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Here are my 2 cents on flying effectively in a chopper. Please add your own comments.
I consider being a good pilot more vital than having a good commander. You are single handedly the most powerful asset to your team as you can take out the enemy chopper, armor, and save falling flags all from a single postition on the map.
While the secret to being a good pilot is often picking up a good gunner, there are some tips that can increase your chances of staying airborne and getting big scores:
Know the map: Knowing where the spawn points are at each flag allows you to get your gunners sights in front of maximum kills. Almost every flag on sharqi has a "golden spot" where every enemy spawn point is targetable. I'll try to add a picture later with good firing angles.
Also, every map starts almost the same way...think about it...chopper is taking off from helipad, 2 jeeps are probably full of 4 guys leaving each flag, and a tank is slowly moving out. Start each game engaging the enemy chopper, finding those juicy 4 kill jeeps, and then the slow armor...get repairs/supplies...and repeat.
Know your chopper: flying a cobra is like flying a mazaratti, flying a havoc is like flying a bus (with flat tires). Cobra rockets are narrow, MEC are much wider, so USA pilots want to get in close after lining up a TV shot and fire a volley, MEC pilots probably want to keep distance in a dogfight and use their stronger cannon after each TV shot.
Use the cobras speed to engage targets quickly... take out the MEC chopper, move to take out their tank, get a few infantry kills, repeat. Or in MEC chopper, use the heavy weight to fly level strafing runs and let your .30mm cannon do the work.
Study each choppers view box so that you understand exactly what your gunner sees on his screen. secretsofbattlefield.com has some good pics of this that I will link you to here: http://www.secretsofbattlefield.com/heliguide.php
Note that MEC tv missle seems to come off of the LEFT WING, while cobra tv missle comes off of the RIGHT WING. At close distances, this is very very important to consider when lining up your gunner's shot!
Distance: The heli machine guns seem to do more damage at closer range, so if flying the USA cobra sometimes it is beneficial to flying at lower altitudes. Even without splash damage, if you circle the right spots low enough and your gunner leads his shots, the cobra gun can be devastating.
Communicate: ask gunner to join squad, tell him where you are flying and what you are expecting him to target. Get the commander involved! Ask him to spot the enemy chopper or fire artillery on hot stinger sites. Ask for supply boxes to limit your long trips back to your helipad for ammo/repairs.
Learn to maneuver: Learn to fly level, Learn to circle a target, Learn to flail -Dipping the nose and punching the throttle + A will help you turn very quickly. This helps you to avoid enemy AT rockets. You can also use this technique when flying solo to switch to gunner seat and use your machine gun while your chopper spins in a nice flat circle. Flips are controversially beneficial, as you give up precious elevation advantage, but can often slip under the enemy and hopefully line up a saving TV shot or escape for much needed repairs.
Elevation: Probably the biggest advantage to a dogfight is elevation. This gives your gunner plenty of machine gun attempts and allows him to keep the enemy chopper spotted.
Strafe "hot spots": Work certain areas where enemies are known to gather. Helipads, along front lines such as the City Entrance on Sharqi, and between enemy flags and your team's captured flags.
Pay attention to the UAV and minimap: If there are 20 enemies lit up under UAV consider it Christmas time. Just make sure threats are eliminated first such as stingers and jeeps.
Prioritize: Fly to take out threats first (stingers and jeeps), then maneuver your gunner into position for infantry kills. Help your team's armor! Follow your tank or if your team has an organized squad capping flags cover them while they caps flags. If you can trap your enemy down to a single spawn point your score will probably double.
Lead your gunner's shots: Not all gunners understand hit boxes, so help them out by leading their TV shot for them. Compensate for a laterally moving chopper or one that is climbing altitude.
Escape moves: Stinger locked on? fire flares and move up or sideways not DOWN & directly away from it or the IGLA will often still hit you.
Jeep firing at you? fly directly above it. His .50cal can only fire about 60 degrees above his jeep. Circle it sharply while staying out of his firing angle and your gunner can take it out.
AT firing at you? keep helo level by tapping the W key and circle his position to make it difficult to hit you.
Kill enemy chopper...know it's respawn time (USA ~26 seconds, MEC ~31 seconds) and get your gunner a shot accordingly. Although controversial, it wins games and gets more points on your board. I cover teammates going for a chopper steal and sometimes steal it myself. Learn which angles allow you to target the enemy spawn points and a 2-man chopper crew can easily nab their chopper with very little manpower.
As always...pray for a good gunner, pray that enemy gets pinned to one flag...and pray twice as hard that you don't get teamkilled by that greedy teammate who has been waiting all game for you to get shot down during your fantastic run.
SiL+WAREHOUSE
24/7 Sharqi Insomnia365 (chopper whore).
While the secret to being a good pilot is often picking up a good gunner, there are some tips that can increase your chances of staying airborne and getting big scores:
Know the map: Knowing where the spawn points are at each flag allows you to get your gunners sights in front of maximum kills. Almost every flag on sharqi has a "golden spot" where every enemy spawn point is targetable. I'll try to add a picture later with good firing angles.
Also, every map starts almost the same way...think about it...chopper is taking off from helipad, 2 jeeps are probably full of 4 guys leaving each flag, and a tank is slowly moving out. Start each game engaging the enemy chopper, finding those juicy 4 kill jeeps, and then the slow armor...get repairs/supplies...and repeat.
Know your chopper: flying a cobra is like flying a mazaratti, flying a havoc is like flying a bus (with flat tires). Cobra rockets are narrow, MEC are much wider, so USA pilots want to get in close after lining up a TV shot and fire a volley, MEC pilots probably want to keep distance in a dogfight and use their stronger cannon after each TV shot.
Use the cobras speed to engage targets quickly... take out the MEC chopper, move to take out their tank, get a few infantry kills, repeat. Or in MEC chopper, use the heavy weight to fly level strafing runs and let your .30mm cannon do the work.
Study each choppers view box so that you understand exactly what your gunner sees on his screen. secretsofbattlefield.com has some good pics of this that I will link you to here: http://www.secretsofbattlefield.com/heliguide.php
Note that MEC tv missle seems to come off of the LEFT WING, while cobra tv missle comes off of the RIGHT WING. At close distances, this is very very important to consider when lining up your gunner's shot!
Distance: The heli machine guns seem to do more damage at closer range, so if flying the USA cobra sometimes it is beneficial to flying at lower altitudes. Even without splash damage, if you circle the right spots low enough and your gunner leads his shots, the cobra gun can be devastating.
Communicate: ask gunner to join squad, tell him where you are flying and what you are expecting him to target. Get the commander involved! Ask him to spot the enemy chopper or fire artillery on hot stinger sites. Ask for supply boxes to limit your long trips back to your helipad for ammo/repairs.
Learn to maneuver: Learn to fly level, Learn to circle a target, Learn to flail -Dipping the nose and punching the throttle + A will help you turn very quickly. This helps you to avoid enemy AT rockets. You can also use this technique when flying solo to switch to gunner seat and use your machine gun while your chopper spins in a nice flat circle. Flips are controversially beneficial, as you give up precious elevation advantage, but can often slip under the enemy and hopefully line up a saving TV shot or escape for much needed repairs.
Elevation: Probably the biggest advantage to a dogfight is elevation. This gives your gunner plenty of machine gun attempts and allows him to keep the enemy chopper spotted.
Strafe "hot spots": Work certain areas where enemies are known to gather. Helipads, along front lines such as the City Entrance on Sharqi, and between enemy flags and your team's captured flags.
Pay attention to the UAV and minimap: If there are 20 enemies lit up under UAV consider it Christmas time. Just make sure threats are eliminated first such as stingers and jeeps.
Prioritize: Fly to take out threats first (stingers and jeeps), then maneuver your gunner into position for infantry kills. Help your team's armor! Follow your tank or if your team has an organized squad capping flags cover them while they caps flags. If you can trap your enemy down to a single spawn point your score will probably double.
Lead your gunner's shots: Not all gunners understand hit boxes, so help them out by leading their TV shot for them. Compensate for a laterally moving chopper or one that is climbing altitude.
Escape moves: Stinger locked on? fire flares and move up or sideways not DOWN & directly away from it or the IGLA will often still hit you.
Jeep firing at you? fly directly above it. His .50cal can only fire about 60 degrees above his jeep. Circle it sharply while staying out of his firing angle and your gunner can take it out.
AT firing at you? keep helo level by tapping the W key and circle his position to make it difficult to hit you.
Kill enemy chopper...know it's respawn time (USA ~26 seconds, MEC ~31 seconds) and get your gunner a shot accordingly. Although controversial, it wins games and gets more points on your board. I cover teammates going for a chopper steal and sometimes steal it myself. Learn which angles allow you to target the enemy spawn points and a 2-man chopper crew can easily nab their chopper with very little manpower.
As always...pray for a good gunner, pray that enemy gets pinned to one flag...and pray twice as hard that you don't get teamkilled by that greedy teammate who has been waiting all game for you to get shot down during your fantastic run.
SiL+WAREHOUSE
24/7 Sharqi Insomnia365 (chopper whore).
It is very important for a pilot to know how to set you up for a tv, i have been pointed at the ground and we got tved and had the pilot ask why i didn't use the tv. I am not gunna use the tv if there is no way in hell it will come close to the target. The mec heli's tv missile points kind of downward, while the cobra is basically straight out, just a little below the pilots crosshair. I always get the gunners that like to use the mg to kill the targets, when the mg won't do anything against a tank. The mec mg pwns and it can actually do a pretty good job if you are in a dogfight and neither heli has a tv missile opportunity, and it will destroy them. If i have a gunner who don't know about tv missiles and i am in the mec chopper, ill just keep moving and let him mg the other chopper, if i am in the cobra and he doesn't know how to use the tv, then i will ram the mec chopper, rofl.
anyone know how to map the joy stick so that when you choose a button it actualy works like the mouse doess with the head movement in cockpit for diffrent view? its kinna hard to explain actualy lol...
when flying jets with the keyboard and mouse you have a option the turn off and on for head movement...
this allows 180 deg view or inside the cockpit all diffrent directions..
ive figured how to map that key option on the joy stick but as for the actual movement..i cant map the axes so it does not work..
a little help?
i just found this out the other day when i was looking through the settings..i ben flying jets forever and did not know about the headmovement lol
when flying jets with the keyboard and mouse you have a option the turn off and on for head movement...
this allows 180 deg view or inside the cockpit all diffrent directions..
ive figured how to map that key option on the joy stick but as for the actual movement..i cant map the axes so it does not work..
a little help?
i just found this out the other day when i was looking through the settings..i ben flying jets forever and did not know about the headmovement lol
I use Mouse+Keyboard for both, but i think that function is called "mouse look" so maybe you can only use a mouse, I have no idea though.
Very informative!
*stickied*
*stickied*
Warehouse, you whore Sharqi too much 
warehouse you should come someday play dalian insomnia to show us your real chopper skillz
QUOTE (Shadow90)
warehouse you should come someday play dalian insomnia to show us your real chopper skillz
i'm not the best at solo guiding, but i can hold my own on dalian. lately, i've been playing oman with a warchild buddy and we can keep the enemy helo and 2 jets grounded the entire round while harassing greyed-out flags.
what dalian server are u playing? i'll bring my notebook...
QUOTE (WAREHOUSE)
QUOTE (Shadow90)
warehouse you should come someday play dalian insomnia to show us your real chopper skillz
i'm not the best at solo guiding, but i can hold my own on dalian. lately, i've been playing oman with a warchild buddy and we can keep the enemy helo and 2 jets grounded the entire round while harassing greyed-out flags.
what dalian server are u playing? i'll bring my notebook...
well insomnia has a 64 man dalian server.. i most of the time play there
i really need to clean up my language, i have a dirty mouth on the internet
You have *the worst* English language skills that I have ever seen.
Could use some flying lessons some day. 
I seem to find land way to often. 
I seem to find land way to often.
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