OH-6A by Tobsen and Eightball

[Mistermann]

30 minutes ago, Slippa said:

I’m finding it easier to just spring her into the air on take off. Any slow and sexy trials lead straight to a world of chaos for me. I literally can’t hang about. She throws herself around thrashing this way and that breaking us both into a sweaty mess.

I've still only flown it twice.  Last time was when I recorded that video.  Talking to a buddy of mine, he's of that same opinion.  I'll give it a try next time I'm in DCS.  I prefer the slow and sexy ascent, but I have yet to see anything resembling that first hand.  

30 minutes ago, Slippa said:

I’ve fired her rockets though. Ooh, I like those . They travel a fair way and I was pretty close to my targeted tree line within a shot or two. 

That's the only weapon I haven't tried yet.  Adding to my list of must do's.

30 minutes ago, Slippa said:

‘She’ seems to spin out pretty quickly, much like my missus. Almost out of nowhere like a gust of wind sets us off and it’s ‘turbulent time’. I seem to escape these little storms sometimes and almost as quickly as it all went wrong, so it all goes right and I’m toddling along quite merrily. It’s a lot like going shopping with the missus, only this, I really wanna get the hang of. 

I intend to see how I can push the speed and cornering of the AH-6.  I am pretty sure I'll be testing this along with the Kola map later today.  My first attempt at this resulted in the Helo upside down in the trees.  Over controlling and ham fisted cyclic don't go well here.  I love it!

[Slippa]

I love it too .

I’ve barely got the hang of flying choppers, the Huey and Gazelle, AH-64 are in my hangar but I’ve ‘flown’ the Huey more than the others. Not a lot of weapon use on any so far. I’m more used to props in front of me than big props above. 

Having a blast with this though. First mod I’ve been on the ride with. From ‘we’re doing this’ to ‘here it is’, a bit of tinkering here and there and we’ll be well away.

Cant help singing the theme to Magnum in my head though .

[Devil 505]

2 hours ago, Mistermann said:

I've still only flown it twice.  Last time was when I recorded that video.  Talking to a buddy of mine, he's of that same opinion.  I'll give it a try next time I'm in DCS.  I prefer the slow and sexy ascent, but I have yet to see anything resembling that first hand.  

Your buddy (me LOL) agrees.  My second attempt at lift off below with a quicker pull on the collective seems to work better than the slow methodical approach.  She is ready to go quick.  Landing still needs some work.  Trying to iron if trim is needed (having trouble with the trim) or just finding the sweet spot between rudder authority and back stick pressure when landing.  The slightest release of back stick coming into land and she wants to roll forward.  The second landing below was better than the first, so improvement there.  

Side door gunner in VR is awesome.  I added the ROE to my collective trigger to tell him to engage, pinky switch toggles his rate of fire, and the hat will switch between grenades.  Hopefully soon me and gents will be able to conduct a Hunter/Killer mission where one or two of us fly the OV-10s until the Cobra is out while the other fly's low and fast with the OH-6 and paints with smoke.  We will post the video here for sure when we do.

 

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

11 hours ago, tobi said:

Thanks for the video! could you send me the mission? i have a feeling that it happens when you reach a certain height. The FM uses density and temperature for its calculations. I would like to see if you cross a "weather layer" Jumping parameters might have impacts like that

It was the Quick Mission comes with the mod, it is takeoff from runway one.

[Xupicor]

So... I tried to get it to do that strange oscillation thing I described before (sadly, I haven't saved a track and the hidden temporary one was already overwritten) but couldn't do it today. But I also trimmed the rpm to above 100%, and I'm pretty sure the time it happened it was shy below that (not by much though). Not sure if it would have anything to do with that.

I'll try to catch it to post it when it happens next time, in the meantime though, here's a short vid of manhandling it: 

 

[Scarecrow84]

Anybody else getting a delay between trigger pull and firing minigun?

Will do some multiplayer flying if anybody is up for it.

[Xupicor]

Yeah, there's definitely quite a delay between the trigger pull and firing the minigun. I'd guess it's because it needs to start rotating at a set speed first before it starts firing?

[Scarecrow84]

14 hours ago, Xupicor said:

Yeah, there's definitely quite a delay between the trigger pull and firing the minigun. I'd guess it's because it needs to start rotating at a set speed first before it starts firing?

That makes sense.

I like these simple weapons systems.

I went to fly some of my gunship missions and it seems like the AI ground vehicle weapons accuracy is even more god like now. I can't make it near a ground unit without dying. I was bummed to not see that issue on ED's to do list.

The Loach would be great for some PVP dogfighting.

[tobi]

https://github.com/tobi-be/DCS-OH-6A/releases/tag/v1.1

[Rudel_chw]

2 minutes ago, tobi said:

https://github.com/tobi-be/DCS-OH-6A/releases/tag/v1.1

 

Thank you so much ... great Changelog for such a short time period: 

 

Changelog:

Flight model improvements:

• reduced skid friction
• increased groundeffect
• improved moments of inertia
• minor fixes

New features:

• A lot of new keybindings
• Axis control for searchlight
• Axis control for throttle
• Night vision googles (thx to Gator and Tanuki)
• Flashlight
• Sunvisor (thx to Tanuki)
• UN and Spanish Amarda liveries by Neo

Bugfixes:

• Missing tailrotor at cold start
• No grenades in Weapons Training
• Salvo length settings in Weapons Training
• Missing default keys in startup training
• Duplicate cyclic base
• Magnetic compass: normals flipped
• Added missing truck in Precision Smokegrenades Mission
• Trim inputs stay after respawn
• Missing: Force cursor to show, toggle
• 'View briefing on/off' bind is missing

 

[WTFCSon]

Absolutely loving this mod so far! I am really impressed with how the flight model feels. It's touchy, no doubt, but my brain is getting the hang of it. Finally got multiple successful take off and landing, and I got her to hover for me! Very well done!

[Hawkeye60]

There are new liveries on the ED user site

UN,

Armarda

ETC

[Devil 505]

9 hours ago, tobi said:

https://github.com/tobi-be/DCS-OH-6A/releases/tag/v1.1

So I did this video for someone who asked how to get the door gunner working and what keys were bound.  I also gave my own personal advice on what is working for me learning to fly the OH-6A smoother on takeoff and landing.  It absolutely requires all hands on.  Very well worth the patience and wait to learn her though.  Absolutely having a blast with it. 

 

[R.Z.]

Thank you Tobsen & Eightball for bringing out this excellent MOD.

I was able to figure out the control settings relatively quick. Definitely recommeding NO curvatures in any of the the axes otherwise it'll be very twitch. Reducing Saturation Y is the way to go unless using high-end dedicated rotorcraft controls or stick extensions.

I'm on Orion 2 stick and throttle and a very basic Saitek Pro-Flight rudder setup without any DIY moddings. After a few quick adjustments, I found by using just a tad of deadzone, 50% Saturation Y on ROLL axis, 65% Sat. Y on PITCH axis, and 80%  Sat. Y on YAW axis, I was able to achieve reasonably stable 3-foot hover with ease (similar to what I was able to do in UH-1). And as any helo geeks would know, once you've found the "hover button" , the rest of the flight envelop is easy. Some further fine tuning might be needed but I think this is a good starter reference.

Very good flight modelling indeed. Good transitional lift dynamics, also nice responsive yet relatively stable control feedback in all 3 axes in normal cruise flight. Although I've obviously not flown a real OH-6/MD-500 IRL but the flight model matches what I expect from this bird. Again, great job from the devs. Much appreciated for the effort!

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

1 hour ago, R.Z. said:

I found by using just a tad of deadzone, 50% Saturation Y on ROLL axis, 65% Sat. Y on PITCH axis, and 80%  Sat. Y on YAW axis, I was able to achieve reasonably stable 3-foot hover with ease

Just give it a try, I can do a short hover over tree top alt. Not great, I guess it may be on my part. Thank you it has been helpful. It is still harder than hovering than Huey, which in turn is harder than Apache now

[Scarecrow84]

Thanks for the update. View bindings now work.

I adjusted my pedals axis. -20 curve and reduced X saturation to 80. I thought I understood this, but someone help me out. Reducing X saturation basically reduces the total controller movement to reach full deflection in the sim, correct? What does Y saturation do, exactly?

I have hosted a Syria heli mods server that is up now. I would be interested to know if people can actually join it. IDK if I have to do something with my router, ports, etc...

[Mistermann]

Flew v1.1 today, nice update fellas!  Thanks for squaring away all those keybinds.  This VR player appreciates it greatly.

SRS question.  Is anyone able to get it to work?  I am used to turning on the radio, tuning to proper freq and everything just works fine.  This doesn't seem to work in the Cayuse - at least I can't seem to figure it out.  Core DCS voice does NOT work for my group.  Hasn't since release.  Anyone able to experience MP with voice traffic using SRS?  

Thanks.

[Floyd1212]

2 hours ago, Mistermann said:

SRS question.  Is anyone able to get it to work?

Looks like an update to SRS was released today with support for the OH-6A.  Try updating and see if it works for you.

[Mistermann]

10 minutes ago, Floyd1212 said:

Looks like an update to SRS was released today with support for the OH-6A.  Try updating and see if it works for you.

Brilliant.  I'll give it a go.  Thanks.

[Blinde]

How do you turn off that red control indicator box on upper left corner? I't came with v1.1.

Edited May 5 by Blinde

[Hiob]

….and the crew command status bar „ROE….“. It‘s a bit disturbing when you don’t need it….

[Bozon]

7 hours ago, Scarecrow84 said:

Thanks for the update. View bindings now work.

I adjusted my pedals axis. -20 curve and reduced X saturation to 80. I thought I understood this, but someone help me out. Reducing X saturation basically reduces the total controller movement to reach full deflection in the sim, correct? What does Y saturation do, exactly?

I have hosted a Syria heli mods server that is up now. I would be interested to know if people can actually join it. IDK if I have to do something with my router, ports, etc...

X saturation means that you reduce the effective travel range of the physical (stick/rudder) axis. Beyond a certain deflection the value it transmits is pegged at max/min value. This makes the response MORE “twitchy”.

Y saturation limits the effective range of the simulated (cyclic, anti-torque pedals, collective) axis. It means that you cannot reach the max deflection on that axis. In turn this means that the full range of the stick on your desktop is now mapped into a smaller range of in game cyclic. Thus you have a finer control at the cost of limited max response.

When your heli is so responsive that you will never use full response, it is a good idea to introduce Y saturation.

For example, the Mosquito stalls at much less than a full elevator deflection - therefore, with no saturation I will never pull the desktop stick all the way - it is a wasted range of travel. Therefore I introduce a healthy Y saturation and now utilize the full range of my stick’s axis.

Edited May 5 by Bozon

[heloguy]

2 hours ago, Blinde said:

How do you turn off that red control indicator box on upper left corner? I't came with v1.1.

 

Right Ctrl + Enter

2 hours ago, Hiob said:

….and the crew command status bar „ROE….“. It‘s a bit disturbing when you don’t need it….

Left Win + M

[corbu1]

Holy Crap!!! the Loach and Vietnam Pack ate so great! Tobsen and Eightball did a great Job! 
 

Now AH-1G Cobra release and it‘s perfect!

[Hiob]

I have a feeling, that it flies a but more stable after the update. Even without curves. Maybe it is due to the modified inertia or it just clicked for me better after a break. Either way flies nicely now….

(Unless you are reckless for a second and it jumps on you…. very hard to tame again once you lost control.) 

It is a completely different animal though, than any other helicopter in DCS.