Whew! I did it, but it was a bit challenging to figure out what I had to do.
Note that these procedures are based off of the 1.2.8 Open Beta and may be subject to change as features are updated.
1. Set up a mission with a UH-1H and a sling-load cargo. The cargo items can be found in the static item list. Be sure to check the "can Be Cargo" checkbox, otherwise your netted bag of goods is just scenery. It's a good idea to give this item a useful name, too, like "800lbs of asparagus", as you'll see later.
2. It may be helpful to map the External Load Camera and External Load Hook/Unhook commands to your HOTAS/control stick. Trying to hit Rshift+Rctl+L while keeping stable hover in a Huey is pretty dang tough.
3. When in game, use the radio command to pick which cargo you're going to pick up. You don't have to have a radio or or tuned to any frequency - just press whichever command you have mapped to the radio and pick the "F6 All Cargos" Option, then pick the F-key associated with the cargo you want to pick up. The selected cargo will now have red smoke billowing from it.
4. Fly towards the billowing red smoke. You may find it helpful to activate the external sling load camera view (Lshift+Lctrl+C). Personally, I find this view mostly distracting, since I depend on horizon cues to keep a steady hover, but it's also tough to see exactly where you are with respect to the target. Turning this view on once I'm trimmed into a hover near the target and then fine-tuning my position seems to work best for me, your mileage may vary.
5. Come to a hover over the cargo. In my experimentation, you have to be less than ~18ft (3 meters?) over the target and practically directly overhead. You'll see a text message on the upper left of the screen that says "Hovering Over Cargo" or something like that. If you drift out of range or altitude, you'll see a "Beyond Hovering Zone" or something and you'll have to start over again. Once you've been in the zone long enough, the cargo will automatically connect to your helo.
6. Transport goods to the new destination. Use the External Sling Load Hook/Unhook button to drop the cargo at it's destination. I haven't tested to see how drop-resilient 800 lbs. of asparagus is, but I'm guessing they wouldn't survive a 300-ft drop. Hover and descend until the sling load hits the ground (*very* noticeable in the cockpit without the external view), then hook's away!
can anything be picked up (within weight loads) or is it only the cargo net .. also can the Mi8 do sling loading yet
I don't see any way to attach your cargo hook to anything other than a cargo net that has been specifically added to the mission as a liftable cargo and that has been selected by the pilot as the intended cargo to pick up.
Neither the Ka-50 nor the Mi-8 have the radio messages to pick up cargo...yet!
Is the sling always the same length? For example, can I always use my radar altimeter to know that, 27 feet(or whatever length it is) is when my sling load will always contact the ground?
After the recent 1.2.8 upgrades, I have this sling load thing down. These are the most important factors that you must remember when attempting sling loading:
-The mass of the cargo you are attempting. to lift. -Are you carrying weapons -- mini-guns and/or 2.75 inch rocket pods? -Your total fuel load. -Outside Air Temperature. -The altitude/s for your planned flight. Do you start at sea level and the flight ends up at altitude? (That's fun when trying to arrest a descent that begins slowly and ends up way too fast and you don't have the available power on hand to stop it.....)
When I first started lifting, my helo had four mini-guns, two rocket pods and 100% fuel -- eg maximum weight which was just stupid. The machine could hardly lift the 1000kg loads off the ground and would drag it around as I loaded the blades to rise vertically, they were were slowing down to the low rpm limit for safe flight and as a result I would hear the LOW RPM alert tone... I found that to lift the 1000kg loads, I needed to remove the mini-guns and rocket pods and take only 50% fuel. This configuration allows a good margin of available power for vertical lifts and when I need to arrest sharp descents. I rarely use external cargo camera, and if I do it is to confirm where is the load underneath my airframe.
To create a mission in the ME, your mission needs to have the Static Item -- Cargos / Cargo1 placed on the map -- looks like a small box with and X in the middle and a triangle on top. I just cut and pasted a few on the map around the FARP. Then you need to click on each cargo icon and tick the box CAN BE CARGO box. There is a slider toggle, where you can change the mass of the cargo as well from 0 - 22,000 lbs?!? ***Maybe there is a Heavy lift helo in the works.....hmmmm*** That's it. Once your airborne and flying to a pick up, use the comms radio menus to display the comms menu items. Select the '(F6) All Cargos' option which should display a range of cargos to choose depending on how many you placed in the ME. Then select one of the cargos and a red smoke should appear above the cargo unit you picked. Fly to the smoke and as you get within a few metres the smoke disappears and you get to practice hovering. The main idea is to get a STABLE hover over the load and the load auto-connects if you are in a stable hover for a few seconds (4 or 5?) when between 10ft and 23ft on the radar altimeter gauge thingy. Remember to power that switch on from the overhead console at the back of the circuit breaker panel and make sure the left and right LO / HIGH indicators are not default set to zero - easy to find - it's the only switch above and back there.
Through lots of trial and error flights, more error flights, I have found that the helo doesn't have the performance when attempting heavy loads (1000kg+) with a full fuel load and mini-guns and rocket pods. I found the rotor disc was really difficult trying to gain altitude when out of ground effect and near impossible when trying a vertical lift or attempting at altitude FARPs. Also the game renders two different texture models when you disconnect a cargo intact of if your disconnect wasn't done within safe tolerances -- slumped over on the ground. If you have put it down and it stays in the correct shape, You can radio comms and pick it up again and move it around. Hours of fun for a helo mission repetitively moving bullets, beans and bananas from one place to another.
Now all I want is for BelSimtek to make a Chinook and maybe a few different kind of static cargo's like vehicles, a couple of special ops troops linked on a 100ft line dangling off a jungle penetrator or possibly a bambi bucket filled with 1080 for pest destruction duties....whatever. Enjoy.
Two thumbs up for the great work Eagle Dynamics and BelSimtek.
If you lower a load onto the deck of say an aircraft carrier and release it does it dissapear ?
We tried dropping cargo on the back of a frigate and it went through and was floating in the water. We have not tried a carrier yet. We have also noticed the cargo loads resting below the FARP pads with only the cargo attachment point visible. But, this seems to be a client side problem as the host reported seeing the load on the top of the pads.
Griff's Rig: Intel i7 4790K @ 4.4 Ghz, MSI Z97 MPower Max motherboard, nVidia GTX 780ti, 16 GB of Geil Trident 2400 MHz RAM, Windows 7, Warthog HOTAS, and Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals.
If you lower a load onto the deck of say an aircraft carrier and release it does it dissapear ?
We tried dropping cargo on the back of a frigate and it went through and was floating in the water. We have not tried a carrier yet. We have also noticed the cargo loads resting below the FARP pads with only the cargo attachment point visible. But, this seems to be a client side problem as the host reported seeing the load on the top of the pads.
Sadly, it does the same thing with regards to a carrier. Griff and I tested it several times (and on several different areas of the ship).
Interesting though, you can leave the cargo (in my case it was full of condoms and whiskey) on the rooftops of the tall buildings in town, and on the hardened hangars, but it will also fall through on other buildings (the tower building at the airport for instance).
Is it possible to script the crew chief giving you directions? I'm not a huge fan of picture in picture, icons or other artificial aids. Text based and limited to "forward, back, left, right" would be fine. I'd take it from the video above with the "hovering about" and "hovering beyond" that it might not be possible.
When the vietnam map is released we will need crew chief instructions to be able to land at those tiny LZs
