DimSim Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 Would like to hear any practical tips on hovering this aircraft or getting out of oscillation. When I hover, the craft often begins a slow roll oscillation. Most of my attempts to counter or ignore this result in increased frequency and eventual tip over. Adding forward movement, best by tilting engines, so no longer really hovering, but moving forward at low speed is the only way I've consistently managed to remain stable. As noted in another of my threads, I'm surprised how unstable this craft is in roll. It tend to want to roll always, even at high speed. But at high speed there is no oscillation. I do have a good joystick and have added some curve to assist with tiny stick inputs. I'm not very good yet with judging speeds and distances. So for example, landing on the ship, I come to stop and hover too early and too far from the ship. Naturally getting that right means very short hover time and less opportunity to oscillate.
crispy12 Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 You need to practice, it comes with time. I start by doing a wide pattern and transition into a hover above the ship's deck. You can create a scenario in the mission editor with some headwind, this will help. I start to make the correction and stop my roll correction before i even see the plane moving. It is very similar to Air to Air Refueling, if you are familiar with that. It is also some what similar to hovering in a helicopter, the way you cancel your corrections before they even start to happen. Make sure you are light on weight and have water switched on, this will help with the power. Once you a proficient with straight in landings, proceed to doing the hover over the port and sideways slide on to the ship. This is will need a lot of pitch, roll and yaw corrections 1
Marsvinet Posted December 7, 2020 Posted December 7, 2020 One thing is to relax. You're probably really focused and tense, so try to be aware of that. Those two together tend to make you go lizard brain mode and jerk the stick around like it owes you money. Other than that, just practice. Figure out how the plane responds to different input and learn to counter those unwanted respones. Then practice some more. And when you're done practicing, do it again. I have flown it since it was released and I can still get those lizard brain moments. And then practice some more.
Dangerzone Posted December 8, 2020 Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) On 12/5/2020 at 12:36 PM, DimSim said: Would like to hear any practical tips on hovering this aircraft or getting out of oscillation. When I hover, the craft often begins a slow roll oscillation. Most of my attempts to counter or ignore this result in increased frequency and eventual tip over. Adding forward movement, best by tilting engines, so no longer really hovering, but moving forward at low speed is the only way I've consistently managed to remain stable. As noted in another of my threads, I'm surprised how unstable this craft is in roll. It tend to want to roll always, even at high speed. But at high speed there is no oscillation. I do have a good joystick and have added some curve to assist with tiny stick inputs. I'm not very good yet with judging speeds and distances. So for example, landing on the ship, I come to stop and hover too early and too far from the ship. Naturally getting that right means very short hover time and less opportunity to oscillate. This may be of help for starting out with hovering as it helped me (This only applies for hovering): Never leaving the stick still - ever - while hovering. Always move it left and right, up and down small relaxed amounts without stopping. Just a little bit almost like your doing a very smal cross or plus sign over the stick center repeatedly. When the helo starts to roll one direction - push a little further the opposite direction on that axis during your cycle - but do not hold it there or stop- make sure you continue the cross platform like your a priest on autopilot. (it doesn't have to be a plus exactly - just make sure that you're constantly moving in all 4 axis a small amount) The only difference is that you will push further in one direction than others to get the aircraft to roll or balance in that direction - but you never stop there. The problem that I suspect your facing is that you're moving the cyclic to counter the rotation and holding it there until you see a response and then move back to center. It's too late by then - it will over-counter and get into the oscillations that you're seeing. To counter a rotate it's a momentary push in the opposite direction and return to the center cross movements. You will get a feel for how far you have to push after a while - but the main trick is not to get lazy with the stick. As you improve you will find that you won't have to move it as much and will get a feel for when and how far to move it- but when starting out I found that constantly moving the stick (small amounts - and the key is small) helped significantly with learning to hover. I hope this helps. It may not and I don't claim to be real knowledgeable on the subject - but this technique worked wonders for me when I did my first TIF in a R44. I Spent 30 minutes trying to hover getting it wrong into isolations much to the amusement of many - and then I recalled this technique and applied it and was able to hover and even taxi on my first helicopter flight. Edited December 8, 2020 by Dangerzone 1
DimSim Posted December 9, 2020 Author Posted December 9, 2020 Thanks for sharing your comments and tips. I'll try to put them into practice. A few more questions about technique: 1) Try to keep AFC on or off while landing? (I believe it disengages below 160kts.) 2) Use manual trim at all, or just stick? 3) Use rudder to try counter roll or intentionally move sideways? 4) Are there critical HUD or other visual cues to follow?
Dangerzone Posted December 9, 2020 Posted December 9, 2020 Oh - I'm a dingbat - I'm sorry - I didn't realise this was for the Harrier - thought it was for the UH-1. I have no idea whether my tips will work for that or not. (But I'd be interested to know if they do help). I'm guessing the Harrier would share similar traits but yeah - my comments milage may vary due to a different aircraft. LOL
DimSim Posted December 9, 2020 Author Posted December 9, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Dangerzone said: I didn't realise this was for the Harrier - thought it was for the UH-1. That's okay, was wondering about that, with mention of cyclic etc. I actually bought the Huey as my first DCS aircraft, then Harrier. Coming from Huey, apart from occasionally treating the throttle as collective and moving in the wrong direction, I thought I was quite good at flying and hovering the Harrier. But after six months of flying the Mirage almost exclusively, returning the Harrier has been a quite a re-learning curve which made me question if the aircraft flight model had changed. With the chopper, it is common to 'stir the stick'. Sadly very few YouTubers display their controls on screen, so it's hard to observe what they are doing. I notice some move the stick and throttle a lot, others don't. Edited December 9, 2020 by DimSim
Dangerzone Posted December 9, 2020 Posted December 9, 2020 10 hours ago, DimSim said: That's okay, was wondering about that, with mention of cyclic etc. I actually bought the Huey as my first DCS aircraft, then Harrier. Coming from Huey, apart from occasionally treating the throttle as collective and moving in the wrong direction, I thought I was quite good at flying and hovering the Harrier. But after six months of flying the Mirage almost exclusively, returning the Harrier has been a quite a re-learning curve which made me question if the aircraft flight model had changed. With the chopper, it is common to 'stir the stick'. Sadly very few YouTubers display their controls on screen, so it's hard to observe what they are doing. I notice some move the stick and throttle a lot, others don't. I'm wondering if those who don't are still either moving it small amounts so it doesn't show - or have evolved to a level that they don't need to move it often and they have the natural feel of how far to move it, and when to return without thinking? I find that in the huey too. The more I fly it, the less I need to 'stir the stick' so to speak as I get a feel for it and then 'when' to move? Either way - I hope you find your solution.
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