Novice advice

[GreenyMoore]

Hi, I've just bought this game and as it's the first flight simulation I've tried (and I don't have a pilot's licence), and I'm really struggling, can you please suggest the easiest settings to break me in gently? Thanks  in advance.

[-NW-ChiefRedCloud]

Welcome to BoS Moore. This is some very good advice above. And though you may be fascinated by ALL the aircraft and want to take them for a spin, concentrate on one aircraft at a time such as the LaGG 3 mentioned above. Basic flight, again as mentioned above, such as take off, level flight and landings are your foundation for learning anything else.

 

If you do venture over to Rise of Flight look us up over at New Wings Virtual Flight Training. We run three online servers of which Basic Training is geared for new pilots. We have volunteers available most nights to assist or answer your questions. But RoF does have a basic training selection that you can utilized off line. Below is a sample video of the RoF training program.

 

 

Chief

[GreenyMoore]

Within an hour, and two great replies. I hope all the replies on this forum are as friendly and helpful. I'll take heed of the advice, and check out the videos. Thanks once again 

[oneeyeddog]

Welcome GreenyMoore. If I can add to the sound advice already given, Here is a link to the Requiem Tutorials. These are must see.  https://www.youtube.com/user/RequiemBoS

[vonPilsner]

Once you get the hang of flying, landing, and not burning up your engine, here is some more helpful info...

 

Dart's "How to use the Sight as a Rangefinder and setting Convergence"

 

RAF 1943 Gunnery Manual: Bag the Hun!

WWII Gunnery Booklet

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?file=details&id=3084&name=Downloads

YouTube video adaptation:

 

RAF Gunnery: 1943 Range and Deflection manual

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3182

 

========================

 

In Pursuit - A Pilot's Guide to Online Air Combat

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/lento_ohjeet/inpursuit/

www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/lento_ohjeet/inpursuit/inpursuit.pdf

 

Basic Fighter Maneuvers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_fighter_maneuvers

 

========================

 

Happy Flying!

 

[SharpeXB]

If you are a complete beginner to sim flying, this is quite good training.

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showforum=90

You can do most all these lessons in any flight sim. It's a different sim but the basics are the same. I wish I had done something like this when I got started.

[33lima]

Hi Greenymoore

 

Some will say 'dive in at the deep end' so you don't get to rely too much on 'props' or acquire 'bad habits' but I'd recommend the following, to begin with, till you get the hang of things:

 

1. Fly on 'Normal' difficulty level. No need to worry if your radiator flaps or prop pitch is set right - you can just concentrate on the flying and the shooting!

 

2. Pick one plane you like, and stick to it for a while.

 

3. Fly 'short' duration missions - they start you in the air, so there's no need to worry about take-offs and landings, which are not easy - I still crack up on regularly in this sim.

 

3. If/when you are ready to try takeoffs and landings, pick a relatively easy plane like the Yak-1 & stick with that. Just do Quick Missions flown with no enemy and starting on the runway. That way you can learn by flying circuits like they do in real life. There's any amount of info on this online.

 

4. For combat, practice flight versus flight in Quick Missions, against fighters (who have no gunners who can shoot you down as you practice firing passes). Set the enemy skill level to low and have one less on their side to reduce your chances of becoming a victim. Set altitude to 1000 metres or so, so there is less risk of hitting the ground. IIRC you can set ammo as unlimited but do NOT get into the habit of hosing targets or it will come as an incredible shock when you quickly run out of rounds, with realistic ammo loads. Get close, aim carefully and then fire short bursts, even with unlimited ammo. Break off and come in again rather than wasting ammo, if a pass doesn't work. Once confident against fighters you can increase their skill level and having become a half-decent shot and master of your aircraft, be ready to go after bombers as well, then take your show on campaign (or online).

 

5. If you don't have head tracking kit you can use padlock to help you keep a target in view. If you have programmable keys on your joystick, set one of these to switch padlock on, and set another one to centre your pilot's head view quickly, so that you can switch back and forth in and out of padlock, to avoid becoming disoriented.

 

6. Again, if you have a programmable joystick, take the time in the control setting pages to program in the keys you will use most often, so you don't have to spend time looking away from the screen to find a key.

 

7. Fly with labels and map icons on, to help you spot and recognise other aircraft and to avoid getting lost.

 

8. Be patient and practice. Despite the setbacks, try hard to treat this learning curve as part of the experience and not a chore or just something you need to get through fast. The thing about realistic sims like BoS is that they simulate many of the difficulties of real life and require a level of skill which you can only acquire through practice, unless you are a 'natural'... and few are.

 

9. Ask lots of questions here - as the saying goes, the only stupid question is the one we don't ask!

 

Good hunting!

Edited December 26, 2014 by 33lima

[J2_Trupobaw]

If it's your first sim, start by learning limits of the fixed-wings planes and unlearning things you might have seen in TV or playing arcade games. They can't go through the air however they want like X-wings; they are heavy machines that  cheat their way through the air by going so fast they have no time to fall down  . Maneuvering in a plane is a bit like obstacle course, or riding the bicycle; the main goal is to keep it in balance, at speed and orientation that lets it to continue flying. You can't make it turn (or go up climb) harder just by pulling the stick more off center; you will only pull it off balance flight envelope and lose control. You can't make a sudden maneuver by quickly pulling the stick hard, either.

The plane is happy when it flies straight and level, and fast. Any maneuver you make unsettles the balance, and it should be made as a subtle deflection, so that plane barely notices it's not flying straight. Someone with better intuitions, please explain the energy . 
For absolute beginning, forget about take-offs and landings (they are the difficult parts of a flight). Use quick mission to spawn yourself in the air and just try flying without losing control. Experiment with controls and throttle. See how plane reacts to controls, rudder in particular is not intuitive at beginning. See how plane loses  speed in turns. See how plane loses speed when going up climbing. See how after you go to slow plane loses ability to fly stalls, and how you need to go nose down to gain speed. It's all covered in various tutorials, but first step is to feel the connection between speed and ability to fly, and between angle of attack and speed. 

Then, start quick mission in the air again, but add some friendly bombers 2-3 kilometres above you and try to reach them. See how reaching a goal in the air can't be accomplished by pointing plane's nose towards it and going full throttle, how you need to plan a route that goes only as hard as your plane can go.

I recommend Rise of Flight as training sim, too. The training campaign is part of free to play game, and gives good impression of what a plane can and what can't do in the air. The other free plane, Albatros, is a very good trainer, forgiving but powerful. And New Wings folks are always helpful, too.
 

Edited December 26, 2014 by Trupobaw

[No601_Swallow]

Above all, a flight sim is an opportunity to learn that you really need stuff you didn't know you needed at all. 

 

There are many levels to this one fundamental truth. But for now, concentrate on Level One:

 

You need a joystick.

 

There are many joysticks, which can separate you from a wide variety of cash amounts, but good reliable joysticks can typically be bought for about 30-40 Euro/Dollars. Personally, I'd recommend a Thrustmaster 1000m, but there are several good makes.

 

Welcome to the money pit! 

 

[Edit: there are some rather nice pearls of wisdom in this little thread already. Perhaps a mod might want to "sticky" it, if there isn't something already stickied.]

Edited December 26, 2014 by No601_Swallow

[Sokol1]

GreenyMoore,

 

Before anything, to master take-off and especially landing in this game you need a kind of device for rudder control.

On twist or rocker in joystick, or proper pedals - and of course a joystick is highly recommend.

 

The rudder control on keys/buttons, due lack key for center only serves for "fake" rudder trim for Bf 109/Fw 190.

 

Start with easy to control plan, like il-2 or Yak-1 and with engine automation on, and forget "simplify aids", this only serves to develop bad habits.

[Yakdriver]

You need a joystick.

 

There are many joysticks,

heehehehe    

 

This is my Plane. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My Plane is my best friend. It is my life.I must master it as I must master my life.

My Plane, without me, is useless.Without my Plane, I am useless.

I must fly my Plane true.

I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to bust my @$$. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will...

My Plane and I know that what counts in war is not our Post count, the online stats, nor the smoke we make. We know getting home in one Piece is what counts.

We will come home...

My Plane is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother.

I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its Engine and its Tail wheel.

I will keep my Plane polished and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before every online session, I swear this creed.

My Plane and I are the defenders of my Fraction. We are the masters of our enemy.

We are the tools for chilling out.

So be it,

until the Beer keg is empty,

and there is no more nagging,

but laughter.  

 

Prost.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Yakdriver

[Porkman]

As Sokol said, a joystick with rudder control and a hat switch for looking around is pretty much a must have.  Trubopaw had some very good advice for getting started and things to concentrate on.

 

Couple of tips I wished I had known when I was starting:

 

Use very gentle stick motions and think about making quick, tiny corrections instead of large, jerky movements on the stick.  If you are throwing the stick around you will have a real hard time controlling the planes early on.

 

Keep your airspeed above 250 and under 500 for a while and throttle between 50% and 80%.  Should keep you out of engine trouble and in the best controllable speed range.

 

Practice flying straight and level, making small inputs to hold your airspeed and heading and watch the instruments to learn how they can help keep you on a constant heading and airspeed.  LEARN HOW TO TRIM THE PLANE!!!!  Probably the most important thing in the beginning is not forgetting about your trim or stabilizer.  Trim the plane and you wont have to fight with the stick as much to keep your plane in easy level flight.  Once trimmed it is a good time to practice looking around using the hat switch while maintaining a level altitude and heading.  Once you can handle that then work up to looking around while in turns and maneuvers.  Build up to more complicated maneuvers by getting good at easier ones.

 

It is impossible to takeoff without using controlled rudder to counteract the turning tendencies of the planes.  Practice smooth throttle acceleration and gradual rudder corrections, also pushing the nose down to lift and get airflow over the tail will help the plane get more stability on the runway and make it a little less jumpy on the takeoff roll.  

 

Once you can takeoff and fly the plane, and are ready to start shooting at stuff I recommend doing quick missions with no enemy aircraft, AA turned off, all other ground targets on and just practice taking off, flying to a target, setting up a controlled strafing run, fly to another target and strafe, and repeat until out of ammo, find an airport, try to land.  Then just restart mission and do that over and over again and it should help with all aspects of the game.  If you can do that then you are ready to try attacking planes.  In the beginning just do 1 on 1, turn the enemy armament off, and just practice getting in position on an aircraft and trying to get some shots on target while not stalling, and no worry of being shot at.  

 

Also, you might have to play around with the sensitivity curves for the pitch, roll and yaw settings.  I found that a 50% setting for all is a good place to start in the beginning and also having your joystick tension high really helped.

 

Don't get discouraged if you lose control, try to stay focused in the moment and realize what happened, or what you did that caused the loss of control and not let it happen next time.

 

 

Hope that helps a little, BoS is a great combat simulator, I find myself enjoying it more and more every day, and I haven't even touched online yet!!!!!  It is very challenging early on but with practice and all the help and advice from users on the forum it gets easier and you will be more in control of the plane with every flight you make.

[FlatSpinMan]

Some really good replies here.

What exactly are you finding hard? Personally the sheer array of controls you can map kind of appeals me whenever I start a new flightsim.

 

When I first started simming with the old IL2 I found it hard to keep up with the AI as I wasn't managing my energy well. Imagine you're riding a bike. At the top of a you have lots of potential energy, and once you push off you can go fast without effort and, if you do it right, you might be awl to coast up the next hill or at least cruise along fast on a straight for a while.

However, if you hurtle down to the bottom of the hill and stop, you require a lot of energy to go anywhere.

In a plane you want to try and stay at the top of the hill. If you dive, dive shallowly to escape the danger and try to regain height while you still have speed.

If you are low and slow and trying to climb, point the nose just slightly upwards and climb gradually. The artificial horizon should look almost level. Don't use full power, but something like 70-80%. This will stop your engine from overheating or burning out. Climbing can take a while depending on the plane, that's why once you're up there, try hard to maintain your altitude.

 

If you're turning hard you can lose a ton of speed quickly - watch the numbers as you turn - which can leave you wallowing sluggishly. To avoid this, don't bank too much, make shorter, less dramatic turns, or experiment with roll - rolling can really help you switch orientation quickly.

 

All the planes have different characteristics - the 190 is twitchy, rolls very well, bleeds energy in turns, isn't a great climber. The Il2 handles smoothly and gracefully, but doesn't roll well. Those are just a couple of rough examples.

 

Whatever plane you're flying, recording the track can help you to see how it looks from the outside.

 

I find the Il2 and the LaGG3 to be nice planes to fly in this sim. The 109 seems a bit floaty to me. The 190 is cool but not the easiest choice for a newcomer, I think.

[GreenyMoore]

Once again, thanks comrades. All the advice has been very helpful for a complete flight sim novice. I'm now managing to fly without crashing, and I'm getting used to the novelty of using a joystick. Most of my previous gaming experience has been with tactical wargames such as the  Combat mission series, but with all the help and advice I've received I'm really starting to enjoy this game now. I've even managed to shoot down a few planes, albeit of the medium bomber variety. The fighters will follow shortly hopefully

 

[[KWN]T-oddball]

once you have the basics down you will get into what is called ACM (air combat  maneuvering) every maneuver/ tactic has a name.

book mark these for later reference

.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_fighter_maneuvers

 

http://www.combataircraft.com/en/Tactics/Air-To-Air/

[Eclipse4349]

Great stuff in this thread, thank you all!