Mission 17 - Surrounded

After taking on troops in this mission, my heli is so loaded down that I don't have enough power to keep up with my flight when crossing the mountains.

As a result I fall so far behind that the mission fails. Can someone offer advice? I can barely make it over the mountains while maintaining 150 km/h. :(

Looks like by carefully keeping my climb speed around 170 km/h, I can just keep up with the flight. It's all about careful flying. This has to be the hardest mission so far!

I tried this one a few days ago and I still managed to get to about 200kmph and keep up with them. Try and get off the pad as fast as possible, point the nose down and give it all the power you can.

I can't keep up with them will those false landings. I don't get how they are pulling those maneuvers with that weight.

Maybe I'll just skip the mission. :(

Do I have to use my weapons in this mission? If not, I'll just remove them.

Hi,

I 'm stuck at this mission and have the same difficulties as the the mates above.

Any additional advice is welcome.

I will test it out later. But maybe you can take-off and try to fly off in the proper direction before the AI? Just to give you a headstart. Following AI choppers into the mountains is horribly difficult! Messing with those missions is not recommended. You can mess-up the scripts as well and the mission becomes unplayable.

IIRC you can give the blades about 13, maybe 14 degrees of pitch before the RPM's are too low and the generators cut out. Or maybe you can perform a rolling start? This is done on a regular basis on real-life operational Mi-8 as well. Also, disabelling anti-ice and dust-protection gives you some extra power.

Hello 1.JaVA_Platypus,

Thanks for jumping in and for your many valuable and tricky advices!

take-off and try to fly off in the proper direction before the AI? Just to give you a headstart.

I don't have much difficulty to follow the choppers from Java to Sphora in the first part of the mission. The difficulty begins after Sphora when they fly into the mountains.

Following AI choppers into the mountains is horribly difficult!

I'm glad (to speak so) I'm not the only one to experience difficulty!

Messing with those missions is not recommended. You can mess-up the scripts as well and the mission becomes unplayable.

I have not edited any mission in the mission editor so far and I prefer not to since I'm not skilled enough yet. I hope I can finish the campaign in a regular manner.

You can give the blades about 13, maybe 14 degrees of pitch before the RPM's are too low and the generators cut out.

Yes I have set the pitch to 13-14 degrees. However I need to investigate more on "before the RPM's are too low and the generators cut out" to improve my knowledge on this aspect.

Or maybe you can perform a rolling start?

I don't have enough room to perform a rolling start at Sphora. Anyway the real difficulty is not at Sphora take-off but in the mountains zone.

Also, disabelling anti-ice and dust-protection gives you some extra power.

I will try and report back.

I'm just wondering if this changed over time (since the posts are from 2015). IMO it's no problem to keep the pace with the other helos. In fact, the more difficult part is that they change the speed quite often when climbing above the hills - so I often overtake them. After more than 10 attempts, I'm finally able to follow them till the landing zones. BUT the real frustrating part is the wingman. He flew into me several times.

Last attempt, when I finally landed on LZ3, he decided to land too close to my blades, killing my helo...(see screenshots), so it's another fail (guess how I amused I was...not at all). I can't even remember how often I tried the mission now, but I'd say around 15 times. So far I enjoyed the campaign, but this mission is actually frustrating because of the AI.

I'm glad you could pass this mission. It was a bad souvenir for me :(

...I did not yet pass it. But I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

If needed, you can apply emergency power for 5-10 minutes if necessary, should help you keep the rotor RPM high enough.

Thanks for the hint. I'll have to google/check Chuck's guide to find out how. But I'm sure it might help. I had no problems for the first two LZ, but yesterday, I didn't have enough power to get up to the 3rd.

Edit: BTW, landing and catching up most of the time isn't the problem. In my current attempt, I was approaching LZ 4 when the wingman AGAIN decided to crash with me. So that's the real annoying thing in this mission. This is the 3rd time I failed because the AI killed my Mi-8 :(

Well, I finally managed mission 17. I wanted to save the track but clicked "ok" in the debriefing too quick (out of habit). Anyway, let me share some of the experience I made - maybe it might help some other poor pilots who are stuck in this mission.

First, it really took me around 20 attempts. The first 10 times, it was because I lost the AI/leader. Once you know where they are flying to and where they make some crazy manoevers (hard brakes, fast ascend), it's no problem anymore.

Second, you don't have to land at every LZ. At LZ1 and 2 I only orbited (make sure you don't get into a hover - I almost lost the chopper at LZ2).

I think you don't even have to land at LZ3 (but I'm not sure). Anyway, when starting again, you can let the chopper "fall down the hill" to gain speed. But make sure you don't lose the AI out of sight.

Third, the hint with turning off anti acing was helpful to me. Sure, you can't have it turned off all the way. But when you're in "troubles" and you need some extra power, then it may help. I almost missed LZ4 and had to ascend again. So I shortly turned it off and it felt like it was easier to climb again. But maybe it was just a placebo effect.

At LZ4, I was using F2 to check my back - the wingman too often landed on me). This time I was lucky, but I made sure I immediately took off when the leader started.

When they're telling you to attack the enemy, then don't get nervous. The AI will deal with it. So again, make sure you keep the AI in sight. Stay behind them, slightly above. If you see that they slow down, decrease the throttle and pull back the stick to also slow down and to not gain altitude.

RTB was more or less easy but there were two points where the leader almost went into a hover to pass a mountain. But since you know where you came from (and since you might spot the shadow of the choppers on the ground) it's possible to find them again.

And don't get nervous in the end when you're finally at the base. Hell, I almost most crashed the Mi-8 when I went into a vortex at the landing approach. I noticed it and was able to catch him slightly before the ground. So after approximately one hour, I finally touched the ground savely and finished the mission. It was a pain in the a** ;-)

Edit: BTW, I did not have to deal around with the emergency power (in fact I didn't even find out how to do it).

Many thanks for your detailed feedback :thumbup:

In the future I might decide to pick up Spring Tension where I left it 2 years ago ie on mission #17.

I forgot one hint. Somebody else once told me in this forum when we were discussing about generator failure. So I'll share it here because it was very helpful to me - not just for mission 17.

Make sure you always keep an eye on the main rotor RPM (see screenshot, red square). Make sure the needle doesn't go below 90% (well, 88-89 can still work, but when it's lower, generator failure may occur).

Also for the collective (yellow square), you can go up to 13 in the beginning of the mission. Once you're in the target area and more meter above sea, 13 is risky. Again, simply check the main rotor RPM.

So once you know those limits of the Mi-8, it's a lot more relaxing to fly the helo and generator failure should not happen anymore - simply fly within the limitations of the machine ;-)