First time I’ve had to fly tonight and it’s pretty bloomin’ nice. It’s definitely easier to control than the Bells (by FlyInside and Cowan) but that’s not to say it’s dumbed down. It’s still got a high skill ceiling, especially if you want to pull off some crazy moves or fly very precisely, but it just seems more inherently forgiving and responsive with less sensitivity around the pivot point at hovering speeds and doesn’t mind being thrown around at higher speeds. Maybe it’s just because it’s a lighter helicopter you’re not fighting the inertia of that much mass so it doesn’t get into the pendulum swings that I’ve just begun to master in the Bells and probably it helps that I’ve practised a lot in those to find this one easier from the off. It feels much more fluid and nuanced than the Cabri though. I could even sort-of fly it in the drone camera view, whilst taking some of the screenshots below, which is kind of impossible in the other helicopters.
I feel like it has the best transition from ground to air and air to ground of all the choppers I’ve tried in the sim. There isn’t the sudden change of state I normally feel. In some it seems to want to release off the ground as if an elastic band that was holding it down suddenly snapped. In the Mini, it just gracefully lifts up at a controller VS very nicely.
I like all the VFX and appreciate the mod the guys put out to remove them. Thought I’d have to use that for my lowly system to cope but tried with them on first and happy to say it doesn’t affect frames like the FlyInside one does so I’m keeping it! Also like the vibrating stuff in the cockpit!
The visibility out is second-to-none. Really makes this the ultimate POI-Machine! I must say I don’t fancy the idea of a solo helicopter in real life. Purely selfishly if I’m going to die, I don’t wanna be alone!
There does seem to be something weird with the sounds in that if you drop the collective whilst at altitude, the pitch of the turbine whine goes down, but the engine revs (I think it’s that!) constantly rise and don’t seem to want to stop rising, so there seems to be a bit of a mismatch between what the sounds are saying the Aircraft is doing and what it is doing, which I’m not sure is right, but I don’t really know how a helicopter sounds in those conditions. My VS was only -1000ft/min so not like I was dropping too fast and the air making my rotors spin too fast. You’re not supposed to just throw the collective down so I’m flying outside of regulations in doing that, I know, but it does it to some extent when just gradually reducing also 
There are definitely some handling oddities and situations where reality breaks down as in all of the copters right now (see the last screenshot… it was stuck like that until I jigged it free - same thing has happened on the FlyInside!), but those incidents are mainly noticeable beyond the normal flight envelope which is acceptable for me and which I’m sure is 100% down to what Asobo have provided in the engine, so I hope that some areas can be improved over time in all the choppers we’ve now got and going forwards.
Overall, another high-quality AND high-fun product from the Got Friends team and for that low price it’s an absolute steal. Especially when compared to the other payware helicopters.
If I could only use one word, instead of everything I’ve written there to describe it, it would be the word FLUID.
I’m already looking forward to racking up many more hours on the Hobbs counter.
Here’s a few random shots:
Let’s land in the chimney! What could go wrong?
Is that where real planes are made Daddy?
Is that a real plane Daddy?
A brave cat!
Did I park it?
How about now?
