WATER USE AND FIRE FIGHTING EXERCISE
Fires happen for lots of reasons: rioters, arsonists, plane crashes... it's a wonder there are any cities left. You must become familiar with your bucket and water cannon. This exercise gives you a chance to practice getting a water supply and using it on a fire.
Fly to one of Tutorial City's many water areas.
When you're over the water, change to Third Person View, then lower your water bucket.
Your Third Person View follows your bucket as it lowers.
Bucket down and ready
Note: You can't fill or use your water bucket if it's completely inside your helicopter.
If necessary, descend until you hear the bucket splash in the water.
Be careful, or you'll crash in the water.
The bucket fills automatically when it hits the water.
Keep your bucket in the water until the gauge reads full.
Raise your helicopter a little.
Dump the water from your bucket with the B key.
Water dumps from the bucket for as long as you hold the "B" key or the Dump Water button, or until you're out of water, so keep an eye on your water gauge.
Fill your water bucket again, raise your helicopter a little, then press the spacebar to shoot a stream of water.
Notice that you are pushed backwards when you use the water cannon. To counter this, you must fly forward at the same time you use the water cannon. Practice makes perfect.
Speaking of practice, this might be a good time to try your hand at dousing an actual fire. To do that, we'll have to start one.
Press the Escape key.
This opens the Settings panel.
We'll talk more about this panel in the reference section. For now, click on the City Settings button to open the Settings screen.
Use the sliders on the Settings screen to set the number and difficulty of various missions.
Note: To prevent complications during a practice session, make sure only the mission you are practicing has its slider raised, with all the other mission sliders set at the bottom.
Set the number of fires to about a half of the way up, and set the difficulty to low (near the bottom).
Click OK to close the Settings screen.
In a short while, a fire will start. You'll hear the dispatch and see a line on the city map from your location to the location of the fire. If there is more than one fire at a time, icons will show additional locations. Fires are randomly set, so yours might be anywhere, even where there are no buildings.
When you arrive at the fire, dispatch a fire truck to a nearby road with the F2 key.
You may not need the fire truck, but it's good to have one there just in case.
Use the bucket and water cannon skills you have developed to douse the fire.
Dump water on the fire from overhead. Shoot water right at it. As long as it's burning, you can't put too much water on it. If you run out of water, you'll need to get more.
Dump water from above
A direct attack!
When the fire goes out, you'll hear a hiss and the sweet sound of you being paid. That's it.
HINT: You must be at the proper altitude for a water drop to be effective on a fire. If you're too high, the water evaporates before it hits the fire. If you're too low, your propeller accelerates the fire and you can take damage. Hot air rising from a fire can also make control difficult. If you hear a popping sound, you are too close to the fire and are taking damage.