Hello Nenenui, thanks, perhaps I will look at the H145 if I learn to fly the Cabri or H135 very good. If that does not work even, and I cannot do a good stable, horizontal, still hover, then helicopter flying in MSFS for me is useless.
While I love the HPG H145, I would not recommend it to beginners in helicopter flight. Yes, the Stability Augmentation System (SAS) makes it easier to control. But it is a complex aircraft that is probably overwhelming if you just want to go sight seeing.
I can really recommend the default Asobo Cabri G2, instead of the HCG version that you linked in a previous message. The Asobo Cabri is quite excellent and you could call it the reference implementation for piston helicopters. It is relatively stable and less twitchy than other helicopters in the sim, without feeling dumbed down too much.
For me the most important lesson for flying helicopters was probably that you don’t return the joystick to the center when you have reached the attitude that you want. That is why many helicopter sim pilots even remove the springs from their joysticks, because the “neutral” position of the cyclic changes all the time, depending on speed, altitude and probably some other factors.
If you have a joystick you need to have longitudinal and lateral trim programmed on the top of the joystick. Then you cam finely trim the helicopter to fly level and straight.
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I have Taog’s UH-1H Huey and it’s a blast to fly, sightseeing. Once I had my flight stick controls setup for helicopter flight it then took me a couple of days to really start getting the hang of it. Gentle on the stick and getting use to more collective closer to the ground and less higher as well as nose up and down were key things for me.
It’s a learning curve in any helicopter (although the Chinook is a lot more friendly).
I recommend that whatever you choose just stick with it for a bit and you will learn its quirks. Also spend time setting up your stick.
New to me today was lowering the bucket into the lake to collect water and not being ready for the weight that it would change things as well as momentum swing me around. Ha ha. Too much fun!!!
Make sure to set up your trim settings for helicopters it really helps. YouTube has good tutorials.
And be prepared to spend a couple days practicing before things really start to click.
Once they do you can further adjust your controls (before that you may be, “Fixing” things that make it harder to fly properly).
You can do extraordinary things in a helicopter but they take longer to learn to hand fly than airplanes which are surprisingly easy to grasp.
Best views? Almost any helicopter will blow an average airplane away for views.
That 500 is pretty easy to fly once you understand the basics. But the Cabri is MUCH easier to learn the basics. I don’t find the MD500 much easier or more difficult to fly than the 500E.
Flyinside Bell 47. Best sightseeing tool by far. And if you’re not looking for speed, one of the best helicopters out there
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The Bell47 is one of the more difficult to learn to fly in sim though. Especially without a governor, or learning to hover.
I wouldn’t start with it. Easier to learn after you get the hang of flying something else.
The views are all glass though!
The Bell 47 can be customized all the way down to drone levels of ease simply by changing the sliders in HeliManager. Make it as easy or realistic as you like. The artificial governor is simply turned on with a click as well.
If you know, you know!
RotorRick
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Ha! I forgot about the difficulty sliders! 
Ok, fair.
My point only remains for high difficulty, especially with no governor! It is very beginner friendly if you let it be. And quite advanced if you let it be.
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I’m doing sightseeing of some of the great European Rivers in the Cowansim R22 and it’s the very best combination of fun, realism and flight model that keeps in it over all the other Helos I own (all of them).
Requires engine management but after that begins to feel like an extension of feet and hands. Smooth flyer, not like the 500E or even the Cabri. Highly recommended.
You may have your sensitivities for your cyclic axes set too high at 80%. A desktop joystick throw may give better response around 50%. Under controlling can be just as much a problem as over controlling.
What hardware you use doesn’t matter as much as staying consistent while you are learning. Use the same controller setup and the same helicopter. The default Cabri G2 from Asobo is great and it’s already in the sim. I used a TM T16000M for years before I bought a PFT-Puma.
Turn on the helicopter assists options in the MSFS settings while you are learning. Then as you improve, turn off the cyclic assist, then the tail rotor assist as you get better with full cyclic fidelity.
There aren’t different “collective regimes” but there are aerodynamic factors that affect the amount of power required to maintain a hover or cruise. If you are less than half a rotor span from the surface, the heli is in ground effect and needs less collective to hover than at 500’ AGL. If you are moving faster than 15-18 knots, you will transition into ETL (effective translational lift) and the rotor becomes more efficient and produces more lift at the same collective setting. You can pick up to a 5’ hover, slowly transition to forward flight and fly a takeoff, crosswind and down wind leg without changing the collective setting until you lower it to descend.
The FAA’s Helicopter Flying Handbook is a great free resource.
https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/helicopter_flying_handbook/helicopter_flying_handbook.pdf
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Hello all,
Again thanks for all the comments.
I decided to use the MSFS assisted tail rotor and cyclic, which is not so realistic and could be considered cheating.
But the 500E is now perfectly controllable with the Hotas X and Saitek controllers; I landed perfectly in Tokyo on buildings in parks and exactly on helipads, etc.
From now on, I will just imagine that I bought, and then build in a good A/P & stability control in my MD 500E, like in the Airbus. I was thinking about using the Airbus, but I choose the 500E for its good visibility inside, that is why I bought it. And the HPG Airbuses do have less of that. Also you cannot remove the doors on the Airbuses which is too bad. But realistic. On the 500E you can remove them completely if you wish, which enhances visibility from the cockpit even more.
I am happy with this, because it would be a waste not to use this beautifully made 500E from CowanSim. Interesting to see also, that MFSF does not disable the flight dynamics with the assisted tail rotor and cyclic, because the 500E still takes off on 1 skid and hovers slightly banked to the left, which is needed to hover in one spot, just like unassisted. Only it is like there is an Airbus A/P at work now. So you feel, also in transitioning from stage tot stage in flight, that the A/P is constantly countering what the chopper would do unassisted, which gives a kind of realistic feel after all. I thought it would disable the complete flight model, but it doesn’t, I think, it just counters it, which gives you a kind of an Airbus A/P stability control feeling.
So now I can go sightseeing with this, as I can perfectly hover still everywhere with no effort and no input once I reduced the speed to 0. It just hangs completely still at every altitude (that is possible of course with the 500E) and no input is needed.
Thanks for all the input guys. But for me the comfortable sightseeing is number 1 not the flying of a helicopter. If you want to learn to fly a chopper, and enjoy that, then perhaps it is important to turn the assists off.
Thanks again, greetings from the Netherlands,
Boudewijn
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Use of the tail rotor/torque assist is fine as it just dampens what you would be constantly doing without thought as a pilot. But try not to use the assist on anything else, it should be hard. The tail rotor one is just one level of not so much an input per se but trying to fly a nuance correction you can’t actually feel.
And I still say just use the Cabri, if you were learning IRL you wouldn’t be in a 500E. Flying helis like that with experience you can tell the ‘differences’ from a heli like the Cabri. It’s like trying to learn to fly in an Extra 300. To be honest, the 500E isn’t realistically ‘honest’.
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Hello Phutyoo, I tried the Cabri, thanks, it was much better, you are right. But then I figured out, that what I was looking for in helicopters, is that I just want to be able to hover still without any input further and no effort, when I am sightseeing, and this is almost not possible without effort, if you do not use assisted tail rotor & cyclic. But thanks. Greetings.
Have you tried the H-160 by HPG? I find that to be the most automated - but extremely handy if you just want to hover and chill
With practice, you’ll not be aware of what you’re doing and the heli is doing exactly what you want it to.
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