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A quick tip guide to not being a noob in a helicopter.



INTRODUCTION
- Contrary to popular belief, flying a helicopter with keyboard and mouse is easy to do and you can get alot of manuverability out of these controls. A joystick is better suited for jets but can be used with helicopters as well.

- When deciding to fly a helicopter, make your own squad labeled 'PILOT' 'AIR' etc or join an exisiting air squad. DO NOT join an infantry or tank squad when your flying a helicopter. Lock the squad and make sure only pilots are in your squad. If you have infantry in your squad all you doing is making things more difficult for the commander and helping your team stay disorganised. If a different player got the helicopter, be sure to invite him to the squad so you can work together, chances are they will usually join your squad.


PLANNING

- Before taking off, make your flight plan! You should have a clear idea of where you going, what your going to do, how your getting there, and how your getting back. Think of each time you take off as its own little 'mini-mission'. Dont just stay in the air the whole time as your missing the point of being a transport helicopter. You need to observe the map and know when you need to transport your troops. To do this you need to be on the ground.

- ALWAYS put a move command marker where you want your LZ to be. You do not have to land exactly on the move command however it helps greatly to know generally where you have planned to land and the move command HUD display makes things alot easier.

- If your team has a commander, let him know your a transport helicopter and stay on the ground waiting for his orders. If hes a dumbass, ignore him of course but if he has comms with you you can become a very effective quick transport for your team.

- ALWAYS ask the squad where they want to go before taking off. If they tell you to go to a really stupid place, then put them down somewhere close by that is not as dumb. If they dont give you an LZ, do not take off until you figure out a good place for them to go.

TAKE OFF
- Before taking off make sure all friendly troops are clear of the landing pad as sometimes the helicopter can move forwards/backwards and this sudden movement can be deadly.

- Always wait for all occupants to enter the heicopter before taking off, do not leave anyone behind unless the helicopter is full.

- When taking off, dont spin around in circles like a dumbass. Passengers cannot get in if you do this.


LANDING

- Choosing an LZ takes practice, follow these rules for landing procedures:
* If possible give the designated LZ a fly over before landing, as this gives you an idea of possible enemy threats and geographical obstacles.
* If your shot at close to your LZ, DO NOT LAND AT THAT LZ!!! Either find a new one or return to base (RTB) and get a new LZ. Do not risk the lives of your men by being foolish.
* the LZ needs to be relatively flat so you dont flip your helicopter upon landing, never land on uneven terrain.
* When approaching the LZ, come in on a gradual 'slope/gradient'.
* NEVER hover around the LZ, and never stay for longer than 10 seconds at the LZ or an RPG will surely find you.
* make sure your approach is not obstructed by trees/hills so you do not waste time on the descent.
* the LZ needs to be minimum 100 meters from the objective so the squad your dropping can setup their rallypoint. DO NOT land within 100 meters of the objective as its far too risky and the squad your dropping will most likley come under direct fire, makng your dropoff compeltely worthless.
*To slow down whilst lowering altitude while landing, press "S". NEVER hover anywhere for too long and do not take too long to land or else you will be perfect bait for AT rockets and heavy machine guns.
*you just need to come in on gradual 'slope/gradient' to the LZ.

- NEVER land directly at a CP, this is how 95% of noob pilots die. Under no circumstances are you to land directly at a CP unless its your mainbase or your making a combined air assault with multiple air units and ground support.


Conclusion
The Number 1 priority in the helicopter should be the safety of your vehicle and the safety of the passengers. Do not try fancy flying shit just cause it looks cool. Play it safe and be patient! You are FAR more useful alive than constantly dying. If your not a patient person, DO NOT fly a transport helicopter as youll just become frsutrated from constantly getting shot down.

Fly over the LZ before actually landing there. That way you can check for any threats; from trees to insurgents.

at finding an lz you generally need to be geographically aware, know what things are where, and maneuver you chopper either away or around these obstacles. ONLY if you are a skilled pilot do you land inside a built up area, as with all the over looking balconies and rooftops provide good cover for enemies, and those lampposts get everywhere.

also, DO NOT land on a dime, it means that you are a much easier target.

daranz wrote:So, let me get this straight.

Being one of the about 3 PR players who use joysticks to fly helis, is putting your throttle in the middle the best way of descending fast? All helicopters seem to descend painfully slow for me in PR, and I usually deal with it by other means, but I never really tried to find the sweet spot on the throttle for fastest descends. With the throttle all the way down, the choppers descend as if they were being piloted by geriatric grandmas aftraid of entering VRS.

inb4 use mouse

I make a point of NEVER descending whith the s key/ throttle. Too slow to do if you are in a real fight. You have to basically use the choppers like planes and pitch forward from a significant distance so that you are level when you reach the ground. If you have to use the S key to decend, you are risking crashing or being shot.

caboose wrote:I make a point of NEVER descending whith the s key/ throttle. Too slow to do if you are in a real fight. You have to basically use the choppers like planes and pitch forward from a significant distance so that you are level when you reach the ground. If you have to use the S key to decend, you are risking crashing or being shot.

Well, my point is that the throttle HAS to be in some position, because it's a damn throttle. So, I'm not descending with S (which is sidestep left for me anyway), but I'm descending with a throttle on a particular setting. And yeah, by dealing with it by other means I did mean pitching forward and descending that way. Helicopters in PR are light enough that you don't need to do much to slow down, anyway. However, it would appear that the optimal way to descend is to set your throttle midway, which is bizarre and consistent with everything else in BF2.

-Memorize fix enemy AA emplacements

-fly as low as you can-w/o risking a crash,2 reasons for this: first landing from a high altitude is relatively harder and takes time,second you cant be spotted thus fired upon...

-If you are new to PR or want to learn flying a Heli do NOT start with BLACKHAWK,the easiest to fly choppers are Chinese/Mec big transport choppers,they are not as agile like BH but they are very easy to control,littlebirds are also easy when it comes to hovering.

-This part is for newbies:IF you want to learn flying first steps should be taking off hovering for a few seconds then landing at same spot ,then take off turn with rudder&land.When landing on a different spot first try to hover above it,if you manage to hover above your LZ rest is easy,keep pressing "S" with short intervals or cut throttle very slowly until you touch the ground or untill you are low enough(low enough=troops able to get in/get out safely).Of course these are for practising dont try this on full servers.

-If you are flying with PELA or USMC littlebirds avoid touching ground as much as possible.

-Use terrain when flying&landing.Big ditches ,roads that both sides covered with small ridges are perfect spots...

-You have very fast vehicle at your disposal,use it to your advantage,for example if you plan to drop your troops 200 meters south of Flag x first hover 200 meters North of Flag X(like you are dropping troops there) then move and drop your troops 200 meters south of Flag X.This might confuse the defenders of X,note that,this works on some maps in some flags,( Qwai River ,all flags except goverment office and fishing village being one example)
Also keep in mind that you must be communicating with your troops in order to do that,in short they should know that first drop is fake.

-If you cant fly at all dont start practising in a full Blackhawk!!!!

Kruder wrote:-Memorize fix enemy AA emplacements

Now with commander placeable AA guns, this becomes less emphasis I would think, cause you may not know where the AA emplacements are, its better to talk to commander about where manned AA is on the map.

Make sure you tell your commander of key enemy locations/emplacements (such as cmdr deployable AA), this will help everyone on the battlefield.

Also, I would suggest flying really high (in the grey zone) and diving down to land instead of flying low all the time.

Negative.

The RAF, FAA and AAC are all taught to fly low as it reduces your exposure time to enemy weapons. Even small arms can be dangerous to any aircraft.

Low flying isn't hard, just practice offline. Pay attention to your surroundings, stick to cover and look before you turn.

RAF low flying

Low flying is a vital tactic to battlefield survival, especially to a helicopter with little armour or armament.

I wrote this in an old thread:

I do that for bank turns (except I use KB). Drop the collective (figuratively) when I start the turn, then raise the collective when I need it again (don't apply it, then take it off, then apply it. This won't be of great use in getting a good technique.)

I can fly at 100% power in straight and level flight. As for controlling my IAS, doesn't matter; go fast and low.

Btw, on landings, don't hover the helicopter and try to land on a dime (unless it's surrounded by obstacles). Come in, let the power off about 300m from the LZ so that the helicopter gradually descends. When you're about 20m away, pull back on the cyclic (not sharply, just a little back pressure) this will drop a huge bulk of speed off and make you drift back a little (so don't hold it for too long).

Taking off is pretty much the same. Climb gradually, get a good lookout of the area ahead and then you can do one of two things to descend:

1. Decrease the cyclic fully and descend at a reasonable speed to a lower, safer level.

2. Keep cruising/full power on and tilt the nose forward so that you speed towards the ground, anticipate the height by 50ft, pull up 50ft before the intended height will be reached. Then level off, set cruising/full power.

I do method number 2. You descend at a faster rate and maintain your speed, although if you don't pay attention or keep control you'll crash. End of.


Stick low too. Concentrate on what's in front of you, constantly scan for enemies and a possible escape route from your planned route, and make sure you have a basic idea of where you're going.

I love the way that this in no way is anything like what you would do when flying for real.

in no way ?
I thought the engine was limited but it was somewhat like real flight.
I know you don't have engine speed to worry about or over taxing the rotors or anything but I thought it was in the general realm of reality.

ArmedDrunk&Angry wrote:in no way ?
I thought the engine was limited but it was somewhat like real flight.
I know you don't have engine speed to worry about or over taxing the rotors or anything but I thought it was in the general realm of reality.

It's in the general realm of reality, because there's rotors on the top, and has a cyclic stick and collective lever inside, figuratively speaking (although character models in BF2 tend to hold on to the stick with two hands).

From my experience with helicopter sims (I never flew a real helicopter), the main annoying thing about the flight model in BF2/PR is the lack of inertia, or the lightness of all helicopters. You can instantly speed up, and stop on a dime. If you watch videos of real Blackhawks coming in for landing, they have to start slowing down early, by pitching up (in PR, if you pitch up for more than a second, you go backwards).

Also, vertical speed indicators in US choppers are useless.

Yeh Daranz has it about right.

Flight Dynamics are not anywhere near real, IRL you need a hell of a lot of collective to take a heavy chopper from straight flight into the hover or you will drop out the sky.

They are too stable as well, if you want to delve into the deep realms of reality, then its gonna be hard to keep the chopper steady.

Maybe in future releases they can make chopper flying even harder!!

- The safest places are usualy really high or really low.

The advantage of being high is you are a small target, and can gain phenominal speed with a quick dive.
The advantage of being low is that you CAN be obscured by trees/canyons/buildings, and even telephone poles can break the lock of AA missiles.

-Know your enemy

You can read the signs and position of your enemy, allowing you to determin what class they are, and what are they doing.

Eg:
Sounds of weapons allow you to recognise true danger. Rifle fire usualy is not much of a problem. On the contrary, 50cal is.

Tracers also allow you to know what weapon it is. 50cal is lots of tracers; APC is fewer but larger rounds and an AAV is an terrifyingly large amount of rounds, almost beam-like.

A prone troop usualy has a sniper rifle, LMG, Marksman or rifleman. If he is crouched or sometimes standing, he is packing RPG/SA7/HAT. If he doesnt shoot rounds for a few seconds, hes linging you up, trying to be careful with something he has few......Eg, AA/AT.

-Negative collective('S' key) is God

For some reason, the negative collective slows you down more than it actualy makes you descend. This means it is useful if you have to point the nose at the ground for a short while(withouth rocketing into the ground); Hovering (keeping you speed-o-meter bewteen 0-30kmph) or allowing yourself to turn smoothly.

-Your Mini-Map is KEY for perfect landings

Frequently, you will find you are landing/hovering somewhere, where you have no idea where you are going(on a small rooftop or very high up).
using a combination of speed, altitude and movement on the minimap, you can tell your exact velocity. It may help to zoom in your minimap by pressing 'N'.

-Prioritise

Sometimes, a squad you are transporting might not know as much about the next LZ as you do. The SL might ask you to take him and his squad to Dam CP so he can get the flag. What he might not know is that East beach CP is about to be neautralised by the enemy. This may call for you to take the SL and squad to an LZ there, so they are forced to Defend and bring about teamwide sucsess(as most people want to just run, constantly, into a meat grinding assault).

To take a sniper 'Ontop of the biggest roof in the city' is usualy not as important as getting poor old squad 3, who's first time it is playing the map, has decided to treck all the way to the enemies main base.

You can tell whos a decent/useful squad by usuing your squad menue.
Look at the kit lay-out of the squad and you will know for sure. If squad 2's SL is a sniper, has one AT, a spec ops and a marksman, it is less likely that they are as effective(or capable of teamwork) as squad 4, who has two medics, A rifleman, support+ Light AT and the SL is an officer.

You can tell if the squad is working together by clicking on the squad name, hilighting all the players in the squad in white. If they are close together, they mean business.

-Transport is not codeword for Gunship

Yes, you may have two miniguns on that blackhawk, but your still a transport. 'Doing some Black H4wk D0wn sh1t' is not effective or a good enough excuse to be spraying 'n praying, because you will be just another blackhawk down.
The enemy potentialy has 5xRPGs, 2xHAT, 2xAA and 4 support guns to chew you up. That is assuming that the enemy doesnt have armour or jeeps...


I'v run out of steam, post more later.

...mongol...

.50 cals are dangerous.

Just today, I was driving my Vodnik, as a Blackhawk flies low and slow, I stop, switch to .50 and shoot him down and wound or kill all the troops, that were waiting to bail out.

Outlawz wrote:.50 cals are dangerous.

Just today, I was driving my Vodnik, as a Blackhawk flies low and slow, I stop, switch to .50 and shoot him down and wound or kill all the troops, that were waiting to bail out.

Just today we got lit up by 30 different small arms including 50 cals, cause I've been playing too much EECH and thought it translated well to PR.

Needless to say, it didn't take a rocket to bring our chopper down.

That's why you fly low and hug the terrain. On Kashan it's harder, which is why you try to pick areas sparse in infantry/tanks.