To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

[Xes]

The move im interested in is..

"Circling a target with nose facing target - advanced form of sideways flying, gives gunner a constant view of target. circling allows him to hit people running behind buildings."

I could basically do this move, constantly circling around a building or an object.. as most of you are aware it's done by.. tilting to a side while pressing "a" or "d" to the opposite direction you are tilted...

But, I recently played w/ someone that does this with such small radius.. it doesn't even look like he moving side way.. the radius is so small that it almost looks like he's looking down at a point and constantly spinning while not losing much altitude at all...

|-------radius-------| |--radius--|
mine: \ target / his: \ tartget /

I've tried to do this so many times with the old "side way tilt and turning opposite direction" way.. but it can't be done...
Could someone actually do this?... How do you do it!!

[imported_Ph1L]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

Explain better. Then I might be able to help you.

[BeerStein]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

I read a post about this a long loooong time ago.

Circle strafe with a high degree of attack angle. Meaning - the helo looks like it is at a 60 degree angle when hovering in a circle around a target.

Think about a helo facing a tank that is standing still - the helo pilot keeps the tank right on the crosshairs - but is moving in a horizontal circle around the target. This is an easy move if the helo is not angled nose down too far, and it is a wide circle.

He is saying he saw a very small tight circle, and the helo was REALLY pointed steeply at the ground.

Make sense?

I have seen this, and I have been able to do this a couple of times myself. It takes a lot of practice to get it to work. As far as I have seen, it cannot be maintained for any length of time because you do lose altitude.

Make sure when you start learning to do this you start with plenty of altitude. Here is how I did it - for a clock-wise strafe:

Have forward movement at a high altitude - decent speed
drop the throttle, dive in (stick forward), then once at the attack angle you want - give the stick a push left with some left rudder to get your momentum going that way, then pull back and right on the stick - at the same time give it left rudder to get your ass end up in the air, and ramp up the throttle to full, then feather it down some. Make the transition from bottom right stick to less bottom more right. Once in it - you have to keep some right stick, with left rudder - all the time adjusting your throttle to keep you where you need to be.

Not sure if that is clear or not - like I said - you need to practice a bunch to time those transitions and getting your momentum going. If you transition too fast you will just do a banked turn and dive at the ground before you can transition to sideways movement.

Someone can probably explain this better.

[coldmist]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

I've seen a guy do this on the BuxomBombardiers (sp?) server. He does it over and over. His stats show he's a cobra chopper whore basically.

His full circle diameter, while nose down at the target, is about 30-feet, while 30-50 feet off the deck. He'll rain rockets down on jeeps, people, anything, while circling them.

He doesn't lose altitude at all. He can pull into it at a moments notice, and keep doing it until he pulls out. He has perfect aim, and can shoot through building windows, etc. to get you.

On Sharqi, he'll just go over and harass the MEC chopper and either kill it over and over, or his CP will hop out and steal it if the MEC team has given up on getting off the helipad.

Needless to say, it sucks to go up against him on levels that don't have jets. I took him down once or twice with stingers, and hit him once or twice with AT rockets, to about 15 deaths, on Sharqi.

[F-1]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

The move im interested in is..

"Circling a target with nose facing target - advanced form of sideways flying, gives gunner a constant view of target. circling allows him to hit people running behind buildings."

I could basically do this move, constantly circling around a building or an object.. as most of you are aware it's done by.. tilting to a side while pressing "a" or "d" to the opposite direction you are tilted...

But, I recently played w/ someone that does this with such small radius.. it doesn't even look like he moving side way.. the radius is so small that it almost looks like he's looking down at a point and constantly spinning while not losing much altitude at all...

|-------radius-------| |--radius--|
mine: \ target / his: \ tartget /

I've tried to do this so many times with the old "side way tilt and turning opposite direction" way.. but it can't be done...
Could someone actually do this?... How do you do it!!

It seems that you are using the keyboard to do such a motion. I think it is near to the impossible with the keyboard. You need a joystick with a large throttle if possible.

[Six.]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

Don't you need to pick up enough velocity to start with?, and to minimize that circling radius- you increase your turning (simply by holding down 'a' and 's') while reducing your throttle accordingly to reduce the turning circle, plus leaning 45-90 degrees in your circling direction.

Pretty much like a satellite intercepting a planets orbit (you, the satellite and the target the planet). You use your speed to capture the 'orbit', and once you're in that orbit- you turn to face the target- the moment you get the right velocity and pitching your helicopter the right way- your orbit should be pretty well established.

Since leaning forward (pitching down) makes your helo go faster forwards- this can also help increase the speed of your circling a little and also can minimise the radius a little, provided your helicopter is having enough 'Y' momentum. Just don't lean forward too much or you'll move your 'orbit' entirely, lest you flip and crash it.

[Blazer907]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

I bet his name was trepid_jesse, coldmist.

[AussiB]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

try staying in the the same position but keeping higher than him so his gunner can't do any damage, then just go up and down to dodge and fire missiles works for me

[Grafisk]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

You can build up speed by starting with a big radius and then make it tighter. This allows you to stay in this steep-dive cricle longer. If I got you right.

[imported_Ph1L]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

I still don't get , what this is about. Make movie of it, wonder what it is. I'm good in heli's myself, and sure wanna learn new tips and tricks.
- it's getting booring to take out ppl with tv missiles, too easy. New tricks for us solo pilots , thanks

[Auto-ER-]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

It's pretty hard, but once you firgure it out you can do it consistantly. Basically the same as circling say a rooftop, but you just tighten everything up, The real skill is sustaining it, over a period of more than five or so rotations, you just have to ease back, you'll gain a little more altitude and then you can drop back into the full tilt, but if done right it will be fluid.

[Kattspya]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

I've tried to do this so many times with the old "side way tilt and turning opposite direction" way.. but it can't be done...
Could someone actually do this?... How do you do it!!

I can do this. You would need a pretty good feel for the helo to be able to do it consistently I believe. Firstly max out your sensitivity. I play with inverted Y-axis but that's optional. Remember however that my mouse axis is inverted when I type what I do.

Basically you just press W+D pitch your helicopter down to the right angle and move your mouse away from you. You use the mouse to augment the movement in the same way you turn faster by tilting the helo and using the mouse to make the turn (I think you augment it by using rudders(a+d?)).

Press W+D.
(tilt helo?)
Pitch down and move your mouse away and maybe to the left from you at an appropriate rate.

Forgive me for not being clearer but I don't conciously think about what I'm doing it's all in the medulla oblongata or wherever muscle memory is stored.

EDIT: Oh yeah as others have mentioned you can't do it on the spot. You start with a larger circle and then make it smaller. You can get it down almost zero but then you'll loose altitude a bit fast.

[18Zulukiller]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

I can do this. You would need a pretty good feel for the helo to be able to do it consistently I believe. Firstly max out your sensitivity. I play with inverted Y-axis but that's optional. Remember however that my mouse axis is inverted when I type what I do.

Basically you just press W+D pitch your helicopter down to the right angle and move your mouse away from you. You use the mouse to augment the movement in the same way you turn faster by tilting the helo and using the mouse to make the turn (I think you augment it by using rudders(a+d?)).

Press W+D.
(tilt helo?)
Pitch down and move your mouse away and maybe to the left from you at an appropriate rate.

Forgive me for not being clearer but I don't conciously think about what I'm doing it's all in the medulla oblongata or wherever muscle memory is stored.

EDIT: Oh yeah as others have mentioned you can't do it on the spot. You start with a larger circle and then make it smaller. You can get it down almost zero but then you'll loose altitude a bit fast.

I actually started a thread about this a long time ago and in that thread i called this maneuver a cone maneuver (because basically that's the exact shape the heli was moving in) . And all the replies I've read in this thread are the exact replies i got . Things is this isn't how the guy could do the cone maneuver the guy i saw doing it could fly over to a heli pad stop dead in his tracks and then do a perfect cone shape maneuver 7 or 8 times while he repaired. He had the magic ability of not moving at all then just doing this maneuver (also there was no tilt at all to the side). He could be just hovering see an infantry unit move slowly towards him do the cone maneuver fire a single missile and kill the infantry unit. In 393.46 hours of ranked game play plus all the unranked game play I've clocked up I've only ever seen one person EVER to be able to do this and I've seen some extremely good heli pilots in game . So I've come to the conclusion that its some kind of cheat i could be wrong and I'm very willing to disprove this theory of mine. Please some elite heli pilot disprove this I'm willing to join a server with you and talk you through what I've seen. xfire = zulukiller

[Kattspya]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

OK made a small video of what I hope you were looking for. It's encoded with XViD. Goddamn rapidshare with their scripts. The same goes for putfile. Oh well enjoy!

Smallcircle
(5518KB)

EDIT: If that's not what you're looking fore give me some pointers based on what I did and I'll try to record it for you.

[BeerStein]

Re: To the pro chopper pilots! Need help circling!!

OK made a small video of what I hope you were looking for. It's encoded with XViD. Goddamn rapidshare with their scripts. The same goes for putfile. Oh well enjoy!

Smallcircle
(5518KB)

EDIT: If that's not what you're looking fore give me some pointers based on what I did and I'll try to record it for you.

Nice work - you are close to it. That is still a pretty broad circle compared to what they are talking about. Your angle of attack is also lower than some have seen. You were still in hitting distance from the top gun on a tank. Think about being high enough to avoid that...yet pointed down at more of an angle, and keeping your sight on the single target.

It does take lots of practice. I have been working on jets for so long that I have not been flying the choppers as much. I need to go back and work on that.

Also note - this is easiest performed in the Cobra (like you did) for its lighter weight and ease of manuevering.

Thanks for the video - shows the idea of what we are trying to get across on this thread, even though it is not exactly what was mentioned.

You can see how fast you were able to go in the broad circle you did - imagine making that circle tighter, how much faster you would be going and how much harder to hit you would be.