heloguy

Just like a Hip to take off without talking to anyone and turn out over the airfield...just kidding, looks awesome guys.

I fly helicopters for the US Army. The ETL effect in this sim is pretty dead on. I haven't flown a Huey, but I have flown a B206, and an H-60, and the effect is pretty much the same in all helicopters, as it is a basic aerodynamic principle. I've never looked at it from the outside, but from the cockpit I find it very realistic. In fact, one of the things I hate about FSX helicopters is the fact that you have to increase power as you accelerate from a hover in order to climb. Based on environmental factors, and aircraft weight, you really shouldn't have to in most situations. The aircraft should start to climb all by itself without a change in power as it accelerates through 16-24 knots. Now, depending on PA, temp, how much weight you're carrying, or minimum climb requirements at the airfield you're operating at, you may have to make some adjustments, but for normal take-offs at low DAs and at the lower end of a helicopters gross weight, it shouldn't be a problem. In fact, even if the helo is overloaded, it will begin to climb as it goes through ETL, but if you are too heavy, you'll descend back down, and possible contact the ground unless you get up enough speed. In those cases you would just adjust the cyclic to keep yourself in ground effect until you build enough speed to climb normally, but I digress to a totally different subject...

So, I'm putting a mission together, and wanted to do an accurate performance planning card to bundle with the upload, but can't seem to find any information on the forum, or in the manual about a calibrated torque factor for the engine. I'm guessing there is no error simulated, which would make sense, it's a sim, and it can work perfect if we want it to, but just wanted to see if someone from Belsimtek could confirm.

5 seconds over the load to hook up? That's a little optimistic...especially with a Huey. It'd be cool if there were a random time built in, as the time required to hook up a load often relies on how proficient the team is that rigged, and is doing the hookup.

Appreciate the replies. Navigating by pilotage isn't a problem, really, especially since we have he Kneeboard, and I happen to have a 1:500,000 printed map, but I was hoping I was just missing something as far as showing he freq, or identifier. This would be especially useful when flying above a layer. Hopefully it would be something added in the future. Something as simple as showing the freq for the navaid on the control head.

Obvious how this works in NAV mode, but how do I know which Tacan, or ILS is tuned when flying the F15C, or A-10 A?

Zoom in/out Slow The zoom in and out slow buttons (forward slash and asterix on the numpad) seem to be inop on the new A-10A. Also inop if mapped to a joystick button.

If we're talking U.S. Army pilots on a checkride, then yes, they definitely use the checklist, or they are failed by the instructor pilot (it's in a regulation that the checklist will be used. But, on a real mission, especially something like a QRF, or MEDEVAC, no way. Actually, I would be interested to know that if you fly this thing for a year, and don't use the checklist to start, how many times you forget to take the starter/generator switch to STBY GEN after starting the engine. Just one of those things that an IP would look for if a guy is starting the helo. In a UH-60, I have guys do that kind of stuff even when they're using the checklist, just because they're going too fast through it.

Yeah, I've seen the mod. When I get everything back from my move, I'll have to give it a go. Just think it would be cool to have different models of NVGs correctly modeled according to A/C. Or even better, according to the country associated with the pilot selected.

Guess I should have looked at your avatar, but honestly I was just replying blind ;) Yeah, focus would be useless in DCS. Autogain/brightness control would be a pretty realistic feature. I'm guessing this stuff hasn't come up before since a lot of people might not have experience with Russian NVGs, and maybe the ones modeled in Blackshark are spot on, and jets don't have quite the same need for goggles as helos. So to summarize: -the NVGs need to be focused to infinity, with unreadable gauges up close (maybe not possible with focus, but properly lit gauges should bloom out in the goggles). -the FOV is too wide and should be smaller (around 40 degrees), as well as circular -the gain control should be automatic based on the amount of light entering the goggles

I would be surprised to find out that 'all' U.S. Hueys had tacan. I'll have to ask one of the guys in my unit, as he was in one of the last active units to fly hueys before they were replaced, but I know all 60's don't have tacan, as it's pretty much only installed if it's a theater requirement.

I guess I need to go back and mess with it (moving, and just had to pack up my SIM computer). Yeah, gauges need to be visible when looking underneath the goggles, but unreadable through the goggles.

What do you mean by not functional?

Actually, you do adjust focus IRL when you first put them on. You just wouldn't adjust focus after that unless it was not done correctly in the first place. The above pictures with the dome light off where the instruments are easy to read are completely unrealistic. The dome light on pic is much more representative of what it looks IRL. I have about 600 NVG hours in helos, so I'm speaking from experience, not just trying to say harder is more realistic.

Instruments should be unreadable through the NVGs if focused correctly. That's why they aren't supposed to be right up against your face, so you can look under them to see the instruments.

Only one day for a track and balance?! That's a good day...

Sweet, thanks EvilBivol.

I know there is a mod for this already, and I'm not really sure which NVGs are modeled in the sim, but is there anyway to have a smaller, more circular FOV with the NVGs? This would be a ton more realistic than the current football view. Also, adjusting the gain is not possible with current real ANVIS 9s. Only focusing them, which should yield a 1:1 magnification (i.e. no magnification).

Not sure if anyone else can confirm, as I'm not sure if I tried this with the G940 before or after I did the force feedback workaround with the Sim FFB program, but the last time I tried turing off the force trim via the switch on the center console, all of my force gradient remained on the stick. Maybe this is just a bug with the G940, but could someone try it with a different FFB stick?

Yeah, I was looking for that the other day when trying a night flight. Everything seemed pretty bright in the aircraft, then I noticed that the cabin dome lights were on and started looking for the switch.

Actually, in my experience, flying in places in the world like this, it's likely that the maps represented in this sim are pretty close to what a U.S. or NATO pilot would probably have. The only way to make it better perhaps would be to scale the mission editor in to take screen shots for your iPad. Kind of like mission planning software. I thought the kneeboard system was kind of refreshing compared to other sims, like CLoD, or IL2 1946, where it seems like the consensus among those developers is that flying with a line drawn on the map is somehow a cheat, even if you have icons turned off. What pilot would fly without a freaking line drawn on his map? Would be nice if we had a tacan in the thing. I'm willing to bet that Chair Force Huey's probably had it, or at least some of them did depending on where they were based. Wouldn't mind getting rid of that 3 needle altimeter on the pilot's side while they're at it. Just give me the same one as the co-pilot...

Thanks a lot, that's even better than my previous workaround!

I know it's been said a whole lot already, but just wanted to say thanks again for such a great sim. Just for the hell of it, I did a hover power check at the end of the second mission in the campaign. 29.92, 5ft. skid height on the helipad. About 250ft PA, 15 degrees C, and 28psi on the torque, and when I checked it out on the hover chart in the UH-1H -10, it came out to just shy of 8000lbs. I exited out, and opened up the mission editor, and sure enough, the A/C weight after dropping off the cargo was set at 7,798lbs. That's amazing!

So I am using the "macro" workaround to get the trim forces to release when I press the trim switch, which seems to be working fine (i.e. creating a macro that continuously presses and releases the trim switch in Logitech Profiler), but I would like to know which button sound the trim uses so I can disable the sound. It's a little crazy since the Profiler software is constantly pressing and releasing the button.

Looks great! Shouldn't have guns, though...