Thank you, getting all that info from a real Bell 47G pilot would be awesome.
2 Likes
I never disguised my reviews as anything OTHER than opinion pieces. Thatâs what they SHOULD be. But later today, I will be updating it based on about 4 hours of flying I did with it last night.
Review updated based on 5 hours of flight⊠Itâs updated in its original spot as well so that new readers can see the most recent version, but here is the full one.
It IS a first of its kind, in a way that helicopters donât yet have official support. From my limited understanding of helicopter flight, the flight model itself seems very thorough and I appreciate the work and thought that was put into this.
GRAPHICS:
Pretty good. Passable. Take a look at the screenshots. It doesnât look bad, nothing pops out that tells me âoh god, this is awful, I wish it was done differentlyâ. Nothing makes me jump for joy, either. Itâs a far cry from when you first load that MilViz Corsair⊠or that Carenado Whatever. Or Asobo FlyingToaster, even⊠Certain things just look⊠plastic? There isnât a lot of real-world look to it in terms of wear and texture. Letâs take the handles on the levers as an example, or that metal surrounding the instrument panel when you are looking from outside and to the front. Itâs the same issue that brings down the NextGen Bandeirante for me - that cheap game-like look of the handles on levers and other surfaces that simply donât make you feel like you are looking at the real thing, but rather something that was modeled in 3D software. Itâs the same reason Carenado Asobo can make their stuff look better - same reason Asoboâs recent Ultralight Top Rudder looks better than VGP PowerSolo 103. Itâs not grave, but when the aircraft is priced in Milviz and FlyingIron and Big Radials category and ABOVE Carenado, this is the stuff I am looking for too. This just doesnât cut it to me, I am sorry. Perhaps future improvements can be made, but visually this is just OK. Itâs not Bredok bad, but not Carenado good. Sits in the Bandeirante realm. Makes sense? 
One other thing is the external view - itâs SO close to the aircraft that even with a maximum zoom-out, itâs practically useless.
SOUND:
I really like the way this was done and itâs pretty good. I have nothing to complain about and it sounds believable enough for me to suspend my disbelief. I havenât experienced what the real thing sounds like, so thatâs as far as I can objectively assess it.
FLIGHT:
I am a novice at helicopters. I spent about 5 hours total in flight with this one and have to say that this is where the aircraft shines the most. I highly recommend starting with the Easy flight model, then moving to Medium, then finally to Realistic. Essentially, it modifies how tame it will be in your hands and how much adjustment for rotor spinâs effect you will have to do. If you start with Realistic, it will be pretty unstable and you will have to compensate a lot with a COMBINATION of inputs in order to control it. That is on par with expectations for this machine and itâs a total pleasure to fly. I havenât been this excited about helicopters until I flew this (the Airbus one is nice, but itâs doesnât QUITE come to this level)⊠I especially enjoy a possibility of engine failure if you abuse the engine (configurable to be enabled or disabled via the Manager). I was able to complete several take-offs and landings on the Realistic model after a couple of hours of flying. The key is SUBTLE adjustments with a purpose. Donât treat it like your default conventional aircraft and you will be fine. THIS is where most of the pleasure from this aircraft comes from - the way it flies. A lot of work and thought has been put into this and I appreciate it. Itâs what will keep me flying it. Itâs absolutely perfect for its views and speed for sightseeing flights.
OVERALL:
I am not sorry I bought this at all, but there is another thing that leaves me concerned - the implementation of settings and activation. There is obviously need for developers to protect themselves against software piracy - itâs a REAL thing. Enough to drive some out of business. So I support the fact that it has been implemented in a fairly non-intrusive way - you can just copy and paste your activation code and be done. What I do NOT like whatsoever is the need for this Manager software to be open every time I want to fly this aircraft and what I like even less is that by default, it will make itself start and run every time you boot up Windows. Yes, I am aware that you CAN disable it from starting every time, but I shouldnât need to. Yes, I am aware that it doesnât eat much resources, but they add up. I currently have something like 93 aircraft available for selection in MSFS screen. I have about 160 or so in Prepare3D. This is the ONLY aircraft that requires me to have its application running while operating it. In some other cases, like SimSkunkWorks Fiat G-91, there is a stand-alone config app, which you can run, have it transmit whatever it needs to to the sim and close it. Same with a bunch of others on P3D - run them, close them, be done. This is the only one that needs to run. I donât like it. And I donât like the fact that if MORE aircraft like this show up, I will have MORE stuff running in the background. The more stuff running in the background, the more chance of them all adding up and becoming an issue. I simply donât like this design. I am OK activating via it, I am OK to set my realism options via it, but I do NOT want it running in the background, ESPECIALLY when by default it wants to start itself on every Windows boot-up. They DO add up. If 40 more aircraft come out and I buy them all, I donât want 40 more things to kill in my taskbar. Thankfully, the developer has come out (partly in response to an earlier version of this review) to state that they will make running it on startup optional during install. I find that itâs perfectly fine that the window reminding you to run the Manager comes up when you load the aircraft and the Manager isnât running. For now this is easily configurable by disabling the Manager from starting up in the Task Manager.
I absolutely recommend this. The price of $35 is a little bit steep for the level of graphical fidelity in the textures, but itâs easy to overlook once you begin flying this aircraft.
I do hope for continuous work on this and improvement, but for version 1.0? Job well done. This is all I have.
7 Likes
Hello! You are right in many things. In my opinion, the 3D model also needs to be improved in several places, there are many square parts. I miss several photorealistic tuxtures I too.
In the cockpit, the horror of bad glass effect bothers me, shines, reflects everything. My eyes burn out from the bad glass effect. I asked the development team to improve the glass effect or add an option to make clear reflection-free glass without bad shadows.
Iâm used to Carenado quality. FlyInside Bell 47G is an amazing model with super realistic sounds and good flight dynamics.
On the other hand, in order to meet todayâs quality expectations, a 3D model needs to be improved, using realistic photo textures. I am confident that we will receive continuous repairs, updates, support for the helicopter.
2 Likes
I need some advice: Everytime I go too fast the helicopter starts doing corkscrews. Of course that leads to a crash. Is that usual behavior when you overspeed a aircraft like this?
The corkscrews look like this (just clockwise):
CORKSCREWS! Red Bull helicopter does backflips at Luke Days 2018 - ABC15 Digital - YouTube
The best way to reproduce it is to gain lots of hight and than start to trade as much height for airspeed as possible. At some point the helicopter starts rolling to the right. You can save it by pulling the cyclic back. Overstressing and engine failure is disabled (flightmodel set to realistic besides that) but the MP did not exceed the red line.
Is this something like the Vortex Ring State that is modelled or is it a bug?
Define too fast ? Over the VNE speed of 93mph ? Thats asking for trouble 
Tony
Just tested. Yes. It happens at about 100mph. 
I know I shouldnât fly so fast in this aircraft - I just wanted to test the limits.
You have found them LOL
2 Likes
I guess I did. Itâs just funny to find you upside down from one moment to the other in an helicopter. But sure - stay within the limits and all is fine. Next step is to enable engine failure.
Youâre looking at retreating blade stall. You go too fast, and one side of the blade disk loses lift, hence the cork-screw!
2 Likes
Thatâs very cool. Thank you for the information. Iâm loving this flight model more and more evey day. 
1 Like
I find that right now in order to control it well enough, I donât tend to gain too much airspeed. Directional control is the first thing I have to be comfortable with before I try to go too fast, so in my case, itâs all about patience and not trying to be âfast and furiousâ while getting comfortable with controls. So, if I can maintain height and face in the correct direction with a stable aircraft, thatâs a good spot in which I can then nose down a bit using the elevator axis and start moving. But I have to have a handle on rudder and aileron axis first. Is that about right?
The other thing I feel comfortable with is: one thing at a time. After taking off I am not trying to go anywhere yet. I am trying to hover and gain sufficient height. Then direction. Only then I can go. Perhaps once I am more comfortable, I can execute all three at once, but for now, itâs pretty much in that order.
2 Likes
Here are my 2 cents on the Bell 47
Visuals:
Basically a very very nice model. A few textures around the engine could need some improvements to make them look more real. The whole area around engine is too bright and clean.
I like the textures of the seats. The only gripe I have with that is the fact, that the US Army variant also has the same seats as the civil version. Iâd expect some plastic seats in the military variant as well as a matte paint scheme. Probably easily remedied.
From the view of a modder: when opening the texture files, they remind me of the P-40 Tomahawk. They are are pretty confusing compared to most other 3rd party aircraft - (there are still no repaints for the P-40) So I guess the Bell 47 wonât be as easily repainted as the Arrow, Spitfire, Corsair or EMB 110. Thatâs rather unfortunate for the community. 
Sound:
Sound is amazing. Exactly what I would expect the Bell 47 to sound like. Reminds me a little of itâs big brother the UH-1 Huey.
What I really found great was the slight shaking motion of the whole copter as soon as you push the start button and the engine turns over. Great attention to detail.
Flight Model:
While Iâm no expert in helicopter sims, I have âflownâ enough of them to grasp the basics and having a feel for it. Thatâs where I always had my problem with the H135, because it doesnât react to pitch changes as I would expect it to. Therefore it is extremely hard to reduce speed as soon as itâs moving - no matter what direction.
The Bell 47G feels much more like the choppers I was used to from older sims and previous versions of MSFS. So itâs much more fun and predictable. Also it is very agile and reacts fast to direction changes. Never having sat in a real (flying) helicopter I cannot relate to the real thing though.
However, thereâs one glaring problem: the Bell 47 doesnât seem to be able to skid across the ground. As soon as you touch the ground itâs like landing on adhesive rubber instead of tarmac or grass. If you land with a slight forward motion the Bell immediately stops. If you are moving slightly to the side the chopper starts to tip over and then settles down. Would be nice to get that improved.
View:
The standard cockpit view is perfect and with the Bubble Canopy and the simple instrument stack in the middle there nothing to spoil the panoramic view.
As already mentioned the external views are practically useless at the moment. Seems that the devs are aware of that and itâs being worked on.
Conclusion:
The Bell 47 has a special place in my heart because I always loved MASH. That nostalgia is probably the main reason why I bought it. And I must say itâs probably the best impulsive purchase Iâve made in a while It really started my interest in helicopters again. It takes time to get used to it, but itâs not so difficult that itâs frustrating. The three difficulty levels as well as the option to use the engine governor ensure that everyone can learn to fly it without any prior knowledge.
I absolutely recommend it!
5 Likes
Just a couple of points that may interest, dirty versions soon to be released so get your jet wash ready LOL This will include the super clean engine made hard worked. good point about the seats, should be easy to add some leather in there
Tony
6 Likes
Thatâs good to hear. Is it possible to add a little more texturing to the handles? Like the mixture one? These kinds of things would make the visual aspect of the aircraft really shine.
2 Likes
Yes was looking to add a big M on the mixture knob as per pics and maybe a little wood texturing on both knobs also ?
Tony
2 Likes
Thanks for your quick response
Yup⊠Itâs little things like that that would really make this thing great. Itâs already great in the way it flies which is most important and you guys are fixing the âmandatoryâ Manager startup, so really, in my eyes the only thing that could make this better is visual tweaks that give it a little more character visually - as much as it does in flight. Then you guys will have something even more special than what it already is. I really want to express gratitude to you guys listening to some of the suggestions. My initial reaction to this bird has really turned around because of it. I want this to do well, because it has a ton of potential. But it sounds like any initial gripes I had about this are being addressed and I am really looking forward to it.
2 Likes
One thing about slow and hovering flight versus going with some speed, is itâs similar to a bicycle which is relatively hard to ride very slowly compared to just moving forward which imparts natural stability. On the upside if you master slow flight, fast flight is a generally a non-event.
1 Like
So, do you recommend some motion while gaining height and stabilizing direction too, or continue to kind of master it âthe hard wayâ?