Comrades in Arms Discussion Board

Vertical Takeoff:

1. Select "Cancel Auto-Vectoring" (action menu)
   
2. Increase vectoring to 90 degrees (action menu). That will point the nozzles directly down. Note the HUD symbol changing.
   
3. Increase thrust until take off.
   
4. Retract landing gear.
   
5. Now you can continue flying as a helicopter does - meaning rather slow speed.
   
6. If you want to increase speed, decrease vectoring (nozzle pointing backwards), or switch to auto-vectoring and nose-down a bit.
   

Vertical Landing:

1. Same as above, just decrease thrust and don't forget the landing gear.
   

You can map the flaps key to CTRL-Mouse Wheel Up/Down, and when autovectoring is off this can seamlessly control the vectoring without the need for action menu.

Also, the Xi'an has airbrakes, if they are mapped you can use that to bleed off speed when trying to land. 

Another thing I noticed is that if you are flying slow and take away thrust for landing, there will come a point were the nose dips down sharply. Increase thrust in that case.

This tutorial video is quite good 

Thanks guys! I was trying it out last night and was wondering how to do vertical takeoff.