Scout Pilot - Learning the Kiowa

BeachAV8R · July 19, 2025, 10:58pm

Yeah - my resolve crumbled today. Today was a ME day…and I started thinking about the $70 price tag of the Kiowa. I had been stubbornly waiting for it to go on sale (I’m sure it will tomorrow now) - but sat here and wondered…at what price point would I pull the trigger? $50? $45? Am I really going to forego something I’m really interested in because of the cost of taking the kids to eat a fast food meal?

So here we go. First we will start out with the tutorials:

Upon first entry into the cockpit in VR - whoa…this thing is cozy! And…unfortunately…a lot of the switches are pretty small with pretty hard to read labeling. My Quest 3 is pretty good…and once I get familiar it will be less of a challenge, but the cockpit of the OH-58D was actually far more complex than I thought it might be.

VR performance as well seems a bit “meh”…although maybe it has something to do with the mission. I’ve only done the first two missions - the initial mission is just sort of an overview of the cockpit…so I am “starting” with the first tutorial mission…the cold & dark start.

The tutorial is well done…with good pop-up graphics of what you are looking for. Some of the acronyms aren’t very well explained, but I’m sure there is a manual for that kind of stuff. The quality of the module seems very good even though I read some online opinions that the textures aren’t the greatest - I found them to be fine.

I haven’t mapped my HOTAS to anything other than the anti-torque pedals (yaw), collective, cyclic, and the throttle. I’ll have to explore as I go. I don’t know yet how the trim works in the aircraft…and I think I’ll eventually end up busting out my X-Box controller for the CP/G position and find out what I need mapped there. Crawl before walk though…

The cockpit layout is a bit of a mess. I’m contorting around behind me, above me, leaning in to the lower panels…this is going to be a physical aircraft to fly.

After tinkering around a bit…I think I prefer seeing the pilot’s bodies. Makes it even more cozy.

The avionics are interesting. Tape LED gauges remind me a bit of the old Citations I used to fly. The MFD or whatever it is called…I have no idea of its functions are modes…we will get to that later. The heads down input into the central data entry pad thingy seems like a vertigo inducing disaster…so we’ll see how that goes.

At the end of the first tutorial we have accomplished the very basics of the engine and systems setup. It was too tempting to NOT take it around the pattern. It is a light and touchy machine. I settled in to the feel of it pretty quickly…just took it out over the grass and around the pattern.

Getting back into my assigned stall was a bit more exciting though. I settled in OK…but on my first approach overshot and had to bring it back around. On my second try…I can only say I must have got into a pilot induced roll oscillation and managed to do a dynamic rollover that no doubt impressed my instructor.

Guess I will be burning the poop buckets tonight.

jross · July 19, 2025, 11:21pm

Cool, thanks!

I dunno, call me crazy (again) but $70 for what we get - compared to 30+ years ago ain’t too shabby. The price of the hardware gives me the frowns.

BeachAV8R · July 19, 2025, 11:57pm

Yeah…this Kiowa is making me wish I had a 50XX card. I’m still rocking the old 2080Ti and it does well all things considered.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 12:06am

Once I get cough “proficient” in the Kiowa…I plan on joining the Rotorheads server and seeing what that is all about.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 1:29am

Something is most definitely either not right with my DCS install or this module because I’m getting frame-locking freezes of up to a minute in the cockpit of the Kiowa. I’ll try a reboot and see if I can pin it down on something. It’s almost like it is trying to load textures forever or something. I’m wondering if it is something with the 3D assets that are in the mission…I will experiment.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 1:41am

It’s definitely only in VR. Just played 2D and everything was fine. Also discovered that Force Feedback box was ticked under my general settings which was conflicting with the force trimmer. Life is better now.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 2:12am

Reboot and resetting the router seemed to fix whatever was ailing. Had a smooth VR session and it is such a pleasure to fly.

PaulRix · July 20, 2025, 2:26am

Whenever I get the stutters, I can usually fix them by restarting Virtual Desktop both on the PC and in the headset. It’s more of a pain in DCS because that means reloading the sim. In MSFS2020/24 you can just come out of VR, reload VD and you are good to go.

Also, I am using a PrismXR dedicated VR router, which gives you a fresh start every time I boot up the PC.

PaulRix · July 20, 2025, 2:30am

I need to get back in the Kiowa. I was getting reasonably comfortable in it but then I hit the road for a few weeks and had my head turned by other sim related distractions.

I have a fairly useful Stream Deck profile that works great for the Kiowa. If you should ever get one (you should ) then I will send it your way.

I would also like to try out the Rotorhead server. Maybe we should pick a time for a Mudspike invasion of their server.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 2:31am

Yeah…I have noticed that if I have to take the headset off for any reason while I’m playing DCS…whatever standby mode it instantly goes into can often result in bad stutters when I put it back on. Does the black tape over the sensor keep it from going into that mode similar to the way the Reverb worked? I might need to try that…

Sryan · July 20, 2025, 2:32am

Great write-up Chris. I really love when you explore a new module and elaborate on your journey like this.

If, like me, you’re on cable and the perfomance goes absolutely awry for no apparent reason it usually helps to CTRL-SHIFT-ESC, then find the processes and then kill everything that you can find with OVR. All the oculus stuff will shut down and then you can reboot it (oculus link will do some self testing first). It then runs silky smooth again for me.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 2:35am

Good tip! I’ll report back if I run into that instance again.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 3:06am

Training Mission 02 is a straight-forward “these are the tips to fly a helicopter” mission. The tutorial is quite good for those that might not understand the basics of helicopter flight. It was during this tutorial that I mapped the force trim set/reset buttons (you must make sure FFB is disabled if you don’t have a FFB stick!).

The nice pop-up graphics are very helpful for learning the different components of the aircraft.

You are given some hints on where to place your controls prior to lifting off in the hover (slightly aft and left stick and some left rudder displacement). Having the controls indicator up can be helpful for that if you need it. The initial task is to just raise into a stable hover and set back down again.

Then a bit of a push on the cyclic…a smidge more collective and you are transitioning to forward flight. There does appear to be some nice little shudders, shakes, and vibrations as you go through ETL (Effective Translational Lift). I didn’t have time to test things like super-heavy takeoffs to see if you could use a skidding takeoff to get airborne. I will do that at the next opportunity.

That is pretty much the mission…very simple…and of course I flew around a little bit and the Kiowa is a joy to fly in VR at low altitude. This is going to be fun…! I had to find some gaps in the trees to blast through. “Think I can make it in between there…”

Back to the field and set her down gently in my stall. Getting better…!

chipwich · July 20, 2025, 3:35am

I really love flying the Kiowa. Had the Loach not come along, I’d know how to shoot a Hellfire by now. But using guns and rockets is pretty easy in the Kiowa. Great choice for a module to learn. Chris.

jenrick · July 20, 2025, 5:15am

On the pilot side of the bird for guns and dumb rockets all you really need bound are the usual control axes, and the following:

Pilot Cyclic
-Weapon Select Switch - lets you pick if you’re shooting the gun or the rockets among other things (left for guns, right for rockets)
-Force Trim Interrupt - works just like the force trim in the Huey
-Display Select - Not required, but handy to be able to choose what’s on the MDF (left if the “hud” view, down is the route view, down while in route will add the map (assuming DCS has one for that area)).
-Fire weapon - self explanatory, detent 2 actually fires the weapon

Center Console - both of these are easy enough to use the mouse on if you’re not in VR, I just assign them to buttons on my stick base.

Master Arm
Gun Arm - Flip all the way up to recock initially to load the gun, then you can leave it in Armed.

If you’re not doing cold and dark starts, that’s all you need to get going in the Kiowa and blow stuff up with guns and rocket. One point of note is the weapons system always assumes you have 500 rds in the gun even if you select less, and have 10lb rocket warheads in all 7 tubes. You can change these in the weapons setup MFD screen, or you can just go blow stuff up and count in your head.

Casmo’s got some great tutorial videos if you want to learn more (Hellfires have some peculiarities to get the second missile off), and the map/route system has some neat features you can use in the ME for situational awareness.

If you want a fun piloting exercise, turn off the SAS and fly the kiowa around.

tempusmurphy · July 20, 2025, 7:16am

it is a fantastic little helo in DCS… for me, its probably the easiest of all DCS helicopters, it just feels right. look forward to seeing more of your flights

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 10:47am

I woke up this morning excited to get back into it. That hasn’t happened for me in a long time… It’s a cool feeling.

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 10:47am

Good gouge - thanks for writing all of that out. I’m excited to explore the module. Worth it already…

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 10:50am

Definitely…!

BeachAV8R · July 20, 2025, 4:12pm

This morning we take a look at the basic functions of the HSD. Basically just looking at some (not all) of the basic features like the map modes and some of the data that is available for basic navigation.

Not sure what the ADI page is called…and I’m not sure what the “typical” setup is for the cockpit. I have been putting the HSD on the Co-pilot/Gunner side (left side) and the ADI on the right. When the gunner is gunning I’m guessing he will have the mast mounted display mostly. I think I need to map a “swap MFD” or whatever button to my HOTAS. Still learning the workflow in the cockpit.

The basic compass rose and flight plan display. Information includes ground speed, estimated time of arrival, crosstrack displacement, fuel flow, fuel endurance, and distance and bearing information among other stuff.