Pavespawn

Thanks! I’m following your example but I will admit I don’t know what I’m doing. I can get the arduino monitor to recognize the lcd but can’t get anything to display.

Guys, I have the below LCD, and an Uno. I am trying to make it work but I can’t even get it to display. I uploaded a sketch just fine but I get no display. Am I missing a component? A backpack? I have successfully used Arduinos to get switches to work but this is my first lcd. Thanks for the help. Gary

Thanks! I’ll do that!

So I guess what I have to do to make Helios work is ask a question on here. I removed the default.lua and it now works. Dunno. Pebbles

Aaaaand new problem. I got Helios to stop crashing (did not add interface) and the profile gauges to work, but now my controls and keyboard do not work at all.

Guys, I am trying get Capt Zeen UH-1 profile to work. I installed the profile and it started up just fine but no gauges worked. So I figured it was because I forgot to add the interface. I went back and added the DCS A-10 interface which seemed counter intuitive but I don't have an UH-1 option. Now Helios crashes when I try to start it. What should I have done? When I go back to a profile without the interface, I can't get the gauges to work at all. Pebbles

Sorry for the late response. I bet you have figured it out already but yes the cyclic gets all new switches when you change the selector. It doesn’t seem too difficult to modify a Huey collective head onto the Puma. The kicker would be if it made it a lot heavier. It don’t think the friction bolt would support the weight. I saw a mod to add a steering damper to the puma as well. That would help. Really, a magnetic trimmer is what we all need and they have been built on here but I’m not sure I’m that crafty lol.

Ok, I have it working. My trouble shooting steps included swapping my existing Export lua for the one provided by DCS BIOS. It worked. So I assumed my export lua was corrupt. I swapped it for the Capt Zeen export lua and added the dofile. Didn't work on either version. So for whatever reason I decided to move the dofile to the very end of the export lua and bam, it worked. I don't know if everyone else already knew this bit of info but just in case, there you go.

All those files were there. I recopied from the working side to the non just to be sure. I got it to work for one go then it stopped again. I am wondering if Helios interferes with it? Helios would work on the opposite versions from DCS BIOS. I still use it for my touch screen. The Helios profile setup does replace the export lua but it doesn't do it every time does it?

The black switch on the collective swaps between three different maps so you can have three different meanings for each button. I mapped mine so that with the button aft the switches generally support start up procedures. I use the left red button as the starter button. The middle position is mapped to allow me to control the search and landing light and the forward is for cargo. I zero out the saturation and curves for all the axis. I am still getting accustomed to VR. I can't fly more than a few minutes without starting to feel sick. I did a quick stop in the Huey and when I rocked on the skids I nearly fell out of my chair! I don't have X-Plane so can't help you there. Oh and the NTTR map has my old neighborhood but is missing some details. But you can see Tule Springs Park!

Guys, So I am trying to get self smarted on how DCS BIOS works and I am getting a little frustrated. I can make the one and only switch that I have programmed work in Alpha but when I try to use it in the 1.5.8 I get nothing at all. Not even information flowing in the cmd prompt. I thought at first it was the export.lua that was wrong but I have the dofile line in both. What am I missing here? Thanks in advance. Pebbles

Well I’m just proud to hear people root for her. She was one hard working helo and always brought me home so I can’t complain.

Well I’ll admit I am biased to the Pave after flying on them for so long. I wouldn’t have to learn a new airframe just the nuances of the sim. If you had a multiplayer cockpit you would have more situational awareness than any other airframe in DCS. If I get a vote then of course Pave Low wins but I’ll buy whatever gets released.

To use any throttle as a collective I have to reverse the axis. It more closely mimics the movement of a collective. So pulling back on the throttle is pulling up on a collective in the sim. It translates especially well when you see the collective move.

If we get the E model then we get a probe and GPS but not the radar like you would think. Only Pave Low has a TF/TA radar and they were converted B and C models. That means trading the extra lift of an E for better avionics. E models are whole other animals really. Bigger airframe, extra blade, beefier gearboxes, extra engine, etc. I would still rather have the Pave Low but I am biased lol.

I would recommend On a Steel Horse I Ride. It is a complete history of Pave Low. We adopted the Bon Jovi song as our anthem so that’s where we get the book title. https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Horse-Ride-History-Helicopters/dp/1585662208/ref=pd_cp_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1585662208&pd_rd_r=XEJ632R3M75T279YJ69A&pd_rd_w=rSJqf&pd_rd_wg=GWtdP&psc=1&refRID=XEJ632R3M75T279YJ69A Here is link to a you tube video that one of our guys did at the end of it all.

I’ll tell you one about how on the edge we flew while in Afghanistan since it is relevant to aircraft performance. We were infilling a team of New Zealand SOF to a known Al Qaeda training camp. The LZ what hard to find since it was in very mountainous terrain and it was so dark even NVGs didn’t help much. We crossed a ridge and the gunner in the left sees it and calls for us to turn left 90*. Now remember we are heavy and on the edge of our power available because of high altitude. The pilot just barely touched the left pedal and that was all it took. We went into power settling immediately and lost tail rotor authority at the same time. So we are falling into a canyon and spinning to the right at the same time. I’m watching the gauges do things that the simulator won’t do and we are all screaming like Girl Scouts with skinned knees. On our second revolution of darkness in the FLIR then rock face, darkness, rock face, our pilot times it just right and pushes the cyclic forward in time to get us going down the valley. We recovered at less than fifty feet and we started at almost 300 over the canyon. The team was yelling about why we didn’t land and the tail gunner told them to sit back down cause we almost just died. When we finally got home, maintenance said we had over torqued both sides, oversped the motors and twisted the main drive shaft couplings. Probably doesn’t sound as cool as it should but that one sticks out in my mind. While we were falling I went through the emergency procedures in my head and had realized that I couldn’t punch the tanks because with our sink rate they would have gone into the rotor but more than anything I kept thinking, “Man, I don’t want to get out of the helicopter because it’s cold outside. Either way we sucked the seat cushions out of our butts and got the team infilled.

If I had to quick figure gas on the Pave Low I went with 40lbs a minute. Hourly figured 2400 or 2500 depending on conditions.

It was the best job you could ask for as an enlisted member. Never a dull moment! It was my absolute pleasure.

As promised:

A hover coupler tied into the flight control system and limited control input to no more than 30% roll authority. There were three sticks, pilot, co-pilot, and the right door. It worked in conjunction with the radar altimeter altitude hold feature. The system allowed for a controlled approach in 0/0 weather when used with the TF/TA radar. A standard couple approach would be meeting speed gates at specified distances from your waypoint. 100 knots at 1 mile, 90 at .9, 80 at .8 etc. The altitude would have been briefed and that is put into the rad alt hold. At .3 out and 30 knots the call would be “leveling the aircraft, going for the little stick.” Rad alt hold would take over and the pilot would fly only with the hover coupler stick. If at any time the co-pilot or right door gained more SA on the LZ, they could call for control then use their coupler stick to guide the aircraft to a precise location. If I can figure out how to post pictures I’ll show where these controls were in the aircraft.

So first to qualify myself, I was a Pave Low Instructor Flight Engineer for about a decade. I flew combat sorties in OEF, OIF, Haiti, and the Horn of Africa. I ended up as one of two MH-53M subject matter experts at the USAF Weapons School. So with that: The Pave Low variant of the 53 had a lot of armor in the chin bubble so when the nose came up on the approach, the pilots view was limited. He relied on the rest of the crew to talk him to the spot. There was a cadence that started with the FE in the cockpit or the “seat” as we called him. He called airspeed altitude and distance to the HLZ then the right door (FE) made a clearing call followed by the gunners in the left and tail. That repeated until the approach got close enough that the right door took over and called the aircraft down to the ground. The pilot did what the right door told him to do. There was a lot of trust. Same idea in a hover. The crew member in charge of the hover (usually whichever position was doing the event like fast rope or hoist etc) called the positioning of the helo. For example, come right 5,4,3,2,1 stop and hold. Etc etc. We also had something called a hover coupler that allowed the right door to take control and fly the aircraft while in a hover. There are more examples like weapons employment and terrain following missions if you are interested. Also, the NVG flying time is accurate. In Pave Low (and the 160th I’m sure) they would swap out every hour at least to give the other a break. There were times when that wouldn’t happen like when one pilot was doing mission management duties and the other stayed on the controls. Finally, the FE in the seat was the only one not on NVGs on a night sortie. That guy stayed “inside” and maintained SA on all the systems, fuel, threats over the MATT, waypoints, etc. He also was primary for all emergency procedures except autorotation. He also operated everything. We called it a voice activated cockpit because the pilots never had to take their hands off he controls. We did everything except move the controls around. Pebbles

I’d love to see a MH-53M. It would open up a ton of unique missions with the chance for NVG low level flight as well as helo air refueling. It was also a helo that was heavily dependent upon the whole crew not just the pilots for a variety of reasons.

I'll tell you this from an old operator perspective: We always flew in semi in the Pave Low. The computer correlated the launches as IR or radar threats and dispensed the appropriate countermeasure after one of us punched the button. Assuming the sim does the same correctly the big problem would be people not dispensing correctly. You need to G up before you push the button.

More power is always better. The Pave Lows were old C and D conversions so we were always power limited (especially in the mountains of Afghanistan). What set us apart was all of our extra systems that allowed us to operate in denied areas. That capability however is what would make a DCS version difficult. The pilot simply could not reach most of the defensive systems as they were located on the Flight Engineer's panel. As with the SATCOM head, MWS, RWR controls, and the physical caution panel. Some of the defensive systems were accessible from layers on the 9 inch monitor but really the FE did all that as well as all the CDU inputs, radar settings, fuel management, etc. In fact we used to say all the pilots had to do was move the sticks around and talk on the radio lol.