BAM!

[iRocco]

Just wanted to say, that im having a blast with this simulator, its the best ive ever seen, thx alot ED and all those companies behind it, keep up the good work. Id like to see a F/A18 in the future.

 

However i got some questions left:

 

- is there a way to mod the landing lights? they are useless and arent really bright enough to use them properly.

 

- how can i get the left rotor rpm gauge to work?

 

- that thingy on the nose of the chopper, is it only there to show the wind direction and strength?

[Nate--IRL--]

The landing lights are buggy, they light up buildings but not always the terrain properly, a limitation of the Sim engine IIRC

 

Whats wrong with the RPM gauge? could you post a screenshot?

 

The vanes on the nose are the sensors to show slip and AOA I think.

 

Nate

[Vesperatus]

- how can i get the left rotor rpm gauge to work?

 

Did you start the left engine ?!

[AlphaOneSix]

The RPM gauge on the left is only for the rotor, and works when either engine is operating. The RPM gauge on the right is for the engines, and it has two needles, one for each engine.

 

If your engines are running, then your rotor RPM gauge should be operating. If it's not working, post a screenshot, or better yet, post the track file of the mission so we can see exactly what's happening.

[iRocco]

The landing lights are buggy, they light up buildings but not always the terrain properly, a limitation of the Sim engine IIRC

 

Whats wrong with the RPM gauge? could you post a screenshot?

 

The vanes on the nose are the sensors to show slip and AOA I think.

 

Nate

 

That´s a shame, so i assume we are not able to mod it somehow?! :(

 

A search mission at night with the search lights/landing lights would have been nice.

 

 

The RPM gauge on the left is only for the rotor, and works when either engine is operating. The RPM gauge on the right is for the engines, and it has two needles, one for each engine.

 

If your engines are running, then your rotor RPM gauge should be operating. If it's not working, post a screenshot, or better yet, post the track file of the mission so we can see exactly what's happening.

 

Ok, thx for the explanation, i misunderstood it, i thought the left gauge is the left engine rpm and the right for the right engine.

 

So the rotor rpm gauge is important if you have to lose altitude very fast, you reduce the rotor rpm with the yellow levers and start your fast decent and watch the rpm gauge.

[Distiler]

That´s a shame, so i assume we are not able to mod it somehow?! :(

 

A search mission at night with the search lights/landing lights would have been nice.

 

But you have night googles for that (you can see the enemy, but he can't see you..imagine it using external lighting). Talk to ground crew and switch to them. Use "h" key to activate them.

[Feuerfalke]

You don't control the sinkrate with the engine throttle and Rotor RPM, if that is what you mean.

 

The RotorRPM is more important when climbing or accelerating, because your RPM will drop due to the increased load of the blades.

 

When the RPM drops below the red line, your generators will fail to produce enough energy to operate all your systems. You will most likely see several systems go offline with them.

At the same time the reduced RPM will also cost you lift, which is bad for obvious reasons. ;)

 

With normal operation, the RPM is adjusted slightly, when operating the collective.

 

 

When you are in danger of pushing the RPM to much above the upper red line, you usually suffer from other more immanent problems as well. ;)

[AlphaOneSix]

So the rotor rpm gauge is important if you have to lose altitude very fast, you reduce the rotor rpm with the yellow levers and start your fast decent and watch the rpm gauge.

 

First, pay attention to what Feuerfalke said. ;) I will add that if you want to do a faster descent and not overspeed the rotor, there is a switch on the collective for "nominal" or "low" rotor RPM. It's normally set to "nominal". TO descend faster without an overspeed, switch it to "low", but make sure to switch it back to "nominal" when done descending. You would normally only use this switch for a very long (several thousand feet) descent.

 

And just to reiterate what Feuerfalke said: Don't use the throttle (yellow) levers to control RPM.

[EtherealN]

To be honest, I'd go as far as say "don't use the throttle levers ever while airborne". :P You have to be a very advanced pilot (above my own abilities definitely) to do anything good in any situation with them. Use them on startup and shutdown proceedures, and between those forget that they exist. :P

 

The way it all works is that when you have the throttles set on automatic, the EEG's (I assume, correct me if I'm wrong someone) being the "Electronic Engine Governors" will adjust throttles to maintain a specific range of rotor RPM. When you raise collective, the angle-of-attack of the blades (as indicated by an instrument on the lower left side of the forward instrument panel) increases to generate more lift, which would normally make the rotor slow down because there is greater resistance. The automatic system then compensates for that through increasing throttle on the engines to maintain the RPM.

 

A common real-life analogy could be the Cruise Control feature on many modern cars. When I set it to 90km/h the system will adjust gears and throttle to achieve the amount of rotation in the wheels that give me a 90km/h speed. When I then enter a downward slope, gravity will assist me, causing less throttle to be required to maintain the speed and the cruise control will adjust for that. When I then enter a climbing slope, gravity works against me and more throttle is required to maintain the velocity.

 

The helicopter's systems work in a similar way, except they always have the same range of rotation speed that they want to maintain no matter what speed you are going etcetera.

 

This is also the reason why pulling a lot of collective can stress and break gearbox and engines - if you apply maximum collective angle-of-attac the amount of power required from the engines to maintain the rotor RPM is greater than what your powertrain can reliably give you and if you keep doing it components will eventually start to break. One could say that it's nasty to have "easily" attainable pilot inputs that guaranteed WILL break the engines if maintained, but on the other hand they may very well save your life. I've had several occassions where I have wanted to run away like Benny Hill because a tank column I had failed to detect just rounded a corner and sits there some 500 meters away aiming their barrels at me.

 

At that point I don't care if there's a risk of breaking the gearbox or engines through a high collective input, I just want to get the hell out of there. :P