AlphaOneSix

Hey, I'm Fast Rope Master qualified!

Not puzzling once you know how the engines work. The throttle moves (obviously) the throttle on the engine(s). The collective moves (obviously) the pitch of the main rotor blades, and also (not so obvious) the throttles on the engines. There is a difference, although I will grant that it may not be completely obvious. Do you say this because it is your gut feeling, or do you have some experience with the TV3-117VMA?

Not right now, other than what you might dig up online or someone else will provide links... The file "DCS Mi-8MTV2_FlightManual_RU.pdf" is currently being translated and will hopefully be available soon, I'm looking forward to it quite anxiously myself.

This is proper operation. Also note that the aircraft will *not* perform "as if (the throttles) were in auto", it will actually perform worse. It's hard for me to test since that's just not something we try on the helicopter, but from reading and re-reading the documentation, it does appear to be working properly.

No clue what the devs are up to. If they are serious about this whole JTAC thing then I would think it's just a logical progression. Also, re: Jinx...well, I jinxed it. The aircraft that was supposed to pick me up tomorrow has bad gas so the flight was cancelled. So I may have another flight or two before I leave. Part of the beauty of being on the helo crew is that if the fixed wing can't come get me, we'll just fly the helo to swap me out, so not sweating too much yet. I'm jinxing myself again, aren't I?

No, I'm tracking what you're saying. We have some of our helicopters set up with Rover downlink receivers. In the back, we have the receiver send data to a laptop via Ethernet, but the receiver also has a direct video out that goes to a small screen in the cockpit. So the pilots can see the video feed, while at the same time someone in the back of the helicopter can be using the laptop, watching the feed, and using other apps at the same time, like FalconView. So you don't *need* a laptop, there are plenty of Rover setups that just send the decoded video feed directly to a monitor of some kind. Also tonight is my last flight, I'm out of here on Friday! I'l be home Saturday, and on the beach in Mexico by Monday. :D

Hellfires to Iraq are for Iraqi Air Force armed Cessna Caravan, as pictured above.

It works... Once DCS is started, go to Options -> Controls, and select "UH-1H Sim" and for the category select "Axis COmmands". Find the line for "Flight Control Collective" and under the column for your X-52 it will read (by default) "JOY_SLIDER1". Highlight that cell and click the "CLEAR" button. The cell should be empty after that. Double click the cell to set the new assignment, then just move the throttle fore and aft and it should insert "JOY_Z" into the "Key/Button" field. Click the "OK" button to go back to the Axis Commands list. If you want to "pull for power" (pulling throttle towards you increases collective), like on real helicopters, then (with "JOY_Z" still highlighted) click the "Axis Tune" button and click the box labelled "Invert", then click "OK". If you're just really used to pushing for power, like regular airplanes (yuk!) then you don't need to invert the axis.

Just one reason why the pilots themselves don't get to make that decision.

You don't have to have a laptop, the receiver can talk to a laptop over ethernet or it can send video directly to a monitor. A laptop is nice because you can use it alongside something like FalconView to see the aircraft's location as well as the viewed area on a map, which would be extremely valuable, although I don't know if that would be possible in-game at the moment. But just having a rover feed for a JTAC would be a big deal.

I think most would agree that such a level of precision is unnecessary. The manual indicates that only the bearing in degrees is shown. In-game, however, it is shown all the way down to 1/10th of a minute. Either the manual is wrong, or the game is wrong. In this instance, my opinion is that the game is wrong and is indicating too much precision.

It does.

DDMM.MM Degrees, Minutes, Tenths of Minutes. 124°30.0' 110°22.2' Edit #1: I actually don't know for sure. I will check. Edit #2: Okay, I checked. That is indeed what the number is representing (Degrees, Minutes, Tenths of Minutes). The manual indicates that only the degrees should be displayed, not minutes, and that the last three blocks should be blank, however it does appear that the PVI display is showing more data than is specified in the manual.

Nobody has gotten even close to my pings, yet. My best ping tonight was something like 750ms. But other than some minor warping (not as bad as I expected) everything seemed to run just peachy.

Nope, no gauge.

Here is when I have my trim button released: Straight and level flight Level climbs and descents Constant-rate turns that take a minute or two to complete During just about all other types of flight, especially any kind of flight involving moving the controls, I have the trim button pressed, and I don't release the trim button until the flight controls don't need to move anymore and I'm in one of the three phases of flight listed above. In a nutshell, for me, if the cyclic or pedals are moved AT ALL, the trim button is pressed and held until I'm done moving those controls. Other than for testing specific issues, I fly with Roll, Pitch, and Heading autopilot modes engaged at all times. I have never used Flight Director mode.

I guess the biggest hurdle for people to understand is that you need to get used to just constantly mashing the trim button every time the controls move. This requires a dedicated button in a comfortable location on your joystick. Trimming needs to just be second nature. I will also say don't worry too much about what people (including me) say about it. It's your game, play it how you want. At the end of the day, it's about being entertained. If it's not fun, do whatever you need to do to make it fun.

That's not how helicopters work. Anyway, in this case, the helicopter turns back to the original heading because the autopilot is returning the aircraft to desired heading set for the autopilot. To set a new heading, click the trimmer button at the new heading. Alternatively, turn off the heading mode of the autopilot and it won't try to hold a heading.

Well I've only tried with the right door gun, but I just tried it with both TrackIR and mouse control and in both cases, the sight line was right down the weapon, not off to one side like in your screenshot...until the mount hit its traverse limits and the point of view continued to move.

Yeah I see what you're saying now. Even if my head is not looking down the length of the weapon, I'm still looking pretty close to the same direction the weapon is pointed, and it seems like right now in-game it doesn't do that.

I will agree that my sight line is generally aligned down the length of the weapon and not off to one side. I have shot out of an HH-60G where it was impossible at some angle to have your head behind the weapon since the weapon was so far out the window. In that case, I had no choice but to just start firing and adjust the impact point from there. Even when I can get my head behind the weapon, I don't use sights of any kind...I just aim slightly behind the target and let her rip. With experience it just starts getting easier. I've never even seen a door gunner really try to use the sights since the old M-60D days with the big ring sight.

Since when do door gunners aim down the sights?

Well it's better tan it used to be. In "the old days" it was almost impossible to and in the weeds, as it were.

Blah I'm backwards

You misunderstand, that's the setting that goes into the Kohlsmann window on the altimeter to get the altimeter to read "0" at the airfield. It is not a "real" pressure reading.