[HOW TO] Recover a damaged Helo

[xSniper1982]

Video link to show the flight.

 

After taking some pretty heavy damage during a slightly bumpy landing, I repair the Hummigbird and return it to base.
I'm posting this up as I think most Pilots should start trying to learn this stuff.

The Anti-torque was still damaged after repair (as is usual) and so the Helo continuously spun to the right when raising the collective (increasing throttle/power/upward lift), to counter that I had to use constant left pedal (left rudder/yaw) until I was able to gain enough momentum (Forward velocity) by pitching the nose down (pointing down/tilting forward).
This stablised the aircraft enough to fly back to base, and then it was all about repeating those steps to keep it going to where I wanted on the pad as my velocity/speed dropped below around 100kmph.

1. Left Pedal during lift

2. pitch nose forward

3. fly straight until deceleration

4. apply left pedal during decent

 

This is as simple as I can make it sound.

 

Hopefully other, more experienced, pilots will be able to offer better/more advice as needed.

 

[RehabitedHamster]

That landing is why I don't pilot  

well it was good you could repair the chopper  

[slick]

nice save there 

[Amentes]

When on the ground with a damaged aircraft, the first thing to consider is whether gaining a large amount of altitude is safe.

 

How did you get damaged? If enemy fire, is it likely to get you again if you elevate?

 

Once you make that decision, you either

 

A: Go to a low and slow crawl using rudder and very little collective to limp out to a safe area so you can transition to

 

B: Get yourself at least 50 meters off the deck, and then start the "Rock-out" procedure, which involves continually tipping your aircraft back and forth so that your rotor disc, your lift, is always pointed towards your velocity vector.

 

Rock out will eventually get you into either stable forward flight, or stable sideways flight. If you're sideways, you can either just go with that, or you can roll away from your velocity vector and start Rock-out again.

 

Either way, you'll eventually be back around base again. if you're feeling frisky, you can come in for a landing on the repair pad. If you do, make sure you let your fellow pilots know that you'll be in the area with a damaged aircraft, as you will likely be somewhat more erratic in your flying and will be harder to predict.

 

There's no shame in landing on flat ground and driving service vehicles out to the aircraft. None. Depending on the size of aircraft and severity of damage, I'd go as far as say that it should be preferred to play it safe. If in doubt, bite the bullet, take your punishment for getting hit, and drive those vehicles out.

 

When performing a landing away from the pads, you can either attempt to go into a hover over an open area with no obstacles near you, and just set the bird down. Once you lower collective, your spin will drastically decrease and you should be able to keep it all under control with rudder inputs.

 

Alternatively, you can attempt a Run-on landing, which involves coming in at speed, lightly touching down while at speed, and then letting the aircraft slide to a stop. Keep in mind, most Helicopters in ArmA 3 will explode if you attempt this at above 40km/h, so be gentle.

[John McClane]

And My personal opinion from the flying ive done since Arma 1 is never use Autohover.... ever like never ever ever.lol

 

And when you do hit the ground on a damaged helicopter the first thing you should do is get out of the helicopter and run to cover, find out what is going on and let the troops you dropped off secure the area... Then you can repair your chopper. Your the pilot so even if the chopper gets repaired and you died it cant move, so focus first on keeping yourself alive. 

[Amentes]

Keep in mind a damaged helo could be leaking fuel, so repairing that leak can often be the first step. If you don't do it in time, it'll leak out and no amount of repair will help you.

[PiranhA]

Its not hard, just practise and use ur brains. I never fight a helicopter, use it in my advantage...love, not agression.

Altitude and speed to get it back on track and if i cant get it moving forward, well going backward will get you there aswell...

[Someone]

To be fair, neither flying nor landing a damaged helicopter is really that hard once you've done it a few times. It's actually quite simple - get some speed and then proceed and fly like you always do.

If your anti torque is completely out, try and get away from immediate danger, then try and gain some speed. To gain speed, tilt your helicopter in any given direction. Keep full collective up while doing this (you'll lose height) and keep tilting your helicopter until you gain speed in any given direction. Once you've gained some speed your helicopter will stabilize and you can fly it back almost as you would had you had an anti torque.

Once landing, try and remember that you've lost your anti torque - fly accordingly. You know that your helicopter will pull itself in one direction, so you'll need to slightly tilt the helicopter on approach. Usually you should be doing this anyways, but balande the helicopter with the anti torque, now you're balancing the helicopter with its tilt instead. It's basically like a normal landing, with some extra focus needed from your part. Once your helicopter is almost still, you may touch down. You can do some smaller adjustments before touching down, but should know that without anti torque, the helicopter will spin.


 

And My personal opinion from the flying ive done since Arma 1 is never use Autohover.... ever like never ever ever.lol

 

And when you do hit the ground on a damaged helicopter the first thing you should do is get out of the helicopter and run to cover, find out what is going on and let the troops you dropped off secure the area... Then you can repair your chopper. Your the pilot so even if the chopper gets repaired and you died it cant move, so focus first on keeping yourself alive. 

If you do that, 9/10 times the helicopter won't have any fuel left. If you get downed, you usually need to repair it within seconds or live with the fact that it'll be grounded from now on.

Or have they already implemented the fuel thing that should be added in with the 01.04.16 rules? Haven't been able to play in a while - school has been.. interesting..

[xSniper1982]

There is now the ability for Repair Specialists and Engineer to refuel a downed Heli with enough fuel to get back to base....

Unfortunately however it doesn't always seem to work, it will say the Heli has fuel, or it will keep telling you it's refuelling forever.
Hopefully this will be addressed soon.

It's a great addition when it works.

[PERO]

Pinned.

[Shadow]

As soon a you start gaining some speed your tail rotor become less effective that's why at low speed you can turn much faster then when you are flying at high speeds. Basically when you lose your tail rotor you need to gain speed so that it becomes unnoticable and you just use your speed to fly stable. Trick to landing is indeed like Sniper said just keep correcting your rotor loss. But try and lose speed at the last possible moment before landing. If there are engineers on direct them towards your position and maybe try and land bigger helicopters like the mohawk or ghosthawk on the runway and get a repair team to them after you've touched down. And final tip just get some practice with it in editor land your helicopter shoot your tail rotor out take off and land again. 

Good Guide though Sniper  

[Cebi]

I 'll add some tips on autorotation:

 

1. Don't panic!

 

2. Pull your collective all the way down immediately and keep it there! If you would raise collective it will result in you dropping out of the sky like a stone.

 

3. Think about your rotor as a big toy vane. If you move it though the wind it will spin up even without motor spinning it. Your job now is to conserve energy in your rotor and at the same time lose speed and altitude. You do this by gently pitching up so airflow can spin your blades. If you were hit while moving slowly or stationary same things apply to you but you will be much more limited on picking your crash site.

 

4. Now that you are in "stable" glide towards ground pick your crash site. As always flats without obstacles (buildings, trees, poles) are preferred but most of the times nowhere near you need them. If you have been hit above open water...well you can at least give a chance to your passengers to jump out. Communicate with them and coordinate jump. If they jump while the helicopter is too high or too fast water surface will behave like concrete pavement and they will be killed.

 

5. Most of the times your anti-torque rotor (ATRQ) will be missing or be damaged. Luckily as you had your collective down all the way it will not effect you much until here. As you are approaching ground quite rapidly, you need to use that energy that you stored in your rotor to stop your fall by raising your collective. Be aware that if  ATRQ is missing or damaged you will start to spin. Timing is crucial to your crew survival. Do it too late or soon and you are dead.

 

6. If you survived, ask other pilots to evac your passengers. Check your bird's fuel level and place a marker on the map with the location of your crash site and add notes if repairs/fuel is needed. Repair first otherwise your fuel will leak out.

 

How did I learn all this?

Watch Dslyecxi guide to get your head around this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zkZ6hhzGck

Then practice it yourself in a mission -

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/143237-sp-hell-heli-simple-randomized-autorotation-practice/