First Week in Game

[vettim89]

Well I have been playing AH for a week now and here are some observations:

1.  You guys are really helpful and understanding.  Not once did anyone make a negatve comment about the "stupid Noob"

2. You give great advice.  After a week fighting this Logitech monstrosity and losing controled flight in like six sorties in a row, I ordered my CH tonight.  Had a good week at work and decided to treat myself.  One hitfor Logitech users that seems to help is to turn the dead zone up on the Z axis obnoxiously high.  I also moved the X and Y up quite a bit too as when calibrating the thing I noticed serious deflections in the counter axis when applying pressure purely in one direction (i.e., a straight pull back was giving serious X axis deflection)

3. Landing is a b$%^.  Still need to refine this skill

4. I have six kills in one week.  One was in a B-24 when a Spit tried to sneek up on my six after I released.  Got a few ground kills in a P-40-D40.  The one I am most proud of is what I would call my first righteous kill.  Huge Furball over A21 in LW Orange tonight. Enme CV just off the coast.  Huge merge with over 20 a/c total.  I am in a Bf 109-F4 and spotted an F6F in pursuit of a friendly at 2 O' Clock level nose on.  I pulled into a hi Yo and closed the circle.  He broke low and to the right.  Kept switching views and held him in view all the way down while performing a twisted split S. He bottomed out of his break 400 ft from my nose and boom.   Of course I myself was smoked within 30 seconds after that.  Still that was worth the 20 or so deaths I suffered in that furball.  Most fun I had in the game. 

[shiv]

Great post.  Glad you're enjoying yourself.  Sometimes the negativity on channel and on the boards can get a little overwhelming, so it's nice to see it from a fresh perspective.

As for landing, you can always belly land if you have kills   But like everything else it gets easier with practice. 

And you're going to love that CH...

[AKP]

3. Landing is a b$%^.  Still need to refine this skill

A lot of people find landing the hard part at first.  You will get the hang of it.  Use your flaps and rudder, come in slow, and dont drop your gear until you are under 150mph.  Try landing bombers at first... they are the easiest.  Hardest birds I found to land early on were the P47 and F4U (long noses). To flat on those and you trash your prop.

[RipChord929]

WTG vettim89, 6 kills in first week... Better than alot of ppl, myself included...
But I've never visited the training arena, so I got a slow start....

Try landing planes w tricycle landing gear first... A20, P38...
They are MUCH less squirrelly when landing...

Keep shootin!!!  Don't give up...

RC

[mbailey]

Welcome aboard Vett. 

[The Fugitive]

WTG Vett and welcome.

Landing is a piece of cake...

• as you near the field, use rudder to "side slip" or "crab" your plane to help it slow faster
• once you are slow enough start dropping some flaps. Just keep stabbing the flap down until you here them drop. This helps slow you more due to drag, and gives you extra lift to stay in the air
• Drop gear under 200 mph. will slow you more, and you may need to ADD throttle to maintain 150.
• fly in VERY low over the end of the runway, chop throttle and ease back on the sick (flaring)
• When the main wheels are down use the keys "C"and"V" to apply brakes to left or right wheel to help keep you strait
• pull the stick all the way back to lock the tail wheel to taxi strait and stop

Good luck and welcome !

[CRYPTIC]

You are well on your way to being a addict.

[jimson]

A good week indeed.

You don't sound like a typical new player. I'm guessing you have other flight sim experience?

[Soulyss]

If you're landing a tail dragger, once the tail wheel comes down and is on the runway hold the stick full back, this will reduce the amount of travel it can have and make tracking down the runway easier.

[Belial]

To get kills just stay above fight and try to kill enemy engaged on your freindly this is called the "pick" it is very effective.  When landing just go with your gut and imagine your in a real plane and if you mess up you get hurt.

[Soulyss]

To get kills just stay above fight and try to kill enemy engaged on your freindly this is called the "pick" it is very effective.  When landing just go with your gut and imagine your in a real plane and if you mess up you get hurt.

Sorry but I think this is some bad advice.  If all you do is cherry pick in fast planes all the time you won't learn how to handle yourself when you can't run away or your opponent has the altitude advantange at the begining enagement.  Certainly pick your fights but ultimately you have more to learn by losing than you do by wining in that fashion.  The trick is to make your losses constructive losses, don't just fly into the horde like some sacrificial lamb but don't shy away from situations just because you might lose.  When you do lose, ask the person who beat you how they did it.  Most are more than willing to take a minute and help out if asked politely.  The game has a steep learning curve that can be pretty brutal, but you can shorten it up somewhat by not just picking in P-51, 190D, Typhoon etc.  If that's all your doing you are ultimately stunting your own development.

[Infidelz]

Landings - to start out they always best performed by going slow, you can get fancy later once you practice this. Cross control rudder alerons to slow down, dump your flaps two or three clicks. Get your gear down. You should slow to less than 100 especially with the 109. Flair and cut power. Pull your stick slowly back to lock tailwheel and use your wheel brakes to steer / slow.

infidelz.

[BaldEagl]

To get kills just stay above fight and try to kill enemy engaged on your freindly this is called the "pick" it is very effective.  When landing just go with your gut and imagine your in a real plane and if you mess up you get hurt.

Advice like this is exactly what's wrong with the game today.  Why didin't you just tell him to fly with big cannons in a hoard and HO everything that comes along?  Oh, and don't foget the occasional vulch-fest.  I'm sure that would make him a respected player in the arenas but I guess from a guy with an avatar of a low Lanc carpet bombing a GV what would you expect.   


You can take the advice above and never rise above baby seal status or you can learn to fight.  It's a lot harder to learn to fight but it's much more rewarding to be able to own people instead of having to run from them.  It's up to you.

[vettim89]

I am not really concerned about getting kills; I am concerned with learning the game and becoming a decent pilot.  In the furball over A21 the other night I was shot down at least 20 times but in just this one battle I know I became a lot more difficult to kill.  The last guy who shot me down hard to work a lot harder than the first guy. 

I have played a lot of Flight Sims dating all the way back to Falcon 1.0 and the original Il-2.  That said AH has the most realistic flight model of any sim I have played which means a lot of stuff I could do in other sims = auguring in.  The first day or two I just jumped into the MA and did nothing but die.  Then I took a more intellectually approach and thought a RL pilot would do ground school then basic flight then advanced flight then be assigned to a squadron where he would be taught even more by veteran pilots.  So I started a daily ritual of about 45 to 60 minutes in offline training basically doing gunnery practice and getting better at holding the drnes in view while I maneuver around them.  Then its off to the training arena to do some bombing practice and practice landings.  Finally I go into the MA for some combat.  It seems to be working for me right now.  Would love to work with a trainer but have a full life right now and don't have the ability to set up an appointment.

[stroker71]

Wish everyone would take that approach to the game. 

DuHasst