Avio

I have been happily firing the KH-25ml with no problem the past two weeks, but with the latest 2.8 update, it no longer tracks after the laser. Instead, it falls to the ground upon firing, even after long enough time for the laser to cool.

I confirm this problem. Caution labels, when light up, show in Russian.

Thanks much folks for your detailed replies. They make much sense indeed. On the use of right rudder at higher speed, I find that seems necessary as otherwise the shark would start drifting slowly to the left with time, when flying straight and level with no rudder input, with the slip ball skewing quite a bit to the right, the higher the speed gets. With right rudder input, however, the shark would then fly true and straight. This observed yaw to left (if uncorrected) at higher speed, could it be because of the “pinched” rotors on the right side during high speed forward flight? Anyone noticed this?

Just gotten back to flying the wonderful Shark after a long time flying the awesome Mi-8. Noticed the amazing rotors flapping sound when maneuvering around or changing rotor rpm. Is this flapping sound always present since release? Or is this a newly added feature? The Mi-8 does not seem to model much flapping sound, or is that the case in the real Mi-8?

So I bought the Apache yesterday, and was so disappointed with the yet to be tuned FM that I am back to flying my beloved Mi-8 and BS2. In the BS2, at higher speed, the twin rotors appear to be closer together on the right side of helo when viewed from outside from the front. Why is that so, when it is supposed to be symmetrical? Is it due to gyro precession issue? Is that the cause of the helo needing much right rudder to keep the ball centered at higher speed? Or is this a bug in the modelling even? Hope someone could help shed light on this. Thank you.

Been flying the Hip consistently for some time already, and just noticed a dull pitch humming sound in the cockpit when cold and dark before engine start. This happens after applying the latest patch. Even after a proper startup and shutdown, with everything completely switched off, the humming sound is still there, as if some equipment or something is still in the ON state. Anyone else noticed this ?

Just to update that I had flown some random flights and missions around Syria map at some 5 different airports and so far, none showed up the ballooning problem on flaring to land. Nor was there any sudden pitching down mid-flight. But as I reported earlier, over at Mariana map (Antonio airport), both issues were rather consistent. Had also encountered the pitch-up on flaring over at Abu Dhabi airport, PG map. Have not tried the rest yet, but there have been reports of similar problems for those who fly PG missions. So while it could be a trimming problem, why then is it that the problems are so specific only to certain maps / airports? This is puzzling. The pitching up problem has been bugging the A10C for some years on and off now, and this thread has been around for many months by now. Is ED even aware of this? Any fix coming up? This is obviously a pretty serious bug, for it spoils an otherwise awesome aircraft at the conclusion of an exciting mission, for example. DCS is an awesome program, THE only authentic fighter simulation in the market, but definitely not the only flight simulation program. Over the years / months, like many others I suspect, I have been much drawn to flying MSFS many a time instead. It would pay ED to be more attentive to devotees, for flying enthusiasts attention could easily switch to other platforms and stay there for extended duration. Segments that could have stayed loyal with ED for much longer otherwise. Used to buy pre-releases in the past, but not anymore. Most should know why. Not wanting to be paid beta-tester.

Just re-installed everything fresh on a new PC and very certainly confirm that this strong pitch up motion when landing crossing threshold is there and largely repeatable (at Mariana map). Full flaps with airbrake at 60%. However when I intentionally use only half flaps (also tried no flaps), there was no pitching up. Suspect it could be a bug somewhere with the ground effect over-reacting upon the full flaps? Had noticed this problem from years back in the older A10C as well. On another issue, shortly after take-off while climbing to 3000 ft or so, occasionally the nose would suddenly experience strong pitch down, even though I did not push the stick forward, to trim down. These two issues are a serious distraction that takes away much of the fun in flying this newer A10C module, and really substracts so much from an otherwise very fine add-on. Could the developer please comment on this? Have these problems been taken note of already, and is remedial action underway to fix them? Really hope they would be fixed soonest.

Thanks very much again. I figured too that both rotors and their drives are critically important. Always wondered how safe helos are to fly in, given that almost its whole safety depends on a few blades of flimsy, flexi, pieces of metal, all the while lifting insane weights and/or undergoing tremendous stress during some of the more heart-thumping maneuvers. Really enjoyed reading through your narratives on the maintenance. That one about the tail rotor gearbox failure, happened to me once virtually -- was taking off in the DCS Mi-8 and realized there was no tail rotor authority at all. Found out it was that my rudder pedals somehow was not picked up when DCS started. Plugging out and re-plugging solved that. One more reason for taking all pre-flight checks seriously !!

Thanks again very much for the helpful elaborate insight. The overhaul time periods you quoted seem to range quite widely. I guess it depends on how heavily (or roughly) used each specific Hip is in the field. Flying the Hip in DCS feels totally safe as far as component reliability is concerned. In the real world, which critical component needs the most attention to? Which tends to fail more often? Setting failure mode on in DCS just doesn't feel realistic, as a 1 in 100 chance of failure is way too high. If only DCS allows for a failure rate mirroring that of the real Hip in the field, that would be nice. Better still, a maintenance mode like that in A2A aircrafts in MSFS. That part about the trim tabs was really good. Nice to know how helo's vibration is tuned out. The part under the nose is as shown in the attached (triangle piece behind the pitot tube). It looks like the one at the tail, so I assume it is another IFF antenna? The Hip needs two IFF?

Thanks so much once again, AlphaOneSix ! About the Mi-8 reliability, typically what are the service life span of its major parts, such as rotor blades, etc.? Are there those that push close of its life span and still fly reliably? By the way, overlooked one more part to ask about -- that pointed "horn" thing that sticks out from below the nose and the bottom end part of the tail, as marked on the attached pic. What are these? They don't seem to serve anything. This guy seems to be endowed and attached with a gazillion of parts all over ! About the Trim Tab, they are not adjustable, and not trimmed like in aircraft wings right? Not sure how they work out as trim. Thanks!

Sorry to have some many questions ..... In the attached picture, what are those items marked out :- 1) The hole besides the APU exhaust 2) The loop of string that goes to the horizontal fin 3) That piece of hump behind the engine exhaust 4) That device near the weapon rack -- is that the gun camera? 5) The piece jutting out from the rotor blade that looks like a trim tab Thanks in advance !

Yup seems like that could be the case. Thanks !

Was flying high over Persian Gulf map through clouds with OAT at zero degree, but no ice warning throughout, nor auto turn-on of any auto anti-ice. When flying over Caucasus region, however, occasionally I did get the ice warning with OAT below zero, BUT no cloud at all. Anyone else observed this anomality?

Thanks a lot folks for all the advice. So I went ahead to buy the Mi-24, and found the trimming bug to be really annoying as it takes away all the precision flying, especially during landing. Read that for this helo sim, it is best to use a special built setup to fly, instead of setting axes curves and such. I use Hotas Warthog, and the long throw needed by the stick means most time the stick is in the less responsive sections of the curves, and that makes controlling really unresponsive. Really hope the over-correction of the trimming would be fixed soon, as I much prefer to fly it like the very nice Mi-8 (move stick-press-release-center-stick). As for the retreating blade stall, there is still no clear picture on that. DCS professional modelling should not be affected by any "cut-and-paste" of coding, as it should follow blade and all other physics. Had posted about this over at the Mi-8 section. Hope someone could shed more light on how the real Mi-8 (and the Mi-24) should behave at RBS.

Thank you all good folks for the very, very helpful pointers. Learning so much from just this forum over the years ! Continuing to find the DCS Mi-8 to be so awesomely well modelled masterpiece, a class well above many others. Years of flying in this DCS piece seem to reflect the way the real Hip moves as shown via so many youtube clips. The only bugging modelling I have question on, would be that of the retreating blade stall behavior. Saw on youtube, as well as tried it myself, and the Hip always first rolled to the left, followed by strong, almost vertical pitch-up. Tried to follow some online discussion, but no firm conclusion. In theory, a blade stall on the right, should be followed by a right roll, not left (the DCS Mi-24 does that). Some discussions talked about gyro precession, thus the huge pitch-up. But why the "right" roll at the start of the event? Does the entire sequence (right roll, then pitch-up) modelled reflect the actual behavior of that of the real Hip? Hope to get some illumination on this. Thanks!

One more question here ... really trying to get to know this helo better. What are those hole in the attached picture?

Thanks much AlphaOneSix ! Just curious, how does that work in the real Mi-8? For flares, it is a matter of fooling the IR missiles away from the Hip. But with the fixed cannister jammer on the Hip, how does it work to fool those IR missiles?

Been flying in the Hip very much and loving it. Noticed in the DCS modelling of the Hip, there is this huge vertical cylindrical cannister just behind the APU compartment. What is this and what is it for? This item does not seem to appear in most other Mi-8 in the real world.

Have been flying in the Mi-8 for much of the time and loving it. Now thinking of getting the Mi-24, but have some questions :- 1) How complete is it now? Is the flight modelling complete and bug-free? 2) Someone posted that the Mi-24 modelling of retreating blade stall as rolling right, while the Mi-8 rolls to the left, followed by a steep pitch-up. Which is correct? If the right side rotors experience reduced lift, that should mean a gyro precession result of pitching up, right? Hope someone could help shed light on the above. Thanks.

But technically the doppler reflected signal would be affected by every metre of movement detected, and by that shouldn't it be reading the "slant range" when going up a really steep mountain slope? That would give an inaccurate readout of the actual horizontal range that one is more interested in. Question is, is this being modelled in game?

Thank you fellows, for the very helpful advice. This drift indicator is indeed an awesome piece of technology, considering its usage back in those days before GPS.

Does the DCS Doppler system takes into account measurements when going up slopes of mountains, as well as terrain objects such as tall buildings? Are these modelled?

Okay so I've tried using both methods and here's the finding -- right after take-off and still climbing to cruise altitude and getting settled on the required heading, I manually put in the needed crabbing angle to compensate for the drift, by intentionally offsetting the Hip's nose by the amount indicated by the drift angle indicator. And once settled in a stable cruise altitude, I kick in all autopilot modes and fine-tune the heading using the autopilot Roll knob to get the drift angle needle centered. From there the Hip flies rock solid precise. Best of both worlds ! I think the manual says above 150 - 170 kph, progressively more right rudder would be needed to keep the ball centered. So far I tried indeed that seems the case.

Thanks for the helpful advice, folks. Was thinking of the option of offsetting the heading by the drift amount to compensate as one method. Will try it out, as well as the method of using autopilot and trimming roll to zero the drift.