Helicopter crash survivability

[MrTomRobs]

Morning/afternoon/evening forum dwellers!

After playing a few really good rounds as an apache gunner on single player last night, i started to wonder why whenever a helicopter loses power, it plummets like a stone and blows up in a great big firey ball of death.

although i can understand this if the chopper falls from say 100 units of height (whatever they may be in game, feet/metres/etc.), when the chopper is just above the buildings in Ramiel and the crappy bot that's flying the thing gets caught by an AA emplacement, surely it's a bit more possible that it wouldn't just blow up. In fact, the apache's chassis is officially strong enough to stand crashes up to 45kmh.

Is there any way that anyone else has found a way of keeping a helicopter from crashing like a sack of tish into the ground when they've taken a few decent rounds? or is cremation compulsory in this circumstance?

Also - on a separate note, how do i record a battle in SP using battlecorder on my comp? Just so i can witness the fitness of me popping some tanks with hellfires

[sweedensniiperr]

I did a bit of calculation and did an estimate that the apache weighs 7000kg. that would mean that the helicopter can only drop from about 100meters and barely survive. iirc the units in-game are meters.

but really think about this: maybe the chassi can withstand crashes up to 45km/h but do the pilots do that? or more importantly can the the rest of the chopper do it? realistically maybe the chopper doesn't explode but i'm pretty sure no one would or could fly it afterward.

I beg to differ.

OK, I won't argue on this one. BUT think about it, he wouldn't be able to "just take off" again would he? And what if it was in an actual battlezone, say an insurgent controlled city?

[Jolly]

Indeed apache is strong enough to stand the crash, but since the old bf2 engine can not make it and for the sack of balance, Attack Helos are weak againist small arms (once touched ground, it'll heavily damaged or death)
When my chopper's engine is cut coz of enemy fire and I can not make it back to base, if chopper's nose isn't up or down too many, i'd land it on a flat ground(no flat ground? jump out!)there will be a few second to get out before it explodes.
The problem is when your nose is too up or down but you have enough altitude, just jump out. In a transhelo? God bless your passengers


Record via DEMO? no idea...


Edit, I dont know whether I've got your point.

[MrTomRobs]

I did a bit of calculation and did an estimate that the apache weighs 7000kg. that would mean that the helicopter can only drop from about 100meters and barely survive. iirc the units in-game are meters.

but really think about this: maybe the chassi can withstand crashes up to 45km/h but do the pilots do that? or more importantly can the the rest of the chopper do it? realistically maybe the chopper doesn't explode but i'm pretty sure no one would or could fly it afterward.

Cheers for the quick response!

In reply to your second paragraph, i'm not really on about the chopper's ability to simply crash land without exploding, or at least delaying the explosion, giving the pilots enough time to get out of the aircraft and get away ready for extraction. Maybe i didn't put it as clear as i could have done in the OP.

I'll try and explain it in a scenario.

You're flying around on Ramiel or Muttrah at about 80m (or whatever the units for height happen to be in PR (and yes, i know that in most circumstances, you wouldn't fly at 80m, but for argument's sake) and a 50. cal technical or a BTR fires at you with its co-axial machine gun, scores a few lucky hits and the helicopter loses power and begins to fall and still keeps the turn that it was doing when it got shot down (a scenario i'm sure many of you will know all too well!)

In-game as it is at the moment, the helicopter loses power and falls to earth in whatever angle it was travelling in (e.g. you were pitching up when you lost power, you continue to pitch up after power loss), then as soon as you touch something, the aircraft explodes and kills both pilots. It's not feasible for you to jump out, because parachutes don't work at that low altitude. That pretty much makes the pilot kit worthless for helicopters, and doesn't give much scope for uber-elite-BlackHawk Down scenarios where dudes in humvees or other helicopters come to extract you. It just kills you. simple.

Does anyone else think that the helicopter, instead of insta-exploding when it touches something, hits the ground (So long as the speed at which it hits the ground is less than a certain amount, say 70 units of game speed), and allows the pilots enough time to get out and run to an extraction point to call for pickup? They could have damage given to them, say to the point where they start coughing and the screen is black and white, so must get to a point quickly to find a medic, or use their patches and wait for a medic to come to them?

Also - maybe i should have put this in the suggestions thread, but i wanted to get a discussion going first

Also also - I was on about using battle recorder for Single Player, but i've got it figured now demo.recordDemo demoname

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Oh, at first I thought you were talking about choppers exploding when they get killed, like the wreck.

I hate BF2 for that, when you kill a chopper or any aircrafts, the wreck explodes, no crash

But what you're typing about mostly affect only singleplayer, since you won't be flying at this altitude in an apache and you will have time to bail. Dunno for transport ones though, I saw a good ammount of pilots survive when abandoning they're heli in fire.

[illidur]

too bad you can't perform an auto rotation in pr if you lose power...

I did a bit of calculation and did an estimate that the apache weighs 7000kg. that would mean that the helicopter can only drop from about 100meters and barely survive. iirc the units in-game are meters.

even if you could, there would still be "the dead man's curve". if you are too high without any inertia/hovering or not enough for speed for the height you are at, you won't be able to increase headspeed enough on your fall to safely land. same goes for if you are going too fast really low, you would have to flare up to bleed speed, gaining too much height, then not having enough speed to land safely. they dont call it that for nothing lol

[Hunt3r]

The flight model needs to be changed so that while you can't gain altitude, you can still level out the helo.

If the helo lands on it's wheels/skids, it should be basically impossible to explode on impact. While this may not be perfectly realistic, it's close to what happens in reality.

[SShadowFox]

Yes, currently the chopper simply noses up and you can't do anything, I already made an emergency landing with a Huey in Muttrah, but never did that again.

[mangeface]

but really think about this: maybe the chassi can withstand crashes up to 45km/h but do the pilots do that? or more importantly can the the rest of the chopper do it? realistically maybe the chopper doesn't explode but i'm pretty sure no one would or could fly it afterward.

I beg to differ. On my last deployment we had a UH-1N smash into the airfield in Rota at about 30 kts (a little more than 45 kmh). The impact was so hard it practically ripped the tailboom off and damaged a lot of the internal structure. Eventually it was lifted onto the LHD I was embarked on and it was brought back to flight status before the end of our deployment.

[Navo]

I beg to differ. On my last deployment we had a UH-1N smash into the airfield in Rota at about 30 kts (a little more than 45 kmh). The impact was so hard it practically ripped the tailboom off and damaged a lot of the internal structure. Eventually it was lifted onto the LHD I was embarked on and it was brought back to flight status before the end of our deployment.

And the pilots?

By the way seeing the acceleration of a falling object is 9,81 m/s^2 iirc it would take like 1.3 seconds for a falling chopper to reach that speed if you ignore friction.

[SGT.Ice]

Resuggetion outside the suggestion forum & from what I remember currently not possible. Though we use to have "crash landings" in the early PR days. Good times.