Yeah, enough experience in Sturmovik to know that tail draggers are a nightmare to fly.
You're okay in the air... until you stall. And then it's instant death spiral.
And, to make you feel inadequate, have a video:
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DCS World: Hardcore Aircraft Porn
- Thread starter aiyel
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Yeah, enough experience in Sturmovik to know that tail draggers are a nightmare to fly.
You're okay in the air... until you stall. And then it's instant death spiral.
And, to make you feel inadequate, have a video:
RangerKarl
angry un liaison on forced vacation
The biggest hurdle with BMS for me, is that the control configuration schema is kinda oldschool and not very easy to do in the game itself. Best practice at r/hoggit is to go down and dirty into the .key files and work from there apparently. Too spoopy for me
yeah, I've got decent profile for my joystick (no effing CLUE what I'm gonna do when my X-55 gets here, though, unlike DCS: Warthog, where I already have a pretty significant control scheme plan worked out)
And I doubt my wife will be okay with me keeping the X-52 because 'it works better with this one game I have'
My problem is that it's not like learning a new module in DCS (which at least have some commonality, and share a game engine and limitations) but I feel I'm also fighting against the game engine.
EDIT:
im im getting better, though. I still suck at getting fuel efficiency out of my Falcon, but I know that somewhere there's a feature to help with that, just need to remember which tutorial vid it was.
its very embarrassing to complete a patrol and crash because you ran out of fuel while turning in on your final approach.
EDIT 2:
Also, finding targets is sometimes a cast-iron bitch. This is mostly because I suck at figuring bulls vectors in my head, but it's also partly because the FCR is pretty different from what I'm used to seeing in my f-15 in DCS
And I doubt my wife will be okay with me keeping the X-52 because 'it works better with this one game I have'
My problem is that it's not like learning a new module in DCS (which at least have some commonality, and share a game engine and limitations) but I feel I'm also fighting against the game engine.
EDIT:
im im getting better, though. I still suck at getting fuel efficiency out of my Falcon, but I know that somewhere there's a feature to help with that, just need to remember which tutorial vid it was.
its very embarrassing to complete a patrol and crash because you ran out of fuel while turning in on your final approach.
EDIT 2:
Also, finding targets is sometimes a cast-iron bitch. This is mostly because I suck at figuring bulls vectors in my head, but it's also partly because the FCR is pretty different from what I'm used to seeing in my f-15 in DCS
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RangerKarl
angry un liaison on forced vacation
Yeah, the times I messed around with Falcon I found it had really short legs. Good incentive to really learn those A2A refuel techniques!
Target discovery is also kinda tough because your scope is filled up with all these contacts. A typical FC3 mission doesn't have as many air tracks as a BMS battlescape. Personally I'd suggest leaving the CAPs to AI flights and doing interdiction for a bit, but then I'm a big casual anyway.
Target discovery is also kinda tough because your scope is filled up with all these contacts. A typical FC3 mission doesn't have as many air tracks as a BMS battlescape. Personally I'd suggest leaving the CAPs to AI flights and doing interdiction for a bit, but then I'm a big casual anyway.
I figured out the short legs issue. There's a fuel conservation helper in your UFC that tells you optimum speed and altitude for max fuel efficiency along your route.
Zak757
Check out this puppy!
How do I into helicopter dogfights.
Mission 8 in the Deployment campaign is a pretty brutal difficulty spike considering how easy it's been so far. Hell, the mission before it was just defending a crash site from some insurgents, I didn't even have to fire a rocket because I killed everyone in about 30 seconds with my cannon. Scale is a lot bigger too, there was a 3 Russian flights and 2 Georgian flights. 4 Ka-50's, 2 Su-27's, 4 Su-24's, 2 Su-25's, and 2 Mi-24's and artillery and air-defense a-plenty. First time I've commanded a four ship flight.
Anyway, flew over a mountain range to get over the Georgian border (I think) which didn't cause me too many problems, given that I checked the elevation of the peak I was flying over on my ABRIS at the start and climbed to that height early on. Descended down to the valley and reached the ingress point over a town, about 10km out from the target zone. I sent out my fourth wingman to scout 8km ahead and datalink any targets he found, and I called him back when he looked like he could be running low on flares (bunch of short range SAM's). Knocked out a couple SAM's with my Vikhr's but forgot that one of the Su-24 flights were doing SEAD and they wiped out the rest of the SAM's anyway, so that was a waste. Anyway, told one wingman to cover us while the rest of us mopped up mission priority targets, which were mostly MLRS and SPG's.
Didn't even get a quarter of the way across the valley before, holy shit, two Georgian Mi-24's pop over the top of a hill and start destroying us. Lacking any sort of sensor besides a TV camera and a laser detection system, I had no idea they were even there until one of my wingmen got his tail blown up with an ATGM. I got all my wingmen to engage bandits, and tried getting my camera on one of them. For some fucking reason, I couldn't lock the bugger when my targetting box was right on him. My laser designator wasn't burn out, it was cold near the mountains and I had hardly used it. I hammered on the lock button but it wouldn't lock. Now that I think about it, the target box was at the minimum size and the Hind was a lot bigger than the box. Do I maybe need to make the targetting box bigger to lock up an aircraft? I haven't had that issue with locking ground targets.
So I get trashed by a Hind, didn't even see the missile, just heard the explosion and then I was spinning to the ground. They didn't have any air to air missiles, so it must have been laser guided ATGM's that hit me. But for some reason, I didn't get a laser warning at all. Umm, why? Thought I could save it, but I exploded when I hit the ground. First death in the campaign by the way, only cosmetic damage up to that point. I stuck around as a spectator for a little while after that, and got to see an amusing dogfight between an Georgian bad ass in an Su-25 (archaic 70's ground attack plane) and some scrub in an Su-27 (high tech 80's interceptor) who shouldn't be allowed to fly. After the Su-25 pilot avoided the noobs IR missiles for a good minute, they ended up approaching each other head on. Su-27 scrub opens fire with his guns and misses, Su-25 pilot returns the favor and blows his tail plane. But they can't turn in time and their wings collide, sending them both spinning to ground and ejecting. Lul.
EDIT: beat it my second time around, though I admit I cheated quite a bit with the pause button and used cameras besides the cockpit view to find the Hind's. I scored one of the kills myself with a Vikhr, so I have an A-A kill to my record now. Only lost a single wingman, and two of us didn't even get scratched. Once I took down the helicopters, anti-air, and BMP-1's, it was a buffet of easy kills. Laying waste to dozens of soft targets with enormous amounts of cannon and rocket fire is a blast.
Mission 8 in the Deployment campaign is a pretty brutal difficulty spike considering how easy it's been so far. Hell, the mission before it was just defending a crash site from some insurgents, I didn't even have to fire a rocket because I killed everyone in about 30 seconds with my cannon. Scale is a lot bigger too, there was a 3 Russian flights and 2 Georgian flights. 4 Ka-50's, 2 Su-27's, 4 Su-24's, 2 Su-25's, and 2 Mi-24's and artillery and air-defense a-plenty. First time I've commanded a four ship flight.
Anyway, flew over a mountain range to get over the Georgian border (I think) which didn't cause me too many problems, given that I checked the elevation of the peak I was flying over on my ABRIS at the start and climbed to that height early on. Descended down to the valley and reached the ingress point over a town, about 10km out from the target zone. I sent out my fourth wingman to scout 8km ahead and datalink any targets he found, and I called him back when he looked like he could be running low on flares (bunch of short range SAM's). Knocked out a couple SAM's with my Vikhr's but forgot that one of the Su-24 flights were doing SEAD and they wiped out the rest of the SAM's anyway, so that was a waste. Anyway, told one wingman to cover us while the rest of us mopped up mission priority targets, which were mostly MLRS and SPG's.
Didn't even get a quarter of the way across the valley before, holy shit, two Georgian Mi-24's pop over the top of a hill and start destroying us. Lacking any sort of sensor besides a TV camera and a laser detection system, I had no idea they were even there until one of my wingmen got his tail blown up with an ATGM. I got all my wingmen to engage bandits, and tried getting my camera on one of them. For some fucking reason, I couldn't lock the bugger when my targetting box was right on him. My laser designator wasn't burn out, it was cold near the mountains and I had hardly used it. I hammered on the lock button but it wouldn't lock. Now that I think about it, the target box was at the minimum size and the Hind was a lot bigger than the box. Do I maybe need to make the targetting box bigger to lock up an aircraft? I haven't had that issue with locking ground targets.
So I get trashed by a Hind, didn't even see the missile, just heard the explosion and then I was spinning to the ground. They didn't have any air to air missiles, so it must have been laser guided ATGM's that hit me. But for some reason, I didn't get a laser warning at all. Umm, why? Thought I could save it, but I exploded when I hit the ground. First death in the campaign by the way, only cosmetic damage up to that point. I stuck around as a spectator for a little while after that, and got to see an amusing dogfight between an Georgian bad ass in an Su-25 (archaic 70's ground attack plane) and some scrub in an Su-27 (high tech 80's interceptor) who shouldn't be allowed to fly. After the Su-25 pilot avoided the noobs IR missiles for a good minute, they ended up approaching each other head on. Su-27 scrub opens fire with his guns and misses, Su-25 pilot returns the favor and blows his tail plane. But they can't turn in time and their wings collide, sending them both spinning to ground and ejecting. Lul.
EDIT: beat it my second time around, though I admit I cheated quite a bit with the pause button and used cameras besides the cockpit view to find the Hind's. I scored one of the kills myself with a Vikhr, so I have an A-A kill to my record now. Only lost a single wingman, and two of us didn't even get scratched. Once I took down the helicopters, anti-air, and BMP-1's, it was a buffet of easy kills. Laying waste to dozens of soft targets with enormous amounts of cannon and rocket fire is a blast.
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X-55 mini-review:
I recently got informed that my father's day gift was an X-55. It came in today. My X-52 has been living on borrowed time for a while, though I think my last fix would keep it going for a few more months, anyway. So, I just flew my first mission with the beastie, and here's what I think so far:
This thing DOES have more bells and whistles than the -52. The stick has 4 buttons, a 1-stage trigger, and three 8-way hats. The system boasts replaceable tension springs for different styles. The throttle has 8 two-way switches, 7 of which are nice metal ones. The slider has been replaced with a simple two-position switch. It also has five rotaries (two of which are also buttons) two hats, a mouse nipple, and three more buttons in addition to the ones on the rotaries.
The up-side: I can finally map every feature I commonly use in the A-10 to a stick using no shift states. If I want to use shift-states, I can also map my comms, trim, and a few other bonus features. Massive plus.
The down-side: It seems that my tension system didn't get lubricated. Until I can find a decent lubricant for it (I'm probably going to do something simple like bike chain grease) I HAVE to use the highest-tension spring because it won't recenter part of the time. Minor oversight, moderate annoyance factor.) It lacks the two-stage trigger, which was useful for the A-10 (and admittedly nothing else I ever flew) so I've mapped the first detent to the #1 pinky switch (where the one on the X-52 was) The #2 pinky switch is currently nose wheel steering in the F-15, and shift-state for the A-10C. No idea what I'm going to use it for int he black shark.
The thing is also XBOX HUEG. it takes up twice as much desk area as the -52.
Also, adjustable curves in the software! Lifesaver for helicopter flight once I get the tensioner lubricated.
I recently got informed that my father's day gift was an X-55. It came in today. My X-52 has been living on borrowed time for a while, though I think my last fix would keep it going for a few more months, anyway. So, I just flew my first mission with the beastie, and here's what I think so far:
This thing DOES have more bells and whistles than the -52. The stick has 4 buttons, a 1-stage trigger, and three 8-way hats. The system boasts replaceable tension springs for different styles. The throttle has 8 two-way switches, 7 of which are nice metal ones. The slider has been replaced with a simple two-position switch. It also has five rotaries (two of which are also buttons) two hats, a mouse nipple, and three more buttons in addition to the ones on the rotaries.
The up-side: I can finally map every feature I commonly use in the A-10 to a stick using no shift states. If I want to use shift-states, I can also map my comms, trim, and a few other bonus features. Massive plus.
The down-side: It seems that my tension system didn't get lubricated. Until I can find a decent lubricant for it (I'm probably going to do something simple like bike chain grease) I HAVE to use the highest-tension spring because it won't recenter part of the time. Minor oversight, moderate annoyance factor.) It lacks the two-stage trigger, which was useful for the A-10 (and admittedly nothing else I ever flew) so I've mapped the first detent to the #1 pinky switch (where the one on the X-52 was) The #2 pinky switch is currently nose wheel steering in the F-15, and shift-state for the A-10C. No idea what I'm going to use it for int he black shark.
The thing is also XBOX HUEG. it takes up twice as much desk area as the -52.
Also, adjustable curves in the software! Lifesaver for helicopter flight once I get the tensioner lubricated.
Zak757
Check out this puppy!
MiG-21 is available now for $45 and will unlock on the 18th. Everything else is on sale.
Recent official updates said the following was on the way, a lot of which is expected before 2015.
Recent official updates said the following was on the way, a lot of which is expected before 2015.
- DCS 2.0 (new engine and GUI)
- Nevada Testing Range theatre
- Normandy map set in 1944 for WWII planes
- Straights of Hormuz which includes Dubai (uh oh...)
- Spitfire Mk IX, BF-109 K-4 and P-47D
- L-39ZA, Hawk T.1A, and C-101CC jet trainers, all being made by different developers
- Flyable MiG-15bis so the Sabre has a rival
- Su-27 is getting an advanced flight model
- F/A-18C though this might not be available until very late next year or even 2016
RangerKarl
angry un liaison on forced vacation
Straits of Hormuz and NTTR are definitely the most exciting things for me. Flying through Vegas/Dubai in my A-10/Black Shark and shooting up casinos or shopping malls! /terrorism
Zak757
Check out this puppy!
Looks like BST is going to make release the AH-1F next, there is an AH-1F subforum added to the liveries/skin mod section. Lots of info on it here. I'm glad they didn't go with the G version like they were originally planning on, that would be pretty brutal. The AH-1W got a massive amounts of votes in a poll but I guess making a SuperCobra would require them to start from scratch, so they went with the best single engine Cobra they could. DCS 2.0 should have multiplayer co-op for 2-seaters so this could end up being fucking rad. Would anyone be interested in being my gunner next year?
EDIT: Ralfi in an A-10 taking on MiGs, starting 9 minutes in
EDIT: Ralfi in an A-10 taking on MiGs, starting 9 minutes in
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So, after a long absence, Getting back into the swing of things. Mostly been trying campaigns for the FC fighters, currently slogging through the Flanker one.
big problems in the second mission, which has you hunting Predator drones, because I kept forgetting that the russian planes use the trigger as both guns and weapon release. Also, predators are annoyingly difficult to spot via any means.
oh, and do note.that russian AWACS give BRA in metric.
big problems in the second mission, which has you hunting Predator drones, because I kept forgetting that the russian planes use the trigger as both guns and weapon release. Also, predators are annoyingly difficult to spot via any means.
oh, and do note.that russian AWACS give BRA in metric.
Zak757
Check out this puppy!
Leatherneck Simulations be trolling.
Cobra changed his avatar to a Jolly Rodger. After that, he changed his avatar to a close up of the texture on an AN/AWG-9 radar. Lastly, he changed his avatar into some species of goose. Rudel hints with the word "affine." Last message, he said that "Dick Cheney passed by our office today."
Oh, and the new Su-27 was released in the beta version for the latest patch.
Cobra changed his avatar to a Jolly Rodger. After that, he changed his avatar to a close up of the texture on an AN/AWG-9 radar. Lastly, he changed his avatar into some species of goose. Rudel hints with the word "affine." Last message, he said that "Dick Cheney passed by our office today."
Oh, and the new Su-27 was released in the beta version for the latest patch.
Leatherneck Simulations be trolling.
Cobra changed his avatar to a Jolly Rodger. After that, he changed his avatar to a close up of the texture on an AN/AWG-9 radar. Lastly, he changed his avatar into some species of goose. Rudel hints with the word "affine." Last message, he said that "Dick Cheney passed by our office today."
Oh, and the new Su-27 was released in the beta version for the latest patch.
Yes indeed. And, with 2.0 which is supposed to be out any day now, we're supposed to be able to have multi-crewed aircraft, so who's volunteering to be my RIO?
Zak757
Check out this puppy!
Only if you promise that we sing Highway to the Danger Zone together every time we enter the merge or I start yelling "LANA!"
Teaching me how to fight would also be nice since I've always been a ground pounder with most of my very limited dogfighting experience being from War Thunder, which is basically an arcade game. I probably won't be able to play until summer 2015, and I'll be taking another 3 season break when my second year of university starts. Are you decent now or still a filthy casual?
Eukie
Powered by furious Canadian redheads
After about three hours of trying, I finally managed to complete Tutorial Part 2: Flying Through Gates with the Su-25T. I am somewhat annoyed by the extremely long unskippable briefing that seemingly every tutorial mission has. After the first briefing, I don't really need to be told what the HSI is again, nor how the HUD works. The sense of accomplishment was great though, and I only missed gates like three times and had to learn to circle back to them.
My friend who has more experience with flight simulators managed it on his first try.
The X-Box 360 controller is probably not the best suited tool for flying, but it's the only one I could get for free. That said, I am discovering that my greatest impediment to learning how to fly was the utter lack of any explanation of how the Su-25T actually works anywhere in the tutorials supposed to teach me these things.
For example, learning that the autopilot turns off if the plane enters more than 60° roll would have been great to know. Or that the Su-25T is unsuited for pitch in excess of +10°. Or that "level and roll lock" autopilot can be used for holding the plane stable without needing to strain my thumbs when making dull turns.
Also the Su-25T handles like a fucking brick. It feels like I can't breathe without the plane deciding that now would be a great time to start rolling. Particularly fun is when I want to pitch slowly downwards, and thereafter I slowly pull back on the stick from my dive, it's time to toss the nose up into +20° pitch. I still have no idea why the plane does that, and only does it sometimes.
Luckily, the Russian Air Force has many Su-25T's to teach idiots like me how to fly properly.
My friend who has more experience with flight simulators managed it on his first try.
The X-Box 360 controller is probably not the best suited tool for flying, but it's the only one I could get for free. That said, I am discovering that my greatest impediment to learning how to fly was the utter lack of any explanation of how the Su-25T actually works anywhere in the tutorials supposed to teach me these things.
For example, learning that the autopilot turns off if the plane enters more than 60° roll would have been great to know. Or that the Su-25T is unsuited for pitch in excess of +10°. Or that "level and roll lock" autopilot can be used for holding the plane stable without needing to strain my thumbs when making dull turns.
Also the Su-25T handles like a fucking brick. It feels like I can't breathe without the plane deciding that now would be a great time to start rolling. Particularly fun is when I want to pitch slowly downwards, and thereafter I slowly pull back on the stick from my dive, it's time to toss the nose up into +20° pitch. I still have no idea why the plane does that, and only does it sometimes.
Luckily, the Russian Air Force has many Su-25T's to teach idiots like me how to fly properly.
Yes, the 25t is a pig. Seriously, it makes the hog seem like it's overpowered and hummingbird agile. The vanilla 25 is a more graceful bird, all the added avionics in the T add a lot of weight.
Some suggestions (besides "get a joystick", and my recommendation there is a saitek x-55, because although it's pricey, it's less than half the cost of its nearest competitor in terms of quality) are:
deploy flaps when performing your attack runs, they'll greatly improve handling at low speed.
Engage from long range where possible. The Vikhr missile is your new best friend, it's got good range, it's accurate, and you carry a busload of them. Default load is 16, I think. All you have to do is fly straight at the target until impact, then be somewhere else.
Never, ever panic. Plan your evasive maneuvers ahead of time.
More to come, but phone dying.
Some suggestions (besides "get a joystick", and my recommendation there is a saitek x-55, because although it's pricey, it's less than half the cost of its nearest competitor in terms of quality) are:
deploy flaps when performing your attack runs, they'll greatly improve handling at low speed.
Engage from long range where possible. The Vikhr missile is your new best friend, it's got good range, it's accurate, and you carry a busload of them. Default load is 16, I think. All you have to do is fly straight at the target until impact, then be somewhere else.
Never, ever panic. Plan your evasive maneuvers ahead of time.
More to come, but phone dying.
RangerKarl
angry un liaison on forced vacation
I don't know jack crap about the -25T, apart from that it's the only real SEAD option we have that's playable. Good luck to your flying.
Aiyel's Su-25T tutorial continued:
Right, a bit about planning evasive maneuvers ahead of time:
What I mean by that, more than the obvious, is that the real threat you'll be facing in a Grach is AAA/MANPADS. If you're getting locked up by long-ranged SAMs, you're CASing wrong. So, when you're on an attack run, don;t target fixate, keep your eyes peeled for any fire. Having one of your sticks mapped to free look is almost as good as a trackir (though that should definitely be on your shopping list. Look into FreeTrack or FaceTrackNoIR if you can't afford one. They're amazingly useful and, frankly, necessaary in the pro planes. So, knowing your threats are MANPADS or AAA, plan going in how you'll break if you come under fire. One of your buttons should be preprogrammed as the panic button; your countermeasure dispenser. If you see a launch or fire, or when your run is complete, execute your alreaddy-prepared-for evasion, which is basically throttle to the stopper, flaps up, sharp turn to one side with some climb, spitting flares like a fireworks stand gone up in flames. If you're carrying jammers, you should light them up. You should have memorized the keyboard shortcut for your IR jammer, too. It's only effective tail-on, but between it and the cloud of burning magnesium you're leaving in your wake, it should help throw off any cheap ass heatseekers. Not necessarily an AA-8 or AIM-9M, but MANPADS certainly. After you defeat the first attack (positive thinking is good) your next objective is to turn your climb out into a lawn-mowing dive and NOE exfiltration. If you don't come back with bits of tree stuck to the airframe you're doing it wrong. Once you clear threat radius, plus a safety margin, you can climb back and re-engage. Preferably by killing whatever the anti-air threat was from outside its range.
If you're engaged by air, trade whatever altitude you have for speed, hug the dirt, and exfil in the direction of friendlies. Screaming like a little bitch over tacnet for fighter cover is a perfectly valid response. Trying to engage the bandits is the final resort of the truly desperate. Remember, even the Warthog has better thrust-to-weight than you, and a better turn radius to boot. Helicopters should be engaged with your own heaters from outside their range. Attempts to close and engage, especially against AI choppers, will only end in tears. You're not much faser than they are and you're a lot less agile.
Now, suggested controller mapping:
Right stick should be pitch and roll, triggers yaw. Slew should be D-pad, Right bumper fire left bumper countermeasures. Left stick should be free look, if that's an option. I'd personally have Back be weapon select, B as gun select, A as lock target, Y and X as master mode nav and air to ground respectively, Start as next waypoint. Everything else mapped to keyboard. Yes, even throttle. There's a lot of personal preference there, but that puts everything you'll commonly use right there. If you're creative and the action doesn't feel too awkward to you, you could map some more buttons by using shift, ctrl, or alt as modifiers to your four buttons, and to use your d-pad as pitch and roll trim. Trim is your friend, especially with the very limited range of motion from one of those sticks. I'd personally use l-shift and d-pad for trim, and make the l-shift modified buttons autopilot modes, and the bumpers be skhval zoom, start and back be tracking gate size.
Finding a good controller scheme that's comfortable to use, though, is almost as important as learning to keep your head on a swivel.
Oh, and:
Tutorials that are somewhat better than the built-ins.
Right, a bit about planning evasive maneuvers ahead of time:
What I mean by that, more than the obvious, is that the real threat you'll be facing in a Grach is AAA/MANPADS. If you're getting locked up by long-ranged SAMs, you're CASing wrong. So, when you're on an attack run, don;t target fixate, keep your eyes peeled for any fire. Having one of your sticks mapped to free look is almost as good as a trackir (though that should definitely be on your shopping list. Look into FreeTrack or FaceTrackNoIR if you can't afford one. They're amazingly useful and, frankly, necessaary in the pro planes. So, knowing your threats are MANPADS or AAA, plan going in how you'll break if you come under fire. One of your buttons should be preprogrammed as the panic button; your countermeasure dispenser. If you see a launch or fire, or when your run is complete, execute your alreaddy-prepared-for evasion, which is basically throttle to the stopper, flaps up, sharp turn to one side with some climb, spitting flares like a fireworks stand gone up in flames. If you're carrying jammers, you should light them up. You should have memorized the keyboard shortcut for your IR jammer, too. It's only effective tail-on, but between it and the cloud of burning magnesium you're leaving in your wake, it should help throw off any cheap ass heatseekers. Not necessarily an AA-8 or AIM-9M, but MANPADS certainly. After you defeat the first attack (positive thinking is good
) your next objective is to turn your climb out into a lawn-mowing dive and NOE exfiltration. If you don't come back with bits of tree stuck to the airframe you're doing it wrong. Once you clear threat radius, plus a safety margin, you can climb back and re-engage. Preferably by killing whatever the anti-air threat was from outside its range.If you're engaged by air, trade whatever altitude you have for speed, hug the dirt, and exfil in the direction of friendlies. Screaming like a little bitch over tacnet for fighter cover is a perfectly valid response. Trying to engage the bandits is the final resort of the truly desperate. Remember, even the Warthog has better thrust-to-weight than you, and a better turn radius to boot. Helicopters should be engaged with your own heaters from outside their range. Attempts to close and engage, especially against AI choppers, will only end in tears. You're not much faser than they are and you're a lot less agile.
Now, suggested controller mapping:
Right stick should be pitch and roll, triggers yaw. Slew should be D-pad, Right bumper fire left bumper countermeasures. Left stick should be free look, if that's an option. I'd personally have Back be weapon select, B as gun select, A as lock target, Y and X as master mode nav and air to ground respectively, Start as next waypoint. Everything else mapped to keyboard. Yes, even throttle. There's a lot of personal preference there, but that puts everything you'll commonly use right there. If you're creative and the action doesn't feel too awkward to you, you could map some more buttons by using shift, ctrl, or alt as modifiers to your four buttons, and to use your d-pad as pitch and roll trim. Trim is your friend, especially with the very limited range of motion from one of those sticks. I'd personally use l-shift and d-pad for trim, and make the l-shift modified buttons autopilot modes, and the bumpers be skhval zoom, start and back be tracking gate size.
Finding a good controller scheme that's comfortable to use, though, is almost as important as learning to keep your head on a swivel.
Oh, and:
Tutorials that are somewhat better than the built-ins.
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Zak757
Check out this puppy!
I think it has zero actually, with only 8 production models made and the program scrapped in favour of Su-25SM. Funny how ED's first two high fidelity flight models, the Toad and Black Shark, were complete marketing failures.