A quick review for heli-newbie (well, I'm myself a newbie, too and honestly, it's also the first time I "fly" a helicopter. So if you experts know something else, feel free to correct.)
First impression: The Sikorsky looks clumsy, heavy and somewhat unstable. Just compare it with the legendary UH-1, it's way more elegant. And before you try: there's no prop pitch setting and no trim. Tried to open the side door but failed to close it
It's really amusing to see how the blades react to your stick. Tried to activate the floats, remembered that there's no way back, but the floats don't seem to cause much drag.
Take off: take off is quite smooth, just start the engine and push the throttle to about 50% and you're airbone. Very much like the Lerche, that bird climbs quite fast. Just a note: the torque is significant. I've always thought that the torque in a helicopter should be minimal. Fact is, I rotated an almost full circle because I could bring the bird under control. Curiously, the helicopter seems to fly backward and aside after the take off. Don't look like the movies I saw. Perhaps it's a game limitation, or just I've done something wrong. No idea
Landing: Tried to land it in the "Lerche's way": stop at about 500ft, slowly reduce the power and watch the altitude carefully. Wreaked the landing gears twice, perhaps this bird doesn't have strong legs as the lerche. Landing on water is somewhat easier. The floats work nicely.
Handling: the first try was terrible, this bird shaked a lot, rotated a lot and when you go too fast, that's the end: engine overheat, engine inoperable, pilot killed, misson failed
Conclusion after a few "reflies": fly a fixed wing aircraft and fly a helicopter is completely different. Helicopter (well, at least this bird) doesn't like speed and acceleration, it loves smoothnees. A few "lessons":
- Don't try to push the throttle way to high up, the optimal range is about from 40% to 60%, with about 10% tolerance. At about 50%, the helicopter will stay in the air.
- Don't fly too fast, watch the speedometer closely (that's the reason why it's located in the place which is easiest to see). No idea which unit (my guess: MPH x 10), but don't go above 10. Optimal speed shoud be between 4 and 6.
- Use rudder to counter the torque. Don't bother "step on the ball" (well, it didn't work with me).
- If you want to speed up, push the stick foward. To slow down, pull the stick.
- If you want to go high up, increase the throttle. To descend, decrease the throttle.
(Well, that's the most confusing part. After 7 years of "flying", I always use throttle to control speed and stick to control altitude)
After learning all of those tricks, flying is now way easier and very enjoying. Fly low and slow between the factories, make a U-turn in just a few seconds, flying and landing backward, that you are virtually "catched up" by your ground dust (well, I guess it's another game limitation),... there are something that only helicopter can do.
Damage test: I always dreaming about a helicopter campaign like of the US air cavalry in Vietnam. So I did some damage test. 20mm or above should be the end to any helicopter, but I really hoped that bird can substain some small fire. 3 tests were made: with 7,62mm (from SdKzf whatever, I forgot the number
, from DShK AA and .50AA and from Flak 38). Results: the Sikorsky can eat about 20 hits from 7,62 caliber, just 4 hits from 12,7 caliber and only 2 hits from 20mm caliber. The outcome was always the same: mid-air explosion. Pilot doesn't seem to have much protection. One hit from a 7,62mm machine gun and you're heavily wounded.
A few bugs I found:
- A side door bug: I can't close it.
- From outside view, in normal and gunsight view, if you rotate to see the helicopter from behind, you can see through the tail.
- Rotor blade: if you look up from the cockpit, you'll notice a space between the blades and the ceiling of the cockpit.
- Torque: don't know if it's a bug or not, but I must use much rudder to counter the torque.
- [IMPORTANT]: fly against a 12,7mm machine gun nest. Right after its tracers flying toward you, the aircraft disappear in the outside view. In the cockpit view, the rotor blades disapper too.
- Mid-air explosion: IMHO, it would be more logical if you receive more engine failed, fuel tank leaked, pilot wounded than sudden death. And 4 12,7mm rounds to down a helicopter, I've never expected that the Sikorsky is so vulnerable. BTW, the damage modell seems to be quite primitive: no bending blades when they strike the ground, no cockpit damage (at least I've never seen it. Too few tests I guess), no parts that can be shot off, no control loss, no FM punishment when damaged (again, never seen)...
- Load-out: not really a bug, but may you please consider adding more loadout like cargo that can be drop to besieged troops.
Last but not least, thanks a lot for your magnificient work.
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Topic: Sikorsky HRS3 & H19D version 1.05 (Read 133342 times)
