Las Venturas Countryside
Toreno
Monster
Your first mission for the enigmatic voice is a simple race against time. You’ll have to maneuver the monster truck through 35 checkpoints in less than six minutes and thirty seconds, but you shouldn’t have a problem meeting this time if you take it nice and slow. The main problem here is flipping the truck; there are plenty of bumps in the path, and the truck itself is rather springy, so you’ll likely wind up upside down once or twice. Do your best to right yourself quickly, so as to not sink too much time into flailing about. The 35th checkpoint is the end of the race, so keep yourself paced with that in mind.
Highjack
You and Cesar are going to have to get all Indiana Jones on a semi if you want to stay in Tereno’s good graces. To begin with, head northwest from Toreno’s place on the bike until you get onto the gray suspension bridge leading back to San Fierro; the tanker’s going to be on the road heading south, so you’ll need to come up alongside it and hover there until Cesar can jump over. This can be pretty difficult to manage, as contact with the truck will often send you careening off to the left, but you should be able to manage it eventually.
After Cesar eliminates the driver of the tanker, bring it back to the garage in San Fierro to complete the mission. You’ll need to wait for Tereno to call you before you can pick up another mission.
Interdiction
There aren’t any simple wait-behind-the-plane-and-pick-up-the-packages missions in San Andreas; instead, you’ll have to get to Toreno’s checkpoint, ride your vehicle up to the top of a nearby hill, use a rocket launcher to protect the chopper as it drops its package, retrieve the package, return it to another checkpoint, then finally return to Toreno to get your paycheck. Although you cover a lot of ground here, you’re not on a timer for any of these steps, so get cracking and get paid. Of particular note is the fact that there’s a Seasparrow heliboat near the point where the package lands, so you can use it to deliver the package and then fly back to Toreno’s location, if you wish.
Verdant Meadows
There’s nothing to this one; just return to the airport that you passed by during the last mission and purchase it. Despite Toreno’s intimations, you won’t actually be able to buy it for a dollar; you’ll have to pay a cool $80,000. If you don’t have the scratch, you’ll need to raise it in whatever manner you see fit: exporting cars, collecting cash from your assets back in San Fierro, etc. After you get the airstrip, you’ll have to learn to fly before you can take any more missions from Toreno.
Learning To Fly
If you thought the driving missions were tough, then you should be unpleasantly surprised by the airplane and helicopter training sessions; these things are hard. The tutorials are explained fairly well, so it comes down to a matter of practice and repetition before you get past them, and get past them you must; you have to complete all the tests before you can move on with the core missions of the game.
For the plane, try to keep adjustments to a minimum while you’re in the air. In the banking missions, make soft turns after each corona and wait for your plane to level itself off; the fewer adjustments you have to do as you approach a corona, the better. The helicopter missions are generally easier than the planes, although using the weapons will take some getting used to. You can expect to spend at least half an hour trying to get through all of these, so get to it.
N.O.E.
N.O.E. (which stands for Nap Of the Earth, meaning to fly really, really low) will see you taking up an airplane and, well, flying really, really low. You’ve got way more time than you need for this mission, so don’t feel pressured on that count.
After you take off, avoid making a hard left; Fort Carlson is restricted airspace, and they will shoot you down with SAM’s if you fly too close. The main caveat for the rest of your flight is the fact that you have to fly no more than a couple hundred feet off the ground; if you stay above radar level for too long, the Air Force will scramble out someone to check the area. This isn’t an auto-fail, though, so just get back below radar level and stay there until the heat’s off.
The drop-off point, as you’ll discover, is surrounded by trees. You might just want to stay safely above them and accept the radar lock before diving through the corona and losing the Air Force by flying low over the water beyond. Beyond that, it’s a simple delivery and return. Don’t screw up the landing, though; you have to get your plane back in one piece to beat the mission.
Stowaway
Although this takes place at the airport, there’s no flying involved, unless you count the kind of flying that involves jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Granted, it’s not in great condition by the time you jump out...
You’re going to have to repeat the whole bike-chase sequence at the beginning a number of times before you get it right. The "trick," assuming there is such a thing, is to keep going straight on your bike, following along the plane on its right side, until you’re near the ramp and going fast enough to hit it. This’ll occur towards the end of the runway. When your screen is shaking from the speed, wait for one last load of barrels to drop out of the plane’s rear, then veer onto the ramp before the plane takes off. It’s difficult, but it can be done.
Thankfully, the interior segment of the mission is a bit simpler. If you fire a weapon on board, the plane will explode and you’ll fail the mission, but you can still ease your way through the feds with your fists or any other melee weapon. The last guy on board has a parachute, so kill him and grab it, then lay down a satchel charge and jump out the back.
