Sandman1330

There are a lot more helo drivers than you guys may think. Indeed the Huey and Blackshark were some of the very first DCS World modules released. Then helo development seemed to stagnate for a long time, until recently it picked up again with the Kiowa, Hind and now Apache. Some of us who came for the helos ended up staying for the jets when nothing new came out for us for a long time. Many will now be going back to being rotorheads! DCS World has about the most realistic helicopter flight modelling possible on the PC (as it also does for fixed wing), nothing else really comes close, so I’m pumped to see the Helo stable getting larger!

At the time they announced a new, face melting module (back almost a year ago IIRC), there had been no teasing of the Apache aside from stuff that was 5+ years old. After they announced a reveal was coming, in the months following was when they started the teasing (Wags’ Syria video, “if not when”, etc). It started with the announcement, then the breadcrumbs started dropping. In my mind they’ve done exactly what they said they would nearly a year ago, officially announced a new module in 2020.

To put some positivity to this thread, I for one am stoked for the Apache. It’s exactly what I was hoping for! I know there are a lot of people who want a lot of things, but a Bluefor attack helo is sorely needed to face off against KA50 and MI24. I also know there’s no modern Redfor jets to face off against the Blue ones, so I do hope they find a way to get you guys your modern Redfor jet. While I feel your pain, I and many others are celebrating today!

Depends. Typically our aircraft commander sits in the left, the first officer on the right. The FO does most of the flying, but the AC can and will take control if needed. It also makes sense for instruction, the student would normally sit in the right.

IT’S AWESOME!! Two of us just did about 30 mins of ripping around. Observations: -Left seat has control priority, he can take control without asking permission but right seat must ask permission. I think this can be changed in the ME. You can also see the other guy’s control positions on the indicator, so you can line up your controls before transferring control. -Right seat pilot needs to stay put, and needs to be the first in the aircraft. Left seater can jump between left seat and both guns. -Request aircraft control is ‘C’ key by default, but doesn’t seem to be possible to bind to HOTAS. Hopefully we will see that soon. -I don’t want to call it a bug yet as it could be user error, but sometimes the left seater cannot shoot and can no longer switch between seats. Most times it worked but occasionally not. Other than that, very nice update so far, great work by ED!

Glad it helped! Slightly OP, but I also use symlinks for some of the DCS terrains that I don't play on much. I create a symlink where they usually belong on my main SSD, but link them to my secondary SSD to save space on my primary (which is faster (NVMe) but smaller than my other one (SATA))

The Jester comment is a great idea! My favorite is when you buzz the tower on the boat while supersonic... I don't remember the exact wording but something about how the Airboss is going to be peeved!

I agree it would be nice to have this integral, but as a workaround I use symlinks, just create one for your actual DCS location within your saved games and you should be able to do it. Mine allows me to access mission files stored on my server PC over the network. There are a few utilities that can easily generate them for you.

Ha, you nailed it. Any FO who can’t hold heading wouldn’t have made it through the first phase of flight training

I see your point, and agree. I’m a military helicopter pilot myself so of course we train for emergencies such as these. I still stand by my original point though - it’s much easier to do it all from the right, and that’s why single pilot operations are on the right! (Incidentally our PIC usually sits in the left, as he spends more time running the mission and working the comms than actually flying the aircraft, the FO gets to do that )

I’m not sure I follow your train of thought. Are you saying that someone flying from the left seat of a Robinson uses different hands or positioning than someone in the left seat of a helo with a standard cyclic, like a B206 or Huey? What I’m trying to say is that the left seat pilot would have to use his right hand to change radios (and therefore let go of the cyclic), while a right seat pilot can keep his right hand on the cyclic and do all the rest with his left. This would be no different with a standard cyclic arrangement as it would be in a Robinson...

Between your tests and those of Aurelius, it seems the AMD cards are the way to go with DCS right now. I wonder if it’s due to AMDs rasterization focus or due to the additional VRAM on AMD cards... If a higher VRAM 3080ti comes out, I wonder how that will change the calculus? It’s GPU upgrade year for me, but since I can’t get any of the new ones anyway, I’m waiting to see if Nvidia comes out with a higher VRAM version of the 3080...

You can let go of an airbus stick and the FBW will prevent it from going into an unusual attitude on you. Even a non-FBW airplane will maintain attitude if properly trimmed. Ever flown a helicopter without a force trim (all early helicopters and still most light helicopters)? The cyclic has 0 resistance, and will flop to the side the second you stop holding it. Believe me, you don’t want to take your hand off of it like you could in any airplane And as for flying it with your other hand, I’ve never tried it myself, and I don’t think I’d want to, especially in a hover. The controls require such finesse that I wouldn’t want to go against thousands of hours of muscle memory by using the other hand, it would be like learning to hover all over again! The Robinson does have a cyclic, it’s just a throw-over center mounted type. It still works the same.

Actually, the reason is because when you single pilot a helicopter (as most civvie helicopters are flown), you need to keep your right hand on the cyclic at all times, especially in smaller helicopters without force trim or autopilots. Sitting on the right allows you to use your left (collective) hand to tune radios and manipulate switches on the center console and overhead. If you sat in the left as airplanes do, you'd have to take your hand off the cyclic to do this.

They didn't really start teasing the Apache until AFTER they'd said it hadn't been teased yet. The last we heard that from ED was back in the Spring, and they didn't really start teasing Apache until Wags' Syria video and the various interviews that came out in summer/fall... I know you want it to be the F-111, but I want it to be the Apache - so I guess one of us will be disappointed!

Fair warning, when I got my Rift S I leant my old CV1 to a buddy with a similar setup to you (Mac on boot camp), he tried and tried but wasn’t able to get it working on a Mac... hopefully you’d have better luck but make sure you’ve got a solid return policy on whatever you purchase!

Had the same problem awhile ago - solution available here! https://forums.eagle.ru/forum/english/digital-combat-simulator/dlc-campaigns/baltic-dragon/f-a-18c-raven-one-campaign/bugs-and-problems-bo/287252-mission-9-gps-issue

According to the Fighter Pilot Podcast, the F-117 did have another role that could be fun in DCS, especially in certain servers: Equipped with AIM-9s, they were supposed to penetrate and destroy the enemy's AWACS. In some of the larger PVP servers, that would give a fairly distinct advantage - though if the capability wasn't available to both sides, it might cause some issues... https://theaviationist.com/2020/06/03/f-117s-had-an-air-to-air-capability-with-secondary-mission-to-shoot-down-soviet-awacs-former-stealth-pilot-says/

While we wait for multicrew (and even after for SP uses), it would be nice if the "autopilot," and by this I mean the dead weight sitting in the left seat, could competently fly the aircraft. The Huey doesn't have an autopilot, nor does it have an autohover. It does have a first officer. When I activate the "autopilot" while in the hover, for example, it holds the hover well for about 10 seconds, then the controls start to drift and it goes into a tail low backwards movement, about the most dangerous and uncomfortable place to be in when hovering at 4ft. I've even noticed it on the ground; I have a stick with no springs, so when I need to take my hands off the stick, I just activate the autopilot with the stick centered, and he holds the controls in the center - most of the time. Sometimes it will drift until the stick is full forward and right, often resulting in mast bumping and destroying the rotor. I think it's the same problem as the heading drift. I guess all I'm asking for is a basic simulation of the other pilot, so when I set the aircraft up in a hover, or on a certain heading and speed, I can hand him control and let him fly it while I work radios, run a mission, etc. There's nothing unrealistic about this; on the contrary, it's exactly how military aircrews work. One guy flies (usually the FO) while the other guy navigates, works radios, and runs the mission. In it's most simplistic implementation, I would fly the aircraft and just ask the other guy to hold that heading/altitude/airspeed/hover for brief moments when I need to do something else. More advanced stuff would be cool (like terrain following, etc) but even just this simple flying would be a huge help!

Compared to the guy on the ground who has been awake for days, is dirty, dehydrated and can’t lift his head because of the incoming fire, the pilot is in a much better position! He’s well fed, well rested, and not pinned down by enemy fire. Having been the dude on the ground and the dude in the air on 4 deployments, the pilot gig is the better one! :pilotfly:

Yeah, there definitely something wonky. I turned off Voiceattack and still have hit and miss comms, especially in the A-10C-II, though I think that module has its own comms bugs right now... Edit: there seems to be a DCS bug when using “combined joint task forces” for blue force country on AWACS. I believe liberation does this? https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=286054 Probably explains my issues with AWACS, I wonder if it extends to supercarrier too? I’ll have to do some testing.

Good to know, thanks!

Just discovered this wonderful piece of software - Wow! However, I'm running into a game breaking problem. Comms don't work! I can communicate with my wingman OK, but AWACs is very inconsistent, most times they don't respond, then once in awhile out of the blue I'll get a BRAA call, then nothing again. Supercarrier comms are worse - When I call inbound, the initial answer from marshal isn't heard. I hear myself respond to them, but none of the important bits! I'm not having this issue with regular missions or multiplayer. I always play easy comms off (Yes, I'm ensuring I have the right freqs per the kneeboard, and I believe they're correct as I get the occasional response). I have no idea what could be causing this.... Is there a known bug / conflict between Voiceattack / Vaicom and this software? That's the only thing I can think of.

I have the elevation issue as well. I can enter coords in PP mode, but it will not accept the elevation value. It won't show the elevation on the display, and won't remove the X over the PP1 to allow use of that pre-planned target. I haven't tried firing anyway yet, but with the X still through the PP1 I don't expect it to work. Steps taken: Hot start on runway, 3 x SLAM and 1 x Datalink Enter STRS, select SLAM, SLAM Display, Msn Enter Lat / Long via TGT UFC (no problem) Go to Elev via TGT UFC, select feet or meters, enter elevation data, hit enter Entered data does not reflect on DDI in MSN page and the PP1 remains X'd out Track is attached. SLAM Test.trk