I have a few questions about Black Shark 1:
1) How do I equip NVGs? I tried doing it at a heliport, clicked \, F10 (Maintenance) and requested for my helmet mounted device to be be changed to NVGs, but I hear no response. Do I need to place another object next to the heliport that would enable me to change out my HMD device? And can this be done from any air field?
An airfield, or FARP, needs to have a friendly unit on it or near it (within 2km) in order to be 'operational' for your side. Now, your problem may indeed be some missing vehicle, or perhaps you are not correctly operating the radio - unfortunately I don't recall enough to tell you which it is.
If it is night, they may already be equipped.
And once I have it equipped, does the H key turn on the NVGs?
I believe so. You can check in the input to make sure, but I think it's the same as for activating your helmet sight.
2) In the options menu I am looking for the TV panning buttons as I would like to assign them to my HOTAS.
Should be 'TDC slew' or 'Camera slew' or 'something slew' in any case. What
HOTAS are you using? If you have one with a microstick, you may prefer to assign the camera slew axis' to it instead of buttons. BTW, those buttons are probably /.,; ... just like in other DCS offerings.