Helicopter question

[Darksabre]

So I think I have a lot of drift in my thumbstick and just wanted someone else to verify. If you leave the right stick perfectly still, hands off, and just raise the throttle to elevate yourself, should I go straight up without having to stabilize or anything? When I do it the chopper immediately goes left or right and all over and I feel like this makes it impossible to fly. Its a constant fight to correct and over correct. So is there just drift in my controller or is this the norm?

I have pedals too but its literally impossible to even do the training flight missions.

[teranto]

yeah thats normal. Helicopters are really unstable, since you have a whole thing spinning above your head. This will be counteracted by a tail rotor, but youd still need to adjust it, using the yaw trim or just by hand. Take it from me, never let go of the stick

[Hijong park]

The common helicopter thing and the reason I like it. You can always see right bottom of the HUD to see if your controller is actually causing drift.

[ZbuffeR]

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[MiamiJoe1]

You have to trim the tail rotor and there’s also another trim available.. one will stop you from spinning and the other will allow you to pivot forward easier.. takes some practice but study the HUD.. the indicators are there. Good luck!

[Pocket Chicken OG]

this is the nature of real life helicopters. you have to use all the controls at the same time. pull more power you need to push more left rudder to compensate. Also, im going to assume you havent done this yet, when sitting in your helicopter with MFD on. go into options. and change joystick/controller sensitivity to .6 or .8. You will thank me

[Venator]

Originally posted by Pocket Chicken OG:

this is the nature of real life helicopters. you have to use all the controls at the same time. pull more power you need to push more left rudder to compensate. Also, im going to assume you havent done this yet, when sitting in your helicopter with MFD on. go into options. and change joystick/controller sensitivity to .6 or .8. You will thank me

newer player here, whats MFD

[Darksabre]

Originally posted by Pocket Chicken OG:

this is the nature of real life helicopters. you have to use all the controls at the same time. pull more power you need to push more left rudder to compensate. Also, im going to assume you havent done this yet, when sitting in your helicopter with MFD on. go into options. and change joystick/controller sensitivity to .6 or .8. You will thank me

I've never flown a helicopter IRL but I have been around many medical helicopters coming in to land and I find it hard to believe the pilots are constantly having to fight the stick, correcting and over correcting, the way this game seems to make you. They're too stable so there has to be some more automation involved. Even with the joystick sensitivity at the lowest I literally can't keep from tilting to the left or right and keep it balanced.

At this point I've pretty much given up on it and of course can't refund it since its DLC.

[Keyes]

Originally posted by Venator:

newer player here, whats MFD

Multi-functional Display

Welcome to acronym hell.

[Keyes]

Originally posted by Darksabre:

Originally posted by Pocket Chicken OG:

this is the nature of real life helicopters. you have to use all the controls at the same time. pull more power you need to push more left rudder to compensate. Also, im going to assume you havent done this yet, when sitting in your helicopter with MFD on. go into options. and change joystick/controller sensitivity to .6 or .8. You will thank me

I've never flown a helicopter IRL but I have been around many medical helicopters coming in to land and I find it hard to believe the pilots are constantly having to fight the stick, correcting and over correcting, the way this game seems to make you. They're too stable so there has to be some more automation involved. Even with the joystick sensitivity at the lowest I literally can't keep from tilting to the left or right and keep it balanced.

At this point I've pretty much given up on it and of course can't refund it since its DLC.

You can Youtube this and see pilots constantly adjusting the stick and pedals to stay levelish. If you watch a video from outside the craft, watch the rails, it's easiest to see there. Of course, IRL you can feel every movement and can adjust accordingly.

No offense intended, this happens to be something I have a great interest in.

[MindЯewind]

Use Trim. the unstable part I like to think of it as a bicycle\motorcycle. Give it momentum in a direction and it will go that way. If you think like a bike that will fall over if its not moving but if you are going forward or using trim to strafe sideways you will be more stable. So you can learn when to set the trim to forward motion slightly and the helo will go forward like a bike and be more stable and fly more like a plane.
When you take off without autohover this is the same force you are describing. When that low you can tell how unstable it really is, but when you take off if you give momentum direction it will go that way.

[MindЯewind]

Originally posted by Darksabre:

Originally posted by Pocket Chicken OG:

this is the nature of real life helicopters. you have to use all the controls at the same time. pull more power you need to push more left rudder to compensate. Also, im going to assume you havent done this yet, when sitting in your helicopter with MFD on. go into options. and change joystick/controller sensitivity to .6 or .8. You will thank me

I've never flown a helicopter IRL but I have been around many medical helicopters coming in to land and I find it hard to believe the pilots are constantly having to fight the stick, correcting and over correcting, the way this game seems to make you. They're too stable so there has to be some more automation involved. Even with the joystick sensitivity at the lowest I literally can't keep from tilting to the left or right and keep it balanced.

At this point I've pretty much given up on it and of course can't refund it since its DLC.

Hi dont give up there must be something you are just not realizing yet. you can fly how you are thinking you just have to use your trim its not hard.

If you are having trouble taking off or landing you can also use the Autohover and it will keep it very stable for you.

[Pocket Chicken OG]

Originally posted by Circle of Wolves:

Originally posted by Darksabre:

I've never flown a helicopter IRL but I have been around many medical helicopters coming in to land and I find it hard to believe the pilots are constantly having to fight the stick, correcting and over correcting, the way this game seems to make you. They're too stable so there has to be some more automation involved. Even with the joystick sensitivity at the lowest I literally can't keep from tilting to the left or right and keep it balanced.

At this point I've pretty much given up on it and of course can't refund it since its DLC.

Hi dont give up there must be something you are just not realizing yet. you can fly how you are thinking you just have to use your trim its not hard.

If you are having trouble taking off or landing you can also use the Autohover and it will keep it very stable for you.

ok, so to go into nerd mode. coast guard retired helicopter flight mechanic and certified airframe and powerplant mechanic. They do have multiple automation. also LOTS of training. i mean LOTS. If you watch heli pilots in training try to hover. they are all over the place. Now, real helicopters. (i was on h60's) you move the controls very very little. they never move the controls to even half the range, with them powered under hydraulics they do have a feedback you can feel. which you cant in VR, cuz you know, hovering hand in air or on your lap/chair armrest. They have SAS which dampens the control movements. trust me, when they turn off SAS, its a wild ride and they are fighting it the entire time.
Mechanically all the controls are connected, into this magic device called a mixing unit. it actually automatically adds rudder input when you pull collective. we had metal bits we would put in to stop this to isolate controls when troubleshooting or adjusting things.

Also, the way the trim works on the controls in real is different, you hold a button, move your control to where you want and let go. the control will go back to the spot, you can move the control, it will fight back a lil but let you move it, as soon as you let go it goes back to that last memory. the trim in the game does not and its not how it actually works.

Again, LOTS of practice, you can tell when a pilot hasnt flown in a while because they are all over the effing place. I did troubleshoot controls. as a mech, but flew in the back as a rescue crew member and hoist operator. when they turn off all the help functions, auto pilot. pilot assist hydraulics, SAS. Its not a smooth ride, Its like theyre drunk fighting it around.

Again, when i say they move the controls little. you basically use a finger to move the stick like a quarter of a inch and it does alot. If they were to move the cyclic all the way to whatever direction, probably gonna crash. Also smooth movements and slowly. We have a saying, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Now im also a small airplane pilot, (cessna 172) and it goes the same, tiny movements do alot, you do small smooth movements to correct, you start moving too much and too quickly and it too starts to go all over the place.

So, practicing predicting what the aircraft is gonna do, give it a small tiny smooth correction then slightly move control back to anticipate correcting back. Its practice. I can go on and on and on

[Pocket Chicken OG]

Originally posted by Darksabre:

Originally posted by Pocket Chicken OG:

this is the nature of real life helicopters. you have to use all the controls at the same time. pull more power you need to push more left rudder to compensate. Also, im going to assume you havent done this yet, when sitting in your helicopter with MFD on. go into options. and change joystick/controller sensitivity to .6 or .8. You will thank me

I've never flown a helicopter IRL but I have been around many medical helicopters coming in to land and I find it hard to believe the pilots are constantly having to fight the stick, correcting and over correcting, the way this game seems to make you. They're too stable so there has to be some more automation involved. Even with the joystick sensitivity at the lowest I literally can't keep from tilting to the left or right and keep it balanced.

At this point I've pretty much given up on it and of course can't refund it since its DLC.

if you want help getting it down, i can. now im not the best since i havent played in a while.. and when i do play im semi intoxicated. But once you get it its an awesome feeling. I can also teach you how to ground taxi it, since you can. infact learning to ground taxi might actually help with the flying part. Ground taxi takes TINY movements and momentum. Dont give up my person, its a cool thing. ... yes i am a helicopter nerd.... i need to play more thinking about it

[Darksabre]

So things are looking up. A couple people mentioned hover mode so I gave the tutorials another full go through and never once does it ever mention how to use it. Like two words are said about auto pilot and thats it. But I found it on my own and with the hover mode for the intricate landing and takeoff its easy enough. Free flight at altitude in the open wasn't an issue. It just seems like this should of been in the tutorial for it a little more.

[Berni]

You can also crank up the SAS (just right of the rotor brake) to smoothen things around.