There's three LZs, arrange in a roughly circular area. securing ANY LZ will reset the countdown timer, even if it wasn't the first one to be lost.
whenever you take an LZ, the countdown timer either resets to 3 minutes (if other LZs are held by the enemy) or disappears to be replaced by the countup timer (if all LZs are safe) The countup timer stops, and any time you've accumulated on it stays until all the LZs are safe again, whereupon it will resume. when the enemy takes an LZ, the countdown timer starts. Once that counts up to 2 minutes, that's mission complete. when the timer is counting UP, that's good: it means all the LZs are currently held by friendlies. when the timer is counting DOWN, that's bad: it means that one or more of the LZs is occupied by the enemy. You also need to understand what the timer is telling you: the whole region is absolutely crawling with insurgents, so be careful when landing or at low speed/low altitude as they'll be firing at you (and your gunner will be constantly firing at them) you don't need to land to capture an LZ - if the area is clear, fly near it and you'll see it change colour on the radar. by the time you're done, you might just reload in time to fire some more as you pass over the target. when you first get eyes on targets, fire off all your rockets from extreme range. resist the urge to use your Hellfires on anything except armoured and heavy armoured targets. If you only have a few left, fire them off so you reload. They reload - IF YOU USE THEM UP - in only seven seconds. To start off with, a few tips that are crucial for your success: Once you understand how it works, it's not bad at all, and very exciting. This is a tricky mission, but it is soloable.