Helicopters 101: Basic guide for helicopters

[sigma__zero@psn 4,650]

So it's been a while since helicopters were added to the game and there are still few guides and tutorials posted here, so I thought I could post my own:

 

Basic info.

 

Helicopters are a type of aircraft that use rotors to provide the necessary forces to fly. As the rotor blades move through the air at fast speed they create a downwards force that pushes the aircraft up (i.e. lift), similar to a conventional aircraft's wing producing the necessary lift for it to fly, hence why helicopters are referred to as "rotary-wing" aircraft as opposed to traditional "fixed-wing" aircraft. By changing the angle of the blades (pitch), the helicopter is able to increase or decrease the lift, while changing the pitch to increase lift only on one side of the rotor (by changing pitch of the blades cyclically as they pass through) pushes the helicopter towards the opposite direction. For example, a helicopter flies forwards by increasing lift on the rear side of the rotor, more force on the rear pushes the aircraft forwards. This configuration allows them to fly in ways impossible for fixed-wing aircraft, such as flying backwards or sideways, taking off or landing vertically or hovering over a location.

 

There are disadvantages to helicopters, however. One is the fact that for several aerodynamic reasons helicopters are limited to slow speeds. The max speed of most helicopters is lower than those of most biplanes in the game. Other disadvantage is the dependence on the engine and their relative fragility to battle damage. Helicopters need to have the engine running at a specific RPM to provide enough force to the rotor and keep enough lift to keep them up. Damage to the engine or the transmission can be fatal.

 

Control.

 

Control is achieved by manipulating blade pitch to increase or decrease the lift on all blades (Collective control) or only on the blades as they pass through a certain side of the rotor (Cyclic control). The pilot uses two levers, one for collective and one for cyclic control. The rotor itself creates a torque force that causes the fuselage to spin opposite of the direction of the blades, so a tail rotor is installed to create a force opposite to the torque. Pedals are used to control this rotor, increasing or decreasing its force for yaw control.

 

History.

 

Unlike conventional aircraft, the concept of helicopters didn't really take off (no pun intended) until the latter half of the 20th century. Prototypes and a few production models were made, but they were slow and relatively underpowered. When adopted by air forces of the world they were envisioned mostly as aircraft for transport, rescue or medical evacuation rather than combat aircraft, as used on the Korean War. The popularization of the jet engine helped create more powerful and versatile helicopters, turboshaft engines being lighter and more powerful than piston engines. At around this time people realized that helicopters could be fitted with guns, rockets and missiles to create a powerful weapons platform. The Vietnam war was the conflict that defined the use of helicopters, not just as a troop transport that gave the US army the capability of rapidly mobilizing its troops( using the now iconic UH-1 "Huey"). It also showed the weaknesses of the concept (helicopters were vulnerable to ground fire) and the need for helicopters that could provide not only fire support for the troops after they landed, but for the landing helicopters themselves. The first solution was to adapt Hueys into heavily-armed gunships and later to develop a purpose-built ground attack derivative of the Huey, the AH-1 Cobra, thereby creating the concept of the attack helicopter. The Soviet Union later developed its own attack helicopter, an hybrid design that was not only heavily-armed but retained a limited troop transport capability, the Mi-24 "Hind". As the Cold War progressed, the helicopter was also seen not only as a CAS asset against infantry, but as a powerful anti-tank platform that could fly at very low altitudes, pop up from cover, fire ATGMs at tanks and retreat. Later helicopters have advanced in terms of avionics, sensors and weaponry, but the core concept still remains.

 

Flying the helicopters in WT.

 

1. The HUD. Helicopters have a different view to other aircraft.

 

 

-RPM. This is your rotor's revolutions per minute. Under normal conditions the engine will run at full power and RPM will be anywhere between 90-100% depending on the helicopter (The Alouette II, for instance, remains somewhere at 80% at 100% Collective, but flies well regardless). Rough maneuvers can make it go down a bit, but it's usually no cause of concern (It's usually better to lower collective a bit when this happens, it will make turns smoother and helps keeping the instructor from freaking). If you descend too quickly (e.g. by lowering Collective to 0% while hovering) you can go over 100% RPM. Again, usually no concern, but do keep an eye on it, if it's too prolonged it can lead to engine damage (The Alouette II is particularly vulnerable to this). If it goes below 70%, however, you probably have engine or transmission damage. Lower collective immediately to a point that keeps RPM higher than 70-80% and return to base ASAP, but be warned that your chances of survival aren't very high.

-COLL stands for "collective", i.e. your collective pitch. At 100% it produces maximum lift, a 0% it produces little to no lift. Used to control your ascent and descent rate. Also lower it slightly it when doing maneuvers or to increase RPM and increasing it to lower RPM

-SPD is your speed. Do note that this isn't just forward speed, but towards whatever direction your helicopter is moving.

-CNN is your gun ammunition. (It also says "CNN" even if you only have machine guns for some reason) It can be flexible turret guns or fixed guns, the difference being that the ammunition doesn't reload in the air.

-AG (I assume it's "Additional guns") it's your gun pod ammo, only if you have pods and a turret gun.

-RKT is your rocket ammo.

-MSL is how many ATGMs you have left.

-Fire rate is, like you might have guessed, your gun's fire rate setting, high or low. I haven't found any reason to keep it low as projectile spread seems to be the same and ammunition conservation is not an issue for reloading guns, but maybe some people do.

-OIL1 and ENGN1 are your temperatures. Obviously, a twin-engine helicopter will have OIL2 and ENGN2 for the second engine. Helicopters don't seem to suffer much from temperature-related problems even after suffering oil leaks. The Mi-4AV does overheat faster if it remains stationary as it has an air-cooled radial engine, but it's nothing too troublesome.

 

1. Rocket sight. Used to estimate roughly where rockets will land. It can be tricky to use at first.

2. Gun turret sight. It can move independently from the helicopter itself to a degree

3. Fixed gun sight. Used to aim fixed guns, like pods or the Alouette's fixed MGs.

4. The movement vector. This one is extremely important. The arrow tells in which direction the aircraft is moving to. If it points up you're moving forward, if it points down you're going backwards, if it points left you're moving left and so on. No arrow means you're hovering. The longer the arrow the faster you're moving in that direction.

5. The helicopter's roll attitude. The "W" mark represents your helicopter, the

6. Altitude.

7. Your ascent/descent rate. 0 means you're perfectly keeping altitude. Positive numbers mean you're ascending, negative numbers mean you're descending, the higher the number the higher the rate.

 

2. Gunner sight view. Note that it moves independently from the helicopter itself, so it can be tricky to use while navigating the helicopter at the same time. Useful to aim ATGMs or scanning the area around. If the gunner is killed or the sighting mechanism is damaged, this view will be unavailable.

 

 

1. The direction you're pointing towards, independent of the direction of the helicopter

2. The flight info again, including weapon information and collective percentage. Note that I put the helicopter in HOVER mode in which the instructor keeps the helicopter steady (replacing the COLL display), only available on AB and RB The percentage is your ascent/descent rate, 100% for full ascent, 0% to hover in place and -99% for full descent.

3. The targeting crosshairs. If you have missiles the circle in the center is where the missile will go to. The "X" shaped mark over it means the sight stabilization is activated. It keeps the sight steady for easier aiming. It turns red when you're out of ATGMs

4. Rangefinder. Shows the distance to the point the crosshair is on. Not available on all helicopters.

5. The square is the total area in front of the helicopter covered by the sight, the cross is the point you have the crosshairs pointed at. If the target is outside the targeting area you need to reposition the helicopter itself.

 

I had already posted some of this info in a previous thread, but I thought it would be better to repost here in the specific forum with more detailed info. I'll probably add info about weapons, tactics and maybe a few paragraphs about specific models of helicopters later on. Again, I'm no expert on the subject and corrections/feedback are appreciated. Also thanks to _Catweazle_63 for pinning the thread.

Edited November 10, 2018 by *sigma__zero

[LuftMaus 6,185]

2 hours ago, *sigma__zero said:

If the gunner is killed, this view will be unavailable.

also optics can be damaged (nothing more annoying when u have freshly loaded ATGMs getting alt and u get hit by one lucky bullet directly to the optics. land and repair is must cuz u see only black screen when switching to ATGM targeting view

2 hours ago, *sigma__zero said:

you can go over 100% RPM. Again, usually no concern, but do keep an eye on it, if it's too prolonged it can lead to engine damage (The Alouette II is particularly vulnerable to this)

cobra can get 130% and u really should reduce speed when u see this (u get blinking info) about 400 speed cobra crashes)

mi 4 also can reach over 350 when semi falling

turning off engine when hovering (for mi4) gets u down pretty fast but about 50% RPM or more u get vortex ring warning

turning engine on (at about 100 alt) ensure u safe landing

cobra comes outt from vortex bit longer and u need move ur heli

[sigma__zero@psn 4,650]

Vortex Ring State.

 

Vortex Ring State is an aerodynamic effect in which the interaction between the airflow and rotor as the helicopter descends creates a series of vortices of air around the tip of the blades as well as around the base. This results in loss of effectivity of the rotor and a drastic increase in descent rate as the helicopter is essentially operating in its own downwash and increasing collective can cause the effect to be stronger. Vortex ring occurs mostly during descent while hovering and especially when done at high descent rates and can be dangerous if they occur at low altitude (e.g. during a landing). When this occurs, the game will display a red "VORTEX RING" warning.

 

Avoiding Vortex Ring can be done by simply keeping the descent rate low by careful control of collective or by keeping forward speed during descent (e.g. doing a spiral descent instead of a straight hover). Recovery is also easy. By moving out of the affected airflow (for example, moving sideways) will stop the helicopter from descending and allow the pilot to regain control, as shown on this video:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Modules:

 

As other vehicles, there are some internal and external modules that can be damaged. Some are fairly identical to those of planes, others are unique to helicopters

 

Internal modules:

 

 

1 . Crew. The pilot usually sits to the right and the gunner to the left. In tandem-seat helicopters, the gunner is typically on the front and the pilot in the back. If the gunner is killed gunner view is disabled and some weapons might become unavailable (like the nose turret). If the pilot is killed, the helicopter is out of the battle.

2. Control cables. Damage can lead to loss of controls, though I haven't seen it happening to myself as every time I see a loss of control message my helicopter is a burning wreck anyway.

3. Fuel tanks. As usual, fuel leaks and fires can be caused by battle damage.

4. Transmission. One of the most important modules. Damage to the transmission will lead to rotor power loss or disable the rotor altogether.

5. Engine. Typically a turboshaft engine, though the Mi-4AV has a front-mounted piston engine. It can be damaged by enemy fire (obviously) and by sustained excessive RPM (see RPM in the previous post) or engine overheating.

6. Oil cooling system. Damage to this will cause oil leaks, eventual overheating issues and damage to the engine. The size of the maps usually allows to reach the base and get repairs to avoid any overheating damage, provided that no severe damage elsewhere was caused.

7. Rotor shaft. Transmits the power from the engine to the tail rotor. The Mi-4 has another shaft leading from the engine on the front to the rotor itself. Like transmission damage, it will lead to rotor power loss.

 

Now for the external modules:

 

 

8. The rotor. I haven't seen rotors being damaged by gunfire, so I think they're immune to it. However, it's easy to break the rotor by slamming it against the ground when landing at an angle or when landing or flying way too close to buildings or cliff walls, so keep an eye out for them.

9. Sighting system. Damage to this can disable gunner view, though I've only seen it very rarely.

10. Turret armament. Can be damaged on rough nose landings (especially when the landing skids collapsed). I think it can also be disabled by enemy fire, but I'm not sure.

11. The wings can be torn off by gunfire, especially large caliber (20mm shells or higher). Naturally, all armament on that wing is lost.

12. The landing skids. They can be torn off during rough landings. The helicopter can be landed on its belly just fine, but losing only the skid on one side can be troublesome. Russian helicopters use wheels rather than skids, but I believe their landing gear can be damaged just as easily.

 

And lastly, one note about the infamous tail loss issue. As stated in a developers Q&A, "right now the animation for tail destruction simply simulates the destruction of the main fuselage", which is why any significant damage to a helicopter causes the tail to come off.

 

 

 

Next time I'll be posting more about helicopter modifications and research; weapons, tactics and information will likely come at a later date.

Edited November 11, 2018 by *sigma__zero

[michiyl 569]

Quote

And lastly, one note about the infamous tail loss issue. As stated in a developers Q&A, right now the animation for tail destruction simply simulates the destruction of the main fuselage", which is why any significant damage to a helicopter causes the tail to come off.

This should be formatted to make it stand out more:

"And lastly, one note about the infamous tail loss issue. As stated in a developers Q&A, right now the animation for tail destruction simply simulates the destruction of the main fuselage", which is why any significant damage to a helicopter causes the tail to come off."

probably :)

Other than that - great to read even if I did know most of it already!

[LuftMaus 6,185]

3 hours ago, michiyl said:

"And lastly, one note about the infamous tail loss issue. As stated in a developers Q&A, right now the animation for tail destruction simply simulates the destruction of the main fuselage", which is why any significant damage to a helicopter causes the tail to come off."

rather "proper DM - Soon^TM"  

7 hours ago, *sigma__zero said:

12. The landing skids. They can be torn off during rough landings

..and by ATGM  

7 hours ago, *sigma__zero said:

10. Turret armament. Can be damaged on rough nose landings (especially when the landing skids collapsed). I think it can also be disabled by enemy fire, but I'm not sure.

 and by bullets - damaged barrel - no pew pew (without  repairing ofc)

7 hours ago, *sigma__zero said:

I believe their landing gear can be damaged just as easily.

indeed  

great work *sigma__zero please continue

 

 

 

[Useless_pixels 32]

Hi

 

How to turn off the compass in gunners view?

 

Thnx!

[sigma__zero@psn 4,650]

25 minutes ago, Ne_Dam_Pare said:

How to turn off the compass in gunners view?

 

Thnx!

 

I don't think it's possible to remove any elements of the HUD in gunner view.

[Useless_pixels 32]

8 hours ago, *sigma__zero said:

 

I don't think it's possible to remove any elements of the HUD in gunner view.

 

Okay, thnx.

[Zapberry1562@live 0]

Seems Complicated