Landing on Carriers (Heli)

[Rhino]

Lol how have you not heard of this? :s One of the oldest little bugs I've seen!

I've seen the issue where the skids sink into the deck, that's due to the artificial spring code but not experienced or heard of the issue where the skids catch the deck on landing as per the OP.

@PaveHawk, if you have a hard landing in a chopper with skids, while there is some flex ye, you don't have any kind of suspension like many wheeled choppers to absorb the landing, only the flex of the skids and if you do a hard landing, there is a good chance your going to damage something, even with wheeled choppers with suspension.

Only the other day a mate of mine who works on RAF Pumas was telling me how much a pilot screwed up his chopper from a hard landing and thous choppers have wheeled suspension too...

[PFunk]

i wonder why so many people dont know how to slow a chopper down?
landing while flying forward ( the first landing in that video) is only necessary when its a hot LZ and you have to get your troops out quickly and have to get away fast.... why re you using such methods on the carrier? the risk of crashing is much too high .... i think ill record a video how i do it.
‪PR Heli Landings‬‏ - YouTube
here are 3 different landing types by me. forgive my unsteady controls, i usually dont have 30 fps when flying (fraps fps lock)

For one I use an X52 throttle so I can actually very accurately control my throttle. I find thats much easier for managing your forward motion while changing attitude to kill the speed enough for a landing.

I don't think its dangerous at all to land on a carrier that way as long as you know you're not gonna crash. Every pilot has a comfort zone so they know how they'd personally rate their probability of landing. The reason I usually flare to kill speed rather than just hover and drop is because I find THAT to be more dangerous since negative collective for some reason makes your chopper handle like a stick in the mud.

Also I like to see the place I'm landing and losing sight of it under my chin while also starting to move backwards feels hazardous. The fact is that a Huey will forgive you plenty for being hard on the skids and its just a matter of finding the ideal balance of approach angle and speed to be able to touch down without needing to hover and potentially hit something in one of those low control slow decent hovers.

But like Ford said, everyone has their style. I know that doing what I described I can land a chopper on a carrier about 99% of the time without incident with the other 1% being damage or lag. I'm no pro but I have done it before, quite a bit at one point.

By my own opinion only the last of your 3 demonstration landings look like anything I'd want to try on a carrier. I used to practice on jabal by flying at the carrier at high speed and try and flare to land right on the Cobra spawn point. Doing that meant that as long as I was confident in hitting that square it was child's play on the actual carrier deck.

Now, with the touchy landing gear of a Blackhawk I'd be more into your style, but then thats why I don't fly BH. I don't feel very confident in them.

[PoisonBill]

This reminds me of:

[Zoddom]

For one I use an X52 throttle so I can actually very accurately control my throttle. I find thats much easier for managing your forward motion while changing attitude to kill the speed enough for a landing.

I don't think its dangerous at all to land on a carrier that way as long as you know you're not gonna crash. Every pilot has a comfort zone so they know how they'd personally rate their probability of landing. The reason I usually flare to kill speed rather than just hover and drop is because I find THAT to be more dangerous since negative collective for some reason makes your chopper handle like a stick in the mud.

Also I like to see the place I'm landing and losing sight of it under my chin while also starting to move backwards feels hazardous. The fact is that a Huey will forgive you plenty for being hard on the skids and its just a matter of finding the ideal balance of approach angle and speed to be able to touch down without needing to hover and potentially hit something in one of those low control slow decent hovers.

But like Ford said, everyone has their style. I know that doing what I described I can land a chopper on a carrier about 99% of the time without incident with the other 1% being damage or lag. I'm no pro but I have done it before, quite a bit at one point.

By my own opinion only the last of your 3 demonstration landings look like anything I'd want to try on a carrier. I used to practice on jabal by flying at the carrier at high speed and try and flare to land right on the Cobra spawn point. Doing that meant that as long as I was confident in hitting that square it was child's play on the actual carrier deck.

Now, with the touchy landing gear of a Blackhawk I'd be more into your style, but then thats why I don't fly BH. I don't feel very confident in them.

yeah some time ago, i tested different hardware settings to find out what fits best for me. using a throttle (X45 Throttle) felt very uncomfortable as it felt like i cant increase/decrease the thrust fast enough, with pedals i find it very recommendable as you can adjust you speed very precisely.

of course if you start moving backwards before touchdown it can be quite risky if youre not sure if theres something behind you (if that happened to me in the video im sorry, i usually dont do that).
I myself dont fly huey that much, thats probably why im not tending to use that sliding method, because you all know how unpredictable the ingame physics behave sometimes, so touching the ground while still moving always feels very bad for me ( i think i saw some flip overs in the past, there surely is a reason for that feeling) and you dont always know if theres another pilot in front of you who wants to take off while you are doing such a high speed landing, which could of course end in a collision. and i see no reason why i should attempt a fast and risky landing on a carrier when i have enough time to do a safe one.

[PFunk]

yeah some time ago, i tested different hardware settings to find out what fits best for me. using a throttle (X45 Throttle) felt very uncomfortable as it felt like i cant increase/decrease the thrust fast enough, with pedals i find it very recommendable as you can adjust you speed very precisely.

It seems as if for flying in PR the hardware set ups ridiculously personal in terms of preference. I know people that use joysticks and I just can't hack that. It just feels wrong in BF2 with the helos.

At first I felt like it wasn't fast enough to adjust my throttle with the X52 but then I just turned the tension way down and it just slide fast enough to not be an issue. I also use rudder pedals for my yaw so I can pretty much keep all of my 3 dimensions of control in 3 separate parts of my body which works well enough for me.

I think flying HELOs is just the most personal thing in PR, probably because the game engine is so bad for aircraft. You just have to find your own way to tame the beast.

[Maverick]

Don't have your throttle at zero when you land, that is why you get "stuck" in the carrier. I personally have my throttle set at 25 to avoid this, even on wheeled choppers.

[Rhino]

I also use rudder pedals for my yaw so I can pretty much keep all of my 3 dimensions of control in 3 separate parts of my body which works well enough for me.

Slightly OT but how have you managed to get your rudder pedals to work with BF2 as well as your X52? I've never been able to but that might be due to my OS (XP x64).

But on the subject of controls, joystick and throttle all the way for me. An aircraft simply dosen't feel like a proper aircraft without them

[Maverick]

Slightly OT but how have you managed to get your rudder pedals to work with BF2 as well as your X52? I've never been able to but that might be due to my OS (XP x64).

But on the subject of controls, joystick and throttle all the way for me. An aircraft simply dosen't feel like a proper aircraft without them

Not only that, but you will win EVERY dogfight if you encounter a pilot using a mouse(Unless he has a ridiculously sensitive mouse, then MAYBE hell give you a challenge, but you will still win, X52 all the way!

[Zoddom]

@Rhino:

i dont think so at all! i tried joysticks in BF2, and they feel terrible both with helos and jets! I play Flaming Cliffs 2 very much and can say that the BF2 engine has no realistic feeling at all
I myself have a much more accurate feeling with the mouse and @Maverick thats not quite true, my mouse sensivity in jets is 2.0 (i think) with 1800 dpi and i can still turn at max turning rate in any jet. and as pfunk said, its all about personal preference, i bet there are thousands of players out there who could pwn you with a mouse.

ah and btw rhino, I had to change the pedals setup to "single pedalaxis" in the saitek controlpanel, then i had two seperate axis in BF2 (sounds funny but worked.)

[hiberNative]

I have never had this problem.
Make sure you have as little forward momentum at comfortable when landing. And don't use D when going down against the deck.

[Gracler]

I always use a joystick with analogue throttle when flying. Gives me a lot more freedom than using the mouse in my opinion. Tapping the W and S key for throttle is very annoying and not as accurate as a throttle.

Many people don't realise that you can also use analogue throttle for other vehicles. I sometimes use it for tanks or apc?s to cruise alongside infantry.

[Zoddom]

Many people don't realise that you can also use analogue throttle for other vehicles. I sometimes use it for tanks or apc?s to cruise alongside infantry.

i thought this way before, too. but then i realised that you can also use pedals for gas / brake in any vehicles. looks a bit strange when flying a heli or a jet but its the most comfortable method i found out.

[Xander[nl]]

AFAIK this simply is an issue caused by landing too hard - ie. pressing S for too long.

It's simply resolved by either landing while moving forward (like a combat landing) or by hovering just above deck and gently tabbing S untill you've completely landed.


Don't know what it is but the S key makes the downwards throttle go like crazy (try it in midair and the chopper will likely dive out of control) and it behaves weird on the ground. If you try pressing S while stationary on the helopad in a Kiowa or a Chinook/Black Hawk for example you'll get bounced backwards and sometimes crash the chopper all together.

[Zoddom]

OP:
i just noticed that what you described sounds like youd be pressing S all the time when already on the ground, i never had any issues with the huey except when i forgot to take my foot off the brake pedal, then the chopper is being "pushed" on the ground and it can happen that you slide forward.
if it works, just dont press any button when on the ground... i hope it solves this problem

[Twombly]

OP:
i just noticed that what you described sounds like youd be pressing S all the time when already on the ground, i never had any issues with the huey except when i forgot to take my foot off the brake pedal, then the chopper is being "pushed" on the ground and it can happen that you slide forward.
if it works, just dont press any button when on the ground... i hope it solves this problem

I think that's what it is. I had a throttle control hooked up that I didn't use, but it was still essentially pressing S at all times. Any time I would let off W, I would pretty much go out of control. I got the hang of it, but like I said the carrier would mess me up.

I unplugged the throttle and now I fly a lot better and don't become a part of the carrier when I land anymore. Thanks a lot for the help, everyone. If I hadn't known that wasn't normal I'd probably still be trying to practice like that.

[Hunt3r]

Holding down S is a recipe for disaster in all choppers in PR, a false move ends up magnifying itself.

[TheComedian]

Not only that, but you will win EVERY dogfight if you encounter a pilot using a mouse(Unless he has a ridiculously sensitive mouse, then MAYBE hell give you a challenge, but you will still win, X52 all the way!

Not true you will die if he sees you first. Jetfighting in PR is really a joke.

[Maverick]

Not true you will die if he sees you first. Jetfighting in PR is really a joke.

Your right, it's a game of who sees who, nothing else, no skill involved, now if there were no missiles, guns only, then MAYBE skill will be needed

[mattnett1]

I have some issues... and I remember once I was on Beruit I think and this Havok newbie. He said he was a very big vetran in PR... NOPE!

He went full force landing like it was a jet... and BAM he flipped and caused 9-11 over again.


But Landing on carriers on Operation Baracuda I find very easy.

[Zoddom]

I have some issues... and I remember once I was on Beruit I think and this Havok newbie. He said he was a very big vetran in PR... NOPE!

He went full force landing like it was a jet... and BAM he flipped and caused 9-11 over again.


But Landing on carriers on Operation Baracuda I find very easy.

and whats your issue?
what i can say is taht the russian cargo ship is not an aircraft carrier and its much smaller so making such a landing is ridiculously newbish. iirc the havok pad is that heli pad at the tail of the ship .... so how did he ..omg