Free Mi-24P Campaign : The Dawn Of The Soviet-Afghan War

[dggoofy]

I’m glad you like the campaign. I mostly create missions to fill a gap—there wasn’t much out there. They’re my style, with all their strengths and flaws. I’m happy to share them, but I get it if they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. No big deal, though—you’ve always got my blessing to tweak them and make them your own!

[Raffi75]

I'm not saying it's bad. I have this thing where when the subtitles come on, my eyes dart away for a moment to see what's flashing. It's my little ADHD.   I look forward to more missions from you, I'm having fun with them.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Mission 2 after-action report:
 

Spoiler

I think I must have missed a few triggers. After WP1, I got the option to choose short/risky or long/safe - I chose long/safe since I felt responsible for the Mi-8 too (and was in a sightseeing mood) But after the "too late" (to change your mind) message, nothing happened in terms of communication until I got to valley at Bagram. I did follow the route correctly as far as I know, and stuck to the centre of the valleys as warned about in the briefing.
I also never got the trigger to change radio frequency to Bagram Tower (I couldn't hear their broadcasts so I only saw the subtitles). I also had a pitot tube failure (froze over I bet, even though my anti-ice was ON the entire flight), but I landed on 21R as instructed behind the Il-76, taxied to C10 and shut down - and ended the mission with a score of 100. So all's well that ends well, but it still feels like I missed something 

 

1 hour ago, Raffi75 said:

I have this thing where when the subtitles come on, my eyes dart away for a moment to see what's flashing

Subtitles are outside of my normal field of view: I actually have to look up and to the right to see them. But perhaps it's different for different headsets.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

On 7/9/2025 at 1:55 PM, Raffi75 said:

The only thing that bothers me is the helicopter's position marker on the map. It's in the wrong place, but that's the fault of the Mi-24 module or the Afghanistan map, not the campaign itself.

I had issues with that too, for the first time in the module. Normally I have the Greben in MAG, but I figured with all these mountains around there's probably some interference (I actually don't know if that's modelled), so I switched to GYRO but that didn't improve matters in a noticeable way.
DISS-15 is known to have problems in mountainous regions but I wasn't using that...

[Raffi75]

3 hours ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Mission 2 after-action report:

Subtitles are outside of my normal field of view: I actually have to look up and to the right to see them. But perhaps it's different for different headsets.

I don't think you missed anything. I flew both routes. Nothing special happened. Just a regular flight to the airport.

I don't have VR.

 

3 hours ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

I had issues with that too, for the first time in the module. Normally I have the Greben in MAG, but I figured with all these mountains around there's probably some interference (I actually don't know if that's modelled), so I switched to GYRO but that didn't improve matters in a noticeable way.
DISS-15 is known to have problems in mountainous regions but I wasn't using that...

During normal (real-world) flight procedures, you synchronize in MAG and then switch to GYRO. I fly in GYRO. I also check the magnetic declination setting in the copilot's cockpit.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

42 minutes ago, Raffi75 said:

During normal (real-world) flight procedures, you synchronize in MAG and then switch to GYRO.

By the book, yes. I read that in reality pilots preferred MAG.

[Raffi75]

@Raven (Elysian Angel)I just remembered. You mentioned icing. Did you have the pitot tube heater on? I'm thinking about the switches on the left side. I once forgot to turn it on before a flight. It took a while to warm up.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

7 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

Did you have the pitot tube heater on?

I did not, and because the anti-icing panel is only labelled engine anti-ice, I looked all over the cockpit trying to find a pitot heater but didn’t see it. I also looked for a rotor heater but noticed an indicator with 4 sectors which seemed to be just that, and it was operating. I had the battery heater on too… 

Time to take out the manual and look for the location of the pitot heat switch…. Oh… oh wait…

*edit*
Just found it in Chuck's Guide. Time to fly the mission again (this time I'll take the short route) and see if it works

Edited July 31 by Raven (Elysian Angel)

[Raffi75]

@Raven (Elysian Angel)The anti-icing system should be turned on when the outside temperature is +10°C. Pitot tube and clock heating as needed.

Edited July 31 by Raffi75

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

6 minutes ago, Raffi75 said:

@Raven (Elysian Angel)The anti-icing system should be turned on when the outside temperature is +10°C. Pitot tube and clock heating as needed.

I'm aware. I simply never needed it until now.

[dggoofy]

15 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

19 hours ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Mission 2 after-action report:

Subtitles are outside of my normal field of view: I actually have to look up and to the right to see them. But perhaps it's different for different headsets.

I don't think you missed anything. I flew both routes. Nothing special happened. Just a regular flight to the airport.

 

Indeed... The mission 2 is set as you should take the shortest way. As named, the longest is... long. Nothing happens. But it should give you 100% at the end anyhow.

In the opposite, the shortest is full of dialogues

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

7 minutes ago, dggoofy said:

In the opposite, the shortest is full of dialogues

I opened the mission in the ME and I saw the triggers along the short route. I'll do that, then  

[Raffi75]

1 hour ago, dggoofy said:

 

In the opposite, the shortest is full of dialogues

Yes, the dialogue is interesting. I didn't want to reveal that to Raven.  I was only writing about random events.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

1 hour ago, Raffi75 said:

I was only writing about random events.

That's what I gathered. But I was specifically referring to radio triggers and random conversations with Petrovich: if you take the long route, you never get told to switch to the Bagram Tower frequency. I just did the mission again (3rd time), this time taking the short route and the trigger to switch to tower was there.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Mission 3 was...

Spoiler

brilliant too! Very immersive, and it felt great not having to babysit вампир-2. Them 23-mm guns are nasty though... During the flight engine #1 dropped rpm which caused overtorque on engine #2 to keep the speed up, which caused me to lose the generators momentarily until I noticed what happened to engine #1.
After landing the ground crew came over and complained about 2 bullet holes in the tail rotor. Uh-huh, I'm sure engine #1 is totally fine... nothing to see here, move along now...
Score 100 and a smile on my face. Well done!

 

Edited Friday at 07:06 PM by Raven (Elysian Angel)
Forgot spoiler

[Raffi75]

Colonel, hospital... Luckily I didn't have to report "Gruz 200".  Mission accomplished

@Raven (Elysian Angel)

Something's wrong with your post. The text in the second frame and the photo are missing.

Well, I wrote that it's great fun. 

Edited Friday at 06:34 PM by Raffi75

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

37 minutes ago, Raffi75 said:

Something's wrong with your post. The text in the second frame and the photo are missing.

Yes I wanted to get the picture behind a /spoiler too but it wouldn't let me. I fixed it as much as I could...

[Raffi75]

How did you manage to catch the racket? It looks bad. 

 

I got into the game and then it was over. 

Edited Friday at 07:20 PM by Raffi75

[Sobakopes]

Mission 3 didn't totally go according to plan(first combat mission). One is supposed to fly parallel to the settlement while observing to the left side. I diverted left early(which was my wingman's role?)when the first smoke became visible and couldn't comprehend petrovich 10 o clock conmands since then. Still beat it

Mission 4 worked very well. I just couldn't notice the road convoy before literally flying past it in parallel. After that everything went smoothly.

Voice: The constant switch between russian and ukrainian alter ego is immersion breaking.

I also have doubts about typical 4 rocket pod setup. It's too heavy and the WOLF HOWL maneuver transforms into cobra. I think they used 2 pods no?

I learned to love the paper map in cockpit it's invaluable to navigate easily. However on longer routes 150+ km the error becomes visible which i noticed on the last legs of mission 2.

Also wish it was a little less strict on route waypoints at least when returning home. Who cares how you get home right.

Edited Saturday at 09:37 AM by Sobakopes

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

9 minutes ago, Sobakopes said:

Who cares how you get home

You're in unfriendly territory, where anyone with a bolt action rifle can take a shot at you from a rooftop or out of a window. Return legs are determined to be least risky based on intelligence reports and scouting. That's how I look at it, at least

[Raffi75]

2 hours ago, Sobakopes said:

I also have doubts about typical 4 rocket pod setup. It's too heavy and the WOLF HOWL maneuver transforms into cobra. I think they used 2 pods no?

I learned to love the paper map in cockpit it's invaluable to navigate easily. However on longer routes 150+ km the error becomes visible which i noticed on the last legs of mission 2.

Also wish it was a little less strict on route waypoints at least when returning home. Who cares how you get home right.

I don't know where you got the idea that the Mi-24 is a cobra. It's not an airplane. Sudden braking is normal in a helicopter.

You have to remember that you can't exceed +/- 30°. At too low a speed, exceeding operational limits, you can fall on your tail. We call this "złapać zwierza" (catching the animal). If you did everything as described in the mission, the Wilk maneuver is perfect. I added 20 km/h to make sure it would be okay.

As Raven wrote, the return route to base is chosen to be as safe as possible. Generally, the entire route is planned with flight safety and fuel consumption in mind.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Mission 4: 
 

Spoiler

I tried for over an hour to get it to work as intended: I couldn't even make it past the home airbase without something going wrong.
First time my wingman took off vertically and flew circles north of Bagram, until me and Thunder flight were airborne, then landed and taxied back to C-9.
Second time I couldn't get my generators online for some reason, so I restarted the mission again.
Third time my wingman taxied behind me properly, but Thunder-1 took off vertically and flew circles around WP1 while the rest of us where still on the ground. I waited for Vampyr-2 and Thunder-2, took off and lost engine #1 on takeoff. I managed a belly landing without further damage to the helicopter, lifted the helo back up (it's crazy that you can deploy landing gear on the ground while on your belly and it lifts you up just fine), but couldn't get engine #1 to restart.
So I gave up, and will try again tomorrow...

 

[Raffi75]

Mission 5:
On my first attempt, I completed a night flight along the route. Takeoff and landing were successful, and nothing happened along the way. Only on my second attempt did everything go according to plan.

Mission 9:
I attempted this mission several times (my life). Volk 3 took off vertically from the stand. On my second attempt, Volk 2, 3, and 4 took off vertically before the colonel boarded and circled the airfield. Later, they joined me, and I was able to continue the mission. On my last, successful attempt, Volk 4 took off vertically before entering the runway.

[Raffi75]

Mission 10:
First of all, this isn't how it's done.  I had to pause the flight and use the Mi-24 instructions for the first time. It was hilarious. 
Now, seriously. Maybe I missed something, but the Orel 1 was left hovering (frozen) next to the cargo hold.
I completed all the mission instructions, landed at the designated location, got an F10 message, a report, and the mission was completed. When I returned to the campaign menu, I saw I had the same mission to complete. I could skip, but I don't think that's the point.

I wonder if I might have missed something? I took two soldiers and 800kg of cargo. Does this have any bearing on the fact that the mission was not 100% completed?

Edited Sunday at 04:53 PM by Raffi75

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Another attempt at Mission 4:
 

Spoiler

Nope, can't get it to work. This time Vampyr-2 followed me, and then Thunder-1 - but Thunder-2 felt like staying at his parking spot so there he remained.
I took off, and as soon as I turn on engine anti-ice one of my engines quits, I start losing speed and altitude and I need to do an immediate emergency landing. Mostly it's engine 1 that fails, but I had an attempt where engine 2 fails first. To reduce weight I reloaded with the loadout according to the briefing instead of the one the mission starts with, but that didn't help.
I'm at a loss on how to fix this, so any ideas are appreciated.