Tuesday

ArmA2 : Key helicopter set up

13 Comments June 30, 2009 – 11:17 am | Permalink |  Print This Post |

Helicopter goodness, when set up correctly

Flying in ArmA2 is damned good if you’ve got yourself set up correctly. If not it’s a pain in the butt, here’s how to do it right. First of all, you do not fly a real helicopter with a mouse and keyboard for a reason. Use a joystick. Secondly, proper control configuration is vital. Go into Options>Controls>Air Controls and set them up as follows:

• Throttle up (throttle forward)
• Throttle down (throttle back)
• Nose down (joystick forward)
• Nose up (joystick backward)
• Bank left (joystick left)
• Bank right (joystick right)
• Turn left and left pedal (rudder left)
• Turn right and right pedal (rudder right)

Pay special attention to the bank and turn set up for left/right joystick and rudder (twisty stick or pedals). The rudder controls are doubled up on two actions on purpose, and even though it will show up in red (as a conflict) it’s important to leave them that way. After that, set up the views on your joystick hat (up/up, left/left etc). Once in the helicopter double tap the alt key to give you free look (smooth view with the hat control) and try flying. Note how you can move left/right as expected and also have nice rudder authority when set up like this. Also note that most helicopters lose a lot of this rudder authority over 150 knots so keep the speed under that if you expect to be maneuvering a lot.

Set up like this I can fly pirouettes around a pine tree, and have.