I'm moving the correct switches. The switches are all very close and have the same texture, and there are plenty of them: wing inspection light, nav lights, recog lights, tail/beacon, pitot static heat, windshield hi/lo switch, manual boot deice, etc..etc.. They are all in the same spot and it is important that you hit the right switch in some cases. For instance, the manual de-ice boot activation switch is right next to another switch. If you are flying high, and the temperature is below -40C, if you hit the manual boot activation switch you will shred the rubber boots (they get too brittle at super-cold temps). So, from a realistic perspective, I do think it is important that you be able to read and understand the labeling of an aircraft cockpit. If I were flying an imported plane I'd spend more time in the cockpit making darn sure I knew what switches did what. I'm a big fan of Teka Teka doing an English "export" cockpit. I'd use it. BeachAV8R

I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I spent online back in the late 80s playing F-15 Strike Eagle III in multi-player mode. I would do the flying and my friend over the 300 baud modem would play the backseater. We had to type instructions to each other until we both bought CB radios and used that to communicate to our houses. :D It was so much fun working as a crew... :joystick::joystick: BeachAV8R

I love the hunt and stalk gameplay of helicopter sims. EECH and LB2 are fantastic...sneaking around trying to get into position for a kill. Plus the flying is harder..constant attention to not flying into the ground..constant inputs on the controls. I really enjoy it. BeachAV8R

.. I'd suggest constructive comments and criticisms. If having been down this road of changes and the attendant community outrage multiple times before means I'm an elitist...well..so be it. I'm still not sure that some of you get it..(that there are reasons that jet flyables aren't going to be included).. If those reasons are related to content that ED can't bring over because of ownership of content by Ubi or if they are technical details (or both), I honestly don't know. If it were easy, or possible without dragging out the project for many more years, I'm sure they would do it don't you?? I'd suggest that you hang on to LOMAC and FC..continue playing your fast jets and enjoying the immense content there..(hopefully patched one more time?) and wait for a product to come down the line that you DO want to buy. I'm not expecting reason to win out over passion here. Like I said...seen it too many times before... Good luck! BeachAV8R

I have to admit it's nice to not have to build a new system every time I go out flying...the frame-rates are always pretty smooth! :P BeachAV8R

In all honesty. It took me darn near 9 months to come to grips with the avionics and weaponry of the Su-25T...and I still don't think I even came close to "mastering" it. If we are truly talking about add-ons that are going to go into detail that exceeds the -T...then I don't see the problem with having some breathing room between releases. Then again..I don't play sims (anymore anyway..hehe..) for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week...so perhaps my learning ability is suffering from some of my other hobbies.. ;) BeachAV8R