MacGuffin said: I will never understand why helicopter pilots fly at anything other than max altitude in these situations.
Flying lower is generally safer, since the helicopter disappears from line-of-sight much faster while flying low than flying high, thus minimizing the risk of damage from the enemy.
The REAL problem is when the helicopter just hovers in the sky, as opposed to constantly strafing.
Bubba970 said: Flying lower is generally safer, since the helicopter disappears from line-of-sight much faster while flying low than flying high, thus minimizing the risk of damage from the enemy.
The REAL problem is when the helicopter just hovers in the sky, as opposed to constantly strafing.
I meant specifically in monster movies and stuff like that, where they are fighting a single large enemy who has limited range.
MacGuffin said: I meant specifically in monster movies and stuff like that, where they are fighting a single large enemy who has limited range.
Its probably still the same thing: military helicopters tend to fly low when possible (you can see it in Vietnam footage), so they have a popular image of always flying low.
If your talking practically, then they may have to get close enough to fire their payload accurately, since every attack helicopter in media carries loads of rockets as opposed to a small number of guided missiles. They are also probably looking for a weak point on something that would otherwise seem invincible.