Helicopter Taxi

[Ghost 40]

In really life helicopters can taxi on the ground just rolling on the wheels. I think this should also be true in ArmA. Unfortunately whenever you push "W" or forward then the helicopter will tilt forward and if held down long enough you will flip over. This problem might be due to the way helicopters fly ingame and therefore would not be able to add or change unless the entire flight model is redone. I was thinking maybe allowing the helicopter to taxi when on the ground and "autohover" is enabled. Or an even better way would be when the helicopter touches the ground then when you push "W" the helicopter moves forward and you would use the rudder buttons to steer it. This feature would make it easier and more realistic to move out of a hanger or just taxing down the taxiway to the runway for take off.

[Callsign 128]

yer i noticed this too but wondered whether it was because the wheels on the blackhawks dont actually turn (although i could be mistaken)

to be fair i can think of more important issues to fix first but any little helps :P

bootneckofficer

[Ghost 40]

Oh I definitely think the major issues need to be delt with first. But either modders, or hopefully BIS will implement this someday.

[mattxr 9]

i was just thuinking about this when landing on the US demo heli.. as i came in to land i was still moving at 10ms and then touched down with no dammage i though cool the wheels work and i woundered if i could taxi with just the wheels moving but to no luck But it would be a great feature.

[Ghost 40]

Going along with what Matt said about coming in for a landing, whenever you want to slow down you bush backwards and the helicopter ends up climbing in alttitude. This should not happen, and even when pushing the down key the helicopter still ends up cliimbing. Now i cannot remember becuase it has been a while since i played ArmA with a joystick but i think this problem was not as severe using the throttle.

[Staos 0]

...whenever you want to slow down you bush backwards and the helicopter ends up climbing in alttitude. This should not happen...

Yes it should. That's pretty much how a helicopter works.

Increase angle of attack without reducing blade pitch = altitude gain.

But BIS's flight models are a joke anyways...

[Ghost 40]

I understand changing blade pitch, but i guess in order to make the helicopters act more life like would require more control options and then would be too complex for most users.

[Staos 0]

Pretty much. Helicopters are incredibly complex to fly, and modeling that accurately would definitely turn away a lot of people.

[Rattus 0]

AFAIK most helicopters (including the Blackhawk) don't have driven wheels. To taxi, they have to be towed.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Every time I asked or better voted for a more real means more complicated steering I got shot by the rest of the community.

[Staos 0]

Quote[/b] ]AFAIK most helicopters (including the Blackhawk) don't have driven wheels. To taxi, they have to be towed.

While the wheels are not mechanically driven, they can be self propelled on them by cyclic pitch.

[Ghost 40]

What Staos means is the top rotor tilts forward and thus pulls/pushes the helicopter forward. and for the turning the pilots use the rudders and since the back wheel is able to rotate the helicopter can turn on the spot.

[frederf 0]

If we get free-turning wheels then we definitely need WHEEL BRAKES. I'm glad that the UH60 has a permanent firm wheel brake pressure applied. I remember OFP modded helos rolling away when you parked them.

In fact can we have wheel brakes anyway? It's silly to have to coast to a stop in the Harrier right now without any breaks.

Oh and can you make the Harrier throttle less on/off? Taxing even with a joystick throttle axis is very very touchy.

[Heatseeker 0]

Seems useless to me ?

[-HUNTER- 1]

I think it would be extremely cool. Also taxiing with an apache would be very nice...

If the helicopter has wheels that can turn, you can do high speed landings, because you can land like a plane, with forward motion...

Still havent tried autorotation, but that is DEFINATLY something that should be ingame for helicopters.

[Drozdov 0]

It is actually possible now to turn on the ground with a helicopter, using the cyclic left/right control (I think it's called cyclic, but could be wrong). You can rotate around like a slow spinning-top, always assumed it was just a side-effect of the ability in ArmA to control the helicopter as if it's hovering when you're on the ground (i.e. the ability to do a 'wheelie' by pulling the stick backwards). But if it's realistic, then that's fine.

And yes, wheel brakes are needed - takes ages to stop a plane on landing, and they don't seem to decelerate as fast as they did in OFP when they used their flaps and ailerons like stopping parachutes.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

I mean realistic steering would be cool, with that you could taxi your copter into hangar/bunker and do rearm/refuel/repair even if base under fire.

[Journeyman 0]

Yes I agree with all those requests. The problem doesn't end there though. We also need realistic boat controls too (separate rudder from throttle and better physics). Cars also do not drift realistically or spin a wheel. The damage model of cars etc is pathetic to say the least!

Where does BIS draw the line? And does BIS have a legal obligation not to tread on the toes of other simulators? Either way I for one would love to see total simulation of all vehicles done properly, but will it happen......??  

[KJAM 0]

For moving to repair truck etc, well, firstly they should be coming to you since thats the point of them being trucks, though if you can't because theres noone in them or you're moving to a H, I find that some very careful, very low hovering is the best way to get there

[frederf 0]

Quote[/b] ]And does BIS have a legal obligation not to tread on the toes of other simulators?

BIS has no such obligation.

Maybe you can add a third weapon to all aircraft that is "Release Wheel brakes." Let me explain how this works. Say you are in a UH60FFAR as the pilot on the ground. You switch to weapon "Release Wheel Brakes" and you have to hold down the fire button such that the wheels are free turning. If you let go of the fire button the brakes go back on.

This way you only roll when you want to, empty vehicles have brakes on, and it also adds a nice "weapon safety" feature to aircraft so you don't accidentally shoot when you don't want to.

You wouldn't be able to roll freely and shoot at the same time, but I can't imagine a situation where you'd want that. This would also work nicely for fixed wing aircraft.

=========================

Hovering a helicopter near some repair trucks is very poor flying. You should:

1. land away from the trucks

2. get out and move the trucks close

3. get in pilot seat to rearm/repair/refuel

4. move the truck back to where you got it

5. get back in the serviced helo

Maybe while single player you can try a risky maneuver but in multiplayer where the quality of 5, 10, 25, 50 people's game depends on your flying being lazy and reckless with valuable equipment and lives is inexcusable.

[Freshman 0]

I put that on the Wishlist a while ago.

It's not a feature that needs complex scripts or anything else. The Harrier can taxi. Why shouldn't wheeled helicopters.

I can't tell for sure but I think for BIS it's not much work to make it so why not?

[frederf 0]

I wouldn't want free-wheeling helos until they put in wheel brakes. I haven't seen any BIS or modded aircraft with brakes yet.

[max power 21]

Where does BIS draw the line? And does BIS have a legal obligation not to tread on the toes of other simulators? Either way I for one would love to see total simulation of all vehicles done properly, but will it happen......??

Are you using asking the questions for rhetoric effect or what? Whoever put the idea in your head that BIS was legally obliged to conform to a genre?

Oh, and no, it will never happen. Total simulation is beyond the scope of their project, beyond the scope of their ability to code it given their (or anyone else's) resources, and beyond the ability of anyone's computer to run such a thing.

[Commando84 0]

can any of the choppers in the game taxi for real? I've never seen choppers taxi, only aircraft. And i've seen tons of movies and a bunch of games

[max power 21]

Only the ones with wheels.