Arma 3 Helicopter Formation Flight Guide - Art of Flight, Episode 13

[@JiveDilletante]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I think this is the best content you produce. Every episode is concise and thorough. Three thumbs up!

[@Qarlo99]

+JiveDilettante I'd make a comment about your anatomy, but I'm sure you're sensitive regarding your deformities. Always stand next to Kevb0, and no one will ever notice. : ]

[@Dan0Dead0Or0Alive]

9:12 "Hey guys, we cant drink and drive so lets grab the helis and go get some gyros!" Turns out they weren't open at 2am

[@atadbitnefarious1387]

+Dan Dead Or Alive Youd be surpised that this happens in real life occasionally. Especially during long cross country flights its not uncommon for flight crews to land (usually at a pre determined small private airport but not always) just to eat dinner and chill out. I once was on a blackhawk that landed in some poor farmer's backyard so the crew can take a piss break lmao.

[@mackan072]

Your Art of Flight series is nothing but amazing, love theese

[@nomissy1]

Great video! As a glider pilot, I'm a fan of loose formations. The first pilot, who may be even 1km or more ahead can tell the others, were thermals are, so they are faster and catch up. In a loose formation in arma, which shouldn't be as loose as our "formations", the leader can tell the others, where enemies are, so the following pilots can change their flight path. I think, 200m are plenty of space for that.

[@glennog]

Awesome to see this series develop, especially with the mod additions to show clearly what each helo in the formation is doing in relation to interval.

[@panimala]

Wouldn't it be possible to augment st_hud to include nearby friendly air vehicles (maybe even with colors/numbers) within say 200-300 meters to improve situational awareness during formation flight?

[@dslyecxi]

+Panimala - It could be done, but I don't particularly like the idea. You shouldn't really have visibility/awareness of helos behind you unless you have a crew chief sticking out looking back, or can directly see them due to offset.

[@panimala]

+Dslyecxi The same can be said for regular st_hud. In reality you don't sense people up to 50 meters away from you, where they are looking and moving (even behind you), but it helps for fluid group movement and coordination. On an infantry level, people will most likely look at the st_hud instead of turning their head to make sure a formation is being maintained. Not having the same functionality for air formation adds another layer of difficulty (and at the same time prestige) to being a skilled pilot, which can be both a good and a bad thing. In any case, good and well presented video.

[@CapMurd]

+Panimala Real formation flying is done by 45 degrees (except trail) with space about 2 rotor discs (2 helo lengths when in trail) while each helo is 3+ feets higher than the one before to avoid turbulence. How do you expect to fly formation with "radar" on your screen rather than watching the helo you are supposed to be in formation with? Not to mention it would take away the beauty of flying formations as you wouldn't need to constantly keep an eye on the aircraft you are flying formation of. Also, you are not supposed to really "hear" other aircrafts to justify having some sort of "spider" sense like you do on the ground with st_hud. I Understand this is a game and more than half of the things that is really done in a real formation flights has no use in ArmA such as required simultaneous landing and take off: especially landing where it is really a must to land at the same time or even just maintaining altitude above the front aircraft to avoid rotor wash, which could easily result into over-torque, loss of control or w/e unexpected power condition. So technically you could still say fuck immersion and agree it is just a game, but I think taking away immersion from already lacklust gameplay is rather terrible thing to do. To each his own I suppose. ArmA is easily moddable so thankfully all can enjoy the experience they are looking for with just a small extra mod. So if you still want this and consider it a must then I say go ahead and create a mod.

[@panimala]

CapMurd Again, it is a lot easier to argue against the current st_hud functionality for infantry than it is for the same functionality for aircraft (like "sensing" 50 meters behind you, where people not only looking but moving, well as having a constant compass bearing that makes people spend more time looking at the GUI then they should at the world). It's not so much "fuck immersion" as it is building on top of the addon to add the same kind of functionality in air as you have on the ground (which happily I noticed shouldn't be a complicated process to do). All in all it's about choice as you said, and our group already use a modified version of st_hud that remove the compass bearings and reduce its range.

[@dslyecxi]

+Panimala - The distinction for me is that in a helo, you physically can't see behind you from a closed cockpit without the use of an external mirror or somesuch - there's no "rear view window" to look through. The topic is complex (both for STHUD in general and this potential use specifically) and there's no perfect answer to it. I think what STHUD does for infantry works in a way that I wouldn't want to carry over to aircraft. STHUD isn't done evolving, either, but we have a lot that we're working on and there are only so many hours to go around. Glad you liked the video.

[@TheRogueWolf]

I'd think that another advantage of wider intervals is that it's easier for enemy ground elements to score hits by firing into a group of tightly-spaced helos than a group that's more separated.

[@dslyecxi]

+TheRogueWolf - yep, and I mention that during this.

[@TheRogueWolf]

***** Huh, must've missed that. Sorry!

[@Levdbas]

I love the AOF video's! It gives me so much tools to give some direction of mastering the pilot skills.

[@markcosta7315]

These are awesome tutorials...Ive been playing this series since OFP, and it keeps blowing my expectations out of the water thanks largely to Dslyexi and the other community guys that are continually pushing improve models, and gameplay. Keep it up! Dslyexi, any chance you could put together a vid about interaction/communication between gunner and pilot in the MELB? Without the radar available in the Comanche or longbow, it comes down to sensor usage, situational awareness, and communication...one or all parts my mates are missing at any given time (grin). Also...the compass that shows up on your FLIR, is that an internal mod or is it public and available? Thanks a ton for all the work over the years! Looking forward to even more.

[@Hoffie92]

4k Video......... :O. You sir, Are a LEGEND.

[@travislittle1629]

I fuckin love these videos! Well, I love all Dslyecxi videos, but these are the best.

[@slyderace]

These are such amazing instructions, you should teach REAL helicopter tactic classes!

[@MikeTheBomb84]

First i wanna thank you for that siries of videos. At min 3:17 ist that a mod to show the distance between the helicopters or is it an effect for the video? greetings Mike

[@hvymtal8566]

More ppl need to watch this, more than one pair chalks have been killed by an unspecified formation being too tight

[@halliwedge]

When I start my new job I can start supporting you on patreon. I wanted too for awhile now but no money. Keep up the great vids tho.

[@mattreynolds3747]

Excellent, been waiting for this one for a while now!

[@USLobsterAirsoftTeam]

A tutorial over the RHS Apache would be very helpful, thank you

[@JojoJuhbo]

This is awesome man, well done in every aspect. Where did you learn how to do all these things? I know you were in the military but correct me if I'm wrong, you weren't a pilot right?

[@hitchy98]

+FortyCalCarter I think he was an IT guy and then was a weapon trainer? It's in one of the DCS Huey videos :/

[@TheInvisiblesTJD]

Iirc from the stuff on his website, he was JTAC and then was ISMT in Japan.

[@TheInvisiblesTJD]

Also he's been playing Arma since beta OFP.

[@JojoJuhbo]

TheInvisiblesTJD callum hitchcock Thanks for the info guys! I'll check out his site and see if I can learn more.

[@dslyecxi]

+TheInvisiblesTJD - I was not a JTAC. This is me: dslyecxi.com/about-me/

[@Csorqc]

sick dust effect

[@llllPROTOCOLllll]

Very well done and informative! Thanks

[@headrockbeats]

+Dslyecxi, I noticed that in many of the example formations here, the second aircraft has a much greater interval between it and the lead, than the other aircraft do between them. Is that intentional, or just a result of your filming method? If intentional, why?

[@hitchy98]

Probably unintentional but I could see it as the lead aircraft being more likely to make drastic manoeuvres since he can't easily tell what's going on behind him, after all it's human nature to usually dismiss what they can't see.. By being a bit further behind, the trailing aircraft with the better formation picture can follow the leads movements without inadvertently crowding him

[@headrockbeats]

callum hitchcock That's what I thought too, but I'm hoping to hear from Dslyecxi as to whether that is actually what he was doing.

[@AFOKHAOS]

Any new session footage you got containing some formation/group flying like this besides 'Get The Melb' ?

[@xivid1234]

Hey Dslyecxi, i really enjoyed your new video! I would like to know which kind of helicopter was used in the video because it appears not to be the arma 3 vanilla mh6/ah6. Thanks in advance. Keep up the great work!

[@christianwagner1241]

Hi there, how do you get this gorgeous camera shots? Is it a mod or a script? great tutorial as always :)

[@jackboot6344]

Good work. Enjoyed the video. Thanks.

[@TheGentGaming]

Would love to see a guide on funnelling for offensive flight - I can do it, but I can't explain how to to friends haha

[@GTKSM952]

@Dslyecxi What about the Vee formation? Isn’t it just like exolon?

[@dslyecxi]

I generally find echelons more viable.

[@Kalashnikova42069]

You mentioned that there where about 9 actualy formations used. Do you know of a place one could read up on these?

[@acematthew01]

wish you and jester814 could do a joint op. You and your team doing helo insertions, extractions and CAS. while jester's does the infantry ground assault after insertion.

[@hayes4244]

Is this done with players or ai? If it is done with ai could you make a video on how its done or link me to something like it? If not do you think there is anyway of getting ai to fly in close low left formation and then break off when they approach LZ?

[@Roi8Arachnide]

what is the point of 4K when youtube shuts down any attempt to actually use it ! i have 32 mb/s of internet when watching the video in 1440p but it immediatly drops down to 500 kb/s when i put it in 4k ... thanks youtube for limiting connections like that -_-

[@dslyecxi]

+Roi8Arachnide - It's probably your ISP more than it is KZbin.

[@drasleona6216]

+Roi8Arachnide it can also be your router...

[@drasleona6216]

+Roi8Arachnide notice me senpai syndrome?

[@mackan072]

+Roi8Arachnide Don't think that's an IPS problem, I'm on a 100/100 mbit/s fiber connection and I'm having the same issues from time to time, but that is only with KZbin. Most likley it's the KZbin servers being on heavy load or something like that.

[@98abaile]

Hey Dslyecxi, are you looking forward to the Bo 105 and Gazelle in DCS?

[@dslyecxi]

+98abaile - yes, but I don't get excited about DCS stuff until it's released/I can actually play it.

[@thegreatgypsy901]

We still got a while before those become a reality, there hasn't even been any serious news or developments on them yet

[@acematthew01]

I love it :D

[@freexavier]

I can hear a subtle music being played.

[@ELDoro]

What do you use to capture in game videos? any specific mods?

[@Bence70170]

Obs and obs streamlabs are good to stream and record games

[@josesuarez89]

I'm having a problem with coms, I can't get on the radio while landing to communicate since I don't want my hand off the throttle. My main issue is TFAR won't allow me to assign joystick keys to radio coms, anyone have a solution or know how to assign?

[@SuperCompany007]

2:15 Isn't that a line abrest?

[@dslyecxi]

+Company007 - Nope.

[@HankScorpioXX]

Which flight model do you use in your Videos and in common?

[@dslyecxi]

+Hank Scorpio - Normal. I talk about why here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4u6doqXqKqrkJY

[@HankScorpioXX]

Thx!

[@zachsmith4381]

Nice tutorial! Keep'em coming!

[@TREY1123]

I've notice in a lot of your videos you don't seem to take the lead aircraft position very often. Is there specific reason for this?

[@dslyecxi]

+TREY1123 - Depends on the session. If it's a Wednesday, I almost always fly a different position so that others can try flight lead/being further up in the formation order. I generally prefer flying #2 rather than lead, so long as the lead is a good pilot, as it's a more challenging and interesting situation for me.

[@pascal8997]

are you using a joystick or mouse and keyboard?

[@vladdraghici7237]

pascal he's using the mouse and keyboard for the basic flight model in arma as far as i know.

[@lllEduardollll]

Are you using the arcade or the advanced flight model in this video?

[@s3fron]

+lllEduardollll He's mostly using advanced from what I understand.

[@hitchy98]

+s3fron - this will probably be using the regular FM since that's what they use in missions and what the AI simulate (even though I think the AI are following traced paths on this video)

[@lllEduardollll]

he said in another question, he uses the normal "easy" flight model, anyway both flight models sucks

[@iggbomb]

Dslyecxi, has shacktac stopped playing arma 2 and completely switched to arma 3? because I don't recall seeing any arma 2 videos from you recently.

[@s4098055]

+iggbomb Yes, we've been that way for a while now.

[@iggbomb]

cool, thanks!

[@Rabbit_Entr]

Nice to know :)

[@MrBelico4]

***** do you have a video where you are actually killing multiplayer solders with the ah6 miniguns?

[@dslyecxi]

+AH6 MX Bélico - other human players? It's not very common, only a few missions we play have that as an option.

[@konorsga9873]

Greetings!

[@Revixy]

5 people did not understand the following lessons in the video.

[@Mafia200100]

Have you been working on your elocution? I can't help but notice the differences in your speech here.

[@dslyecxi]

+Mafia200100 - Good differences? I've been trying to see what I can do to make nicer voiceovers, but it's a continual evolution and I haven't ever really been super happy with them.

[@shukenten4191]

+Dslyecxi Clear and concise, and actually a pleasure to listen to. Very well done :)

[@Mafia200100]

***** You weren't exactly the worst person to listen to in the first place :) But yeah, overall much clearer pronunciation. It'd be pretty hard to mishear anything you say.