I heard Rain effects don’t work from others, and the glass instrument panel has fingerprints or smudges on it…
Anyone else verify this before I buy it?
When will the Ec-130 Helicopter be out on the Marketplace and Im happy that There will be so liveries Get Blue Hawiian for Hawii I hope that It will be great on my PC place anytime H125 is also a great helicopter keep up the great work you guys I give all your helicopters a 10/10 I flew these with my father we are both helicopter pilots for Airbus h125 As350 Ec-130.
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If the MP team is on track and on trend like the last few releases… it will be available next Thursday the 20th. Or if we are lucky tomorrow!
I’m feeling like I am probably going to pass on the H130. Not as a reflection on Cowansim, but I just don’t care for the look of the H120/130/145.
I prefer to fly the H125 and am more interested in utility flying as opposed to tours anyway.
I am kind of curious as to how it flies compared to the H125, though. It’s basically the same airframe with a slightly more powerful engine and larger cabin.
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once they’re moving they feel pretty similar. i have infinitely more control over the 125 at low speeds / hover / takeoff / landing. i may be doing something wrong (and i am getting better with the 130) but i consistently struggle with it where the 125 feels like it does what i want it to
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I was hoping the Fenestron tail rotor was simulated correctly. Many pilots transitioning to a Fenestron tail say it feels “softer” or “mushier” to turn the ship at lower speeds. Maybe this is simulated here?
Exactly what I experience as well.
I think you can feel that in the Asobo Cabri G2. But in the Cowansim H130 the “weird” feeling (cannot really describe it better) has more to do with cyclic, collective and ground effect.
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The EC130 / H130 is now in the Marketplace. And so I bought it.
It only cost me 85p. Plus, of course, whatever was in my Steam Wallet, which was just north of £24.
I know that feelings about it have been mixed, but I couldn’t resist its amazing aesthetics.
I mean, someone has sawn off the front of an H125, stuck a big bulb in its place, and actually managed to make it look good (the fenestron doesn’t do it any harm either). Maybe I’ll enjoy flying it now, maybe when it’s been updated, but regardless I can always just wander around it in the drone camera and admire.
Well…okay
Since I’m certain this addon was vetted by actual H130 pilots, I now have a hint at why they crash as often as they do in my local area.
My observations thus far:
- zero tail rotor effectiveness at above about 80 kts It almost handles like a fixed wing aircraft that is missing it’s rudder at higher airspeeds. (Although somewhat expected behavior, stomping on a pedal is almost unperceivable with almost no yaw of the airframe at all.
- If you’re in ground effect (very close to the ground), the addon almost feels like it’s fighting you and wants to do it’s own thing. It feels like the airframe immediatly reacts to weather conditions, but it feels like theres a “long” control input lag that makes it difficult to adjust to those wind conditions that are pushing you around.
- Somehow using higher inputs of tail rotor pedal at low airspeed causes the addon to roll so much that you need full opposite cyclic stick input to stop it from rolling past about 60 degrees. (Could be realistic flight modelling, as I doubt any real helicopter pilot would use “high” input of any controls at low altitude and airspeed.)
- It can do do smooth and controllable “aileron” rolls in either direction, yet it is appropriately less maneuverable overall than the H125.
- Aside from the R22, this is the first CowanSim helicopter in MSFS that struggles to accelerate to 140+ kts. All but the R22 can cruise at a stable 155+ kts.
- On entry to a hammerhead, I couldn’t pull into the vertical without keeping the collective at high levels. (I don’t know if that’s realistic. All other MSFS helicopters pitch to near vertical with the collective fully disengaged.
- Has a VERY strong tendency to pitch forward on pickup (compared to other helicopter addons - about 4x stronger than the Flyinside Bell 206B)
Overall when above 10 kts and above ground effect altitude, the addon is controllable enough to do close up POI exploring. But, I will probably stick with one of the other helicopter addons.
NOTE: I’m not a pilot. These are just my comparative observations relative to the other addons I fly in MSFS, to validate/confirm what others have already said and observed about the addon.
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If you look at the H130 from the front, that’s a lot of frontal area and so a lot of drag. Speed’s been sacrificed for passenger capacity, and it’s nice that the sim version reflects that.
I took it out for a first test flight this morning. The first take offs and landings were, well, ghastly, but I had improved a bit (as opposed to actually getting good) by the end of an hour’s practice.
I’m not a good enough helicopter pilot to offer a respectable analysis of the helicopter’s performance or mine, but one thing I did find was that applying a little back beep trim, both before takeoff and after zeroing the trim for landing, gave me better control of the helicopter.
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The cockpit textures still look from about 10 years ago.
I agree with those saying this is just another heli from the Cowan factory of subpar products. I have several of them but I’ve given up.
Cowan is like DC designs but for helis.
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Yes, I expected it to accelerate slower. However, I wasn’t expecting it to accellerate as slowly as it does. Again, it’s just my comparison to other Helicopter addons because I don’t know what is “real”. It’s a departure from the typical Cowansim flight modeling historically in MSFS, so it was something I noticed and wasn’t expecting.
I actually think this is one of their better efforts… It’s more sluggish than some of the others they’ve released which makes it handle much more realistically, and actually punishes you for pushing the aircraft past it’s limits, whereas the other CS choppers can be flown at completely unrealistic speeds… I’m really enjoying it.
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well, bought it today and abit disappointed. Where flights with the 500É for example run fluid, the flight is very stuttery with the 130!, bad performance. The NAV display is flickering also. Hope an official update gets rid of these problems. Unflyable atm.
Can’t say I’ve experienced this at all.
Did you reboot the sim after installing the chopper?
i did and i just re-tested it. Recorded the flight to show whats going on, will post it later the evening when done rendering on YT.
Very strange… I’ve just done another flight and again, it worked perfectly. Maybe there’s a mod clash, otherwise I’m stumped as to what might be causing you issues.
the whole sim feels laggish, as if everything is overload with this model.
i made the same flight with the CW 500E, will post both so you can see the difference in fluidity.
It is also kinda impossible to land with all this hitches and rendering stops in flight 
Ok, here is the Video with the 500E
and here is the Video with the H130
@1:22 you see the lower display going black, short lightning and going black again.
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