In this Flight Journal I’m back out in the DCS: SA342 Gazelle and I’m doing some refresher training as well as putting the HOT-3 anti-tank missiles to use for the first time. Here’s how things are going!

Refresher course

Before trying something new I thought I better refresh from my last couple of flights with the SA342. So did a redo of my first flight except this time I brought a pair of HMP-400 12.7mm gunpods. Each pod is armed with 400 rounds of 12.7mm (or .50cal) heavy machine gun ammunition and I was curious to see how effective the two pods were versus the 20mm cannon.

Strafing light vehicles suggested to me that it was, infact, pretty similar with great ballistics and an ample supply of ammo to take down small groups of light targets with relative ease. The Gazelle does seem to feel a bit heavier in this configuration than with the mixed cannon/rocket loadout or maybe that was my imagination. In either case, at short ranges this is a very effective loadout.

The next loadout was going to be significantly heavier…

Advanced weapons

After doing the basics, I wanted to see how difficult it would be to get into one of the Gazelle’s more advanced capabilities – stand-off anti-tank and armored vehicle attacks with the HOT-3 anti-tank missile. In many ways the HOT-3 system is this module’s bread and butter with the greatest range and greatest chance at taking out high value targets like armored vehicles and tanks.

So out I went on two sorties to help try and cement the practice into my head. In these first attempts I’ve been using the SA342M, equipped with the Viviane IR camera system which makes it relatively easy to sight and zoom in on potential targets. The whole system plus the HOT-3 missiles is a bit heavier than the other configurations and so flying the Gazelle in this mode requires a bit more collective to get off the ground and a bit more careful flying too.

The easy part is the setting up of the missiles. A couple of switches need to be set to turn on the system, turn on the camera, wait for the camera to swing around from its stowed position into a forward looking position, and then flip a couple of safeties off so that you’re ready to go.

In DCS practice, its easier to make sure that the safeties for the laser and weapons release on the gunner side are already flipped up and ready to go before you get into the target zone. If you want a check on the system just keep the master arm switch down until you’re ready but get the others good to go first.

Once the targets were sighted I used the laser to establish range and “lock” the target. Then its “just a matter” of selecting a missile (a big dial switch makes this easy) and then keeping the helicopter steady while the missile flies to the target.

The HOT3 is a wire guided missile so you need to keep steady or the cable will break off and the missile may not hit the target. The helicopter can also only be a degree or two off from the target so keeping steady is important and that’s the hardest part.

The Gazelle has an auto hover system but its does struggle to keep within the auto hover zone. A point to target mode also should help keep the helicopter pointed on target but since the big update in 2023 that system has been in the process of being redeveloped. In the end, I found doing my own work in the hover was sometimes easier than the auto system. But it does take some mental juggling keeping helicopter pointed and camera system pointed.

And I did do it as you can see in this YouTube short! Infact, of eight missiles I’ve fired so far all eight have hit their target. Now I need to do it in a combat scenario… that’ll be more stressful for sure.

Mistral comes next

In my next training flights I’ll be learning the Mistral anti-helicopter system which looks simple to use but I just haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.

On the whole I am absolutely loving the Gazelle and a full review is on its way soon. Its very capable, though limited by payload capacity, in a variety of roles from anti-tank to light gunship to anti-helicopter. It’s quite a fun little bird and it flies well. But I do need more time yet with it and I haven’t flown it beyond some of these training scenarios that I’ve thrown together. This has been fun!