How to fly a helicopter... more or less

A decently in-depth guide on how to fly helicopters well. TL;DR at the bottom.

How Do I Get to Fly a Helicopter?

Currently, in 127v127, helicopters are not available on all maps, or are not in the spawns on all maps. There is also no way to fly helicopters outside of live games. This can cause difficulties for new pilots, as, well, there's lots of people who also want to fly the limited helicopters available. Step one is, of course, figuring out where the helicopters are, what maps and where they spawn on said maps. Because this is not meant to be an exhaustive guide, I won't go each map individually, but some good maps for helicopter spawnage are Wine Paradise, Isle, and Valley. Bad maps for helicopter spawnage are Frugis, Tensa Town, and Salhan.

Once you've located your helicopter, you need to get in it. You do this like any other vehicle, walk up to it and hold [F] or click on it in the menu and hold space. If the helicopter already has a pilot, it's 100% okay to just help out! As an engineer class, you can bring a repair tool, and simply sit in the helicopter and repair. If you really have your heart set on being a pilot, the respawn times for the different helicopters are generally agreed to be something around 2 minutes, 30 seconds from death to respawn. So if you're desperate to fly, you can play for about 2 minutes then wait in the menu to click on a helicopter. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥, but it works.

Starting Out

Takeoff is the easy part- if your helicopter is not on, simply hold [E] until the rotors start spinning, then wait a few seconds, and hold [W]. Good luck, and thanks for reading!

....Just kidding. Once you have successfully discovered the miracle of manned flight, now you're flying. This is where things get difficult. Your basic flight controls are [W] and [S] for up and down, [A] and [D] for left and right rudder, and [mouse] for roll and pitch. To simplify, use [A]/[D] to point the nose of the helicopter. Move your [mouse] to "lean" the helicopter, and remember to move your [mouse] left/right to balance when in a turn. [W] and [S] will then take you where you lean the helicopter. It's a bit of a balancing act, but once you get the hang of it, you can fly! Remember, any way the helicopter is tilted is the direction it will go when you hold [W]. Other controls include [right click] to free look, and [C] to toggle downward camera. And eh... the ground hurts. Try not to hit it.

How To Be a Good Pilot

Now, lots of people will look at this and say, "Tch. I'm already a great pilot. I can just skip this part." This part is about how to be good to your dismounts and gunners, not your flying skill!

The number one thing you MUST do to not screw your team is to drop the rope. By default, this is [Q]. YOU NEED TO DO THIS. If you don't drop your rappelling rope, or your fastrope, or your z rope, or whatever you wanna call it, your dismounts will a) scream at you, and b) find themselves unable to safely exit the helicopter. Always, always, always drop the rope when you have people trying to exit the helicopter.

Once you have successfully made it so your team can get out, the other part of being a good pilot is teamwork. Talk to your passengers and gunners, and try to take them where they want to go. But remember, you can say no. If the requested drop zone is an overly dangerous area for you, tell them that, and just don't fly there. Losing a helicopter, especially a Blackhawk/Ka-60, because somebody really wanted to go to B when there was three tanks there waiting for you to get close enough to shoot you down is just a waste of a helicopter. Listen to your dismounts, but don't fly yourself (and them) into your graves. They might not thank you for it, but it saves you a helicopter and your team some tickets.

Do Some of That Pilot ♥♥♥♥

So! You now know how to not crash your helicopter, and even know how to make people leave your helicopter! Now let's streamline that.

For your gunners (on the Blackhawk/Ka-60), try to point your helicopter at enemy helicopters you want to destroy. Not only is it easier than trying to line up sideways, but it allows both gunners (and you) to see your target, and is the only orientation that does this. If you put the enemy helicopter to your rear, both gunners can see it, but you can't, so you're flying on guesswork. If you put the enemy helicopter to one side or the other, that respective gunner can see it, and you might be able to, but the other gunner is unable to do anything. Therefore, pointing straight at the enemy helicopter, while scary, is your best option for quickly and effectively killing the enemy.

If you have only one gunner, you can fly on an angle while running away to keep them shooting! If, say, your one gunner is on the left side and you're being pursued by an enemy helicopter, you can hold A for a moment, while angling your nose down and to the right. This will take you forward on an angle, pointing your gunner towards your pursuer while making your escape.

When dropping dismounts, your best bet is to get as low as possible. The lower you go, the shorter the distance between you and the landing zone, and thus the shorter the distance your dismounts need to go to exit your helicopter. This is good for you, because the shorter the time your dismounts spend trying to get off your helicopter, the shorter the time you spend standing still at low altitude.

To make sure the needy little bastards have indeed left your helicopter, you have the vehicle occupants list in the bottom right of your screen. Remember, on Blackhawks, the F3 and F4 seats will be your gunners, who probably shouldn't leave. You can also use [C] to toggle your downward facing camera, and see below you, including your rope (and its potential occupants!) It's also recommended to keep track of any engineers in your helicopter, so that you don't unnecessarily hover to try to make them dismount when they're actually trying to stay in the helicopter and repair.

The words APC and death should mean the same thing to you. (Give yourself a cookie if you got that reference.) The same goes for the large boats. The autocannon they have is genuinely the best thing to kill helicopters and will shred you instantly if you let it. Don't let it.

Helicopter Specific Stuff

Blackhawk/Ka-60:

• You are heavy as ♥♥♥♥. The Blackhawk weighs so much compared to the Littlebirds. It is so much slower. Expect maneuvers and flight in general to be a lot slower and floatier.
  
• You can take more damage than Littlebirds, but still not much. Try to avoid damage either way.
  
• F1 is the pilot, F2 is the copilot, F3 is the right gun, F4 is the left gun, F5 and F6 are in the middle facing backwards (ideal for medics), F7, F8, F9, and F10 are in the back facing forwards (good for engineers), F11 is looking out the left door, and F12 is looking out the right door.

LittlebirdMilitaryArmed/HermitMilitaryArmed:

• This is the light helicopter with miniguns.
  
• You are light and speedy, but have very little health. Try to make sure that if you're attacking a Blackhawk, only one (or none) of its guns can hit you. If both can hit you, you're just gonna lose the exchange of fire every time.
  
• The guns have a spool time, but right click, which spools them up without firing, is also free look by default. You can change the keybinds, or just keep that in mind so you don't miss a potential target.
  
• The only other seat available other than pilot is "F2". This is the copilot seat. The copilot can't actually fly, so this seat is only useful as insurance (a second pilot can sit here to swap to pilot if you die) or for taking a single dismount to a location.

LittlebirdMilitary/HermitMilitary:

• These are the light military helicopters without guns. They have boards on the sides, allowing dismounts excellent arcs of fire.
  
• Military models will spawn at HQs, and in certain places around some of the maps.
  
• You can tell it's a military model if it's all grey, and has 8 seats.
  
• F1 is the pilot, F2 is the copilot, F3 and F4 are back seats for engis/medics, F5 and F6 are the right plank seats, F7 and F8 are the left plank seats.
  
• These are my favorite to fly/fight from, and can be used as evil little RPG platforms by experienced crews.

LittlebirdPolice/HermitPolice:

• These are the light police helicopters. They have boards on the sides, but no rear seats.
  
• Police helicopters spawn on only a couple maps, but they're honestly not something you should ditch a military helicopter to fly instead.
  
• These usually spawn outside police stations, which is fun.
  
• You can spot these by their blue/white color scheme, and the fact they have no back seats, making the total capacity only 6 seats.
  
• F1 is the pilot, F2 is the copilot, F3 and F4 are the right plank, F5 and F6 are the left plank.
  
• These can also be used as RPG platforms by experienced crews

LittlebirdLux/HermitLux:

• These are the light helicopters without planks to sit on.
  
• The lux helicopters spawn in even fewer places than police helicopters, and are probably the least useful in game.
  
• You can spot these by their green/white color scheme, lack of boards, and their total of 4 seats.
  
• F1 is the pilot, F2 is the copilot, F3 and F4 are back seats.

TL;DR

W is up. S is down. A spins left. D spins right. Move mouse to tilt towards direction. Hold W to go that direction. Q to drop rope. C to look down. Sky good. Ground bad. Put dismount on ground, keep helicopter in sky.

[Traeger]

ty

[ratkunt]

This guide taught me how to fly a helicopter thank you so much

[Im_Ryan_Gosling]

nice work man

[an_f-14_tomcat]

True!

[Not Vandice]

Hold w, move mouse down gingerly, stonks...

[an_f-14_tomcat]

Edited: added more info about specific helicopter models & seating arrangements, and capitalized/changed some section titles.

[Friend of Bill]

Only flown with him a couple times but hes by far the best pilot I've ever gunned with. Pretty sure he plays good ass music too, which is key to ensure youre fully immersed in turning the enemies to red mist.

[IcarusUnwinged]

Very helpful, thank you.

[Slayertgc500]

Most excellent, my good fellow.

[LITEFLIP#ZAZAV|ZABLIK]