OH-6A by Tobsen and Eightball

[anfieldroad]

Regarding the XM70E1 sight, reading Low Level Hell by Hugh L. Mills they didn't have sights fitted - maybe these came later and I am not sure the miniguns were adjustable like your documentation on github says.  I can check with Hugh as he is a friend of mine.  In his book he says they made a mark on the plexiglass to use as a rough gunsight. Obviously not very accurate but that was all they had at the time and this was when the minigun was first being used and was a field mod I believe.  Up until 1969 OH-6s were purely scouting for the enemy and marking bad guys with smoke for the Cobra to do the killing.  Hugh had to convince his unit leadership to adopt a more aggressive approach by fitting the minigun but it was a very crude modification to just bolt it on at that point I believe.  I'll clarify with it Hugh.  

[KeyserSoze62]

Beautiful but man is it tough.  I've added large curves to all controls but can't seem to keep it from rolling over.  Try to get it gently into a hover and it just takes off forward or sideways and rolls over. Curious to see what others are adjusting to get a handle on it.

Edit:  There seems to be something off with the roll response.  In image below you can see the roll stays stuck right when releasing the cyclic back to center.  It takes a few jiggles to get it to re-center. I checked several other aircraft and this isn't happening with any other so it shouldn't be my hardware. All other helos are flying just fine. Its not happening in the pitch control or pedals.

null

Edited May 1, 2024 by KeyserSoze62
Additional data

[01G8R]

Absolutely phenomenal mod and asset pack!  Excellent work by Tobsen and Eightball.  This should be a full fidelity module.  FM is on par with the Gazelle after the recent updates and no SDK access.  Everyone needs to support these guys through the link on Github.

No control issues here with an extended stick.  Just reduced saturation and was good to go. 

[Hammer1-1]

This and the AH-1G Ive been waiting for! Thanks, happy to give this a try this weekend.

[RichCotte]

I haven't tried flying it yet, but there may be an issue when used as AI....

I placed one at 250 AGL & 90 kts on the Marianas map and had it fly toward the next waypoint at the same altitude and speed. Once the mission starts, the aircraft immediately begins climbing at a rapid rate, following the planned route, but not maintaining the programmed altitude.

I placed an Apache on the same route and it follows speed and altitude.  I then copied the Apache and changed it to an OH-6 and launched them next to each other.  The Apache flew straight and level, while the OH-6 climbed.

[anfieldroad]

9 minutes ago, RichCotte said:

I haven't tried flying it yet, but there may be an issue when used as AI....

I placed one at 250 AGL & 90 kts on the Marianas map and had it fly toward the next waypoint at the same altitude and speed. Once the mission starts, the aircraft immediately begins climbing at a rapid rate, following the planned route, but not maintaining the programmed altitude.

I placed an Apache on the same route and it follows speed and altitude.  I then copied the Apache and changed it to an OH-6 and launched them next to each other.  The Apache flew straight and level, while the OH-6 climbed.

The github page clearly states it cannot be used as AI:

• Quote

  Mod is not designed to be used as AI. It might show faulty behaviour

[tobi]

4 hours ago, anfieldroad said:

Regarding the XM70E1 sight, reading Low Level Hell by Hugh L. Mills they didn't have sights fitted - maybe these came later and I am not sure the miniguns were adjustable like your documentation on github says.  I can check with Hugh as he is a friend of mine.  In his book he says they made a mark on the plexiglass to use as a rough gunsight. Obviously not very accurate but that was all they had at the time and this was when the minigun was first being used and was a field mod I believe.  Up until 1969 OH-6s were purely scouting for the enemy and marking bad guys with smoke for the Cobra to do the killing.  Hugh had to convince his unit leadership to adopt a more aggressive approach by fitting the minigun but it was a very crude modification to just bolt it on at that point I believe.  I'll clarify with it Hugh.  

That's what we read too. The elevation controllable gun comes from the operational manual. Same for the sight. But I read somewhere it was not used like that very often.

Best wishes for Hugh! I am a big fan of his book!

[tobi]

4 hours ago, KeyserSoze62 said:

Beautiful but man is it tough.  I've added large curves to all controls but can't seem to keep it from rolling over.  Try to get it gently into a hover and it just takes off forward or sideways and rolls over. Curious to see what others are adjusting to get a handle on it.

Edit:  There seems to be something off with the roll response.  In image below you can see the roll stays stuck right when releasing the cyclic back to center.  It takes a few jiggles to get it to re-center. I checked several other aircraft and this isn't happening with any other so it shouldn't be my hardware. All other helos are flying just fine. Its not happening in the pitch control or pedals.

null

 

Hi, I am pretty sure that the mod cannot have impact on stuck controls.

The thing about the roll over: You need to counter that with the cyclic. You need left and aft  cyclic and left pedal to come to a hover. Try increasing collective slowly and feel where the aircraft wants to go.

[Hiob]

9 hours ago, corbu1 said:

I mean the Loach doesn‘t have a Force Trim function with FTR button if you are looming for this. It has trim via coolie hat on cyclic fwd, aft, left, right. I guess therefore are key bindings.

Yeah, I assumed that too.

A little bit unfortunate for normal joysticks with centering spring, but I will overcome it. 
 

With some curves on the axis‘ I manage to fly it - but don‘t let your guard down for a second…..

[MAXsenna]

Yeah, I assumed that too.
A little bit unfortunate for normal joysticks with centering spring, but I will overcome it. 
 
With some curves on the axis‘ I manage to fly it - but don‘t let your guard down for a second…..

Don't to you have an old stick in a box somewhere? Add an extension and remove the springs.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Slippa]

Great to see it released ! Nice surprise.

Thank you both first of all and well done. I’m not where I can download it and give it a try yet but as a soon as I can, I will. Looking forward to it.

I’ll have to take the springs off my pedals and stick for some heli-days. Sounds like a handful, should be interesting.

Cheers. 

Edited May 1, 2024 by Slippa
Stick spring too

[Hiob]

25 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

Don't to you have an old stick in a box somewhere? Add an extension and remove the springs.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk
 

I'm fine.  A ffb joystick (in hold mode) would be perfect for this - but there are still ~500 people before me in the line.....

btw. Is there a way to remove the overlay in the bottom left corner?

[Mootmoot]

Thank you and very nice work ...but unfortunately i have to give it up after 4 hours trying to take off ...because i'm going to destroy my monitor with my joystick...

i had the same problem with the gazelle....i love light helicopters , but i'm not made to fly them...

[Esac_mirmidon]

Also i cant find the PBR river boat on the ships category.

[Hiob]

8 minutes ago, Mootmoot said:

Thank you and very nice work ...but unfortunately i have to give it up after 4 hours trying to take off ...because i'm going to destroy my monitor with my joystick...

i had the same problem with the gazelle....i love light helicopters , but i'm not made to fly them...

Try to start your journey with the Hip. It is the most predictable and stable to fly Helicopter right now in DCS. 

The OH-6 is certainly the wrong helicopter for beginner in chopper flying.

The key for every helicopter take off though, is to put the cyclic in roughly the right spot (slightly aft/left for western helicopters, aft/right for Russian) and then apply collective VERY slowly and counter any yaw with pedals. Your counter inputs in any axis needs to be small but fast (not hectic!). When the chopper starts to tip over, lower collective and start over more slowly. Counter any roll tendencies on take off immediately but measured.

Practice, practice, practice. It is worth it!

 

 

 

[Mootmoot]

Quote

Try to start your journey with the Hip. It is the most predictable and stable to fly Helicopter right now in DCS. 

The OH-6 is certainly the wrong helicopter for beginner in chopper flying.

The key for every helicopter take off though, is to put the cyclic in roughly the right spot (slightly aft/left for western helicopters, aft/right for Russian) and then apply collective VERY slowly and counter any yaw with pedals. Your counter inputs in any axis needs to be small but fast (not hectic!). When the chopper starts to tip over, lower collective and start over more slowly. Counter any roll tendencies on take off immediately but measured.

Practice, practice, practice. It is worth it!

i'm comfortable with the HIND and the ka-50....but it seems the little ones are not my thing

[MAXsenna]

Try to start your journey with the Hip. It is the most predictable and stable to fly Helicopter right now in DCS. 
The OH-6 is certainly the wrong helicopter for beginner in chopper flying.
The key for every helicopter take off though, is to put the cyclic in roughly the right spot (slightly aft/left for western helicopters, aft/right for Russian) and then apply collective VERY slowly and counter any yaw with pedals. Your counter inputs in any axis needs to be small but fast (not hectic!). When the chopper starts to tip over, lower collective and start over more slowly. Counter any roll tendencies on take off immediately but measured.
Practice, practice, practice. It is worth it!

i'm comfortable with the HIND and the ka-50....but it seems the little ones are not my thing
You might wanna play around with saturation and not change curves.
Damn, need to get my computer online. Can't wait to try this module!

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[EvilBert VR]

Absolutely stunning!!!

Like some posters before mentioned, a little tricky at the beginning but one is getting used to it.
Two minor things I found out: So far it is not possible to assign the throttle axis and it is also not (yet) possible to map the F1, F2, etc. views to a button elswhere.
I am fortunate that this is goingto be fixed in the future. Anyhow: S P L E N D I D work on the bird and F A N T A S T I C work on the V´'Nam assets!

Cheers!

[CommandT]

Glad to see this finally being released! 

Regarding the flight model - is there any updates planned in this regard or is this the way it's going to be?

As much as I would love to do a million mission and videos with the OH-6, I have to say I don't think I can do anything until there's some changes to the flight model I've spent a long time playing around with curves and practicing and fine-tuning but it feels very odd and doesn't allow for precision flying. I appreciate that all helicopters are unstable but there's so much static instability here in pitch and roll (especially roll) that it really doesn't feel right. I haven't flown the real thing of course and am just an armchair enthusiast like everyone else, but the way it flies feels extremely odd. Centering the stick after inducing roll, results in that roll continuing way more than it should (I think, at least compared to other helicopters). I also noticed that changes in collective result in rather abrupt yaw changes - I understand that in principle this is correct but it seems rather abrupt and excessive.

I really appreciate all the work you've put in guys so I don't mean to be unthankful here - the assets pack is fantastic, the 3D model of the chopper and cockpit is fantastic... it's just that the flight model IMO sort of lets it down a bit. I get that this is a mod and it's never going to be like a full fidelity FM but I think many of us are totally happy to accept a somewhat "arcady" feeling FM, so long as it's flyable with some degree of precision. Maybe I'm the odd one out who can't fly it properly but I generally don't suck at flying stuff and I can't get any decent precision here due to the rather strange static instability in pitch and roll - mostly roll. The yaw is manageable I find, just a bit twitchy, but nothing that can't be overcome with some practice. With regards to the odd roll and pitch behaviors, I'm not so sure. Perhaps adjusting the static instability somewhat could be a good idea on your end? 

Again, no disrespect in any way. You guys are phenomenal and I'm sure there will be plenty of folk here who will be delighted with having an OH-6 in their virtual hangar! 

Thanks!
 

[Slippa]

Too many downloads for each link .

Can anyone thinking of downloading it please reconsider. Go and have a cup of tea and a biscuit and try later so I can download it please? Thank you.

[Floyd1212]

30 minutes ago, CommandT said:

Centering the stick after inducing roll, results in that roll continuing way more than it should

31 minutes ago, CommandT said:

I also noticed that changes in collective result in rather abrupt yaw changes

I would agree with both these statements from my brief experimenting. 

[Mike145]

Wow what a handful, got some serious curves on my joystick.  Really fun to fly once your moving in the right direction.

Replaced the UH1 with the OH6 on one of my missions and flew down the river, even managed to land.  Great work guys.

 

[AndyJWest]

Yup, definitely twitchy. 

On the plus side though, I managed to land it on the airfield I was aiming for at my first attempt. 

 

[Rick50]

Wow, gonna have to fly this birdie when I get some free time!!

[RichCotte]

8 hours ago, anfieldroad said:

The github page clearly states it cannot be used as AI:

•  

And that’s what I get for just downloading and not reading…LOL