For Proctors: Pilot Qualification Guide
This guide is for the BW Pilot Qualification and should be used by the Proctor in order to complete the Orientation for applicant pilots.
Important Resources
Administrative Info
Failure Conditions
Radio Familiarity
Flight Planning
3-Part Intro
Landing Zones
Live-Fire Zones
Airframe Malfunctions
Circles are orbit patterns
Squares are landing zones
Red zones are live-fire zones
Exclamation marks indicate MANPADs
Overall
The helicopter may NOT sustain damage during it's landings, with the following exceptions:
INST (Instruments): Orange
SLG (Slingload): Red
Live-Fire Considerations
When in the live-fire zone, the Applicant's helicopter may sustain as much damage as possible as long as the Applicant can still manage to complete their orbits and landings.
Administrative Info
The Proctor will be in the co-pilot seat of the Applicant's helicopter for the duration of the test.
At any point in time, the Applicant may land the helicopter in a safe area and repair it or ask the Proctor to repair it (via an ACE-interact option).
The Proctor also has access to the ability to damage/destroy certain features of the Applicant's helicopter. This can be done via ACE-interacting and selecting either the "Destroy Engine" or "Destroy Tailrotor" options.
So long as the Proctor is satisfied that a crash was unavoidable, or that the Applicant did everything within their reasonable ability to prevent the crash, the Proctor may waive crashes.
If an Applicant fails and is unable to re-qualify after three tries within seven days, the Applicant will enter a seven-day waiting period, beginning on the day of the applicant's last attempt, where they cannot attempt to re-qualify. The Applicant is expected to use this waiting period to practice flying before attempting to re-qualify.
Proctoring the Course
Keep in mind that the Applicant may one day be the pilot who is flying you around the battlefield - proctor with that in mind.
Failure Conditions
Radio Familiarity
Verify with the Applicant that they know and understand how to manipulate at least two (2) radios with relative ease. If they do not display firm confidence, consider going into the Teamspeak and conducting a radio check there in order to affirm that the Applicant has the ability to manipulate both radios.
This is a good opportunity to go over expected communications during the test and while piloting in BW.
For example:
“TH1. Lifting North from LZ Bourbon”
when taking off from an LZ.
“TH1. On South East landing approach to PZ Potatoes.”
when coming in for a landing.
“TH1. Entering clockwise orbit around OBJ 2. Speed 175 km/h. Altitude 250m.”
when entering an orbit or formation.
Radio communications must happen for all steps and actions throughout the entirety of the test.
For re-qualifications, if it's known that the re-qualifying pilot understands the radios and has good communication skills demonstrated in session, radio communications practice/testing can be waived.
Flight Planning
In addition to being a good practice as we'll discuss below, this will also serve as a nice segue to show the Applicant what the qualification course will entail - things like the tunnel, the landing zones, the live-fire zone, etc.
As mentioned above, this section can be of great importance when proctoring - a pilot who is unable to read terrain can easily mistake a hill as a "perfect" ingress route, endangering the airframe and its occupants as well as delaying the platoon's landing plan. Being able to identify good, safe, and quick paths to and from an LZ should come naturally to a pilot.
As such, as the Proctor, you should ask the Applicant to talk through their flight plan for the qualification, discussing ingress routes, potential landing zones, and egress routes. If you feel as though it is more productive, have the Applicant draw out their flight plan to give you a visual representation of what they'll be trying to do during the qualification.
3-Part Intro
After having discussed the flight plan, you should then direct the Applicant to:
Fly to Section 1 as marked on the map and enter a clockwise orbit, communicating their actions on the appropriate radio. The Applicant should be able to maintain a steady flight speed and altitude without deviating too far from the circle for at least two (2) full rotations.
Then, fly to Section 2 as marked on the map and conduct a landing anywhere within the prescribed box, communicating their actions on the appropriate radio. They must stay stable at their chosen landing zone for at least 10 seconds before lifting again.
Then, have the Applicant to fly north of Section 3 as marked on the map. Direct the Applicant to enter the "tunnel" by flying a north-to-south route with at least 150km/h speed when entering the "tunnel". The Applicant should then land inside of the prescribed box within a reasonable amount of time, staying stable at their chosen landing zone for at least 10 seconds before lifting again. The Applicant should then exit the "tunnel" via the eastern exit.
This section is intended for the Applicant to showcase the core competencies expected of pilots flying in BW.
Landing Zones
There are six (6) landing zones marker by purple boxes in this section. The Applicant is required to fly to and land at every one of these six landing zones before moving on to the next section, communicating their actions on the appropriate radio as they do so.
While there are no hard failure conditions for this section outside of the general ones, it is recommended that the Proctor keep a mental count for how long it takes for the Applicant to land at each of the landing zones - and in the event that an Applicant cannot land at a zone within a reasonable amount of time, that they ask the Applicant to either re-approach the landing zone, or fail them depending on circumstances.
Have the Applicant mark where they would want to land within the zone, to give the Proctor a reference point to judge the Applicant by. It is fine if the Applicant has to deviate from the LZ - after all, no LZ is perfect and the map can be deceptive.
Live-Fire Zones
Note the red circle to the south containing the towns of Sainte-Marie, Chapoi, and Cancon. This is the first "Live-Fire" zone. Within this zone there are two purple boxes marked - these are the landing zones that the Applicant must land at.
In this zone, the Applicant can expect to face active enemy infantry as well as mobile APC threats.
The Proctor will direct the Applicant to enter an orbit following the prescribed circle. It is at the Applicant's discretion at what height and what speed they wish to hold the orbit at. The Applicant is expected to complete at least one full rotation before heading towards a landing zone each time.
Like in the previous sections, the Applicant must stay stable at their chosen landing zone for at least 10 seconds before lifting again and reentering their orbit as described above.
The second "Live-Fire" zone is marked by another red circle, but this time with a red exclamation point at the center of it.
This zone is the MANPADS (Man-Portable Air-Defense System) section, where the Applicant will be expected to showcase their ability to defeat a missile threat using evasive maneuvers and countermeasures.
For this test, have the Applicant fly at least 200m in height with at least 175km/h in speed. The recommended upper limit is 400m in height and 250km/h in speed.
Direct the applicant to enter into an orbit following the prescribed circle using the aforementioned conditions. Direct them to continue the orbit until the MANPADS fires - at which point, they are free to maneuver as they see fit to save the airframe from harm.
If the AI MANPADS gunner does not fire after a reasonable amount of time, feel free to remote-control the gunner via Zeus to fire at the Applicant.
Airframe Malfunctions
After all Landing Zones and Orbit Patterns have been completed, the Proctor should fully repair the helicopter and then have the Applicant fly at their leisure around the map. When it is reasonably appropriate to do so, the Proctor should ACE-interact and destroy either the helicopter's engine or the helicopter's anti-torque rotor without prior warning. This must be done in an area where the Applicant can reasonably succeed in an emergency landing.
So long as the Proctor is satisfied that a crash was unavoidable, or that the Applicant did everything within their reasonable ability to prevent the crash, the Proctor may waive crashes. With that said, the Applicant should be able to make at least one successful landing per malfunction before the Proctor concludes the test.
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