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Sorry for not speaking russian. But just want you to know that the Mi-24 has been released now. Review and download at SimHQ. счастливого нового года!

For those of you who want a little change in between flying Black Shark, I'll let you know that the Mi-24 has been released for EECH. . And here's a review from SimHQ and download links. And finally some cockpit screenshots: Merry X-Mas!

I find this army video from the 70s interesting. It shows how the army planned to use helicopters if the Big One had broken out with the Soviets. Not quite how helicopters are being used today, but then the enemy is very different as well.

They're at least supposed to have a radar :) Is it because the radar isn't ready yet that they don't carry any? I've certainly seen the pod on top of the main rotor, is it empty?

Don't know if the Mi-28N does this, but the Apache Longbow's mast mounted radar has a RFI (radar frequency interferometer) which also sort of works like a RWR. It does carry conventional RWR antennas too, but that may be partly because many Apaches don't have the Longbow radar. I believe all Mi-28N have the mast mounted radar, and it could have a similar RFI system in its radar. About the Longbow's RFI:

Haha, thought you were talking about volt/amp-meter here, and it seemed a bit extreme to say they are dangerous :) Yes, but the manual also states that they are not implemented in the sim, which I guess is why we have the topic.

I kind of doubt the Falcon community has stuck with F4 only because of the specific aircraft. Think it has more to do with its dynamic campaign and immersive battlefield.

Page 2-101: Seems to be an extra "the" in that sentence. Page 2-102: I believe that should be valves, not values. The grammer of that entire list seems a little weird. It lists conditions, so to me sounds better as "Left/right engine fuel shutoff valves in open position", and the same with the other items in that list, better to use "in" than "to". Or if "to" is to be used then the word "move" (or some other verb like push, pull, press etc) should be in there somewhere.

I would certainly support a Harrier from ED myself too. But just to let you know, there is already one fairly hardcore Harrier sim in the works, Jet Thunder. So maybe you can get your Harrier fix from it until ED does one :)

Quite a bit since the video was posted. But not much since last update at SimHQ last week. At that time it was the door and some other details at the sides like the mirrors which were done:

Don't have any plans for further helicopters as of now. We'll see what happens when I finish the Mi-24.

ВКЛ and ОТКЛ is on and off. So now you know where all the switches should be ;)

You can find the original photos (full size) here http://walkarounds.airforce.ru/avia/rus/kamov/ka-50/index.htm It has been asked in these forums once before too, but can't remember the answer :)

The GAU-8 has a fire rate of 3900 rds/min. It used to be selectable between 2100 or 4200 rds/min, but now it only uses a fixed setting of 3900 rds/min. Still a lot of rounds of course, but not quite 6000 :) Projectile weight is about the same (and both much heavier than the Apache's rounds), but the 2A42 has slightly lower muzzle velocity. There the GAU-8 wins big :) The Russians do however have something comparable in firepower to the GAU-8, the Su-25 and Mi-24P's double-barrel GSh-30-2 fires about 3000 rds/min :) And several other aircraft, including the Ka-50 can carry UPK-23 gun pods. It's only 23 mm, but each pod fires about 3500 rds/min, so with four pods that's about 14000 rds/min, or well over 200 per second. That's some serious firepower :)

There have been some experimental helicopters with pusher propellers at the rear for increases speed. Like the AH-56 Cheyenne or the new Sikorsky X2. The Sikorsky S-69 even had turbojets for forward propulsion:

Yes, indeed they do. The Ka-50 and Mi-28 weigh about the same (around 7800 kg empty for both). The Ka-50s rotor diameter is about 3 meters less, and the combined disc area of the Ka-50's two rotors is under 50% bigger than the Mi-28's single rotor (i.e. each rotor's disc area is only about 75% as big).

The Yak-24 and Bristol Belvedere were both tandem rotor helicopters with four-blade rotors: As was the Boeing 347 demonstrator: and the 360 demonstrator:

Interesting that Sikorsky's new X2 design is a co-axial rotor design. They believe it should be able to fly faster than 250 kts, which is by far faster than any helicopter made so far. It's also interesting that it reduces rotor RPM at high speed to avoid the advancing blades going supersonic. Apparently it's no concern that the retreating blades will stall. Story about X2's maiden flight a couple of weeks ago. And here is a concept drawing of it as an attack helicotper:

Yes, but the pedals and toe brakes are the same device as the Cougar. But they don't just have to be disabled, but also among the first 8 axes for DirectX to see them. This is how it is by default, and you can see that the Microstick is on axes 9 and 10 and won't work: While if you change it to something like this on axis 7 and 8, then DirectX should see them (but disable using it as a mouse in the profile then, it can't be both a joystick and a mouse at the same time):

You can have the cougar mini stick used as joystick axis too. But since DirectX only supports at most 8 axes, you have to disable some other axis to do that and move the microstick-axes to two of the first 8 for DirectX to recognize them. Toe-brakes are two obvious axes to move to axis 9 and 10, unless you actually have pedals with toe-brakes connected to your Cougar (if it's connected directly to the PC then it doesn't matter, it will be a separate joystick with its own 8 axes to use). You can change which axis is which number from the Cougar Control Panel.

I am considering it. Guess it depends on how DSC turns out, and how much the tools let me do. EECH has the advantage that since the source code is available, I can do absolutely anything. Limited time to do it all is the only limitation. And also, ED seems to already be modelling the Mi-24 and most other fun aircraft themselves :)

You will have to wait until it's finished. To mention just the most obvious, the entire door on the right side is missing :)

I made a little video of the start-up procedure with the new Mi-24 'Hind' cockpit I'm making for EECH.

If it's like the Mi-24 (and most Russian helicopters seem to use a similar engine system) then it has a twist throttle on the collective for controlling governor RPM (i.e. what RPM it should keep the rotor at). You can set it high for more power, or lower to save fuel. But the governor controls the actual engine RPM. There is also override throttles for emergency cases when the governor fails.

The engine uses water injection, mostly to increase thrust. Though it also helps cooling the exhaust. Particulary important to prevent damage to the flaps, since the engine blows on the flaps to increase lift.