Our first mission in Apache Diary is a general overview of the AH-64D Apache, getting to know the layout of the aircraft, and exploring a bit of the cockpit.
We are given a brief walkaround of the Apache with an introduction of the basic parts...
After the pre-flight walkaround, we are invited into the cockpit to check it out...
Once in the cockpit, the familiarization lesson continues with yellow boxes highlighting certain features and suggesting some of the depth of modeling to the avionics...
The IHADDS works very nicely with TrackIR and the cockpit looks great...
I've set the left and right multi-purpose displays (MPDs) to cycle using the left and right DMS switch on my
HOTAS. The tutorial has you cycle through different pages on each, pointing out useful information. It is a lot of information to digest at once and will require some study to get proficient at. The buttons around the perimeter of each MPD are clickable to select pages on each MPD...
After a few minutes of introduction on the basics of the MPDs, we are offered a chance to go fly...
I use the excellent
ONLINE MANUAL to go through the brief startup procedure: turning on the battery, APU, starters, fuel levers, and turning off the rotor brake. The sound of the rotor spinning up gets me excited...
With only a cursory knowledge of the avionics systems, I simply set the left and right MPDs to the IHADDS repeater and the TSD...
I set up my
HOTAS Warthog to work as a cyclic and collective, and my CH Pro pedals for the anti-torque rotor. Control response is pretty good. Definitely not DCS quality flight model, but not bad. A bit better and it might be close to the improved Take On Helicopters FM, but the model is very good and you can settle into it with no problems. I hover gently out to the runway, taking in the beautiful ARMA 2 environment, lighting, and small details. The dust from my rotorwash sends up a slight cloud...
I push the cyclic forward, ease in a bit more collective and accelerate up and away down the centerline of the runway. A few hundred meters to the east is the coastline and as I climb up we flash across the shore...
Turning my head to the right, the TrackIR follow the movements with the IHADDS display in the center. I maintain around 70-80 knots and about 500' of altitude in the pattern...
On the downwind I take in the scenery. It's not hard to imagine how much fun this thing is going to be in a shooting environment...
I drift a bit high as I'm looking around and up a bit high on the base to final leg so I lower the collective and get a "Rotor RPM HIGH" warning...
I ease her through the base to final turn and start pulling the nose up to bleed off some speed while keeping an eye on the descent rate. Though the flight model is good and fun, it doesn't appear to have much in the way of complex rotor physics such as ETL, settling with power, or vortex state..at least not that I've really discovered yet in my first flight with it..
I come in for a landing on the centerline. The feeling of flight over the ARMA 2 world is very, very good. By that I mean ARMA 2 is a world made for infantry, so the detailing is very good. The converse is that the worlds are not very big in terms of theater wide size. But the contours and collidable trees and feeling of speed are superb...
After landing I spot a little courtyard on the other side of the control tower and want a bit of a fine maneuvering challenge so I pick back up into a hover and fly around the tower to put the Apache down in the courtyard...
I burn about 3 or 400 pounds of fuel on the short jaunt around the traffic pattern. I turn the engines off and open the cockpit door to climb out. I'm hoping the 3rd person capabilities of ARMA 2 are taken advantage of in the missions and campaigns to come...
The mission is complete and now I'll move on to more detailed study of the avionics capabilities including navigation and weapons. I have more questions than answers right now. I still haven't figured out if it is possible to switch positions with the CP/G in flight. I know that I can get IN the CP/G station if it is empty on the ground and then order an AI pilot to fly for me, but I don't know if the cockpit positions are switchable in flight. I'll see you for the next training mission soon.
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A few notes on the mod. First of all..it is fantastic! I can't believe what Nodunit & Franze have done with this thing. I mean, this is a professional grade mod that could be sold for money easily! I understand they have it working (to large degree) in ARMA 3 as well. I know there are tutorial missions, some single missions, and I think a fairly substantial campaign to fly, so I'll be working through all of those and seeing how the gameplay is. Understand that the mod works within the framework of ARMA 2 or 3, so there are certain things they can and can't do. It will be interesting to see how the whole thing shapes up, but from what I've seen so far this thing is really good.More information can be found: HERE!BeachAV8R