I just started real life helicopter training..

[Malic]

I just started real life helicopter training a few weeks ago.

I am now finding it funny with all the people saying how hard it is to fly a helicopter in this sim.

This is nothing compared to a real helicopter. However, here are a few tips you have to also remember, as you are loosing a lot of external information when playing in a simulated environment. You do not have the g-forces that you would be feeling and can react to. You also lose a lot of your peripheral vision as well.

A few things, if you are using a controller or stick and you have a axis set to the "throttle" you set that and leave it during flight.. the governor will maintain that as you fly at 100%.. you should only be increasing and decreasing the collective. The main rotor spins at 100% ( or tries to) as you raise and lower the collective to produce more or less lift.

When hovering, stop trying to look at the ground right under the helicopter, focus on a point on the horizon, you will be over correcting and get the helicopter acting like a pendulum if you stare at the ground and loose what is considered level. The sim has a HUD mode with a display that will show your relative motion, use it till you can learn what you are doing by external cues.

For people that play on full sim mode and cannot keep it under control, and are using a controller or a stick with no pedals… You make more lift, the rotor blades make more drag, and the heli will torque the opposite direction, you reduce lift, it reduces drag, so you will always be having to mess with the anti-torque pedals ( it is improper to call it the rudder, as it controls your yaw, but they are not connected to the rudder, the vertical stabilizer does not move, they only change the pitch of the tail rotor blades) If you are using a twist the stick for yaw, it is going to make things very difficult on full sim mode. A lot of times you might press the pedal and it will stay in that position for a while, so pressing against a spring will get very tiring, I would highly recommend a pedal set. Traditionally, most helicopters made in the US have a counter clockwise blade rotation when viewed from the top. Most european spec helis rotate clockwise. So with a US heli, when you add collective, you will also add in left pedal to counteract the torque it is applying to the fuselage, and opposite with a european helicopter

Another “why can't i fly this thing” issue with a joystick or controller, these are not fighter jets. Take a good look at these things, there is a reason why people say “A helicopter does not fly, it just beats the air into submission”. You need to make small movements, an xbox controller may not have the sensitivity that is needed. I have had flights in the real helicopter, that the neutral position has varied about 4 inches from beginning of flight to end of flight over the course of an hour and a half just due to the center of gravity (C/G) in the heli changing just due to fuel burning off and making the aft end lighter

Depending on a helis configuration, once you find its neutral point, you are not moving the cyclic that much from that, in the real one, you are maybe moving it in a circle about the side of a half-dollar coin(touch your thumb to your middle finger), other then the C/G change above
My only complaint at the moment is just lack of three screen support, I can stretch it across all three, but the side screens are horribly distorted. I wish it had something that could render each screen separately like iRacing, or even better, Oculus Rift support.

[Terminal Meltdown]

Try DCS World flight sims. Bohemia anything sucks...

[MurderChickenXL]

He's giving helpful advice for people having trouble "beating the wind", not complaining about the game. That being said, Bohemia does have a habit of complicating things that don't need to be complicated. It's as if they've never used a modern PC.

[鬼 武士]

Thanks for this, you did a good job explaining the differences between this and reality. I enjoy flying helicopters in this game, but ultimately it isn't DCS or anything that you can really learn on.

[Piro]

@Malic You can actually get it to run on three screens properly. Part of the issue you're having is that your FOV is set incorrectly when you have it stretched across three screens. This link will tell you how to set your FOV in ToH and ARMA: http://hia3.com/tools/ArmA_3_wide-angle_FOV_calculator_online_by_Hi,A3.htm

It describes setting it for ARMA 3 which is identical to setting it for ToH with one exception. The path to the file you need to edit is different. The file you're looking to edit is here: %userprofile%\Documents\Take On Helicopters\[your_profile_name].TakeOnHProfile

I generally prefer a FOV around 80 or 90 for a single screen, 110 or so for tripple screens. Play around with it until you find that sweet spot.

[Malic]

I have used that caculator, and here is the problem I have with it.

When people play with tripple screens, there is not a one fov setting will fit all.

If all screens were on the same plane, then it would work, but most people have the side screens tilted inward. as it is now, I am sitting inside the three screens, so there is a 60 degree angle between the center monitor and each side screen, I should have a 180 degree FOV

When I set it for 180 i get this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45036390/FRAPS/TakeOnH%202014-01-21%2008-37-22-93.png

What I should be getting is something close to this where each screen is rendered seperately taking into account their angle and how far thay are from the viewer( rough photoshop) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45036390/FRAPS/TakeOnH%20correct%20surround.png

The top part of this image is how like 99% of programs will render, a FOV with streached sides.. if i had all three screens flat it would look correct to the viewer, but I have it set up like the lower half, and to the viewer, the side screens are streached to hell :/
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45036390/FRAPS/threescreen%20diagram.jpg

[Piro]

Unfortunately without a rewrite of the rendering code, changing your FOV is as close you're going to get. I wish more "sims" supported this properly, but they are far and few between. Only recent sim that comes to mind is iRacing.

[Malic]

yes, iRacing is that other 1%.. the Oculus Rift in it is awesome, cant wait to see more games with that too

[Capt Caveman]

all i can say is thanks for the heads up on the flying eggwhisks...

[Darth Shanka]

That's funny. It actually took a Heli Pilot to get the emphasis on just how hard they are to fly. I had a couple rides with an ex Army buddy in a Jet Ranger and got to put my hands and feet controls on just so he could let me feel how much control input it takes. Very busy job flying a rotorcraft.

[Malic]

Yeah. I should update this thread too..

I have my Private Rotorcraft lisence now, and close to 200 hours in the real thing, about half of that in turbines.

Working on Commercial lisence right now.

I have gone to Prepar3d and Xplane for flight simming, the former mainly with the Oculus Rift and a HOTAS as xplane does not support that yet.

[ZombieHunter]

It comes down to two very important things. Controls and feedback from the aircraft. Twist rudder just won't cut it on this game. Pedals are a must. Also as with any sim the aircraft is not giving you any feedback and you can't sense when the aircraft is about to depart controlled flight and you have no 'feel' for what it is doing.

Personally I will stick with fixed wing aircraft and have no desire to fly helis in real life.

[Silly Goy]

Lucky

I need a better set of eyes, they would never let me fly

[고스란]

It was very good advice-!!

[Quagimus Decimus]

In my expereince none of the Bohemia games ever got the feel right for chopper feel. I can pilot the craft, but the feeling is just god awful.

[♀⛤WitchyWoman⛤♀]

Go get Prepar3d or Xplane 10 if you want close to real world training. Take on helicopters and Arma do NOT offer VFR/ILS, and IFR training whatssoever or the communications. The flight models while not totally perfect are more accurate in the first 2 then anything else out there. Also head over to Hovercontrol.com .Its a great resource.... Mina