Sling loading

Hello there!

I have been recently picking up (pun intended) sling loading, which is by far one of the hardest things to do in DCS, and I was wondering if any of you more hardened veterans had any tips and hints for me on how to handle this complex method in the Mi-8 so I can stop getting the occasional 'cable snapped!' alerts.

Thanks in advance and here is a sexy screenshot for you to enjoy! (Do not mind the rather low FPS that nights' mission gave us, it is usually better, I swear!)

I've never had a cable snap with slingloading, sure I've had some cargo damaged but never a cable snap. Speed is the key factor here I think.

Always approach the cargo while flying into the wind, use the smoke from them arker to judge wind if nyou need to. I use the cargo indicator to get above the cargo.

You can use the heading autopilot so you have one axis less to think about, that's personal preference.

yes sling loading with this bird is so hard i never done slingload but ka 50 is more easier dont know why i cant hook cargo with mi8

These may help

Thank you once aain, Cibit!

Ah your welcome, like I say I hope you find it useful and thank you for the rep:)

I use the lazy approach and land near the cargo to attach :)

I had no idea there was a cargo indicator. That should make pickups a bit easier. Thanks for the tip Cibit!

There is also a view outside of the window looking straight down, which is very helpful after you have mastered the art of vertical reference hovering. It is not any more difficult than initially learning to hover and like that, it just takes a lot of time and patience. But once you have figured it out, there is almost nothing you can't do with the Hip!!:joystick:

Voice assistance now in English too

Tried sling loading in open beta yesterday and discovered that the voice assistance which used to be only available in Russian is now finally also available in English. Don't know exactly when it was introduced but I'm very pleased to see that. The cargo indicator does not work in VR and isn't realistic anyway, after some short testing I found that the cues from the co pilot really helped a lot and is (for me) absolutely necessary and make sling loading in VR great. So big thanks for that BST!

The English voice does sound very Russian, so that makes it a bit hard to understand but still works.

One problem now is that without the indicator, you can't see where you drop the cargo. So now it's very hard/impossible to unload the cargo on a very tight spot, like on a small roof or one of those posts which are around some airfields. Would it be a possibility in the future to designate a place for the cargo to be dropped and then have the same voice cues guiding the cargo drop?

The indicator helps a lot and constantly re-trimming in the transition phases to hover.

I've 1.5.5 release version but had the russian voice over. Can I have the russian cockpit (with english tooltips) but the english speaking cargo helper?

The voice commands seem to depend on which country you fly for, not avionics- or cockpit language. At least that's what I've seen in MP. US = English voice over, Russia = Russian.

Using active pause while in flight with a sling load (200kph with 2000kg cargo) is fatal. You immediatly get the rope snapped message, and then catch on fire and slowly burn to death in a cascade of system failures. I'm guessing the Mi-8 active pauses but the cargo keeps on trucking, swings up and wrecks the helicoptor.

wow! Thanx for bug report!)) we will try reproduce it..

Great, thanks! I should add this is on the Nevada map version 2.0.4.

The voice commands seem to depend on which country you fly for, not avionics- or cockpit language. At least that's what I've seen in MP. US = English voice over, Russia = Russian.

Works, thanks. I made Georgia a blue country and set up a SP Mission with Georgian Mi-8 and the voice commands were in english.

Regarding your frame rates - 26 FPS isn't a problem. It's low, but it won't cause issues until it drops below 20-25. Aim for more of course, but if that's your minimum, you have nothing to worry about. Just be aware however that you use the visual feed back loop to control the aircraft, so low rates = slow reactions. High frame rates will give you more exact control, and that is a big concern in sling loading.

Too keep things under control when sling loading, it is best to think ahead of yourself, and be very aware of over controlling. It is a vicious circle - the more the error increases, the more you'll tend to over correct. Be very critical of the time to quit, and start over. Always do it twice as soon as you think you should.

So do things slowly, and only commit when you have 100% control over a situation. It's far easier to abort, circle around and try again than to push on with a rapidly deteriorating set of circumstances. Once you start over controlling it will quickly become utterly uncontrollable.

Bottom line is to practice practice practice. It takes time and patience to overcome the battle of wills between you, the helicopter and gravity.

I have been sling loading VR style in the Huey, there is no camera or indicator, but VR still makes it easier.

I am not getting the voice help though, is this Mi8 only?

Yes, voice is a feature yet to be added to the other helicopters.

so, it's no bug!:)

No, it's a feature! Which makes total sense for all aircraft except sling loading helecopters. Maybe you guys can make the rope cage/uncage (stop swinging) when active pause is on/off.

so, it's no bug!:)

Can you make English subtitles to match the Russian words being spoken for the directions to the sling load please? :thumbup:

I get a subtitle showing "Hovering above cargo" & "cargo hooked", would be excellent to have it for the "forward...3" etc

Can you make English subtitles to match the Russian words being spoken for the directions to the sling load please?

 

I get a subtitle showing "Hovering above cargo" & "cargo hooked", would be excellent to have it for the "forward...3" etc

Yes it's a perfect idea because all my Mi-8 are Russian and impossible to understand the voice.

An English subtitle is a perfect choice for us.

Thanks, Skull.

For this I created a mod where I copied all the ENG sounds to RUS folders.