new player looking for some starter advice

[Gary Hall]

i got dcs world and the mi-8 helicopter at the same time so i am very new

 

I'm using a madcatz fly 5 stick

 

once i have my engines started (autostart) i slowly increase the throttle to get lift then i raise of the ground by a few feet spin uncontrollably in circles then land upside down.

 

what am i doing wrong? (other than landing upside down :P)

[Cibit]

Hi Gary welcome to the mad house. First off the Hip has some auto assist features. On the centre console there are 3 green lights, the middle one needs pressed in version 1.2.6 to turn on auto stability for pitch and yaw channels. Pressed by default in version 1.2.7

2nd the hip needs trimmed for takeoff. Its in the quick start guide located in the docs folder of your Mi8-MTV2 install. Which is located in the MODS>Aircraft folder in the root directory of your DCS instal. Have you also assigned a rudder because the thing abut helos is they need significant pedal input at various times when your flying. This corresponds with the amount of collective you pull. (here I think your confusing throttle with collective.) The throttle is always 100% more or less and is called IIRC a governor rather than throttle. Dont worry about throttle settings just the collective which lifts and lowers the machine by changing the pitch angle of the rotor blades. More collective means more right pedal input.

Hope this is helpful:)

[Slazi]

Welcome to the world of DCS helicopters!

 

Once you've autostarted, you'll need to make sure your autopilot is switched on. That will help you control the beast. On the right of your pilot's knee, there are 3 lights (left, middle, right) on the box between you and the co-pilot. Swith the left two on with mouse clicks. Now when you take off, you will need to use the rudder (usually joystick twist / pedals) to keep the helo from spinning. You may also need to adjust the stick - I think it's push back and to the left a little from memory.

 

Don't feel bad about crashing, flying is a great challenge. It takes a while to get used to, but it really is a pleasure.

 

Edit: Slow typing award goes to me I guess :)

[lmp]

What's your background in helicopter simulations and in general flight simulations?

 

The Mi-8 will tend to yaw to the left during take off and accelerate to the front-left. That's normal and you need to counter the yawing (rotating around the vertical axis) with the pedals and pull the stick a little bit back and to the right to keep it in a stationary hover.

 

Edit: No way Slazi, I'm the slow typing master! ;)

[Cibit]

Welcome to the world of DCS helicopters!

 

Edit: Slow typing award goes to me I guess :)

 

Its cause the info had furthur to travel I am sure;)

 

Gary Hall where are you based?

[Slazi]

Its cause the info had furthur to travel I am sure;)

^-This!

 

:smilewink:

[Gary Hall]

thanks all for the replies :)

 

I'm based in London, UK

 

my background is,well i played alot of flight sims since back in the c64 and amiga days though i havent played any in the last 7ish years or so. as for helicopter sims this is my first. i played super heuy on the c64 but i dont think that counts as a sim :p

[badger66]

This sounds like a thread for me .

[trevcart]

If your about we can try some stuff now if you want?

[Gary Hall]

so lets see if i got this straight. moving the stick forwards and back pitches my nose up and down. left and right banks my helicopter left or right. twisting my stick spins my helicopter left and right.

 

what exactly does the throttle do and what do i use to go up and down?

[Cibit]

Hi Gary the important Axis you need to have mapped are

Pitch axis tilts nose forward or back

Yaw leans aircraft right or left

Collective as I mentioned in a previous post is what makes you go up and down. This is what you confuse with the throttle (Govenor). The throttle controls are page up and page down, Forget about it for now.

You need a rudder axis mapped to twist grip or slider

 

So 4 important axis to assign

pitch

yaw

collective

rudder

Ok:)

[dahui]

for up and down its the throttle on your joystick... Like the throttle for the plane... But in the Heloworld its called "Collective" or "Pitch"

 

The Throttle in the Heloworld is the RPM from Turbine and Blades.

With turbine Helos they are always on 100% during flying, takeoff and landing. Only on the Ground you go to less. But usually you need only 0% or 100%.

In the newer Helicopters, like the new Bell 429, or AS350B3e you have only a 3way switch for Stop, Start/Idle and Flight.

 

With Pistons you need to do the work from the Governor by Hand... So when you raise the collective, you also need to add more Power to the Pistonengine...

[Gary Hall]

ok so i was looking the through the keybindings and saw that "collective" was not assigned to anything. now i was actually able to take off (WOOOOOT) but after about a minute of flight my helicopter threw a tantrum and crashed on its side

 

also when i am moving forward on the ground (any speed) my heli pulls to the right and i have to twist the stick quite a lot just to get it to go in almost a straight line. is this normal?.

 

i still dont really get how to use the throttle also with collateral do i press the button once or do i hold it?

 

sorry for the super noobs questions but i am making progress :)

 

 

EDIT: i didnt see the those replies when i opened the page

Edited January 13, 2014 by Gary Hall

[dahui]

ok so i was looking the through the keybindings and saw that "collective" was not assigned to anything. now i was actually able to take off (WOOOOOT) but after about a minute of flight my helicopter threw a tantrum and crashed on its side

 

also when i am moving forward on the ground (any speed) my heli pulls to the right and i have to twist the stick quite a lot just to get it to go in almost a straight line. is this normal?.

 

i still dont really get how to use the throttle also with collateral do i press the button once or do i hold it?

 

sorry for the super noobs questions but i am making progress :)

 

 

EDIT: i didnt see the those replies when i opened the page

 

 

forget the throttle... thats the best thing at the beginning you can do...

 

 

The other thing is Normal... you have to Trim the Aircraft. look in the Mi8 Section, there are freds about it. (which i could not find right now ^^)

[esb77]

Two other tips.

 

Don't increase the collective too quickly. The heli takes a bit to react to the increased main rotor torque on the airframe, and you take a little while to react with the rudder after you see the heli reacting.

 

Taxi and takeoff like an airplane. Take advantage of those wheels on your landing gear, it's great for a beginning heli pilot. Keep collective below 5 degrees taxiing, taxi to the runway. Steer using rudder, control speed with wheel brakes. Get lined up on the runway, release brakes, increase collective slowly to about 7 degrees, and have pitch neutral to slightly forward. When you get to an airspeed of about 60 km/h or so slowly increase collective until you take off. You'll also need a little bit of cyclic stick (to the right I think) to counteract the tendency to roll.

 

May feel a bit like learning to juggle, keeping track of multiple things at the same time. Definitely an easier way to learn to take off for most people compared to a vertical takeoff.

 

Landing airplane style is also a good idea, especially if you don't want a lot of first hand experience with VRS.

[Gary Hall]

thanks esb77 that helped a lot. i can now tke off and stay in the air (yay) but when i try to change difrection i spin out of control crash

[uboats]

I found that in mi8, the cyclic stick is not in central position at the very beginning.

and I also did not know how trimmer in mi 8 works. If I press the T, then

in the cockpit view, the stick moves beyond my understanding when comparing to ka50

 

Could anyone help me ?

[159_Archer]

It's important -if you're flying the Hip in sim mode- to realize that the Mi-8 is programmed to be as real as possible, and no one would sensibly jump into a RL helo and fly it.

 

So to fly in sim mode you really do have to understand what is required when flying and have a little knowledge of what you are doing when you are moving the controls.

 

It is important to refer to the docs and pick up advice or at least take the good advice given on this forum. I and many others had plenty of experience with the Ka-50, but still struggled somewhat with the Huey and Hip until we learned the differences in single-rotor choppers.

 

It can take time but is great fun if you don't get frustrated.

 

Uboats; have you adjusted the curves within the options/controls in game? Maybe your stick needs fine tuning to soften it? Or maybe you're moving the stick too far?

[uboats]

Uboats; have you adjusted the curves within the options/controls in game? Maybe your stick needs fine tuning to soften it? Or maybe you're moving the stick too far?

 

for all 3 axis: deadzone 5, curve 5

 

I did not touch the stick, and just rctrl+enter to see the stick indicator, then I found the cyclic stick was not in central. It's a little bit back and right to the central, like the position of what manual said that to maintain the position during vertical takeoff and hover. If so, why it automatically do that? What I thought is that I should move the stick to that position during taking off manually.

[Gary Hall]

I'm not getting frustrated at all I'm actually enjoying slowly making progress. i started not even being able to take off now i can take off and fly around a bit. just barely scratched the surface on what i need to learn though

[esb77]

I found that in mi8, the cyclic stick is not in central position at the very beginning.

and I also did not know how trimmer in mi 8 works. If I press the T, then

in the cockpit view, the stick moves beyond my understanding when comparing to ka50

 

Could anyone help me ?

 

In DCS v 1.2.6 the default stick position is centered. If it's out of center either some sort of configuration file is out of whack, or your control device is sending it a signal that is causing the displacement. Some flight stick hardware can do this if everything isn't centered when you plug it in/start the computer/start the game.

 

The way the trim system works is, whatever position the stick is in when you hit trim, the helicopter flies as if that position is the new 'zeroed' position. So unless you have a force feedback stick (that's working properly), after you trim you then need to center your stick. Otherwise you have the input from your trim setting AND the input from holding your stick in the position where you hit the trim button. It's not a perfect system, but they needed to do it in a way that works for both FFB and non-FFB hardware.

Edited January 21, 2014 by esb77