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Playing RFM

Aircraft

You get RFM versions of the UH-1H (transport, armed, gunships, shark-nose gunships and civilian) and the Mi-8MT (transport, armed, gunships, and civilian in red and blue). They show up in Game Master and in the Conflict vehicle lists right next to the vanilla ones, named "RFM ...".

Controls

RFM uses the normal vanilla helicopter keybinds (Settings > Controls > Helicopter). There's only one RFM keybind, Force Trim Release, under Settings > Controls > RFM. It doesn't have a default key, so bind it before you fly. It sets where the cyclic rests, and on the Mi-8 it also turns on the autopilot.

Pick what you're flying with in Settings > RFM > Control device: Auto (the default), Joystick/HOTAS, Keyboard, Keyboard + Mouse or Gamepad.

The engine keybinds work like vanilla too. Hold R (gamepad: hold Y) to start and Ctrl+R to stop, or use the start switch in the cockpit.

Keyboard, mouse and gamepad

These fly through the flight assist, which works a lot like vanilla. RFM moves the controls for you, but the physics underneath don't change. You can still overtorque it or settle into your own downwash, so watch your power.

Input What it does
W/A/S/D (cyclic) Hold to keep pitching or rolling, there's no limit. Let go and it holds whatever nose and bank angle you left it at. A quick tap is a small nudge. It won't turn by itself when banked, use the pedals for that.
Q/E (pedals) Turns the nose. Let go and it holds the heading. On gamepad it also keeps your turns coordinated at speed.
Shift/Ctrl (collective) Climb or descend. Let go and it stops and holds that height. On the ground, hold Shift to lift off.
C (autohover) Off until you press it. It brings you to a hover at the height you pressed it, from any speed. It pulls the nose up to slow down, holds height and heading, then parks you over the spot where you stopped, even in wind. If the wind's strong it'll turn the nose into it, but the pedals override that. Press C again or touch the cyclic to take control back. The vanilla autohover icon lights up while it's on.
Mouse (Keyboard + Mouse) Sets a nose and bank angle that stays put, good for cruising. Hold free-look (Alt) to look around without flying.
Gamepad stick Tilts the nose and banks. Let go and it levels out and settles. At low speed it also leans against any drift until you stop. Hover drift damping in Settings > RFM sets how hard, and at 0 it just holds level and lets you drift.

On the ground the cyclic finds the hover position by itself, so you'll lift straight up instead of sliding off.

The RFM HUD shows what the assist is doing on the ASSIST line: your control device, then AUTOHOVER when autohover's on, DRIFT HOLD when it's settling a slow drift, ALT when it's holding height and HDG when it's holding heading.

The assist won't unload the Huey's rotor on its own. It keeps the rotor above 0.5 g and backs off the stick near the mast stop. If you shove the cyclic forward hard enough you can still bump the mast though.

Joystick and HOTAS

Joystick/HOTAS flies the controls directly. If you want to try the assist anyway, turn on Flight assist with joystick / HOTAS in Settings > RFM. Your collective lever stays a direct lever either way.

No rudder pedals? Turn on the Pedal helper in Settings > RFM. It puts in the anti-torque pedal for you (joystick/HOTAS without the assist).

Other settings

Settings > RFM also has input tuning (mouse sensitivity, hover drift damping, deadzone, response curves), camera shake, the RFM HUD (only shows inside the aircraft) and speed units. Each input setting says which devices it's for. Your RFM settings get saved to RFM_Settings.json in your Arma Reforger profile folder.

Weight on board

Everyone on board counts toward the aircraft's weight and balance, where they actually are. That's people in seats, drive-by riders (SHS Drive By), and people just standing in the cabin, on the ramp or on a skid. Walk to the back of a hovering helicopter and the pilot will feel the nose come up. Getting out takes your weight off again.

Mi-8

  • Engines. Start each engine on its own from the cockpit actions (Start/Stop left and right engine). The engine keybinds start or stop both.
  • Autopilot (AP-34B). Release Force Trim Release to turn it on and set where it holds. Double-press it to turn the autopilot off. The panel buttons work too.
  • Rotor brake. It's a cockpit action, use it after you've shut down.

Reporting bugs

Tell me which aircraft, what you were doing and what happened, and send the logs:

  • Your client log: Documents/My Games/ArmaReforger/logs/<date>/console.log.
  • If it was on a dedicated server, the server log helps a lot too. That's where RFM reports network problems ([RFM-NET...]).
  • Good things to search the log for: [RFM, WARNING, ERROR.

Known limitations

  • The Mi-8's blade airfoil data and some of its masses and dampers are engineering estimates, not measured data.
  • Multiplayer hasn't had as much testing as single player.
  • I haven't confirmed Conflict repair or server save/restore work with RFM aircraft yet.
  • Turning the Mi-8 autopilot on and off with the trim button is a stopgap.
  • No AI pilots. Vanilla AI can't fly helicopters either.