Player guide

Flying basics

How to start, fly, land and shut down a RotorCraft Evolution helicopter, and what to do when things go wrong. Server settings can change handling and damage, so a server may feel different from the defaults described here.

Start-up

1. Aim at the pilot seat and hold F. Only the pilot seat flies.
2. Make sure you are not holding RMB. While a weapon seat is armed, engine start is blocked.
3. Hold LMB to start.
4. Wait about 25 seconds for full rotor speed. The HUD shows ROTOR SPINNING UP until then, and the lever cannot go above centre while you are on the ground. Lowering it still works.

If you hear a single starter click and nothing spins up, the battery or plugs are the problem. If you get the failed-start sound, check fuel and the fuel tank. See Parts, fuel and repair.

The lever

The lever (collective) has 21 positions, from -10 to +10. Centre (0) is roughly a level hover, but height, tilt and airflow all shift that point, so expect to adjust.

• Wheel up / Wheel down move it one notch.
• Up arrow sets +10, Right arrow sets 0, Down arrow sets -10.

Raise it above centre once rotor speed reaches 100% to lift off.

Attitude

• W / S pitch the nose down and up.
• A / D bank left and right.
• Q / E turn the nose with the pedals.

Pitch and bank stay where you leave them when you let go of the key. Nothing flies the aircraft back to level for you except recovery. There is no attitude limit by default, so you can bank steeply or even fly inverted, but you lose height doing it.

Recovery (Left arrow)

Press Left arrow to level the aircraft, centre the lever and brake drift and descent for about two seconds. It needs the engine running and enough rotor speed. It also needs height: recovery close to the ground may come too late.

• By default there is no cooldown, so every press gives full powered recovery.
• Servers can set a cooldown to make landing harder. During the cooldown, the key only levels the aircraft and centres the lever.
• Servers can also turn powered recovery off.
• With the engine out, recovery only levels the aircraft. It does not stop the fall or centre the lever.

The HUD and gauges

The pilot HUD shows speed, height above ground, altitude above sea level, lever position, rotor speed, fuel and an artificial horizon. Cockpit needles work too. The MH-6 has no moving horizon in the cockpit. Black Hawk digital screens show attitude, speed, altitude, heading, rotor speed (NR) and torque (TRQ). Where a fuel dial's scale doesn't match the tank, trust the HUD fuel percentage.

Just above the lower-left flight gauges is a row of coloured part silhouettes: engine, fuel tank, main rotor and tail rotor. Their colour follows the part's condition, from pristine to ruined, and a part briefly grows when its condition gets worse. A leak icon appears only while the tank is leaking. Ordinary passengers don't see this row. Servers can turn it off.

Warnings

Landing and shutting down

1. Slow down and level off.
2. Lower the lever a little. Watch your descent rate and rotor speed: a fast powered descent can lose lift.
3. Settle onto clear, flat ground.
4. If you are in a weapon seat, release RMB to make weapons safe.
5. Click LMB to stop the engine. The aircraft must be on the ground and nearly stopped, at no more than 8 km/h.

The rotor coasts down over roughly 55 seconds. Wait for it to stop before fitting parts, locking or covering the aircraft.

If the pilot seat is left empty with the engine running, the engine keeps going for up to two minutes, then shuts down.

Engine failure and autorotation

Autorotation is modelled. If the engine quits in the air:

1. Lower the lever promptly to keep rotor speed up.
2. Keep some forward speed.
3. Near the ground, flare (nose up) and raise the lever to cushion the touchdown.

Pulling the lever up too early spends the rotor's stored energy and you'll have nothing left for the landing. The lever still works during autorotation, and the ground spin-up limit doesn't apply in the air, including if you restart the engine in flight.

• Tail rotor destroyed: the main rotor still works for autorotation, but you have no tail-rotor authority.
• Main rotor destroyed: no lift and no autorotation.

Practise autorotations with plenty of height.

Wind

Wind pushes the aircraft, including gusts and drift, and it also affects the airflow through the rotor in autorotation. Each server sets how strong the effect is; it can be turned down or off completely.

Lights

L switches the exterior lights. With lights on, the landing light comes on below 60 m. Dim panel lighting stays on even with the exterior lights off.

Seats and passengers

• On the ground, anyone can move to any empty seat. Aim at the seat you want.
• In the air, nobody can move into or out of the pilot seat with the change-seat action.
• Gazelle and Black Hawk passengers can swap non-pilot seats in flight. MH-6 seat changes are ground only.
• By default, nobody else can take over the controls. Servers can enable an experimental option that lets the co-pilot fly if the pilot is dead in the seat.
• There is no standing or walking around inside an aircraft in flight. On the ground, the Chinook's crew can stand up into the cabin; see Chinook cargo and cabin.
• To get a dead occupant out, aim at them and use Pull out body.

Moving it on the ground

The Mosquito and MH-6 can be pushed by hand by default with Push helicopter. The Gazelle and Black Hawk can't, unless the server allows it.

Something missing or wrong? Ask in the Discord.