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Full Version: [Guide] Apex VTOLs
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In light of my recent fuck-up as designated pilot that led to a mission fail after ~2h in I thought the least thing I could do was to look into VTOL controlls again. I found that there are some oddities to it for which I couldn't find a good concise documentation. So here's my take on it:

Note
Everything I'm writing here is based on tests conducted using an analogue throttle, joystick and rudder pedals. Behaviour may differ when using mouse/keyboard.

TL;DR
To take off or land vertically turn on 'vectoring' - Action menu 'Vectoring off'
When vectoring is on, controll thrust vector with 'Flap up' and 'Flap down' keys (no action menu entry...) (should be fully down for vertical take off and landing)
Turn off vectoring above ~150 km/h and 2 meters AGL for best speed - Action menu 'Vectoring on'
Note that with vectoring on, the VTOLs behave more or less like helicopters, so nose down to accelerate etc.
Note that the Xi'an seems to have a tendency to accelerate forward even with vectoring on and fully down. Plan accordingly for take off, you can counter that somewhat by raising the nose. It will still take off pretty much on spot, but it will also start to move forward.
The Blackfish takes of pretty much perfectly vertically.


Long version:
First of all, to take off vertically 'vectoring' has to be turned on. So far so good, what threw me off though was the wording of the corresponding action menu entry. To turn on vectoring, the entry is 'Vectoring off'. This is odd, because those menu entries are usually worded as actions (i.e. 'Open door', 'Reload tracers', 'Get in...'), while here it is worded as a status ('Vectoring [is] off'). There's a symbol in the vehicle specific part of the hud for it too, but you tell me what a pizza with a mushroom sticking out at the top and bottom has to do with thrust vectoring...

Once vectoring is on, the thrust vector is controlled via the 'flaps up' and 'flaps down' keys. That's especially important before landing, because it seems that thrust vectoring is not automatic. Also, there is no action menu entry for this or key command named after it. So remember to use the flaps-keys to turn the thrust vector all the way down for landing.

Note that the Blackfish, other than the Xi'an, has actual wing flaps as well. So if vectoring is off the flaps keys control those, otherwise they control the thrust vector like I said.

On take off I noticed that the Xi'an has a tendency to accelerate forward right away. It takes off pretty much on the spot but also starts to move forward. Counter that by raising the nose if necessary and plan accordingly when picking a spot to take off from.

The Blackfish takes off perfectly vertically. For both aircraft you have to lower the nose (and increase thrust simultaniously) to speed up now, pretty much like in a helicopter. Once you've reached about 150 km/h and 20 meters AGL it's safe to turn vectoring off. The Xi'an accelerates somewhat more aggressively than the Blackfish.

For landing turn vectoring back on (via action menu 'Vectoring on', because why not...) and use the flaps keys again to turn the thrust vector all the way down. You can now slow down like a helicopter (raise the nose and decrease thrust simultaniously). I've noticed that once you drop below ~150 km/h, the Blackfish loses a lot of lift. This has to be compensated by greatly increasing thrust. Just be aware of this and ready to react. The rest is basically like landing a helicopter.

Last word on taxiing the Blackfish. You need to rotate the thrust vector a bit forward again, otherwise you'll just take off again when you push the throttle.

And here's what it looks like when it's not fucked it up completely...
Thanks Manuel, that's helpful. I'm bewildered by the reversed action menu logic of the vectoring action, it's fucked up. I hope they fix it soon.
A tip from Ondrej:

Quote:You cant control the thrust vector without using the analog throttle. You can only switch between automatic (vectoring on) and 90 deg
That's a bug, of course.
Thanks for the additions Variable.
Apparently 'vectoring off' and 'vectoring on' should be 'manual vectoring' and 'automatic vectoring'. Automatic vectoring seems to only be supposed to work without analogue throttle. I wanted to try this to confirm it before updating the guide. Unfortunately I cannot disable my joystick/throttle/pedals anymore. Might be a bug introduced in yesterday's update?

Anyways, if you have a throttle connected, according to my tests, thrust vectoring does not occur automatically with either vectoring on or off. You can happily stall the VTOLs with no reaction of the thrust vectoring mechanism whatsoever.

The important part: what I wrote at the top is valid (validated...) if you use an analogue throttle. I'm not able to try without right now.