WARDOGS helicopter controls and first flight

Reported mouse and keyboard controls

These are the commonly reported defaults around the Early Access release. Check each one before takeoff.

Learn the four inputs, not eight keys

A smooth turn usually blends roll with a small amount of yaw. Holding one input at full strength creates the abrupt movement that makes the controls feel uncontrollable.

Set up mouse flight carefully

The player-maintained Steam FAQ places Rotary Vehicle Mouse Control under Settings → Controls → Settings, separate from keyboard bindings. A common setup maps mouse horizontal movement to roll and vertical movement to pitch.

1. Enable rotary mouse control.Confirm the option in the current menu; its location is build-sensitive.
2. Choose roll and pitch axes.Test direction at low altitude in the firing range.
3. Set air-vehicle Y inversion separately.Do not invert infantry aim to fix helicopter pitch.
4. Recheck infantry keys.Custom vehicle bindings have previously overwritten shared movement keys.

A repeatable first takeoff and landing

Take off

Raise collective gradually until the helicopter becomes light, then hold a low hover. Add a small nose-down pitch to move forward. Do not combine maximum collective and full pitch on your first attempt.

Approach

Choose the landing area early. Reduce forward speed with a gentle nose-up input while lowering collective in small steps. Keep the horizon stable with roll corrections.

Touch down

Enter a low hover over the landing point, level the aircraft and lower collective. If the approach becomes unstable, climb out and try again instead of forcing the landing.

Common questions