How to fly the little bird (Passenger Variant)
Posted: 2007-03-04 17:18
Okay, I'm going to write an article on how to fly the little bird, any good pilots, please lend your expertise to add, as I'm not making this an official article yet, just a draft.
Now I'm writing this as a JOYSTICK pilot. So if you want mouse and keyboard, heres not the place. (I'm currently using a Logitech Wingman Force 3d, I recommend it to no one, unless you only have 10 bucks to spend)
First of all, on vBF2, I increased the sensitivity on my joystick because I found that it was too slow. However, the little bird is MUCH more sensitive, so I've been forced to lower the sensitivity somewhat. If you're having problems flying the Little Bird, try lowering sensitivity.
Next, make sure you set a good dead zone, you should be able to have your stick centred and not have the little bird tip over. Use either the software that came with the stick to set this, or go into control panel > Game Controllers > Game Controllers and figit with it a bit.
Ok, for the extreme noobs, you need a pilot kit. To get that, walk to the side of the chopper, hold T, and request a pilot kit. Hit G to pick it up, and press E to get in the chopper. Now unlike vBF2, it takes a while to get the chopper started, so please do not go full throttle or you will crash and kill everyone inside. Wait until you see the rotor blade spinning at full speed, you'll also hear the sound of the chopper ready. I like to wait a few seconds extra, just in case. Better safe than sorry. I recommend going about 80% throttle initially, go full speed too early and the chopper isn't ready, it'll crash.
So, if you are flying an unarmed little bird, please let people get onto the little bird before taking off without them. Keep in mind they do not have parachutes and you only have a pistol, so please don't bail on them. You have to put them down.
Do not over exaggerate your joystick movements, the little bird is highly responsive, so try to keep it as leveled as possible, and you can slowly do bigger turns and moves as you gain experience.
Don't fly too high or too low, and don't hover in enemy territory, or someone will RPG you or a sniper will get you, and yes, it happens a lot. Know where the AA guns are on the map you're playing and AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS.
For the most part, the most dangerous parts of flying the little bird is take off and landing. Once you're in the sky, fly close to the ground to avoid detection. Its still a helicopter, so fly it, if you're too close to the ground you are more vulnerable to small arms fire, which can kill you and your passengers easily. So be warned. Generally I like to fly 20-30 m off the ground, using buildings as cover.
On a map like Muttrah city, which is loaded with AA, try taking a different route, by spending the extra time flying around the map to get somewhere safely, to prevent you and your passengers from dying an untimely death with a nasty respawn time.
Landing is really the hardest part, keep in mind the more damage you take, the harder it is to fly the thing, so avoid the enemy, even small arms fire can be a pain. The little bird is small and agile, but its also extremely vulnerable.
When landing try not to crash in. Lowering your altitude is not as easy as in vBF2. It takes much longer, even when you throttle down all the way. So to avoid being a sitting duck, try to throttle down and gently swing yourself down. Don't get to the drop off point and then throttle down. Throttle down before reaching the drop off point and swing down gently. Do not land hot. You will crash and kill everyone inside. Make sure you land gently.
Make sure you know where you want to land, plan the landing ahead of time, once you've spotted the location, slow down and decrease your altitude, put your nose down very slightly to move forward to the drop off point.
A good little bird pilot is key to winning a hard map like Muttrah city. So don't screw it up. Fly them on near empty servers or single player, so you aren't harming players.
Once you've managed to drop off passengers on the ground, the real fun part is dropping them off on top of buildings. Try to drop them off on buildings with ladders however, as you don't want to strand them. Buildings tend to be watched better than the streets, because everyone can see and hear a chopper landing on a building. So don't land the chopper, drop them off.
Just like landing on a flat surface, try to get the right altitude of the drop off point. So if the building is 20 m high, approach it at 25 or less, depending on your skill level, slow down to 1% throttle and advance to it slowly. Try not to stop and hover over the building too long, just slow down as you pass the drop off point and make sure you are close to a solid surface where the passengers can safely jump onto. If you are flying too fast, they will die or get hurt, and you'll get the team kill for it. If you are flying too high, they drop to their deaths or seriously injure themselves.
So be careful flying the little bird. I hope this has helped somewhat. Be considerate and keep practicing. Don't bail if you have passengers, if you MUST, fly over water, where they can land safely. Plan the drop off ahead of time, so you can reach the drop off altitude, the worst thing is getting to the location and having to drop down to a safe distance for drop off, because you're just a big target for an RPG.
If anyone has anything to add, please feel free as long as its constructive. Add what I've missed, ask questions, whatever you like. I'm going to work on a video, hopefully it'll help. Any programs besides FRAPS I can use? I'm not fond of FRAPS.
The worst thing is a loaded chopper with a bad pilot. So don't fly until you know what you're doing.
For mouse users, a lot of this can be helpful actually. Its mostly general stuff for novices. All of this should be pretty obvious to good pilots.
As you progress, you can try more risky moves, just try not to scare the **** out of your passengers. Some pilots like to land hard. I like to land gently, because it can be done quickly. I find that if someone jumps out prematurely during a hard landing, I might get a team kill. Its just personal flying style really.
Now I'm writing this as a JOYSTICK pilot. So if you want mouse and keyboard, heres not the place. (I'm currently using a Logitech Wingman Force 3d, I recommend it to no one, unless you only have 10 bucks to spend)
First of all, on vBF2, I increased the sensitivity on my joystick because I found that it was too slow. However, the little bird is MUCH more sensitive, so I've been forced to lower the sensitivity somewhat. If you're having problems flying the Little Bird, try lowering sensitivity.
Next, make sure you set a good dead zone, you should be able to have your stick centred and not have the little bird tip over. Use either the software that came with the stick to set this, or go into control panel > Game Controllers > Game Controllers and figit with it a bit.
Ok, for the extreme noobs, you need a pilot kit. To get that, walk to the side of the chopper, hold T, and request a pilot kit. Hit G to pick it up, and press E to get in the chopper. Now unlike vBF2, it takes a while to get the chopper started, so please do not go full throttle or you will crash and kill everyone inside. Wait until you see the rotor blade spinning at full speed, you'll also hear the sound of the chopper ready. I like to wait a few seconds extra, just in case. Better safe than sorry. I recommend going about 80% throttle initially, go full speed too early and the chopper isn't ready, it'll crash.
So, if you are flying an unarmed little bird, please let people get onto the little bird before taking off without them. Keep in mind they do not have parachutes and you only have a pistol, so please don't bail on them. You have to put them down.
Do not over exaggerate your joystick movements, the little bird is highly responsive, so try to keep it as leveled as possible, and you can slowly do bigger turns and moves as you gain experience.
Don't fly too high or too low, and don't hover in enemy territory, or someone will RPG you or a sniper will get you, and yes, it happens a lot. Know where the AA guns are on the map you're playing and AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS.
For the most part, the most dangerous parts of flying the little bird is take off and landing. Once you're in the sky, fly close to the ground to avoid detection. Its still a helicopter, so fly it, if you're too close to the ground you are more vulnerable to small arms fire, which can kill you and your passengers easily. So be warned. Generally I like to fly 20-30 m off the ground, using buildings as cover.
On a map like Muttrah city, which is loaded with AA, try taking a different route, by spending the extra time flying around the map to get somewhere safely, to prevent you and your passengers from dying an untimely death with a nasty respawn time.
Landing is really the hardest part, keep in mind the more damage you take, the harder it is to fly the thing, so avoid the enemy, even small arms fire can be a pain. The little bird is small and agile, but its also extremely vulnerable.
When landing try not to crash in. Lowering your altitude is not as easy as in vBF2. It takes much longer, even when you throttle down all the way. So to avoid being a sitting duck, try to throttle down and gently swing yourself down. Don't get to the drop off point and then throttle down. Throttle down before reaching the drop off point and swing down gently. Do not land hot. You will crash and kill everyone inside. Make sure you land gently.
Make sure you know where you want to land, plan the landing ahead of time, once you've spotted the location, slow down and decrease your altitude, put your nose down very slightly to move forward to the drop off point.
A good little bird pilot is key to winning a hard map like Muttrah city. So don't screw it up. Fly them on near empty servers or single player, so you aren't harming players.
Once you've managed to drop off passengers on the ground, the real fun part is dropping them off on top of buildings. Try to drop them off on buildings with ladders however, as you don't want to strand them. Buildings tend to be watched better than the streets, because everyone can see and hear a chopper landing on a building. So don't land the chopper, drop them off.
Just like landing on a flat surface, try to get the right altitude of the drop off point. So if the building is 20 m high, approach it at 25 or less, depending on your skill level, slow down to 1% throttle and advance to it slowly. Try not to stop and hover over the building too long, just slow down as you pass the drop off point and make sure you are close to a solid surface where the passengers can safely jump onto. If you are flying too fast, they will die or get hurt, and you'll get the team kill for it. If you are flying too high, they drop to their deaths or seriously injure themselves.
So be careful flying the little bird. I hope this has helped somewhat. Be considerate and keep practicing. Don't bail if you have passengers, if you MUST, fly over water, where they can land safely. Plan the drop off ahead of time, so you can reach the drop off altitude, the worst thing is getting to the location and having to drop down to a safe distance for drop off, because you're just a big target for an RPG.
If anyone has anything to add, please feel free as long as its constructive. Add what I've missed, ask questions, whatever you like. I'm going to work on a video, hopefully it'll help. Any programs besides FRAPS I can use? I'm not fond of FRAPS.
The worst thing is a loaded chopper with a bad pilot. So don't fly until you know what you're doing.
For mouse users, a lot of this can be helpful actually. Its mostly general stuff for novices. All of this should be pretty obvious to good pilots.
As you progress, you can try more risky moves, just try not to scare the **** out of your passengers. Some pilots like to land hard. I like to land gently, because it can be done quickly. I find that if someone jumps out prematurely during a hard landing, I might get a team kill. Its just personal flying style really.