Since my FS2K2 is currently not working, I've moved back over to Fly!2 for the duration and decided to hop into one of their 407s. I have all the Realism options ticked for the helos, but left the two options for the dampening gain at default (about midway on the scale). Does anyone have any optimum settings for those two functions? Just curious....... I should probably leave well enough alone. :-roll I can take off and land the Fly!2 407s much more successfully than I can handle the FS2K2 choppers (any of them) even after weeks of practice. Yet they (the 407s) feel the way I would expect a chopper to feel -- they aren't EASY, but they are more controllable for me. However I'd be interested to hear if other pilots have tweaked the dampening gain options for more realism and if so, what settings are they using.-Lindy :-wave

Hey Lindy,What's wrong with your FS2K2 setup?

Rich, if I knew what was wrong, I could probably fix it! :-eek Suffice it to say that when I start FS2K2, I get either a black screen and frozen computer or it loads up but as soon as I access the menu I get a frozen computer. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the program and with NO addons, it does the same thing!! But my box is in the computer shop as we speak, getting checked over and upgraded. Hopefully when it comes back home, things will all be well again. :-)-Lindy :-wave

Hi Lindy,nice to read that you're flying the Fly2 407s too... Since I'm still wondering how the feeling of a real helo is (need a real flight hour :-) , I just write my settings here:.all realism settings maximized.all exponentials set to zero.manually edited control.txt (in fly2 root) -all nullzones set to 0.000.both dampening settings zero, sometimes 10 (Some time ago I read a suggestion of 40 and 20, don't know, maybe it was in the bellfixv8 (do you have it installed?) readme; but I still use my own settings)This way it reacts very directly with nearly no joystick movement (but as you said not easy, think even harder than in FS), think it gets close to the real hydraulic feeling.With FS2K2 I have the same problem, I own it only few weeks, before I used Fly2 only; the FS helos seem to be very indirect and "lazy" but after some flying one gets familiar with it. So I think for most realism Fly2 could be the best, but a real pilot could tell the proof only, would like to invite one to test it :-)Do you fly online too?Regards...Robert:-rotorEDCJ

Lindy I sympathize with you as a few months ago as I attempted to backup my data my harddrive crashed and I lost about 6Gigs of FS data. In between work, a two year old and my wife, and a 56K modem it took me two and half months to restore my files and get all my add-ons back and to recustomize my flight plans. Whew!!! It makes me almost want to cry as I think about it, but it was definitely worht it. Best of luck with your setup, I'm sure you'll be flying before long!!!!!

Thanks for the reply Robert. I'll have to try your settings out and see how well they work for me. Re the FS2K2 helos, have you visited the HoverSafe website? Some wonderful tips there on helicopter flying, as well as lessons that can be downloaded. It's "supposed" to be useful for any sim, but it definitely is designed for the FS helos.You asked if I fly online...... no, I haven't tried that yet. Someday I may get up my courage, but with just a 56K dial up modem I'm not sure how successful the venture would be. I have "sailed" online however with the Virtual Sailor program and enjoyed that very much.I too have never been in a real helicopter and would love a chance to get a ride (or even a lesson) in one. But I don't suppose that will ever happen. I really enjoy flying the sim helos though.Fly safe-Lindy :-wave :-rotor