How to actually fly a helicopter?

[Tasky]

Hi all, 

First post and sorry it's such a noob question... I've just started DCS, been going through the F/A-18 tutorial and found it pretty great in terms of learning basic flight stuff.

Of course my real love is helicopters and the Gazelle is one of my favourites, so I decided to have a bash at that, thinking the tutorial would be comparable to the F18 one... The Startup chapter was great and I really loved learning the sequence. Only thing missing was voice narration.

But the next chapter is Weapons, for which you need to start in a stable hover. Since there's no tutorial on how to hover, land or fly in general, and since I seem to be pretty naff at figuring out how to do it with the trial-and-error method, the obvious question is...

What would people recommend for learning to actually fly a helicopter in general, so I can get to flying the Gazelle?

 

Many thanks, 

Tasky.

[Ornithopter]

I do have advice.  Start with the UH-1.  Fly it, and practice it until you can hover it over a dime. Get a book from Amazon about flying Helicopters.  It will explain things like steep approaches, pinacle landings, etc.   You probably will need to get good rudder pedals and a joystick extension.  Once you do that my friend, you will be able to load up any helicopter in DCS, map the basic controls, and fly it around the world first time, no probs.   Avionics is a different matter and will try your patience in some of the more modern helicopters.

Edited 1 hour ago by Ornithopter

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Check out the YouTube channel “Helicopter lessons in 10 minutes or less”.

That will give you background information in order to understand why stuff happens the way it does.

There are also other YT channels dedicated to DCS helicopters.

[MAXsenna]

Hey @Taskyhow are and welcome to the forum! 

What kind of peripherals do you have?

It's of course easier with an FFB cyclic or a joystick without springs, and pedals. Most throttles work fine as collective, ( as a personal choice I make sure to invert the axis so it works more like a collective). 

To get into a hover so you can invoke the auto hover, turn the switch on the ADI to doppler. Then you align the two yellow "pins" so they overlap in a perfect cross. It's also very handy for practicing hovers.

I don't remember the training missions that much, but you can "cheat" and get into a semi hover, and invoke "Active Pause" during the weapons employment. You won't be able to turn though. So make sure you point at the targets. 

I also recommend reading the manual, to see what other tricks you can do to make the instrumenta help you. 

Cheers! 

Edited 1 hour ago by MAXsenna

[Hiob]

7 minutes ago, Ornithopter said:

I do have advice.  Start with the UH-1.  Fly it, and practice it until you can hover it over a dime. Get a book from Amazon about flying Helicopters.  It will explain things like steep approaches, pinacle landings, etc.   You probably will need to get good rudder pedals and a joystick extension.  Once you do that my friend, you will be able to load up any helicopter in DCS, map the basic controls, and fly it around the world first time, no probs.   Avionics is a different matter and will try your patience in some of the more modern helicopters.

Why would you start with the Huey when your real love is the Gazelle. 

You can learn to fly a helicopter with the Gazelle just fine. They work the same, even if they might feel a bit different in a direct A to B comparison.

@Tasky Only general advice I have (apart from watching Youtube tutorials), do everything slow and in small increments (talking about collective, pedals and cyclic).

Add power slowly until you feel the Helicopter wanting to yaw. Hold it there and compensate with rudder. Add a little more, rinse and repeat. Eventually the Helicopter starts to tilt (pitch and bank), compensate with cyclic.

If you do everything VERY slowly, you will eventually be able to balance it and pick it up. From there it is just practice, practice, practice.

It helps if you have a stick with a long throw and little spring resistance.

Just now, Hiob said:

Why would you start with the Huey when your real love is the Gazelle. 

You can learn to fly a helicopter with the Gazelle just fine. They work the same, even if they might feel a bit different in a direct A to B comparison.

@Tasky Only general advice I have (apart from watching Youtube tutorials), do everything slow and in small increments (talking about collective, pedals and cyclic).

Add power slowly until you feel the Helicopter wanting to yaw. Hold it there and compensate with rudder. Add a little more, rinse and repeat. Eventually the Helicopter starts to tilt (pitch and bank), compensate with cyclic. (Maybe it wants to tilt before it wants to yaw, than you need to compensate this first…. small increments. Eventually it will become fluid on its own)

If you do everything VERY slowly, you will eventually be able to balance it and pick it up. From there it is just practice, practice, practice.

It helps if you have a stick with a long throw and little spring resistance.

 

[Tasky]

Thanks all!

Max - I'm using a WinWing setup - the Orion2 throttle, enhanced F16 stick and Skywalker pedals. The plan was to get their Black Shark collective so I could swap between planes/spaceships and rotary wing, but they discontinued that right after I bought the base HOTAS.  

I've been binging YouTube videos. Most cover the collective/pedal bit and I can get to that point, as well as usually avoiding the right rollover. But instead of lifting up into a hover (which some YT wizards seem able to do without any cyclic), I usually end up sliding left or backwards into the scenery. No amount of extra collective or cyclic seems to help. 

It's like I know what I should be doing, but can't see what's happening in order to react accordingly.

The best I've managed is a hazardously aggressive launch into the air at 80-90% collective, whereafter I can transition to forward flight and enjoy bimbling around the Georgian countryside... and while I understand how to land in theory, I can't yet manage it without smashing myself into a ball of flame!! 

Other than that, I've really enjoyed the Gaz module, and have even fudged an Auto-hover enough to get a few HOT-3 hits on targets. It's just the fundamental manoeuvres I'm desperate to figure out.