Celo63

Not hueys and not a video as such, but this is a good slideshow of the kind of places skilled pilots can land or balance on a skid. Very close tolerances in some of these pics. Gotta love choppers :D Extreme Landings Heli Rescue

Here's a couple examples of how to land exactly on the right spot. These guys make it look so easy and graceful. Practice makes perfect I guess. An "Ag" pilot landing on the refuelling/tank truck A Mountain pilot landing to pick up skiers

Found a short clip of a Sikorsky S-92 making practice power off landings at full gross weight. Looks pretty intense and I'm guessing the pilot must be looking out the side window during his flare because the nose is pointing skywards. His concentration will have been at 110% plus I'm sure. S-92 Autorotation Also found this clip of an Mi-26 autorotation, also apparently at full gross weight. Some scary rotor disk coning after touchdown. I'd love to fly this beast in DCS! http://www.avsimrus.com/f/on-the-ground-videos-99/autorotation-mi-26-t-33239.html?action=viewonline

Yeah, but I can't figure out why everyone is so keen to point that out. It still looks cool and is the kind of trick a lot of DCS pilots will be trying pretty much on day one of the Mi-8 release. Just trying to inspire and entertain is all :D. Sorry I didn't include a big disclaimer saying "Beware!! Fake Video!!" Not a single comment on whether anyone enjoyed the documentary links I posted mind you, but heaps of "Fake!!" comments for the first clip. Ah well...

Some very good Mi-8 vids Found these on YouTube, well worth watching. Crazy Helicopter Pilot! (An Mi-8 under a low bridge) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMgbcE-fVME Mi-8! The Magnificent Eight! 1/2 (Full length documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBoxuksyXV0 Mi-8! The Magnificent Eight! 2/2 (Full length documentary) Enjoy :thumbup:

The 8 is great I had the honour of flying in one of these from Ashkabad to Prichal (plus the return journey) in Turkmenistan back in '93. I was a little apprehensive when I first saw our bird on the ramp but after the flight I was hooked. A bit uncomfortable sitting in the sling seats for a couple hours and it was roasting hot despite a couple "portholes" being open. The pilots were in shorts, vests and sandals and the cockpit fan was on full. Landed on the beach at Prichal on the shores of the Caspian Sea and the pilots went for a swim before having a picnic in the dwindling shade under the nose. Afterwards, they fired up the bird again and returned to Ashkabad. Cool job! Some pics attached. Also found some very good vids of the Mi-8 on YouTube:- Short clip of an Mi-8 under a low bridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMgbcE-fVME Mi-8! The Magnificent Eight! 1/2 (Full length documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBoxuksyXV0 Mi-8! The Magnificent Eight! 2/2 (Full length documentary) Really looking forward to the Mi-8 and would also love to have an Mi-26 later on down the road. Its modelled already so part of the work is done. Gotta let us fly the biggest production helo in the world! The super-truck of the skies.

Ok, the MD500 might not fit so well into DCS in its current state, but the BO105 is certainly armed and would fit right in without upsetting too many people. See these vids if you still have doubts. I hate to say this but... just by telling me to go fly FSX, you have been disrespectful. Express your dislikes all you want, but don't say my request should never be included just because YOU don't like it. I don't like jets that much but I still hope you get most of the ones you desire. That is what respect is about mate. We are aviators... not jet jocks versus hairdryer honchos. We should get along :D Peace - out.

Nothing is holding me back. I do go out with no weps and light fuel for some fun, but it just isn't the same. The shark is just too big and heavy to even compare with what the 105 and 500 can do. We need a true hotdogger for the ultimate thrillride. Thanks liotczik. Happy to be here. :thumbup:

I would like to see either the BO105 and/or MD500 helicopters added to the collection at some point, purely for the edrenaline factor. I don't expect it to be the "next in line" but would like to see one of them included at some point, once the more popular demands have been met and the DCS series has matured. Since the flight model is so good in DCS, it would be fantastic to exploit it to the max with such an agile machine. Not alot can beat the adrenaline rush of throwing a nimble helicopter around at low level, like Charlie Zimmerman does in this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNCZlQcvGw For me as a dedicated rotor head, it is the ultimate helicopter experience and it would be a crying shame if it were not included in this excellent sim. I'm sure most helo pilots would agree with me. They do have miltary roles to play, so it wouldn't be purely an indulgence. Also, they are simpler machines overall, compared to other military helos, so should be a bit easier to produce. Please please please ED, make one of these for the ultimate thrill ride?

I'm the same, when I get the chance to fly - which is not that often nowadays unfortunately. Sorry to go off topic here, but this is the reason why I'd like to see at least one helicopter added to the collection mainly for "flight enjoyment". A real hotdogger such as the BO105 or MD500 would surely be much appreciated by most pilots. Its very hard to beat the thrill and adrenaline rush from throwing one of these machines around at low level - both for fun and on task in a mission. Please please please ED... just one for the ultimate thrill ride? We want to fly like Charlie Zimmerman :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNCZlQcvGw

To expand on what Frederf has already said... 1) When getting very close to the pad, try not to look down at the pad itself but rather look out more towards the horizon and occasinally glance at the pad to see where it is, or use peripheral vision to keep track of it. By keeping your vision further out you have much better reference to make fine balance adjustments as you come in. Focusing on the pad itself greatly reduces your overall awareness of what the aircraft is doing (tunnel vision) and will exaggerate any tendency to overcontrol. Takes some practice to get used to looking out, but once you do it makes tight landings much easier. 2) Keep the aircraft as steady as possible for the final few metres of approach, so you will be cruising in slowly with the cyclic pretty much centred. To slow down or make fine adjustments left and right, use small nudges on the cyclic in the direction required, then back to centre. Don't make a corrective input and hold it there. Always use - nudge then centre, nudge then centre, nudge then centre. By doing this you avoid overcontrolling and you automatically allow time for each input to take effect. By keeping the cyclic mostly centred the aircraft wants to remain stable. The small nudges are all you need to coax it where you want it without overcontrolling. --------------------------------------------------------------------- I would definitely recommend adjusting sensitivity on a stock X52 as it can be pretty hard to make fine control inputs on a stock stick. I use a modified X45 with longer cyclic (about 4.5 inch extension) which makes it perfect for fine control. So, experiment and practice and I'm sure you'll be floating nicely onto the pad in no time.

Thanks for that formation info Frederf. Very useful to know. For convenient reference I've made it into a PDF file - attached below. I hope you approve. DCS BlackShark Formations Guide.pdf

When flying manually in cruise, speed is controlled with the cyclic (by adjusting nose pitch angle - also referred to as "attitude") and altitude is controlled with the collective. Essentially, "lead" with the cyclic to set or adjust your airspeed and "follow" with the collective to set or adjust your altitude. (Both inputs are usually simultaneous in fact, but I'm sure you'll know what I mean by this description.) Once established at cruising speed, you can change altitude using only collective whilst maintaining your airspeed. As long as you keep the nose pitch angle you will keep your speed. If you pull full collective for rapid climb however, you will lose some airspeed. I hope that helps. Happy hunting.

What monitor do you use? Flat panel LCD and TFT screens give much worse performance on old PC's than the old CRT monitors. I tried an LCD monitor - borrowed from a friend - and it was so bad in almost every game I tried, I went back to my old CRT. In some missions I can set scenes and view distance to medium and even turn on civil traffic - still getting around 15 to 17 fps. On a CRT monitor this is surprisingly playable, but on a flat panel it is unbearable. Usually I have everything set to low in game and in Nvidia control panel I have turned off AA, AF and VSync, but turn on triple buffer and trilinear optimisation. Seems to work ok for most missions but some are still unplayable.

I love the sense of humour around here. Great atmosphere :thumbup: Rule of thumb = Vikhrs in one drawer, socks in another. Don't mix em or you'll get your Vikhrs in a twist. Crotchless Vikhrs? Thats another story :D

Thanks for the info JG14. Much appreciated. I think I'll just leave things as they are for now as like I said, I get reasonable frame rates when connected to my buddy's server. Almost like his PC is doing alot of the work. As for the single player missions... I'll try a few more things and see what happens. I'm still amazed that I can get up to 33 frames per second on my old pentium 4 rig - under optimum conditions. Goes down to below 10 in the real busy bits of missions though. I've had it down to 4 frames per second in some cases and its torture. Becomes a slide show.. lol I'm still running an old 24" CRT monitor though so that helps make BS playable at 15+ fps. If I had a modern flat screen monitor it would be way worse I'm sure. I'll hopefully be upgrading to a nice new rig around christmas time if all goes well. I'm looking forward to that day. ------------------------------------ One other thing about textures. On my front panel in the cockpit, most gauges and panels are quite sharp and crisp, yet the HSI is blurry and the master arm panel is super low res. Can't read anything on it as you can see in the screnshot below. Is there any way to get the whole lot at the same level of sharpness, while keeping low gfx settings? I tried putting cockpit res to 1024 but it did nothing to help.

lol Herman, well spotted. I never noticed... DOH! :cry: Weird thing is, I had same settings in options as I had in V1.0 and then it was Km all round. Hmm, I must go and set units to all metric. Thanks Herman :thumbup: Edit: My mistake, I must have had them set to metric in V1.0 Wierd that shkval should still be metric when you choose imperial in options though. Bit of a mismatch there.

Another puzzling thing that has happened in both V1.0 and V1.0.1b is this. I set scenes to low and civil traffic off, yet when I loaded up "Rookie Terrorists" mission by Dragon, civil traffic was rumbling along the roads. I went into editor and made sure civil traffic was off in the mission itself but that made no difference - civil traffic still present. Switched off everywhere, but still present in the missions... Also, MP missions I fly alone, I get no trees. Yet when I fly coop with my buddy hosting the same missions, I get trees everywhere even though scenes are still on low in my options. I get ok frame rates with trees when he's hosting though, so I aint complaining about that. Its just weird. I'm still trying to figure out what BS uses to decide about trees and civil traffic. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. If I set scenes to low and civil traffic off in my own options, I expect to get that result, but I don't.

I patched to 1.0.1b today - applied over a fresh install of V1.0. I set up all my controls and options and went to try a campaign mission. Whilst targeting at TP1 (Georgian Oil War, chapter 1, mission 1 - after deployment) I noticed that my hud and my shkval were not in agreement over range to target. Hud and labels matched, but shkval was almost double the range. I'd only just left the base a minute earlier, mission just under way. Screenshots below to illustrate. I thought this might just be an anomaly so I exited BS and rebooted, then loaded up one of Dragon's missions from his new pack - Rookie Terrorists - and tried that. Same thing. Hud and labels agree but shkval is a fair bit off on the plus side. Hmmm... I didn't have this problem in V1.0 until I'd been flying for quite a while and the INS system had drifted. Now I have this problem straight away in V1.0.1b. My PC is pretty well minimum spec so might be partly to blame, I don't know, but its a weird one anyway. Pentium 4 @ 3.0 GHz 2 Gb Ram Nvidia 6800 GT Video card with driver 190.62 Windows XP Pro 32 bit, SP3 Any thoughts or suggestions as to what might be causing this?

Thanks for the info Chip. Much obliged. I searched all the manuals that install with BS and could only find a very small reference to repairs in the GUI manual under "Notes regarding airbase and FARP ground vehicle support equipment." Would have been helpful if this info was in the main manual and listed in the contents somewhere. I had to stumble across this to know repairs were even possible. Needle in a haystack... phew.

I've just patched to V1.0.1b from 1.0. Is this tweaked campaign included in the patch file or do I have to download it separately? Cheers.

+1 I had this just yesterday myself. First launch would give 2 vikhrs, then 1 then 2 then 1.... alternating all the time. A week ago when I used the medium position it worked fine, 2 launched every time. Only thing different yesterday was I went on a long mission alone, so selected unlimited weps and fuel to avoid slogging all the way back to base. BS version 1.0 btw. Just patched to 1.0.1b today and will test again.

loooool, nice one :megalol: Sorry I can't help you with that problem :(

About the damage repair facility... Is it always 3 minutes shutdown to repair any damage, or does the time depend on how much damage you have? Do they tell you when repairs are complete, or do you have to guess? There is nothing in the F10 maintenance communications section about repair damage. Maybe there should be?

lol, I was just reading that exact same page in the manual :D Page 454, section 13-4, Service Limits and Systems. Bit of a bummer to have to wait 30 minutes for another cycle if you still have Vikhrs onboard and targets in front of you. Go looking for soft targets to rocket blast in the meantime I guess. ;) Another thing to confuse the student pilot... page 411, section 11-23, Under "End of attack and egress" it states:- [After the reset button is pressed, the shkval will be caged, target tracking and laser-beam channel is turned off, the selected weapon type is reset, and system switches to NAV mode.] However, the flip switch for the laser remains in the Standby/ON position. What happens if you don't flip it to OFF? I usually turn it off myself anyway, to be sure. I wish there was an indicator light on the overhead panel to say when laser was on or off and also some kind of warning when laser was reaching service limits would be nice. Seeing as its the core of your weapons guidance system, its a bit weird that you have to keep timing it yourself to avoid frying it. You'd think it would be simple enough to implement a safety timer that will tell you when its getting hot and needs cooling off? But, its not an ideal world I know. Its just another thing we'll have to learn to cope with. Train and study - knowledge is power :D