Observations From a Cold War Era Aeroscout

[BlackJay]

On 10/5/2022 at 5:08 PM, TBone said:

A couple rules of thumb to make your NOE flight as realistic as possible;

Manpads are the Bain of NOE flying, have the CPG scan the tree line ahead of your flight path.

Never follow roads.

Assume all roads have wires.

When you are crossing over power lines, cross over the tower.

When you are going under, cross as close to the tower as possible.

Pairs of trees that are spaced far enough apart to fly between were put there by God for you to fly between.

 

Great classic rules of thumb for combat helicopter flying. The Apache was designed exactly for this type of flying in deep penetration missions, such as the opening of the Golf War. No reason to fly higher unless the only threat is small arms fire. I would add for 64 specifics is flying in NOE trim, keeping the velocity vector straight up and down not worrying about the “ball”. This keeps the aircraft flying straight through the gaps in the trees. Otherwise if crabbing for a wind correction flying “in trim” your cockpit can clear but your tail can still hit the obstacle.