It's Vietnam...the Helicopter War. It's important that you become comfortable flying uncomfortable machines.

Arcade games take all the skill out of flying a helicopter. We put it back in. But you need to practice a little. Each helicopter has a different "feel".

So we thought we'd post this little reminder. If you have any problems, ask us how to compensate. We fly them so much, it is second nature but they are strange starting out. We follow very closely the actions required of a helicopter pilot and although the physics are not here for hovering (except over a carrier deck), you can do everything else.

A few tips to stress:

-PUSH the stick to get moving forward. Forward speed keeps you flying.
-A little bank in a pedal turn will keep the speed from bleeding off so fast.
-Helicopters did not have autopilots.

Also, you should pay close attention to the briefing. Each bird has different weapons. Some have automatically firing door gunners. Some have one automatic and one fired as a secondary gun. Some have nose guns, side guns, mini-guns, grenade launchers, rocket pods and HEAT.

Gonna keep teasing me with that F model aren't ya?

On topic
Anyone need help flying helos let me know. Not a pilot, but worked on them for 10 years and fly a lot in FSX.

Ahhh, ZeroCinco says "It's important that you become comfortable flying uncomfortable machines." Obviously he's never flown a Snake (Cobra). A VERY comfortable machine (a little tight in the front seat, especially if you are big...we skinny backseaters liked having big guys up front...helped augment the chicken plate). Air conditioner was really good (ours all worked, they had a higher priority to fix than the ordnance system). Seats comfortable, visibility good (except looking straight ahead while flying in the back seat...you learned to adapt real quick though). We didn't have to put on all of that stuff ZeroCinco had to; we could land almost anywhere (particularly good if you flew the same day you took your weekly malaria pill...which always gave you the squirts).
Memories.

That was from the malaria pills? I thought it was from the Intel Briefings.

Visibility straight ahead should not have been a problem - a UH-1C gunship driver that I knew said that he always flew around with the thing going sideways a bit - threw off the little people on the ground that were always trying to place lead and copper into the same space as you.

Mike D.

Excuse me but I have a Saitek X52 and can't really fly the helicopters correctly. Maybe I need to map my Thrust vectoring to the keyboard or something like this?

I will send you one I use. It makes flying the helicopter a lot easier. In fact, I think I will switch back to it with this next big Rotorhead set coming out.

Thanks mate! If this ne work will purchase the next sets

I need to work on this cos you are turning the sets out faster than I can master them... Ah well, good for my co-ordination and keeps my grey cells jumping. Thanks.

ZeroCinco keeps trying to make helicopter flying "easy." Flying helicopters is easy only for those who flew them (which means fixed wing drivers had the problems). As for kicking the nose right or left in order to see....well, I used to do that when landing on a helicopter carrier but not in Vietnam (some guys, with poor technique, played ping-pong with the turn and slip indicator ball, but never yours truly <big grin>). I tried to put the biggest guy in the unit in my front seat as added protection....it actually worked (absorbed a round in his love handle....didn't hurt him too bad otherwise I wouldn't tell this as a joke).

There were times when I did NOT want to see what was directly in front of me....bottom line, flying backseat in a Cobra was an acquired skill. After while, never thought about it, just did it.

Hey SnakeDriver5000, I like that you tell us your experiences. Keep it coming. Besides the other books about flying helos in Vietnam, I much liked reading "Snake Driver" by Randy R. Zahn.