Problems With Hovering

So I've been fiddling with the Black Shark for some time now. Learning what I can on YouTube but a couple things fail to work. My gripes are with hovering and autopilot.

I always start up from ramp and proceed with starting the Ka-50 up. Everything to my knowledge is correct up to this point. I turn off the autopilot and begin to add collective. I adjust the trim and attempt to put her in a stable hover. I can get close but never perfect. Once I feel I'm in a good position I press auto-hover, which is mapped to my HOTAS.

The auto-hover never works. I veer to the left, right, forward and reverse at different times. I then toggle off the auto-hover and select the autopilot switches, clicking all four. Again the helicopter fails to hover. I then toggle auto-hover on once again, this time with autopilot engaged. Same problem.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. I've seen YouTube videos and I try to imitate as close as possible but can never get it to work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

So I've been fiddling with the Black Shark for some time now. Learning what I can on YouTube but a couple things fail to work. My gripes are with hovering and autopilot.

 

 

 

I always start up from ramp and proceed with starting the Ka-50 up. Everything to my knowledge is correct up to this point. I turn off the autopilot and begin to add collective. I adjust the trim and attempt to put her in a stable hover. I can get close but never perfect. Once I feel I'm in a good position I press auto-hover, which is mapped to my HOTAS.

 

 

 

The auto-hover never works. I veer to the left, right, forward and reverse at different times. I then toggle off the auto-hover and select the autopilot switches, clicking all four. Again the helicopter fails to hover. I then toggle auto-hover on once again, this time with autopilot engaged. Same problem.

 

 

 

I don't know what I am doing wrong. I've seen YouTube videos and I try to imitate as close as possible but can never get it to work.

 

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Why do you turn off the autopilot? Leave it on, takeoff into a stable hover, then push the auto hover button. You may have to click the trim again to let it know where you want it to take bearings from (where you want to hover). Make sure all the auto stabilization systems are on (lights out). It's not a perfect system but it should work as long as your close enough to a hover to begin with.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I3570K @ 4.5Ghz, 16Gb DDR3 @ 1600, GTX770 @1080p

The autopilot also acts as a stabiliser and it is extremely difficult to maintain stability without it. It is probably also a requirement for the auto-hover, but I say that without checking the manual. You can probably get by in Flight Director mode if you really want the autopilot off, but if you don't use either you're making a rod for your own back.

When you say "autopilot", do you mean the switch on the collective for "route following"? Should always be off unless following a route, so no "turning off" needed.

The four channels on the right panel should be lit up if on and dark if off. This is how it should be, but due to a bug since the introduction of deffered shading it works the other way around. Dark when on, lit when off.

Make sure the channels you want to be on (at least pitch and roll) is darker than the others. And the fifth button, "flight director", should off (i.e. lit up).

xSCAR45

Make sure your 3 SAS channels are on. Make sure your chopper is correctly trimmed already with little drift in any 4 directions before you engage the auto hover (use the vector that displays on the HUD below 50kph to make sure you are almost already in hover). The auto hover will not set your chopper into hover, it will maintain the hover you set your chopper into.

Leave these on at all times

If you want to change direction / speed of flight in any way hold down trim button do the changes and then release it. I really recommend some comfortable button, pinky lever for instance could be good choice for it.

Learn to live with the autopilot it really is well made in this one.

also there is bug in current cockpit that, these buttons wont shine like on picture right now.

You will need this mod.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3300499/

Thanks for the support gentlemen!

I turned the autopilot off, the blue squares, because I negated trimming when I first started with the Black Shark. I trim now, of course, and am just used to turning it off. I guess I'll have to make some adjustments. :doh:

I didn't know about the lighting bug. That's annoying. I guess I'll just leave everything alone except trim and see how I fare. :joystick:

I'll post back on this thread if the problems persist or if you guys solved another one of my noob problems. :smartass:

Ensure that during your training period no wind is present, compensating trim for wind is something you can pick up once you have the basics.

The KA-50 is superbly stable due to its counter rotating blades, this is why all miniature drone choppers have more than one main lift rotor.

A superb hover trim can be achieved very quickly without the APs... Indeed I reckon much faster.

Without the APs you are flying a chopper and it will feel like a chopper, with the APs you are flying against a computer that may not be trimmed right..... also the computerized APs are aggressive!

Once you learn the APs they become predictable and a god send when hunting targets. you can even hunt low in amongst the trees in a slow drift using the HMS to guide forward flight using the auto turn to target function... its a blast!

If you have a self centring joystick then you must have a reference to how your virtual stick relates to your real stick!

You definitely need the joystick position cheat window open, this is additionally needed because the in game stick throw on the DCS KA-50 is really long and can lead to serious disorientation problems when quickly trimming in combat. Belsimtek crack this problem perfectly with the Huey and MI-8 as the distance of travel of the joystick (in normal flight) is much smaller and thus reduces real stick and virtual stick error that can be quickly corrected with slight movements of the stick without the need to trim.

Use the HSI.

Set a nice safe height and trim to hover, All APs on,

In hover mode the longitudinal and lateral lines on the HSI will tell you if there is any drift from the centre position. They do this by direct feedback from the Doppler radar and they are very accurate.

If perfectly trimmed to hover, the last trim will set the centre position on the HSI and this is your commanded position for the computer to hold the hover. The longitudinal and lateral lines will be a perfect cross hair dead centre of the HSI, perhaps the longitudinal line will lag stable just behind centre for the perfect hover trim.

If there is drift, due to wind or poor trimming, then you will see these cross hairs drift from centre. They will tell you in which direction you are drifting and roughly how fast. The drift is because the computer cannot hold that hover position with the authority it has over the airframe (20 - 40 %?). The computer requires your input to correct this error. You will need to put a slight pressure on the stick in the opposite direction to retard the drift. If this works trim and re-centre the stick.

Also note that with each click on the trim you reset the hover position to the current position that you are at.

Experiment with your trim to return the cross hairs to centre. indeed once a perfect hover is achieved try a slow trimmed drift left or right.

I'll post back on this thread if the problems persist or if you guys solved another one of my noob problems. :smartass:

If you can post a track, we can better identify what the problem is.

Hi,

Once you learn to use the autopilot, instead of fighting against it, the Shark is very fun. we have 5 helio pilots in our squad, (including me), and one is a real Helio pilot IRL, (not me).feel free to hit the link in my sig. and check us out.

http://virtual-pilots.com/exercise-six-hovering/

Just for practising...

I had the same issue, but it came down to the bad cockpit textures which were the route cause. Assumed when the AP Channel buttons were "bright blue" they were on, turns out to be the opposite, depressed and "dark blue" that kinda looks like they're not on at all.

Just tried yesterday and noticed that the first time I tried all my autopilot channels started flashing and turned off. So even if they are on when you start, double check that they didn’t trip

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I3570K @ 4.5Ghz, 16Gb DDR3 @ 1600, GTX770 @1080p

I always make sure my own speed is <10 kph before engaging auto hover, because it will veer off if engaging it at speeds above 10 kph in my experience.

I've stopped using auto-hover.

It just gets you shot by tanks :)

hi,

Auto hover works fine, I use it a lot, trim to hover for the conditions then engage it, it is great in trees and in a cover situation, you can sneak right up on them... with all 4 channels on and auto hover too, I can hold position and control height with collective... very handy.. pop up add shoot .. BOOM... move and repeat... Try Urgax's missions... (Wink)

Do not fly without main 3 of 4 AP channels activated (blue buttons for Pitch, Yaw, Roll). The 4th is altitude.

Those are needed for trimming and all autopilot programming modes, as well to dampen your input.

Without AP channels, you can't trim, you can't program AP by using various modes like 'route following' or 'altitude gold's or 'desired heading' etc.

The other AP modes are like 'Auto-Turn' for weapons employment based Shkval gate position or to perform a 'funnel' attack, have a stabilization for Cannon firing etc.

The 'flight director' mode (separated blue button on top right) is that all AP programming is ignored and only your input is dampened. It is same as holding down a trimming button. But both requires that all three AP channels are enabled.

The AP channel gives a autopilot IIRC about 16% authority over control input. Example if you enable altitude AP channel and you adjust altitude with collective so your vertical speed (ascend/descent) is +2 meters at 7° degree blade angle and you squeeze collective break and release it to mark (program) your altitude to 32 meters from ground, then the AP will have 16% authority from the blade angles 0-15° from that your set position (7°). That means 2,5° angle authority to automatically be adjusted so your helicopter will stay at that 32 meters altitude. If the corrections are needed that are past that 2,5° adjustment, then AP can't do more and you need to adjust to get back in its ranges. If you disable altitude channel, then you program it to maintain that +2 m/s vertical velocity.

You program the AP via various means;

- most important is trimmer button, that you use to set your cyclic and pedals position and magnetic lock in it. Now the AP can adjust cyclic 16% range from that position. You as well temporarily disable all AP authority by holding it down. Only release will reprogram AP.

- then is your collective break leveler to adjust your attitude, that is programmed to use either radar or barometric altitude with switch next to AP channels.

- route following switch in collective to set AP to follow the programmed route, set in navigation systems (GLONASS or INS).

- targeting system heading, like Shkval gate position, that you can program with automatic target tracking, HMS designation, datalink memory etc.

- auto-hover, that use various other input to get the aircraft stay stationary and height.

The AP doesn't do mistakes, it is the pilot who doesn't understand what programming modes are set via various other controls. They are there to assist you, so you don't need to fight against the external forces like wind, weight, speed etc. But that you program AP to do wanted thing like 'keep heading 233°' or 'turn at 7° per second to left' or 'stay 55 meters from the ground regardless sea level' or 'maintain 155 km/h speed' or 'keep pointing gun at that target'.

The four blue buttons are there only to let AP have a authority in those channels. Everything else is done elsewhere.

And the auto hover feature is bugged. I just today tried to use it and it just makes chopper to slide without even trying to stay still. I can trim myself to perfect hover without much effort, and enabling auto hover shouldn't then cause me start sliding away from perfect hover.

Sometimes it works wonderfully, so you can't even use small cyclic inputs to get it move away, and if you do, it will return chopper perfectly to initial position.

Sometimes it works, sometimes not at all.

I just trim myself to position and do my business.

And i use a lot of all the programming features to ease my workload as I want to be hands-off flying, eyes outside of cockpit etc.

With the AP I can program shark to perform example a tail slide funnel at 20m altitude and simply go to kitchen get a cup of tee, and after few minutes coming back, it is still performing it perfectly as programmed.

But that auto-hover... Can't really trust it....

Otherwise that AP is what makes shark such wonderful to fly as you don't need to fly it, you program it to fly for you. And it is there correcting your mistakes in cyclic, collective and pedals....

--

I usually post from my phone so please excuse any typos, inappropriate punctuation and capitalization, missing words and general lack of cohesion and sense in my posts.....

Auto hover is working fine. The position that you last trimmed at will also be used as the auto-hover position, so you need to trim just before/after you enable auto hover. If you look at your HSI after you enable auto-hover, the horizontal and vertical lines will tell you how off you are from the position that the auto hover is trying to get to.

Auto hover is working fine. The position that you last trimmed at will also be used as the auto-hover position, so you need to trim just before/after you enable auto hover. If you look at your HSI after you enable auto-hover, the horizontal and vertical lines will tell you how off you are from the position that the auto hover is trying to get to.

No it doesn't work 100% of the time.

From my experience flying the Ka-50 since 2012, auto-hover does work 100% of the time. Can you provide a track or YouTube video with the controls indicator visible (RCtrl+Enter) showing it not working for you?