It was last on their list! I can swap it for another if I hear back from them 
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What is the best helicopter nowļ¼
Depends what you are after I guess. I am still digging in so donāt really want to give in-depth answer as there are much better pilots on here to do that for you, but just quickly - we have:
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CowanSim 206: I am really liking this one since the latest update. It flies nice, and is pretty challenging to keep control, but you can āfeelā it. Has some issues on the ground which I am sure is a MSFS engine thing, hopefully will improve. You can look past that though coz ājust donāt do the things that make it act weird on the groundā. I mean you really have to TRY to make it do that stuff, in normal operation you wonāt really encounter it.
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Fly Inside 206: Also flies very well. I have spent less time in it as was enjoying the Cowan too much but a lot of people say that itās more realistic than the Cowan one (still not perfect). I want to fly it some more and see for myself - maybe this week. Fact is both are being developed still, so subject to change. This one uses external software for the FM.
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Cabri G2: I spent a lot of time in it, learning, but felt ready for something less stable. It is really great though and the sounds and overall quality is very high. Maybe a bit too simplified though in itās flightmodel, and there seems to be too much drag (which makes it more stable). I say itās perfect for learning though and the size and looks are real nice.
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Bell 407: No comment - I only flew it for a moment then committed to the Cabri. I heard it has some issues though, and the developer is not known for helicopters, so I think this one is a ātoyā.
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Fly Inside Bell 47G: A real handful, raw, old school. Itās very good if you can handle it! There is arcade and medium difficulty which makes it easy, but not sure if you want that?
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HPG 145: Very good package, but my system canāt handle it any more. Strange because it used to run fine and the developer says that the newer version is even LIGHTER on resources but that is not what I am seeing. Canāt use it any more sadly but the missions that you can buy (and some stuff is free on fs.to) add a lot. It is a much heavier and more modern approach to helicopters with quite some automation (which you can turn off) so depends what you like!
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Robinson R44: Good for free - flies pretty nicely and itās got constant updates. By a very pro team so you can have faith it flies as well as possible within MSFS I suppose.
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Ka-10M HAT: Fun, but no.
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Huey UH-1H: I didnāt fly it, so canāt comment on this one.
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HPG 135: I didnāt fly it, so canāt comment on this one.
ā¦sure I have missed lots!
For me, at the moment, the Cowan. But I still have a big love of the Cabri!
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The yoke-as-stick thing was actually not too bad with the Bird Dog because that plane is so slow. Iāve taken your advice though, and mapped the elevator and aileron axes to my Logitech Extreme joystick that sits to the left of my yoke. Usually it is just there for drone views, slewing, and occasionally getting the A320 in the air before autopilot gets switched on. Oh, and the Z axis is super useful as a nosewheel tiller on the Airbus and the BAe146. Flying the Bird Dog with it now is an improvement, especially in terms of pulling back in order to not get the nose into the ground when I brake while taxiing! Iāve also set the thumb buttons on top for ātranslate view heightā so I can quickly peek over the nose on the ground, and the button under the index finger resets the cockpit view. Here is a photo of my setup BTW - hard to see in the bottom right corner are the dual Logitech quadrants that are great for twins as well as for a āspeed brake and four enginesā combo on the BAe146. (Excuse the dust - this will all be dismantled, and cleaned, this week before moving it to my new rental so I can actually sim while living in the town where my job is this year.)
As for Solent, yes it does chug quite a bit - tolerable in the Islander but I wouldnāt want to land a fast jet here. It looks great though, and how could I not get it if there are two BN hangars?
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I have a Fulcrum Yoke and an MS FFB2 but to be honest even though the FFB2 is plugged in and only requires enabling in the MSFS setup to switch to it, I rarely bother, maybe if I am doing aerobatics or really want the force feedback. I fly a Sting with a stick IRL and with my yoke in the sim. Still feels pretty right even with the yoke.
Matching your device to the real aircraft is a nice touch sure, but very similar aircraft will often have different controls for no apparent reason other than designer whim.
Why do the Piper Warrior, P38, Staggerwing and Cessna 172 all have yokes and Piper Cubs, Cessna 162 and Diamond Aircraft products such as the DA20, DA40, DA42 etc all have centre sticks ?
The biggest difference between your sim setup and real life is often which hand is on the throttle, this of course can even change in a real aircraft just by swapping seats. In a 172 you fly with the right hand on the throttle from the left seat but the left hand on the throttle from the right seat.
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My January selectiion of favourite aircraft in no particular order:
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Asobo Cessna 208b Caravan with FTSiM+ sound mod.
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Blacksquare Cessna 208b Caravan with FTSiM+ sound mod : Either of the two Caravans are my goto when I want a relaxed flight, the Blacksquare slightly more involved.
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DHC-2 Beaver Amphibious Floatplane : From startup to shutdown, this thing is such fun to fly - just turn your sound way up.
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Asobo Diamond DA62 with MG Enterprises mod:
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Asobo Beechcraft Baron G58 with MG Enterprises mod: Iām no pilot but both of these Asobo planes feel so much better with this mod.
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Beechcraft Bonanza Turbo : An old favourite, easy to fly with VNAV and visual to any airport thanks to G1000.
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FFX Vision Jet G2: Fun jet fully computerised.
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Asobo TBM930: Iām not into āstudy levelā aircraft so this suits me just fine. Startup and away in minutes, not spending half my available flight time trying to work out why the ***** wonāt start.
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Flysimware Cessna 414AW Chancellor: Great plane with enough complexity to keep me interested and the sounds from those two Continental 6 cylinder engines are truely superb.
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SWS Kodiak 100: This would have to be my most flown add-on aircraft and even though it went through a couple of updates that had me relegating it to the hangar it now feels more stable and less twitchy and I love being able to fly it to any minor airport using visual and VNAV with the G1000.
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1 Vertigo, its fun fun funā¦.
2 Beech Baron, an easygoing forgiving aircraft.
3 TBM930 āMugz modā, sadly an unloved child in an unloved niche (VR)
4 Icon A5; start everywhere, land everywhere, enjoy the views.
5 Robin DR400, very basic
6 Cessna Longitude (we need a gulfstreamā¦ā¦)
7 Learfan 2200
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Heared fairly good noises about the FI birds but havenāt tried them personally. The Cowan isā¦ less carttoony than a lot of the others, at least.
Can I ask how you have found using that SanDisk external SSD for content, loading into the Sim? Have you used it a lot to know if itās performing fine?
There is a good deal today on Amazon for this same drive (2tb, but not the āProā one) with 42% off at the moment, wondering if I should just go for it!? 
Cheers!
FYI I counted the -800 as I didnāt hear back from you. Let me know if thatās āwrongā
I have the sim installed on an external SanDisk 1TB with no issues.
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Oh sorry, missed that. 700, actually. BBJ. 8 is fine, too. Iām not picky in that regard.
OK will change to 700. Didnāt you get notification of my reply (just wondering)?
Iāve been getting a lot of notifications and might miss one from time to time. 
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Actually I sent it back to WD, it was $150, which is a decent deal, Costco had them for $135 but out of stock at the moment. If you have Costco there or can order online? I am going a different route, with a m.2 NVMe in a USB 3.2 enclosure. Got the Samsung 970 EVO plus SSD 2TB with read/write speeds up to 3500 MB/s, the reason being that itās about the same price, much faster than the Sandisk Extreme 1050 MB/s even faster than the Extreme PRO and will let me put it into a m.2 MVNe Gen 4 slot on new build if I want later on. Also smaller than the Extreme.
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Iām in the UK so we donāt have the pleasure of that store
Good idea for the enclosure though - I might look at that method instead. Good plan!
Awwww, thatās a shame because they have terrific Pizza and Jumbo Hot Dogs at their food court 
Also you can get good brands of 2TB m.2 NVMe SSD sticks for much less than the Samsung, such as Kingston and Crucial. You will end up cheaper than the Sandisk Extreme (with the enclosure included) and a faster, smaller and more flexible drive.
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The only problem with M2 in external enclosures is they can get very hot under sustained write. They are generally OK but something like cloning an entire hard disk can fail if the enclosure does not provide enough cooling.
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I made the exact same choice, works fine for me, no problems at all (yet ā¦!!)
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Err yes we do dude, I used to drive one of the girls from work over to Farnborough to restock the Tbar from a Costco. Lovely Pizza and bottomless diet coke, like a date night
But donāt tell the ex 
The only drawback is that the price doesnāt include VAT, thatās added at the tillā¦
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