COMBATSIM.COM: Enemy Engaged RAH-66 Comanche vs. Ka-52 Hokum (www.combatsim.com)

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Flying cont...

I know that some of you who are regular readers at CombatSim.com will be saying, " Ok I know all of this stuff, how well is it implemented in EECH"? The short answer, quite well. Along with these features that can be turned on and off the sim also models weapon and fuel weight, air density changes by altitude and rolling takeoffs and landings. All of this small attention to detail makes me enjoy flying the helo sims that the guys at Razorworks build. It is a fairly full-featured FM with only a few problems that bug me. So what is it that bugs me?

Fig. 5. Flying the Hokum

There were a few things done to the flight characteristics that I didn't think needed to be done in regard to simplifying the FM. Although Froglips may choose to disagree with me on this, I know some others were not against Razorworks toning it down some. A few of the things that were left in way I didn't like were:

The overall lift on the helos
The amount of effect the weapons/fuel weight has
The strength of the ground effect
The amount of lift that the translational lift gives and therefor drops off as you slow down.
The general function of the pedals while at higher speeds.

The first four are all linked together in one design decision, the thinking seems to be that having the helos very limited in lift like they are in real life might make them less fun or too hard to fly. What was done is the helos were given more lift then they should have and then the ground effect and translational lift were toned down to have less effect to balance this out. The weapons/fuel weight was also toned down some to make flying easier. For me this removes a big part of the strategy and difficulty from the sim. I wouldn't see this as a bad move if the options to turn the effects off all together were not there. The problem is that those options are there to be used as the player sees fit. The good news here is that since I am such a pain in the butt Todd Gibbs was very nice to add the ability to edit most aspects of the FM in the sim. Right now I am having a few problems with this but I have a new Comanche FM almost done with IMO better effects to stay with real world numbers. My problem with the Tail rotor comes from the fact that both the Comanche and the Hokum should be able to turn sideways while moving at around 80 knots. This just doesn't work as it should; you are very limited in the ability to do pedal turns while at any higher speeds.

Fig. 6. Hovering above the ground

Froglips says: I am a beta tester for Zero G's new flight model. It provides him a reading on how difficult flying his modified flight model is for a rookie pilot. For the record, I supported a realistic flight model throughout beta testing (even though I did not understand what that meant). Most of my beta campaigns were to get the flight aids like Altitude Hold and Stable Hover Hold working properly. Even with an absolutely realistic flight model, the Comanche and the Hokum can be flown by a rookie, like me, with these flight aids.

There are two features missing or not working the way I would expect. These are autorotations and sideways flight. Having both engines destroyed in the sim is a fairly common event. Autorotations would have added a great deal to the gameplay. As it sits, if you have enough forward speed and you have a bit of altitude to get your gear out, you can fake an auto by flaring at just the right time before you hit the ground. It just isn't that same though and is sorely missed.

The sideways flight is there but it seems to react quite odd compared to a normal helo. Normal helos will pick up speed sideways as well as they do forward then weather cock into the wind when the tail rotor can no longer hold it sideways. This doesn't happen in EECH no matter how hard you try, I know that most people will never even see this since they will not try it but it bugs me anyway. This leaves for less then perfect tail rotor control while in forward flight and leaves your helo flying in trim without help from you. It is something that most people who have never flown a helo will notice but it is a bit off the mark none the less.

Overall this sim has a very nice FM that gives a good representation of flying and fighting in helicopters. Notice that I said helicopters, since the various helos that can be flown from within the sim fly very differently from one another. This is another added feature since A-H came out.