I will be honest i got the Cowan and I’m not enjoying it i don’t know if its msfs flight engine or cowans flight model but its extremely unstable in cruise and hit and miss in hovering and manoeuvres.
Not sure why but seems to want to fly on its side (banks permantly to the left) while desperate to translate to the right
regretful purchase seems ive had a few planes i consider to be junk
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That’s an odd problem. I have heard of another person with issues but not just in that model.
You can see a few videos showing people flying it without any problems. There something wrong with your system I’d say.
While that is possible seems odd it only affects the cowan
what bothers me are the inconsistences. wanting to translate in one direction is normal and its usually to the right due to weight of pilot if no passengers present so that is ok but this odd tilt to the left seems at odd with that, ground effect is also odd it seems backwards as you get near the ground it looses lift and you need to kick in a lot of collective but surely its the other way around you should need far less .
ive also seen no evidence of ETL and have found it hard in some cases to gain height and speed because of this
Edit ok the translation right is called Drift due to tail rotor ok i guessed this was normal
Same here. No other aircraft on my machine shows this behaviour.
I have both models and I prefer the flight model of the Cowansim version to the FI version. It feels more realistic in a hover and behaves how I would expect. Even with update 2.06 for the FI 206, the ground contact/light on the skids behavior is still too abrupt. It’s hard to find the balance point before it jumps off of the ground. I also noticed what felt like invisible boundaries in HIGE. I honestly thought I had hit the tail on something the first time it happened, but I went into the outside view, and the area was clear. It may have something to do with whatever they did to improve the ground contact behavior.
The Cowansim 206 handles great in ground effect. There is a little flex in the skids, and you can find the center as you get light just before pickup to hover. It cruises well, but there is a known issue with the trim ball, and it is twitchy when it’s out of trim in a cruise…but that is realistic. I haven’t encountered any odd behaviors with the flight model, but I’ve been flying it as I would IRL and I haven’t pushed the performance envelope.
With the FlyInside 206, I can’t seem to find a setting in the Heli Manager that works with my PFT Puma to give the control response I am looking for. I am currently using these settings Cyc-90/Stab-10/tail-0, and full linear. This is the closest I have found to my real world Robbie experience, but it still is off. If I turn up the cyclic any more, the fuselage is too twitchy. You can counteract with stability, but then it’s not responsive enough…
Both models have the correct ETL control input response when accelerating during takeoff and slowing back down again for approach. They dip a bit when you first start moving and want to pitch up as transverse flow starts affecting the disk. The FI version has a nice shudder effect too, but the aerodynamic effect is there in both. The collective input felt right for both models on approach as well. You need to start adding in collective much sooner than most people think for a proper approach. Not all landings are ‘Apocalypse Now’ hot LZ quick stops. When it comes to quick stops, the Cowansim 206 is my favorite in any sim so far. The FI 206 does quick stops better than most, but almost all of the sims float too much.
I hope to compare the Cowansim 206 between MSFS and XP12, but unfortunately XP12 is running like garbage in VR right now.
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I don’t have the Cowan but I do have the Flyinside version and it is amazing. RotorRick and the rest of the team has done an amazing job and are so quick to respond to any problems and fix them right away. Pop on over to the discord channel at FlyInside Helicopters or the official forums at https://forum.flyinside-helis.com/ and see what I’m saying. Their 206 is all I fly now. Such a great addon with their own custom flight model.
Mike
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And yet a lot of other simers prefer the flight model of the FI.
I’m one of those on the fence, not yet sure which to buy since I don’t really want two 206’s in my hangar.
Hopefully, after a few more updates of both versions the position will become clearer 
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Thanks for that post it was very informative and food for thought
i think the instability in cruise ive been suffering from is simply that it is not fully trimmed ,
i don’t find it easy to trim but last night did a flight in a 16 knot gusting 26 knot wind and i made bigger effort and got it fairly stable. i actually have always found this fairly easy in the hover so ive not had any complaints about that
i am still unsure on ETL and Ground effect
with ETL i get the pitch and roll but i dont see and increase in lift or a fall off in power needed infact ive found i need to add a lot of power just to climb
With Ground effect i definatly feel that in cyclic but again in collective it doesnt feel quite right it feels backwards it feels like im losing lift and requiring more power
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bit different question: does anyone know whether both are planned to be available within the Marketplace ?
“simmers” being the operative word. 
I can only relate to my experience and give my opinion, but the Cowansim 206 behaves more like a real helicopter with my control setup.
Just to clarify, when I refer to being in trim, I don’t mean using the cyclic force trim. I mean aerodynamic trim with the anti-torque pedals in cruise. IRL you can feel when the aircraft is out of trim, a quick glance at the ball and adjustment of your feet and the controls behave again.
You should be able to climb with hover in ground effect(IGE) power. I think there are a lot of misconceptions on how to takeoff in a helicopter. If you pickup, then immediately lift straight up, that is a max performance takeoff that is used to clear obstacles. It is limited by the amount of torque or manifold pressure you can pull with the collective.
For a normal takeoff, you pickup and hover in ground effect, about 5’ above the ground. Then, without increasing collective, you push the cyclic forward and pick up speed. You will pass through ETL around 12-15 knts and, with the increase in rotor efficiency, you will be able to climb without pulling more collective. When you pass through ETL, the heli will want to pitch up. Push the collective forward to counteract the pitch up tendency and maintain your altitude 10-15’ above the ground as you accelerate to 55knts (most helicopters best climb performance speed). Then you can pitch up slightly and climb out to altitude and cruise without ever adding collective.
Ground effect isn’t something that you ‘feel’ in the controls. It’s a power(collective) difference that is required for the same maneuver most notably seen in a hover. Which is why you will see acronyms IGE(in ground effect) & OGE(out of ground effect). It requires much more power to hover OGE than IGE.
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Yes but we don’t know when yet.
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Ok a few things
im well aware what you meant by trim ( yes i too have flown R22) you said yourself it becomes very twitchy what you describe as a symptom of being out of trim describes my experiences
cowan Bell doesn’t use force trim so not sure why you mentioned that (force trim actually locks the cyclic) as opposed to trim that relieves the cyclic pressure. as we tend to use self centering joysticks
it constantly tries to centre throwing helicopter around, to maintain pressure depending on what joystick can make it overly responsive and cause quite violent movements ( yes this is different to a real helicopter ) this in the Bell is more extreme than other helicopters ive flown using trim provided makes this more manageable
you can certainly feel ground effect in controls at least i can
and what you say is exactly what i mean im finding im using MORE power to hover IGE than OGE
which is what i said in my original post as im coming into GE i find sink increases and collective has to be pushed quite high
ETL
Just did a test based on your TO procedure got into a stable hover about 5-10 feet above ground and pushed cyclic forwards helicopter picks up speed NO transational lift occurs helicopter remains perfectly level with no collective or cyclic changes it should climb due to trans lift. Easing back i can gain height but without collective input speed dies and vsi flattens
I bought the Cowansim and am enjoying it for the most part. I do find it more “twitchy” than other choppers I’ve flown in MSFS. As a firmly mediocre, sim only helicopter pilot though, I have no idea if that twitchiness is realistic or not. I’m an usually get used to it and manage it with much smaller cyclic inputs than other helicopters.
Graphics are decent and they have a lot of great included repaints.
I have been tempted to also but the FI version, however I’m not sure I need a second 206. I am genuinely curious about the differences in flight model. On the other hand some of the images I’ve seen show some less than stellar textures in the cockpit (interesting that another post here had the cockpit textures for the FI version as better than Cowansim). Maybe it looks better in action?
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That’s what got me to buy both. Plus I’m an idiot. I am still trying to get my head around flying them both. They are like a slap in the face compared to the Cabri that I just got comfortable with!
As for textures, I think they are both decent enough. Really can’t complain or notice anything bad on either to my eye. The Cowan comes with so many liveries packed into 2.3gb, it’s impressive!
The biggest difference for me, and I really don’t know why it’s like this, but the FI one needs hardly any pedal input to stop the torque rotation. I’ve definitely got it on the recommended default Realistic settings in HeliManager. Doesn’t make it any easier to hover though! In both I just swing like a crazy pendulum at the moment… need more practice!
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You’re not using your Honeycomb yoke by any chance are you ? 
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Haha, no - I think that would break it within a few minutes!
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Practiced a bit more in the FlyInside one today. I turned down the stick movement slider to 50 or 60 and it’s way nicer. Actually can control it how I want now. Seems that around 50 matches my real stick movement to that of the 3D model a lot closer and it’s just a lot less prone to me overreacting now.
Having looked again at the textures I’d say they are good and clear but very “perfect”. No imperfections or wear so they look a bit too computer generated if you know what I mean. Fine though. Not like you have time to be concentrating on textures while trying not to fall out of the sky!
The sounds from in the cockpit are better than the Cowan version. Much meatier and more layers of sounds going on. Still not ready to write more about the handling (comparison) as I’m not qualified for passing judgement on that yet (or ever) but definitely I’m getting a better feel since turning that sensitivity down a lot
I’ll jump back into the Cowan next time I get on the PC and see how that goes
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Interesting. Still on the fence with these two Helis. Looks like the textures though on the FI are ok now from what you say so that’s good.
You say that 50 matches your real stick movement. Could I ask what joystick you are using ?
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An MS SideWinder FFB2. Set it with no centering forces and just a little bit of movement friction with the XPForce software.
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