Vertical Bird

[wildguy9110]

Okay, on the mission "Vertical Bird", I have finished everything except I cannot for the life of me figure how to guide the Hydra into the hanger. Please help me.

[gillies]

 

Okay, on the mission "Vertical Bird", I have finished everything except I cannot for the life of me figure how to guide the Hydra into the hanger. Please help me.

 

Once you land the plane if you use the VTOL mode to do that you will have to switch the engines again so you can drive it along on the ground, don't go too fast while doing that though.

[wildguy9110]

How do I switch engines? Do you mean I need to put the thrusters up?

[gillies]

Yeah, when you started the flying part of this mission you had to switch out of VTOL mode by pressing NUM8 (if using the PC version), so you need to do that again so you can drive the plane along the ground once you have landed.

[wildguy9110]

Okay, thank you for your prompt and helpful reply to my elementary question.

[gillies]

No problem, I hope it sorts it out for you. You are well past the part that most people have trouble with in this mission.

[Mainland Marauder]

No problem, I hope it sorts it out for you. You are well past the part that most people have trouble with in this mission.

That's the truth. Definitely not what I was expecting when I clicked the link

 

I know it sounds simple, but the Hydra is hell to get the hang of at first.

[grove_street_og]

Yeah, when you started the flying part of this mission you had to switch out of VTOL mode by pressing NUM8 (if using the PC version),

I guess it isn't absolutely necessary to do that, you can still fly the plane anywhere you want to go in VTOL. I wouldn't have thought you'd be able to get turned around on the attacker if you did that, but I suppose it might be possible. If you constantly drop chaff you are basically nearly immune from getting hit, so maybe you can drop chaff likc crazy, keep turning on the attacker, and get off a couple of shots.

[crazyanurag]

i used to have the same problem while doing "Vertical Bird" at first...back then i would go to 'helicopter mode' and slowly guide the Hydra into the hangar by tilting the nose downwards and moving forward(while flying very low and close to the ground)... the Hydra can take a beating, so i always succeeded...the way gillies suggests should be the only way to do it, however...

 

You'll Never Walk Alone

[gillies]

 

I guess it isn't absolutely necessary to do that, you can still fly the plane anywhere you want to go in VTOL. I wouldn't have thought you'd be able to get turned around on the attacker if you did that, but I suppose it might be possible. If you constantly drop chaff you are basically nearly immune from getting hit, so maybe you can drop chaff likc crazy, keep turning on the attacker, and get off a couple of shots.

 

The high speed dogfight is the best part of this mission though.

 

Whether it works in a real life equivalent to this plane or not it is possible to land the Hydra without using VTOL mode, I don't know how well it takes off this way because I never tried it out.

[Mainland Marauder]

High-speed dogfighting is where it's at Seriously, even dropping chaff it would seem too likely to get hit by a missile if you're trying to take down the other Hydra while staying in VTOL mode.

 

I always take off in VTOL mode, climb at a height greater than any obstacles, then turn the thrusters on and zoom off. I also use VTOL to land; it just seems hard to control near the ground when trying to land like a conventional plane.

 

I'd advise doing any experimenting with the Hydra after the mission, because if you mess up and kill yourself, you get to do everything all over again. And you don't want to do that, do you? Run up a four-star wanted level if you want to dogfight Hydras in freeroam. Hovering over the city in VTOL mode and blowing up a few cars or planes with rockets will help do that

[grove_street_og]

 

High-speed dogfighting is where it's at  Seriously, even dropping chaff it would seem too likely to get hit by a missile if you're trying to take down the other Hydra while staying in VTOL mode.

 

I always take off in VTOL mode, climb at a height greater than any obstacles, then turn the thrusters on and zoom off. I also use VTOL to land; it just seems hard to control near the ground when trying to land like a conventional plane.

I wanted to experiment, so I attempted to hover around the Restricted Area while dropping chaff in freeroam; that was a big disaster.

 

After getting the Hydra destroyed and restarting, I flew the Hydra to LSX, airplane style, landing at Las Venturas Airport along the way. The Hydra seems to nose down a bit at low power, compared to the Shamal. I landed nosewheel first at Las Venturas, but didn't do any noticeable damage. I then proceeded to LSX, and when I was coming in for a landing there, I added a little power, which allowed me to raise the nose a bit and come in for a nice main-wheels-first landing.

[gillies]

One somewhat interesting thing about the Restricted Area is you need to fly pretty low to get wanted stars or get shot at by missiles, I have on several occasions flown over it in the Stuntplane without any repurcussions (and also deliberately flown low over there doing stunts so I would get chased by Hydra's, it is possible to stay alive for quite a long time in that plane even when you're being attacked).

[Mixolydian]

I wish there were more Hydra missions and races. The Military Service race is great. I'd love to see more like that, but with targets to be destroyed along the way.

[Nick000]

I wish there were more Hydra missions and races. The Military Service race is great. I'd love to see more like that, but with targets to be destroyed along the way.

You could always destroy traffic on the way.

[Mixolydian]

You could always destroy traffic on the way.

Indeed I can. But I was thinking about this the other day. There's just something about being forced to fly to very specific points. It's much more challenging. Don't get me wrong though, I can surely enjoy making up my own "mission" and finding challenging flight paths. It just doesn't have the urgency of the pre-defined coronas.

[syrdax]

Somehow traffic is faster than missiles, at least in freeways, and in normal street, are too slow; but going in helicopter mode, you can kill anyone, including cops, and you won't get wanted levels.

I hate taking off when there are those windy storms, in helicopter mode you can't take off, the wind makes you crash with the roof or walls; so after some crashes, I don't take off in helicopter, you just need change to 'plane' mode, pressing one of the 'special' keys, in this case, you need to press Up:

So when you enter the plane you have the throtle like this:

That's the helicopter mode.

When you press Up, the throtle will go up, but you need to press until the throtle is totaly 'up', like this:

 

Well, as you can see, if you put it in plane mode, you won't move untill you press the forward key, to take off, you need to slowly get out of the hangar, then very gently press E to taxi the plane, untill you can take off, you don't need much track, the plane speeds up very quickly.

 

I know there were lot of help already, I just wanted to add some pics, even though they aren't very clear. Hope it helps.

Edited April 16, 2006 by syrdax