How to Make Flying the DCS World AH-64D Apache Easy!

But a massive source of Frustration for DCS World players is Yaw control with the Anti-Torque Pedals. This can be alleviated with one small adjustment to how you are using the Rudder Pedals in your home cockpit. Simply slide your feet down to put your heels on the floor and you should notice a massive difference almost right away.

While the DCS AH-64D Apache is not an easy aircraft to fly by any means it can be made a lot easier when using the proper techniques to manipulate the anti-torque pedals in the aircraft and your Rudder Pedals in your home cockpit!

I hope you this video helps you out and you enjoy this preview of Cairo West Airbase on the upcoming DCS Sinai Map!

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:45 - The Best Apache Advice
0:08:10 - Tour of Cairo West Airbase

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war thunder dcs sinai dcs f-15e dcs ah-64 tutorial rudder pedals review

[Spudspike]

I hope my video helps make flying the DCS AH-64D less frustrating!

[RoamingAdhocrat]

Very good points about the advantage of having your heels "anchored" on the floor. But this needs extended to stick, seat, and throttle. If you've got the stick up on the desk and you're sat on a swivel chair, you're gonna be reaching up to the stick and putting the weight of your arm on it. Stick needs to be near your knee, so your arm can rest on something - armrest or your leg - and you hold the stick very lightly and with much more control

[Combersome]

This is a fantastic tip not only for the AH-64D sim but for other flight sims. I used this method with the IL2 Sturmovik, MSFS and Elite Dangerous. Thanks alot!!

[robertd]

"Not a great landing"
"Not my best hover"

Me sitting here glued to my phone
"Dude is one with the machine. He must be the master"

[TrickerDCS]

Instructions unclear; I took pictures of my feet instead

[Martin.H]

Holy hell, I gave up on the apache long time ago and felt i wasted the money.. but now?! Hell yeah, hovers and flies like a dream!! THANKS

[kadose]

Great video. This makes total sense to me now for the following reasons:
Short version:
Heels on the floor activates your cerebellar system and enhances proprioception (joint position awareness) and eliminates movements of the whole leg, simultaneous hip, knee and ankle flexion and extension with activation of gluteal and paraspinal muscles, instead allowing small and easy ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion movements.

Long version:
In real life, lower limb inputs to a control interface, like a rudder pedal in this case, will result in the vehicle moving in a certain direction. There are visual cues as well as vestibular cues, so you both see and feel the movement. Your cerebellum adjusts much faster than your eyes can, so you can quickly correct.
I suspect tasks in the air that in real life would involve fine movements are much harder in DCS because we only have visual feedback and not vestibular feedback. We compensate for this by using curves on our axis or extending our joysticks but the crux of the issue is that essential vestibular and cerebellar input is missing.
Taking neurosurgery as an example, to drill into the skull during neurosurgical procedures, a drill is applied to the bone and a foot pedal is pressed. When neurosurgeons are taught to do this, they are instructed not to apply pressure through their arms but rather to gently lean on the drill while holding it, putting about a third of their body weight on the front foot and two thirds on the back foot, while supporting the drill against their chests.
The drill is designed to stop as soon as it drills all the way through bone as it relies on bouncing against a hard surface for the clutch to engage and thus keep rotating, but if one isn’t cautious it is possible to plunge and damage underlying brain even after the drill has stopped spinning.
Using one’s feet and relying on the weight shifting from one foot to another activates your cerebellum much quicker than a one centimetre
movement of your arm hence you have more control. So if your body moves forwards by a few millimetres and your legs sense it, you’ll catch yourself way before you would catch an unexpected arm movement, and this is why you are much less likely to plunge with the drill if you do this.
I think that’s why flying sensitive helicopters and air to air refuelling are so difficult in DCS and (at least in air to air refuelling) flying in VR makes things a bit easier due to the enhanced perception of movement, albeit not truly vestibular.
I suspect if a DCS rig with a seat that moved sideways and rotated about its axis in sync with helicopter movements, control would be much easier. It may also be that the flight model as mentioned before needs tweaking but regardless, there is cerebellar stimulation in real flight that simply does not exist in flight simulators unfortunately (at least not yet).
Thanks again for shedding light on this.

[krusty]

Great advice. I fly with my feet on the pedals and have no problems whatsoever controlling the chopper but I bet this trick can help many getting better

[pchappy.]

I agree with you and to add to your point about the cheaper pedals, I recommend just biting the bullet and buying a quality set of pedals to use. I went from TFRP to the TPR setup and it was like I was a new pilot. Immediate better control, and then I learned to do what you're saying with placing feet down and getting more fine adjustment. Great tips man.

[orleansjunky]

You have to use the crazy flip maneuver to your advantage...like when anti air shoots one and you have no time to run/dive

[unotoli]

1) set non-linear response in center
2) use racing 3-piece pedals, where gas/clutch are soft (and could be used separately)
3) use VR :)

[frogisis]

DCS World comes along and vindicates every gym teacher about the universal importance of Proper Foot Placement.
Seriously though this is genuinely interesting and important and probably under-discussed; I feel like there's a big video or PDF to be made just on tips & tricks for the ergonomics of home cockpits (e.g. getting a kneeboard and a little gaming keypad to stick on it was a breakthrough for me as well).

Funnily enough I've found myself doing this a lot by accident as my foot gradually slides down (lotta flying in socks), but now I don't feel bad about it.

[dortywings]

I even built a little shelf for my heels to adjust for the perfect height to use the TM Pendular Rudder in that way. and I have an arrangement where I can put a stop to both pedals once they reach 100% of the travel, cause they travel like 3times the way of what is actually registered by the device as 100%. The biggest help was adjusting the stick/cyclic curve, so it is able to make very little adjustments, the custum curve goes like 1, 3, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 75. Almost same custom curve for the pedals. Also the longer the stick the better, I have a 3 inch extension which is okay, but I will change for an 8 inch extension in the future, and even recommend 16 inch if you can get one, it just helps with making more fine adjustments. What also helps (but I didnt try that yet) is creating a dead stick, which means removing of the springs in the stick and increasing the dry clutch tension on the stick, VKB and newer Virpil offer that function as far as I know.

[XxTRUEPINOYxX]

Just got my Virpil collective and rudder pedals! Once I find a mounting solution I’ll be flying soon!

[suecobandito]

TM heel stops are removable. Many POM's recommend sliding feet to the deck on takeoff...

[redtailpilot]

Good to see that you took my critique of the term "rudders" when referring to anti-torque in helicopters (as in your previous video). You're correct when it comes to the term rudder pedals, which is what the majority of us have. Glad you cleared that up Captain 😂. I thought you'd never come around lol

[imellor]

It's a great tip, I started moving my feet down on the rudder pedals months after the Apache mod came out, it was like a difference of day and when I realised the Apache likes a lot of Left rudder tat the beginning when taking off and then more right rudder as you pick up speed. Just like digital inputs, over analogue movements, as you pick up speed in the helicopter, like using Z and X key inputs more than aeroplane rudder inputs. 😊

[TheDisabledGamersChannel]

I wish i had someone like you that could teach me 1on1 how to settup my warthogs controls for the Apache and how to use and fly it, i learn by being taught by someone live in the moment, i can watch videos over and over and over and never get it.

[johnfeedback]

Focus on flying with peripheral vision. Look off in the distance. The instant you look at anything directly in front of the Helo (i.e. focusing on one close spot), you begin to loose fine control and start to have drift control and over control problems. This is also why your students get out of control near their landing spot, they're focusing on the spot and no longer flying with peripheral vision. Look off in the distance and the Helo will settle down.

[Spindrift-mn]

Yes. Absolutely. I have a lot of experience flying helicopters for real, and none of the many types that I have flown has ever had anything more than a bar to put the balls of your feet on, and with your heels on the cockpit floor. When I was flying tuna spotting flights in the Pacific we would often fly in bare feet.