KosPilot

There are several methods to heighten your situational awareness. 1. Put SHKVAL on second monitor, the bigger picture and high resolution is a big help. 2. Get TrackIR (no affiliation what so ever, it just works.) 3. Use HOTAS setup to improve reaction time 4. Take up safe position and use auto-hover and track-to-target when scouting for targets. Flank your way to your next position. 5. Use high ground for scout, cover and stand-off range, the chopper is not a tank restricted to the bottom of valleys. 6. Look for signs of enemy activity/movement (muzzle flashes, smoke trails, dust clouds, tracers) 7. If lased or shot at, take note of direction, make evasive manoeuvre and fall back to safe distance. (Do not push forward!) 8. Send wingman to do recognisance. (Trick: call him back to formation before he reaches the range you set for him. He will now send datalinks continuously when in formation.) 9. Use datalink to acquire reported targets (this procedure works for me: ) -LASER standby to OFF -Reset SHKVAL -Click target type on datalink panel until correct target is selected on ABRIS -Press DL TARGET (middle yellow button on datalink panel) -Uncage SHKVAL [O] The SHKVAL should now track directly to the selected target 10. Clear dead targets from ABRIS! 11. Fly sideways to easier spot incoming fire (Especially useful when facing Stryker ATGM and equivalent Russian units). Never stand still if you think something may be targeting you. 12. Never fly straight towards or away from an enemy that is firing at you. 13. Use F10 map. If enemy units are visible there, program their coordinates into the PVI-800 target points (You be the one to decide if this is cheating or utilizing good intelligence. You may adjust your F10 map setting in the options menu). Note that the SHKVAL will always automatically track towards your Target Point (PT) when selected on PVI-800! 14. Read you mission brief to learn about your opposition. You may be able to adapt your flying style accordingly. I know; not all of this points are directly related to your question, but it may improve your survivability. Have fun :thumbup:

...And to all the others that praise the use of AP. The AP channels are used to stabilize the Shark so that the pilot may allocate resources and attention to other tasks, mainly to achieve a stable weapons platform during target acquisition. During normal flight and combat manoeuvres the AP is counteracting command input as well as uncommanded tendencies. This makes the flight profile unpredictable and the helicopter slow to respond. Come to the Australian TOG DCS server, and I'll give you all a demonstration! With AP channels switched OFF, you may work WITH the inherent instabilities and use them to your advantage instead of fighting the helicopters natural tendencies. Besides: 1. How do you control the helicopter if your hydraulics fail? This will disable AP. Being able to safely control the helicopter and complete your mission without AP is the very basic of airmanship, not an emergency procedure. 2. If "Real world Ka-50 pilots" are required to always use AP, why the AP buttons? :doh: If correct, I am sure that decision was purely bureaucratic and at the dismay of the very same "Real world Ka-50 pilots". We should ask one! 3. The cyclic has an Emergency AP Disengage button. The idea of pressing it is to save crew and aircraft, not an excuse to eject. 4. The Schweitzer 300, Robinson 22/44 and most other small commercial helicopters are more unstable than the Ka-50 w/o AP, yet they come without AP. A student pilot in Australia may have the first solo flight in a S300 or R22 after only 25hrs, so say again; What was your impression of the capabilities of "Real world Ka-50 pilots"? -Release the beast, disengage AP ;)

Had the same thing. Installing DCS BS with MS Security Essentials took forever but was successful. Upgrading to patch 1.02 was impossible. The PC ground to a halt and even when leaving it on for the whole night, in the morning the patch was still not installed. -Stopped real time scanning, and installed the patch in no time!

If you want to do this correctly, you need to set yourself up in a familiar pattern every time you land. That is one of the main reasons for flying a (L/H or R/H turn) circuit as preparation for landing. Your exact height and distance from the pad is not that important (in simulation). What is important is that you stick like glue to your glide angle. The glide angle described in the manual is rather shallow, but we'll stick with it for now. 1. Downwind leg, cruice speed 180-200 kmh @ 250-300m. Spot your landing site. Continue until you are about 1km downwind from your landing site. 2. Base leg, 90 deg turn, 30-45 deg bank angle. During turn lower your collective and gradually reduce speed to BROC (Best Rate Of Climb) 130 kmh, height 150m. 3. Final, begin 90 deg turn towards your landing site so that you are facing your landing site DIRECTLY upwind once the turn is over. Find you glide angle and gradually bleed off IAS and height. The landing pad should from now on appear stationary and only grow bigger as you get closer. Adjust your power (collective) as your IAS reduces, you will need more power as you slow down. Maintain IAS>55kmh until you are 30m above ground. Adjust power further as you go through ETL (Effective Translational Lift) (IAS<30kmh) and maintain your glide angle. If done correctly you are now in a hover 1m directly above your landing spot. As you get better, shorten the legs of the circuit. As a combat pilot you may be required to come in fast, do a 270 deg turn bleed off your IAS and land directly. Good luck, and switch off the AP channels; Real pilots don't use training wheels!

Thank you, although this is old info that may be found several places in the forum, it's nice to get it reviewed for all of those still in need of help. Now, tell me what happens if you try a night mission...

It's an awesome plan having a BS LAN party. We in TOG Australia, www.theoldergamers.com.au , have a handful of hardcore BS simmers. If you have the bandwidth, then I will spread the word to the other guys. Feel free to join the TOG BS server anytime, and maybe we'll have a chat on TS. The ping may be an issue, but we'll not really know until we've tried. To get an idea of who we are, feel free to check out the TOG DCS forum, http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/dcs-series/ Cheers mates :thumbup:

When shot at by infantry (M4/AK47) the sound inside the cocpit from the bullet impact is not coherent with the new sound profile of BS patch 1.0.2. Comparison: When hit by a 30mm shell from an Apache -> silence When hit by a .223cal M4 round -> Like a handgreande detonating in your lap! The other way around would be OK, but this..., ED, that's just silly :no_sad:

I have the same problem with stretched camera view using NVG, and I've already reported the problem once myself. ED, PLEASE FIX IT!

I tried the Blindspot mod, and what a stunner!! You guys been a great help :thumbup:

Thank you, you're a champ!

I've downloaded Notepad++ with the intent to tweak some .miz file code. -Changing AND into OR and that kind of stuff. Anyways, when opening the .miz file, I only get garble. What am I missing?!

The merger of genres is also challenging in the sense of balance. With the introduction of more advanced and powerfull weapons, it would be rather boring walking around on the ground, in a map the size of a continent just to be swatted by something you cannot even see coming. One question: how do you maintain the interest at every level in playing a multi genre (online) game where everybody want to be on top of the pyramid of power?!

That is definately good news! :thumbup: It is going to be soooo much more fun setting up and playing multi player maps then.

Hi Clutter, I am using CH products as well, but I am not using the CH manager. Instead I use standard Windows setup for game controllers and edit my buttons and axis in BS control options. This setup has never created problems for me, nor in XP or Win7x64. If continuing to use CH manager, make sure that your Shkval control isn't duplicated to some other button or axis. Any mixup may lead to erratic behaviour.

Dragon, Thank you for your very quick reply. It's a sad fact then, that the mission planner does not allow for dynamic behaviour. It should be added to the wishlist, we just need to find a name for it. We are playing your maps all the time on the TOG server, great stuff. Keep up the good work :)

I am making a BS multiplayer map where I need my artillery to redirect fire depending on which trigger zone I am in: 1. Enter the zone = artillery starts 2. Exit the zone = artillery stops 3. Enter a second zone = the same artillery units redirect fire to new location. 4. Exit second zone = Artillery stops 5. Loop back to 1. I want to enter whichever zone an indefinate number of times and have the artillery redirected (until the enemy puts a stop to it). Any advise how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Have the same irritating problem and reported it as a bug to ED. Suggest you all do the same to put some pressure behind it.

Thank you for the replies. Seems like it is about time to put some push behind solving the problem then, as it is restricting playability. There are a lot of simmers out there who has put a LOT of money and time into this otherwise great sim, and as me, would like the extra challenge of flying night missions. Anyone out there who can offer a solution?

I think I've found a bug here... Running BS in windowed mode, Camera + Shkval, when activating NVG, the camera stretch to use the full defined window width. My full window width is 3360, with the camera defined to 1920 and the Shkval using the remaining 1440. During normal daylight flight this set-up works great, but when activating NVG, the camera view become stretched over the full width and part of it is off course hidden behind the Shkval. Possible solution may be to do a proper division between the two monitors, but spanning the window was by far the easiest solution. Do anyone have the same problem? (Win7x64 Pro, Nvidia 8800GTS)

Hi, I recently got my hands on this little monitor and wanted to try it out with DCS Black Shark. It got connected, and expansion of the desktop was painless. Getting it to work as I wanted with the sim was not to be as easy... So the big question is: How do I configure my sim/system so that I can use a small monitor as a secondary display dedicated for SHKVAL only? :helpsmilie:

Depends WHAT you wanna fly. If flying DCS Black Shark you must have both! W\o pedals you cannot fly, and w\o TrackIR you cannot easily use the virtual cockpit (or you could memorize the 450 odd keyboard commands and guess the position of the cockpit switches). Dig deeper ;)

Go for the W7 64bit Pro version. The Pro version has a compability mode that let you run some of your older SW. Ultimate is only needed if you run a business and want some extra security features. I've been running BS on W7 Pro 64bit for some time and have not had any issues.

Artillery observation platform Hi, the in-sim artillery is not accurate nor synced with what is happening on the battlefield. They are waisting their ammo in a manner that is highly unrealistic! Having in mind that the main function of the first WW1 airplanes was recon and artillery guidance, I would expect a late 1980s helicopter to be capable of the same :music_whistling: I would like to see the ability to call in artillery strikes at selected ABRIS targets / ingress points through the radio menu :thumbup:

Thank you, and you are right. The crashes are (mostly) happening when in the combat zone. I should apply the right formation both for tactical advantage and to assure adequate spacing for combat manouvers. :thumbup:

OK, I'll save some tracks as you suggested.