Controls and bindings

Bindings live in Options → Controls. Use the Show drop-down to pick a category. You can change them from the main menu or in a mission (press Esc) without restarting.

Category	Covers
Hatchet Interaction Framework	The cockpit cursor: clicking switches and buttons.
HeliSim Flight Controls	Cyclic, pedals, collective, trim and hold modes.
AH-64D Official Project	Sights, weapons, the radar, the TADS, the laser.
AH-64D Official Project: Cockpit Controls	One binding per cockpit switch and MPD button, for HOTAS and button boxes. Optional.
AH-64D HeliSim Cockpit Controls	Battery, APU, engine start switches, rotor brake and power levers as discrete positions, for switch panels. Optional.
AH-64D MPD Minigames	Inputs for the games on the MPD. Optional.

1. The cockpit cursor

Almost everything in the cockpit is a clickable switch. Clicking goes through the Hatchet Interaction Framework, so these bindings are not optional.

Binding	Default	What it does
Interact	F	Operates the control under the cursor.
Mouse Cursor (Hold)	Right Win	While held, the mouse moves a cursor instead of your head, and the fire button clicks.
Mouse Cursor (Toggle)	unbound	As above, toggled.
Previous / Next Setting	mouse side buttons	Step a multi-position switch or knob back or forward.

With head tracking, the cursor follows the centre of your view; look at a switch and press Interact. Hatchet’s own options (cursor shape, colour, labels, a detached cursor for TrackIR users) are in Addon Options → Hatchet Interaction Framework.

Hover over a control to see its label. Set Show labels in Hatchet’s options to also show the bindings for each control.

2. Flying

HeliSim replaces Arma’s helicopter controls with its own. Bind them in HeliSim Flight Controls, then pick the matching control scheme in Addon settings.

Binding	Default	Notes
Cyclic Forward / Backward / Left / Right	W S A D	Bind your stick axes here.
Pedal Left / Right	Q E	Rudder pedals or a twist axis.
Collective Up / Down	unbound	Analogue: bind your throttle axis to both, one per direction.
Keyboard Collective Up / Down	Left Shift Left Ctrl	Keys: the collective moves while held.
Force Trim	unbound	Hold to fly through the holds, release to set new trim references. Bind this on a sprung stick.
Force Trim Reset	unbound	Zeroes the trim references and recentres the controls.
Attitude Hold / Altitude Hold / Hold Modes Off	unbound	See Flight control modes.
Beep Trim (4 directions), Altitude Beep Up / Down	unbound	Fine trim and altitude reference adjustment.
Sticky Control Interrupt	Space	Keyboard only: stops sticky cyclic and pedal inputs from accumulating while held.
Control Input Visualiser: Toggle	Ctrl+I	An overlay showing where your controls are.

The FD (flight director) bindings in the same list do nothing in the Apache; they are for other HeliSim aircraft.

Bind your HOTAS throttle to Collective Up/Down, not to the keyboard collective. Mixing the two leaves the collective where the keys last put it.

3. The Apache’s own bindings

These are in AH-64D Official Project. The ones worth binding first:

Binding	Default
WAS Gun1		Action the cannon.
WAS Rockets2		Action the rockets.
WAS Missiles3		Action the missiles.
Sight Select HMDShift+1		Helmet sight.
Sight Select TADSShift+2		TADS sight (CPG).
Sight Select FCRShift+3		Radar sight.
LRFD Second Detent (Lase)G		Laser while held.
Sight SlaveShift+F		Slave the sight to the acquisition source.
Deploy FlareX		One flare.
Symbology Select UpShift+B		Transition/cruise symbology.
Symbology Select DownCtrl+B		Hover/bob-up symbology.

The full list, with defaults, is in the keybind reference.

Game controls the Apache takes over

Some of Arma’s standard bindings do different things in the Apache:

Arma binding	In the Apache
Fire	Fires the weapon actioned in your crew station.
Countermeasures	Fires chaff.
Toggle active sensors	Starts or stops continuous radar scan, for the crew station that owns the radar.
Lock target	Steps the radar’s next-to-shoot target.
Zoom in / Zoom out	CPG: TADS field of view.
Night vision	CPG: cycles the TADS sensor and FLIR polarity.
Lights	Search light.

HOTAS and switch panels

Every cockpit switch and MPD button has its own binding in AH-64D Official Project: Cockpit Controls, named system: control (for example left mpd: left mpd l1). Bind them to a button box or the buttons on your grip.

For the engine panel, AH-64D HeliSim Cockpit Controls has one binding per switch position: Battery - On, Engine 1 Power Lever - Idle, and so on. These suit physical toggles and detented throttles, because the binding sets a position instead of stepping through them.