Yep, one of those again. I think this will be a bit different, though, so please read it all.

I'm a pilot in real life, both fixed and rotary wing hours, a combined total of nearly 2500 hours, not sure how much in each. Mostly, I fly Robins for aerial photography stuff, cuz it's fun.

Now, I've also had the opportunity to pilot a Royal Australian Army UH-1 and an OH-1. Compared the the Robin, neither one of these are a leaf on the breeze if you get my drift. They are not as touchy as the Robin, but they are heavy, and take a lot of very precise input from the pilot to control.

Unfortunately, despite my real life experience, getting into my first dropship in a match I just played didn't end well... but, that was only because I inverted the flight controls, cuz I thought that might make it more realistic. Needless to say, I flew myself and a sniper passenger looking for a quick lift to a good vantage point into the side of a mountain. It was a spectacular fail, and I couldn't stop laughing, but my passenger was not so impressed.

Anyway, I spawned in a new starter fit, checked out the controls again and changed the inverted flight controls back. The vehicle suddenly came to life and, through a series of trial and error maneuvers (surprisingly, not too much error, though definitely some close calls) I finally gave that ship some proper wings.

Anyway, I've been reading alot about complaints regarding dropship controls and I have, up until now, refrained from commenting, because I had yet to try it. I'll tell you what annoys me, the only thing that annoys me. As a pilot, I'm trained that when you pull the stick back, the nose will lift. I would like the camera to do that. When I pull back on the right stick, it means I'm trying to look up, not down. But I cannot find an option to invert that. I have inverted look when on foot, but if changing that for dropship piloting is required to get the same effect... why?

That's my only beef. As far as I can tell, the ship handles very much like a vehicle in that role should handle, and the actual flight controls themselves make sense, and is very analogous to the collective/cyclic/rudder controls you get on a helicopter in the same role. It is not easy to fly one of these vehicles, and I don't think it should be. It should be a constant battle against the forces of gravity and enemy fire, while attempting to return a few rounds and deploy troops in hostile environments.

Needless to say, after watching me lift off the first time straight into a hillside, it didn't seem like anyone on my team was willing to climb into my second dropship, so I spent the match (which we were winning anyway) getting a handle on the controls and repping when I took fire. I made a large number of circles around the map and even harassed an enemy dropship into crashing into a building, all while flying at low altitude using precision maneuvering to avoid the buildings and enemy fire myself.

I like the controls, except that I can't invert my vertical looking on it. Unless I can, which would require me to change it for my footwork as well, which I don't wanna do. For me, back means up, forward means down. It makes sense if you're a pilot, and so does the dropship.