Help landing choopers

[Flanker15]

Can someone give me a tutorial for landing a chopper in PR?
I can take off, fly, hover, maneuver and shoot stuff with them but I have an almost 100% failure rate with landings.
I'm not talking about landing in a big flat area with no enemy fire or obstacles, but when you have to fast drop some guys to a flag.
I seem to not be able to descend very fast, I can level the chopper out and hold "S" but I seem to crawl towards the ground (this makes me a very easy target). When I do reach the ground I always seem to flip over as soon as I touch down or lose control in the descent and go into one of those crazy high speed death trips (the ones you get if you start overcompensating with the W and S keys) into the nearest building.
I'm flying with keyboard and some other pilots who are very good told me that's what they fly with.
Any pointers?

[Chuc]

For me, landing for pickup and dropoff practically over uneven terrain not touching down, but hovering at a sensible altitude over the drop zone (like a few m).

When you're approaching the ground, try to begin your descent a few hundred metres away, get a good approach, and nose down to your target zone, holding down throttle down (S). Once you're near enough, flare your chopper (pitch up quickly) to cut your speed, and come to a hover or full landing.

[Chickenhawk]

Ah, I know your problem. Flares. No, I'm not talking about a 1970's fashionable pair of pants, im talking about flaring in a helicopter. Basically, to land quickly do the opposite of what you were doing. Instead of keeping a nice steady decent, dive to the ground like a kamakazi mofo. At the last second, slam in the elevator and point your nose sky high while holding S. Be careful not to flare too steeply otherwise your heli will start flying backwards and on a flare, that means into the deck

This will cause you to effectively create a cushion of air underneath your helicopter that allows you to land very quickly. Its also one of the easiest ways to get into tight areas in my opinion. You will fall like a brick and be down in under 2 seconds. Just be careful to level out before you hit the ground otherwise you'll be reporting to the QM why you killed an AH6

The only problem with this is the fact that hitting the ground with your tail rotor is very likely. I personaly fly with the mouse because thats how i learned in the days of BF1942 DC but the exact same thing will work with the keyboard, it would probably be easier because you get instant full throw in the elevator.

As for your crazy death trips by over-compensating, if you get your flares right (which is difficult, i wont deny it) you will have the feel for the helicopters and wont be subject to this anymore. Remember each heli is different. I would happily throw the little bird into a 60 degree nose high attitude in a flare but in a blackhawk, that would have you sliding backwards into the ground

So, in short;
Dive
Nose High
Hold S
Level
Take off

And finally, Practice. I have no idea how many hours i spent practicing in DC getting the hang of the huge arse on the Mi-24 Hind but eventually I got the hang of it and danced across the battle field. BF2 pilots fly the heli, I and most of the DC vets dance with it in an aerial ballet.

Another useless hint, if you turn your tailrotor in the same direction of your bank, you will turn a lot quicker.

Hope that helps :D
Alex

EDIT; Darth, please take ar$e out of the word filter, we reside in Australia and New Zealand, not America. We still spell ar$e by its original spelling, not the bastardisation (or evolution to some) that is the American version of spelling it

[bishos30]

If I'm dropping off troops I almost never let the heli touch the ground. I do however, find it difficult to judge how far I am off the ground and whether it's safe for my boys to jump out without them hurting themselves in the fall. But you can almost always ask for feedback from passengers so it's not too big a problem.

I also hate people who sit in your chopper waiting for you to land when your not going to. If can't talk to them with VOIP; trying to hold a heli level while holding 'Q' and selecting 'Bail Out' is a dangerous game.

[Flanker15]

Thanks!
I was unaware that flaring worked in PR but it certainly does.

[Lucid Nightmare]

The easier option to landing faster would be to come in lower. Usually you can fly right by the enemy before they have a chance to shoot you with anything big, and yeah, if the ground is dodgy or you don't know what's underneath you, just hover above the ground. Most of the little infantries are smart enough to know when to jump.

[Captain_Wolf]

I don't know what a "Chooper" is but this thread may help you out :D http://bigdgaming.net/viewtopic.php?t=98

[workingrobbie]

Thanks for the tips guys.
I'm in the same boat as Flanker. I can land 20% of the time, no worries but sometimes I just have too much speed and crash & burn. I tend to overshoot my target LZ a lot too.
I also avoid blackhawks like the plague <.<

[Aphex_Fusion]

Come in low and fast, just before you approach the landing zone, drop the throttle to about 10% and pull back on the stick. As Chicken said, this'll flair it and give you a bit of a cushion. Whack the throttle back up to about 40% to hover to just drop it down to belly flop.

The key is fast and low. Muttrah City separates the green pilots from the vets. Not many people have the balls to fly at 4m from the ocean, pop up over the sea wall, land, fly backwards out and do another drop.

If you can do that, you'll be set.

[Flanker15]

Good tips thanks, on the topic of chopper flying check this vid out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w-btfC23n4&mode=related&search=

[Kindros]

I bet hes using one of those Track IR'

[Boher]

You have to fly low, and if you happen to be high, do a crazy kamakaze dive to take your chopper down to ground level like what chickenhawk said.

If you want to insert troops on a mountain/hill, things get a little trickier, but sometimes you have no flat areas around, leaving you little choice. If you're flying a blackhawk or merlin, you can balance your chopper head-on with the hill by tapping the W button over and over again, rather than holding it down. You only have to do this for a few seconds, giving enough time for troops do get out. After that, hold the W button, and tilt your chopper backwards to fly off.

[VisOne]

I would say without a doubt that hovering is easier with the keyboard, however guys don't forget that virtually all of the heli's in BF2 have a auto hover function.

[Captain_Wolf]

what is this auto hover function of which you speak???

[Kindros]

what is this auto hover function of which you speak???

If you let go of throttle, your chopper will not become uncontrollable, much like in a real chopper. It will continue to hover until at a time when it looses too much thrust to keep it airborne, and will slowly descend.

[Captain_Wolf]

Lol, every time I keep my chopper steady for more than a second it seems to get blasted out of the sky no wonder I hadn't noticed. :o

[VisOne]

Yeah it's not always best to use it around the enemy but it can help heaps when picking troops up from say the carriers or dropping troops into water and what not. Generally its best not to land unless your DAM well have to and if your PC and LAG are good you generally won't need to land unless your in for lengthy repairs.

[Lucid Nightmare]

Autohover can be good in a gunship. Just let it sit there and put in a little rudder and tilt so you slowly circle the target while your gunner does all the work.

US gunship is the worst for this though, cause your copilot's head is in the way and you can't see a bloody thing.

[CDN-SMOKEJUMPER]

I have a throttle on my joystick which makes it a little more difficult.

I can always tell the mouse users as they are rock steady but I use the stick as it's better for violent evasive action.