Chopper vs small arms?

[Ewokinarmor]

hi guys. since im a bit new to PR, i have been watching a few youtube clips of gameplay to ready myself. I have noticed in the videos that whenever a chopper flies overhead the squad, even those without an anti-vehicle class start firing at it. Does this mean that regular assault rifles and LMGs can actually damage PR helicopters? (and yes i have noticed that in vanilla bf2 you can shoot down choppers with LMGs if you fire long enough) Just wondering

[chrisweb89]

I never fire at choppers with small arms, unless they are landing near me, or shooting at me. Transport choppers are very resistant to small arms in PR unless you get a shot on the pilot. So when you are playing, just weigh shooting at the chopper with giving your position away. Sometimes you should, sometimes you shouldn't

[SShadowFox]

If you have a mix of LMGs and some Assault Rifles you can make the helicopter to fall, you probably won't make it explode mid-air, but it can lose the rotor power and fall making it to explode on the ground, sometimes lucky or Chuck Norris pilots can do an emergency landing (which is just a normal landing but when the helicopter is falling) when the chopper lose the rotor power and you keep pressing 'W' (or the lift is still increased if with the Joystick) the helicopter will nose up and will be impossible to land and survive, I already did one, but one APC killed me, at least I was the only one in the chopper...

[Rhino]

Small arms vs the chopper itself, won't do much but you can hit the passengers and sometimes if your very lucky, the pilot

[40mmrain]

Yes, it's a very large hassle for chopper's to be pinged, and be damaged when flying around, it encourages them to screw off basically.

Useful, but you'll never shoot them down

[FLAP_BRBGOING2MOON]

i have personally killed an apache with an mg3, and have been killed in the cashuey with the same gun.
both helicopters lost power after about one mag was dumped into them.

a little offtopic, can anyone shed a little light on helis losing power? is it random or does the pilot cause it in any way.

[40mmrain]

MG3 and PKM should be the exception theyre the only 7.62 man portable machine guns, but yes it does happen I guess.

[Mouthpiece]

It's generally a good idea to fire at scout choppers (for example, the Kiowa) if they are flying low. They have little HP and almost no protection from bullets, so you can actually take one out with a few seconds of concentrated fire from LMG (if you hit and hitboxes doesn't jump around). As LMG tend to be the same caliber as assault rifles, the scout coppers can be taken out also by them.

As an insurgent, you should generally be interested in firing at the Kiowas that are doing a low altitude fly by's or just hovering and making themselves a good targets. If your squad (for example 4 people) opens up at a low flying Kiowa with their 4 assaut rifles and they hit it continuously (because it's hovering, for example) - it should go down in about 5 seconds (I'm speculating with numbers here, as I have any empirical proof, just ingame experience in shooting down Kiowas with bad pilots and my dusty ol'memory).

Transport choppers, as said above, are really tough against basically everything, even Light AT projectiles. There are weaker (I'd say russian Cow - the Mil Mi-17, as it's one of the slowest; but I'm not a pilot so I could be wrong) and there are tougher trans choppers. Huey is one of the example of the tougher ones. It's evem hard to shoot it down with the tool that's made for shooting down aircraft - MANPADS - it (even 2 rockets fired in quick succession) mostly damages it (if they at least fly near the chopper hat is).

Trans choppers can only be killed easily with a HAT, TOW, tank shell, C4 or INS alternative - Arty IED (note more if I missed something). Sometimes it's pretty easy to deal with trans choppers that are coming your way or just are in a bad position with APC/IFV. Especially if it has powerful autocannon (good caliber/high RPM rate) or even AT missile (BMP-3) that flies really fast to its target and can be guided in flight. Well, also concentrated .50 cal fire can kill a trans chopper if it catches enough bullets.

Anyway, when firing with assault rifles, LMG's and machine guns (m16, ak47, SAW, browning .50cal) try to aim at the pilot. Dead pilots can't fly their choppers, so the choppers fall to the ground and explode (derp).

EDIT: Also attack choppers (Apache, Cobra, Havoc) have little armor protection against small arms. If I recall correctly, it's bigger than scout choppers, but they also can be taken down, for example, from a concentrated fire from LMG.

EDIT2: Also one can shoot out a passanger from trans chopper, so it's another "yes" for shooting at them (even with assault rifles).

[mangeface]

Yesterday (or the day before) I was playing on CIA (can't remember who I was playing with, but I do think [R-MOD] Mongol was one) and twice on Dragonfly the Lynx landed right next to my squad. That's about the only time in the years I've played PR that I've ever opened fire on a transport helo.

[Rudd]

whole squad firing at a trans helo has a reasonable chance of causing some damage and killing/wounding passengers

the damage done can be the difference between the friendly 50cal finishing it off or it flying away with a trail of smoke

choppers are high value targets, wasting a mag of ammo with only a slim hope of taking them down alone is still worth it unless conserving ammo or concealment are more important

[AquaticPenguin]

choppers are high value targets, wasting a mag of ammo with only a slim hope of taking them down alone is still worth it unless conserving ammo or concealment are more important

Generally in AAS I avoid firing at choppers unless they're low or landing. On insurgency though I'll happily fire away, it will sometimes scare the pilots and get them to bugger off, and if you can get everyone doing it you'll do a fair amount of damage.

My favourite with the choppers is the PPSH though since a full mag lasts around the same time as a kiowa attack run. If you hide a short distance from their intended target, jump out when they start their run and just keep firing at the cockpit you have a chance of catching the pilot. Sometimes it'll scare them and they'll stop their run early, very occasionally you'll get lucky and the pilot will get hit. Even if you just wound them it puts them out of action.

[ComradeHX]

At times in INS we have many PKM on roof of building focusing on one chopper.

Many times have choppers simply fall out of sky due to pilot receiving 7.62mmx54 round in face.

[Pronck]

I always shoot at pilots/helicopters whenever I can. 2 days ago I managed to take a chinook down on Burning by shooting the cockpit with an MG3 as a result the pilot paniced and flew into the construction side.

[Bringerof_D]

unless your current task involves stealth, i'd fire. even a single rifleman putting well placed shots into the hull can scare off a pilot and make passengers panic. For transport choppers this probably wont kill them nor do much damage at all but will act as a deterrent for entering that zone immediately. if you get a few rifleman with good concentrated fire you can cause their transport to wave off and try again giving your heavy weapons a chance to reposition and take it out.

[rodrigoma]

i have one time actually shot a kiowa pilot with the marksman kit in kokan, it was an extremely lucky shot that i took when the chopper was diving past me, i only wounded the ilot though, i have however shot down kiowas with combined pkm fire

[SShadowFox]

If you hit a RPG you can cause the chopper to fall if it's a trans helo, light attack (recon) helos can be destroyed with a single RPG shot hit...

[Xander[nl]]

It's good for scaring off the pilot anyway, as he won't be able to tell whether it's a 50 cal firing at him or a guy with a pistol. The better ones will be able to judge it most of the time but the average ones will piss their pants.

[nater]

If you hit a RPG you can cause the chopper to fall if it's a trans helo, light attack (recon) helos can be destroyed with a single RPG shot hit...

An RPG only damages a trans, the blackhawk for instance can take an RPG and it only starts smoking white.

[KillJoy[Fr]]

Small arms are very effective against chopper i mean for the psychological effect for the pilot ..

[Arnoldio]

To answer the thread title, it's doable.