GET DOWN! THE TUTORIAL CITY LANDING EXERCISE
Landing on the ground
It's not the fall that gets you, it's the sudden stop. Sure it's an old joke, but it's still true. You'll need to land in a tight space lots of times, so practice now. The SimCopter Tutorial City Landing Practice area along the eastern edge of the city has a variety of target sizes surrounded by roads and buildings. The exercise is simple-choose a flat empty area and land in it. Watch out for any trees.
Tutorial City Landing Area
Here are the basic steps for efficient, safe landing:
Approach the area you want to land using the Third Person View.
Change to the Overhead View as you pass over your target.
Stop your forward motion and turn a few times with your right or left arrow key to reduce forward momentum.
Use your cross-hairs to "spot" your target area as you descend.
"Slide" left with the A key or right with the S key to correct as necessary.
Change views frequently to see how you're doing.
Descend slowly until you touch down.
You can't land "all at once." You must descend little by little, or you'll hit the ground and take damage.
You'll land where the cross-hairs are aimed.
HINT: There's plenty of room to land in parks and other large flat areas. Trees will interfere with you, and landing on a hillside almost assures damage.
Landing on a roof
Missions often begin by getting a medic from a hospital roof, or a cop from a police roof, and end by taking injured Sims to a hospital roof. To land on a roof, you must score a bull's-eye when seconds count.
Near the Landing Practice Area are more emergency service buildings than you can shake a stick at. Use these buildings to practice touch and go landing. Fly from one roof to another. Sound easy?
Note: Whenever you land on a hospital or a police roof, a medic or cop will approach your copter and become a passenger, unless you already have one. If you don't want a medic or a cop, take off before he or she gets into your copter.
At some point during this exercise, when you land on a roof, leave your helicopter and walk to the edge.