Will there be another patch?

[IonicRipper]

The flight model needs some tweaking but nothing radical. After 100 attempts you should be able to land. Most people can land it just fine the way it is so I doubt its a problem with the game.

Edited July 12, 2013 by IonicRipper

[Flagrum]

The flight model needs some tweaking but nothing radical. After 100 attempts you should be able to land. Most people can land it just fine the way it is so I doubt its a problem with the game.

Speaking of (elementary) school ... quite possible that I even aquired bad habits by performing my 100 landings that I now just don't see what I am doing wrong. Yes, i tried to follow all the advices given here in several threads rearding this matter, and yes, I watched many vids carefully. But watching in-cockpit vids is not the same as doing it by myself - or watching someone elses actual hands and feet.

 

Perhaps if I do a more structured, theoretical, approach: are there for example diagrams or tables out there which show the different effects or relations of horizontal speed vs. vertical speed / lift? How much loss of lift do I have to expect exactly when coming out of ETL? How much lift does GE produce? Is an approach with, i.e. 500 ft/min "okay" or already the upper limit of the envelope? etc. ...

 

Maybe I am just coming in too steep ... and "bounce off the ground" when trying to avoid VRS by pulling the collective while simutaneously experiencing the ground effect at that very moment?

Edited July 12, 2013 by Flagrum

[outlawal2]

Practice on the runways and approach the runway at about 300 feet and 55 knots... Use the collective VERY carefully.. Nearly everyone overuses the collective.. (IRL I was amazed at how much vertical control you have using aerodynamics and the cyclic alone.. No collective) Flying level at 300 feet and about 55 knots, ease the collective a tiny bit down and watch your vertical drop.. As it comes close to -500, gently pull back on the cyclic and you will begin to slow the helicopter.. (You will quickly start rising again since you are pulling back on the cyclic so gently ease the collective down and keep your descent between 0 and -500 feet per minute... Keep doing this dance until you can easily see the ground details well... At this point fly outside the cockpit and let the helicopter continue to descend but be ready to apply up collective as you near the ground... When you near the point of hover the helicopter will turn sharply to the right so you will need to anticipate this and put in a LOT of left pedal...

 

Practice this on the runway about 100 times and you will get the hang of it..

In real life you don't spend as much time watching gauges because there is much better sensory feedback but in the sim you have to use the gauges more...

 

A few keys to keep in mind:

SMOOTH and tiny movements

Don't overuse the collective. Try to make yourself control your altitude as much as you can using the cyclic and not the collective.

Watch your descent speed and try to keep it between 0 and 500 feet per minute at all times. (In real life you don't need to obsess over it as much as you do in the sim..

Once again not as much sensory inputs to help so use your gauges.)

 

If you keep your descent rate in the 0-500 feet per minute range, as you descend you can react better and with some practice you won't do the pogo stick up and down thing with the collective.

 

PRACTICE A LOT

[Flagrum]

Practice on the runways and approach the runway at about 300 feet and 55 knots... Use the collective VERY carefully.. Nearly everyone overuses the collective.. (IRL I was amazed at how much vertical control you have using aerodynamics and the cyclic alone.. No collective) Flying level at 300 feet and about 55 knots, ease the collective a tiny bit down and watch your vertical drop.. As it comes close to -500, gently pull back on the cyclic and you will begin to slow the helicopter.. (You will quickly start rising again since you are pulling back on the cyclic so gently ease the collective down and keep your descent between 0 and -500 feet per minute... Keep doing this dance until you can easily see the ground details well... At this point fly outside the cockpit and let the helicopter continue to descend but be ready to apply up collective as you near the ground... When you near the point of hover the helicopter will turn sharply to the right so you will need to anticipate this and put in a LOT of left pedal...

 

Practice this on the runway about 100 times and you will get the hang of it..

In real life you don't spend as much time watching gauges because there is much better sensory feedback but in the sim you have to use the gauges more...

 

A few keys to keep in mind:

SMOOTH and tiny movements

Don't overuse the collective. Try to make yourself control your altitude as much as you can using the cyclic and not the collective.

Watch your descent speed and try to keep it between 0 and 500 feet per minute at all times. (In real life you don't need to obsess over it as much as you do in the sim..

Once again not as much sensory inputs to help so use your gauges.)

 

If you keep your descent rate in the 0-500 feet per minute range, as you descend you can react better and with some practice you won't do the pogo stick up and down thing with the collective.

 

PRACTICE A LOT

Thanks for your help.

 

Although I think, my landing approach is not too much off of what you suggest here. I am able to slow down and descent up to the point where transistional lift drops to zero and i am at 5-15 feet above the ground. Then VRS kicks in and i am dead. lol.

 

Seems i must be even more carefull with my descent rate at the end of the approach ... more like 0-100 feet/m ... hrm ... (edit: but i am certainly unable to do that with my eyes out of the cockpit ... never ... lol)

Edited July 12, 2013 by Flagrum

[hansangb]

As soon as I see/hear the vibration that I'm about to hit VRS, I give a little more collective and at the same time nudge the cycle forward to get out of my vortex ring. You just have to anticipate it.

[lesnyborsuk]

G940 + Saitek Pro Flight pedals, everything set to no curves.

 

I am pretty sure that you should try to set curves somewhere between 20 and 25 and check if it helps. (It helped me A LOT)

 

Again: handling the helo - within my newbie limits - is working fine. take-off, straight flying, keeping altitude, even the landing approach is going "okay". I just can't keep the bird from dropping like a stone whenever i am a few feet above the ground, transisting from ETL to hover.

 

Are you sure you are only "few feet above ground" when going into hover? I mean that if you are above "ground effect" (AFAIR it is more than 20 feet or so) and try to go into hover and land it is extremely difficult (some real life helicopter pilot also stated this somewhere in this forum).

 

What helped me with landings was that I stopped looking at my variometer at some point to try to keep descend rate -500 ft/min and I started trying to land just looking external. Becouse keeping constant descend was very difficult to me at the beginning.

Edited July 12, 2013 by lesnyborsuk

[Rongor]

Constant descending is very difficult atm starting OGE. The collective pitch is also very sensitive in RL but in the simulation, controls don't really allow for a fine tuned adjustment of collective pitch to stop an increasing descent without unintentionally stopping to HOGE or even climb a little. This is not only hard to simulate with our controls but also again you have to keep in mind that missing peripheral vision and missing seat of the pants sense are getting us into flight attitudes that make it impossible to adjust as smooth as in RL.

[PeterP]

;) Flagrum , I have made this for you:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1811916#post1811916

[311Gryphon]

How much landings did you try? I know it took me a few days and over 50 tries to start landing somewhat decently and I still screw up from time to time.

 

Start the free flight instant mission and just take off and land until you can't stand it anymore. I grantee the next day your landings will be much better.

 

A crap load. I'm not giving up, don't get me wrong. But I can't count how many landings I've tried. Been at it 2 weeks. But the big kicker is that I watched a bunch of tutorials last week and had some free time one night and actually got 2 (in a row) decent landings. I felt pretty good about it. After those 2 I can't not crash.

 

So my thoughts are that the control has to be just right for you to NOT crash (at least with my game and control setup) and I'm doing it more or less right but not EXACTLY right. If a person can get 2 landings in a row that are correct it would stand to reason that they are starting to get it, right? But apparently I'm not starting to get it. I'll keep practicing because it's fun learning, but at least with my controls it appears to be extremely finicky and just following the tutorials isn't as easy as it sounds.

 

Thanks.

[IonicRipper]

Did you try adding curves to your cyclic controls?

 

Something that might help you is to add a curve to the collective as well. Check the slider option for the collective and add around -10 of curvature so it is less sensitive towards the bottom. It helps for landings and take offs.