Helicopters unflyable when hovering

Bug Reporting Hub Aircraft & Systems
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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:
when doing the Hovering training, as soon as the instructor stops controlling the stick to let me counter the lateral effect, the helicopter go nuts… Like doing violent swings, speeding up laterally or rocketing to the skies. All of this without touching the collective.

See video taken by other user @SofaJockey

It also happens in Free Flight, even when changing helicopter. If I’m not hovering and am flying higher, controls are reacting normally.

Control bindings were checked, and no any assistance was selected in the configuration.

If applicable, which aircraft is experiencing this issue:
Cabri and R66 at least, seems to apply to every helicopter

[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?
MSFS 2024 default installation with my add-ons
ported from 2020 which I cannot deactivate

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)? everytime

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

  1. Start training for helicopter
  2. Choose the hovering section
  3. Go through the training until the instructor removes the assistance on the stick (and it’s only with the stick, rudder pedal worked as expected with or without assistance)
  4. Helicopter goes nuts

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

What peripherals are you using, if relevant:
Velocity Flightstick
PC 7950X3D and 4090
VR Quest 3

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
No

[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
4090

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

MEDIA

Please add a screenshot or video of the issue occurring.

[END OF FIRST USER REPORT]

:loudspeaker: For anyone who wants to contribute on this issue, Click on the button below to use this template:

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
•

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
•

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1 Like
2

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?yes
•

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
• same on xbox

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
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3

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
• yes

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
• same

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
•

4

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
•
No

I did the anti-torque training yesterday 12/3/24 and was able to regain yaw stability during “your controls” period using right pedal input.

I also have been flying the Cabri G2 in free flight successfully with physical pedals mapped to rotor axis. The Cabri G2 cannot be flown without pedals

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5

Hello, yaw works like a charm for me (and I have pedals). The issue seems to lay with the cyclic assistance, when turned off and hovering the helicopter starts behaving like crazy. Have you encountered any hard time flying with non-cyclic assitance during training?

Thanks

2 Likes
6

I’ll give the cyclic training a try next.

You don’t see this issue in free flight, only in the training?

I have all the assistances turned off.

7

I did the cyclic training lesson, and heard “recommend you get more cyclic and collective practice before moving on to the next lesson” with a stupid “B” rating 93% hover alt, 83% control your position, but only 40% “Make a soft landing” because it took two “out of control hover/landing” attempts before successfully putting it down controlled.

It seemed to require more cyclic input than I normally use, but putting the bird back on the helipad at the end of my flights is my biggest challenge, and I often “loose it” in confined landing situations or when I have to turn 90 onto the helipad from my hover taxi.

I completed the hovering flight lesson with

  • Maintaining alt: 68%
  • Keep position and heading: 59%
  • Hover Taxi: 62%
  • Make a soft landing: 55%
  • Total “B”

I had one “Lets start over with that” where I lost control sliding backward, then I did better the rest of the lesson.

The toughest is the transition from assisted to non-assisted. In normal flying there is never a situation where you aren’t already with the controls in the needed position. Even when I don’t have control in the lesson, I tend to be flying the cyclic and anti-torque as if I was and the bird does seem to be listening to my inputs, then he announces “I’m going to stop helping you” and there is a brief recovery moment where I have to find where the controls should have been. That is the toughest part of the lessons for me.

8

I found this issue after running into the same problem. I’m not a pilot, so not sure what “correct” should feel like for a helicopter, but this seems crazy. Airplane training, no problem. All the heli training so far, no problem. But as soon as the cyclic assist is turned off in training (or in free flight, same problem), the G2 seems to get completely out of control, not sure how anyone would learn how to manage it in real life without crashing / dying if it was like this in reality.
I’m using VKB sticks for cyclic and collective, and rudder pedals for anti-torque. Collective and anti torque assists off feel reasonable. The cyclic assist off seems basically unflyable.

3 Likes
9

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
• YES

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
• As reported, when instructor stops helping, helicopter become unflyable. I tried to change control sensibility, but nothing changed. I use Logitech G Flight Yoke System.

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
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10

Check if the controls are set to something else then your control. This happens to me on Xbox every time I fly a new aircraft. It defaults to Xbox controller and the helicopter spins like a tornado.
When I change to my helicopter profile it’s working.

11

Also having the same issue in the training at exactly that point.
Already reduced the sensitivity to minimum (-1) on the axis (Xbox controller), but as soon as the trainer stops his assistance, the helicopter goes absolutely uncontrollable even with the slightest input.
Another issue in that training mission: if you crash at that moment, you are respawned with collective set too high, which makes it even more difficult.
I’ve given up after more than 10 tries without improvement now…

12

I think this is coming down to the ground effect issue. I am having this same issue. it was so bad that I ended up turning on tail rotor assist

13

I can vouch for the comments here, I am finding the helicopters overly unstable in ground effect.

I know they are twitchy in real life but not this unstable.

The wind feels exaggerated to me with the yaw effects being very strong.

When lifting and trying to go light on skids you put the pedal in and get stable but often it will immediately weather vane in any unpredictable direction when fully off the ground.

When landing its easier to manage as you are usually trimmed but when the skids touch down, its as if the wind no longer has effect so all that pedal you have from being 2ft in the air is now way too much landed and you end up spinning on the skids usually opposite to the direction.

When wind is changing in intensity even by just a couple of knots you really feel the impact but feels way to much, its difficult to fly a kite in 5 knots of wind let alone rotate a ton of helicopter.

This yawing motion is present in the planes too. My understanding of turbulence is more rocking left to right depending on direction of wind and which wing is loosing or gaining more lift that the other.

Also as wind changes you may loose lift and drop or gain lift and climb.

Yaw motion would be caused by the big fat tail at the back or the spinning disc for a chopper so its correct to me that yawing is happening just feels extreme even a strong gust would take longer to overcome the inertia and generate the movement.

Instead the effects are immediately felt and then we get this yawing oscillation from the wind changes.

I could be wrong with my limited knowledge but something just feels off to me.

4 Likes
15

Thank you for the bug report.

We have created an internal ticket to see if our team already has this logged, and if not they will attempt to reproduce the issue and create a new bug report. This item is now marked as feedback-logged. If there is an existing bug report or one is created, we will move this thread to bug-logged.

2 Likes
16

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
•

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
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This issue happens every time with the Xbox, either using HOTAS or Xbox controller.
If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
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17

Totally this.
Feels like the heli is suddenly in an ocean with high waves instead of in the air.
EDIT: Maybe the Trim release or something is activated by mistake (by the sim)?

2 Likes
18

I think I may have found a solution to the problem. It seems to be a similar (or the same?) bug as in MSFS2020: You have to set your flight model to classic, start a free flight with a heli, and then you can set the flight model back to modern. After that the hovering is much more stable, I could even finish the hover training whereas before it was just uncontrollable.

19

And another hint I discovered after some free flight training: Turn off the governor when trying to hover! I think the governor and/or the engine is just too slow in reacting to the dynamic changes in hovering, so a manually set throttle works way better. Either switch it off directly at the start and change throttle and collective in sync to hold the rotor rpm in the green range, or (if that’s easier with your equipment) take off with governor on and when you have reached a stable height switch it off to “freeze” the throttle at that position. Just remember to switch it back on or lower also the throttle when landing.

20

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
•

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
•

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
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