See this post over at ED. This first workshop will cover flying the Black Shark, so nothing too fancy I think. But seeing as the biggest challenge of this sim is actually flying the damn helicopter...

This is happening on the 6th of January, 2000hrs GMT. Slots must be reserved.

Somebody sign up for this and see how they handle it...

I think there are plenty of folks who want help so no shortage there...

WC

Ice and myself are signed up...........

I got back from my ski vacation just in time to attend this workshop, and I'm glad I did. Here's a little writeup of what we did:

First off, I have been flying the Shark for over a year now, at least to the extent that I can get from A to B without crashing and get a shot off. Thanks to the manual, I have a decent understanding of what all the switches and knobs do, and thanks to some secondary literature I have some sort of how the helicopter flies. Still, I was never satisfied with my flying, because I never properly learned how to fly a helicopter.

Enter Tyger, who knows how to explain that (and fly the helicopter at the same time).

He did not just set up a training server for us all to watch his demonstrations and try out the maneuvers ourselves, but also a livestream that allowed us to look into his cockpit so we could see his control inputs, which is very useful.

He started off the workshop by setting the rules and then explaining about the challenges that helicopter pilots have to face.
Then the first actual material arrived in the form of these 4 basic rules:

• weight and speed in the coaxial heli have to be countered with left cyclic and right rudder to avoid sideslip in forward flight
• Use the control indicator [rC-Enter]
• Choose your trim method and stick to it
• Understand the damping channels (see Autopilot panel)

With those in mind, we moved on to the lessons, which worked like this:
First, Tyger would explain and demonstrate one or two maneuvers. After question time, we would try these out ourselves with valuable feedback from Tyger and several other experienced Shark pilots.

For the first lesson, we were taught how to hover manually and with the autopilot, what the collective brake is useful for and how to do a rolling landing.

The next lesson started with a rolling takeoff, then we got to learn the hammerhead turn.

After that came the 180 deg break turn. Building on it, we were taught how to enter a funnel by making half a break turn. Funneling is rather difficult, and a way to practice for it is by flying sideways, which we tried next.

At this point, the workshop, which had started around 8:00 pm GMT, had lasted for several hours--fortunately with short breaks--and was now to be rounded off by a little polonaise, combining all that we had learned.

With some difficulties due to crashes and kicks of the players who flew into others, this took some time to set up, but we finally managed something along the lines.

After a server restart, Tyger finally demonstrated the tilt maneuver. At this point, my internet connection shut off, but as it was 2:00am MET, I decided to catch some sleep.

All in all, it was a very good workshop. I learned a great deal, I've got many things I need to practice now and it's pretty awesome to fly around with a dozen black sharks around the air field with hardly any collisions between players--though probably all of us crashed burning into the ground.

So: many thanks to Tyger!! You did an awesome job there!


Many, many black sharks on one server!


PS. This workshop will probably be repeated, so if you're interested, keep your eyes open.

The only downside I can see about the tutorial is that Tyger took too many students on at once. While one instructor can instruct and demo for 8-10 students, he will be hard pressed to observe and comment on all of them during the limited practice time. A 1-3 instructor-to-student ratio would have been ideal on the practice sessions... I would've appreciated more hands-on help since I've been unable to satisfactorily do almost all the maneuvers; those I have been able to do was at an altitude that I would not be in during a combat phase of the mission.

Aside from this, I am looking forward to more and will definitely attend! BTW, I left at 1:30am GMT, and they were still going at it... mostly FARP and oilrig landings.

Great review Olaf!
Hey, that´s me, the second Shark in the line

I can only encourage everyone eager to learn the Shark, to join one of Tyger´s future lessons.
Ice may have a point with having not enough instructors for the guys that wanted a more personal way of teaching.
Maybe some of his squadron mates can pinch in next time, for some one-on-one.
For me personally, Tyger´s way was just right.
He gave a thorough presentation of every maneuver and a lot of help, while we practiced them. Doing that you always had a little challenge with the other guys. Something that adds a lot of motivation. At least for me.

I´m looking forward to his next "pool of sharks" !

Lol, welcome Dustoff!

I'm not saying Tyger's way was wrong, I was just saying some of us clumsy pilots who probably have no business being in a helo cockpit could use a little more personal help. I probably crashed enough Sharks that night to wipe out a small country's economy.