How to fly in Arma 3

This guide teaches you some of the basic and most fundamental skills needed to fly aircraft in ArmA 3

Basic Vehicle Controls

Commanding

The commander in vehicles issues orders to the driver and gunner. Commands are displayed in the message log for crew-members to carry them out.

Issue move commands by pressing move buttons [W], [S], [A], [D].
Control acceleration with [W+Left Shift], [W+Left Ctrl].
Issue fire commands by pointing at a target and pressing [R].

* Switch the gunner's weapons with [Left Ctrl+F].

The commander is able to acquire manual fire - ['].
This is best combined with the optics view [Sec. Mouse Btn.].

Other important commands for the driver:

[1-1-1] Stay in formation. The driver follows your commanding vehicle, maintaining the formation.
[1-1-9] Move to the next waypoint. The driver moves to your current waypoint.

Countermeasures

As a commander or a pilot, you are in control of a vehicle's countermeasures. Press [C] to launch countermeasures when you see an incoming missile or when a missile lock warning appears.

* Press [Left Ctrl+C] to switch the countermeasure fire-mode

Operating a vehicle

Entering a Vehicle

To enter a vehicle:

Point the cursor at it until the icon "wheel" appears.
Use default action [Space].

Alternatively:

Open the action menu [Mouse wheel down].
Select Enter.

You will be given a seat associated with a role in the vehicle. For example enter as a driver to drive, enter as a gunner to shoot. Certain roles might not be available for some vehicles.

Different roles in a vehicle have a different action icon indicating the default action. Use them to quickly determine the role you are taking by entering the vehicle.


Get out or Eject

There are two ways to exit a vehicle, both accessible from the action menu.

Get out stands for a proper exit, when the vehicle is at a full stop and it's safe to get out.
Eject can be used to exit anytime, including when moving or in the air. Obviously, Eject might come with some situational consequences.

Like falling from the plane without a parachute.

Weapons

Weapons in vehicles works similarly to infantry weapons.

Fire with [Prim. Mouse Btn.].
Zoom with [+ [NUM]], [- [NUM]].
Go to optics with [Sec. Mouse Btn.].
Switch weapons and fire-modes with [F].
Reload different ammo with [Mouse wheel down].

Some vehicles have guided weapons. To mark a target, point at it and press [T]. Use [R] to cycle targets.

Radar

Most vehicles contain a top-down radar, which provides information on the orientation of the vehicle's turrets, targets and incoming threats.

The relative heading of the turret is displayed with a light cone.

Targets are marked as colored icons.
Red – enemy
Green– ally
Grey – unknown
Square – ground
Triangle – air

Switching Seats

While in a vehicle, you can change your seat and role:

Open the action menu [Mouse wheel down].
Select a different position.

Usually you can choose from driver, commander and gunner. When in a vehicle, remember to use the optics [Sec. Mouse Btn.]. They differ for each role and can provide a significant advantage.

Some positions might not be available in certain vehicles. Switching is not available while in the air or in similar conditions.

Helicopters Take-off

• Start the engine by pressing [Left Shift].
  
• Hold [Left Shift] to increase throttle and gain altitude.
  
• Hold [Z] to decrease throttle and lose altitude.
  
• Maneuver the helicopter sideways with [A] and [D].
  
• Pull the nose down [W] to gain speed and up [S] to lose it.
  
• Use the rudder [Q] and [E] to rotate left/right.
  
• Use the mouse to control the helicopter smoothly.

Guided Missiles

Guided missiles are only useful when a target is locked. As a gunner, point at the target and press [T] to lock the target. Normal targets have a square sign a3 fm known target.png, the locked target has an additional diamond mark a3 fm lock target.png. To switch to the next target, press [R].

Guided missiles are best fired from a distance. Flying over the target is not necessary.

Changing Ammunition

Some vehicles come with different ammunition types for varying uses. To change the ammunition type:

Open the action menu [Mouse wheel down].
Select the opion to reload the desired ammunition type.

Vehicle Info

In the top left corner is the vehicle info panel. It displays the name of the vehicle, damage indications, hull, fuel bar and current speed, heading and altitude.

Damage indicators are split between vehicle hull, instruments, tracks, wheel, engine or rotors. Damage is indicated by a color. Once the icon turns red, the corresponding part of the vehicle is no longer functional. If a gas tank is damaged, the vehicle might even explode.

Refuel and Rearm

Vehicles are rearmed and refueled anytime they happen to be in a vicinity of a fuel truck or repair truck.

Repairs

You have to be an Engineer or a Repair Specialist and have a Toolkit to repair a vehicle. If you meet those conditions, then a repair option will become available near damaged vehicles.

A vehicle will be repaired automatically when in the proximity of a repair truck or an APC.

Unguided Rockets

Unguided rockets are fired directly in front of the vehicle. As a pilot, you have to adjust vehicle position or angle to change the aim of unguided rockets.

Fixed-wing take-off

Standard horizontal take-off for a fixed winged aircraft follows this procedure:

Increase thrust with [Left Shift] to bring the engine to full power.
When speed is high enough, pull the nose up with [S].

You can use flaps [Right Ctrl+K] to increase generated lift and decrease ground roll, but at the cost of the climb rate.

Plane Controls

Control the nose of the aircraft with [S] for up and [W] for down.
Hold [Left Shift] to increase throttle, hold [Z] to decrease throttle.
Bank left/right with [A]/[D].
Use the rudder [Q] and [E] to steer left/right.

Specific actions accessible from the action menu are available when in aircraft. Use the action menu to control flaps, landing gear or fire control.

Landing

Landing with a non-VTOL aircraft is challenging.
1. Decrease your speed [Z] while carefully decreasing altitude [W].
2. Open the landing gear and turn flaps down using the action menu.
3. Carefully approach the landing strip while further decreasing speed and altitude.
4. Keep your plane steady and land.
5. Continue decreasing speed until you reach a full stop. Good luck.

You can always use the auto landing option from the action menu. The computer will then take over and execute the landing procedure.

(credits to Luetin09)

Jet Landing

Here's a good video which probably is easier to understand than the above ^^

This is a tutorial for basic take off, landing, flight and combat with jets in arma 3 using mouse and keyboard and all in about 10 minutes. The combat part of tutorial covers using cannons, air to air missiles, air to ground missiles and bombs. A simple way to lock and line up targets and most importantly if you are having trouble it will get you in the sky and able to shoot stuff!

Links to various important parts of the video can be found at the beginning of the video and are:
Take off and turning 02:49
Landing 05:47
Basic Air to Ground Combat 06:51
Basic Air to Air Combat 11:55

He created a simple map for this tutorial, if you want to use that to practice your flying, feel free! You can download it from the steam workshop here:
Map

VTOL Take-off

Vertical take-off and landing aircraft are easy to operate.

Select Auto hover from the action menu. This will stabilize the vehicle.
Use [Left Shift] to increase thrust and go up.
Use [Z] to decrease thrust and go down.

For non-VTOL aircraft, follow a standard procedure:

Gain speed with increasing thrust [Left Shift] and pulling the nose up [S].
You can move flaps up to increase the upward lift and shorten the take-off [Right Ctrl+K].

Recommended Flight Speeds

< = more than
> = less than
Take-off: 170km/h<
Landing: 160km/h>
Tight-turns: 200-250km/h
Taxi speed: 35km/h>
Cruise speed: 300km/h<

Maneuvers in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_hMqb4gFM

Tips and Tricks from Pros

1. Pilot/Gunner on same radio channel. Local can be hard to hear, so its best to use your own frequency.
2. Load all your ammo. Most likely, you'll need everything. Make sure you have everything so your not wishing you had something that you didnt think you'd need to load.
3. Keep AA missiles selected. Any helicopters/air units are always 1st priority.
4. Keep AP loaded. Vehicles are always higher priority than foot soldiers. You can load HE if you see groups of infantry.
5. Fly high. AA are less likely to spot you if your 1k-2k+ in the air. However, if you fly below the hilltops, radar will not be able to spot you.
6. Coordinate with ground forces. They'll give you target rich environments to engage so your not risking your helicopter hovering over an AO without engaging enemy.
7. ALWAYS keep your flares reloaded. Anytime you deploy them, you should rearm them. Even if you only use 1-2 bursts. You never know when you'll have series of AA guns firing at you in rapid succession.

Following these simple rules in a heli should keep you alive. Anything else is all basic common sense.

All Missile Guidance Types

AA Missile:

AMRAAM: Radar Active Homing (RAH)
R77 Adder: RAH
Zephyr: RAH
BIM-9X: IR guidance
R73 Archer: IR guidance
Falchion 22: IR guidance
Sahr 3: IR guidance
ASRAAM: IR guidance

AG Missile:

Macer: IR guidance only
Sharur: IR guidance only
KH 25 Kedge: IR guidance only
Scalpel: IR and Laser guidance
DAGR: IR and Laser guidance
DAR: Dumb fire
Shrieker: Dumb fire
Tratnyr: Dumb fire
DAR: Dumb fire (but burst mode)

Bomb:

LOM-250G (KAB-250): Laser guided bomb
GBU-12: Laser guided bomb
Mk82: Dumb Bomb

Acronyms

-SR - SHORT RANGE
-MR - MEDIUM RANGE
-LGB - LASER GUIDED BOMBS (CAN ALSO LOCK ON IR)
-GBU - GUIDED BOMB UNIT
-Ambiguous - UNKNOWN

-ARH (Active Radar Homing) Guided missiles require the radar to be switched ON, target needs to be locked on
-LASER GUIDANCE requires a target marking with a laser designator. This can be done by handheld Designators, Drones or by using the On-Board Camera (Default - CTRL + RMB)
-IR can only lock/detect warm (vehicles) targets. Vehicles warm up by shooting the onboard weapon/having the engine turned on (still warm after both actions have ended a time ago)

Missile Release Terms

Fox One - Indicates launch of a semi-active radar-guided missile (such as the AIM-7 Sparrow).
Fox Two - Indicates launch of an infrared-guided missile (such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder).
Fox Three - Indicates launch of an active radar-guided missile (such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-54 Phoenix).
Fox Four - Historical term indicating air-to-air or air-to-surface cannon fire. The term in current usage is Guns, Guns, Guns.

Fox 1, Fox 2 and Fox 3 are only for Air to air launch.
If you want to call a Missile launch against a Ground Target, you have to call a "RIFLE"
If you want to call a Missile Launch against a Ship/Sea target, you have to call a "BRUISER"
If you want to call that you fire multiple ammunition at the same time, you have to call a "RIPPLE" followed by the quantity and the kind of ammo ("RIPPLE 2 GBU-12")

Radar Meanings

Updates

"As of the recent game updates, a fixed-wing targeting pod has been added (default CTR + RMB in any vanilla jet, untested with mods.)
They act like the cameras mounted below UAV's and should help the pilot to see whats below him."
-JOENY_JOE 06/28/2016

Credits

Credits in appearance order

Luetin09

TacticalTicTacs

AutomaticGamerHD

Conclusion

This took me a while to make and if you feel that you learnt something, gimme a Thumbs Up ;) That would be really appreciated. If you want to fly with me, add me on Steam and comment that you came from this guide.

When you give me a rating, that will inspire me to make more, detailed guides for you guys :)

Now you should probably learn the basics of flying and you could figure out tips for youself. After all, practise makes perfect...

How I would feel if you guys liked my guide:

[zjy1234525]

It's really helpful, Thank you so much

[Savage]

anyone know why when you type it either turns engine on full blast or turns it off?

[Defi]

GBU is more of a broad term then a specific term, A laser guided bomb, an inertia/GPS guided bomb and a tv guided bomb, are all guided bomb units... However this term is (if not always)mostly associated with the gbu-12 or gbu-39 which are specific weapondesignations used by america... Kinda like calling any pistol you see an m9...

[Ink_25]

Omg, completely missed that. Thank you sooo much :D
Couldn't be happier right now!

[O6 Lima]

Vehicle freelook in general settings?

[Ink_25]

It doesn't change for me. I know it worked previously. I have checked it with and without the CUP mods. The settings are still the same :-/

[O6 Lima]

double tap alt should work

[Ink_25]

Quick question, since it seems to have been broken in an update: how do I steer a helicopter with a mouse?
I looked into the settings and everything looks fine, but when I'm piloting, the mouse moves my view around (without pressing alt key or anything like that).
Btw, great guide for the radar screen!

[Egil]

Yeah, pretty good. Nothing new for me though. I was hoping for some really good protips about dog fighting, dodging missiles or emergency landing without tail rotor or engine fault.

[Celme]

Eline sağlık hocam. Thank you so much great work!!