wickedpenguin

I've had a couple of strange failures recently in online missions: * I've had it where the helicopter simply won't start. I'll fire up the APU, and one of the engines won't turn over. I followed the checklists to the "T" and nothing. APU was running, but the engine wouldn't light. Time to drive my flight boot up lazy crew chief's rear end! * I was slowing to a hover and pulled up rather abruptly to slough off my speed. It wasn't a very hard maneuver but I did put a couple of G's on there. When I recovered, I discovered that my Standby Attitude Indicator had gone t**s up. * A few weeks prior to that session above, I had done a similar maneuver but DID pull some hard G's in coming to a stop. Not only did I knock out my SAI, but my hydraulics as well! Quite the lovely surprise.

"All wings"... I'm guessing you mean "all hardpoints". The answer is no. However, you can put four regular rocket pods on.

My wingman is BETTER than Jesus. You know the phrase, "Jesus saves?" Well, my wingman saves my ASS (usually from my own stupidity). :)

Yeah, do NOT apply more collective when you're in VRS. That will actually cause you to sink faster. The only way to get out of a VRS state is to move horizontally. It doesn't have to be forward. Any direction will do. I've recovered backwards, diagonally, sideways, etc. The important thing is to get away from the descending column of air generated by your rotor blades. Even a short distance (one rotor diameter) should do the trick and allow you to recover. You'll soon recognize when your helo is about to enter VRS. I used to be very nervous about it but now it's not a problem. If your airspeed is lower than, say, 20 or 30 knots, pay special to Vertical Speed Indicator. If the VSI is reading a descent rate greater than 300, watch out. Arrest that descent unless you've got plenty of forward airspeed.

Wow. Just... wow. This guy's got some cojones. Regarding the "looseness" comment: this helicopter is the most stable heli sim I've ever flown. I've literally taken off, pointed myself at my destination, set the trim, and walked away to go make myself a sandwich and get a drink (inflight meal :) ). I come back, and there she is, plugging along. I honestly don't understand how you can call it jittery or what-not. It is ridiculously stable and controllable. You need to work hard to push it past the controllability envelope.

Just turn the laser off when you're not in a combat situation. I've assigned the laser switch to a Macro key on my G15 keyboard for easy access.

Honestly, I see bombs as just one more way this helicopter is balanced towards the offensive as opposed to the defensive. It's just a very optimistic design as a whole - no thermal sensor, no radar warning receiver, and no self-defense anti-aircraft missiles. It does fit in with the "low intensity conflict" parameters it was designed for. Only against a lightly armed enemy would it make sense to drop unguided bombs from a helicopter. However, when you're flying an online mission against radar SAMs, AAA batteries, Apaches, and fixed wing air support, it kind of feels like you're showing up naked on the first day of school. And it's cold, so you're suffering from "shrinkage". :)

"Watch EKRAN. Everything on fire."

LMAO. That happened the other day to me, but with a squadron of helos. "Hey, cool, wow, a flight of Apa-" **Snuff**

I disagree with that method you describe there. That would be distracting and disorienting, and would likely contribute to the problem. When I'm in a low-level, edge of the envelope situation, the last thing I want is the sim jerking my view around. I don't really think the sim needs anything. You just need to have situational awareness. The exception may be some auditory clues. For instance, some airliner sims have a "clacking" sound that represents the stall warning stick shaker. That keeps those of us without a force feedback controller informed of what we would be physically experiencing in the cockpit. Another thing I recall from my RL flight training is the amount of wind noise when entering a power-off stall. With the engine idle, it becomes far more pronounced. For the real helicopter pilots, what does it feel like to enter VRS? What does it sound like? Are there any significant vibrations?

Not sure what you mean by that statement (maybe I'm reading it wrong), but the V-22 Osprey has had its share of VRS issues, including a crash that killed all 19 onboard. The Osprey also suffers from unequal ground effect issues. For instance, when they land aboard ship, one rotor typically extends out over the water while the other is inboard over the deck. With an identical power setting on both engines, the inboard engine will generate more lift since it is Hovering In Ground Effect (HIGE). The outboard is HOGE. The aircraft could feasibly snap roll off the side of the ship if not handled properly.

That's an awesome example. Just goes to show: if something in your airplane feels wrong, most likely there is something wrong.

I did that the other day. Clotheslined myself on a power line. Entire rotor assembly comes clean off. No expletives. Just a simple, "Well, that's ungood." Eject! :doh: The worst part was when the entire village came out of their houses with torches and pitchforks, demanding to know who cut the power on the night of the "Georgian Idol" finale. Let's just say I looked rather conspicuous standing next to a flaming helicopter wreck. "My bad?"

Have you checked out Thud Ridge by Jack Broughton? It's a great F-105 book as well. One common thread I've found in the Vietnam books is the constant meddling by U.S. government with regards to targets and rules of engagement. A college teacher of mine was a USAF F-4 Phantom II driver in 'nam. He told me about a ship the Chinese had docked in North Vietnamese waters. He and the rest of the pilots called the ship "The Love Boat" because it was lit up like a Christmas tree at night. The U.S. knew the ship was loaded with arms and ammunition that the Chinese were giving to the NVA. But, because it was Chinese-flagged, they wouldn't allow anyone to touch it. And the Chinese knew it, hence the lights. It became a source of great frustration, because here was a vessel who was contributing to the deaths of his fellow countrymen, and they could do nothing about it. One night, he was flying alone over the water. His wingman had gone home due to a mechanical issue. The Love Boat came into view. On his belly were racks of 500 pounders. There was no one in sight, and therefore no witnesses. He and his RIO were |---| close from just flying over it and unloading. No one would have known. As fate had it, at the last moment they were called away on a strike mission. The ship survived, as did my teacher and his RIO's frustration. This guy was awesome, because he was so mild-mannered. He'd talk about dodging SAMs and screaming between trees at maximum afterburner with the same tone most people would use to describe what they had for breakfast.

This thread is for those moments we prefer to sweep under the rug and pretend never happened. Here's mine: I'm flying nap-of-the-Earth, deep in enemy territory. It's an online mission with a large battle area. I'm around 30km from my home base, hunting a convoy. The sun's starting to go down, but there's still more than enough light. At the moment, I'm over a small town that seems to be the hub for a road network. The town's clean and I'm scanning the horizon for enemy. I start getting a weird feeling, like something in my view isn't right. I'm following a road that leads out the other side of the town. It looks funny, like it's growing too quickly. Suddenly, the lower portion of it starts widening fast. I focus on it. The perspective is all wrong. What the hell- Oh S***! It's a factory smokestack! Its upper rim had been level with my horizon and it had the exact same color as the real road behind it. I pull hard up on the collective, yank the nose back. Too late. Whack! The lower tip of my nose smacks against the very edge of the stack. My Shkval goes dark. I recover, stabilize the helo, and do a damage assessment. Everything is perfectly fine, except for the one thing I need to complete my mission: the damned Shkval. I'm stuck deep in enemy territory, on an anti-tank mission against a convoy reported to have heavy SAM coverage, and I have no targeting system.... ... because I flew into a damn chimney. *sigh* So, I turn around and fly my 30km home, grumbling, with my non-existent tail rotor stuck firmly between my legs.

Someone needs to create a napalm weapon mod to take care of this little problem. Enemy won't come out of the forest? Fine. Burn 'em out.

There were three other guys on the server. All strangers, but we kept trying to peck away at that HQ individually and getting shot up. So, we coordinated. One guy took on the role of leader. Every one else would form up on him outside the valley. I took my position at the top of the mountain, and watched his - and everyone else's - position on the datalink. The attack "signal" was simply to watch for when he advanced. When I saw him move, I'd make my move. And that's how it played out.

I did a semi-successful dive-bombing run in BS. Successful, in that I blew up a ton of targets. Not successful in that I didn't survive it. Viper169th made an online mission with an enemy HQ inside a valley. It was heavily defended by AAA and SAMs, and had quite a few secondary vehicles. Myself and the other players on the server coordinated a plan. I loaded up four 500 pounders and climbed over the mountain peak overlooking the HQ. The other guys approached the valley head-on with standard rockets and Vikhr. On a signal, they went in, drawing the AAA fire. At the same time, I came over the top of the mountain, dumped the collective, and dove straight down into the HQ. I got a IAS overspeed warning almost immediately. The cliff was near-vertical, and that was pretty much my attitude. Using the standby HUD display, I aimed at the center of the HQ and unloaded the first pair of bombs. The trouble came in selecting the second pair. I took too long in fiddling with them, and by the time I selected them I was too low. I pulled out too hard, too low, and sheared off my own rotor blades from the G-forces. No time to eject. I think, had I been more efficient with my weapon management, I would likely have survived. I never even managed to unload the second pair. So, I'm dead. What about the enemy? Right away, I get a couple of vehicle kills. I'm disappointed. I mean, hell, I could have sworn I had dropped those 500 pounders right into the middle of everything! All that for nothing... Well, over the next minute, nearly ten more vehicles damaged by my bombs proceed to explode. The top half of my screen fills up with kill messages. I took out a lot of the AAA, the SAMs, and a lot of the support vehicles. Then my fellow players move in to mop up what's left. As one put it: "Nice sacrifice!" I guess you could say I "Took one for the team." :) So, to answer the OP, bombs are very effective - but only in certain situations.

Viper's going to get a nice bill in the mail from Mama Russia. :music_whistling:

Maybe someone can conjure up a mod that tracks your flight time through campaign and online play. Something like an airplane's HOBBS meter. The more hours you play, the more chance of a failure in the systems. I'm not talking a huge chance, but let's say for every 20 or 30 hours of play your chance of an engine or system failure increases by 1% or 2%. You will have an option to "perform maintenance" after, say, one hundred hours. When you crash - and therefore get a new helo - the meter gets reset to zero.

How low to the ground were you? If you get too low the autopilot switches itself off. Someone else will have to tell you the exact altitude you have to descend to have that happen, as I don't recall. If you're getting a "lower gear" aural voice alert chances are your AP's going to be switching itself off. Also, did you take any hostile fire? If your hydraulic system is damaged - "MAIN HYDRO" warning flashes on the EKRAN display - your hydraulics will bleed out and you'll lose your autopilot systems (along with other things, such as your landing gear extension and cannon traverse). Once the hydraulics fully die, whichever autopilot buttons you had selected will start flashing to let you know they're no longer operating.

S&A is one of the best documentaries I've seen in a while. At the same time I rented that, I also watched One Six Right, a documentary on the Van Nuys Airport in California. Both are pure pr0n for aviation lovers. The cinematography is exquisite. Here's a blog post I wrote regarding the two films.

Where is this attachment (and/or the thread referencing it)? I did a search and didn't come across it.

Thanks for all your replies. It's weird, because I did this successfully before on one occasion during an actual mission, and made it back to my base quite a distance away. However, I've not been able to recreate it under controlled conditions for training (i.e. just flying along and manually cutting the fuel for one engine.) Okay, so from what I'm gathering here, I should do the following checklist: 1) Cut fuel to dead engine. 2) Set throttle on the good engine to emergency. 3) Maintain >130km/h or whatever is required to maintain translational lift 4) Maintain Rotor RPM of >86% (regardless of EEG governor lights) 5) Jettison stores (thanks for the tip on how to jettison the Vikhrs) Anything else I'm missing? Another thing: are certain systems tied to a particular engine in the KA-50? For instance, in various types of fixed wing twin engine aircraft the primary hydraulics are powered by one engine and the secondaries by the other. There have been instances where jets have landed and shut down one engine to taxi more efficiently. However, when it comes time to stop they find they've had a hydro failure on the operating system and, without the other engine operating to back it up, they end up without brakes. Quite the hairy situation, especially when you're nose-to-side with a fuel truck.

Okay, I stuck my head in the wrong place and took a SAM hit. My right engine has bitten the dust. I've done the following: 1) Killed the fuel feed to the right engine 2) Set the left engine's throttle from AUTO to EMERGENCY 3) Set my collective to a point right before the POWER SET LIM lamps illuminate 4) Jettisoned my inner pylon stores to save weight (Vikhr's can't be jettisoned apparently) I figure an aircraft with two engines should be able to perform with only a single engine, albeit with significantly reduced performance. However, no matter what I do, I still slowly sink to the ground. I keep trying to trade airspeed for altitude, but I inevitably lose the battle. It's almost like the world's slowest auto-rotation. I simply cannot maintain altitude at any airspeed. Area altitude isn't a factor, as this is taking place <1000m MSL. Is the KA-50 simply included in the light twin engine aircraft mantra - "The second engine is only to get you to the scene of the crash" - or am I missing something in my procedures? Either way, they really need to create a proper a checklist for emergencies. Something similar to: http://www.stefanv.com/aviation/checklists/cessnaemergency.pdf . Something that can be memorized and enacted quickly.