Thanks for creating this AAR's Beach, they are pretty immersive, think is time to reinstall the game and give it a new go.

Guns For Hire

Our next assigned mission under the newly reorganized Larkin Aviation (now a subsidiary of Vrana Corporation apparently) is to take one of the newly acquired Little Birds over to Ion headquarters and ferry some of their “operators” on a training mission. It all seems rather shady indeed…



On our way to the Ion compound I pass Boeing Field. Not quite FSX level of detailing for sure…



At Ion HQ I land the helo on their designated helipad in the grass, shut-down, and walk over to meet my client for the day. They look a little twitchy…





The guy in charge is pretty much an a-hole, but he’s paying the bills. He tells me he want a training ride for his boys to the Ion target range and that he will give me specific flying instructions once we are airborne…



The guns-for-hire hop on the helicopter and it looks like I’m employed by Blackwater West now…



The unit commander barks flying orders into my headset. He wants fast and low, and if you deviate, he’ll certainly let you know about it.



We hug the valley floor. The slightest twitch will send us into the trees and constant vigilance is required…





Every few kilometers there is a new heading change. We charge up valleys, over ridgelines, and skim the trees at high speed…





Once the leader is satisfied with the low and fast bit of flying he instructs me to head for the Ion target range. He wants a quick drop off on a certain heading – a combat assault essentially…



As soon as my skids hit the deck, the operators jump from the sides of the helo, run a short distance and drop prone to engage targets at the far end of the range…



I’m instructed to depart, orbit for a brief period, then do another landing to extract the men…



I’m then told to hover close to two other operators until I get low enough to make them hunker down. I think a bit of hazing by the commander…



I’m ordered to set the helicopter down again so that the commander can join his forces at the range. I’m cleared to fly back to the Larkin heliport…



As I head for base, Joe calls on the radio and informs me that I’m probably low on fuel due to the extensive flying I’ve just done – sure enough, the needle is heading toward empty. Joe gives me directions to a backup refueling site which I head for immediately…I don’t want to bend the brand new Little Bird that Vrana / Ion bought us…



The alternate LZ is about eight or nine kilometers away and we reach it in no time. I circle around and set up for a quick landing near the fuel farm…





A woman that runs the small airstrip comes out to greet me and provide the fuel. She asks for a ride to the Larkin heliport since she has some business to attend to on that side of town. On the flight back to our heliport she lets me know that the aviation community is abuzz with word that Vrana has acquired Larkin Aviation…





Back safely at the heliport after a stressful mission…but all required tasks accomplished…





The story continues to unfold and I wonder to what purpose Vrana intends to use our company…

BeachAV8R

Military Expo

With the flight to the Ion weapons range complete, my brother Joe was pretty hot at our new "boss" that I would be required to undertake such a risky contract. He let her know about it, but since she answers directly to Vrana, she is more interested in the money than the safety aspects...



Our next contract is to supply some heavy cargo to an airshow and military expo that Ion has some affiliation with. We are tasked to fly over to the naval base near Bremerton...





This will be the first opportunity for me to fly the heavy lift helicopter - and it's pretty impressive!





Soon the cargo is loaded, the engines are running, and we are on the way for the 20 km flight to the naval base...





On approach to the expo area, I can see a bunch of assault type ships tied up in their berths...



A glance out my window shows an impressive array of static aircraft and military hardware. No wonder Ion was interested in this show...



A cool feature is that a camera down at the show is trained on me and it displays my helicopter on an MFD in the cockpit. The image is also being shown on huge monitors down in the expo area...





It's a tight fit for such a large helicopter as I ease her down toward a parking area...



I settle down and the cargo ramp descends and the cargo is delivered...



I'm met by a military officer who was an old friend of my father's - he seems genuinely happy to see me flying for Larkin Aviation and following in my old man's footsteps...



He gives me a brief tour of the flight line then decides to ask me to participate in the flight demonstration portion of the show. He introduces me to some old friends of my father, retired officers of some sort, and they clamber aboard a helicopter that I'm supposed to fly...





The goal is to stay in relatively close formation with another demonstration helicopter. It is a pretty good challenge with lots of hair raising flying. If you wander too far outside the formation parameters a timer starts - if it hits sixty seconds you fail that portion of the mission...





We zip back and forth along the flightline demonstration area performing some flybys and light maneuvers. After the formation flight, my passengers press me into putting on a more aggressive display of rudder turns, course reversals, flying backwards, nose dips, and other maneuvers...







After five minutes of aerobatics I'm ordered to return to the static display area where we shut down and my passengers congratulate me on a good ride. They invite me to participate in the public airshow tomorrow. As I walk back down the expo area to my own helicopter, I take in the sights of the static displays...





Back in the cockpit of the heavy helo...



I pull some pitch, climb away from the expo, then nose over and accelerate back to Larkin's heliport...





The mission(s) are accomplished and I start poking my nose around the hangar looking for the next contract...



BeachAV8R

That air show mission looks fun, wish there was something like that in more sims.

Indeed. This is where some "game" sims have done a great job (FSX, Take On Helicopters). But the formula has to be right..because you can get really boring and non-innovative ones like MS Flight that just fall incredibly flat.

BeachAV8R

Having the game in my steam library from it's release I only started playing it in Career mode only recently thanks to your AAR's. I played it earlier but only made some simple scenarios in editor. I have to say that the career sucked me in.

I like the ability to pre-check your helos before missions (you save money on maintenance that way). It's covered in the training section of the career, however not everything is showed - you can discover hydraulic failures by getting inside the cockpit and moving the cyclic or faulty battery by turning it on (again from the cockpit). It really immerses the player in the game world.

BTW the guy that you meet in the military expo (Sam Nichols) is probably the same Sam Nichols from Operation Flashpoint (you took his role during "pilot" missions in the OF:CWC campaign). He even talks about his past war which he and Tom Larkin's father were in '85 (Cold War Crisis), and in earlier mission some other friend of Larkin's father mentions something about Everon which was one of the islands depicted in Operation Flashpoint.

Ah..OK..that explains why I could never quite find all of the outstanding items...some of them were in the cockpit! I just paid a little extra to have them repaired.. <g>


Ha..that's a cool little tie in that many of us would never have caught.. Thanks for filling in that blank...

BeachAV8R

Space Needle Lift

For our next mission we’ve picked up a private sector job that allows us to make a few extra bucks while concurrently running the preset campaign. The private sector and government job missions are optional in the campaign, but they provide for some interesting flying.

We’ve been contracted to replace the “needle” on the space needle. Indeed, in flying this mission I learned that the needle is called the “gas torch” and apparently it used to carry natural gas that was used to light a flame on it. Now we’ve all learned something.



Meanwhile – remember what I said about Joe and his back pain and drugs? Sure is acting suspicious these days…



In order to accomplish the heavy lift type missions, we need to outfit our heavy lift helicopter with a winch…and throw in a new paint job too!





Off we go on our heavy lift mission as the evening fades toward darkness…



The Seattle skyline is a quick hop across the bay…



We approach the Space Needle and assess the situation. We’ll have to hover in a stable position above the needle to allow the workers to secure our winch cable to the antenna…





As we close in, our camera display shows our position on the MFD which helps us get into position directly above the needle…



We hold steady in the hover while the count-up percentage runs up to 100% - load attached!



We are instructed to fly the load to a drop off point on the pier south of the city…





The glare is pretty harsh, but we find the proper drop off point and lower the load down to the ground…



We are then instructed to move over a few hundred meters to pick up the new gas torch/antenna. Once again we are required to hover precisely over the load while the cable is attached to the load. The hovering among the nearby towers and stacked containers is pretty challenging and fun…





Soon we have the load slung and we head back to the Space Needle. As we arrive and prepare to set the new needle on the structure we receive word that our mission has been scrubbed. It seems some of those hippie Seattle protestors have gained access to the top of the Space Needle and they are clustered there protesting. Damn! Allegedly one of them BASE jumps off the tower, but I didn’t spot the jumper or the chute…





We are told to take our load back to the origination point on the pier and set it down carefully and the mission is scrubbed until a later date…



We return back to the Larkin heliport in the last of the daylight…


A fun little mission with some challenging flying and a cool twist in the end…



BeachAV8R

Interesting and very original mission.

Heist Takedown

Our mission for today will be flown under contract with Ion to support the Seattle SWAT team on a mission. The mission is to fly to an airfield to pick up a SWAT team, then insert the team onto a building in downtown Seattle where a heist is taking place.



We take the Wasp to the airfield south of Seattle…



Once we land there, we meet up with the commander of the SWAT team who outlines the plan. I’ll fly their helicopter on the insertion mission. The goal is to approach the building while remaining hidden from the perps rooftop spotter, so we have to approach from a certain direction so that their spotter won’t have line of sight on us…



With the plan in hand, we head for the helo and the short flight to downtown…





A box lets me know if the lookout has spotted me or is observing our helo…



A SWAT sniper is on another roof giving me a video feed to my picture-in-picture window which shows which direction the lookout is facing…



As we approach the rooftop, the commander gives the GO command and the SWAT sniper takes out the lookout as we hustle in for the insertion…



I drop the rope and the team fast-ropes down to the rooftop and they gain entry to the building. In a scene from Blackhawk Down – one of the SWAT members falls from the rope and another member tends to him while the other members take down the rest of the heist team in the building…





The commander calls ALL CLEAR and gives me the go ahead to return to the airport…



An interesting mission with cool dynamics for sure. I’m definitely impressed with the scope and variety of the missions in the TOH campaign…



BeachAV8R

Boater Rescue

As the campaign continues, we are once again called on by the local government to provide supplementary lift capability – but this time we are tasked with a rescue operation. We’ll be using our winch equipped helicopter to come to the aid of a vessel that has had two men washed overboard…



My crew for today is a search and rescue team…





We are given the coordinates of the vessel in distress. Once we arrive on the scene, I lower the winch with the rescue swimmer attached to pluck the two victims from the chilly water…





Precise hovering is necessary and you have to listen to the directions of the winch operator while being careful not to get hung up on the structure of the vessel…







Once both victims are aboard, a timer starts and you have a bit over two minutes to race them to the nearby hospital helipad…



A quick flare to kill speed, and then carefully drop the huge helicopter onto the rooftop landing pad…



Mission accomplished!



Soon we are headed back through the city on our way to our home heliport…





Take On Helicopters is, in many ways, the spiritual successor to the Search and Rescue series, but with the added bonus of having even more varied missions (but perhaps not as many numerically).

BeachAV8R

Airshow Interrupted – Container Lift

Our next in-house Vrana Industries mission is to follow through on our commitment to fly in the arms exhibition air show that we had practiced for a couple of days ago. With that mission in mind, I strap into the Wasp and head for the airshow location. It doesn’t look like a great day for an airshow though, with lots of low clouds and very poor visibility…





While enroute to the airshow, I get a surprise radio call that I’m being diverted! It seems that someone high up in Vrana wants to use me for a completely unbriefed mission. I’m told to head to one of the Vrana compounds to switch to one of their heavy lift helicopters…



I land, shut down the Little Bird, and walk over to the heavy lift helo…



I’m giving a waypoint to fly toward. The weather continues to be crappy with low ceilings and poor visibility…



Soon I find out what all the secrecy is about. Apparently the Vrana containership disaster that started this whole campaign is still a problem for Vrana. I’m instructed to lift some containers and ferry them to another Vrana compound. My FLIR camera shows a rubber boat near the target container and I deploy my winch cable and move into position…





After a few seconds of hovering in the right spot, the load is attached to the cable…



I take the slung load a few kilometers away to a small airstrip in the woods that has container trucks standing by. No, I don’t know what is in the crates and yes, I’m curious too!



It’s a tight squeeze into the small strip requiring some careful maneuvering, but I get the load on the ground safely…



I’m instructed to return to the freighter for another container. After hooking up to this one though, I realize the container is much heavier than the first one. It requires pulling power almost into the red to get the lift moving…





I make my way carefully back to the airstrip and lower the second crate to the ground. For some reason I’m starting to feel like I’m working for the CIA or something…





As I turn for home, I get a few kilometers and suddenly my helo starts to clunk and vibrate. The lift was too heavy and I’ve damaged the engine! The dispatcher acknowledges my trouble and I’m told to autorotate to a safe landing. I pick out a clearing in the woods and successfully drop in, easing my collective in as I pitch the nose up with the cyclic…





The mission is a success, although my brother is hopping mad that the boss put me up to such a dangerous mission. He too is getting very uncomfortable with the “fast and loose” attitude of Vrana Industries and their subsidiary Ion…





We’ll see what happens next…

BeachAV8R

Construction Contract

Even though the last mission almost ended in catastrophe, the bills still have to get paid. A construction site has a simple flight for us to complete requiring us to move a few containers from one job site to another. Definitely a job for the heavy lift helo...



It's a short flight past the docks on the south side of the city...





As we approach the construction area, the site comes into view on the FLIR camera. Both the pickup and drop off points are closely guarded by two large construction cranes that we'll have to keep an eye on. Definitely some tight quarters to be wrangling a load in...



I drop down to a hover and wait for the required amount of time for the load to be secured to the cable before starting the lift...





Arriving at the drop off point two-thousand meters away we can see cranes here too. It requires a lot of power to arrest the forward momentum and come into a stable hover...



We gently move into position and set the container onto the roof - hovering while the disconnect is performed...



Another trip back and forth the contract is done and the money is in the bank...



---------------------------------------------

The Shakedown

The next mission finds us confronting the shady dealings of Vrana Corporation. The entire staff at Larkin Aviation are pretty upset about the mission requiring the excessive container lift from the freighter. Joe hatches a plan to make a run over to Vrana and shakedown one of the operators there (presumably an Ion employee?)...





Joe and I head out in the Little Bird...







We arrive at the pickup location - the stricken freighter that has plagued the Seattle area for weeks. It does look like all of the containers have been cleaned up though...



I plop the Little Bird down on the deck and pick up Frost...





Hard to believe a hardened operator like Frost could be shaken by some aerobatics..but the mission requires us to fly some hard maneuvers to get him to talk. He says he supposed to meet another guy at the Vrana HQ building downtown to retrieve a USB drive with some information on it...





We dump frost out on the nearest beach and head for the HQ building...





Setting up for the helipad landings on the tall buildings is always pretty fun...







I shut down the engine and go to meet the guy Frost was supposed to be meeting...





With the data in hand, I head back to the helo, taking a moment to take in the beautiful sunset. TOH sure does drip with atmosphere...



On the way back to the helipad Joe, who hasn't been feeling well, is stricken with a major problem and he directs me to fly him to the hospital...







The mission is a success and we have some information about the containers I had plucked from the water a couple missions back... Now, what to do about it?

BeachAV8R

The Takedown

In this, our final mission in the Take On Helicopters "Larkin Rising" campaign, we finally bring closure to the storyline. Apparently, the data on the USB drive that we snagged in our last mission has some vaguely incriminating evidence on it. We've managed to secure a team to head to Vrana's shipping container compound to execute a search and seizure...



Having a pow-wow about the mission...



The insertion team is loaded in the heavy helo and ready to go...



Dennis Haysbert will be riding shotgun. I can only assume our insurance policy is awesome!





We fly low and fast to the warehouse complex...



We'll let the team fast rope in to the compound (I don't know why we didn't just land)...



I deploy the rope and SWAT members start zipping down the line and fanning out across the compound searching for the container with the contraband...





Once the team deploys we are ordered to orbit the LZ. After a minute or so of searching, the team comes up empty handed. They ask me to land so I can personally identify the crate that I plucked from the water a few missions ago...





I leave the engines running and hop out and start running around the compound. Eventually I find the correct crate - a cut scene reveals it is empty!



The insertion team is disgusted. The CEO of Vrana, Haydon, is heading for the airport to leave the country and we have nothing.



Apparently, my anger at the situation gets the better of me and I tell Joe and the other employees that I'm going to stop Haydon on my own and I take off to intercept his helicopter...





I plot an intercept course because I somehow know that Haydon is flying south past Seattle...



I have to get very close to his helo in order to intercept him and force his helo to land..





Haydon is forced to land and the mission ends. The story ends with Haydon being held on suspicion of some nefarious deed - but we never really learn what was in the shipping container.

I choose to believe.... that it was filled with dozens of Gwyneth Paltrow heads.



The End



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Now a short commentary on TOH. If you don't want to read my whole summary - the cliffnotes version is: TOH is fantastic. The missions are fun. And you can pick this thing up for less than $5.00 on sale these days. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is pretty solid, and yeah, the voice acting is a bit silly, but who cares.

In my extended remarks - I first have to apologize to BIS because last year I made a post in the TOH that sort of derided TOH for having a clunky interface and that it was a pretty frustrating game/sim to play. Well, given a lot of time with the sim, I have to agree that my initial assessment was correct..it IS clunky! (Who puts an engine OFF command on mouse controlled interface right next to DEPLOY ROPE!??) That said, given more time with it, I came to learn to deal with the shortcomings and the overall brilliance of the game won me over.

Now that I have an i7 computer and a graphics card with some punch, I can pretty much max out the graphics settings (except for draw distance) and the game plays smooth like butter. And the graphics really are great. Yeah, some of the textures are a bit muddy (like roads), but the overall impression is very good. The weather, atmospheric effects, and lighting are among the best in any sim.

Regarding flight model. Using Fred's Advanced Flight Model based on Helicopter Total Realism the helo dynamics are much improved. Not perfect..but quite satisfactory and a good challenge.

The missions are varied and well constructed. I would have loved to have seen more "Afghanistan" missions and some additional Arma components, but it is hard to complain when someone finally melded first person action with a flight sim and did it pretty well.

My only real complaint is - where is the additional content!?? Man, it would have been nice if BIS could have put out more airframes (beyond the relatively meager offerings within Take On Hinds and Rearmed) and more campaigns. You can do a LOT of really cool things with helicopters. I feel that TOH was the spiritual successor to the Search and Rescue series of sims, but so much better with the great graphics and the capability to make intricately scripted missions. It is really a shame that BIS wasn't able to push the series forward and really hook the community.

Anyway - if you have the chance, pick it up and play it. It can often be found on Steam sales for under $5.00 I think these days and that is a great bargain. According to my Steam stats I played about 50 hours worth..so that is pretty damn good.

Nice job by the TOH producers and programmers. I hope you can return to it at some point and continue to develop it.

Hope you guys enjoyed the total campaign AAR.

BeachAV8R

PS - Spoiler alert.

Wow, that was lame. Typical of Bohemia and their horrible mission design.

Again, your AAR is more exciting than the actual gameplay. I'm only two scenarios away from completeling the campaign and so far the missions have been tedious and unenjoyable. I didn't know I was only two scenarios away from completion, and now you've saved me some time. Thanks.

Side note, both times I've had to conduct fast rope insertion I've wondered why. In both cases it would've been faster to land and disembark.