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This May be a long post but here goes. I'm interested
in making a helocopter game and I need to learn how to do some code. If anyone has played a really good helocopter game such as the old longbow or gunship 2000 then you would know what collective is for those who don't I will explain. I learned from these games and from spending 10 years in the army and marines. When a helo. takes off collective is applied which pitches each blade forward and back to provide lift, to get into forward flight the whole blade assembly pitches foreward to move forward and back to go backward. This also controls your forward speed. To stop the helo you have to lower the collective and pull back on the stick to slow down all without crashing it! The collective also controls your hover and hover height. The more collective applied without foreward motion applied the higher the hover. Helocopters also respond slower than airplanes so it takes a few seconds from input to reaction of the craft. I don't think the foreward flight will be to hard. In games the collective is mapped to the throttle control on a joystick, I always use my joystick for forward flight and remap the collective to the up/down arrows. You may have to tap the up key six or eight times before the helocopter starts to rise then it may wobble a little and hover a few feet off the ground and the more and the faster you tap the keys the faster the helo will rise. If anyone has any ideas they would be appreacited I think this would be a great learning exp. for anyone who tries to do it and get it right. It has to be realistic as possible. I'm off to a Superbowl party now but will be working on this later!!! I know alot about this subject so if anyone wants or needs more info to do this yourself leave a post here and I will get back to you!!!

just a random thought but how about using the number keys to control the collective (1-9 = 0 to 100%) that way if you arrange it so that say 5 is sufficent to maintain height in a stationary hover you can easily control your height by dropping down to 3 or moving up to 7.

If I understand the model correctly you need more collective to maintain height when you pitch the rotars to move forward etc. If so you could just apply 7 or 8 or whatever to maintain height at x degrees forward pitch.

Might be a bit more friendly than franctically stabbing at the up arrow trying to get the collective high ebough to stay in the air as you plunge towards the ground...

That is an option to jump to a certin torque level. Around 75% torque you should not have to fool with the collective to much. The whole idea is to have an equal amount of toqure and foreward motion to stay aloft.

Once you are flying foreward you will always have to input a little up or down collective to stay aloft. This is how the games I have played were.

In a real helocopter, at least the military helos. I flew in the poliot flys from the right side and a few times I got to ride in the left seat and was really paying attention to what he was doing and was asking questions and that is the way it is and that would be the most realisitc.

In the real thing there is not a happy medium, that is just the way it is you will always have to put small inputs in. When you do start adding collective there should be numbers to tell you what torque level you are at.

I'm not that good at programming DBP yet and I can't just sit down and knock this out, and I'm not asking someone to do it for me. When I started to think abuot this I started to think that it would not be that easy and would be a good learning tool for anyone to try, Of course I would probably be the last one to post any code for this because I really am not that good yet!!!

Yes, a vaid point. Reality is often BORING!!! That why we play games in the first place. I see you're point thou. I guess you just have to find a happy medium between the two.

Beleive me if you have ever played janes Longbow Apache
or gunship 2000 both DOS games you will not be board. It is hard to fly a helocopter once you get it after a few days the moves become second nature, then you can concentrate on hunting, stalking and then killing the enmy with all the fancy electronics and weapons at your fingertips

I've just finished the flight style and landscaping for a helicopter sim .. enemies and interaction to go, but I also settled for a a set of power linked collective pitch levels on the number keys.
But simplified. I have one key set for the power and pitch which gives a level hover - as long as you don't tilt the rotor forward. Then two power levels below and three above.
I have the power/pitch increase over a short time when you increase/decrease power and in practice this seems quite adequate.
I thought there might be problems with a mostly fixed level of power and get too much dropping when rotor tilted forward of back, but not so.One tens to give the max or just under power to lift off, and then gather speed foward with the excess power when you tilt forward. It tends to fly then much like an ordinary aircraft once speed has built up. Landing precisely takes a bit of practice at first though. .. not the power setting but just to stop drifting this way and that. Made easier with a selectable more downward view from cockpit.
Oh .. note this is not DB pro , as a I have to use free flight commands to make it all work.
good luck.

Well I posted this idea and have not even worked on it!! I will but I'm not very good at programming yet so when they posted those new tutorials I jumped on them. They are pretty good I have learned more in one day than I have in a couple of months of trying to just play around with the commands. Once I get a little better I will work on this but any ideas or advice posted here will be read and replied to!!!