[DCS] SA342 Gazelle Trim & Autopilot 

I just tore my hair out over this, but if someone reading watching this video can't get it to work, and are trimming the Helo, hit your "reset trim" button and then activate the autopilot. The Gazelle's trim system appears to have higher authority than the autopilot. My A/P would engage but it wouldn't do anything until I reset my trim.

It wasn't until watching this video I learned the auto-hover etc aren't autopilot functions but are simulations of a human pilot following instructions…! I just wish there were annunciators for the other autopilot modes.

If you turn the dial under the torque indicator to DOP mode it will provide a cross on the ADI. Simply centre the cross and you will have no forward/back or side motion. Then raise/lower the collective till you are stable vertically and you can enter auto hover very easily.

I find the trim system on the gazelle is based upon the gyros/attitude where as other helicopter trims are simply based upon cyclic position. I find if I trim the helicopter to 5 degrees nose down, it will always try to be 5 degrees nose down regardless of my state of flight, hover, fast or slow. Where as other helis you need to constantly trim because the gazelle is attitude/gyro based, you do not. Trim reset just resets the trim to the horizontal attitude which I found to be pretty neat and intuitive compared to other helis that you need to constantly re-trim depending on your state of flight.

xxJohnxx, This is very very good. As always I enjoyed your commentary and instruction. I found today that that helo must be somewhat stable before Altitude AP can be engaged. Maybe this is part of an update. After I stabilized at 180kph I was able to hold alt. I find this very useful. My final comment is that I find speed hold to be useful for NAP of the earth. Simply using the throttle to raise and lower the helo was easy. Thanks again John, my Gazelle experience is changed forever.

Nice video, did help on some topics. The only thing I noticed from own flying is that you need to do quite alot of rudder right input to keep the heli straight when going slow (less than 18km/h groundspeed) or the heli will spin left around it's own axis. You could probably rudder trim, but with some muscle memory practice this should be no issue. But well worth to be aware of. Good thing you can slave the helis direction to the camera moving left and right when in autohover mode.

Superb video John! I surmise this will help a lot of people having trouble with the concept of this helicopter's trim and autopilot system. Again, beautifully done sir!

Thanks John. Much appreciated. Picked up a few very helpful tips there.

7 years later Gazelle gets a rewritten flight model. Trimmer and Autopilot changed?

Essential to have disabled FFB in DCS settings to get this to work, but I'm, still struggling with the logic here. No mention of the autopilot switch on the stick, and my control trim (mag brake 'stick') seems to work whether or not the Trim maser switch is up. Also the pov hat trim seems entirely ineffective, having very limited area of movenent.

Do you know how i ca map my ALT C function to my middle mouse in gazelle.... I use it to switch quickly between mouselook and clicking because i cant use track IR

Very helpful tutorial, thank!

Really enjoying your tutorials! :]

I found this helicopter very hard to control. It was Uber sloppy. And completely unstable.

What is the Auto pilot switch under the hazard stripes cover do? You can flip it up and turn it on and two lights turn on but what does it do?

Quick question, the manual said that the lower line in VS DER is deviation in degrees , do you know what kind of deviation it's referring to? I noticed the number changes rapidly as your speed's getting slower, so I don't think it's related to magnetic declination or something similar. Also, are you planning to do a tutorial for the NADIR system as well?:)

Outstanding! Thanks John!

Hi! Which is the mode that the real Gazelle doesnt have? I didnt understand that.

Thanks John.

Could you post a link to the Polychop auto hover Cyclic mod. I can't find it on the DCS download pages or on the Polychop site. Thanks

Im new to Gazelle and my question is why does my Gazelle sometimes start to spin like hell? Its very hard if not impossible to recover from that spin. It usually starts when im getting low and trying to lower my speed. Like when im trying to go to auto hover mode or when im landing. Very annoying. Btw i love your videos and they have helped me a lot. Keep up the good work!

Hello John, which button is for use align autopilot with camera? (Mean align helicopter with direction where look camera)

Great video! Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr! Say is there a cockpit indication (warning light ) for when auto hover or alt hold is activated like in the Ka50 for instance?

Do you use headtracking? If so, what kind and how do you keep it so stable?

Perhaps 120kmh is the best climb speed?

how do i activate the alt and speed autopilot?

Is there some kind of indicator in the cockpit when AP is engaged, in any of the modes?

Very helpful