Arma Helicopter Flying

With the Arma bootcamp getting going again to help folks learn/relearn arma, I figured it might be good to have a rotary wing flight thread for people to post questions and information in.

Practice makes perfect.

This is the best way to describe flying in the arma series. The more time you put into learning the mechanics of flying the better and more rewarding it can be. Likewise if you don't put time into learning it, you will be frustrated when you do try to fly.

The first thing to remember is that flying is fun, it is also important to remember that its just a game so things that will kill you in the real world will not always apply here. Granted there are thousands of ways to get it all wrong, most are likely to cause the displeasure of your friends riding with you. I generally find a couple of new ways to crash every time I go practice.

For how to fly in arma I suggest watching The Art of Flight video series put together by Dslyecxi from Shack Tactical. While some of the videos may seem to cover rather simple topics, the information is helpful. Each time I've rewatched one I've picked up new techniques to try out.




With the release of the Arma Helicopter DLC there are now two flight models to choose from along with several sub options for the advanced model. Don't feel that you have to use the advanced model to prove anything, it's there if you want to challenge yourself but not something that is required.

If anyone wants more hands on training there is a mod available that will allow an instructor pilot to fail components on you so that you can practice autorotations, tail rotor failures, and others. I would be more than happy to help with it or anything else in learning arma.

 

For more advanced practicing I've started using the SCmod for arma 3. (there was an SCmod for arma 2 but I've not used it)
They have taken 4 of the transport helicopters and outfitted them for aerial firefighting. Two have under belly drop tanks and there is a bambi bucket that can be sling loaded. Installing it isn't any more difficult than other mods, activating it in game is slightly more complex. In the editor you need to place the water tank or water basket (bambi bucket) and then tie it to the empty helicopter. You can use a dynamic mission generator with it to create forest fires throughout out the islands automatically or manually place fires in the editor. The mission generator does have some issues and will place fires underwater in the bays so reload it as needed once you get it going.


While not the same as gun runs in a little bird, the mod adds new ways to use the helicopters and something more entertaining to do than just flying around looking for difficult places to land in the editor.

One caution I will give is that the wildcat can NOT lift the bambi bucket when its full. If you attach it to the helicopter be sure to dump it down under 50 before trying to really take off with it. I've found that while feeling heavy, 40 seemed to be a workable amount in it. Most likely it was intended to be used by the larger helicopters and a smaller bucket hasn't been modeled for the wildcat yet.