Tiny Combat Arena – Quick Guide to Taking Off

A brief overview of how to get off the ground, for people who haven’t played a lot of flightsims before.

How to Get Off the Ground

All credit goes to dbrz!

The Basics

Getting off the ground is difficult. IRL, takeoff is the second most dangerous part of flying, with landing taking first place. Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with that whole ‘dying’ thing in Tiny Combat Arena, but it’s a tiny bit frustrating to crash before you’ve even properly started the mission.

Thankfully, I worked out some of the details for you.

What you need to take off

• At least 200 airspeed, as measured by the SPD KT indicator on the left side of your HUD. If you are going slower than 200 KT, your aircraft will stall out, and you will go down instead of up.
• Your flaps (F key by default) and landing gear (G key by default) need to be disabled. You can’t really reach 200 airspeed without doing this, anyway.
• The upside-down-T symbol on your HUD should be somewhere in the upper half of the HUD, indicating that your aircraft is in fact going up.

There are two broad types of takeoff: Vertical and Standard. Both of them involve angling your thruster nozzles, because your aircraft is a bit too heavy to do a standard takeoff without some additional upward thrust.

Standard (Horizontal) Takeoff

To take off like a normal aircraft, follow these steps:

• Increase throttle to maximum.
• Immediately adjust your nozzle (Q and E by default) until it is set to about 45 degrees.
• Use the stick (or your mouse) to adjust the direction you’re going in. You want to be going upward, but not too far upward, because you need air flowing over your wings horizontally to keep flying.
• Disable the flaps (F by default) and the landing gear (G by default). You can do this as soon as you’re certain you’re taking off.
• Once you’ve hit around 200 airspeed, adjust your nozzle until it is set to 0 degrees. You are now flying like a standard aircraft.

If you’re not sure that you’re off the ground yet, don’t disable the landing gear. It takes a little while for the landing gear to engage, and if you don’t have the landing gear ready when you touch the ground, that’s bad for you and your aircraft.

Vertical Takeoff

Your aircraft, the Harrier, is capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Vertical takeoff has the advantage of being easier to do on a short runway, but it can be somewhat counterintuitive the first time.

To take off vertically, follow these steps:

• Use the thruster adjust keys (Q and E by default) to set the thrusters to 90 degrees.
• Set the throttle to full. You should see some dust clouds as the aircraft starts moving straight up.
• Do not pull up. At this point, your aircraft is handling more like a helicopter than like an airplane. If you pull back on the stick like you would with a standard takeoff, you will flip over backwards and hit the ground hard. As cool as it sounds to do a backflip during takeoff, it’s not a good idea.
• Use the stick (or your mouse) and rudders (A and D by default) to keep your aircraft under control.
• Adjust the thrusters to 45 degrees. At this point you can disable the flaps (F key by default) and the landing gear (G key by default).
• Once your airspeed reaches around 200 KT, adjust the thrusters to 0 degrees.