Been in the works and it’s officially announced today. I’ll be excited to check it out! As well updates coming to other helicopters.
Cowansim have been silent for a few months now. Seems like they have been cooking up some really nice stuff. I know I won’t be able to resist buying the R66.
Some very encouraging comments from Cowansim on Facebook regarding throttle use and GTN750 integration.
We have seen some very good helicopters from other devs in recent months. Will be interesting to see how the R66 and the updated models will compare.
Hopefully it won’t have the characteristic “Cowan lean”.
To be fair he did much reduce the roll in updates, but it’ be nice to get it removed. Far more interested in updates than a Robinson - if he can get the 222 up to the systems depth of the H160 without compromising feel it’d be running for the best heli in sim if you don’t heavily weight graphics.
I have 3 Cowan helicopters. 500, 222, and 206. They all need to be updated. Cowan continues to release new add ons without fixing their previous releases. I now done purchasing their add ons until they change their ways.
To the Cowan team. You should spend time fixing what you have sold to people before you pump out new products. People spent good money on your add ons and expect them to be supported, fixed, and updated. That might not be as lucrative as releasing new products but it’s the right thing to do. Maybe stop new development and fix what you have. I for one won’t spend another dime on your new products until you fix the products I already own.
Yes totally agree. Cowan should focus on fixing the issues of his current fleet instead of releasing new stuff. The H125 for XPlane 11 is still v1.0 with no updates for more than a year now.
I would be pleasantly surprised if that ever happened Cowansim and HPG seem to have very diffferent approaches. If HPG find something missing in the SDK, they code it themselves, which requires very specific skills and huge effort. Cowansim focuses more on what Asobo offers. TBH they are at different price tags, around 30 EUR for the H222 versus 50 EUR for the H160.
You may want to check out Cowan’s products for other sims, there’s a lot missing in the msfs versions.
It is pretty annoying seeing how he makes new models without the updates needed to the other helis. They are honestly still pretty bare bones… add some vibrations… some weathering in the texturing… update the FM… throttle bindings… etc etc. Seems he is eager to get the cash grab up front on new products as I am sure they sell super quick. All that being said, I am pretty much primarily flying helis now, and will for sure grab the 66 when it is out.
On the Helisimmer website under an article announcing the new R66, a poster raised this same issue about the lack of updates. Cowan responded stating that he needed to “educate” the poster about development, and he then claimed that the poster needed to be patient.
I then responded to let Cowan know that others on the MSFS forum had the same thoughts about the the longstanding issues with Helis that we already paid for, and especially now given that he is releasing a new Heli.
From there, Cowan began to rant about pushy customers, and how hard he works etc. He was very defensive and the conversation did not go well. He then went back and deleted several of his posts where he called me ignorant and tried to explain away the issues that I raised. He even deleted his first response to the original poster.
At the end of the day, several of his customers have the same thoughts regarding his business practice / updates. I have both the B206 and B222, and I definitely won’t purchase any more from him given his attitude towards customers who raise the issue.
Yikes. The good devs always respond well to constructive critiscism. In some cases, I have made recommendations, and they have actually added them to the product!! (Justflight). That is too bad to hear. Certainly when you look at other helis in the sim now, these could be brought up to par. They are by no means bad, but they are lacking. Again, I am sure the big influx of initial buyers is exciting to devs… but updating the old products will retain a loyal fanbase.
Wow… instead of educating people about development a certain someone needs to learn about how to keep customers returning for more products. This isn’t it.
Yup, just read the long postings on Helisimmer. If you look at for example HPG, they have perfected the H145 until it is almost a complete aircraft. The updates are released quite frequently to address issues and bugs. If Cowan can just maintain a few helis but perfect them until they are flawless, I am sure he would gain a great deal of respect from the community. In the X-Plane world, developers like Dreamfoil has made its Bell 407 to the extent that most consider it to be the gold standard.
Please people!
His choppers are fantastic, but perfect and flaw free? No.
But since even the ”official” chopper, the 407, is total crap and nemeth havent even fixed that or the s300 and lets not even start to talk about you know who with the bulk of the choppers on marketplace that basically cant be flown at all! (How can MS even allow this?!)
But no, lets complain over how this poor guy has not fixed everything on his choppers, some of the best in this game, and then complain over him getting upset of your complaining!
OMG!
Lets see what these updates do first, then you can put in requests for things to improve.
This Guy insults his customers his B222 feel like a kite currently with no weight i do like his helicopters but he really needs to refine them a little and stop having a go at the people that feed him
I Did request that he move the door removal out of weights and balances and onto a switch as it doesnt transmit across MP the B222 never even had removable doors but i just got shouted at
Yup I am just not buying their Helicopters any more. I have all of them and I dont fly them. They all lean, are impossible to fly in a straight line unless you have a proper Helo set up and are never updated.
I mean a simple EFB for the options would be a start. Not a good look and nothing like their X-Plane stuff. No buy as much as I want it, or even a simple flight model option.
There is no defence for this, releasing product after product with no updates to previous products and then blaming the sim is really, really old news now!!
HPG FTW!
I added 40-50% ( forget what exactly ) to the 222s moi entries & it transformed it. There is so much wrong with the core rotor modelling that I assumed he’d given up until fs2024, but have to agree there are a lot of things that need work. I’ve found him easy to talk to, personally.
Wasn’t a fan of the HPG 145 until recent updates & the 160 is a jump forward so the bar is definitely moving up - but hang out on the HPG discord a while & you’ll find out how irritated they are with the sim core too. I picked up the Cowan birds with the knowledge they weren’t finished & I’m prepared to wait some time, but the longer it goes on the more that weighs into future purchase decisions. My lightly tweaked 222 & 500E still have the best feel of any rotor bird I have in this sim though - the 160 raw ( sas/ap out ) is getting close now but there is still a bit of that stiff/overpowered feeling in the rotor, which, to be fair, is similar behaviour to something I complain about in a lot of fixed wing. Not sure what Cowan did to loosen those two up yet.
TLDR: yes updates are needed, no they’re not unflyable, yes others are there or ahead in some areas. No, msfs is not the best heli sim yet.
TBF every helicopter I have that uses the native flight model requires constant bank. Granted I dont own the HPG helos but even the highly praised Shrike 530 has the lean to it and that’s of this morning last I flew it. The only helos I have flown that don’t lean are the FlyInside B47 and B206, which use custom flight models.
Could you post what your changes were to the B222? i do fly his helicopters a lot