Helicopters in DCS any good for fixed wing pilots?

[Chuck_Owl]

Looks like you're getting the hang of it, Indiacki!

If you want a tip... 

 

Before you even think about leaving the ground, make sure:

 

1) You do a hover power check

 

That torque-meter gauge in your cockpit is very useful. To do a hover power check, just enter a very slight hover (just apply enough power/collective to barely touch the ground) and take note of the torque value needed to enter this state. Why? Because it's the same reason you don't drive your car by flooring it all-day-long; the stress applied to the blades of your helicopter will wear them down and an excess of torque will just send your blades fly away in the sunset without you. You will use this torque value as a reference to how much collective you apply to enter a lift-generating state. Pretty cool, eh?

 

2) You have your huey trimmed and untrimmed

 

That red button on your cyclic is your trim. Lots of people new to the Huey don't use it, but using it properly just makes your life sooo much easier. Just make sure that you have a key mapped to a trim/untrim button somewhere on your stick. You're always gonna drift a little bit to the side, so make sure that when you're doing your hover power check you click that trim button so the helicopter remembers both pedal and stick input necessary to stay in a hover state. Trimming at regular intervals will make your life so much easier as it gives you better control and precision for control input.

 

3) You do not apply additional power to takeoff if you don't absolutely need to.

 

One way people takeoff is that they just raise the collective and start flying. A real-life huey pilot taught me another way that I find much smarter and practical. You start by doing your hover power check, enter a slight hover on the ground and taxi by pushing your nose down a bit in a very gentle manner. Once you're where you need to be for takeoff, just push your nose down and gain some speed. Keep in mind: you haven't touched the collective since you did your hover power check. The only paramater you changed was with the cyclic: you just pushed your nose down and your ship began to pick speed. By picking speed up, you'll leave the ground very naturally. It's a safer way to leave the ground and it also teaches you how not to lose your rotor blades.

 

 

4) You use translational lift and speed to generate lift (and/or gain altitude) rather than only using your collective

 

The interesting thing with helicopters is Translational Lift vs Vertical Lift. The faster you go, the more effective lift you generate. This way, you don't have to increase torque and you have the same result. While use of collective is often useful, some people don't necessarily understand why in certain situations the collective doesn't seem to "work properly". If you lose engine power, for instance, some people simply level out and try to raise their collective to gain more altitude. Why? Well... because they associate "collective raised" = "more altitude". That's partially true, but only if you have enough power to generate the vertical lift required. In autorotation states (where you don't have that power anymore due to engine failure), the key to understanding the phenomenon is understanding how lift works in a helicopter. 

 

But you probably know that already... Depending on the orientation of your rotor blades, you will generate lift in different directions: horizontal (or translational lift) associated with your ship's speed (and thrust component generated by the engine) and vertical lift (which counters your chopper's weight) which is often associated with the lift generated by your rotor blades (vertical component), which are propelled by your engine. My point is: by knowing that you can still generate lift by going faster horizontally (even without engine power), you know that by pushing your nose down you can still land your chopper in one piece. This explains while you need to lower your collective and push your nose down the second you realize you lost power. This way, you can still pick up speed and control your helicopter a bit like a plane in order to land.

 

Sorry if I bored you with that wall of text. I might make a guide about the Huey next year once I have a bit of free time.

Edited October 25, 2014 by 71st_AH_Chuck

[JimTM]

Nice preview to your guide Chuck. Love the Huey!

 

Salut!

[ST_ami7b5]

^^

and +1 for the guide

[indiaciki]

Thanks Chuck

[IRRE_Belmont]

Will start buying choppers on DCS when they'll add multiple crew in multiplayer

 

 

AH-64 <3

[indiaciki]

Thanks for the trim, Chuck. Didn't know about it. Do you have collective and throttle separated?

Edited October 25, 2014 by indiaciki

[Tektolnes]

You'll want to keep your throttle and collective separated. I use my hotas throttle for collective and a up / down key on the Hotas for the throttle. You don't need to mess with the throttle as much I find.

[indiaciki]

Noticed that. My throttle is always at 80% or above (in the green). Is that okay?

Edited October 25, 2014 by indiaciki

[Tektolnes]

I usually max the throttle during start up and leave it there. Might not be the most correct thing to do but seems to work fine for general flying around. You'll avoid any low rpm issues and so long as you're not yanking the collective you won't red line the rpms either.

[Chuck_Owl]

Throttle and collective MUST be separated. The throttle influences engine RPM. The collective influences the angles of the rotor blades, which generate more of less lift depending on their orientation and speed. 

 

Here's a checklist by Flyer of the 229th 1st Air Cav (probably the finest and most knowledgeable Huey vpilots I've ever seen). I usually max throttle because I'm lazy, but you can do it the proper way by following this:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0_mXG-yO8MdWXFvRUQ2dnkyOEU/edit?usp=sharing 

[indiaciki]

Thanks. How do you handle the trim? 

[Chuck_Owl]

There is a "Trim" button that I map on a button on my stick. 

 

There is a "Reset Trim" button that I map on another button on my stick.

 

What it does in real life is that when you press your trim button (which is the red one on your actual stick), is that it releases pressure and allows you to let go of the cyclic and maintain your current flight state. Think of it like this: if you have your right hand getting a cramp and your right foot is beginning to hurt because it keeps forcing on the pedals to maintain, say, a hover state... what trim allows you to do is that it "remembers" your current control input and releases the force applied on your controls. I don't know if the way I explain it makes sense... but you'll know what I mean when you try it.

 

What trim does in the sim us that it remembers your control input at that time and allows you to center your stick. Just let it go, and marvel at how your helicopter isn't going into a crazy dive. That's how trim works. The thing is that you'll often change altitude, change heading, change speed... and that a control input that will allow you to hover at 10 ft on a place without wind will not necessarily reproduce the same ship behaviour at 1000 ft because of the lower air density at higher altitudes at different wind settings. That's why you need to trim constantly. 

 

The "trim reset" button is useful because, as explained in my autorotation video, you can limit your range of motion if you're not careful when trimming. Just test it. If you hold your cyclic forward and press trim. You center your stick and your helicopter will still travel nose down as if you were still holding your cyclic forward. If you hold your cyclic forward one more time and press trim another time, you'll go nose down even more. But what if you suddenly need to pull back on the cyclic to pull up and avoid an obstacle? Well, your range of motion will be limited by your trim setting, right? So even if you pull with all your strength on the stick, you're still not gonna be able to pull back as much as you'd want to clear the obstacle. This is why sometimes you reset your trim. Just press it, and look at how your controls are gonna move to the default untrimmed position.

Edited October 25, 2014 by 71st_AH_Chuck

[indiaciki]

I figured that. Do I always have to reset trim before I trim it again? I mapped both keys. I thinks it's not necessary to reset trim every time you change it but then I'm not sure... Thanks for the checklist

Edited October 25, 2014 by indiaciki

[Chuck_Owl]

No, you don't need to reset trim systematically. You guessed right.