slug88

You didn't happen to save a track, did you?

FYI, the original post is about 5 months old :P.

Ok, so it's not that you find it useless, it's just that you arbitrarily limit yourself from using it when it's called for. ;)

Install it in a folder other than Program Files. For example, I place all my games in C:\Games\, and so I have Modman installed in C:\Games\ModMan.

ED seems to disagree. They've already posted WIP screenshots of the AH-64A cockpit. The tentative plan is to release it after DCS: A-10C.

There are a couple of knobs on the center console, directly in front of the cyclic, that you'll need to adjust for each mission to get a good image through the NVG's. Namely, you'll want to set brightness and contrast. Properly configured, they'll practically turn night into day.

Cheers :)

Then the next thing I would think of would be power loss. Specifically, if you forgot to enable the AC generators, or your engines aren't putting out enough power to run them, then you'll be flying on batteries. When those batteries start getting low, non-critical systems start to shut down. Anyway, besides the above, there are dozens of other reasons for this to happen. The only way to diagnose it with certainty is for you to record a track and post it here the next time it happens.

It sounds very much like your AP is being disabled when you hit autohover. That would explain why the helicopter has "lost some of its previous levels of control". Automatic AP shutoff is usually a result of initiating autohover below 4m radio altitude. It's a safety feature designed to disengage the AP whenever there's a chance that the AP will fly you into the ground. The solution is to simply stay higher before engaging AP. At 4m you'll be kicking up a pretty hefty dust cloud and increasing your visibility (even to the AI) anyhow.

That's the opposite of what you should do when caught in VRS. The proper procedure is to lower collective and immediately pitch down to gain speed. Unless you're in a hover, in which case flaring back will achieve the same effect as pitching forward. Remember your goal is just to get out of the vertical column of turbulent air. Of course, the downside of flaring back from a hover is that then you'll end up going backwards, which is inadvisable for obvious reasons.

The question's already been answered in this thread. Once again, here are the reasons: Usually, the AP disengages when engaging auto hover below 4m radio alt. However, power loss (probably the second most common reason), systems damage, exiting the normal flight envelope, as well as a variety of other circumstances can lead to this. In all there are probably dozens of reasons for which AP shutoff would occur. Thus the only way to properly diagnose why it happens in any given case is to analyze a track file.

Yes, I (and I believe most others here?) would say that is the correct method for substantial changes. As I said, it's not necessary to hold the trimmer for small corrections.

Holding down the trimmer button has an identical effect to engaging the Flight Director. That is, all AP hold channels are suspended, while all the AP dampening channels remain active. In other words, the AP will stop trying to maintain the previously set pitch, heading, bank, and/or altitude, but it will still work to prevent oscillations and rapid changes to those parameters. The reason the aircraft may seem very unstable when maneuvering without holding down the trimmer/engaging FD, is because the AP assumes you want it to maintain the previously trimmed for flight parameters, and so resists any deviation from said parameters, including your control inputs. I have found that the most fluid and stable control results from a combination of two trimming methods: 1. For major course changes, I first depress the trimmer, then apply control input and stabilize the aircraft along the new heading and flight regime, and then release the trimmer. 2. For minor corrections, such as heading changes of a degree or two, or minor pitch and bank corrections, I apply the control input, stabilize the aircraft along the new regime, and then press and release the trimmer. So long as the correction is small enough, there is no bobbing or instability. It's taken me a few weeks to get comfortable with the above routine, but now I find flying the Shark to be extremely fluid and intuitive. When I first flew the Deployment campaign, at which time I had about a week of practice with the sim, I found it very difficult to keep formation with the Hind flight lead. I just started it again yesterday, and found that maintaining a 10m echelon formation was almost effortless. So, the point is, take a few days of practice to internalize the functions of the AP and trim, get a few weeks of practice, and controlling this lovely helicopter will come as naturally as riding a bike.

Are you certain that the instant action mission is loading in Real Mode, rather than Game Mode? In the settings screen, have you checked "Use these settings for all missions"? As for the AP, there are several things which could cause the behavior you're seeing. As already mentioned, engaging autohover below 4m RAlt will do this. Also, loss of power, systems damage, and flying very far outside of the normal flight envelope can lead to AP shutoff.

Setting the swap file size to 0 in Windows might help with the caching issues. I've been doing this on my 4gb W7 system from day one.

Yep, you can do that. The combination of trim and AP is designed to automatically follow a flight regime that you've initiated. In other words, you set the heading, speed, and altitude, then you trim, and then the AP will do it's best to maintain your settings.

Er, it's supposed to be in metric. So don't change it back.

You sure about that? I thought ALT hold would be disabled by FD just like all the other holds.

On that note, make sure you watch the Producer's Note on Trimming. Located on the downloads section of this website.

Joker, read over the 'practical exercise' that starts on page 81 of the GUI manual. It walks you through creating an example mission, including how to randomize force composition. Most, if not all, of the functions requested in this thread can already be enacted within the current mission editor with creative use of random triggers.

Though this was possible with Lock On, I don't believe it's possible in DCS.

Just hold down the LOCK button while moving the SHKVAL cursor to the preferred target.

Yep, Intel Core 2 here.

I've been running W7 x64 with the X52 Pro for the past several months, and have had no issues whatsoever.

I'd like to know too. Surely one more post off-topic wouldn't hurt that much? :)