I recorded 15 mins of me trying to hover in the Helicopter tutorial. I’ve been practicing for 24 hours! I’m using an Xbox controller.
This video gives some good tips about flying helicopters with an Xbox controller.
I believe you’ll need a mouse to edit the sensitivities though. I’ve seen reports that they can’t be edited just with a controller.
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You need to unbind the rudder controls so that the pedals don’t return to center on their own I don’t know why they set up the helicopters this way in the default controls both the Rudder yaw control and the tail rotor increment and decrement control were bound to the left and right trigger buttons when I started the sim… unbind anything that says rudder on it or yaw and only have the tail rotor increment and decrement bound to the left and right triggers…that’s the way you control the amount of anti torque…that’s the way it was in msfs2020 and in real life… the pedals returning to center makes that all pointless as you need the amount of anti torque you have applied to continue to provide anti torque is a round about way of saying it I guess lol the gimbal is very forgiving having the pedals return to center like that but none of the other helis will… and a touch more collective for the gimbal for some reason it has a lot more play in the collective and takes longer button input than all the other Helis
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For me, I disagree with the video completely. Turning on assistances is not for me, I enjoy hard games. In Vanilla World of Warcraft I played with 0 addons. I’ve made good progress in 24 hours, I feel I am ■■■■ close. TYVM for posting the video, tho.
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I will check this out TYVM.
A real game changer for me was buying an old (but ultra-reliable) 2nd hand CH Pro Pedals and removing the springs to avoid the return to center. My experience with helicopters in all the sims I have has changed completely.
I’m waiting for a damping grease that I bought in Amazon, for adding more control over the pedals. And, maybe, in the future, I’ll change the pots for HAL sensors.
Much cheaper than other expensive solutions, and I must emphasize that the experience with helicopters is now very, very different. I’ve finally started to enjoy them.
The flight model need improvements when it comes to hovering, so you’re not the only one struggling. I gave up helicopters in MSFS until this has been improved. You should try helicopters in XP12 or DCS. They currently have a much more realistic flight model, especially in hover.
The second half of the video addresses the controller sensitivities which is well worth doing whether you’re using a controller or a joystick to fly helicopters. It gives you much finer control around neutral.
I use a Velocity One FlightStick for all my fixed and rotary wing simming and have tweaked the curves for all aircraft.
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I’d say, dump the XBox controller and get yourself at least a cheap joystick with throttle and pedals. I use old Saitek ST290 and Logitech Rudder Pedals. It’s not the best setup, but it’s affordable and good enough to master the Cabri. I honestly can’t imagine how one can fly with an XBox controller.
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I may consider that ty
Half decent rudder pedals are a good investment for flight sims, particularly for helicopters where anti-torque pedals are really essential for low speed control (hover/hover-taxi).
Personally I would never buy another controller that did not have HAL sensors. For rudder pedals look for ones that to not have a centre detent and ideally for helicopters a centring spring that can be removed. For some pedals you can also get a damper which again adds better feel and weight (resistance) to the pedal movement with or without a centering spring.
I have had my MFG Crosswind pedals for about 7 years now and they are still going strong - I think I have calibrated them about 3 times since I have had them. They have been upgraded with a damper for helicopters, I simply reattach the spring for fixed wing aircraft. I also have third party quick release on the pedals so I can swap the pedals type in seconds.
For a cyclic, it is again best to use a joystick where you can either remove or disable the centering spring. Constantly pushing against spring resistance quickly becomes tiring and off putting and is not realistic.
Personally I invested in a Virpil set-up which using a dry clutch system and only used the centering springs on that with absolutely minimal pressure - the stick will stay at full deflection if I let go.
You certainly do not need a hardware collective to flight helicopters well in flight sims, a half decent HOTAS throttle (e.g. Warthog) is absolutely fine and will work well. Personally I like flying helicopters so again I invested in a Virpil collective. For me the expense was very much worth it as for me it adds another element of immersion.
I think it you like flight simming and it is a hobby you expect to stick with then investing in half decent controls is worth considering. Each to their own though.
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What differences in hover would you say make the XP12 flight model more realistic?
A few days ago I installed X-Plane 12 and played a bit with the default Robinson R22. I could not find any noticeably difference, either positive or negative, in comparison to the Cowansim R22 in MSFS2024. At least as long as I stayed in the normal flight regime (pickup, hover, transitions, etc.). Now auto rotations I would agree seem to be modeled better in the other sim.
Thanks alot for that hint!
I am also struggling to fly the heli with XBOX controller, but with your idea to switch to the rotor inc/dec binding it is actually quite nicely possible!
Still not easy but with a bit of practice it will be fine 
I don’t think I’ve flown the default R22 actually, but I have all Cowansim helicopters in XP12 plus many other high quality ones. It’s a day and night difference. Spend some time in XP12 (or DCS) with helicopters and you will notice, especially in hover. In XP12 I can make spot landings without any difficulties which is not something I’m able to do in MSFS as I’m all over the place. Anti-torque compensation with the pedals is one thing that seems way too weak in MSFS, ground effect also needs to be fixed, among other things. You’ll find several threads here on this forum about the helicopter flight model.
I’m not saying the helicopter flight model is bad in MSFS, the fundamentals are pretty well modelled, but it needs to be improved in certain areas. Until that happens, I’m happy to use XP12 and DCS for helicopters.
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Thank you for the detailed reply! Maybe I am biased because I learned to fly helicopters in MSFS2020, starting with the freeware HPG H135 and then going to the FlyInside helicopters with their custom flight model. That was before MSFS even had a helicopter flight model. Nowadays I am really happy with helicopter flying in MSFS2024. But I have full size helicopter controls that make fine inputs easy.
You probably should try helicopter flying in other sims that are known to have better flight dynamics, especially with your full size helicopter controls. XP12, DCS and I think also Aerofly are famous for having excellent flight model for helicopters. It’s not bad in MSFS, but they have some quirks to iron out that ruin the experience in my case. In fast forward flight, there is not much difference between MSFS, XP12 and DCS, but as soon as you start hovering and start doing air taxi/ground operations in ground effect you will see that it behaves differently in certain areas. I guess you will have to spend some time in these sims to notice the differences. XP12 have some really good 3rd party helicopters.
Helicopter flying is fun. Especially with full size helicopter flight controls like you have.
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I am probably the happiest MSFS2024 user in the world right now 
The new Asobo Robinson R66 is basically all I need for a while. I love exploring the world in helicopters, an area where the other sims simply cannot compete.
Getting back to the original topic, I hope the OP can find some suitable control settings. The pedals were moving from 0 to 100% left or right in the video. For helicopters you need fine control for cyclic, pedals and collective. I cannot imagine achieving this with a game pad, but other people seem to have done it, probably takes even more practice than doing this with full size controls.
I think the first issue here is the use of a controller in the sim at all. I mean, it’s like fitting your own bike with square wheels. Remember, you’re trying to translate the full range of motion of a helicopter’s cyclic pitch control, through a tiny analog stick with a few mm of motion range. You’re magnifying the whole range of motion tremendously with a controller, you may as well be wearing boxing gloves. Definitely consider a stick to at least give yourself half a chance 