Obiwan

If SHIFT-J isn't wobbly enough for you, you can always clip a blade on mission start :D

'cause it's fun, and drives up your score :) I do it all the time as well, but I don't have a problem with laser burn-out. I keep it switched off when not targeting from a distance. The secondary targets (supply trucks, etc) I usually take out with the cannon in the fixed position while flying low to the ground over/near the targets. Occasionally I visit the FARP to re-arm, then continue cleaning. Seldom suffer laser burnout though.

Nope, their web server got hacked. See: http://www.checksix-fr.com/ Translated from French to English (Google): " Following a hack of the server site, the forums and sites are hosted off-line. We are working on their next return. We can not give you the time of recovery times The TS server is operational to reduce the lack;) "

Bringing the bird to life is not "flipping all the switches" (presumably to on). Checklists are there for a purpose. You need to ensure that the "switches are in the correct position." So even if a switch is on accidentally (which you would catch on the first checklist run to ensure it's off, in case it's required to be off), once you step through the checklist, you set it to, or leave it at, on.

In case anyone is curious about hover turns in a tandem rotor helicopter, this link is a pretty good one: http://www.helicopterpage.com/html/tandem.html

[Removed post. Already covered.]

I use 3-1-2, both sides. I have the dispenser mapped on my collective joystick so I can quickly release another 3 if I need to while I'm pulling away. Also note that clicking the button quickly will release another set before the set sequence pause is over. So if you need to dump faster for some reason, click a couple times.

The "back tilt" is normal. A lot of helicopters hover with the nose slightly high since the rotor system is tilted slighty forward so that cruise are more comfortable and don't make you slide out of your seat :) Neutralize all trim, increase collective slowly and smoothly, and she'll hover nicely. (BTW: I love how one wheel seems to "pop" out of the mud on grass surfaces! Kudos!)

Turn the Pitch Hold off and you won't be fighting the auto pilot for pitch control. It allows for a nicer aim. At least for me.

Uhm... no. Both turn at the same speed. Same gearbox. What changes is the pitch angle. It gets lowered on one set of blades by the same amount it gets raised on the lower blades. The total lift produced remains the same, but the difference in torque caused by the increase/decrease of wind resistance turns the airframe. Feel free to browse the Internet for a more thourough explaination.

I'm sure you can, but you wouldn't want to put fueltanks or rocket pods on the outside rails. That's done for load and balance reasons (my guess at least). You want to keep the heaviest loads towards the center. There are probably also structural limitations, but my guess is load/balance.

I also have a collective joystick on the side of my chair. Real collectives don't have a center spring, but they to have a friction control to adjust the easy of moving. Unless you purchase some advanced controller, I recommend you leave the spring in the joystick. For the most part, at least in FS2004, the middle is right on for cruising. In BS, I have that joystick as my collective, but I also mapped the little slider as collective. BS can use both without a problem. That way you can adjust your collective with the slider for cruise and take your hand off. If you need to drop collective quickly, just grab the joystick. It seems like the last control input remains the active one. So if move the joystick, that will control. If you let your hands of the joystick, you have to adjust the slider a bit so that BS registers a change, and it will use that setting. Works like a charm for me.

I have an old Dell XPS M170, 2GHz single-core, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7800 Go GTX. My settings are all set to high, except view distance (medium). On 1024x768 I get between 10-15 fps (if the battlefield is full of AI, it can drop to 6 fps temporarily). Yet, the game is still very much playable and enjoyable! I'm amazed on how good it still looks and plays on my old lappy. (I can go to 1920x1600 resolution and it drops only to 4-8 fps, which is broderline playable (Track IR movements are sluggish), but I was surprised that that resolution didn't take a larger hit. Sadly, I can't use dual monitor since that kills performance, so no Shkval screen for me). I'm really happy that it can run fine on older systems like mine. Thanks ED! :)

While that's true for a normal approach, you can make her stop on a dime (without putting more than 2-2.5G's on it). :) The more I fly, the more I'm impressed by the capabilities of that aircraft. If you have flown helicopters before, it doesn't take much practice to get used to her. She's got her own personality, like any aircraft. (I myself still find myself overcontrolliing the pedals at times...where the heck is the torque I'm so used to? ...lol). If you are coming from fixed wing, then yes, the learning curve is quite steep. But as you said, with the AP buttons for stabilization, it's not bad. It just takes practice.

Doh! Shame on me. Just found another thread regarding the same issue. I'm gonna verify in a minute. Feel free to delete this thread. My apologies.

Greetings, I've been playing around with ABRIS the INU. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I'm missing something else. This was first noticed while in hover after a flight, so I don't think inertia would have anything to do with it. I reproduced it on the ground for the screenshot. While adding single waypoints in the ABRIS is straight forward ("To"), the coordinates obviously have to be programmed into the INU as well so the AP can navigate to it. Instead of burning "Waypoints" (wanted to leave the existing flight plan untouched), I decided to program a location as a "Nav Target" point. So, on the INU, switched to "Edit" mode, Nav Target 1, entered coordinates, switch back to "Oper" mode, and the AP can fly to it just fine. However, the display of the "Nav Target" point 1 on the ABRIS doesn't match the actual coordinates. In order to get the coordinates, I used the "Marker" in ABRIS. Those coordinates were entered into the INU. But the "Marker" location in ABRIS doesn't match the "Nav Target" 1 location in ABRIS. Attached is a screenshot of the issue. You can see the red "Marker" box in the upper rigth corner of the ABRIS. (The blue dot was an ad-hoc "To" waypoint in ABRIS). The GPS location is 44*58'30, 38*01'30. (The difference between 8 and 0 is hard to see in the screenshot though, but it's accurate). You will also note that the coordinates are entered into the INU as "Nav Target 1". But on the ABRIS, that target (blue box with the 1) isn't in the same place. Any ideas? Is this a bug or did I mess up somewhere?

As far as future models is concerned, there should be plenty of information on the MI-24 available. The Nemeth brothers got good info together for their Hind for FS2004 (which rocks). I would assume that ED would get similar support from Mil or an operator of the MI-24.

Here's my current Labels.lua file. I'm still tweaking distances, but this works well for me: -----8<----- AirOn = true GroundOn = true NavyOn = true WeaponOn = true AirFormat = {} AirFormat[50] = "" AirFormat[5000] = "%P" AirFormat[10000] = "%N%n%D Km%n%P" AirFormat[20000] = "`" AirFormat[30000] = "`" GroundFormat = {} GroundFormat[100] = "`%N" GroundFormat[10000] = "`" GroundFormat[20000] = "`" NavyFormat = {} NavyFormat[100] = "`%N" NavyFormat[20000] = "`" NavyFormat[40000] = "`" WeaponFormat = {} WeaponFormat[5000] = "`" WeaponFormat[10000] = "`" WeaponFormat[20000] = "`" -- Colors in {red, green, blue} format, volume from 0 up to 255 ColorAliesSide = {0, 0, 255} ColorEnemiesSide = {255, 0, 0} ----->8----- Hope that helps. Cheers!

Yeah, that's pretty much what I have been doing. Still rarely find anything. (I do have scenery set to high, so perhaps the suckers are just hiding in trees...) Oh cool, that rocks. I'll play with that. Looks like I can also change the color of enemies back to Red :) Thanks for that pointer. Just having a small red dot instead labels will certainly help with hunting while not cluttering the screen (and feeling like cheating... lol) Cheers!

I think the key is to learn the aircraft, learn the weapons/NAV/misc systems, and learn how to use them *effectively* and *intuitively* during flight/combat. I'm getting pretty good at controlling the aircraft and getting better at combat. However, there is one thing I still have an extremely hard time with ... ...Labels Yes, the missions are fun with labels on because you can see where about the enemy is and then use the Skhval to locate and target him. However, it's nearly impossible (for me at least) to do that without labels. I have an extemely hard time finding anyone with labels turned off. Usually when I do find the enemy, it's because he indicated his position by throwing missles in my face. :) and then it's usually too late and I gotta restart the mission. So, question to the aces here: What's the secret to combat with labels turned off? Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Awesome :) hm... maybe I just got lucky that day. Glad to see the ride ends as expected. The more I play it, the more I discover how superbly it's simulated. Couple days ago I lost an engine, but for some reason didn't have enough lift left, which seemed odd. I thought the aircraft should be able to fly on one engine. So, yesterday when I got my left engine shredded by a Vulcan, I hit the pause button and thought (before acting in panic) what the next steps would be. Aight, fire is out. Closing left fuel lever...oh, ah, yes, I should jettison the rocket pods and dispose of any remaining Vikhrs. As soon as that was done, whaddayaknow... I was able to fly back to home plate quite comfortably. I can't see myself going back to any other flightsim ever again :) Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Hmm... after thinking about it more, it makes sense that a counter-rotating set of blades help stabilize the rotor mast, and ground resonance is less of an issue. At least during landing/taxing I would imagine. However, flying with one blade missing has got to be a bad thing. If the real aircraft would survive that... well... hats off to Kamov!

First off, Greetings! (first post...yay)... and thank you for BS. I think my days in FS9 are coming to a close. DCS:BS is so much more fun. Even after flying the Dodo, the vortex ring state in BS has me watching out for it (and getting out of it) better than anything else. This sim seems to be #1 in regards to flight dyamics. However, I do have some suggestions. The "landing" thread reminded me of it... While I really appreciate the blown tires, one thing doesn't appear to be modelled/simulated properly is Ground Resonance. It would be awesome if a hard landing could actually bring the blades out of sync and cause resonance, up to destruction. The same applies to flight. It became very apparent during a flight with 5 blades (lost one to bullets or missles or something that wasn't supposed to be in the blades path :) I would assume that flight with 5 blades instead of 6 wouldn't last long either, with the helicopter shaking itself apart. Perhaps that's something for future patches/upgrades. I would think it could be implemented rather easily, seeing how fragile the aircraft is already (meaning, able to take damage and react to it). Anyway, thanks again for an awesome flightsim! [Edit: Just found another thread about ground resonance. Sorry for the dupe.]