NZFF

by **Scupper** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:02 pm

With the great helicopter pics around here lately, and with lots of time on my hands, I thought I'd share some from my chopper sim of choice, DCS World.

Although it is military, it's great for helicopters because it is 64 bit, which means it can have much more complex flight models than FSX and none of the memory limitations. The differences in the flight models between the three below are amazing and all of the main flight characteristics of helicopters, - vortex ring state, retreating blade stall, transition to and from effective translational lift, are included. Plus, - you can blow stuff up!

Slung loads for the Huey will be implemented soon and military-type missions are available for all of them if you want to go beyond flying around the airfield and taking pretty pictures.

They're all 'study sims' but just flying them is pretty straightforward (after lots of practice).

The first two are the Huey (Iriquois), the second two are the Mi-8 and the last two are the Ka-50 Black Shark. Click on the pics to see full-sized images.

DCS have a big sale on till Jan 4th for anyone who wants to grab some of this awesomeness, - and the basic World is a free download (it includes the Su-25 Frogfoot ).

Apologies for all the Russian stuff, - can't seem to get away from it...

by **Ian Warren** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:11 pm

Hmmm

, I have two Huey's Aerosoft and Milviz .. course still run Deane's ole 2002/4 .. i really do like seeing how these aircraft really are progressing to a near real feel , least via the eyeball .. the Hip .. looks superb as well , the Kamov another tho got to see one - Ive not seen real life ... bet she's a real Chrissy nut cracker

by **Scupper** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:59 pm

A new version has just been released in open beta, 1.2.7, which means Hueys (which are still in beta anyway) can now use their guns properly...

by **Ian Warren** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 8:30 am

I look at that first screen and i keep thinking "We Were Soldiers"

by **Scupper** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:48 am

Yeah.

You'd just have to hope no-one took it personally and decided to shoot back

. You're not exactly in a titanium bathtub like in an Su-25 or an A-10.

by **Yob** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:06 am

Scupper wrote:
QUOTE (Scupper @ Dec 31 2013,8:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yeah.

You'd just have to hope no-one took it personally and decided to shoot back . You're not exactly in a titanium bathtub like in an Su-25 or an A-10.

Nice shots, i personally find it's much harder to get nice shots in dcs. but you got nice one..
Yea i find myself getting shot down faster then i can compensate.. Do you like the warbirds Scupper...

Maybe one day we could do some multiplayer if ya want.

by **Charl** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:29 am

Great shots... my kind of sim, actually.
Maybe I can shake the MS lethargy, and dip a toe!

by **Splitpin** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 4:22 pm

excellent work , i really should look at this.

by **Yob** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 6:31 pm

Splitpin wrote:
QUOTE (Splitpin @ Dec 31 2013,2:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
excellent work , i really should look at this.

yea ya should, but the sale is almost over, better hurry

by **Scupper** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:30 pm

QUOTE

Nice shots, i personally find it's much harder to get nice shots in dcs. but you got nice one..[/quote]

I just took the first lot pretty quickly in the space of a few mins, - I know others take a lot more care and get much better results. Hopefully DCS will at some point take advantage of their 64 bits to give us environmental effects like what we get from REX etc.

QUOTE

Do you like the warbirds Scupper...[/quote]

Thanks for your interest, - it's kind of a complex question: IRL, when they kill indiscriminately I don't like them but from a purely Boys Own/Biggles sort of viewpoint, yes I love them. DCS is primarily a flight simulator which has vehicles and guys on the ground to make it more interesting. The aircraft are very deeply modelled and I only ever scrape the surface of what they can actually do because I get distracted by the latest new offering, whatever that is.

QUOTE

Maybe one day we could do some multiplayer if ya want.[/quote]

Appreciate the offer. I just tend to player single player, though I know I miss out on a lot.

QUOTE

Maybe I can shake the MS lethargy, and dip a toe![/quote]

It's a free download, which includes the Su-25, so you can't go far wrong. If you start off buying the Huey it might be a bit of a shock in terms of the flight model: some people consider it an advanced heli. The Ka-50 Black shark is more of a fly-by-wire proposition, which makes it comparatively easy to fly, but if you decide you want to shoot something it gets complicated rather quickly, specially since there's only one person to do everything. The Mi-8 is good if you have ever wanted to fly a large bus, - nice and stable in terms of control inputs but masses of momentum, so stopping it is challenging (for me at least). It also rocks around the pitch axis because it's so long.

I've learnt so much from DCS about helis: this evening I was reading all about mast bumping, caused by low-g manoeuvres (amongst other things), which can result in mast separation, which is a bad thing, and explains why I have witnessed my main rotor cartwheeling off into the distance on several occasions. DCS is brilliant

.

Last edited by Scupper on Thu Jan 02, 2014 1:27 am, edited 1 time in total.