So I finally had the chance to sit down for some quality time with the DCS UH-1H today. I was pretty enthused about the Huey, but I also wondered exactly how it would compare with the more sexy beasts that DCS has graced us with (A-10C and Ka-50) (P-51..eh..yeah..for some..).. After tooling around for a bit getting familiar with the controls (definitely requires a lighter touch and much more finesse than the Ka-50!) I opened up one of the single missions. The mission, "Stray Eagle", has you tasked to fly a combat SAR to pick up a downed pilot.
To put it succinctly - this mission, and the UH-1H were incredible. The mission layout is fantastic, and the feel of the mission took me back to the days when I used to fly the UH-60 in Longbow 2 on the sneaky insertion and extraction missions.
SPOILERS BELOW - READER BEWARE!The mission has you leaving a FARP with your wingman in another UH-1H. Escorting you is a pair of Cobra attack helicopters. Frequencies and details are provided in the extensive briefing, of which I only posted a portion.
You can either cold or hot start. After getting the engine up and running I pull into a hover. I'm getting a little better at handling the Huey - she definitely doesn't appreciate big control movements.
At the same time - the Cobra escorts start heading out. They are easy to rendezvous on and I find it surprisingly easy to fly formation in the UH-1H. Trim it up for speed and make small altitude adjustments with almost imperceptible movements of the collective.
As we approach the extraction point the pilot comes on the radio and gives a summary of the situation. Soon I spy the little blob of smoke rising on the far side of the town, up in the hills...
On the outskirts of town the escort flight starts finding targets and things start exploding. Without the escort we would have been dead meat.
The downed pilot instructs us that the road leads to his position. I can see his smoke and the best route is to just go down in the weeds and fly down the road through the center of town. As we flash past some buildings a few small arms open up on us. I hear a few hits on my fuselage but don't notice any damage until a few minutes later as my ADI starts rolling over slowly.
We flash through the town and take a bead on the orange smoke. The Cobras are prepping the LZ with rocket attacks and I can see return fire from troops up in the treeline.
I pull the nose up and enter the flare, bleeding off airspeed rapidly while trying to manage the sink rate and tail waggle. I actually made a fairly decent approach on this one...
As we touch down some of the troops start exchanging fire as the pilot breaks from the treeline and makes for our aircraft. I can't tell who deployed the covering troops - it may have been the UH-1H wingman (?).
Overhead the Cobras continue tearing up the treeline as they provide covering fire. Sitting there idling you feel like a sitting duck and I can't imagine how those Vietnam era pilots did it. (RESPECT!)
The friendly troop runs out of the trees and makes a beeline for us as stuff explodes around us from the covering aircraft.
I assume the door gunner position and pray and spray toward some tracers that are coming out of the trees.
After a minute that feels like a half hour the pilot makes it to the helo and we get the signal to get out of Dodge.
We climb up to the circling escort flight and they start heading on the egress route.
My handsome copilot...
I take up position a few hundred meters behind the Cobras and keep them in sight.
As we crest a ridgeline a hidden AA emplacement opens up on the Cobras. I'm a few seconds behind them so I have a chance to hop in the right door gunner position and I try to return fire, but don't hit anything. More importantly, we aren't hit by the AA fire.
Soon we are out of harm's way and heading back down the valley toward our FARP.
I look like Magnum...
Always a good thing when the whole flight returns home..
I make a wobbly approach to the FARP and keep my head on a swivel so that I don't run into one of the other helos that might be heading for my pad. Mission accomplished - I owe the Cobra pilots some beers!
This mission was a textbook example of how a good mission design can make up for in gameplay immersion what the helo lacks in gee-whizzardry. This mission is almost all about the flying. Flying low, fast, but under control and timing the landing to minimize loitering around a hot LZ. My pulse was pounding and my shoulders ached by the end of the mission - and I didn't even kill anything. Testament that a good mission design with a challenging premise can be just as rewarding as a mission where you wipe out a few tank platoons.
I'd imagine we are going to get some pretty creative and fun missions by the mission gurus in the DCS community. With all of the ever increasing power of the mission editor, I think great things are on the horizon for this and other modules.
BeachAV8R
Sorry for the typos - written quickly with a three year old squirming in my lap..
. One can dream.