How to practice with heliocopters and jets in Battlefield 6

Flying helicopters and jets is one of the great joys of the Battlefield series, and it’s back with a vengeance in Battlefield 6. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. You’ll need lots of practice to be anywhere approaching good, but there are more ways than ever to practice piloting helicopters and jets in BF6.

How to practice flying a helicopter or jet in Battlefield 6

There are two main ways to practice with helicopters and jets in BF6, and I only recommend one of them if you want to maximize your learning time

Play in a dedicated air vehicle practice server

The overhauled Portal system in Battlefield 6 allows for immense server customization, and you can create servers dedicated to practicing with air vehicles. As of launch day, there are several dozen to choose from, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

• You need to join a server with a low play count to ensure you can actually get into the jet or helicopter
• The server needs to be on a map with jets and/or helicopters
• The server needs to be properly configured.

Ideally, join a 64-player server with one or two human players, and if the server is configured correctly, the rest of the match will backfill with bots. From there, it’s a simple matter of picking your class and the vehicle you want to practice.

The server should also have fast vehicle respawn active, if available, so even if you slam your jet into the side of a mountain (easy to do), you can get right back in.

Pilot jets and helicopters in an actual match

I do not recommend going this route if you’ve never flown a vehicle before, because you will end up as burning scrap on the ground. You will also probably send at least a few other players back to the respawn screen, none of whom will be too happy with you.

If you have a teammate who knows how to pilot, then you can, of course, take the pilot seat and have them try to guide you from the gunner seat (in a heli). You still won’t be making any friends, given how dominant a competent chopper or jet pilot can be, but it is one way to reach that competency.

There is, however, one thing you can only practice in a live match: flare usage. There will likely be Engineers on the enemy team with lock-on launchers who will make it their mission to take you out of the sky, and learning the timing of when to pop your flares to throw their missiles off the scent can only happen in a live environment.

How to learn to fly helicopters and jets

The first thing you should do before starting your practice is read the keybinds and controls associated with flying.

Once you know what buttons do what, you need to build a strategy to get the most out of your efforts. I recommend starting with the basics: ascending and descending while holding the vehicle steady.

Each vehicle ascends and descends differently, with helicopters able to move vertically by pressing the Space button/the bumpers/R1 and L1. To go forward in a heli, you’ll also need to pitch the vehicle forward to give it forward momentum. Jets need you to raise their nose with the right stick to ascend and lower it to descend.

From there, focus on moving left and right using WASD or the left stick. Add in up-and-down movement as you get comfortable. Spend at least a few minutes acclimating to basic traversal.

Don’t be hard on yourself if you end up in the side of a mountain or pancaked into the ground. I still do it all the time.

The final lesson is adding in pitching and rolling, or the ability of your vehicle to rotate on its axes. You use these controls via the right stick or by moving the mouse. They will feel awkward at first, but mastering roll and pitch is essential for evasion and dogfighting. Don’t neglect them.

You will also need live match experience to work out not only the new pilot jitters but also when and how to use flares. The odd enemy player or bot might shoot a locked rocket at you in your practice server, but expect to need to do much more work to avoid such things against a full team of humans.

Check out our Battlefield 6 strategy guide for much more on the game.

John’s been gaming for almost 30 years, starting with Super Mario 64, but his first real love is Final Fantasy. Or Armored Core, depending on how he slept last night. If you want to know where to find an item in a massive open world or how to beat a boss, he can help. They’ve probably kicked his teeth in a few times already. You can normally find him eyes deep in the latest FromSoftware game if he isn’t doing dailies in the half-dozen live service games he plays. He can be found on BlueSky.