Can you fly a heli?

[beaky]

Once airborne, helicopters can be made to fly almost like real aircraft.  ;)
I can handle them quite well, except for landing... always seem to wind up going backwards, unable to recover. Either that or I chop the throttle in desperation and bounce it.

[BFMF]

Though not an 'expert' or 'professional' at flying helos, I'm quite comftorable with them. I don't fly them a whole lot so i'm probably a little rusty, but i've logged a little over 40 hours in helos on the simulators.

I much prefer single engine aircraft, warbirds, or just plain classics

[Springer6]

As I say , it's got a lot to do with how you set up your controller settings ( see the tutorials mentioned above) . You need different sensitivities from the default and from fixed wing settings. Although I use helo settings for fixed wings successfully to save altering them all the time.

Sorry you fixed wing afficionados, but the degree of control and concentration required for helos far exceeds that for fixed wing ( given similar standard of aircraft ) e.g.  Jetranger far harder than a Cessna 172 but easier than say a Tornado low down.

Whilst we're into bragging rights, landing on buildings is relatively easy.

Have you tried landing a rescue helo on a pitching ship ( which is ablaze with lots of smoke)  in a thunderstorm at night ?  This is a requirement on one of the missions that can be downloaded for CFS2.

And how many people can do the FS9 "barnstorming" mission (flying through the barn without hitting it) in the Jetranger rather than the default Curtis Jenny ?

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

Helo's get along with me fine, but it's the landing's that I fail all the time. Flying them is pretty fun I guess and a nice way to enjoy the FS scenery.
Cheers all,
Ashar

[nyco_nitro]

Flying a helicopter in flightsim is pretty good. For some of you out there who can't seem to manage to fly perfectly in flightsim are taking a disliking to helo's. If you've ever seena  real helicopter you will understand thigs are much different. I am lucky enough to have been in and around not only civilian but also Canadian Forces helicopters (CH-146 and the CH-149). Inside them you have three controls, a collective, a stick, and pedals. when your actually in there you have control of things seperatly, making it easer than attempting it all with a single joystick. Although i have no piloted one I can onl;y imagine how much easier it would be.

Just keep in mind that Helicopter flying is something you must learn and practice, many, many times! Good luck and happy flyin!

Bob

[Springer6]

Just did the "Barnstorming at Edgefield" flight  in FS9 in the Jetranger , to prove I could still do it. Easy at slow speeds , but at 60 knots plus, a bit of a challenge. You need to keep the skids almost ( but not quite) dragging along the ground to make sure the rotors clear the barn as the "collision  zone " of the barn presents a smaller aparture than the visual model does.

Landing inside the barn and then flying out is also quite testing.

Another bit of fun is to install the freeware Monument Valley scenery ( for FS2000 I think) and install  it in Utah in FS9 . Then try landing the Bell 222 ( Airwolf version preferred) inside the hollow rock butte as in the TV series. This requires a vertical descent of a hundred feet plus inside what is in effect a hollow building (touching the sides is cheating -- only the ground part  has collision detection enabled) , make a decent landing and then take off again and exit the butte all without touching it.

It seems to help if you play the "Airwolf" TV series soundtrack very loudly whilst doing this and adjust your weather to give a dusting of snow !    ;)

[Springer6]

Flying a helicopter in flightsim is pretty good. For some of you out there who can't seem to manage to fly perfectly in flightsim are taking a disliking to helo's. If you've ever seena  real helicopter you will understand thigs are much different. I am lucky enough to have been in and around not only civilian but also Canadian Forces helicopters (CH-146 and the CH-149). Inside them you have three controls, a collective, a stick, and pedals. when your actually in there you have control of things seperatly, making it easer than attempting it all with a single joystick. Although i have no piloted one I can onl;y imagine how much easier it would be.

Just keep in mind that Helicopter flying is something you must learn and practice, many, many times! Good luck and happy flyin!

Bob

Actually you can replecate the basic helo controls very well in FS even with a "single joystick" although the addition of rudder pedals  helps enormously ( easy in FS which allows multiple controllers).

The rudder pedals (or at a pinch the twist grip of a joystick) perform the action of the anti-torque rotor control pedals) .

The joystick X and Y axis perform the function of the cyclic pitch control and the throttle performs the function of the collective pitch control. This latter is quite feasable, as in virtually all modern helos ( and all turbine models ) the engine/rotor speed is controlled by a governor and so the collective mounted twist grip  throttle is only used to run up to and down from normal operating rotor speed on start up and shutdown or when going into idle mode ( this can be simulated via the prop speed control function of the keyboard or from one of the variable axis controls if you have a sophisticated joystick.

If you have a seperate throttle system like the Saitek X45 or X52 you can position your throttle controller to act and more or less  feel like a real collective.

I have spent a great deal of time flying in ( but not piloting light turbine helos) . From my limited experience of being allowed to take the controls ( at a safe height and speed) , I would say that the experience of operationg the flying controls is very similar to that of using a decent control set up in the simulator. If anything the controls in FS helos seem more sensitive and less stable than the real thing. In some ways the simulator is more difficult than reality in that you have no seat of pants feel and no peripheral vision.
However in the simulator of course you can always walk away from your mistakes !

[z1010]

 Without wind: yes
 With wind: no.

  Take off and flying: Yes, but not without difficulty
  Landing: most of the time: no

  I voted 'yes'. Am I a liar?