Reaper6

NDB(Non-Directional Beacon)-ADF(Automatic Direction Finder) Can be used to find the direction to this beacon(Yellow needle on HSI). It can also be used to find a direction to anyone talking on your radio net. Basically it just helps with Navigation, I have used these in single player in horrible weather conditions. If I remember correctly there are only NDB Freq programmed for the Northern airfields. It is a somewhat useful tool when your ABRIS is out, to aid you in navigation back to an airfield or wingman. EDIT: You will have 2 NDBs at the airfield, outer and inner. You can switch between them with the toggle near your search light toggle. Auto(middle position) is not implemented, so you will have to switch between the two manually. This is useful to aid in landing in adverse fog conditions where you can't see the runway. HSI- Desired Heading takes you directly to your waypoint, no matter how far off course you are. Desired Track gives you directions how to get back on the planned route for that waypoint. You must have more than one waypoint in order to use the Desired Track. You will not have a Desired Track from your initial point(where you took off from) to your first waypoint. GPS Navigation - Seeing what type of Satellite coverage you would have on your planned route is useful. In bad weather conditions, but generally is not needed considering most servers have moderate to clear weather. If your ABRIS is damaged, and you repair it may be necessary to Calibrate. Coordinate Formats - You have Degrees, Minutes and Seconds(Default) Normal Lat/Long Coordinates. You have to change that to Degrees and Decimal Minutes, or convert it one or the other. Normally if you communicate wit NATO CAS platforms, you would do so in MGRS. ABRIS Grids- I usually only select UTM CETKA, because most people are using MGRS for coordinates. I don't display the Lat/Long on my ABRIS because it already gives all coordinates in this format. External Tanks- Fuel will come from the External first(as long as you have the wing pumps on). If you put ext tanks on with less than 100% internal fuel, they will pump fuel to those tanks as well. Generally you have to watch your fuel guage, and when it begins to decrease your ext tanks are empty. Your range is highly dependent on how you are flying, load, speed, weather, etc. VOR - VHF Omni Directional Radio Range, The KA50 is not equipped to utilize this. The ABRIS is actually used on civilian aircraft as well, so that is why that option is there. You can set a VOR as a waypoint, but it in no way will aid you in navigation. Hopefully I covered it all, if there is anything else I will be more than happy to help. Reaper6

From the way you described it, this is exactly what happens when you hit a power line. If I remember the courier mission it is at night in poor weather conditions. Power lines sneak up on you in the dark! Reaper6

I believe what you are referencing (large rectangular box packs on underwing pylons) are travel pods, not external fuel cells. A majority of the photos you will see of the KA50 and KA52 will have these. Because they are or were in the flight testing, the pods also carried flight test avionics. Reaper6

Just a ? Do you ever add anything positive to the community of DCS? Some of your comments in this thread have been completely toxic. Reaper6

I didn't want to be too big of a troll, lol.

Huh? When did Red have those odds??? Wish I would have been on during those times! Reaper6

Yeah I think it was just RED, it was such a pain to capture a FARP and before I could land and spawn there because I couldn't refuel. Someone else would jump into the KA50 slots. Reaper6

My speed depends greatly on a number of things. Terrain, distance from enemy or objective, whether I have an Mi8 in tow, in-between towns that kind of stuff. I stop or slow regularly to scan and estimate an enemy Heli route. Generally I think if I was a Huey where would I travel, where would I hide, etc. It's a guessing game most of the time. The ABRIS helps SO much with the educated guess, considering there are usually only a few routes in and out of each objective. I would say if you want to hide from me, land in the open lol. I hardly ever pay attention to open areas or at least not as much as I do in covered areas. I think a lot of it also come down to adjusting the Brightness and Contrast of the Shkval. If you can get it just right, you can spot things out of place pretty easily. GCI also plays a huge role sometimes, they may spot you for a split second. If I know your last known position I mark my ABRIS, I can generally find you based on the above techniques. Reaper6

Greg, Honestly I would take most of these posts with a grain of salt. This forum turned toxic so many times! You guys are doing an awesome job, and a majority of the complaints are complete BS. My only issue was not being able to refuel at FARPS. Other than that, the scenario was fine with me. There were allot of players I have never seen before in previous rounds, that made the scenario somewhat cancerous. There were advantages and disadvantages on both sides. I think a majority of the players have absolutely NO CLUE what it actually takes to put an event like this together. Nor do they understand the man hours it takes to script and build a mission of this caliber. I personally thank you for all your crews hard effort for putting these events together. Reaper6

OMG please NO! That's all I need is some idiotic AI flying around above me giving my position away. I would just end up committing fratricide to be honest! Reaper6

I'm 99% you can only have one ingress point at a time. I will have to get in my Shark today just to make sure (if my wife lets me). My wife HATES the Blueflag event lol, every time I'm on there she says I act like I'm in a real war. No flooding here, just tons and tons of rain thank God. I think that is more south of us, why would anyone want to live below sea level is beyond me! Reaper6

I think there is a way to setup your Android as a virtual monitor? ABRIS is already a "viewport". I'm not that technically proficient to tell you how to do it, but I have mine on a separate monitor. So I would have to say that it would be possible. Reaper6

I actually just make up missions and go do them, I have tried a few of the missions available for download. But the best thing I can tell you is mess around with mission editor and make your own. I usually just over write the last mission to make a new more challenging one. I can start saving some of them and post them in the future. I wish I knew how to make videos to post on YouTube, I tried once and failed miserably. I can take screenshots, but the only problem is I use Helios with multiple monitors. 3 for my cockpit screens and a projector for my main screen. here is my cockpit panel to see what I am talking about. I can post screenshots of what I do with ABRIS that should be no problem. You can usually find me in the KA50 forum, I have posted tons of stuff in there. There is also a COMPLETE start to finish in-depth preflight checklist I posted a while ago, that you are able to view thru your kneeboard. I have no problems sharing any information I can with others. I use to have classes a while back once or twice a week. I don't do much multiplayer, but if you ever want to fly and I'm around I have no problems with that. Reaper6

Unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, you are only allowed 4 targets per type (ADA, ARMOR, OTHER) and one Ingress point. If you try to input more than 4 of any type it will delete the first one and continue. I am talking about the symbols that appear in ABRIS. You're better off with Vikhrs, just practice, practice, practice. Don't start getting lazy on me like those pesky Jet pilots lol Reaper6

The pleasure was all mine. I have huge respect for the Transport pilots. I flew a few times in the Mi8 and it is a handful! I was completely lost without my ABRIS lol!!! Reaper6

You are going up against pilots with far more technology than you, RWR, Radar, Heat seekers, FLIR, etc. You have a 1950s TV and your ABRIS, make that your advantage. Learn those systems inside and out, every little piece of intelligence is helpful. It's not really auto lock that I achieve, just being able to spot any little speck on the horizon. There have been times where I thought a speck of dust was a jet. I am constantly looking at the Shkval, out the windows, and mirrors. I was aware the A10 has LWS, but most pilots don't bother to pay attention. 99% of the time they don't have a clue, and if they do they only know its a laser painting them not a pair of Vikhrs inbound. I also lock the wing of the A10 instead of the body to somewhat deter their warning. This also makes sure the A10 will be taken out, a wing hit is more lethal than a frontal hit. I don't input targets thru PVI because as you said the accuracy is just not there. Plus the values are inputted at sea level rather than what the actual elevation of the target is. Inputting targets into the datalink is a fast way to ingress thru the targets with your Shkval. This was the first time I flew against the Gazelle, it is very agile and I learned my lesson the first time going in on it. After that I stayed at distance and made the take down. People would go spectator immediately after I damaged them, so after that I never bothered going in for the kill anymore. I would send a couple S8s their way just in case they dropped an Igla, and then I was off. I generally just shoot in pairs, rather than burst for unguided rockets. After the first pair have launched your helicopter has sprung upwards to take you off target. If I do get myself into a close in battle with another Heli, I always put full collective and get above them. The KA50 is magnificent at out climbing any other Heli. The gun on the KA50 can pretty much slew 90 degrees down, and Helis will try and pitch up to go guns and fall backwards. Then it's an easy kill after that. Exactly why I prefer to stay mobile instead of sit in a hover. even a small lateral movement can be helpful in defense of a ATGM. Reaper6

So as promised I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for up and coming KA50 pilots. As for all the haters, I think you know where you can stick your accusations and BS. 1. You're never going to outrun a jet or a missile, SO DON'T TRY! But you can out maneuver BOTH. Plan a route that is near cities and buildings, never fly out in the open or higher than 30m( I tend to keep it around 10m AGL when possible). 2. Your most important asset in the KA50 is the ABRIS, so memorize every page, function, button, etc AND USE IT! You can draw lines of different colors on the ABRIS map. You know which airfields are friendly and enemy, so draw lines from the enemy airfield back to your route. This will help you with situational awareness. Jets are predictable and if I may say so LAZY! So you are going to know which general direction they will come from. 3. I adjust the brightness and contrast of my Shkval so I can easily spot "dots" in the sky. I slew my Shkval above the horizon and set it to scan, and let it do its job. YOU CAN spot jets around 40-50km out, and they CAN spot you as well. I always assume the jet has already picked me up on radar, so get yourself off his radar fast! 4. Never travel more than 20-30km without slowing or stopping and having a look around. Everyone zooms in on the screen so use that as well as the Shkval. Slowing or stopping also will help you get off a enemy jets radar! 5. Fly with your Vikhrs selected, burst to medium and A/A - H/O engaged. Lock your jet or Heli QUICKLY! Hold fire until for a jet 5km H/O, for a Heli I usually engage at 6-7km. If the jet spots you even better, as I stated before Jet pilots are lazy and rely too much on technology. So they WILL come head on towards you. Before I was known, they would go guns BIG BIG mistake for them. If a jet is burning towards you launch 2 Vikhrs at 7km out, he will run right into it! Now that people know me they never go guns on me, so I have to rely on flares and getting my Vikhrs off first. Strafe sideways, you will see the missile coming. At the last second FLARE and strafe quickly the opposite direction. There are NO defenses in a jet or another Heli(besides another KA50) that can detect a Vikhr inbound. 6. If you have stirred up a hornets nest, which I have done a lot this round. You will be swarmed by jets! This is where you ABRIS planning comes in. Get to a city near you, hide in between some houses, if there are two houses squeeze your ass in there! SHUT OFF your engines (Fuel cutoff levers, on the left of pilot). Raise full collective when rotors are at around 5, then when at 2 slam the rotor brake on! If you think there will be Helis in the area coming for you as well, you're stuck. Fight it out the best you can, let the Helis come in 1km and get them with guns. Jets wont see AP as much as HE, and AP rounds travel faster with a higher probability of hits. Alternative to shutting down engines if Helis are near and jets, put your engines to idle. This will sometimes not pickup on IR seeker as much, coupled with being between buildings. Bottom line is, if you are swarmed, find a hole and get in it. Trees wont hide you from an IR seeker, so I am not sure why so many people think I land inside trees. If that is the only thing around fine, but they are useless for any type of cover. They also hinder your Shkval, so hover right above them if anything. 7. Take the time to plan your mission very very carefully. I can spend 2 hours getting somewhere, which is fine with me. Because I know when I arrive, there will be mass destruction :) I spend at least 5 minutes on the ground messing with ABRIS and other systems, going thru my checklist, coordinating with CAP, CAS, Transport. 8. Probably the most important! YOU WILL NOT WIN THE CAMPAIGN ON YOUR OWN... No matter how awesome you are, you have to depend on your team to have your back and you have theirs. Listen to the GCI, every bit of information him or other pilots say is USEFUL to you. If they have spotted jets in a certain area MARK IT ON YOUR ABRIS! 9. Take care of your troop transport, you are his eyes and ears. If something is out of place, make him stop and shutdown until your ready to resume. Keep him a good distance from you, jets WILL try and use him to find YOU! So keep him back 300-400m from you. 10. Lastly, When you are 10-12km out from the target area come to a hover. Find your targets and input ALL of them into your Data-Link. You can store up to 4 of each type, for a total of 12 which is plenty. Once you have all your targets entered move in to about 6-7km for engagement. Don't engage at max distance of Vikhr. You will burn up your laser, and it takes way more time to engage each target. Before you fire your first Vikhr, make sure everyone is ready! A FARP you should be in and captured within 2 minutes, an airfield maybe 5 minutes. You want it fast a vicious, so the enemy doesn't have an opportunity to react before you have it captured. So those are some of my tips, haters are gonna hate and call you a hack or cheat or whatever, I couldn't care less. I have been flying the KA50 since it first came out(BS1 still have the CD), long before DCS world even existed. I normally play single player, unless Blueflag is up. I set the worst weather conditions imaginable to fight and navigate in. I will set fog to where you cant see 10m in front of you, and you have no choice but trust your gauges and ABRIS. So when you have near perfect conditions like blueflag, its not even an issue. I would venture to guess that of all my flight time in the KA50, 3/4 of that is the worst weather conditions imaginable, landing on ships, moving trains, top of buildings, etc. Learn everything about the KA50, read the manual and then read it again! Browse the forums, there is tons of info there. I also purchased FC3 and A10C for the sole purpose of knowing their capabilities against my precious KA50. The bottom line is you aren't going to master the Shark overnight, there are still things I am learning. It took me YEARS to get where I am with the KA50. People hop in a jet for a couple months and assume I am driving down roads, landing in trees, hacking, cheating blah blah blah. I think those people are despicable to be honest, they don't realize the effort some of us great pilots have put into learning our craft. Its a slap in the face, when people just cant say "he's a good pilot" rather than "oh I'm not that good, so he must be cheating". That is why I trolled blue so hard this round!!! If you out fly me, out maneuver me, out kill me, fine I will give you your due respect and I expect the same in return!!! Reaper6

Don't feed the trolls... Congrats Bluefor Reaper6

Sweet Video! Turn your night vision on dude lol. It was my pleasure flying with such an amazing group of pilots on RedFor. We fought to the bitter end, see you on the other side brothers. Reaper6

Stop hating on my beautiful BlackShark, she deserves respect! Reaper6

AGREED! Reaper6

Everyone says that, but I've never run into that problem. Reaper6

Sounds like you guys are getting lazy on me. Leave that to the Jets with no real pilot skills, we are Gods in our BlackSharks! Reaper6

You are not able to select an individual pylon. You can select pairs of pylons or all pylons only. Reaper6

Wait... Who said they are winning? Reaper6