Petrovich as a Pilot

[DC2009EGUC]

So I basically my piloting skills suck as I tried to master the KA-50 Blackshark when came out 13+ years ago back in 2008...I have not taken this bird out since and it is now collecting dust in my digital hanger...I tried it again with the UH-1 Huey and same status....however, when Mi-24P Hind came out as early access, which I just got last week, I was excited to see an AI copilot known as "Petrovich" can actually do the flying for me as long as I can get the bird in the air in some sort of steady hover and quickly jump into the front seat before the helo starts to spin out of control...lol

 

I would quickly press "RCtrl-v" and viola, I can direct him to hover up and down, turn to any direction, and go forward and back...wow amazing!  I can even make him land from a hover as long as I jump to the pilot seat and press “G” then quickly back to the front seat to tell him hover at zero feet altitude, take control of the flight and collective stick and it lands…

 

This is amazing but I know, this is not really piloting but then I am just a casual simmer and a weekend warrior armed with just a simple cheap mad-catz joystick, however, I can finally stay in the air for over five minutes where as in the past, I would have crash and burn…I still crash occasionally if I messed up the takeoff hover...lol

 

Does anyone else here flying the Mi-24P Hind solo using Petrovich to fly this way?  If you are, are there any other features or skill sets that you may have discovered that makes Petrovich fly better so that as a human gunner, are you able to hit those ground tanks/targets?

 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by DC2009EGUC
Spelling check

[jubuttib]

I have to admit that I've used Petrovich very little as a pilot, because unfortunately in my experience he has... Let's call it a tendency to hit the bottle, or something. He can fly around a bit, if you're careful with your instructions, but he also has a propensity to go a bit nuts, and quite often enters into VRS and drops the heli out of the sky if you're not careful with what you request.

[Enduro14]

So granted it was a google translate, but over on russian side a tester posted to  try to have the pitch auto pilot channel disabled, and see if Petro works better.  About to go try it myself

[Enduro14]

Just gave it a try and wow,  Petrovich is flying much better for me with pitch auto channel disabled before going to gunner seat.

[jubuttib]

VERY interesting, I'll need to try that!

[Rongor]

Not criticizing in any way, everybody is allowed to do it how he prefers, just being curious:

 

How can you guys enjoy this way of "flying" a helo?

 

So often I see them on MP servers, guys who's only way to do it seems to be to set max power and lift the helo up as quickly as possible to then hopefully manage to somehow transition into a forward flight that stabilizes the initial erratic wobbling. I guess when they then zoom across the map (leaving the power at max all the time of course) they have this voice in their head whispering "you are flying a helicopter, you did it!" with a satisfying grin and after some minutes of enjoyment, when boredom sets in, there is always this ultimate attempt to end the flight with some sort of landing. There is this impatient experiment of boolean alternation of the pitch lever. They get closer to the ground and as they do, speed reduces and the spin sets in. After some seconds of spinning and apprarently max/min power setting alternation each and every second, the helo eventually crashes into the ground and ends as the usual fireball. The voice in their heads then whispers "See, I knew this would happen, it's just pointless to do it any different than how I did the takeoff. Don't bother me with doing anything else than forward flight". Then they log off.

 

Why? How can this be satisfying?

 

We can assume you guys are interested in flying helos.

At least those of you who purchased the module or at least didn't just try it out of boredom. So why giving up this fast?

 

Keeping a helicopter from crashing, especially at low level and the lower speeds, can be immensely occupying, stressful, demanding full attention and max possible spatial awareness.

Yes, it can be hard, it can be seen as an art, as a sport and it probably is depending more on your controls hardware at home than flying a plane is.

 

Yet these aren't reasons that should make you give up that fast.

Also you being a weekend warrior, a casual simmer, can't really count as an excuse.

You will have one hour of free time right? If not, why would you install DCS at all... Yes, if you don't have much time at hand, nobody can expect you to study deep into the systems of the Hind, let alone an A-10C. But you don't need that much time to only touch the controls while disregarding all the systems aboard.

 

I think you guys are overwhelmed by the apparent complexity of all this stuff in the cockpit, you are feeling miserable seeing other DCS pilots in steady hovers and slowly guiding their helos at low level along taxiways and onto rooftops; their level of handling performance seems as distant as planet Mars after your first initial attempt to takeoff which ultimately failed. I understand how high this mountain may seem to be. Still, your excuses are hardly valid to not even attempt to climb it.

 

Stop being lazy. 

Don't be satisfied by this kind of "flying". You already figured out this isn't flying. Don't claim you don't want to be better at this.

 

Decline your next mood of just max power and leaning forward for quick flying fun. In the same time, try to do it right, renounce the quick fun, aim for the rewarding feeling of achievement. You will get there.

 

Let's go, start to climb this hill!

 

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by Rongor
I like editing stuff

[jubuttib]

Some people like operating the systems (like the ATGM sight), as well as just directing what happens, more than actually flying. I happen to enjoy both, but for example I'm much more interested in being in the backseat in an F-14, and will definitely do that once the F-15E comes in a couple of decades too. Though I'll probably end up piloting the Apache for the most part, my regular co-pilot isn't very proficient with helicopters...

Edited October 13, 2021 by jubuttib

[StevanJ]

On 10/12/2021 at 12:23 PM, Rongor said:

Not criticizing in any way, everybody is allowed to do it how he prefers, just being curious:

 

How can you guys enjoy this way of "flying" a helo?

 

So often I see them on MP servers, guys who's only way to do it seems to be to set max power and lift the helo up as quickly as possible to then hopefully manage to somehow transition into a forward flight that stabilizes the initial erratic wobbling. I guess when they then zoom across the map (leaving the power at max all the time of course) they have this voice in their head whispering "you are flying a helicopter, you did it!" with a satisfying grin and after some minutes of enjoyment, when boredom sets in, there is always this ultimate attempt to end the flight with some sort of landing. There is this impatient experiment of boolean alternation of the pitch lever. They get closer to the ground and as they do, speed reduces and the spin sets in. After some seconds of spinning and apprarently max/min power setting alternation each and every second, the helo eventually crashes into the ground and ends as the usual fireball. The voice in their heads then whispers "See, I knew this would happen, it's just pointless to do it any different than how I did the takeoff. Don't bother me with doing anything else than forward flight". Then they log off.

 

Why? How can this be satisfying?

 

We can assume you guys are interested in flying helos.

At least those of you who purchased the module or at least didn't just try it out of boredom. So why giving up this fast?

 

Keeping a helicopter from crashing, especially at low level and the lower speeds, can be immensely occupying, stressful, demanding full attention and max possible spatial awareness.

Yes, it can be hard, it can be seen as an art, as a sport and it probably is depending more on your controls hardware at home than flying a plane is.

 

Yet these aren't reasons that should make you give up that fast.

Also you being a weekend warrior, a casual simmer, can't really count as an excuse.

You will have one hour of free time right? If not, why would you install DCS at all... Yes, if you don't have much time at hand, nobody can expect you to study deep into the systems of the Hind, let alone an A-10C. But you don't need that much time to only touch the controls while disregarding all the systems aboard.

 

I think you guys are overwhelmed by the apparent complexity of all this stuff in the cockpit, you are feeling miserable seeing other DCS pilots in steady hovers and slowly guiding their helos at low level along taxiways and onto rooftops; their level of handling performance seems as distant as planet Mars after your first initial attempt to takeoff which ultimately failed. I understand how high this mountain may seem to be. Still, your excuses are hardly valid to not even attempt to climb it.

 

Stop being lazy. 

Don't be satisfied by this kind of "flying". You already figured out this isn't flying. Don't claim you don't want to be better at this.

 

Decline your next mood of just max power and leaning forward for quick flying fun. In the same time, try to do it right, renounce the quick fun, aim for the rewarding feeling of achievement. You will get there.

 

Let's go, start to climb this hill!

 

 

 

 

 

People can play this game how they want, at a pace they want.

We paid for a gunner seat we're gonna use the gunner seat

[DuncanXP311]

On 10/12/2021 at 1:23 PM, Rongor said:

Not criticizing in any way, everybody is allowed to do it how he prefers, just being curious:

How can you guys enjoy this way of "flying" a helo?

So often I see them on MP servers, guys who's only way to do it seems to be to set max power and lift the helo up as quickly as possible to then hopefully manage to somehow transition into a forward flight that stabilizes the initial erratic wobbling. I guess when they then zoom across the map (leaving the power at max all the time of course) they have this voice in their head whispering "you are flying a helicopter, you did it!" with a satisfying grin and after some minutes of enjoyment, when boredom sets in, there is always this ultimate attempt to end the flight with some sort of landing. There is this impatient experiment of boolean alternation of the pitch lever. They get closer to the ground and as they do, speed reduces and the spin sets in. After some seconds of spinning and apprarently max/min power setting alternation each and every second, the helo eventually crashes into the ground and ends as the usual fireball. The voice in their heads then whispers "See, I knew this would happen, it's just pointless to do it any different than how I did the takeoff. Don't bother me with doing anything else than forward flight". Then they log off.

 

How dare you have fun in your own ways!!11!1! 

I could pose the same questions to those who fly for 2 hours in an orbit or just straight... also give them their time to learn!

[Rongor]

Sadly some people are so intolerant that even if you outright declare to not criticize somebody's motivation and just ask a neutral question showing interest for individual mindsets, they still have to lecture you about tolerance. What a mad world.

[MAXsenna]

On 10/20/2021 at 12:19 PM, StevanJ said:

People can play this game how they want, at a pace they want.

We paid for a gunner seat we're gonna use the gunner seat

Too bad he doesn't have a gun though!

[Avimimus]

I gave up after early experiences with him flying into hills and also entering VRS if I told him to either hover or descend... these things may have been partly fixed, but I'm willing to wait several more months before trying again... being a missile operator who is constantly worried that one wrong keypress will tell the pilot to put the helicopter into a non-recoverable flight regime just isn't fun...

For the record the Mi-24 is my favourite module (worth all the others combined!) and a lot of this is due to the feeling of flight in this particular helicopter - its quirks and capabilities. But I also remember 'Gunship!' - a sim that was almost exclusively flown from the gunner seat and how fun and tense that was - especially since the ground vehicles had the AI from a tank-sim and would be aggressive sometimes - the rainy Northern European landscape with thudding of the rotor blades and the creeping dread that a recon vehicle might be sneaking up on your hovering Eurocopter Tiger from the flank using trees as cover to get within ZNE and attack... was its own kind of experience.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Avimimus

[StevanJ]

On 10/25/2021 at 3:10 AM, MAXsenna said:

Too bad he doesn't have a gun though!

This Guy..
 

[MAXsenna]

This Guy..
 

Aaahhh! Now I get it!!!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Enduro14]

Speaking of Petro, no pun Intended but if I understand post from dev correctly the voice won’t come till next year.  

I sure hope the Apache doesn’t release and have a voiced and operating Ai when Petro is in its current state.

[sjpateys]

IMO, if you havent learnt to fly the ka50 or whatever after 13 yrs, you're really missing out.

[jubuttib]

On 10/12/2021 at 5:46 AM, jubuttib said:

VERY interesting, I'll need to try that!

I have tried this a few times on my end, and haven't really noticed a difference myself. Using the controls overlay the AP channels also appear to all be off when Petro takes the controls anyway, though I'm not sure if this is a realistic representation of what happens. The control inputs are shown, but all AP channels remain centered and static.