What is the significance of the display in psi for the pilot?
I took the plunge. It’s a very twitchy little bird. In this case I may have to tweak some sensitivity curves to make it behave better. With linear curves my stick doesn’t have enough play/resolution to fly it precisely.
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In terms of the number of liveries alone this thing is quite a bargain - I must have spent a full hour drooling over them in the hangar before taking it for a flight - they just keep showing up as you scroll!
She is a handful for sure, not for the faint of heart or beginner heli simmer. But will be a true joy to wrangle under control and also watch it mature as they come out with updates.
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Looks beautiful. Can the PMS50 530/430 be used in this?
Thanks for the info. I was going in circles with this. Hope they fix this quick.
I found that as soon as i tweeked the sensitivity curves just a little bit. It helped a lot. Especially the yaw sensitivity
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Sorry for the cross post if you’re on avsim:
I went ahead and bought this as I quite enjoy his B206.
Just had time for a quick flight through the Swiss Alps, LOIJ - LOWI.
First impressions:
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Flies nicely, very nimble and fast. Requires a steady handy but great to fly. Gains and sheds airspeed very quickly.
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Trims out nicely for cruising.
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You can easily exceed VNE and I was guilty of flying along at 145knots today.
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I found it relatively easy to land, my first touchdown was probably one of the best I’ve had in a MSFS helicopter so far.
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I could not get it started manually, tried three times following the checklist but the starter button for me was not responsive. Not sure if I screwed something up but I’d be interested to hear from others if the starter button is working for you.
Overall a nice addition to my growing chopper fleet. I can see myself spending more time in this one than the 206.
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Why should it be a limitation of Asobo? The assignment works in the Cabri and also in the Flyinside Bell 206
Why this is not possible with Cowansim is not clear to me…
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the Flyinside 206 uses it’s own flight model that they have somehow overcome this limitation with. The throttle in the 407 is not working to an assignment either.
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I guess Cowansim doesn’t want to spend all the time doing it himself. The next SU is around the corner.
The Cabri uses a piston engine. The 407 and the MD500 use a turbine. As soon as Asobo fixes the turbine model, it should fix all helicopters based on the built-in MSFS helicopter dynamics.
There were similar problems with turboprop engines on aircraft. Took a while to improve.
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Ugh I’m kicking myself for missing this yesterday! Insta buy as soon as I get home.
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I recommend the helicopter to everyone. I flew it for 10 hours. Fantastic, high quality model, great flight dynamics.
There are bugs that need to be fixed. I talked to the developer and gave him a bug list. The developer is very helpful and provides ongoing support. I love the developer because he constantly communicates and strives for the best quality. Thank you for your work so far:
Known issues:
- He knew that the torque meter and gas heat were not working properly.
- There are several angular, broken elements in the cockpit that need to be repaired
- There are texture errors in some places in the cockpit
- The cockpit sound is not the best and there is an almost constant “clacking” or “knocking” sound which is annoying
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Well after a short first flight, I would say it’s pretty nice but not without some flaws.
The torque gauge needs to be fixed ASAP. This not working correctly, and makes it impossible to know how much collective you’re applying.
It is extremely sensitive to control, but also very stable in a hover. This makes it quite nimble and a lot of fun to fly fast and low over some terrain. I’m sure it would fly even better if the torque gauge worked and I wasn’t constantly adjusting the collective.
Visually it’s great, no complaints there, and there’s a dizzying array of liveries and exterior options.
The sound, like the Bell 206, is far too quiet in the cockpit.
I’m a huge fan of the md500 so naturally I like this, I just hope the torque gauge gets fixed.
Oh also, I couldn’t get it to start with the click spot. I had to use the start switch on my throttle to get it to start
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I bought this tonight. My impressions are in line with most of the others I have seen posted so far. I am primarily a helicopter simmer these days and I have a good setup that includes a collective and pedals. With that said, I think the hardware used for this one will be a big factor in a users impressions. I didn’t find it to be twitchy or overly sensitive. I was quite surprised to see it behave very similar to how it behaves in X-Plane. That is a very good thing because it is excellent in that sim.
I also think the users expectations will matter a lot. If you want to experience helicopter flight in the way that helicopters are usually flown, safely and in usual attitudes and maneuvers, this is an outstanding purchase. If you want to get in and fly like you are on the Red Bull demo team, I can’t vouch for it’s behavior in unusual attitudes.
I have the FI 206 as well as the default Asobo helo’s on this sim. I honestly feel like, even with the gauge bugs and the interior sound issues, this is the best helicopter experience so far. It is really enjoyable to fly around in and a total blast to take low-level. I can already see that this will be the one that I want to fly the most going forward. I would highly recommend it to anyone that is thinking of getting it.
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It is common for turboprop and turbine helicopter engines to measure the Torque in units like psi or ft/pounds. It is similar to manifold pressure in piston engines to indicate how much power the engine produces since the rotor/propellor is running at a constant speed you need some indication of how much power the engine produces.
Modern aircraft, especially, glass cockpits have power in percentage. Personally, I like the percentage scale, since it’s easier to memorize the different power settings for different phases of the flight.
- Won’t fly straight even with full left boot - I don’t mind it crabbing, because helicopters do that most of the time, but needing a fair bit of bank to go in a straight line is too much. Didn’t the default Bell do that?
- At slow speeds the controls are, while light, fairly progressive. When you get some speed in it at times it feels like the thing completely loses any inertia, the pitch response for instance is an instant snap. I know it’s a light helicopter but nothing is that light.
- Some really harsh transitions between various flight regimes., that just feels unfinished. Some of this and the previous point might be the utter rubbish that’s turbulence atm, think it does way more harm than just bumping aircraft around.
- No indication you’re putting torque into the rotor, so there’s no real feel for when you’re about to lift - would expect at least some subtle audio clues.
- Turn your head & look at the nearest door frame, the mapping there is mapped 90 deg off so it’s just got stretched lines across the frame. Needs unwrapping properly, I’m afraid.
- Can’t adjust throttle with the RHS collective if you actually do want to fly it from the right seat.
- Force trim, please. The beep trim is way too fast, too - trying to fine tune trim is impossible.
Otherwise it’s pretty fun, as far as MSFS stock helicopters go. I think the AirlandFS/R44 is still probably the king at the moment even in it’s unfinished state ( I haven’t trried the FI Bell ), but buzzing around in this is pleasant & could be more pleasant when it’s fixed up. I don’t find it twitchy either, and I use a desktop stick at the moment ( admittedly a Virpil one ). Maybe if you think helicopters behave like the default Cabri it’s going to be an eye-opener.
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The helicopters have bugs that still need to be fixed. I agree. I said that the developer is constantly working on it. This is the first edition. It needs a few more service packages to make it perfect. The most important thing is that users give feedback. Write down the problems and send it.
Yesterday I flew the helicopter over the winter landscape. Fantastic. This helicopter is simply amazing. I am grateful to the developer.
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Please forgive me if this has been asked, but does the MD500 model have animated rotor downwash? And does Asobo have that planned for the stock heli’s?
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The problem with that is that the developer cannot fix this. Asobo needs to fix/adjust their flight model. Customers need to put pressure on Asobo. Saying that helicopters with the default flight model are fantastic, when they are not (see post above yours, and to that I can add (1) no proper autorotation, (2) no VRS, (3) incorrect behavior on RBS), will not help. My 5 cents…
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