When it comes to helicopter flying in Flight Simulator, it has always been a challenge and to actually recreate the controls and the true feel of a chopper. Choppers weren’t really realized until FS9 and they have really come to the forefront with FSX, so it is only necessary that we have a control unit that will be serve them.
There have been some excellent chopper add-ons for both FS9 and FSX, but I have always found myself flying with my Saitek X-52 Controllers to get me where I need to go. Then, one day while I was surfing the web I found it! A product that offered the helicopter feel that I was looking for and when I saw that a company out of Switzerland was offering such a control unit, I couldn’t wait to check it out! The site is http://www.pro-flight-trainer.ch and at this site the author illustrates a control set designed specifically for flying helicopters in either Flight Simulator or X-Plane. The product is aptly named the Pro Flight Trainer and what it does is quite remarkable, as it includes all of the controls needed for flying a helicopter. If that wasn’t enough, they are placed in the correct position in relation to that of the real world controls of a Bell 206; all in one single unit and all at one price. The Pro Flight Trainer The Trainer has a unique design and fits in and works well with existing Flight Simulator Hardware. The unit itself is designed mainly with treated wood with the exception of the steel faceplate on the upper part of the base unit and this is to simulate the metal plating on the floor of a chopper. It comes with plastic knobs, the cyclic and the collective. The control cyclic is mounted on top of a lightweight steel pole and the collective is attached to the left of the unit with a wooden arm that is attached to the side of the unit.
Design and layout is key to getting the true feeling of a helicopter and the overall design of the Pro Flight Trainer does offer an incredibly realistic feel when flying choppers in Flight Simulator. You almost get the sensation of climbing into the cockpit when you use it for the first time as you find yourself taking extra precautions not to bump or hit anything with your feet and legs when you are setting up inside the cockpit. The collective is mounted to an arm of wood that attaches to the base unit and control of the collective is done through the movement of the collective handle. Moving it in an up and down manor simulates the up and down movement of the helicopter, the position of the collective can also be adjusted for the height of the user. The rudder system, or yaw and/or anti-torque pedals, are controlled through a set of foot pedals mounted on the front section of the base unit and are adjustable for people with longer legs or shorter legs. Control of the foot unit is done by pushing down on either the left or the right side of the pedals to simulate the desired direction of movement. The other factor that comes into play with a product like this is storage. Originally, I had planned on adding this to an older computer where it could remain hooked up all the time, but space and system problems prevented it so I had to use it with my newer computer. This meant that I could not have it hooked up all the time and I would need space to store it when it’s not in use. The unit is designed to be easily stored and once it is folded up it will fit nicely under a bed or in a dark corner of a closet until your next flight.
Out of the Box My controls had quite a journey. Their trip started in Switzerland then onto Victoria BC and ultimately to my neck of the woods here on the Oregon Coast. When the box arrived I found that the unit was packed well, and had a wood frame inside the box to keep the unit in place and to help protect delicate pieces like the cyclic and its base. Upon unpacking the box I found, to my surprise, that there was absolutely no documentation included with it, but rather a small piece of paper that instructed me to go to the website for further instruction on how to set it up. Given the price of the product and what is involved in setting it up, there should be some form of printed instructions included. Maybe not so much for the software end of things but something that shows how everything is supposed to work.
Well, if there is one thing you have probably learned about me it's that I do not like reading directions, especially if those directions aren’t right there to be read! So, after unpacking the unit I moved it into my computer room and was quick to plug it in. The unit itself is plug-and-play so there is no need to install drivers and Windows should just take care of all of it. The cyclic is mounted atop a long aluminum pole that is attached to a control box on the base of the unit. The cyclic joystick offers 3 buttons and a POV hat for easy view panning. I found that the main trigger is configured automatically for the brake and this is definitely a good thing especially when flying choppers that are equipped with brakes. You can also assign other keys to the other two buttons as well.
Upon visually inspecting my Pro Flight Trainer, I couldn’t help but notice that the collective was mounted to the front of the unit rather than the side. I would find out later that for storage and shipping purposes the collective has to be mounted this way and does require the purchaser to move it and mount it in the correct place every time he or she want to take out of storage and use it. This is easily done by removing the plastic knob on the front of the wooden arm the collective is mounted to and moving it to the mounting holes on the side of the unit. The collective arm does allow for tall or shorter people and can be adjusted to suit. I did have a concern about moving the collective arm to its correct position and that was because of the wire that runs from the collective to the base of the unit. This wire has the tendency to get wedged in between the base unit and the arm and could be ripped in two quite easily when the arm is moved. I have already had to tape up the wire on my unit because the wood wore the plastic coating off of it and had I not been paying attention, it would have broken in two. The pedals are mounted on the front top part of the unit, the floor of the chopper, and at first I couldn’t figure out how they actually worked because I couldn’t get FSX to see them and was somewhat concerned because I was able to get sporadic control movement but nothing steady. After doing some testing with FSX’s controller menu I managed to find out that it was the CH Rudder Pedals and they were interfering with the Pro Flight Trainer and I was ultimately required to deactivate their assignment from within Flight Simulator to be able to use the helicopter controls. This was not a big deal, but you just have to remind yourself to reactivate the others when going between the different controllers and aircraft.
Movement of the rudder pedals is done by pushing down on either side of the pedal to get the chopper to move in its respective direction. Out of the box I found that you need to tighten the pedals, otherwise they will move in a forward and backward motion for adjustment and one can mistake that for pedal movement. Once you are all set up I do recommend going through and tightening all of the adjustment knobs with the exception of the knob that is associated with the collective. You will want this one to remain as loose as possible thus allowing for fluid movement of the collective. The rudders operate the same way, there is a knob on the front of the pedals that adjusts the sensitivity and I left mine as loose as possible to give it free and fluid movement. If the controls seem sticky at all they need to be adjusted and should move freely! Up and Flying Within Minutes! When I first heard about this product I had three choppers in mind for testing. The first was of course the default Bell, the second was the Alphasim Blackhawk and finally the Alphasim Apache Longbow. I decided to spend a significant amount of time with each helicopter and though my results were varied, I did have my favorites and each helicopter performed remarkably well with the Pro Flight Trainer. Initially I started with the Blackhawk, but I found my helicopter skills to be less than adequate and ultimately spent a lot of time crashing the Blackhawk rather than flying it. So, my next step was to go to the default Bell and brush up on landings, hovering, stable and sustained flight, and getting used to my new controls. As I have said before, to fly a helicopter in Flight Simulator you really have to have a feel for it and good visual references. I was able to achieve this using my Track IR and turning on the shadows. The shadows would give me the depth perception I would need when attempting to land and the Track IR would allow me to look freely from within the cockpit to allow me to get the best positional awareness when landing and to be more aware of my surroundings. Initially I just did a couple of touch and go’s with the Bell at my airport of choice, KYKM, and then moved on to a touring flight over Yakima. After I was comfortable with the controls and setting the chopper down, I decided to fly out over downtown Yakima and land at the Yakima Speedway in front of a crowd of people watching a race. After making one pass, I picked a spot for my landing and brought the chopper back around on a southerly approach. As I neared the race, I pulled back on the cyclic and pushed the collective down to bring the chopper to a slow crawl and ultimately put it into a hover above the raceway. After looking over the Landing Zone, I carefully set the chopper down on the ground. My first attempt was a successful one and I found that the controls offered a realistic simulation of how the actual controls work in a real world helicopter.
Another thing I wanted to try with the Bell, was putting the chopper into a rotating hover, kind of like the ones the police choppers use when they are looking for a suspect. After selecting a target, I brought the chopper into a hover without losing site of my target. I rotated the chopper around a two block radius while never losing track of the tractor-trailer I had chosen as my target. I was never able to do this with my old configuration of controllers and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome with the Pro Flight Trainer. The next helicopter up was that of the Blackhawk from Alphasim and from what I have seen so far, this is one of the touchiest choppers to fly in FSX and probably one of the more realistic helicopters available. The first thing that needs to be taken into account is that of the helicopters size and power plant when flying it. This is not a Bell 206 and you can definitely feel a difference between the two when flying them. I decided to make a short flight from KYKM to the Yakima Firing Center and then back to KYKM. The one thing that I liked most about the Blackhawk is that its gauges are designed accurately and the gauge update is almost perfect, thus allowing for real time flight information to be available to the pilot all the time without any lag. Visibility is also good from within the cockpit allowing the pilot to fly the chopper and not have to adjust his or her view during a flight. The other factor that has to be taken into account when flying the Blackhawk is that it’s a big chopper and you really need to pay attention to what is around you. I managed to find this out the hard way as I went to land for the first time at the Firing Center, my tail rotor struck a building and I was forced to start all over because of the building strike. Short answer here, keep your eyes peeled! The Pro Flight Trainer, when used with the Blackhawk, offers some of the best hand- eye coordination I have seen in just about any helicopter add-on. This is mainly due to the POV of the pilot and the placement of the gauges, as well as the real time update of those gauges from within the aircraft model and I have to say that the Pro Flight Trainer and the Alphasim Blackhawk work masterfully together!
The Apache Longbow is a massive chopper and to really appreciate her, you need to see one to understand what I am talking about. The Apache Longbow from Alphasim does not disappoint, as it is probably one of the most detailed helicopters to come from Alphasim and I can only compare it with the same quality and detail to that of their Seasprite! From the outside you can’t go wrong with the Apache Longbow as there are just so many bells and whistles to observe and watch as you find yourself sitting from afar just to see it in action! Flying the Apache was a different story though. The flight model is good but the lack of a HUD and placement of the pilots POV makes flying the chopper difficult. In order to use the chopper with the Pro Flight Trainer, I had to turn on the speed and altitude information using the Shift Z command in FSX to be displayed. The Chopper does have a HUD, but it is placed in one of the MFD’s rather than in the pilot’s helmet gear, forcing the pilot to always look down. The included HUD does not offer speed or altitude information either. Important information like collective, speed and altitude is extremely important when flying any helicopter and when it is not readily available, it makes for some difficult flying. This aside though, I am confident that I will spend more time with the Longbow as my flying skills improve with both the Bell and the Blackhawk.
The other relative aspect of flying any one of these choppers is its audible sound, as the pilot needs to know what his or her engine is doing. Each chopper sounds remarkably good and gives the virtual pilot a good sense of the engine when in flight. The Alphasim Birds prove to be the best when it comes to the sound department, especially the Apache Long Bow! A Few Questions For The Developer The website offers much information about the Pro Flight Trainer control system, but I still had my questions and concerns about this product. After emailing the designer, within 24 hours of my email I had my answers! 1. Why did you choose to design it out of wood rather then a durable plastic? Answer: It’s related to the production. At the beginning, we had all tools to produce it that way. It has no major disadvantage. Plastic forms or other technologies made sense starting from 10,000 units and more. As you can imagine, we have not yet imagined selling that amount of pro flight trainer. (If we had to choose another material, we would rather go into Aluminum then plastic). 2. What is your ultimate goal with this trainer? Answer: Our main goal is to share a innovative idea with others which has waited for such controls for long time. We will surely improve it based on customer feedback, and implement new idea as possible. Main goal must be: very reliable and precise, not too expensive, everything needed included in the base package. Our “lifestill”, better 10 perfect units, then 1000 with problems. 3. Do you have professional aspirations for it in terms of use for training real pilots? Answer: There are a lot of pro flight trainer used in training facilities here. Many students use it at their PPL beginning to train movement coordination. I use it as a Jet Ranger pilot to train IFR and low-sight environment, and to stay “in the feeling” when not flying several weeks. 4. How do you plan to market this unit and make it readily available in other countries? Currently, what does it cost to ship it from you to the States? Answer: The unit is available in about 30 countries. See our e-store for the complete list and prices: http://www.pro-flight-trainer.ch/index.php?uid=43&cmd[eshop][119][artid]=1choose “destination” and watch the price changing to give shipment cost information. (Other shipment destination on demand) We have re-sellers in Belgium, France, Netherland. Open re-seller project: Canada, USA, South Africa. In The End What can I say, I am a helicopter junky! This product has literally transformed the way I fly helicopters in FSX and is well worth its price tag in my opinion. It never fails as I am always looking for something to enhance my experience with Flight Simulator and unfortunately Helicopters have always been left out of the mix; that is until now! The Pro Flight Trainer sells for about $505 and that includes shipping costs, so in the end it is a reasonable investment if you spend a lot of time flying choppers. There are many reasons to want these controllers; mine was to simply make flying choppers in Flight Simulator more realistic and my sessions much more enjoyable. It is my opinion that the guys that designed and developed these controllers really do have something that every Flight Sim Chopper Pilot should have! Gone are the days of flying helicopters with my X52 Saitek Controllers, now when I literally climb into the chopper seat I feel as though I am taking chopper flying to a whole new level in Flight Simulator! Once again Alphasim never ceases to amaze! The Blackhawk and the Apache Longbow are definitely must haves for any helicopter enthusiast. They are good on frame rates and offer some of the most stunning visuals I have seen in a helicopter add-on to date. Their choppers made this article all the more fun to write!
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