3 Commando Brigade

Aviation Sub Unit Idea - Commando Helicopter Force (CHF)

The problem with 100% designated pilots is that you often have problems giving them enough things to do during a mission. There are often rather long breaks between flying transport of providing CAS for infantry. In my experience it was pretty much like this.


- You get your chopper/plane ready and you have to wait until the infantry is done with their briefing and gearin up.
- You deliver the infantry to their LZ and fly back.
- You wait.
- You maybe provide CAS and go back to base.
- You might deliver more troops or bring them some ammo
- You wait
- You bring the guys back to base

Mission is over.

So there is always the danger that you spend 70% of a mission waiting and only 30% actually doing stuff.

Back in the old days we had a dedicated CHF unit.
It unfortunately caused division, with a "them and us" feeling.
Subsequently we choose to go with a "any member can take any role" approach, applicable to flying also, and this seems to have worked well.

Training is one of those things that people continually talk about, but never actually do. If someone wants to put together a training course, write it up and submit it to Goodson for approval.
Arf was doing this for heli's, but I've not seen him in quite a while.

That's great Wilcox. Training is in my view good, for those that want it.
Judging by your professionalism in the A10 when I was FAC last night, your training would be excellent and well received.

Probably not what you intend, but it can't turn into "you can only fly on this mission if you have the badge". 

I have only been kind of (considering the technical issues that made me land the chopper after 20 minutes and logging off) a heli pilot once during a mission here, so I cant say much too much about this from my own perspective. On the other hand I was a normal soldier on the ground in the last missions and I cant really say much about the performance of our pilots, since I had enough stuff to worry about on the ground.

I think I mentioned it earlier in another thread, but I would like to see some kind of training avaible for people who would like to start flying helis and people who want to improve their skills and knowledge about flying.

I started flying in the editor on my own and getting the basics, while doing kinda "training" on public servers, once I have reached a level where I was sure that I could safely transport people without putting them at risk. If I would have a credo for my piloting it would pretty much look like this.

I am responsible for the safety of the my vehicle and everyone, or everything that is onboard.

This means I will avoid putting me or my heli in situations that have a high risk of danger for it. This also means that (especially on public servers) I will only drop troops or gear in a spot that is in a safe distance and good actually a good spot for it to be dropped. Especially on public servers you will get a fair ammount of bitching at first, because you refuse to drop people right in a AO, however in most of the times the people sooner or later realize that that they survive longer when they are dropped in a safe LZ and they also have way more options to get their objective done when you dont drop them right in the middle of it.

It depends on the situation and the enemy.

If you are fighting some insurgents that dont have access to any form of real AA weapons, you might be safe going +400m because you are simply out of reach of their weapons. This is a situation where you could easily sit in a gunship and shoot targets that are 1-2 klicks away while flying around above 600m. However in a lof of situations you are better off going low and fast. In most cases you will be harder to spot, lock-on or getting hit. Plus if you are flying low you have a much better chance avoiding getting hit because you are in cover, or you can get in cover quickly.

Completely agree on this an Raptor has created a FAC training course which even though the role is open to everyone I highly suggest that if you want to be a FAC you do the training.

EDIT: Also on the topic of training once the helicopter DLC has been introduced at the start of August it may be needed that we have training so pilots know what they need to do.

Did someone summoned me?

Oh' okay.

Flying in DCS is actualy easier than in ARMA, well from perspective of an experienced (sim)pilot. the reason is simple, everything in DCS works and arma is a lazy, cheap, insufficient imitation of aviation. I'm shure about that I can teach enyone that has no experiance and clear mind about aviaton to fly DCS- KA50 in les than 10 minutes in certain setup.
The difference is that I use different terminology. Flying is just moving around (easyest). Operating the aircraft is knovledge about  systems, weapons and capabilities etc. of the aircraft (difficult, time comsuming). Operating as an air unit is how you interact with the battlespace; The real skill that you need to poses in the business.
Actualy I do not know how good I'm. Generaly I'm just a guy who likes to orbit around own planet. But if somebody says someone is a good pilot, it does not mean he is a good pilot untill I gain a certain level of trust and doing few CAS or logistics sorties does not impress me. There is only handfull of 3CB members that are capable to use airforce in full potential(by my hi standarts) as a pilot, FAC or in troop command. And there is only one gunship gunner that has meet my standarts, only one pilot that has impressed me with raw maneuvering skills and only one who is capable to fly as I do. Feel free to speculate about the names .

It's me. No doubt about it.

Yes you need good flight control setup in DCS. flightstick + twist axis and throtle slider is bare minimun. Everything after that is way to more enjoyable experiance. I do not have experience about DCS Huey, I only fly KA50 and A10a.

I come from a flight sim background (not that you'd guess given the personna I've carefully developed in A3!), have been flying virtually since way before Arf was born...

I reckon it's perfectly possible to fly well with the rudder on a twist stick (good old MS Forcefeed Sidewinder, how I loved thee) or using another finger control on a HOTAS, but rudder pedals do allow you to decouple the movement to another separately controlled part of your body which probably gives slightly improved fine control.