In this DCS: AH-64D video, I will begin our video tutorial series with an introduction to this powerful attack helicopter. We are simulating the AH-64D as operated by the US Army between 2005 and 2010, which makes it a mid-Block II with the associated systems and paint schemes. The AH-64D proved itself to be a formidable force multiplayer over Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Mali, and it will be a fantastic addition to the DCS battlefields.
Initially fielded to the US Army in 1997 and serving as the backbone attack helicopter operations in combat since 2003, the “Delta” is crewed by a pilot in the back seat and a co-pilot gunner, or CPG, in the front seat. Both pilots can fly the aircraft, but only the CPG can operate the Target Acquisition and Designation Sight, or TADS, which includes the Laser Range Finder Designator and the Laser Spot Tracker. They very much work as a coordinated team. You’ll be able to do this in both single player using our new “George” AI or online with friends.
The tail-wheel style landing gear allows the helicopter ground taxi operations, and it is designed to collapse into the aircraft in case of a crash to attenuate the vertical impact.
The AH-64 is armed with a 30mm chain gun below the front of the aircraft that can be slaved to the line of sight of either crewmember's helmet display unit or to the TADS. Mounted on articulating pylons below the two stub wings are the M261 Rocket Pods capable of loading nineteen 2.75” Hydra un-guided rockets and the M299 Hellfire Launchers capable of carrying up to four AGM-114 Hellfire guided-missiles. The aircraft can also be loaded with external fuel tanks.
Powered by two T700-GE-701C engines and four main rotor blades, the AH-64D is a fast and agile attack helicopter that is easy to fly and ideal for nap of the earth flying. The AH-64D uses a traditional anti-torque tail rotor and chaff and flare dispensers are mounted along the tail boom. Sitting atop the main rotor hub, the optional fire control radar sits.
The front of the aircraft is dominated by the lower sensor turret that consists of the TADS optics and laser designator, and the upper sensor turret mounts the Pilot Night Vision System, or PNVS.
Let’s move into the cockpits now.
Here in the back seat, we are looking through the Helmet Display Unit, a component of the Integrated Helmet and Display Sighting System, or IHADSS. Within this display flight, sensor, and weapon information is presented to the pilot’s right eye. The PNVS and the TADS can also be projected to the to the HDU for night operations.
Dominating the instrument panel are two multi-purpose displays, or MPDs, that can display a wealth of information. Above is the Enhanced Up-Front Display, or EUFD, with the fire panel to the left. To the left is the Keyboard Unit, or KU, and to the right are the backup flight instruments. Below are the anti-torque pedals, between your knees is the cyclic, and to our left is the collective. On the right canopy frame is the bolt-on Common Missile Warning System, or CMWS ("see-moss").
On the left console are the lighting controls, the selective jettison panel, the engine power lever quadrant, the emergency panel, and the Night Vision select switch and tail wheel unlock light. On the right console we just have the communications panel volume knobs and squelch switches.
We’ll come back to the functionality of these systems in later instruction videos.
Let’s jump to the CPG or “Front Seat” now.
As with the “back seat”, we have two, large MPDs in the crewstation that can mirror the same functions as the pilot’s displays. Between them is the TADS Electronic Display and Control, or TEDAC. The 5 x 5-inch screen displays imagery from the TADS in both TV and infrared modes, or PNVS. It has hand grips on either side to work the sensors to locate, identify, target, and engage hostiles. Only the CPG can work the TADS in this manner.
As with the pilot cockpit, we have the fire control panel and the EUFD on the instrument panel. Below the instrument panel is the cyclic, which can be folded away.
Along the left console is the selective jettison panel, the lighting panel, NVS and tail wheel unlock light panel, the engine power levers, and the emergency panel. Further up is the KU, and inboard is the collective. Along the right console are the communications panel volume knobs and squelch switches, windshield wiper control panel, and the processor control panel.
This concludes this introduction to our AH-64D, and next, we’ll start digging into instruction. Thank you for watching.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll discuss the symbology projected to the Helmet Display Unit, or HDU, that is part of the larger Integrated Helmet Display and Sighting System, or IHADSS. The HDU can be worn by either the pilot or Co-Pilot Gunner, or CPG, and it can display important navigation, sensor, and weapon system data to the crew member’s right eye. We will discuss the HDU early in this tutorial series as we’ll be referring to it in later lessons.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll explore the engine, flight, and fuel MPD pages. Perhaps not as exciting as weapons and sensors, these pages can be critical for operations of this helicopter, and a good understanding of their functionality is important.
Note: This video is based on a pre-release version which may be different than the release and later updated versions.
In this week’s DCS: AH-64D instructional video, we explore the basics of the Tactical Situation Display, or TSD. This TSD is a map-based Multi-Purpose Display (MPD) page that provides powerful navigation features, fast customization, and coordination with other flight members. It can display various map types, prioritize data, and it is integrated with other defensive system to improve crew survivability. It also has an Automatic Direction Finding (ADF) function.
In later videos, we’ll explore the route and point functions of the TSD.
In an earlier video, we reviewed the basics of the AH-64D’s TSD. In this video, we’ll discuss TSD Points. The AH-64D provides a database of 149 points, with three separate “partitions” for waypoint/hazards, control measures, and target/threats. Waypoint/Hazards are numbered 1 to 50, Control Measures 51 to 99, and Target/Threats 1 to 50.
Points can be used to set navigation, targeting acquisition source, and sent to other flight members over the inter-flight datalink (once available).
Points are a powerful function to build battlefield situational awareness.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll look at using the TSD to create and edit routes, set a direct-to, and select an acquisition source.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll talk about the primary sensor of the AH-64D: the Target Acquisition Designation Sight, or TADS. The TADS is divided into two sides: The Day side, located on the left side of the turret, contains the Day Television, or Day TV, Laser Range Finder Designator, or LRFD and Laser Spot Tracker, or LST. The Night Side, located on the right side of the turret contains the Forward Looking Infrared, or FLIR. All controls discussed in this video are found in Options, Controls, AH-64D CP/G.
In the previous AH-64D video on the TADS, we reviewed the basic functionality of using the TADS from the front seat. In Part II, we’ll explore some more TADS functions from the front seat and discuss using the TADS from pilot seat in the back.
Before we dive into it, let’s touch on Sight Selection and Acquisition Source. This can often confuse new folks coming to the AH-64D, and it deserves a few words of explanation. The simplest way to think of it is that your Sight Selection is what you are using to see, and the Acquisition Source is what you want to see.
At release, possible Sight Selections include the Helmet Mounted Display, or HMD, and the TADS. Later, the Fire Control Radar, or FCR, will also be a possible Sight. Selecting any of these from the Sight Select switch determines what device we’ll be using to search and acquire targets, as well as aim our selected weapon.
The Acquisition Source, on the other hand, allows us to determine what we want our Sight to be directed to. Some of the possible Acquisition Sources that we could have our Sight directed to are the other crew member’s HMD line of sight, where the TADS is looking, where a Hellfire seeker is locked to, a TSD Point or Coordinate, or fixed ahead. These can be selected from R6 on the TSD and Weapon pages.
When an Acquisition Source is selected, we’ll then get the cueing dots around the HDU line of sight crosshairs as well as the Acquisition “broken” Line-of-Sight Reticle. I’ll link back to the IHADSS video in the card above.
When in the back seat, the Pilot’s sight is always slaved to the Acquisition Source, meaning he will always see the “broken” Line-of-Sight Reticle within his HMD symbology. However, in the CPG’s case, regardless of what sight he is using, the CPG must press the SLAVE button to display his Acquisition Source in his HMD symbology. If using the TADS as your sight in the CPG station, you’d still get the cueing dots around the TADS Line of Sight crosshairs and the Acquisition “broken” Line of Sight Reticle, but only after you enable Slaving using the SLAVE button. When you select SLAVE, the TADS Sight is slaved to the selected Acquisition Source. When the SLAVE button is pressed again to de-Slave, the Manual Track controller on the right TEDAC grip, also called the “thumb force controller, can then be used to move the TADS.
This may sound like a lot, but with practice, it will be become second nature.
Okay, back to the TADS while up front.
First, using the TEDAC FLIR Polarity Button on the TEDAC Right Handgrip or the Boresight/Polarity Switch on the collective flight grip, we can swap the FLIR polarity between white hot and black hot. White hot is most often used, but you may find the black hot works best for you in some conditions.
On the TEDAC left handgrip is the TEDAC Linear Motion Compensator button, or LMC. When enabled, the system will partially counteract helicopter movement to null out TADS movement. Note though that this is not a ground stabilization system. Where this can be handy is that using the thumb force controller, you can impart a slew direction that will continue in that direction and at the rate of the force pressed. In doing so, you can place the TADS crosshairs over a moving target and adjust the LMC slew to move along with a moving vehicle.
Let’s look at this in operation.
We briefly touched on this in the last video, but in addition to displaying the TADS on the TDU, you can also display the TADS over your right eye through the HDU when TADS is selected as our sight. Just like on the TDU, we can adjust our slew, swap between FLIR and DTV, change field-of-view, and swap FLIR polarity. When using the TADS on the HDU, you may wish to turn off the TDU.
At this point, we’ve discussed enough about the TADS in the front seat to make you dangerous, so let’s head to the back seat to look at Pilot TADS controls.
First, we can display TADS video to the MPDs using the video page button. By selected TADS are R1 and TADS again at T6, we display what the TADS is seeing. At L1, 2, and 3, we can set the field of view between wide, normal, and zoom. Adjust the image with the Video and Brightness knobs.
This can be very useful to see what the CP/G is seeing during an engagement through the TADS.
When flying at night, we can set the Night Vision Sensor, or NVS, to either use the Pilot Night Vision Sensor, or PNVS, or the TADS as a navigation FLIR. As mentioned in the last video, the CP/G will most often control the TADS and the Pilot will use the PNVS. In a pinch though, the pilot can select TADS as the NVS sensor by toggling the NVS Select Switch on the collective flight grip.
That’s it for now and don’t forget to study your acronyms. Thanks for watching.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll dig into use of the Area Weapon System, or AWS. The AWS consists of the M230E1 30mm chain gun that is mounted under the chin of the helicopter. The official rate of fire is 625 +/- 25 rounds per minute, but this is most often reduced in the field. The gun can transverse 86-degrees left and right, and it can elevate 9-degrees up when within +/- 10 degrees of the aircraft centerline and 11-degrees when outside of +/- 10 degrees of the aircraft centerline. It can traverse down up to 60-degrees.
Ammunition types include the M789 High-Explosive Dual Purpose and the M788 practice round. At early access release, the Robbie fuel tank will always be installed, and this results in a maximum gun load of 300 rounds. Later, after Early Access release, we plan to make the Robbie tank optional. This would allow a maximum gun load of 1,200 rounds. The software-supported maximum range is 4,200 meters.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll talk about use of unguided rockets. The AH-64D uses the M261 rocket pod with up to two pods per stub-wing. At early access release we’ll include the M151 high explosive, M229 high explosive 17-pounders, M257 illumination, M274 smoke, and M282 multi-purpose penetrator 2.75-inch rockets.
While it is possible for the CP/G to employ rockets, it is very seldom ever done outside of training. Rather, rockets are the domain of the pilot. The CP/G earns their keep by providing accurate laser ranging and steering commands to the pilot via the Rocket Steering cursor and TADS. This is termed coop mode, and I’ll show this later in the video.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll discuss an alternate mean of aiming rockets using the Line-of-Sight Reticle and Rocket Steering Cursor. There are multiple techniques to deliver rockets in the 64, and we hope this option will be useful. There is no correct technique, only the one that works the best for you.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, it’s time to talk about the AGM-114 Hellfire II missile. There are two primary versions of the Hellfire II: The Semi-Active Laser-homing version and the active radar-homing. The radar-homing version will come later during early access when we add the Fire Control Radar, or FCR. At release, we will include the AGM-114K laser version, commonly called the “SAL”.
Each AGM-114K weighs 100 pounds, has a tandem, shape-charged High-Explosive Anti-Tank warhead, with a theoretical range of 11 km, but more practically around 8 km. The motor burns for only 2.5 seconds, but it can reach Mach 1.4. Up to four can be loaded on each of the four possible Hellfire launchers.
Although it would be a heavy bird, you could carry up to 16 Hellfires into combat.
There are two principal ways to fire a Hellfire, autonomous mode in which your aircraft is laser-designating the target and Remote mode in which another aircraft or ground asset is laser designating the target for you on a matching laser frequency. We’ll first discuss autonomous mode that would be handled from the front, CP/G seat.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll explore flying the 64. We’ll discuss how to taxi, takeoff, also called picking up or “pulling pitch”, and basic trim. We’ll dive into landing and the attitude and altitude hold modes in later videos.
We’ll begin today’s lesson in western Iraq. I’m on the ramp with all the systems set up and ready to go. We’ll discuss the startup procedure in the final video of this series.
From an altitude and airspeed that affords the best observation of the landing area, place the LOS reticle on the intended point of landing. Press and hold the force trim interrupted and reduce the collective approximately 20% below cruise torque. Place the acceleration cue at the 40-knot ground speed position and adjust the collective for a 500 fpm or desired rate or descent. Maintain the FPV slightly above the intended point of landing to prevent “under-arcing” the approach. Control the flight path vector vertically with the collective and horizontally with the left/right cyclic. Maintain the acceleration cue behind the tip of the velocity vector to ensure a smooth, consistent deceleration while maintaining a 500 fpm or desired rate of descent. Prior to descending below the obstacles or 50 feet, keep the trim ball centered. Once below the obstacles or below 50 feet, use the pedals to align the nose with the landing direction. The decision to abort the approach should be made prior to descending below the obstacles. When the velocity vector is within the LOS reticle, select Hover symbology and terminate to a 5-foot stationary hover. Engage the hold modes as desired to assist in maintaining the hover.
From an altitude and airspeed that affords the best observation of the landing area, place the LOS reticle on the intended point of landing. Press and hold the force trim release interrupted and reduce the collective approximately 20% below cruise torque. Place the acceleration cue at the 40-knot ground speed position and adjust the collective for a 300 to 500 fpm or desired rate of descent. Maintain the FPV slightly above the intended point of landing to prevent “under-arcing” the approach. Plan to touch down in the first 1/3rd of the useable landing area. Control the flight path vector vertically with the collective and horizontally with the left/right cyclic. Maintain the acceleration cue behind the tip of the velocity vector to ensure a smooth, consistent deceleration while maintaining a 300 to 500 fpm or desired rate of descent. Prior to descending below the obstacles or 50 feet, keep the trim ball centered. Once below the obstacles or below 50 feet, use the pedals to align the nose with the landing direction. Maintain the velocity vector straight up and down the 12 o’clock post of the LOS reticle with the pedals and lateral cyclic. Maintain at or above ETL or VSDE until touch down, or if single engine maintain at or above VSSE until 30 feet. Once the aircraft touches down reduce the collective slightly to settle the aircraft, then increase the collective to 30% dual engine (60% single engine) or more prior to applying aft cyclic to aerodynamically brake the aircraft. Maintain heading with the pedals and a level attitude with lateral cyclic. When the velocity vector is within the LOS reticle, select Hover symbology and maintain the acceleration cue in the center of the LOS reticle. Neutralize the flight controls and reduce the collective after the aircraft has stopped. It is permissible to utilize the toe brakes to assist in stopping the aircraft.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll explore the defensive systems that will be available at launch. These will include the Aircraft Survivability Equipment, or pronounced “ACE”, that consists of the wire strike protection system, the AN/APR-39A(V)4 radar signal detection set, and the Common Missile Warning System, pronounced “C Moss”.
Combined, they work to detect, warn, and provide countermeasure options against both radar-guided and infrared-guided threats.
Later in early access we will add the AN/AVR-2A laser signal detecting set, the AN/ALQ-136 electronic radar jammer, and the AN/APR-48A Radio Frequency Interferometer.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, learn how to setup our controls to fly the -64.
In this DCS: AH-64D video, we’ll learn how to cold start our AH-64D.
Please note that this was recorded from a pre-release version in mid-March 2022. Later in development, aspects of the procedure may change.
My Cold Start Cheat Sheet:
Doors
Lights
Engine Levers Off 4. Rotor Brake Off 5. Parking Brake On 6. CMWS Off 7. COMM Levels 8. Battery 9. Tailwheel Locked 10. Lights Test 11. Fire Detection Test APU 12. APU 13. ENG/SYS Page 14. Check EUFD 15. Check DMS Page 16. Set COMM Page 17. ASE Off and Setup 18. Set TSD Page 19. Set FUEL Page 20. Set FLT Page 21. Set WPN Page 22. IHADSS Boresight Engines Start 23. Set NVS as Desired 24. Uncage SAI 25. ENG/SYS Page and ENG Page 26. ENG 1 Start Wait for TGT Less than 80 C 27. Power Lever to IDLE at Ng Increase 28. Repeat for ENG 2 29. Power Levers to FLY When OIL PSI is Less than 70 and NGB Temps Above 20 C 30. Check RPMs at 101% 31. APU Off Before Taxi 32. Parking Brake Off 33. Tailwheel as Desired
With the release of the DCS: AH-64D, I've seen a list of common questions. Although the bulk of these have been covered in earlier videos, I thought I'd make a separate one to address them all in one place.
In this video I'll touch on:
Setting up the laser
LOAL HI and LO attacks
Force Trim Release (FTR)
George Command Switch
One common question that I often see asked is why my aircraft crashes into the ground when in a hover or very slow speed. This can be due to one of two reasons, either Vortex Ring state, VRS, or settling with power. I often read folks blaming VRS, but it is often not, and rather settling power.
I’ll try to explain both and how to avoid them. For a detailed explanation of why it happens, I’ll leave that to Casmo and his magic white board.
Before we get started though, a quick PSA regarding a very common question I get: how do I remove the TADS video from the HDU when I want the TADS as my sight? The easiest and fastest way is to just remove the IHADSS by pressing the “I” key. If though you want to retain the monocle, just set your level to zero on the TEDAC.
Okay, back VRS and settle with power. Let’s first review the most important controls. First, from the Pilot, Axis controls, make sure that the collective and lower levers are bound and have full range.
First, we’ll talk about VRS. This happens when three conditions exist. You have low forward airspeed (lower than 16 to 24 kts), your vertical velocity in exceeding 300 feet per minute as indicated on the scale along the right side of the HDU, and insufficient collective power.
If you avoid any one of these three conditions, you should be fine. The much more common issue that most of you are running into is settling with power. This happens when you are at very low airspeed, or a hover and you are demanding more collective power than the aircraft can generate to produce enough lift. When you are outside of ground effect, over 48 feet, the rotors must generate a lot more lift to maintain, much less, increase altitude. If the aircraft is heavy, there is a high outside air temperature, you are operating at a high MSL, can all lead to power requirements that the aircraft cannot meet.
If you continue to pull back on the collective and demand more power than the engines can give you, you’ll just make matters worse and lose rotor RPMs. The engines of the AH-64D, like the engines in any other DCS helicopter, can only produce so much power before they encounter some sort of limitation, whether that be engine RPM or engine temperature. The engines will limit themselves to prevent damage or failure, so once they reach a limit, they will no longer produce any additional thrust to keep the rotor spinning at the current RPM. However, if you keep increasing the collective, which increases blade pitch angle and drag, the rotor RPMs will begin to slow.
Just like any other airfoil, when you reduce your airspeed over the wing, it produces less lift. Therefore, when your rotor slows down, you produce less lift. Therefore, continuing to pull up on the collective when your rotors are slowing down actually makes the situation worse, and results in falling faster. This can be equated to a fixed wing pilot continuing to pull back on the stick to prevent a stall due to low airspeed, but as a lot of you know from playing our other fixed-wing modules, this exacerbates the stall.
You can see when the engines start limiting themselves due to turbine temperatures by observing the Engine page in flight. As you continue to pull on the collective, as the engines approach 867 degrees Celsius, they will top out and the rotor RPMs will begin to drop. As mentioned, when operating at higher altitudes and/or higher temperatures, like NTTR in the summer, the engines may encounter this limit before the torque reaches 100%. This may lead to rotor RPMs decreasing and a loss of lift.
As mentioned, this can be experienced in the other DCS helicopters as well, such as the Ka-50, Mi-24 or UH-1.
To get out of a VRS or a settling with power situation, the easiest solution is to drop the nose and get forward airspeed. But, before getting in such a situation, keep a very close eye on your VVI when entering a hover or very slow speed flight and don’t let it fall to less than 300 feet per minute.