Fitz

Sorry for the long delay. I was just wondering because I am currently flying about ninety hours a month in Iraq in the little helicopter that "can be shot down with a BB gun" and would disagree with your opinion. Any aircraft can be taken down with a well placed bullet. The reason you see more OH-58D accidents is due to us hanging it out for the ground guys. Getting close to the fight. Using M-4's to "deal with" insurgents. How many pilots of other airframes do you see engaging with M-4's? I would venture to say none, with maybe some exceptions in the Spec Ops community. Let me tell you, the KW can take a quite a beating and still make it home.

Are you talking about in LB2 or do you have a lot of experience with KW shootdowns in real life?

Nevermind. I am tired. I just got done flying six hours of goggles. Misunderstood your question.

More competent? Are you insane? I have spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out a way to spell out how I feel about the insurgents and their tactics without being kicked off the forum. So I am not going to. The dialogue that goes on inside a cockpit on the ICS (intercom system) is much the same as you would hear if you were near a crew-served weapons team in a firefight. We don't use brevity codes or try to be brief on the ICS because there is no one else listening or trying to speak. We still get excited no matter how many engagements we have done in the past. Don't you think it would be odd to hear a casual tone during an engagement? Even with the most calm, collected pilots you can still hear the excitement in their voice. P.S. I am glad the insurgency's propaganda films have recruited another sympathetic soul:cry:.

Disagree

I would say some, not most. Anyways, if you're all about the hours, go scouts. We get the most hours out of the big four.

The KW has been an "interim" aircraft for 20 years. Supposed to be replaced by the Commanche.

What I am saying is that the ARH program is encountering difficulties and the KW will be around for awhile

That's funny. At this rate, your D model Apache will be a G model when, or possibly if, the ARH is fielded.

Very tasteful. Anyways, we are talking OH-58D here right? Not even close to an A or C model. It can't carry troops because the spot where the seats would go is filled with archaic avionics components. And nobody (OH-58D squadron wise) carries Stinger missiles these days. And to Wags, if we are talking D models I could assist with the beta testing.:smilewink:

Use of the force trim will vary with the type of aircraft and individual pilots. In the OH-58D, the force trim is usually only turned on when the helicopter is on the ground. With the force trim turned off there is no difference in tension in any of the cyclic position quadrants once the cyclic is established there. If I were to use force trim in flight, I would need to reset it every few seconds and that would defeat the purpose. The rotor system on the Kiowa Warrior is so responsive and sensitive to outside forces that if the cyclic were left in the exact same position for longer than a few seconds, the aircraft would try to invert itself and dive into the ground.

That's a Kiowa Warrior during JRTC at Fort Polk.

I don't want to confuse anyone. The Kiowas Warrior and the Apache can and occasionally do work together. I am just saying that currently we aren't doing much of that. If we were involved in a conflict against an actual military, rather than insurgents that blend in with the populous, we would be able to use more of our established doctrine and do things a little differently. As far as a good Kiowa Warrior simulator, I haven't seen one. I didn't play either of the Jane's Longbow games, so I can't comment on those. Someone made a nice model of one for FS2004, but it had default Bell 206 avionics. The avionics and mission equipment package were not modelled, and that is what sets the Kiowa Warrior apart. I think it would be great to have a KW modelled well in a sim. You can't beat zipping along at 90 knots 20 feet above the ground with no doors.:smilewink:

Being one of the esteemed aviators of this fine machine I am of course partial to the Kiowa Warrior. But, the argument of it working well with the Apache doesn't really work these days. I have designated more for the F-16 than the Apache. There are some units in theater implementing the "pink" teams of old, and are having successes, but for the most part these two machines (OH-58D and AH-64D or A) work autonomously.