chucksguides

Secret Documents #126: AH-64D Guide - Start-Up

Added 2022-04-08 11:00:05 +0000 UTC

Hi folks!

Let's start up the Apache. The process isn't the most complicated, but there are many small little things that a crew has to take into account if they want to be mission-ready. In most guides, I try to stick to the bare minimum since there are many different weapon configuration types possible... however I decided to go a little deeper for the AH-64 since you have three main weapon types to set up for a normal mission.

I split the cold start procedure as shown below. I used the Eagle Dynamics manual as a reference for the DMS (Data Management System) sweep, but I tried to trim it down as much as possible. It's still a fairly long procedure, but I still believe that spending 5 extra minutes on the ground can save you a lot of headaches once you're up in the air.

I added a legend to the procedure steps (see below) in order to differentiate what tasks can be done by either crew members and what tasks are done exclusively by one or the other. After my first draft, I saw that many steps were verifications that were not 100 % necessary within DCS, so I added a way to show which steps could be skipped if you want to do a quick sortie.