For Petro work with AT 6/9
After start up;
Turn on weapons in upfront panel and have AI Petro turn on his systems.
Set range to AUTO
Set Weapon to OFF/MISSILE
There are two small dark switches above weapons for syncing. Set both in up position
Enable FIRE AT WILL for Petro.
Point toward target area.
Have Petro search for targets
Set AI Petro to select ATTACKA MISSILE as weapon
Select a target from Petro list and tell AI Petro to engage.
After Petro reports weapon ready and target in range align Petro cross hair inside pilot crosshair and after missile ready tone sounds for one second without break Petro reports FIRING fires the missile. Keep the target inside HUD until hit or miss. The lower the AGL at time of release the lower the probability of hit. Petro will report missile hit or miss.
When using rockets , or guns, have Petro search for targets, but fire weapons yourself. All rockets , guns, and pods in Hind are LOS forward firing weapons , so those are your responsibility. IMHO. Petro is used to search for targets and fire AT-6/9 missiles. I do enable AI countermeasures , but still fire flares/chaff manually when either Petro or Nadia reports a threat. I admit , missile evasion is poor. The Hind is huge and lumbering. Excessive roll or pitch , results in loss of control. Even empty Hind is heavy for available power and in my hands prone to VRS or settling with power. Pilot Visibility is poor , relative to Apache or Gazelle, so vertical landing in confined areas is difficult for me. Deck landings are somewhat normal as long as ship has 20 knot speed, and there is sufficient space. Hind appears to have similar clearance requirements as SeaStallion and Osprey. So land only on large moving ships. Hovering is a challenge due to GW and power limitations. Hind acts more like a compound helicopter-fixed wing VSTOL then pure helicopter. When empty with low fuel it will hover with high power settings. When loaded with weapons and fuel above 35% , bringing it to a stable hover is a danger frought challenge. Have gear down if hovering IGE.
Most takeoffs and landings I do are rolling with about 30 kph forward speed. I land with elongated spiral landing pattern to shed speed and begin at least 1.5 km from landing spot.
To me Hind is more of a rotary wing compound Very Short Takeoff and Landing aircraft , rather then a true helicopter. Watching various historical docs and recent event videos it appears that's how Hind crews fly it.
Russians and their clients love it, but I am aghast that they would deploy a combat battlefield helicopter of that size. It's huge.It needs stand off range missiles. Combat hull losses Hinds took in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia , MidEast, and Ukraine are huge. Being a Hind combat crew is a high risk job. MANPADS and IR SHORAD chew it up.
In DCS, I think it needs more power. Even empty with no fuel , it's GW is near 90%.
