Is there a trick to finding crashed helicopters?

[XOLiD 102]

Posting this in new player discussion on the off-chance it will help someone new as well as me.

I've almost got 100 hours played on just DayZ alone, only found ONE crashed heli and it only had two things of loot with it.

I'm sure there's some super pro heli hunters out there and I wouldn't mind getting a tip or two from them.

[Salvia Divinorum 30]

From what I understand downed choppers spawn/re-spawn on every server reset. They can appear in open fields anywhere on the map. If you want to find more downed choopers join a server that resets every 4-6 hours.

[Disgraced 1123]

I had trouble for a long time.

The first thing that helped me was finding a vehicle. I could cover more ground, faster.

I find it difficult enough, though, to find vehicles on a lot of servers. In any case, open fields near the center of the map are the place to be.

Ive seen one pretty far up north east, but mostly around Vybor and the NW Airfield.

In addition, they spawn on server restarts, so if your server doesnt restart regularly, or if there are people essentially waiting for those restarts to go hunting, your chances will worsen.

I regard these as rudimentary tips. I'm sure you will get better advice from those more successful.

[Wuggie 7]

run around near outskirts of forests etc :) i found my first 2 chopper crashes within first 20 hours played time (dont just run like one spot etc run from south to north and so :D)

Even better would be run at the outskirt of forests, where you can see the outside of citys/towns...

seeing as those 2 places are where choppers should spawn anyways :) so that way you cover both pretty fine :D go forest hunting! :P

happy hunting!

Edited August 12, 2012 by Wuggie

[jem73 7]

Take note when you find them on which server you are on and the location of the chopper. Although it's random, many servers often have the heli's spawn close to where they were before. For example, the majority of my favorite servers usually have choppers in the fields south/east of NW airfield as well as around the sobors. I can usually hop on after server save and find at least two or three fairly easy!

Always check the fields surrounding a heli when you find one, they usually spawn in close proximity to each other.

Always use the alt key to look around when traveling. You can start to train you eye to spot heli's and you will never know if you don't look!

Crawl under the tail of the chopper in order to check under the heli. There is almost always hidden loot that you have to search for in order to find. After a couple you should be able to know exactly where loot will spawn

Happy helicopter hunting!

Edited August 12, 2012 by jem73

[Teiwaz 45]

Just rund around and have a look at large open fields (mostly on a line NW airfield/Vybor - Berezino).

Found 3 crash sites the last 3 days - Bizons, DMR's, scoped FAL (which crashed the game uppon picking up, so I lost that one + DMR), NVG and yesterday an AS50 :)

[Vipala 32]

Generally safer to do at night, since less chance of getting sniped. And whatever you do, do not go to crash sites marked on the map, 99% chance that a sniper is waiting :D

[magebuss 14]

there are online maps which show you frequent spawnlocations. Just google them.

In general they start spawning from Palona in winddirections East north West.

Nice trip to run: Factory between Palona and Solnichny -> Palona -> Gorka -> Novy sobor -> North of Stary Sobor -> south of Stary sobor -> south of Vybor.

GL!

Helo's do respawn on server restarts and they spawn loot only once per restart.

Crashsites are always in the open fields and can be 2 meters from a road, 2 meters from the treeline. but always found on grassy area's.

[ALiborio 13]

Although they are supposed to spawn randomly outside of forests and towns I'll list where I've found the 4 or 5 that I've found.

One was in the airfield in the field in the middle of the runways. One was west of Stary Sobor. One was south of Novy Sobor. And another was near Pustoshka if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure I found another as well but I can't remember exactly where but it was up north.

[wahnsinn 3]

once you secured yourself a vehicle, make your way towards stary / NWAF, try various routes.

It's actually been rare for me NOT to find helis on my way north of late.. but then I may just have been lucky.

At any rate, there's no real trick to it, other than covering ground quickly, and keeping your eyes peeled of course.

Edited August 12, 2012 by wahnsinn

[xPandaHunterx 59]

Way up north, find mountains. When you're at the top, scout out the surrounding fields with either a rifle scope or a pair of binoculars/rangefinders.

About 10-20% of the time, I can spot a downed chopper in the fields. If not, I use my scope to find another mountain with a good vantage point, and try again there.

The area surrounding Stary Sobor and the NW Air Field is a great area to find crash sites.