How can a new user make sense of the controls?

[JackSawyer]

Not very convienent is it? Would have been better to have the commands in the manual. Oh well, I guess I'll have to live with it.

[[EVO] Dan]

You will learn the controls pretty quickly, especially if you change them to fit your setup (like I did, I made it so certain ones were easy to remember what they were. Esp. trim controls)

[JackSawyer]

Dan, thank you so much. Is it possible to write a brief walkthrough guide for me? If not I'll understand.

[[EVO] Dan]

Depends. I have my controls based around a PS2 controller, so I don't know how many buttons I have compared to you.

Basically I put all the important controls needed for flying onto the controller itself. Anything needed only to start the heli up or shut it down were on the keyboard.

The important keys I have mapped (and yes I do remember where they all are):

Collective - R1 and L1 button (not using analogue collective because it doesn't work well on my controller)
Yaw - Right analog stick (thats left and right using tail rotor)
Pitch - Left analog stick (thats nose up and down)
Roll - Left analog stick (thats rolling)
Yaw trim - R2 and L2 (I have it so if the heli spins right, I press L2 and it corrects it and the same the other way around)
Roll and Pitch trim - Right 4 buttons (they are mapped to counter the opposite way they are on there just like my yaw trim)
Guns - circle button
fire mode - square
zoom in - triangle

I also changed the sensitivity on the joysticks to the be roughly a straight line, rather then an logmarithmic scale which it is by default (going into the controller settings within the game), and have my dead zone set to a quarter of the bar (I have to have some deadzone from my experiments).

I fly on expert pretty much all the time (unless the server lowers the difficulty) and these controls are very good (even lets me fly the Hind relatively easily). Also I put in a LOT of practice landing and taking off and flying around in the editor, and it has paid off (flying on expert well doesn't just happen - it takes plenty of practice).

There are some good guides on the Take on Helicopters section of this forum so have a look around - some of those are written by pilots so be careful because they sometime use technical terms (I had to wiki many of them myself, or ask my Aeronautic engineering freinds to help me with).

My advice for flying?

Start with the light in the editor.
Learn how to start it up correctly (I used auto start to learn the process because I didn't like the bis training mission).
When trying to take off, put the power on slowly and gently take off, and make sure you trim as you go, otherwise it will end badly!
Same on landings, ease the power down slowly, and trim it so it stays level and practically hovering - you will get a natural feeling of doing it over time.

Most importantly - don't rush to do advanced things like barrel rolls and slingloading (I am only just starting sling loading myself - it took me that long to become confident enough to attempt it) because those will only end badly as well. Just try to stick to take offs and landing, and do flights to different places and practice landings and take offs there as well so you get the extra practice in. That has been the way I have been teaching my clanmate how to fly (he just got the game too).

I also do play multiplayer quite regularly in my spare time so you may see me online - if you do, then feel free to ask me to help you out or you can even come talk to me on teamspeak.

[JackSawyer]

Thanks! I'm gonna copy this and print it out and try it out. As for flying, well, I spent my entire life working and flying aircraft so I know my way around everything from hot air balloons, to Cessna's to 767's. It's just the PC sims and configuring I have difficulty with but eventually I get the bugs worked out. Hence the questions here at the forum. Helicopters however, I have zero experience with. I know a lot about how and why they work and the maintenance aspect of them but I never got a chance to fly one, yet. I have spoken to a lot of pilots and they say it's sometimes like trying to stand on a basketball. But, if Princess Fergie and Prince William can fly one then I can too! LOL!

[Max Power]

Um, yeah, sorry, I didn't know. Please don't get so uptight about it, it was my first post and I just asked a simple question. It seems your're more concerned about your forum rules than helping someone.

He is just concerned that you're going to get lit up by the evil moderators, which is quite a valid concern ^_^

Welcome to the forums. I'll change your thread title to be more reflective of the content of your post. Please do familiarize yourself with the forum rules, though.

[JackSawyer]

Some mods on some forums are on a HUGE power trip. They are most likely 40 year-old overweight virgin males living in their mother's basement. If they kick me off so what? My LIFE does not revolve around a GAME or a forum where "mods" are on a power trip.

There are many other ways to get information about a game besides a forum. And BI better be careful not to let these idiot mods mess with people because they WILL be notified and I DO vote with my wallet AND let them know it. And, I know they listen.

I am a mod on a different forum and no one there is on a power trip like I see in some game forums.

[Max Power]

I'm not really sure what this post is pertaining to but it seems quite irrelevant to your topic. Please just continue discussing your controls if that's what you need.

[JackSawyer]

I was responding to your comment about being "lit up by evil mods".

Now, as to my needing advice, 1) I have searched the entire forum using several terms, I am looking for info on how to program a Thgrustmaster T-FLIGHT HOTAS X joystick. It will not work in the yaw axis. Thanks.

[Max Power]

I was responding to your comment about being "lit up by evil mods".

That was me kidding on the square. Normally we aren't very rough on users with only a few posts. But, I think you can understand that you not taking the time to name your thread properly is passing the responsibility onto me, who now has to use my free time editing your thread title. No doubt this is already making it a bigger deal than it needs to be. Please just familiarize yourself with the rules over time and we should be okay