Helicopter torque/rudder control in flight vs autohover

[JohnMcFly]

In normal flight, the MH-6 and Apache (possibly other helicopters, haven't had much stick time with them) respond poorly to rudder inputs using a joystick. The nose seems to glance in the proper direction, but once rudder input is removed, they snap back to the previous heading. All heading changes must be made by banking the helicopter.

Conversely, in autohover, the MH-6 and Apache turn on a dime when using rudder input.

[[R-MOD]Cp]

Much like in a fixed wing aircraft, the rudder alone isn't used to turn when flying forwards. The wind hitting the fuselage will push the entire fuselage to face into the wind again (usually in the direction of travel unless there's crosswinds which there aren't any in arma)

Instead to turn a helicopter in forward flight you must bank just like a fixed wing aircraft so that some of the lift from the rotor blades instead pushes the chopper in the desired direction, the nose will follow because the entire fuselage works much like a weather vane.

Just like on a fixed wing aircraft the rudder in forward flight is used to perform coordinated turns to eliminate side slipping which causes extra drag and reduces airspeed, Although I doubt Arma models that, maybe take on helicopters does


Whether the flight model is accurate or not is up to debate but this that you are experiencing isn't a bug.

[TacticalJim]

The only draw back with Arma 2 heli sim is that it is the same for all helos, the ka52 should be able to yaw freely even at fOrward speeds since it uses duel rotors but it can't . Perhaps take on heli allows it

[[R-MOD]Cp]

well, no, the ka-52 having coaxial rotors gives it greater jaw control at higher speeds, but it still can't do a 360 on its own axis at higher than ~80 km/h. Source

Like I said, the wind resistance forces the fuselage to point in to the wind at high speeds, this applies even to coaxial helicopters.

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Thread moved to the feedback forums.

[JohnMcFly]

Traditional helicopters transition from forward flight to hover between 15-25kt, simply making the tail rotor effective below 15kt would be a sufficient change (but losing effectiveness across that range would be more realistic).