I was delighted to find that FS2024 actually has helicopter tutorials in it (even though the first one is bugged and resets the lesson when it asks you to start the engine, then tells you off for doing so). I have done several of the lessons and found them very helpful overall in helicopter control.
One of the first things it asks you to do is to set a power level in the Guimbal Cabri that allows it to hover around 2 feet above the ground. This is pretty easy to do, even though it naturally oscillates a little bit, and it’s also easy to add a bit more power and get it to hever slightly higher.
The helicopter also seems easy to control in a slow hover taxi and maneuvring around near the ground.
The problem for me started when I tried to recreate the same exercises in FS2020, with the same helicopter. Rather than being able to find a power setting that would let the helicopter sit in a tame hover, it wanted to buck about wildly and swing in circles. A slight tip of the cyclic enabled the same power setting to both ascend at 230 fpm and fall to the ground lethally fast, whether there was forward speed or not - there did not seem to be one single setting that would hold it nicely near the ground.
No I did not have the assists on in FS2024! Before anyone suggests that.
I initially thought it could be a control sensitivity issue and I might have the settings too sensitive in FS2020 and be over-correcting. So I turned them down, which helped make it feel a bit more like FS2024, but still holding a decent hover in place near the ground is massively challenging.
Is this just down to a difference in the flight model between the two sims, or am I doing something wrong? Does anyone else find this?
1 Like