I'm looking for a realistic full scale helicopter simulator. According to the guys at the Fly-it booth at HAI, their engine is modified because the MS flight model alone is not realistic enough. Out of the sims I tried, the Fly-It did seem the most realistic but I am just looking for a good sim for the home PC. I was also wondering if there is collective and pedal hardware suitable for the PC. I saw a website listed here on making your own. I have no problems doing that but would like to know of any off-the-shelf units.

The flight model is not 100% accurate, sorry, but it works for many to work on their skills (maybe in the new version coming out in July!). If you haven't seen it yet, go check out Hovercontrol.com the site is all about the FS helicopter community, you can get all the answers you need there, quite a few RW heli pilots.there are a few sites that offer realistic controls for heli flying, quite expensive, but very cool. One had the entire cockpit setup, stick and all.Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

Thanks for the quick reply. That forum is just what i am looking for. I didn't find it with my own searches. I am just an enthusiast (only real stick time being 60 minutes in a 500e) so I dont need an entire Fly-It sitting in my den. Would be nice though :D. I just didn't know if there was a clear leader in PC Helicopter simulation.

I can tell you this, short of the inaccurate flight dynamics there are many that simulate EVERY aspect of real heli flight in this sim. One of the VAs I fly for is one. Definately a challenge and rewarding!Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

Exellent at-home heavy duty rotor controls at www.flightlink.comI have them, and couldn't live without them.I don't think there is a better sim that FS2002 for home right now. It has limitations concerning helicopters, however I haven't seen anything better yet.

Visit http://members.shaw.ca/hoversafe/Hoversafe.htmfor a self teaching guide to flying the FS helo. The learning techniques are similar to real world. They are essentially how I taught myself and subsequently was able to take full control of an R22 after approx 2 hrs. I must point out I was already a fixed-wing pilot (CPL) with nearly 1000 hrs experience which certainly had a big influence on my success.HoverSafe has been in continuous operation for almost 5 years.Cal

Oh crap, there goes my idea of being fiscally responsible with my tax return. I'll need to get that setup.I fly RC helicopters and there is a simulator for those that is actually pretty good. My Dad was a helicopter CFI for a number of years and I invited him over to try the sim. He didn't do so well when standing outside the helicopter but when he tried the helicopter in cockpit view with the tail rotor gyro set to standard piezo and very low gain, he was impressed at how realistic it seemed. I tried the FS product sometime back (dont know what version) but it seemed like I had to give tail rotor input to make turns. Sorta like it had a heading hold gyro simular to what many rc pilots use but that made it seem unrealistic as the full scale simulator it was supposed to be. Does it still do that or is it fixed? But as far as manipulating the sticks, the RealFlight G2 simulator might be more realistic when setup right than FS? It just seems like if the RC enthusiasts can get a fairly accurate flight model, then the full scale enthusiasts should easily have one by now. I mean, I would think there would be more of them and they are fairly serious in relating to the real deal. The Fly-It simulator I used at the HAI trade show felt great but it has its own engine based on FS2002 and they don't exactly give that away ($$$). They said the FS2002 was not accurate enough to be able to log flight hours as you can with theirs. I know I can't actually log flight time on a PC but I'd like a sim that is all but good enough. But I guess that is the trick with all these sims anyway :). Anyway, enough of my rambling.

That is a good idea. It would not be good to accidently self-teach yourself bad habbits. Thanks for the link.

Just to provide a differing opinion on the Flight Link toys - I flew a sim that's currently under development (based on X-Plane) that used the FL stuff, and I thought that the collective and cyclic were awful (and I like my CH pedals better than theirs feel-wise, although of course the CH's are not as physically accurate). I had been considering springing for at least the collective until I got the hands-on - it was very disappointing. There is no way in **** that I'd pay $800 or even $400 for their cyclic. I guess I'm going to have to build my own controls.BTW the Fly-It sim has much better controls, but they're completely custom as far as I can tell based on a quick examination of one of their sim-pits last year.Dave BlevinsEdit - one other thing - I love flying the helos in FS2002, but it does an incredibly lame job of emulating the anti-torque pedals in terms of required input and aircraft response. I sure hope they've addressed this in (at least) the upcoming FS2004 R22. Try pulling pitch in an R22 without the required amount of pedal and you'll be spinning like a top (and it will probably go rapidly downhill from there!). This, along with FS2002's somewhat damped response to control inputs, are what would concern me most about "learned bad habits".

Thanks for the info. The Flight Link looks cool but I'll need to research all this stuff more. How does X-Plane compare to FS on helis? I did a net search and they even have a Kamov KA-52 to fly and it seems like its physics model gets a better review?

I've been using the MS Sidewinder Pro stick (with rudder and throttle disabled), CH Pedals and Throttle. I open the drawer on my desk and plant the stick in there to bring it a little lower. I use some strapping to tie the throttle to the left arm of my chair so that the throttle axis is vertical (axis reversed in FS). This setup feels pretty authentic to me. I also have the CH Yoke so I use the pedals and throttle with other AC as well.I'm wondering what people think of the Search and Rescue series. I've been looking at SAR4 and the Vietnam version. Any opinions appreciated.