Some musings on my progess

[dburne]

Hey gang,

 

Ok so I get this awesome sim, received it I think around Tues or Wed of last week. I used to fly Longbow2 a lot back in the day, and more recently a modded EECH. I was very excited to see a serious combat helicopter sim once again.

 

I have it set up in simulation mode, figured that would be the best way to learn rather than going through a more simplified game mode then making the transition later.

 

Well at first I thought man I am never going to learn how to keep this helicopter under control. But I have made it through the basic flying training mission so far, and feel much more competent - after many hours of practice, in being able to at least successfully take off, fly around, and land without killing myself.

 

Ok so my next step is go through the Abris training mission. So I am sitting here listening to him tell me all about the menus and submenus, how to create and delete flight plans, add waypoints, and then a bunch of other stuff that was quite frankly way over my head and sitting here feeling lost with a deer in the headlights look on my face. I am thinking - how in the world am I ever going to retain all that in my aging head and put all this together? Granted, it was late last night that I was going through this training mission... and my brain was somewhat fried and starting to feel overloaded.

 

I expect at some point much of this I am doing is just going to come together and start to feel natural to me. At least I sure hope it does. I do have the new Black Shark printed manual on the way to me and expect delivery on Wed. of this week - perhaps being able to open it up to the section I am working with and use it for reference will be a big help for me as well.

 

I am loving the sim so far, and looking forward to learning more and becoming more proficient - and actually being able to enter combat - but fear that is still quite a ways off for me. For now though, when I am feeling a little frustrated or a lot overwhelmed, I just go back to my traffic pattern training mission, take control , and fly a few circuits and try to nail the landing to make myself feel better... :)

[ruprecht]

Everyone here started out just like that :)

 

It gets better. Practice till your fingers bleed on your HOTAS.

[159th_Viper]

Everyone here started out just like that :)

 

 

Aye - So True!

 

I fondly recall the elation I felt after my First Take-Off and very shortly thereafter, landing: WooHaa! Never mind the fact that I FUBAR'd my Landing Gear and reduced the volume of the Rotors by half, along with a myriad of other complications............:music_whistling:

 

Now I can throw her around the sky with measured success, inevitably ending in a Cataclysmic Catastrophe every so often to ensure Humbleness I'm sure. The turning point will come when Control of the Bird is second nature.........So much easier then to grasp the rest. All it takes is Flight Hours :)

[nemises]

Hiya Mr Burnette.... I wouldnt worry about loading / configuring flight plans on the ABRIS for now..that is top percentile nerd stuff that 99% of us also don't know!

 

The ABRIS is incredibly capable as a GPS and database info dump, but 99.9999% of the time, your flight plan will allready be configured by the mission creator, which means, all you really need to know is how to zoom in and out and how to change waypoint (susp)...maybe how to change the brightness/contrast for night missions using NVG :)

[dburne]

Whew, thanks nemises that is a relief!

:)

[L4key]

Agree with Nemesis though will learn it one day for sake of comlpleteness but you don't need it to get into combat sooner (same with data link IMHO)

 

Check out the training mission 'How to fly and blow stuff up' or something. I'm someone will post a link I always recommend it but never know where to find it :cry:

[dburne]

Thanks L4key - I do have the link saved to my favorites, just have not felt I was ready for that yet - will try it soon! Going through some of the producer notes now.

[Banquo]

I can certainly recommend that link "How to fly and blow stuff up" - helped me to get going with the basiscs and start enjoying the sim.

 

The other thing that helped me a lot was using route mode (default key R) to follow waypoints which were already set up..

 

Now all I need is a joystick as it can be tricky flying with just the keyboard

[dburne]

Thanks for the tip on routemode Banquo, I will give it a try as soon as I can.

[Ed Hunter]

Thanks L4key - I do have the link saved to my favorites, just have not felt I was ready for that yet - will try it soon! Going through some of the producer notes now.

 

similar state to you been mucking about with the easy flight mode just because i wanted to fly but with work didnt have the time to study

now i have more time its all help off

 

but can you post the link you two were on about How to fly and blow stuff up

or is the the developers files ?

cheers

[dburne]

This is the one I have which I believe he was talking about as well:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2626185/STICKY_Tutorial_How_to_take_of.html#Post2626185

[Banquo]

Exactly d.b.

 

You beat me to it.

 

Incidentally, the video that helped me with route mode was the first one of these

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=43227

 

Thanks to Waldo II for that

[dburne]

Thanks Banquo.

 

Woohoo - well I did it. Not exactly sure how I managed to do it and quite honestly don't know if I can repeat it again anytime soon. I went through the combat deployment training mission, then took control, and somehow manage to work my way through and actually blow a truck up! I was so elated! First couple of shots missed, but the third I got the sucker!

 

And with that, I will retire from BS for the night, and perhaps in the am tomorrow see how I might can do with the above tutorial for shooting some more things...