Helicopter flying

Helicopter Axes of Flight[]

Flight Basics[]

Prior to flying on a live server, it is highly recommended to practice flying on Jensen's range or in the helicopter training tutorial. Once comfortable with the controls, transition to live servers. On live servers, it is best to stick with logistics or scouting. Both of these are very important roles and help the team.

Do not perform flashy and risky maneuvers to impress or flaunt your skills when and if you are a novice, especially while transporting other players. The most impressive skill a new pilot can have is consistent, quick flying, and not getting your teammates killed in an explosive crash after losing your rotors to the terrain you were trying to fly next to.

Practice fundamental, basic flight and earn the trust people place in you as a helicopter pilot through consistency.

Helicopters in Squad have an odd flight model. It can be helpful for first time pilots, or pilots from other games, to expect the helicopter to fly less like a helicopter, but more like a fixed wing aircraft or a VTOL. Helicopters in Squad have an exaggerated amount of inertia, which can make significant corrections take time; your helicopter will not react instantly to abrupt movements.

Unlike other vehicles, Helicopters are able to fly outside of the normal map for a short margin. Every map also has a helicopter altitude limit stops the helicopter from ascending too high. On Jensen's Range, the altitude limit is 1500 meters.

Flight - Taking off and Hovering[]

To enter into the pilot's seat, the player must first have a Pilot or Lead Pilot kit. It is generally recommended to start your own squad as a pilot and take the lead pilot kit.
Once in the pilot's seat, the player must hold down the Turn Vehicle Engine On/Off Key (Default E) for a half-second to start up the engine.
After a 15 second startup, the helicopter will be flight ready and flyable.
Holding down the cockpit zoom key (Default Left-Shift) will zoom and focus the player's view onto the panel, a MFD (Multifunction Display), that shows the helicopters stats.
- On some ultrawide settings, some pilots will not be able see the MFD without holding down shift. This is a bug.
The collective (the bar on the left side) controls the rate at which the helicopter ascends and descends. At 45% collective, the helicopter will hover at its current altitude (provided the helicopter is level.)
- It's important to note that 45% collective will only maintain a hover if the pitch and roll are both level.
- As an example, ascend at 100% collective to a safe altitude, then lower your collective down to 45%. If the helicopter's pitch or roll is off level, you will slowly lose altitude.
- You can use the Attitude Indicator in the center of the MFD to level the helicopter.

Flight - Landing[]

Landing is by far the most difficult part of flying the helicopter. Landing quickly is a skill that takes a lot of time and nuance to master.

While landing, your helicopter is incredibly vulnerable to enemy fire. Leverage terrain to your advantage by flying low into your approach.

Here is the most basic way of landing:[]

This is by no means the fastest, but for a new player, it is the easiest to learn.

Identify your landing zone before approaching. Attempting to 'wing it' as a new pilot and deciding on the fly is a surefire way to crash your helicopter or damage it severely: Improvise only if necessary. The landing zone should be a clear area with no hostiles.
As you approach your landing zone, slowing down is paramount. Reduce your collective below the hover speed (45%) and pitch your helicopter up about 10-15 degrees, known as a flare, or flaring. If you are at max speed, it can take as much as 500 meters to slow down.
1. As you get more comfortable flying and performing consistent landings, you can start rolling slightly to the right while pitching up, initiating a J-Hook maneuver.
2. You should slowly ease into this maneuver as it is very easy to overcommit and crash. If you roll too far, your controls will lock up and you will stall, usually into an irrecoverable fall.
3. The reason you roll to the right and not to the left is that the pilot seat is always on the right side, providing the most visibility.
Once you are at your landing position, use the Landing Camera (Default C) and quickly confirm your position and attitude. If you are not in the right position, exit the landing camera and make your adjustments.
1. These pre-landing adjustments are critical. Forward/backward adjustments are the most difficult because the helicopter has an odd movement curve wherein forward or backward adjustments in pitch are over-exaggerated.
2. A common error for new pilots is to overcorrect by pitching either forward or backward, which adjusts the helicopter's attitude further than they anticipated, leading to a so-called pendulum effect of repeated overcorrection.
3. A good rule of thumb is to make an adjustment that is smaller than what you think is necessary and wait for the helicopter to react.
4. The landing camera should only be used at a glance for newer pilots; open it to see if you are in the right location, and then close it. Landing with the camera on means you are reacting more aggressively to the helicopter's movements.
Once you are in position, drop the collective down to 25% or lower to descend. As you approach the ground, bring your collective up closer to 45% to slow down.
Once on the ground, check your MFD for text that reads 'LANDED' . If this text is not present, the engine cannot be turned off. Adjust the pitched/roll until this text appears.

Some notes on landing:

25% Collective is the minimum collective the player can have and take 0 damage when landing. Having your collective lower than this is fine to land, but unless you adjust your collective up prior to touching the ground, you may take significant damage.
If your goal is to land, even if you take significant damage you can use the following method. Generally it is not recommended to do this due to risk, but it is a good demonstration
1. Fly over your desired landing zone.
2. Neutralize your helicopter so that you have no speed, pitch or roll.
  1. The speed portion is very important, any horizontal speed you have combined with striking the ground will amplify the damage taken.
3. Set the collective to 0% and allow the helicopter to hit the ground on its own. Depending on the helicopter you are using, you will be reduced to anywhere from 25% to 40% hull.

Joystick settings[]

While you can fly the helicopters with mouse and keyboard, some will find it more convenient to use a joystick.

Settings for helicopters and joysticks are in:

"Settings → Controls → Helicopter"
"Settings → Controls → Helicopter Axes"

Generic[]

By default Pitch, Roll, Yaw (Z-Axis needed) and the Collective are not mapped. For the Collective, it seems that built-in throttle switches are supported by default. Joysticks with a separate throttle device are reported to be incompatible for now.

See Changelog 2.4: "Please Note: Multiple Joysticks/Rudder Pedals/HOTAS input is not currently supported. There is currently no differentiation between device IDs. You may be able to get around this if your joystick software can combine all HOTAS axes into a single virtual input device. Full Multiple Joystick Support is planned in the future, but it will require an extensive complete overhaul to the Control Settings."

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro+[]

By default nothing is mapped.

Custom settings[]

In "Settings → Controls → Helicopter Axes" change from default to:

Collective: Tick "Flip Axis"
Pitch: Tick "Flip Axis", Change to "Smooth", set Curve Factor to "2.2"
Roll: Change to "Smooth", set Curve Factor to "2.2"
Yaw: Change to "Smooth", set Curve Factor to "2.2"

Titanwolf Vulture[]

By default nothing is mapped.

Custom settings[]

In "Settings → Controls → Helicopter Axes" change from default to:

Collective: Tick "Flip Axis"
Pitch: Tick "Flip Axis", Change to "Smooth", set Curve Factor to "2.2"
Roll: Change to "Smooth", set Curve Factor to "2.2"
Yaw: Change to "Smooth", set Curve Factor to "2.2"

Attention: The right "Hat-Stick" can't be mapped in "Settings", but has to be configured via the config-file "input.ini" (See section Edit config file.)

ActionMappings=(ActionName="Helicopter_Recenter_View",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=Joystick_Hat0_Y)

VelocityOne Flightstick[]

By default nothing is mapped.

Custom settings[]

The joystick has an on-device menu. On the joystick(!) select "Stick performance &arr; Profiles &arr; Precision"

In Squad(!) "Settings → Controls → Helicopter Axes" change from default to:

Collective: Tick "Flip Axis"
Pitch: Tick "Flip Axis", change to "Exponential Curve", set Curve Factor to "2.2"
Roll: Change to "Exponential Curve", set Curve Factor to "2.2"
Yaw: Change to "Exponential Curve", set Curve Factor to "2.2"

Attention: The left "Digital 8-way POV"-stick and right "Analog POV with click press"-stick (see device "Quick flight guide" position 4 and 5) are not recognized by Squad. You have to use a 3rd party software (e.g. AntiMicroX, JoyToKey) to map a keyboard input on a virtual joystick.

For example, lets use the POV-Stick (Up) for loading build-points. In the "Settings &arr; Helicopter" map the "unused" key "9" to the function "Load construction supply". In AntiMicroX the "virtual button" while highlight after pressing the POV-stick into the Up-position. Select this "virtual button" and select the key "9" as input. AntiMicroX will now emulate the joystick POV-Stick "Up" similar to pressing "9" on the keyboard.

I'm (TomNedry) using AntiMicroX (Open source), because I had troubles to get the analog joystick working with JoyToKey (Shareware).

Head tracking[]

Squad does not support head-tracking out of the box. For helicopters, there is a "Free-look" feature instead. To use the "Free-look" feature, it has to be activated in "Settings → Controls → Joystick"

Tick "LockFreeLook".

Then you can use the mouse to look around freely without holding ALT. To get your head position in real life and map it to your pilot's head (aka viewport) ingame you'll need:

A head tracking device (e.g. TrackIR, OpenTrack, Freetrack) or a webcam (OpenTrack)
The commercial (TrackIR) or Open Source (OpenTrack, Freetrack) software, and in some cases an additional input emulating device (e.g. FreePIE)

So far we have use cases for OpenTrack and TrackIR (with FreePIE).

OpenTrack[]

OpenTrack is an Open Source application which supports various input devices to get your head position and various output options.

In this case we are using an ordinary HD webcam as an input device, the built-in head recognition feature of OpenTrack and the build-in mouse emulation to create an input for the "Free-look" feature in Squad.

Get the latest release of OpenTrack and install it.
Ensure you have a working webcam.
In OpenTrack, select as Input: "neuralnet tracker", Output: "mouse emulation" and Filter: "Accela".
Open the "hammer" icon right of Output and set "X axis" to "Yaw", "Y axis" to "Pitch" and leave "Method" at "Direct input".
Press "Start".
Depending on your webcam one has to adjust the "Mapping"-properties.

The example values below are for an "Anker PowerConf C200" (FOV: 56). Hint: To create a editable point double-click somewhere on the line.

Yaw (Max input: 45°): 5.00x20.00, 10.00x40.00, 15.00x60.00, 20.00x80.00, 45.00x180
Pitch (Max input: 25°, Max output: 90°): 11.00x90.00

I like to advice that one creates a shortcut (see "Options") for "center" (i use the same key as for center "Free-look" in Squad) and for Start/Stop tracking.

Save your profile by "Create new copied config".

TrackIR with FreePIE[]

TrackIR is a commercial head tracking input device. It has to be started first.
FreePIE is an Open Source application for bridging and emulating input devices. It is programmable via a Python based script language.

Attention: You have to run FreePIE "as Administrator".

The following script will detect a running TrackIR. Load the script as file or copy & paste it. Run the script by pressing F5 or go to the menu "Script → Run".

def update():
   yaw = trackIR.yaw
   pitch = trackIR.pitch
   
   yaw = clamp(yaw, -140, 140)
   pitch = clamp(pitch, -60, 60)
   
   deltaYaw = filters.delta(yaw)
   deltaPitch = filters.delta(pitch)  

   if (enabled):
       mouse.deltaX = deltaYaw*multiply
       mouse.deltaY = -deltaPitch*multiply
       
def clamp(value, min, max):
	if (value <= min):
		return min
	if (value >= max):
		return max
	return value

if starting:
   enabled = True
   multiply = 20
   trackIR.update += update

toggle = keyboard.getPressed(Key.Space)

if toggle:
   enabled = not enabled

Some remarks on the script[]

Line 5,6: Restrict Ingame-"Head"-Movement to left/right (-140°/140°) and down/up (-60°/60°) to avoid "overshooting" when looking too far in any direction. Set inactive by adding "#" at the beginning of each line.
Line 15 - 20: "Clamp" function defined
Line 22: Things done once after starting the script
Line 23: Freelook is activated at start, set "True" to "False" otherwise. BTW: Mouse movement will override Freelook at any time.
Line 24: Sensitivity multiplier is 20. Mouse movement is 20 times faster than TrackIR input. (see Line 13 & 14)
Line 27: SPACE will deactivate / activate Freelook. BTW: Move mouse to set ingame view at any time

Configuration tweaking of TrackIR and FreePIE[]

There is a tiny lag in the freelook movement while using TrackIR and FreePIE. This may cause motion-sickness and is annoying. Tweaking the settings may help.

See TomNedry's settings as a reference.

Edit config file[]

Sometimes a joystick button can't be configured via "Settings". To map such buttons you have to edit the Squad configuration file "input.ini".

Warning: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! It is strongly advised to make a backup of the file in the first place.

Be sure that Squad isn't running, as the file is read upon launching the game.
The file "input.ini" can be found in "%appdata%\Local\SquadGame\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor". To find "%appdata" open the File Explorer/Windows Explorer, type %AppData% into the address bar and hit enter.
As "input.ini" is just a plain text file open it with your favorite text-editor (e.g. notepad++).

There are at least two sections in this file:

1. [/Script/Engine.InputSettings]

2. [/Script/Squad.SQConsole]

Put your custom key-mappings after the last line of the first section.

Changelog related to Helicopters[]

v3.3[]

Introduces ability to rotate, flip and move a helicopter, similar to ground vehicles

(...) includes an update to the Vehicle Recovery System to allow helicopters (...) to be reset (...)

v2.4[]

Joystick remarks on v2.4

Experimental Joystick Support for Helicopters Update
Added the ability to use Joystick action mappings as inputs. This is for the native support of buttons and triggers on various Joystick setups.
Added options for keyboard-only flight bindings for helicopters.
Added experimental hybrid controls for switching between joystick, keyboard, mouse during flight.
Added Joystick HAT switch quick-look controls.
Added Helicopter keybinds for picking up and dropping supplies. This currently does not work for ground vehicles. Note: these can be bound to Joystick buttons.
Added recentering keybind for helicopter freelook.
Joystick axes are no longer bound by default, to reduce the chance of conflicts. Players will need to manually bind their joystick axes until the feature is out of an experimental state.

Updated the Joystick Menu UI with improved presentation, and renamed many options for clarity and consistency.

Added Free Look for helicopters while in third person (Jenson’s Range/Modded Gameplay only).
Fixed an issue on the Joysticks menu where the “lock-free look” feature would be displayed behind the joystick curves on certain resolutions.
Fixed Joystick settings not being able to be reset to defaults.

We appreciate any feedback pilots can provide on this experimental joystick support. We anticipate releasing a more polished version with bug fixes and more quality of life improvements in a near-future release.

If you are having issues with Helicopter flying, and you are not using a Joystick, go to Settings -> Controls -> Helicopter Axes to unbind any axes bound there.

Please Note: Multiple Joysticks/Rudder Pedals/HOTAS input is not currently supported. There is currently no differentiation between device IDs. You may be able to get around this if your joystick software can combine all HOTAS axes into a single virtual input device. Full Multiple Joystick Support is planned in the future, but it will require an extensive complete overhaul to the Control Settings.

Trivia[]

With how realistic instruments in the helicopters in Squad are, even IFR flights can made, even with the oldest helicopter in Squad, the UH-1H.^[1]

Obsolete[]

Since v2.4 joystick buttons can be mapped via "Settings → Controls → Helicopter / Helicopter Axes".

ActionMappings=(ActionName="CommandRadio",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=Joystick_Button2)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="LocalVoice",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=Joystick_Button0)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="SquadRadio",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=Joystick_Button1)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="Map",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=Joystick_Button3)

↑ https://youtu.be/tl26uJNEkFs

[1] ttps://youtu.be/tl26uJNEkFs

[1]