Introduction

This page is mostly for beginners. There's more on these subjects in the Ka50 Main Page, at a somewhat higher level with discussion of Flight Control Systems (FCS) and Keyboard (KB/KBD) profiles and installation/Setup. Pitfalls and glitches are described.

The menu to the immediate left provides shortcuts to major topics on this page. Use your browser's "Back" arrow to return to the top of the page and re-visit the menu.

 What you need to play 

• It is almost inconceivable anyone would try to fly this sim using only keyboard and mouse. Get a good stick with programmable buttons and rudder controls (preferably implemented as a stick that can be rotated in the vertical plane). I prefer the Saitek X52 "Pro" but there are others such as those made by Thrusmaster and CH. A gaming keyboard with extra keys you can program is a big help. Even the best joysticks and keyboards are relatively inexpensive so indulge yourself. There's more on this subject at the link above.
• A fast computer. For routine flying around older PC's work fine but under combat conditions maintaining a smooth frame-rate becomes a challenge. The “minimum” requirements detailed on the box are inadequate. An I7 processor running Windows 7/8 (64 bits) and having a high-end video card will deliver the goods. Solid State drives will provide a big performance boost and are inexpensive.
• Use a combination of cockpit, keyboard and stick controls. In the simulation "Options" you can assign any keys, buttons etc. to any Ka50 controls. Make choices you are most comfortable with. Throughout this article keyboard controls are identified with the word "keyboard" or abbreviation "KBD" and presented within (brackets). Controls I have programmed to suit myself are given inside curly braces as in {joystick left-side button}. These are merely suggestions and may or may not work for you, depending on equipment you have and personal preference. There's much more on this at the link above.
• If your gaming system is equipped for it, use high-definition display settings. 1920 x 1280 makes it easy to read labels on cockpit controls and instruments. Lower settings may force you to the manual to find explanations. You might want to draw up a diagram with your own labels for reference in that case.

About Helicopters

I have flown fixed-wing combat simulators for 20 years. A helicopter is a whole new experience. Whereas an agile fixed-wing like the F-16 is an elegant bird, at one with the air, a helicopter flies in spite of itself, remaining aloft by brute force … a close flying formation of a million moving parts, struggling at times in hostile interaction with the pilot. In compensation for its improbable way of working it offers:  

• Phenomenal maneuverability at low airspeed with additional advantages at low altitude, over crowded or rough terrain.
• Runway optional.
• Ability to position itself strategically almost anywhere while remaining aloft by hovering. That is, it can remain “on the scene” until the job is done.
• Capable of true vertical flight.

There is immense satisfaction in mastering control of this strange ship and after awhile it grows on you. 

Here are a few other things to note: 

• In ordinary straight ahead flight there is some nose-down tilt seeming very unnatural at first.
• The helicopter is in its natural element at low altitude where it can take cover behind anything from trees to buildings and, quite literally, fly underneath the radar.
• Helicopters are slow. Their speed is limited by the fact the retreating blade’s air speed is reduced by speed of the ship itself and, at some point, this can no longer be compensated for by increasing its pitch during the backward sweep. This results in a stall of the backward moving blade and consequent extreme instability. A fast helicopter can manage around 200 mph (340 kph), with practical combat speeds a good deal slower. There is some advantage in this. For one thing, you have more time to spot targets visually and otherwise assess your situation.
• Helicopters are low altitude fliers. Diminishing air density with altitude soon makes lift problematic although the more capable units are good to 4000 meters or more. Specially designed high altitude helicopters are less limited. One of these has actually landed on the summit of Mt. Everest but this is not performance typical of most. At higher altitudes, the low speed of a helicopter makes it highly vulnerable to attack by other aircraft and from the ground.

Uses

Helicopters are the only choice for transporting people and materiel to rugged destinations where there are no airstrips. They excel at patrols where careful examination of surroundings is necessary and at search and rescue.

In combat, the helicopter is constrained by its low speed and a lack of full maneuverability about the roll and pitch axes. The complexities of its aerodynamics place additional demands on the pilot so that in a single-seater like the Ka50, you may find your hands more than full when targeting or doing anything else besides just keeping the thing aloft.  

The attack helicopter is ideal suited to harassing villagers, infantry, convoys of trucks or lumbering tanks. Its ability to remain in a fixed position or move very slowly can give it a big advantage over fixed-wings when a sustained, persistent assault is warranted as opposed to a series of runs at a target with relatively long intervals between (giving the target time to hide or - worse yet - organize its defenses).  

Helicopters can’t carry huge amounts of heavy munitions, making them less useful against hardened targets and large structures.

Quick Review of Main Flight Controls:

Collective: This adjusts thrust along the rotor axis by applying equal pitch-change to all blades. This mainly influences rate of ascent/descent. The Collective has nothing to do with engine speed, which is usually automatically governed. The Collective is most conveniently programmed on the joystick throttle unit where the simulation places it by default.

Cyclic: During the course of a revolution the pitch of the rotor blades must continuously and differentially vary to produce balanced lift and thrust in a desired direction. This is accomplished by means of a swash plate and hinged levers connected to the base of the blades. It is by means of the Cyclic that the pilot controls this complex activity, to cause the helicopter to move and roll in a certain direction. The position of the Cyclic also determines the distribution of rotor power between pure lift and horizontal thrust. By default, the Cyclic is on the joystick itself.

Rudder: Determines the direction in which the helicopter faces. By default, the Rudder is placed on the joystick in the vertical axis (if implemented - not all joysticks have this). Twisting the stick operates the rudder. More authentically, a set of pedals can be used in the simulation (more on that in the Ka50 Main page). There is some controversy amongst simulation flyers as to which offers the best control. I much prefer the twist stick.

There is considerable interaction between the Collective and the Cyclic. For example, if the helicopter is moving forward and the Cyclic is pulled back to produce a hover or to slow down, the power that went into forward thrust is now directed along the rotor axis and the ship will begin to rise. This effect is offset by reducing the Collective input.

HUD and Other Essential Instruments - a Summary

There are many instruments and controls. This can prove initially discouraging. Eventually you will find uses for most of them but you'll find the vast majority of flight and combat requirements are satisified through deployment of a small subset. The ones identified here are a basic group. With these and the Ka50 defaults at startup you can, however, fly even some very challenging missions and live to tell about it. Find out more from the manual when you need more. The attack counter-measures could prove especially useful as the next feature to learn. For now, let's just become familiar with the things absolutely essential to almost every flight.

The Basics 

HUD:

• The Heads Up Display (HUD) projected on the windshield provides the most critical flight information in line-of-sight. You will find altitude on the upper right. Depending upon height above ground or water it shows barometric or radar altitude – very sensible and auto-switching.
•  Heading and waypoint indicators. Across the top of the HUD. There's a fixed marker in the center of this line. Bearing to the next WP is shown by a moving caret. You fly toward the WP by moving the ship so the caret overlies the center marker. I often prefer using the ABRIS map (see later).
• Air-speed  Upper left. I prefer using the circular guage below the rate of ascent indicator (described next).
• Rate of ascent/descent - Right side on a vertical scale. Critically important in a vehicle so often deployed at low altitude. I prefer using the circular instrument below and to the left of the windshield.
• Degrees the nose is above/below horizontal. Dead center is a tiny dot and a semi-circular surround. Very useful when landing, setting up hover etc.  With the dot in the center of the semi-circle you are horizontal.
• In attack mode, various indicators provide targeting information. These are described later.

Miscellaneous:

Identify the Shkval TV screen (iust below the windshield/HUD) and the two foot wells. This will orient you to the location of items now described. Many of these duplicate HUD information. That's because during certain modes of flight the normal HUD information must be replaced with other indicators.

• Rate of ascent/descent: Circular guage just off the top left corner of the TV.
• Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI): Immediately left of the TV. It is the upper-half blue instrument) This is most likely to prove essential on night missions or in poor weather. You can usually ignore it in clear, daytime flying.
• Compass and backup waypoint indicator (Horizontal Situation Indicator - HSI): Off the bottom left corner of the TV. In certain combat modes the waypoint marker disappears from the HUD but it is always shown on the compass as a pair of short, orange lines on the circumference.
• Airspeed: To left of the ADI. Again, if not displayed on the HUD it is always here. The numbers have an assumed trailing zero.
• Laser activation and weapons mode: At bottom of left foot well and to the left.
• ABRIS navigation/map: Immediately to right of TV and down just a bit. The buttons controlling it are in a row along the bottom of its screen. There's a lot of information to be found using the ABRIS but you will most often use it to show the map, your route and where you are. On some missions it will be pre-loaded with target co-ordinates and other engagement data pertinent to navigation.
• Waypoint selector/keypad(Flight Navigation): Immediately to right of the right foot well and below the ABRIS. It resembles a calculator keyboard. Once activated, pressing any key places the marker for that waypoint at top of the HUD. Turn to center the marker/caret and you will eventually arrive at the waypoint. There are many other useful functions on this keypad but you can learn about them on your own.
• Auto-pilot controls/Flight Director: Immediately to right of pilot’s seat. It has several blue buttons. In flight you will routinely want to have roll, pitch and heading stabilization activated. During combat it is possible for one or more of these controls to become damaged. The helicopter will then exgibit instability on the affected axis which you will have to manage manually.

Notation

In the rest of this material the operation of various controls will be indicated by:

• Keyboard - abbreviated KBD or KB, meaning the indicated keyboard key is to be pressed and will be the default for the simulation and presented inside (brackets).
• Cockpit - meaning a control in the cockpit is to be clicked with the mouse. This is presented inside (brackets).
• Custom - Controls I have programmed into my own joystick or gaming keyboard and presented inside {curly braces}. You will likely prefer other customization so there's not much about this here.  My customized controls are described in the Main Page.

Using a combination of cockpit, keyboard and custom settings makes sense but the actual configuration should reflect personal preferences.

Weapons and Targeting

Much, much more on this later. For now, just familiarize yourself with the locations.

• Master Arm: Immediately underneath the Shkval TV screen below the left corner is . Beside it is a symbolic aircraft with indicators to show which weapons hard-points are active.
• Weapons Selection: (KBD = Y) chooses outboard hardpoints. (KBD = I) chooses inboard hardpoints. (KBD = C) chooses Cannon which overrides any other weapons selection and restores it when clicked again to toggle Cannon off.
• Weapons modes and laser control. Immediately to left of the left foot-well.

That's all you need for now. For the most complex missions and/or co-operative play you'll want to master the communications systems and details of the ABRIS but that's beyond the scope of this site.

Take-Off, Flying, Hovering, Landing, Engaging the Enemy: Step-by-step

Refer to earlier material for location of controls if not described below.

Topics (these are links) in this section are:

Taking Off

Flying and Simple Navigation

Hovering

Landing

Engaging the Enemy and Weapons Deployment

The following minor topics deal with some special challenges new pilots are likely to encounter.

Weapons not firing/releasing

Controlling flight instability (in miscellaneous tips)

Taking-Off

This is easy.

1. Start the machine - (KBD = Left Win + Home). This assumes the mission builder put your aircraft in a parking zone rather than on the runway in which case you are ready to go. There follows a lengthy process. Make sure the Collective is at minimum. When the pitch, roll and heading switches (Auto-pilot controls) light up, you are ready to go. If the mission builder put the Ka50 on the runway the startup procedure has already completed and you may proceed directly to Step 2 below.
2. Ease the Collective back along with slight forward pressure on the Cyclic. This provides a take-off with short roll or a purely vertical lift (depending on your Collective input). As the ship begins to rise increase Collective a bit more aggressively and start pushing the Cyclic. The nose will dip slightly and you will begin a forward ascent. You may need to advance the Collective some more.
3. Raise gear (Keyboard = G) as soon as it is obvious you have left terra firma, although no harm at first flying around with your tires hanging out but it looks and is dumb.
4. At around 50m, with forward flight established, press Trim (Keyboard = T). The aircraft may pitch somewhat and stabilize. Adjust the Cyclic and Collective for speed and altitude desired. Press Trim again. You will find a lot of discussion in the ED forums on use of Trim. Use it a lot and acclimatize yourself to its peculiarities.
5. Now is a good time to switch on the ABRIS map and the waypoint selector pad if you did not have the foresight to do this before leaving the runway. Turn ABRIS on by clicking the rightmost key under its screen. Down from the ABRIS is "calculator" keypad. Click the upper left key, than another key having a number equal to the waypoint you want to head for or - just follow the map.

Flying and Simple Navigation

Cruise around and get a feel for things. If you crash, just start over. Try hovering and landing. Become familiar with these steps before trying "Engaging the Enemy". There's more on this subject on the Ka50 Main Page.

1. Combinations of Collective and Cyclic positions determine the relationship between ascent/descent and the horizontal component ofl flight. Lots of practice is the key. Avoid over-reacting to aircraft motion and remember to use Trim (KBD = T) {Joystick thumb button} frequently. Ensure the auto-pilot pitch, roll and heading buttons are activated (cockpit = blue keypad on right).
2. Be alert for over-speed. A beeper will warn of this. You want to keep speed under 300 k or so or something might break off.
3. If you want to try navigation at this time, turn on the ABRIS (Cockpit rightmost button under the ABRIS screen). This will show your map with route and waypoints.
4. Turn on the waypoint function of the flight navigation system.
This is the upper leftmost button on the flight navigation keypad which is just below the ABRIS screen. Choose a WP (probably "1") with one of the other keys. The caret will appear at top of the HUD and the compass will swing to the new direction.
5. Fly to the waypoint, then choose the next one from the keypad (probably "2"). Alternatively, you can navigate by just glancing at the map once in awhile.
6. Enjoy the scenery. Try flying through some mountain valleys while practicing altitude and direction changes.
7. The waypoint pad has a handy "Airfields" button. Click this, then "1" for the HUD to display a marker leading you home.

Hovering

This is something of an art but an essential maneuver.

• Reduce Collective and gradually pull back on Cyclic to bleed off speed. Try to maintain a reasonably stable altitude unless you really want to descend. Use the Trim liberally. This is all a bit tricky but practice makes perfect.

• Once your speed is down to around 50 km/h, level the ship and engage auto-hover (KBD = T + Left Alt) {throttle unit thumb button}. There are a lot of interactions so be alert to these. Auto-hover likes to have some help and it really will work best if you can get close as possible to a hover using manual control first. Some initial pitching is likely but unless it is extreme, just wait for auto-hover to stabilize on its own.

• There will likely be some residual drift/rotation/forward motion. You can tune this out with the Cyclic (using Trim) and maybe some small adjustment of the Collective. It is often helpful at this stage to dis-engage, then re-engage auto-hover.

• You might find you have difficulty getting the aircraft to face the desired direction. Temporarily turn off the Auto-pilot Heading Stabilization, then rotate using the rudder control. Remember to re-engage Heading Stabilization. Don't rotate too fast or a nasty instability may result.

• Auto-hovering activates Altitude Stabilization on the auto-pilot pad (cockpit = lower right blue button on auto-pilot pad). You must turn this OFF (KBD = A + LShift){num keypad 2}(cockpit = auto-pilot pad lower right blue button) when you cease hovering or flight control will be mysteriously difficult.

• Effectiveness of auto-hover will be compromised by inappropriate Collective settings. To much Collective will fight against the altitude stabilization and you will end up with substantial drift. That extra thrust has to go somewhere.

• If you want to ascend or descend while hovering, temporarily disengage Auto-pilot altitude stabilization, then use the Collective to move up or down. Re-engage altitude stabilization when the desired altitude is reached and the Collective has been adjusted to minimize altitude change.

You can hover quite nicely without auto and it’s a good discipline to learn how to do so. Once you become an accomplished pilot you will prefer hovering without the auto-assist as this keeps you in complete control.

How to Land

This is the toughest part of flying any aircraft and possibly the most dangerous part of many missions. You will initially end up in many fireballs and once past that stage, some very rough set-downs where bits and pieces fall off the ship from the impact.  "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing" so keep that in mind. The rubbish you leave on the runway will be picked up by the maintenance crews.

Some recommend a pure vertical descent with assistance of auto-hover. There may be times when such a landing is indicated but, quite frankly, it is the hard way (possibly quite literally) to come down. The main problem is that during the last few meters you must deal with the churning, de-stabilizing ground effects created by your own rotors and the auto-hover will interfere with adjustments in position you may want to make.

1. Much better is to maintain forward motion right to the point of touch-down. This keeps you ahead of the ground effects for a smooth, controllable rolling touch-down and also avoids the dreaded ring vortex.

2. As you approach the near-end of the runway aim for an altitude of 80m or so and speed = 60k. These are very approximate. Tune out any instability or drift.

3. Lower gear (KBD = G). You can do this from way out. Better too soon than too late. If you are very skilled or lucky you can safely land without extending gear but it looks silly and amateurish.

4. Pull the ship back almost horizontal with the Cyclic and adjust the Collective for a soft descent at around 1 m/s. You can touch down at 50k or more with no problem and then use the wheel brakes (keyboard = W  (hold it down until stopped)). At a few meters altitude ensure the ship is just a bit nose-high but still moving forward. If the nose-wheel hits first it may break off (the voice of experience).

5. As you improve, you can drop much more quickly, slowing descent in just the last few meters to about 1m/s while bringing forward speed to 0 in the instant of touch-down by pulling back slightly on the Cyclic. This is difficult but if you watch real helicopter landings you will know it can be done - the pilot descends briskly with the rate falling in the last few meters while reducing speed to 0 just before contact. This is essential with skids, when landing on pads or other confined spaces. The Ka50 has wheels and you are pften landing on long runways so your job is easier. But you never know. You might have to land on a roof sometime or in a remote clearing surrounded by trees.

6. Once you are down reduce the Collective all the way (unless you intend taxiing) and kill the throttle (KBD = Page Down 3 clicks). Apply wheel brakes as in Step 4. You can shut down all systems with (KBD = LWin + End).

The following has been left to the last in this section because you really should develop flying skills before taking on a mission.

Engaging the Enemy - Weapons Deployment

This is what it's all about. You can engage targets identified in the sample mission briefing or try trashing some of the buildings in the nearby city. Be sure to enable "labels" in the simulation setup Options. This isn't authentic but while learning helps avoid the frustration of not being able to find targets placed by the mission designer. Reminder: This is only one way of mounting an attack. As your skills improve, go to the manual for much, much more information regarding weapons, flight control, countermeasures etc.

The remainder of the step-by-step is divided into cumulative stages. For example, Stage 2 is dependent upon your completing the preparations in Stage 1.

Stage 1 - Simple Deployment: Unguided cannon and rockets (the latter cannot be guided in any event).

1. Near one or more waypoints there may be an assignment to take on. Check the briefing. You will almost always want to engage at a distance and low altitude (200m or a good deal less), to limit exposure to defences and to provide a comfortably shallow line of sight to the target. Your mission objectives/plan should inform you concerning the whereabouts of a target in relation to a waypoint.
2. While learning, at least. it is best to slow down or even hover in vicinity of a target. An altitude above ground of 100m is often appropriate but it depends on the target, visibility etc. Your weapons have range limitations you can find in the manual. As a rule of thumb begin your targeting setup at 7 - 8 km from a target which is within reach of the Vikhr and rockets.  In the practice mission, ranges of 2 - 4 km are ideal for all weapons. When your skills improve you will find you can do your weapons setup and targeting in full flight. This is much more dramatic and benefits from an element of surprise.
3. All weapons: The first step is to set Master Arm ON by flipping it up. This switch is found just below the TV screen’s lower left corner and has a striped surround. Click the switch with the mouse to toggle it up. Forget this step and weapons cannot be deployed.
4. The Cannon or Rockets - "eyeball" targeting: For cannon, choose (keyboard = C). This is a toggle. De-selecting Cannon (press keyboard C again) makes any previously chosen weapon automatically available. Cannon or Rockets (For rockets choose keyboard = I and de-select cannon if previously chosen) can now be fired at will. The Vikhr guided missiles will be unavailable at this point. There will be a circle projected on the HUD yielding an estimate of where the Cannon or Rocket rounds will strike but motion of the ship is liable to make this a very rough guess at best unless you are highly skilled at keeping the Ka50 stabilized. The cannon is normally set up to fire when pulling the joystick trigger and the rockets when pressing "Weapons Release" which is the topmost thumb button on my joystick

A lot of sim pilots don't care for rockets but I find them a lot of fun. Once you learn how to obtain good accuracy they are a devastating weapon and a real "natural" for a helicopter. They can be released in an instant and you get a lot of them which makes for some dramatic engagements. They are a short range weapon, most effective within a few hundred meters of a target.

Stage 2 - Shkval assisted targeting: All weapons (except rockets)

1. Locate the weapons mode and laser control panel immediately to left of left foot well.
2. Turn on the LASER: It's the rightmost toggle switch labelled "LASE". You do not need the laser for cannon or rockets but why not always turn it on in case you decide to use the Vikhr missiles, for which it is required?
3. Above LASE is the MOV GND TGT switch: Click it on. This is to enable the Shkval to track vehicles. You don't need it for stationary targets but ... what if? I have found no problem with having it on for stationary targets.
4. Up and to the left of that switch is AUTO TURN: Engage this and when you have a target designated the helicopter will automatically keep facing it. Remember to click this OFF when not needed as it may otherwise cause you a lot of flight instability.
5. Activate the helmet sight (keyboard H). You will see a fuzzy loop drop down and the HUD changes to show a prominent bull’s-eye.
6. Maneuver the helicopter so the bull’s eye is on or near the target
7. DESIGNATE the target (keyboard = O (not zero)){joystick thumb button - second from the top} a small circle quickly floats to where the bull's-eye was when you clicked. Depending on how well you oriented the helicopter, this circle should be on top of or near the target. Now focus your attention on the TV screen. It shows an area centered on that circle. You can zoom in/out with (KBD "=" and "-") but it's usually best to be zoomed in at maximum as a default. At the center there is a targeting gate or aperture comprising a small rectangle with a dashed border. The gate will likely be drifting. At this point I like to "pre-lock" by clicking (press and release) the target LOCK control (KBD = Enter) even if the gate is not on the target. This forces the gate to stay put wherever it is and simplifies navigating it to the target if it's not already there (the most usual condition).
8. Now, while holding down the target LOCK (KBD = ENTER) slew the targeting gate around until it is right on the target - the designator circle in the HUD will track this motion.  Keyboard slewing keys are (“ .  ,  /  ;”)  {I changed these to one of the hats on the joystick}.
9. LOCK the Target: Immediately as the gate is positioned on the target release the LOCK . The targeting gate should remain fixed on that spot, as seen on the screen, even if the helicopter moves and the HUD and TV will display "TA" (Target Acquired).  I say "should" because rarely it might not. If the gate now does not track the target it might not have been initially narrow enough and/or you did not hold the Ka50 steady enough for the system  to characterize the target site. The designator works best if it has lots of pattern information to work with. Usually this is not a problem. You can resize the gate with keyboard “[“ and “]”. Smaller is usually better.
10. Targeting gate -  important tip: While attacking you can slew the targeting gate from one target to the next (assuming they are reasonably close together) without re-designating (that is, by positioning the bull's eye and pressing the DESIGNATE control). Very efficient. Just use the method in Steps 8/9.
11. Vikhr guided missiles: This is a precision active-guided weapon especially useful against tanks. Choose it with (keyboard = Y) and make sure the cannon has been de-selected (toggle KBD = "C" as necessary). You must have engaged the LASER and have the target locked as in Step 9. That is, even with stationary targets you must use the laser.  When the target has been locked as in the foregoing steps you will see a targeting circle in the HUD for the Vhikr. It has a circumferencial "in range" indicator and will be off to one side or the other, corresponding to the automatically selected hard-point. You must maneuver the helicopter to place this over the smaller circle surrounding the target area (where the laser is now locked on the target). When you achieve this (its easy), the shoot cue “C” appears on the HUD and the TV screen. You can now Release and the missile “rides” the laser beam to the target even if the helicopter changes position in the meantime. The laser is stabilized on a gimbal and maintains lock throughout a wide range of platform motion. If the targeting cue "C" does NOT appear in the HUD and TV it means the weapon is not within range constraints or there is no designated target.
12. Vikhr - important tip: It is possible to fire without target LOCK, despite what's said in Step 11 although there is seldom a use for this. All you need is to have designated as in Step 7 without doing even the pre-lock. You will still get a shoot cue "C" obtained as in Step 11 and the Vikhr will follow the laser but ... the laser will not be locked on anything. You can position it manually by slewing the targeting gate but will also have to hold it manually on the target. This can be very tricky but is occasionally the only way to attack a target that cannot be locked - such as a featureless surface that the TV pattern recognition system cannot characterize.
13. Cannon: Set up guided targeting same as for the Vikhr. Choose Cannon (keyboard = "C" toggle) and a big rectangle appears in the HUD. This is analogous to the Vikhr targeting circle. If the targeting area  is made to fall anywhere within that rectangle by maneuvering the Ka50, the cannon will usually hit the target when fired so long as it is in range (indicated by shoot cue "C" on the HUD and TV). Amazing. The targeting system takes helicopter motion and target range into account and aims the cannon accordingly. You will see a shooting cue “C” in the upper left of the HUD and on the left side of the Shkval screen if you are within parameters to fire. If there’s an “X” through the targeting rectangle, you are too close, too far or outside the ability of the gimbal to aim the cannon. Note the LASER is not used or needed but no harm having it on. Unlike the Vikhr, bullets are unguided once they leave the cannon.

Stage 3: Resuming Navigation Mode

1. When finished all your assignments: Click (cockpit = RESET beside the LASE switch), turn off the laser, get rid of the helmet sight if still visible (keyboard = H) and flip down Master Arm (optional - it really is no big deal leaving it on). The HUD will return to navigation mode. If the HUD is not fully responsive, try using the (KBD = Backspace) key.
2. Return To Base.

All of the foregoing is made much easier by using profiles for the flight control system and keyboard. By that means multiple cockpit control sequences can be programmed to single switches, greatly simplifying flight and weapons setup. These topics are covered in the Ka50 main page. where you can also download some profiles.

In Conclusion

 The following review of targeting may prove useful: