AW101 Merlin

The AW101 Merlin is the largest single-rotor helicopter here and carries 18 people. With a rear loading ramp, landing gear that folds away, and a big enclosed body, it is built for moving whole groups. Everyone gets in and out through the cabin — since v0.3.0 the cockpit seats cannot be reached from outside. Open the rear ramp or (since v0.4.1) one of the side doors, climb in, and take the pilot or co-pilot seat from inside.

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Specifications

Per-helicopter config files live in $profile:\CZAutoz_Heli\HeliConfigs\.

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Variants

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Rear Ramp

The Merlin has a rear loading ramp that opens and closes:

• From the pilot or co-pilot seat, scroll the cockpit prompt list with the mouse wheel until Open/Close Rear Ramp is selected, then press F
• It works in the air as well as on the ground — there is nothing stopping you opening it in flight
• While the ramp is still moving the action is unavailable. Let it finish, then press again
• Anyone standing outside near the back of the aircraft can also open and close it
• All 16 passengers get in and out through the back
• Handy for loading a group in one go: land, drop the ramp, everyone piles in, close it and lift off
• Ramp opens and closes are written to the activity log when logging.activityLog = 1

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Landing gear that folds away

The Merlin is one of four whose wheels fold away, along with the Mi-24 Hind and the two Ospreys. From the pilot or co-pilot seat, scroll the cockpit prompt list to the landing gear action and press F. The action only appears when:

• the engine and rotor are both running, and
• the helicopter is more than 3 m above the ground, and
• the gear is not already moving

So raise the gear once you are safely up, and lower it again while you are still well above your landing spot.

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Getting out inside

The Merlin has no Move to Cabin / Return to Cockpit action, and it does not need one. Because the whole aircraft is enclosed, the normal “Get Out” from any seat — pilot and co-pilot included — leaves you standing inside rather than dropping you out of the sky. You then move about with the aircraft, in flight or on the ground, and can take any free seat again at any time. To actually leave you need an opening: the rear ramp, or one of the two side doors (added in v0.4.1 — open one from inside or outside and climb through). With the ramp and both side doors shut, anyone who gets out of a seat simply stays in the cabin. Since v0.4.3 walking up to a parked Merlin wakes it, so the climb-through spots at the side doors work straight away.

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Changing seats

Switch Seats moves you straight to a free cabin seat along the same wall, facing the same way. The pilot and co-pilot both get in and out through the cabin, so they can’t swap seats directly: to change between the cockpit seats, or to reach a seat across the cabin, get out — from any seat that leaves you standing in the cabin — and get in again. While you are looking at another seat in the air, the interact key never takes you out of the aircraft: to get out, look away from the seats first.

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Door and wheel classnames

The cockpit seats have no doors at all. The two side doors serve the 16 cabin seats, and their classnames are different for each colour variant — for example CZ_AW101Merlin_RoyalAirForce_Cargo1 (left) and CZ_AW101Merlin_CanadaRescue_Cargo2 (right).

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Chin Camera

The pilot or co-pilot can look through the nose camera with J: day, night vision and thermal, zoom up to 40x, and lock onto a point on the ground. The seat flying the aircraft needs Auto Hover or the autopilot on. See Chin Camera.

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Default Flight Tuning

See Per-Helicopter Settings for a full description of every parameter.