Nemeth Design - Schweizer S300

Which of the current 2024-native helicopters is, in your opinion, the most realistic, in terms of the flight model?

That’s a tough question to answer, especially since there aren’t many native 2024 helicopters yet.

The H225 seems a bit too twitchy for how large it is and with the stability systems it should have.

The S64 seems pretty good. It’s stable and predictable, but I’ve never flown a real one.

The Blackbird Chinook is also good, but it flies like it doesn’t have AFCS modeled, so it’s more of a handful than it should be.

The Miltech Chinook is good, very stable. Like it has AFCS, but it’s not using tandem rotor dynamics. I’ve never flown a real CH-47 either, but this one hits the mark of what I’ve heard and it’s a lot like the DCS CH-47F.

The Asobo H125 is 90% there. Handling is generally good, but it needs way too much forward cyclic in cruise.

The Cabri is really good. I haven’t flown a real G2, but this one does what it should do. Makes sense since it is what was used to develope the FM.

The Carenado R66 is also surprisingly good. It has some dumb bugs like the rotor turning the wrong way, but it generally flies very similar to the real thing. If we could take the good from both this one and the Cowansim R66 and toss both the bad, I’d be ecstatic. I may be biased though because it’s what I have the most real world time in.

The Nemeth S300 is also really good. I’ve never flown a real Schweizer though. But it has the quirks I expect from the design differences from what I have flown. It also flies a lot like the dreamfoil version for XP12.

I haven’t flown any of the Mscenery stuff. From what I’ve seen of it, I’m not interested.

G2, R66 then S300 is how I would currently rank them.

3 Likes

Don’t leave out the stock Nemeth 407 - it’s a great helo for daily flying.

There is a mod (only works in 2020 though) that makes it much, much better.

the question was about which ones feel the most realistic. I didn’t leave it out. I never fly it in 2024. It desperately needs the SimFocus mod in 2024 to do what it did for it in 2020.

1 Like

Hi all, after today version 2.0 is downloadable from the nemethdesign website :slight_smile: Just tried it and thought at first it is unflyable. Then I realized that my input was too great. I changed my maximum axis values for my Joystick (Logitech Force 3D Pro) to half way. Done this in FSUIPC not msfs 2024. Now it works for me.
One observation I made which could help others is that if the Manigfold pressure is over 25 you are in trouble. If I stay under 25 mgh the engine has enough power and the S300 is responsible. IMOH if the governor must give full power you go to the dead zone. Maybe this is the difference between 5-star rating and a 0 rating. People wich gives 5 stars don’t use the governor?
I would give the S300 in MSFS 2024 4 to 5 stars. It is hard to fly, but feels incredible real.
Just my own 2 cents

1 Like

The R22 has the same engine and is de-rated and limited to 25 on the MAP gauge. The S300 doesn’t have the same limitations, but if you’re up that high you’re pushing it to things it doesn’t want to do anyway. It’s a challenge to get it to do more than 85knots with a tailwind…

1 Like

I don’t doubt the issue some users are seeing, but I’ve done extensive testing with this one and have never been able to reproduce it. I also have never seen a video of the problem occurring.

When you have it happen, what does the cyclic in the cockpit do? Does it move to the offset position, or follow the control inputs?

1 Like

The animation follows the cyclic stick. Which implies it isn’t really an input related issue. It must be something going on in the model.

So with stick in normal orientation on the ground I apply some collective to try to hover and then apply some forward cyclic and I get forward right movement to the point of tipping over to the right, pull back to correct it and you get backwards left motion. Usually results in heli tipping over.

If I get airborne the same thing occurs, so it’s impossible to maintain straight flight without left cyclic input to counter the pull to the right in forward stick motion. So it isn’t just a ground effect thing.

But if I physically rotate the cyclic stick base approx 45deg CW while using the stick as if it isn’t rotated I get expected control response/behavior of the heli even if the stick feels weird to use in that orientation.

It’s difficult to take a video of as it involves my hotas as well as the sim.

Also worthy of note it this heli is even weirder if you have any assists on so best to turn them all off.

This behavior is what I’m talking about with the tail rotor moment in the S300.

When I fly, I don’t really intentionally move the cyclic forward…to go forward. This is something that comes with time and practice. In real helicopters, and the more realistic simulated ones.

It’s more about understanding what is happening with the disk, anticipating what will happen next, and adjusting it to get the helicopter to do what you command.

Here are a couple of screen grabs from the video I’m working on. You can see that in forward flight, I have quite a bit of left cyclic input as well as forward. This is to counteract the roll from the tail rotor. As you speed up, you need less left cyclic. The stabilizers become more effective, the tail rotor becomes more efficient and you need less left pedal to maintain trim. Take a closer look at the airspeed and input viewer in both pics.


Some of these effects are less pronounced, or nonexistent in other helicopters in the sim. It may be a little too pronounced in the S300. I don’t know for sure.

Taog’s Huey get’s mentioned a lot in comparison, but it’s a completely different helicopter with a completely different rotor system.

Learning to anticipate the changes is what helicopter flying is all about. Spend some time in the hover circle and the four corners exercise to really grasp an understanding of torque. Learning good pedal control is essential. Anytime you change the pitch of the main blades, a pedal adjustment is needed. Whether you make that change with the collective, or the cyclic. A pitch change alters drag, which requires a power adjustment, which then requires a pedal input.

1 Like

That’s an interesting explanation for sure. Thank you. You could be right. It is way too exaggerated if that is the case though. I will try to see if the effect reduces at higher airspeed, but it wasn’t reducing for me tonight with a fair bit of forward speed. I’ll need to quantify that a bit more though. It’s hard when the heli doesn’t feel like it’s under control while airborne. I guess another way is for me to take off with the rotated hotas and get up to speed under control that way and if your theory is correct it should start banking to the left if the right pull becomes less pronounced.

I don’t think that it is severely overexaggerated. Maybe a tiny bit, but I think it’s pretty close. Remember that you also have translating tendency needing left cyclic to counter as well as the induced roll of the tail rotor position in forward flight. Both of these effects lessen with more forward airspeed.

The S300 is a very small, compact design. This makes it very maneuverable, but a bit of a handful to fly.

1 Like

With the reduced joystick travel to half of max, I really love the S300. IMHO one of the best helicopters in msfs 2020 and 2024. A real challenge to fly but a pleasure to master it :slight_smile:
Thanks to Nemeth Design that they made it real msfs 2024 compatible.

1 Like

So I tried flying it up to 85 kts airspeed, and physically switching the orientation of my stick back to normal, and the heli still pulls to the dramatically to the right with forward stick motion, so it’s not something that reduces or disappears with airspeed. I’m sticking with calling it a bug. But not one that everyone is seeing. It flies just as I’d expect with my collective stick rotated though, and it is quite enjoyable heli if you ignore that weird stick orientation.

Strangely enough while flying the S300 last night my cyclic stick reverted to normal control again from it’s bugged state. It’s a weird one, but my stick is now working without the base being rotated. No idea what the trigger for this is though. Wish I had an answer. I don’t even know how long it will last. Previously in fs2020 it did this for a while but more frequently reverted back to bugged state again after every minor update it seemed. Fingers crossed for now though.