I have some notable gripes with the B407. It’s one of my favorite helicopters, and I have been flying the DF407 in XP for years. I had high hopes for this aircraft, but it is far from the standard of the Cabri G2 (congratulations to Asobo on that one…great 1st impression for me).
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There is no control over the throttle. You can modulate the animation of the twist grip, but it does not appear to be linked to any variable or axis. You hit the starter, engine lights off, and goes all the way up to flight RPM.
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Engine parameters are off in general. I immediately exceed the MGT limit when hovering in ground effect. MGT then drops precipitously in forward flight.
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I can only obtain ~82% torque at max collective…pulling the collective all the way in a turbine helicopter, at sea level, should blow that off the scale. This 407 is way too slow…it should easily attain 130 KIAS in forward flight without approaching max continuous limits. The real 407 has a reputation for being a fast single with plenty of power.
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The stabilizers are ineffective. Tons of left pedal required in forward flight, the attitude for cruise flight seems excessively nose-low.
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Incorrect animation of the control push rod that comes off the base of the pedals. The push rod also should have a grommet, or at least a hole in the sheet metal where it goes into the center section of the panel. Lazy modelling.
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Graphical artifact on the AMPS gauge when the starter is engaged.
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Some switch positions are incorrect when the aircraft is loaded cold & dark: GEN should be off. AVIONIC MASTER should be off. Left boost pump is on but the right one is off (think they both would be off). Fuel shut off is ON, but the guard is raised for some reason.
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Voltmeter shows 28V on battery power…at first anyway, it drains too quickly. It should start around 24V. The voltmeter shows that the GEN does gradually charge the battery up to 28.5V, but that just isn’t how electrical systems work. You would see 28V immediately upon turning GEN on.
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No engine exhaust effect. Too bad because MSFS has such a nice heat blur effect.
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Radio stack configuration is odd. There is a GNS530 but also a nav/com #1 radio, which is superfluous since the GNS has the radios already. If they deleted the first radio, they could move the audio panel back to the slant panel where you can actually get to it (it’s below the collective right now).
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There is a switch on the overhead for a radar altimeter, but no radar altimeter on the panel.
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Sounds: The thunking sound from moving the controls is too loud. The touchdown/skid sounds are absolutely thunderous, no matter how soft the touchdown. The sound samples of the engine and rotor are high-quality, but I don’t hear any change in the rotor in response to big collective changes (engine, yes, but not the rotor), no “blade slap” when turning or descending. No modulation of the tail rotor sound as you move the pedals. The sound environment of the Cabri is so rich and wonderful and the 407 is so lacking in comparison.