Fuel critical! Mission 8 highs and lows

I thoroughly enjoyed this mission ... well, kind of.

I had a few slow pick-ups and drop offs with a fair amount of hovering time. I've had a few months' break from DCS so no surprise, and flew missions 6 & 7 last week. So as time went on I was sure I'd be running low.

On the final, 4th run, the fuel was very low and I had doubts about making it back. I didn't want to give up and be forced to do the mission again so I pushed on (hey, it's a sim!). As quickly as I could safely manage, I dropped the 4th & final load with no damage, then headed back to base into that cursed headwind.

I watched the fuel gauge like a hawk all the way back. I knew it would be close but with a few miles to go I started to have hope. I also hopped the fuel gauge might go below zero, like it sometimes does in a car. Tip: it doesn't :noexpression:

Making a low powered, gradual descent to the runway, squeezing every bit out of the fumes, the fuel finally gave out at about 50ft and a few hundred yards from the runway threshold - panic!!! :joystick: I just had enough energy in the rotors to keep it off the grass and made the runway - PHEW!!! :megalol: (For reasons unknown I went full UP collective after touchdown and not full DOWN, so I had a bit of a 'bounce'!)

I rolled smoothly onto the grass and promptly screamed for the ground crew, who obligingly fuelled me up a little despite my 'unusual' parking spot. I restarted the APU, then the engines, and was ready to taxi back to the stand and complete this epic mission! Piece of cake! Breathe a sigh of relief... :thumbup:

But ... the story doesn't end here.

Taxiing on the grass is not something the Mi-8 seems to enjoy. After it finally got moving and I made a gradual turn, it started to tip over! I cut the collective (had to lift it a little to get moving on the grass) to drop the weight back onto the wheels and used the cyclic in the opposite direction, but to no avail... my workhorse wobbled and jumped a little and then rolled right over and ripped itself apart. Noooo!!!!!!!! :doh: :cry:

Oh well, I'll be a sling load champion after doing that one all over again! But I am a bit frustrated that the fuel shortage wasn't the death of me; the long grass was far more deadly. It's a bit like dodging a SAM, only to be killed by a birdstrike soon after :D

Three images attached:

1) Screenshot taken about 5 seconds before the fuel ran out.

2) Ready to refuel for taxi to parking

3) All loads delivered - but spot the wreckage of the Mi-26 in the background.

Feedback/questions on the mission:

1. From the mission description it sounded like transporting all 4 sling loads was optional, as it says "from 80 minutes to 2.5 hours", but during the mission it isn't really clear if this is the case? Certainly, the crew made no major complaints as the fuel started to run low, to indicate to the player that he/she might want to re-consider finishing early. I'm not sure how it's scored or what's needed for a 'pass'.
   
2. Could there be a mission bug that causes the Mi-26 to crash? I'll have to see if it happens again when I play it.
   
3. At some speeds with sling loads I found that the G-meter went crazy, fluctuating rapidly from around 0-2g. (The fuel gauge also jumped around, causing audio warnings; nice feature). The Mi-8 was also pulled around quite a bit even though the load wasn't really swinging. I tried not to go too fast with any loads (generally below 150kmh for the larger ones), but at times it was very jittery. Have others seen that behaviour? I didn't notice it before in v1.5.7, only now in the 2.5 release. But maybe I didn't take such heavy loads before.
   

Thanks!

Martyn

So here I am a few days later. I completed mission 8 on my 3rd attempt - that was many hours of hard work! But it was enjoyable.

On attempt number two, after I dropped the 3rd load safely, I gently made a small circle-to-land to pick up the slings and somehow ended up in VRS by complete surprise and crash-landed in the field. I think, as I turned away from the wind, the slight headwind became a tailwind and the VSI dropped a bit, but as I was moving along the ground at some speed I thought I was safe from VRS and didn't compensate for the tailwind. Oops! Sadly, I think that was my first Mi-8 crash (not counting a few 'experimental' flights just to 'test the physics'). I even survived the whole Spring Tension campaign without incident. I think I've just been lucky - I've had a few close calls with VRS, be sure! :lol:

Attempt number 3 was successful, though I did damage the 3rd load. Either dropped it at too high a descent rate or caught it on a previous load. But after all that's happened before, I will gladly take that result! I also had considerably more fuel left compared to my first attempt, where I landed by autorotation :D

On the third run of this mission, the Mi-26 never left the base. It was creeping very, very slowly along the taxiway. It has almost reached the runway by the time I returned to base. Not sure what caused that. DCS issue I imagine? There were no updates since the last two times I ran the mission (I'm on the stable branch of 2.5.0). May explain why ATC never answered my request to taxi to take off - it was waiting for Mi-26 to clear first.

One minor 'bug' to report / improvement to make: After I damaged the 3rd load, the scripts/messages didn't play out about landing to pick up slings, or asking the crew chief to get to collect them once I had landed on the pad. It worked all other times, including on the next load. It only didn't work after I damaged a load instead of placing it down safely. I was concerned it might stop the script sequence from running and result in the mission not being completable, but thankfully all was well.

One more weird event: I blacked out several times due to G-loading, when the load 'bounced' on the rope! :shocking: (I thought DCS had crashed for a moment!) The G-meter showed -0.6 to 2g after the 'bounce' that caused it. Lucky the rope didn't snap! I was carrying the large fuel drum at the time, doing around 150km/h. Nothing campaign-specific, I'm sure. Just a DCS thing.

A few screenshots attached:

1) Last load en route

2) Final to land - note the Mi-26 which was still taxiing to the runway after more than 2 hours! (Holding up other traffic)

3) Fuel remaining once parked on the stand. More than 0 = good :thumbup:

All in all, great mission. But I look forward to moving on to the next one.

I'm loving this campaign so far. Aside from the slightly poorly translated English briefings which can confuse at times, it's amazing, well done! :clap_2:

I hope for more civilian campaigns in DCS in future; it's a nice change.

You're welcome. Thanks for the reply :)

Translation can be a difficult thing, I know. I would offer to proofread future campaigns and maybe re-write some of the briefing texts, but that would spoil the fun of the story before flying it, so I wouldn't enjoy doing it... :noexpression:

Anyway, as a tip, the switching between Russian first names, nicknames and patronymic names can be confusing with a direct translation to English (especially as most English-speakers are probably not so familiar with Russian names). For example, switching Sergei with Seryoza, and using the main character's patronymic name (Maksimich) in the text, instead of sticking with a firstname (Yuri) or surname (Protosov). I actually wrote down all the character names on paper, to avoid getting confused in the briefings :)

It's not a big issue, but I wanted to get engrossed in the 'flavour' of the campaign to increase my enjoyment.

As for the nicknames, I don't have too much trouble because my partner is Russian and I'm used to the language/names. But I do find most Russian nicknames to be less obvious than in English as the root isn't so clear. Most English nicknames are simple, such as David becoming Dave, or William becoming Will (sometimes 'Bill' though!).