The three flying games contain first flights, training
drills and difficulty ratings. This page sequences them the way a
syllabus stages manoeuvres, rather than the way the mission roster
lists them.
Progress is read from the games' own saves in this browser, and stays
there. Nothing is gated or graded, and every mode remains replayable
from its own game.
Flight and mission terms used below are defined in the
glossary.
The record of what you have flown lives in the
logbook.
A guided first flight in the same aircraft you'll later fly on daily
shifts: fly a slow, low pass over the dam to fill the bucket, then find
a fire and place a drop, each stage confirmed by an instructor line
before the next one opens.
Teaches: the collective as the up and down
control, and the feel of the rotor sagging as engine power runs out.
Entry procedure: Start the six guided lessons
directly. In the game, the same route is TRAINING, then FIRST FLIGHT.
Ground School walks the same aircraft through an engine failure, one
control at a time: dump the collective to keep the rotor turning, hold
the glide, then flare and cushion the landing.
Teaches: rotor RPM as a spendable energy
budget, and the timing of the flare that spends it on a soft touchdown.
Entry procedure:Launch Ground School, three
ungraded steps end to end. The three fixed-seed drills behind it run
individually too: Entry
Control, Flare Timing,
Cushion. All four also
sit on the title screen under [4] TRAINING DRILLS.
The same aircraft flown for real: fill the bucket, read wind and
terrain, and place drops against a fire that keeps spreading, with the
water swinging on the line like a second aircraft with its own mass.
Teaches: the loaded bucket's pendulum swing,
and guarding the power margin at the mildest fire danger rating.
Entry procedure: Fly the fixed-seed Power
Margin and Slung Load drills, then apply both in a practice shift; it
starts at MODERATE fire danger, and the rating is yours to raise from
there.
Qualification starts over open water with three lessons: use collective
to climb and descend, use cyclic to move and arrest closure, then use
both controls to hold a marked hover. A single vessel follows once the
basics are confirmed.
Teaches: collective controls height and power;
cyclic tilts the rotor disc to accelerate or slow the aircraft; a stable
hover keeps the aircraft inside the envelope: the position, altitude,
speed and attitude window the crew needs to work the ropes.
Entry procedure: Launch First Flight directly.
It is unranked and allows unlimited training resets. Assists start at
MILD, which widens the limits and softens the wind; FULL adds
auto-level on top; OFF keeps the standard limits and wind.
Recommended after: Slung loads and power
margin; the first three phases are all the grounding it needs.
Lead a four-ship flight from the map board: plan the route, manage fuel
and threat, and put the formation on the landing zone inside a scored
time window.
Teaches: mission planning across multiple
aircraft and a fixed time on target, the judgement that sits above
flying any one airframe.
Time on Target is still in development and isn't linked here yet. It
becomes the capstone of this sequence once it is flying.
Recommended after: Fast-roping and hover
discipline.