The News Chopper, formerly known as the VCN Maverick, is a news helicopter appearing in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Description[]
GTA Vice City & GTA San Andreas[]
The helicopter makes a physical appearance in both games. It is named "VCN Maverick" in GTA Vice City and later renamed "News Chopper" in GTA San Andreas. Other than the SAN News logo replacing the Vice City News logo, the design of the helicopter remains identical in both games. The vehicle is named "vcnmav" internally in both games.
GTA Liberty City Stories & GTA Vice City Stories[]
In both Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the VCN Maverick is a leftover from GTA Vice City and is not used in either game; however, it can be obtained only by using a Cheat Device. The helicopter will always appear chromed in GTA Liberty City Stories by default. In GTA Vice City Stories, it is unknown if the helicopter was supposed to make a return in the game or is just a leftover again in the files.
Design[]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]
The VCN Maverick is simply a shortened version of the Maverick, which is based on the Bell 206, and is only capable of seating two occupants. The helicopter bears corporate logos of Vice City News, and as such, is also painted in a blue-and-white body color scheme.
Grand Theft Auto: San Anderas[]
Now named News Chopper, the helicopter retains the design from its previous iteration but now bearing SAN News markings, as well as featuring a new, lighter blue-and-white scheme. The registration number on the tail of the helicopter is also identical to the one seen on the VCN Maverick.
Performance[]
3D Universe[]
In terms of performance, the helicopter is more maneuverable than other helicopters, being capable of steeper pitches, resulting in faster horizontal speeds (at the expense of faster drops in altitude). With its stats, it is also capable of doing flips.
3D Universe Overview[]
| Take-Off Speed (0-60 knots in Seconds) |
Top Speed (mph / kmh / knots) |
Engine Type | Engine Location | Mass (kg / lbs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 124 / 200 / 108 | Petrol | N/A | 3500 / 7716 (GTA Vice City — GTA Liberty City Stories)
5000 / 11023 (GTA Vice City Stories) |
| N/A | N/A | Single turboshaft engine, two-bladed rotor | Middle | Cannot be observed |
Gallery[]
Design[]
Version History[]
Locations[]
This helicopter does not spawn anywhere in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and can be only obtained through the use of Cheat Devices or Action Replay codes.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]
- On top of the Vice City News building in Downtown, Vice City.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]
The News Chopper is among the few vehicles that has no spawn point, therefore the player can try one of the following methods to obtain it.
- It only appears as a second chopper when the player has a 4-star wanted level. Like any other aircraft that appear in the sky, they spawn without a pedestrian piloting them.
- There is an aerial race ("Whirly Bird Waypoint") that requires the player to fly a News Chopper through the checkpoints. Instead of completing the race, the player can fly to the Verdant Meadows hangar, park it inside, then wait for the time to run out to fail the race.
- One method of acquiring this helicopter is to get a wanted level of four stars or more and shoot down a News Chopper at Verdant Meadows, then push its wreckage into the hangar to repair it. The best way for the player to do this is to use a Minigun to quickly down the helicopter and to use a Rhino tank to push the wreckage into the hangar. The player can then save the game at the nearby safehouse to lose their wanted level, and open the hangar to see that they now have an intact News Chopper in their possession.
- Another method is to hijack the helicopter in mid-air. This requires the player to get on top of certain structures, such as the construction cranes found in Market, Doherty or The Clown's Pocket, and move around until the News Chopper flies very close to the player, after which they can hijack it. This can also be done at the top of the Camel's Toe casino, or the top of the Los Santos Tower. After hijacking it, the player can fly the News Chopper to the Verdant Meadows hangar and save their game at the nearby safehouse to lose their wanted level. This method may prove to be considerably risky, as a Hydra will usually spawn and attempt to shoot down the player on their way to Verdant Meadows, as long as they have a wanted level of four stars or more.
Trivia[]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]
- The VCN Maverick is equipped with a police scanner, but has no radio.
- Like the Maverick, the VCN Maverick emits door opening/closing noises similar to large trucks.
- In the original PS2 version, if the player manages to get to Vice City Mainland before it is unlocked and enters the VCN Maverick, the rotor will not start. Attempting to accelerate will cause the vehicle to dramatically glitch out and crash the game.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]
- Before the release of the game, the News Chopper was a VCN Maverick. This is proven by examining the DFF and TXD files for the chopper, as both of them are named vcnmav.
- Whenever a News Chopper approaches the player once they acquire four or more stars, the chopper will hover directly above Carl's head. If Carl moves, the chopper will follow him until it is either shot down or Carl loses his wanted level.
- It can be noted that during police pursuits, it flies higher than Police Mavericks, making it harder to shoot down.
- It is, however, advised to keep it intact as only one Police Maverick will come after the player, making pursuits easier then.
The location of the cliff where multiple News Choppers can spawn.
- Usually when a News Chopper is shot down, no more will turn up and they are replaced with another Police Maverick. However, on some rare occasions, up to six or more News Choppers can spawn after the previous ones have been shot down. It is known to most likely happen with a wanted level of four stars or higher when standing on a cliff directly south of Shady Creeks. Or if the player shoots down the News Chopper into water (without exploding it), another News Chopper will replace it.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories[]
- In the game files, the VCN Maverick is designed to spawn with two color schemes that are identical (-15,-16). Negative color IDs are actually invalid, and the game just reads them as 0 instead. But the chopper still spawns with the same color scheme it used to have in the other games, so therefore, the vehicle just uses a set texture in this case. This is a characteristic shared with the Air Ambulance, the Armadillo, the Little Willie, the Sea Sparrow and the Sparrow.
See Also[]
- Maverick – Four-door, standard version of the helicopter.