How to fly The Hydra in GTA San Andreas

The Hydra is without a doubt the most difficult plane to fly. However, once you get the hang of it you will learn to love the controls and find that the Hydra is one of the best planes to fly.

So, first things first...

Take off

To take off you just need to hold down X. This will make you hover. You can move slowly forward and backward using the left analogue stick.

Now, get up to a decent height before trying to fly forward.

Flying

To fly you need to move the nozzles from pointing downward to pointing backwards. You do this by pushing the right analogue stick forward and holding it until you start to go forward (you have to press X too). You also need to retract the landing gear by pressing down the left analogue stick.

The plane should now fly as normal. You can also drop a flare by pressing O or fire missiles with L1.

Landing

There are two possible ways to land:

1. As normal – lower landing gear with R3 and land
2. Vertically – slow the aircraft and move the thrusters so they point downwards using the right analogue stick. The hold down square which will lower you down. Again, remember to lower the landing gear.