Level 4
Don't ever get in the pilots seat if you have never flown a heli before < I CAN'T STRESS THAT ENOUGH.
Obvious question here, given that the heli flying in the 1 player game is extremely limited and uses different controls to the multiplayer, exactly how are new players meant to learn?
I've tried flying a couple of times and racked up the odd kill here or there but I have several obvious problems.
Aiming - If I tilt the nose down to fire at tanks, etcI just start plummeting to the ground and have to pull up only having got 1 shot off if i'm lucky.
Landing - Not managed to do this once yet,how should you land?
SAS_Liam-nufc wrote:
Aiming - Tilt the nose slightly with the right stick and with the left stick pushed forward slightly too to keep height . As u come closer to tank etc push the right stick forward , get them in the crosshair and fire . As soon as you fire you need to pull the right stick fully back to stop the dive and left stick fully forward to avoid trees and fire . Its that point that many non fliers crash because they leave it too late to pull up .
Landing - Descend slowly with the left stick back and level the nose with the right stick . Once it is level bring it slowly down .To bring it down to a safe landing keep tapping the left stick forward and backward to soften the landing . Land hard and you will have no helicopter to fix.
Cheers for those tips. I have been nose diving without using the left to maintain height. I managed to land earlier, a little hard but nonetheless I landed.
Only time i ever use external cam view is when the support guy is fixing me or im waiting for someone to get in...
i would strongly advise heli type 2 controls.. this way its all thumb sticks and not shoulder/trigger buttons and everything all at the same time.
Just grabbing this from the heli tips thread - maybe Astro can edit into the first post of this sticky?
I'd also like to add that I chop and change between cockpit and external view a lot. I basically only use cockpit view to shoot at something. At all other times I use external view because you can get a better sense of where the chopper is if your low near trees or buildings, and you can also see a lot better where incoming fire is actually coming from (and maybe what it is). Landing is a lot easier in external view IMO too, because you can use your shadow as reference for altitude (sometimes).
And another thing - if you want to practise flying the chopper, I'd recommend an unranked server, or wait and see if you have a good chopper pilot on your team. If you do, leave the chopper as they can help your team a lot, but if not, go ahead and get some practise 
Unranked is still probably better if you're worried about your SPM though...
From the Heli Tips thread:
InfiniteStates: I had problems with the single player one, because I came to it second, having got ok with the online one. I was looking everywhere for options to set the offline one to the same as online - but no luck.
The problem is, the offline one is designed so that anyone can do it - otherwise you won't get past that level, which would suck. But I hate the offline controls - it's so unrealistic. For instance, you can hover, and point your nose down at 45 degrees and not go anywhere - it's like your chopper is on a pole, until you choose to move the pole.
On the other hand, the online chopper is more realistic (although I think I would prefer to have the rotor tilt on the same stick for left/right and forward/back - but I guess they did that so the right stick functions similarly to when you're on foot). The realism is good though, because you need some skill to be able to use it - which is great, because the helicopter is left alone while everyone fights over the artillery or runs off in tanks
Basically, the left stick controls throttle and horizontal rotor tilt, and the right stick controls forward/backward rotor tilt and tail rotor. (Also, I think the left shoulders control throttle too, like any other vehicle, but I don't use those).
The way the chopper moves will depend on rotor tilt and throttle. If you tilt the rotor forward and give it throttle you will pick up forward speed, but if you leave the rotor flat and throttle, you will go up. Similarly you can strafe by tilting left and right.
If you tilt the rotor without throttle, you will still move in that direction, but you will also lose height.
The tail rotor controls which way the chopper is facing, so you can look left and right while hovering, or look in a different direction to where you're flying. You can also turn the chopper by just tilting the rotors left or right as long as you are moving forwards.
It sounds complicated, but it all makes sense if you think about how a helicopter works, and practise a bit with the controls so you can make adjustments without having to think about which stick to press where...
Oh, and stay lowish - it behaves really weird if you go up high i.e. it rolls onto it's side which can get you into trouble and is really disorienting.
Symonator: dont know why some of you have troubles with hover tho? - not asif u shud use hover much (unless u want to die by rocket pretty quick)
if yur guna hover dont go to low and stay high. (remember the gunners view is alot more zoomed in that yours)
So you shud be able to stay far enough back without gettin to much damage.
just try as a pilot to swoop in , down and turn quickly wen yur on a tank, also remeber the tanks blind spot is above him, so if u r getting shot by a tank try n get over the top off him and yur gunner if he knows what hes doin will BAM him on the top and he wil die.
Always go for the AA guns first, tanks n infantry.. thats the order of damage u need to get rid of.
I often just fly around on my own, picking up loner snipers who r walking back from miles away. only manged to have a few games with decent gunners so far.
also look at the scoreboard wen u get in aheli to see what there ranks r, if they r a private u know they can't fly to well and u'll end up dead quick.
also i use type2 heli controls, it is alot easier that way to control for me
InfiniteStates: I had an reasonable lengthed go in the gunner seat of the Russian chopper last night, and think I've finally sussed the rockets
Basically, they're guided, like the emplacement rockets i.e. they will continuously move towards the point you're aiming at after you fire them, so you need to keep the reticle on the target until impact.
The trouble is...
a) they come out of the chopper forwards, so your best bet as gunner is to try not to look too much either side (unless you're keeping on target)
b) they have quite a large turning circle so the chopper needs to be vaguely facing the target at launch and
c) the gunner doesn't have the range of elevation (i.e. can't look up and down as much) that the gunner in the AH64 does, which is a problem if the pilot is moving forwards or backwards at high speeds.
Level 2
I hope you have read this Astro as last time I saw you in a heli you had some problems 
But a well trained pilot and gunner can dominate the game, pilots also have to appreciate that they are not going to get the majority of the kills and should stay steady for the gunner. I played a game with Cronnie on end of the line and I ended up with something like 40 kills from the gunner position and 3-4 of the crates destroyed in a single life.
res_evil wrote:I hope you have read this Astro as last time I saw you in a heli you had some problems
But a well trained pilot and gunner can dominate the game, pilots also have to appreciate that they are not going to get the majority of the kills and should stay steady for the gunner. I played a game with Cronnie on end of the line and I ended up with something like 40 kills from the gunner position and 3-4 of the crates destroyed in a single life.
That was when i barely knew how to fly the *****er i can fly well now but more practice won't hurt.
Oh and nice going.
Level 3
SAS_Liam-nufc wrote:
Aiming - Tilt the nose slightly with the right stick and with the left stick pushed forward slightly too to keep height . As u come closer to tank etc push the right stick forward , get them in the crosshair and fire . As soon as you fire you need to pull the right stick fully back to stop the dive and left stick fully forward to avoid trees and fire . Its that point that many non fliers crash because they leave it too late to pull up .
Landing - Descend slowly with the left stick back and level the nose with the right stick . Once it is level bring it slowly down .To bring it down to a safe landing keep tapping the left stick forward and backward to soften the landing . Land hard and you will have no helicopter to fix.
BTW another tip for landing and it works very well in fact so well I use it all the time.
LANDING: The only reason to land is to repair so your under fire and thus going quickdDON'T slow down you'll become a target instead keep low and simply turn 180 by using L1 and R1 this means you'll loose all that speed quickly and better still your facing the right way.
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