Nightmare515

I actually thought about writing a book about my flight school experience if I ever get the time. I've been keeping notes about my experiences. What gave me the idea was reading a book a veteran Navy SEAL wrote about the entire Navy SEAL training program in Coronado. He broke it down more thorough than anyone has ever done before. I visited a forum for aspiring SEALs and they all spoke about it and loved the insight the book gave them. It's number one on all of their reading lists. I visit a forum for aspiring Army aviators and try to give as much advice and help as I can to those who wish to become Army pilots. I've helped a number of people put together their flight packets to send and invite people to send me their packets first so I can sort of proof read them and offer suggestions I feel would make them stronger candidates. I am by no means the end all expert on flight school but my flight packet was accepted on it's first look so I try to model other peoples packets off of mine. When I started out I went through this entire process blind. I think a book would be a great way to help more people understand the process and just sort of know how the program is overall.

lol unfortunately they really frown upon that. Most of the videos you see are from people who sort of snuck a camera in the cockpit with them. The gun tapes on youtube as well. I don't have the rank to pull something like that quite yet lol

Just so everyone is on the same page in regards to these aerobatic videos. The AH-64 can perform these maneuvers of course as you've seen but what you don't see is what happens after they land. Unlike fixed wing fighters the 64's rotor system (or any rotor system for that matter) can't handle the constant stress of maneuvers like that. Once they land the entire rotor system is taken apart and refurbished. Those maneuvers are for airshows and demonstrations. Doing them on a daily basis the way fighter jets do would tear the aircraft apart.

Although most aviators are responsible and professional we still have our fair share of irresponsible people as well unfortunately. That ye of little faith video was shown to us all throughout flight school as a warning to "not be that guy".

As far as the cockpit layout it's spot on. In the second video the only thing I see different is the HMD (Helmet Mounted Display) the symbology in your eye. Right below the heading tape there is symbology for a turn radius. We don't have turn indications in the HMD symbology we only have it when you pull the symbology up on the Flight Page on one of the MPD's. It looks like he may have modeled the HMD symbology after the Flight Page symbology in order to make it easier to cross check for the sim. But in the other video the symbology is correct in the HMD. Perhaps the second video was an earlier version of the sim and he realized the mistake and has since corrected it. To be super nitpicky the second video also shows a multitude of system warnings, cautions, and advisories on the EUFD (Enhanced Up Front Display) which is the display on the top right in the cockpit. In real life all of those warnings and whatnot won't be there unless they are actual warnings. But maybe they were just being displayed to showcase that the EUFD was actually working in the sim and displaying actual messages in the correct places. The radar mapping and DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data) (the colors you see on the map on the left MPD in the first video) looks good and everything from the FCR looks accurate from the little I saw. The targeting information shown looks right as well. Another small thing to note is that Hellfire missles don't burn fuel for as long as they are shown in video. The video shows them burning fuel all the way to the target where in real life they only burn for about 3 seconds then they glide to the target. From what I am seeing he has done an amazing job. He has gone into great detail from what little I have seen and if he has done the same level of detail all around then this looks like it will be a great sim.

I don't honestly know how closely the Apaches and Hogs work together. While I was a ground pounder in Afghanistan both aircraft came to our rescue on a few occasions. As far as our particular AO it seems like we just called whoever was around to help us if we got in any hairy situations. We were in contact with all sorts of aircraft that were on station from Marine Corps F/A-18's to RAF Tornado's to Apaches to Hogs. For one thing the Brits are absolutely hilarious on the radio. It seemed like every time we called them on the net they had something funny to say. "Have to head out now gents getting close to bingo, 007 will be on station in a few. Bloody bastard hijacked one of the jets again, cheers" We were like LOL what?? Thats the one good thing about working with our allies from all over the world. Makes us all realize that we are all human beings and even though we are all from different nations we have so much more in common with each other than we all probably realize, especially military members.

I used to have a Track IR setup. I believe it was the original version from years ago. It has a hat with a sensor on the bill. I haven't used that in years though I honestly dont even know if I still have it. Some retired aviators have a flying club around here and they will take you up in a Cobra for a couple hundred dollars. They just got the FAA clearance to start giving people rides. I think I'm going to contact them and see about getting a ride in there. I heard the Cobra has the controls on the side sort of like the F-16 does? I'm curious to see how it looks.

Yes both crew members are trained pilots. The gunner in the front seat is usually just the least experienced of the two. We all start out as CPG (Co Pilot Gunner) in the front for a few years until you gain more experience and get promoted to Pilot in Command and sit in the back. There are dual flight controls. With the exception of a few modes of weapons delivery everything that can be done in the pilot seat can be done in the gunner seat as well. We have what is called BUCS, Back Up Control System. The 64 uses electronically assisted linked dual mechanical flight controls. If the pilot goes offline the CPG can still fly and vice versa. If the mechanical linkage is destroyed some how then the electronic computer completely takes over flight control and the controls become full fly by wire.

lol my pleasure My IP was definitely a character thats for sure. I could probably sit here and go on for days quoting the funny things he used to say to me. IP: "Man it sure is dark out here. Could you imagine trying to fly this thing without the use of the symbology in your eye man?" Me "No sir it would be hard" IP: "Hell yeah it would so how about you actually use the symbology and stop getting us way the **** off course?" *IP opens up a random panel* IP: "Hey come here man what is this box thing right here with these wires in it?" Me: "Um I have no idea sir what is that?" IP: "I don't know either. But you know the difference between me saying I don't know and you saying you don't know?" Me: "No what?" IP: "When I say I dont know I just admit I don't know, when you say I don't know you get an F for today because Im not being graded you are haha" LOL

Barksdale Louisiana im assuming? I was TDY down there once we used to all run to Barksdale the second we got off to escape that inhuman rundown 1940s POS place they call Ft Polk lol.

I don't have any experience with the E models I only have experience with the D model Block I and Block II. The US Army is still pushing the E models out to the fleet so for the new guys fresh out of flight school if you are going to a unit with the E model they will start training you on the E model right after you graduate from the 64D course I think. If you aren't going to a unit with E models then you will just head to the unit. From what Im hearing I believe there is also a mobile unit of instructors currently running around the country training units in the E model at the unit itself rather than sending them back to flight school. I know a few guys headed to units with E models Ill ask them what they are doing as far as the training is concerned. The oldest aircraft that they use to train in flight school is the Block I. It's still an AH-64D it's just a Block I version I don't believe there are any more A model Apaches in the US anymore. As of right now all of the Block I models are being converted over to E models so in a few months there will only be Block II and Block III Apaches. They don't start us off in Block I's or Block II's specifically it just depends on what aircraft they have available that day. So one day you may fly a Block I and the next day a Block II then the next day a Block II with an FCR on it, etc. No particular order or progression or anything. The only noticeable difference in the way they fly are the birds with the FCR on them. You can feel like drag of that thing up there and it takes more power to fly so it just feels different and the power settings and numbers are a bit different. I've talked to a few guys who are currently in the E model transition course and they said it flies a bit different. It has more power. You can tell it must be different because I've watched veteran 64D pilots learning how to fly it and they were having to re learn how to do certain basic maneuvers that they could do without thinking in the D model. I don't know much about the avionics upgrades and whatnot. To be honest most of you guys probably know more about it than I do from reading about it online. All I know about them is that you can control UAVs from it and they sound a bit different while flying due to some weights they put on the blades or something lol. I've seen them before but thats about it I haven't sat in one or anything.

Id love to help if I could. My only issue is that Im going to be very busy in the upcoming months and I would hate to offer my assistance then be unable to help him when he actually needed me. Only reason Im online so much now is because it's the holiday weekend and my body decided this was a perfect opportunity to get sick so Im stuck in the house. Ill contact him though and see if I can help with the time I have.

I'm still a baby pilot fresh from the program. I have less than 300 total flight hours including everything. We are all considered full mission capable but they don't let 2 junior pilots fly by themselves or anything if that's what you mean.

A few friends of mine know that crew. The CPG ended up breaking both of his legs in that crash and the pilot got pretty banged up as well. Here's the kicker, that wasn't the first aircraft that pilot crashed.

Thanks for the kind words. I don't mind the questions at all I love being able to share the insight. I'll take a look around for some other threads about the Apache as well. A friend of mine actually built me a setup for flight sims. He took an office chair and attached something on the side of it to act like the collective. I dont think he bought the collective it looks like he took some other control device and "made" a collective or something. It has duct tape on the end of it. Or maybe he did buy it, Im assuming they sell those? It works as a collective should though it controls the torque and everything. I have a Saitek X-45 joystick that I use and some pedals as well. I usually sit in the chair and kind of stick the joystick between my legs. Not the most comfortable set up but it works. It's been awhile since Ive used it all once I move and get settled Ill get it all set back up again. As far as similarity to the real controls its not really the same. It's the whole muscle memory thing for the most part. The joystick doesn't sit exactly where the cyclic does in the real cockpit so it takes some getting used to. The collective in the 64 also has a bunch of different switches and functions and whatnot and its much wider and larger than the one I have so it feels different to hold it of course. I find myself subconsciously trying to flip switches with my hands on the controls that aren't there on my sim cockpit lol. Not having the symbology stuck in my right eye was different as well. Just a different cross check of instruments when flying different aircraft in the sims. It does feel nice to fly around and not have to wear the huge freaking alien space helmet though.

Hmm you know I'm not sure why the Blackshark doesn't shake on final. I'm no expert on aerodynamics (I know enough to pass flight school lol) but I wonder if it might have something to do with that coaxial rotor system? Helos shake on final when passing through ETL due to the turbulent airflow that the main and tail rotor systems are operating in. I can make a guess and say maybe since the Blackshark has the dual rotors spinning in opposite directions it can counteract the turbulent air and it has no tail rotor that has to spin in turbulent air at those low speeds. Again thats just a guess I honestly have no idea I could be way off. Ill ask some people I know who are way smarter than I am on this subject maybe they can explain it.

They don't shake like that all the time but a good majority of the time they can have you bouncing around. In normal perfect no wind no turbulence conditions they are smooth. Not airplane smooth but more of a vibration like a massage chair. Now hit a few downdrafts or updrafts they can have you feeling like you are in a washing machine. They shake bad on final approach to landing as well.

We had the full motion sims in flight school that we used for a about a week or so. They are of course better than the non motion ones but even still it's not really "the same". There was always a running gag that if you can fly in real life then you can't fly the sim and if you can fly the sim you can't fly in real life lol. It's always funny watching guys with like 5,000 flight hours try to hop in and fly the sim around and they are hovering all over the place and crashing and come out cussing up a storm lol. But if DCS Huey gives you that feeling like its trying to secretly kill you then it's doing its job well as a sim. Thats pretty accurate. Sounds like DCS has done another great job again. I'll try to get my stuff out of storage and try out some of the new sims. I've never flown in a Huey so I wouldn't really be able to know how the flight model compares but yeah bare bones helo's are much different than combat helos with all of the flight control assistance and stability control and whatnot. One of the hardest things about learning how to fly the 64 was learning how to STOP flying. We start off flying Bell 206's (TH-67) which is a bare bones helicopter with none of the fancy computer stability control and all that. Getting into the 64 we all still wanted to fly so we kept moving all the controls and trying to fly like we were used to with the Bell's. The words of my instructor still ring in my ears to this day. "We pay millions of dollars for all these computer stability controls to help us fly. The helicopter itself can fly better than you can now stop touching ****!" lol

No unfortunately the only sims I have tried from the DCS world are LOMAC and DCS Black Shark. In regards to flight models I may be able to give a bit of insight on helo sims in general. The thing with helo sims is that is it very hard to accurately portray a helicopter in a simulator. Not to sound cheesy but they are one of those aircraft that you have to "feel" and sort of become one with when you are flying, especially during low speed and hovering flight. There is a phase in flight school where they completely black out the entire cockpit and you are forced to fly with the FLIR video sensor mounted on the nose and the video displayed in the monocle over your right eye. You have to feel what the aircraft is doing for the most part because your entire world is reduced to an image the diameter of a paper towel roll. The actual physics can be pretty close in sims such as turn rates and whatnot but it's hard to accurately portray anything else. Unlike fixed wing aircraft helicopters hate flying and they tend to do everything in their power to try and fall out of the sky. They don't handle rough air as well and they shake like crazy while flying. In a jet, for example, you can set the throttle and keep the wings level and the aircraft is going to go that direction and stay going that direction. In a helicopter if you tilt the nose to your desired attitude and set the collective and let the controls go it will go that direction for a few seconds and then start either climbing or falling out of the sky or trying to roll one way or all of the above. Did I mention they shake a lot? lol A pretty close experience would be to go throw a few pairs of old boots in your dryer then sit on top of it and bounce yourself up and down every few seconds while 2 of your friends shove you back and forth. Thats why in flight school they put you right in a real helicopter from day 1 and don't let you start off in simulators like our fixed wing counterparts. Its just not the same at all. I can honestly say that many people who fly sims like DCS could probably hop in a real like A-10 or a MiG and start it up and take off and fly around a bit if you aren't trying to pull high G maneuvers or anything. Might not be able to land too well but you could fly around. I asked my first instructor pilot why we don't use sims to learn at first and he said "I could let you play around with MSFS for awhile and you could probably take off and fly a pattern and land a Cesna in real life after a few days, but you could be the best simulator Bell 201 chopper pilot in the world with 20 years of sim experience if I put you in a real Bell 201 helicopter you would literally crash and die trying to takeoff".

No he only tried LOMAC. I just happened to have a copy of LOMAC thats why I let him try that one. I've never personally tried DCS A-10C, I'm assuming its even better?

Thanks I've flown DCS Black Shark a few times. I really enjoyed it. Honestly the main reason I picked it up was to see how in the world an attack helicopter could only have one pilot. We have our hands full with 2 people I couldn't imagine doing it with one. It seemed "easier" to fly and I'm wondering if it was simplified because its a video game or is it a pretty accurate representation of the flight model in real life. I would image that it has plenty of systems that assist the pilot in flying seeing how he is the only one in there. For one thing firing rockets accurately in itself is hard to do. We usually have one person firing and the other maneuvering the aircraft. Trying to fire rockets AND fly is extremely hard to do. I was able to do it in DCS Black Shark pretty easily but I can never do it very well in real life. I'm sure part of that was also because I knew there were no real consequences if I got too fixated on a target and forgot to pull up in the game haha. Would you happen to know how accurate of a sim it is in reference to real life? Im curious. If it's a pretty good representation then I can understand now how they can get away with only one pilot. Thats pretty cool. I didn't know about Combat Helo I'll have to check that out thanks.

I'd love to be able to help do that. ED does a great job at what they do. A buddy of mine flies A-10s and never really played any sims or anything before. We got together one day and I let him play LOMAC just to see what he thought of it. His words were "holy **** is this even legal?!" haha. He was a bit unnerved by it. Guy grew up in a shoe box or something I tried to tell him that people have been making realistic flight sims for years. He always thought it was just MSFS and things like that he never knew they made military flight sims. He then went on a rant about how its dangerous to do that and why do they have to use real avionics since nobody knows the difference anyway and all that stuff. Which translates to a real A-10 pilot thinks your flight sim is too realistic for comfort. Which again translates to, ED does a darn good job lol.

Thank you I've flown the block I version 6.2 and the block II version 13.1 and 13.2. No combat missions yet I'm a brand new pilot. I have combat experience as an enlisted ground pounder in Afghanistan before I made the switch to fly helicopters.

haha not really sure why we call ourselves that. Not sure when that term started I have a friend who flew Wild Weasels in Vietnam and he called himself a 105 driver so I guess the term was around back then too.

Thanks for your service as well. I was prior enlisted stationed at Knox and Carson, Afghanistan deployment as a ground pounder, flight school at Rucker. I'm still a baby pilot fresh out of the program. How about you?