Tips and Tricks General Of course, you should always remain low to the ground to avoid detection, and you should try to remain hidden. (eg. fly behind hills instead of flying on the tops of them.) Also, in the mountainous terrain of Azerbaijain things can get dangerous. When you find yourself approaching a huge hill or mountain in enemy territory, go slow. Once you reach the summit or peak, check the other side of the hill for enemy targets, like AAA. If you don't do this, there is a chance you will get shot down. If the other side is fairly steep, this adds more hazard, because they are hidden below the coverage of the peak. If you are going fast go over the top of the hills, you may not have enough time to react to the threats, and in some cases, fly directly over them! This happened to me once, when I was fairly inexperienced. I flew over this huge hill at about 100 knots per hour, directly over a ZSU, which proceeded to then shoot me down. The same goes for flying out from the side of a hill. Make sure you are going at a speed that you know you will have enough time to safely react to threats. Air-to-Air Combat Tactics In the Longbow 2 Guide there is a section that explains tactics in air-to-air combat with helicopters. However, it only explains close air-to-air combat tactics. In reality some or most of helicopter engagement will be at fairly long distances with the advent of air-to-air missiles being mounted on choppers. So, in order to win and survive I will explain some basics. First how and when to fire stingers successfully. When you are flying at low altitudes, (<50 feet) pitch the nose of the helicopter up a bit just before you fire a stinger. This will cause the missile to lob towards the target, somewhat like a Hellfire, and decrease the chance of the missile hitting the ground or the side of a mountain. There is practically no point to fire a stinger at ranges of below 1500m, because the seeker head has a much lower chance of being able to lock on, because it has less time to maneuver toward the target. If enemies are set to EXPERT, they will almost always evading stingers at these ranges. It is better to use your cannon at these ranges. Basically, try to get of the first shot with your stinger. It will disrupt him and his initial plans, thereby forcing him to take evasive maneuvers. When firing the cannon at close ranges, DON'T LET UP!. Keep firing! This provides adequate offensive and causes him to go into a defensive posture. I usually set the gun burst rate to 20. Assign your wingman to attack any other enemy choppers in the area, as usually helos travel in tandem teams, so you won't find yourself taking fire from behind or from the side while you are engaging another chopper. Evading Incoming Missiles, AAA and Cannon Fire When you hear your CPG say something to the effect of: 'Incoming missile! Take evasive action!", don't panic. Instead try to find the missile before it finds you. Usually if you can see the incoming missile, you can avoid it. It's all in the timing. This is the usual procedure I follow: Turn till you are facing the missile. You don't have to be facing it head-on, just so you can see it. Approach it at a level altitude, if possible, low to the ground with reasonable speed. Don't be slipping from side to side before it closes in on you. The missile looks like a bright flash of light growing larger and larger... When the missile is about the size this 0, increase collective and bank to one side. Usually the missile will go under you and hit the ground if you were flying at a low altitude.(Notice how I said about the size of a 0. I can't really tell you how to get the timing right. You have to get a feel for it through practice. I'm only telling you how to get started.) Or you can decrease collective instead of increasing it if you were at a high altitude. Just banking to one side usually will not work because the turn rate is less than the climb or decent rate, and therefore will give the missile enough time to change course. Alternatively, if there are hills or mountains on the ground, you can drop down behind them, and put it between you and the missile, causing it to hit the side of the hill. The closer you get to the source of the missile launches (eg. an enemy chopper) the missile will get easier to dodge because the seeker head doesn't have enough time. Now for cannon and AAA evasion. First, guns are easier to avoid because the rounds have no tracking. But usually many and multiple rounds are fired, making it tricky to aviod the onslaught of them. So it requires a totally different tactic then missile evasion. It is fairly straightfoward: Keep moving. Keep banks from one side to another and dropping down and pulling up. When guns are being steered by a tracking system like the TADS, the rounds are fired to match the anticipated movement of the target. If you keep travelling in a straight line, or stick to a constant turn rate, the rounds usually find their target. If you keep your movement random, the round will usually miss. Don't dodge the rounds to late. Unlike missile evasion, where you can dodge to early, dodging to late is the worst. It's best to dodge as soon as you here the incoming rounds being fired. Emergency Procedures During battle, you may find yourself sustaining damage. Knowing what to do then will greatly increase your survival chances. First, if your left engine is out, and you are being hit by AAA, turn your right engine away from fire. I call this sacrificing non-vital systems to save vital one. If one of your engines is one fire, it's best to shut it down instead of using the Fire Extinguisher on it. Once the fire is out, restart the engine. Save the one use for the APU instead. The only exception to this rule is, obviously, when the APU has failed. And for autorotational landings, you can perform one with no or little airspeed, contrary to what the manual says. Just practice it during the Free Flight training by hitting Ctrl-R when in Flight, which disengages the rotor from the drive system, simulating a total loss of engine power. Start to gradually increase collective around 50-70 feet and time it so that by the time you land, you are at or about 90% to 100% collective. As always, you have to time the maneuver yourself. I'm only telling you how to do it right. I don't have much else to say, because I am not Pro at Longbow 2 yet... yet. Source: LB2 Realm