A choppers gunner guide to being a good pilot Options

[Omalley]

Ok, so you think your a "good" chopper pilot. Well what about you being a "good" pilot for a gunner? Was it really your gunners fault for missing those targets or yours? Lets take a look .

Flying:

Many people think this gets boring after a while, I think otherwise.

(I am not going over the basics here, practice in single player if you dont know how to control the chopper.)

You and your gunner

First of all, the gunner does NOT have to see your retarded "OMFG I CAN DO A LOOPING FLIP UNDER A BRIDGE, SPIN IN A CIRCLE BACKFLIP SHIT" its completely useless, most shit is easy to pull of in a helicopter, just stick to flying normal and you will have a much better relationship with your gunner.

Many pilots don't get their job. NOOB pilots either dont give their gunner the chance to blow something away, have tunnel vision and dont see enemies around you for shit or simply don’t have any brains . Are you one of those pilots (in the AH-1Z) that think: OMFG he misses everything, what a nub.

This is simply because you cant keep the chopper steady enough, honestly, the choppers gunner guns are almost equal to each other, when in the right hands. The key to killing all infantry is flying steady, and have a good frontal view of the target for your gunner. Probably you are thinking, aren't you a target for anti tank missiles then? I will go over that in the next chapter.

If necessary you can even hover, like OMG HOVER? Yes, hover; there is nothing evil about hovering, when you do it in the right spot, on the right time.


Knowing when your in the right spot, right time for a hover:

1. Keep your distance!
2. Give your gunner a maximum view of the area (especially spawn points)
3. Must be enough room to dodge incoming missiles/AT/Stinger/jet and of course that random tank shot .
4. You must NOT be able to be engaged from the side! Scan your area quickly then move in for the hover.

When you shouldn't hover

1. When the enemy chopper is in the air (duh)
2. When you have some professional anti tankers on the other side
3. Armor in the area
4. Superior Air whore pilots
5. Less then 3/4 chopper health

Dodging anti-tank missiles:

Dodging missiles is easy, when as easy as 1, 2 ,3.

1. Watch, are there multiple missiles coming at you? Probably teamwork!
2. Dodge, only use your mouse for dodging, just go vertical about 30 degrees
3. Stabilize, speaks for itself!

That sums it up about hovering.

Another key to flying is, know where the anti air is, both mobile AA and stationary AA. Pilots should engage and destoy AA when any chance is given. Why give a hiding sniper or random player the chance to get a shot on you. There are 3 types of locks,

The BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

This is the holy shit beep, you've got a stinger on you, 2 hits usually get u down to 3 bars of health, so if there is a transport with a gunner in the area, you will almost certain die. Dodging these things can be quite tricky .

They key to getting away is, deploy flares, fly low, tree top level at highest! Still get locked? Try and find out who the fag is, go low and approach him from the back. And if you almost know for sure, fly away about 400 meters, go high and let your gunner take a shot on him with TV missile, that should teach him

The BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Ah a plane, these are easy to dodge, very easy, they fly to fast, they can get 2 rockets at you, max. Wait for the long beep to sound, flare and face the plane. This way the rockets will go under you and you are harder to hit with the machinegun mounted on the front.

But what then the fag slows down to hit you? That's no problem at all. Get some lift and fly straight at them while barraging a full load of missiles at them, 2 hits is enough to teach those nubs a lesson! Now if you have slow flying jet pilots who keep taking .02 MPH runs at you, line your gunner up for a TVG shot. Nothing pisses a jet pilot off more then being TVG'd to the face. I'll go into evading a jet pilot more in another section.

The almost instant BEEEP

EA promised they would fix that, they didn't, you get the Cool it, cease fire! Message immediately. It's a friendly rocket up your ass, dropping your flares on reflex will help get rid of them, but then again, if you hate your team, just don’t drop the flares.

That’s some things about AA, now I'm going to teach you what the gunner sees.

Most people think, OMG gunners view that must be the center of the TV rocket, wrong I'm going to tell you about the gunners view importance after this. Found some great screenshots, lining the TV missile view up with the cockpit view of the pilot, here we go:

American Chopper (AH-1Z)


The gunners view is just centered, under the pilot’s crosshairs

PLA Chopper (Z-10)


The gunners view is like the cobra, only a bit lower.

MEC Chopper (Mi-28)


The gunners view is centered, in between the pilots crosshair and gunners view
So man, now you know how to line your gunner up (So he can't miss anymore, or he has to try very hard)

This makes your gunner happy, and it makes you happy to!

The gunners view

So what exactly is this gunners view, simply said, the way your gunner is looking, so if the thing is all the way at the right, and the guy is shooting like mad, it means you must have missed something! Turn your ass right immediately, so he can gun the little worms down!

This is another interaction between you and your gunner, listen to your gunner, he is your best friend, if you guys both got microphones, squad up and chat with each other (doesn't matter how gay your voice is)

I prefer Ventrilo for communication, just a tad bit faster and clearer then the BF2 in game VOIP.

So now you know little things and important things, if you hold a bit to these rules, your gunners will adore you, for sure!

There is only one important thing I should tell you, Do NOT spot targets over and over for your gunner, your gunner was born with eyes (although some gunners are blind as hell, and arent doing their job correctly) Keep your hands on your controls.

as a pilot your job is to fly, dodge missiles, and line your gunner up. When you get sucked off in the car driving, you aren't watching your girlfriend (I hope it's a girl for you to be honest), you are watching the road. If not, its a hard story to explain to the cops why your car ended up in a ditch. So keep your eyes open and watch the battlefield. Keep that in mind and you wont get pissed if your gunner misses another target and he wont get pissed becaused you turfed the chopper into the ground.

follow this and you will have a happy gunner.


Now lets get back to that bastard in the plane who wont leave you alone.

I usually take down helicopters in 1-2 passes 4 out of 5 times, and when I do this there is no warning lock I aim for your canopy (since I sometimes shoot out the pilot) because it does more damage than anywhere else and boom the helo falls out of the sky, I'll initially come from your 4 oclock to 5 oclock position or 7 to 8 oclock position WITH NO LOCK TONE. If you see a pilot doing this or variation of this, take note and counter, heres what I found makes a hard target for me when engaging an attack helo and if you want to survive at least some of the time when in a helo against a veteran jet pilot here's what makes life harder for us(assuming your fighter pilot is not doing his job, shooting down jets)

***IMPORTANT***

before I go into these maneuvers which I know for a fact evade most pilots THEY WILL NOT WORK ON VERY GOOD PILOTS WHO KILL ON ONE PASS WITHOUT GIVING YOU A MISSLE WARNING!!! only your fighter jet can stop this. now if he needs two passes to take you down keep reading, this is how your going to survive...

1. youll only have about 6 to 7 seconds to do this so be quick about it, right after he makes his first pass, drop between buildings or other solid objects (IE. hills, mountains, hangers ect) so your covered by at least 2 sides, like between two buildings. Your going to have to literaly drop close to the ground about 10 feet off of it and wait about 10 seconds and pray you dont get towed, tv'd ect. This works mainly because I cant spot you visually and I cant scan with anti air on and turn it off the second I see you.

***IMPORTANT*** PILOTS CAN SCAN WITH ANTI AIR ON, ONCE THEY SEE YOU TURN IT OFF AND YOU WONT HEAR A SINGLE TONE ENABLEING THEM TO SNEAK UP ON YOU!!!

after the ten seconds go by you should be clear to get your ass to the helo pad for repairs but again, you want to keep your head on a swivel, alot of times if I engage a helo and for some miracle evades me I know where your going (the helo pad for repairs...Duh), and yes I'll be waiting, If you have two helipads like on gulf of oman, I highly recommend you change up which helo pad you repair and rearm at time to time, IT WILL SAVE YOUR ASS. IMPORTANT!!! if you see him fly by you after you take cover between the buildings, assume he saw you and is coming back for a third pass, and change location...QUICKLY. believe me when I say this, If I have to take 3 passes to kill you I leave myself open at low altitude for a very long time to the enemy fighter getting on my ass and shooting me down or enemy ground AA shooting me, which brings up another very important issue, if Im up in the air and your being engaged by an enemy jet or attack helo....SPOT THE SOB!!!! even if your totally off on location I'll check my map for whos flashing after jet or helo spotted sounds and I'll be coming to your location within 10 seconds,

***if no cover available go to option 2 below***

2. Some maps like WAKE have no building to hide between or very sparse cover, PALM TREES PROVIDE NO COVER AND VIRTUALLY NO CONCEALMENT VS JETS!!!! the concealment might work against other attack helos or ground forces but not jet pilots who know what they are doing...period. How do I evade jets if I cant duck between buildings or duck in between hills? you might ask? Assuming he didnt kill you the first pass, you just want to start gaining altitude as fast as possible go straight up and face away from the direction you think he might be coming from (explained below in what not to do), alot of times you can gain enough altitude that the jet will lose you entirely or youll at least screw up his second attack run (yes this has even caught me off guard once or twice). again aftter pass #2 you want to change location, now you want to nose the helo down and take it as low as you can go as quickly as possible, this willl take the jet pilot to attack run #3, hopfully your spotting the hell out of this guy because like I said before, if you have a pilot on your side with any ounce of skill, he will engage the enemy jet and clear your six. Change this up though, If you get lit up again on the third pass sometimes keep climbing to prevent being predictable ( also jets go a little faster at around 300 feet) However, DO NOT keep climbing after the third pass ever though, if hes determined to kill you, he'll come up under you or If hes smart and determined to kill you, he'll climb to 700 feet and come down on you which is lethal ( i'll explain why later)
the above two tactics are further enhanced if you can do them above known freindly aa stations, (explained later in this guide)

these two evasion tactics are for if you are getting shot down like clockwork BUT... very important but, it takes at least two passes for him to kill you, a single pass helo kill is very difficult to counter for a helo. On that note I want to bring up a few things I've seen that dont work and just make you look outright bad before you die.

1. Dont do flips and loopty loops, why you might ask? I just have to aim at your base of the rotor, that spot is your pivot point and you will still die the second pass since I only have to adjust slightly with guns to hit that spot, secondly, your going to run out of altitude or better yet smack something stationary,(I see the latter alot) and kind of shrug and move onto the next target chuckling.

2. DONT face the helo!!!, you present the highest damage portion of the helo which is the cockpit, the cockpit takes the fewest hits to take down the helos, I've seen alot of posts from other helo pilots recommending to face attacking jets, omg!!! dont do it if the pilot of the jet knows what he is doing, your making his job easier, you actually want to maneuver so your rear is facing him if possible but dont fly away from him, it gives him more time empty rounds into you, instead pull back ward a bit, this will make it so the jet has to empty rounds into a smaller target thats not as vulnerable as your cockpit for a shorter time. When I know a pilot will consistantly face me and fire missles, One tactict that works very well on attack helicpoters is this, I climb high above him, I then come down on him with guns blazing, and at times with my missle to actually lock at the last possible moment and fire, the missle always hits. I'm not sure if it's the same situation when your just sitting on the helipad and the flares just fall down away from the helo but the missle just always hits, ever since the game came out for all the patches. so if you want to face me and fire, go ahead but youve been warned. reason why I dont do the last method as the most preferable is because it uses a missle and I like to save those for other jets,


***KNOW THY ENEMY***

as a jet fighter pilot, I have a targeting priority this is it and yes it is very simple yet flexible.

1. Kill jets
2. kill AA/KILL HELICOPTERs (interchangeable depending on map and circumstances)
3. bombing

when I shoot down the enemy fighter jet, I know I have 30 seconds (on most maps) to find the attack helo and shoot him down before the enemy fighter gets back up, why is this important you might ask? because you now know that when being engaged by a GOOD FIGHTER PILOT that he is aware that he needs to shoot you down quickly to be able to reengage the enemy jet, also if I get locked on by enemy AA while engageing an attack guess who I'm going to go after?(the aa if you didnt figure it out) since he is actually a threat to me, that buys you enough time to get out of the hot zone.

***CONCLUSION***

these are some things you can do to evade the better pilots, and this guide is written specifically to evade better pilots, not noobs, yes there plenty of evasion tactics that work on green pilots and they are not hard to evade also green pilots also smack the ground alot of times if I just lock onto them going in for a bombing run, so if nothing else, just put this in your toolbox and use it if you want but know this, I value a good attack helicopter on my team because I know how effective they are on armor when they are not dodging other jets, other attack helos and enemy AA, so I facilitate their mission with my targeting priority (see above) hence, I want them to survive, so they kill the maximum amount of armor, so we win. I hope this helps, If you have any specific questions for me I'm more than happy to answer, If I dont know Ill be honest and tell you that. I hope If your on my team that you use this and you do your job, kill armor and infantry. thanks for listening,

[DHoff]

Great guide, but you forgot about Special Forces:

1. AH-64D Apache Longbow (U.S. Seals/British SAS)

2. Mil Mi-24 Hind (Russians)

I Wish they would of put more helicopters in....