Battle of the Helis- FSX and Xplane

[Simmo W 24]

Hi, this is Simon from the Xplane10 Blog. We've decided to branch out and try out FSX and any other sim that comes our way, so pay us a visit over at our other broader blog. We've been very impressed with what We've seen with FSX, so Xplane10 will HAVE to be great to be competitive.So here is our first real big article in our new blog (the xplane10 one IS still staying!) If you heli lovers haven't got the Dodosim, do do so!http://xsimreviews.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/battle-of-the-helicopters-fsx-versus-xplane/Simon & Chip

[rdb 44]

Couldn't agree more, Simmo Ever since i bought Dodo 206 couple of years back i find every other FSX heli boring... and that's both - a good thing and a bad thing My humble advice would be to stay away from Cera 412 you mentioned. Some guys recommended it to me at other forums when i was looking for something new to join my lonely Dodo. I find it's flight model quite flat, Nemeth Designs league i would say.I expect to be flamed for writing this, but honestly i'm amazed how many of us - flight sim freaks - enjoy ND helis and how much praise they get. I agree their visual models are nice (unless you compare it to BK117 that is), but the flight dynamics are medicore at best IMVHO. The last time i was happy with ND was back in FS9 with theirs Mi-2 and Mi-17. That was before i discovered Dodo. On the other hand that's the way it is propably as i can't explain it to myself how in the world Carenado is so popular versus A2A (now i'm gonna get flamed! ).One more heli you may want to try is Aerosoft Huey. Developers behind it modelled some non-standard FSX behaviour, like Dodo does. In my recent anger against FSX crashes that i could not easily explain and resolve (g3d.dll etc.) i spent some more time to get more to know XP that's been long sitting on my shelf. I bought my first XP payware including BK117. I'm amazed how good it looks and how nice it handles.Right now i'm waiting for my TM Warthog stick to arrive and i for sure will be spending lots of time getting to know BK117 in XP and flying Dodo over ORBX land...

[Paul J 349]

No flames here Radek; I have four 'other' helis, but only ever fly the Dodo, and you really can't compare the Carenado models to A2A because of the type of aircraft they produce. I want a scruffy, battle-weary Spitfire (AccuSim is a bonus), but I also occasionally like to fly a fairly clean, civilized Cessna 152. Their respective flight dynamics are both excellent, but Accusim effectively doubles the price of the A2A offering(s), so even that comparison is unfair.

[Simmo W 24]

Good points guys, and I'm sad to hear more stories about ND. their latest o es LOOK great. Let's hope all this talk gets Dodo to finish off their Huey!I'll certainly be trying Conex's 206 for xp after seeing how impressed everyone is. A bargain too!

[Chock 17,769]

It's certainly true that the Dodosim Bell 206 is a great simulation of a chopper, but I think there are other ones out there that have their merits too, including some of Nemeth's more recent ones, notably their little MD Loach, which although not featuring a completely realistic flight model, does nevertheless capture the feel of the thing given the obvious limitations FS has for really simulating rotary winged flight. You can have a lot of fun with that little bird. There's a decent freebie version of the original Hughes 500 out there too incidentally, forget who made that one, but they did a great job and a search will turn it up if anyone is interested. Being a big Huey enthusiast I've got pretty much every UH-1 flight sim you can get, and to be honest, the flight model of the Charlie gunship variant in 1C's standalone Whirlwind of Vietnam combat flight sim is superior to all the MS FS ones by a long way, being able to do a convincing Huey Tuck and modeling VRS very well indeed, as well as the nuances of the Huey's rotor system. It's just a shame the game has so few missions, although the ones it has are really great, so if you are a Huey completist and a chopper fan, or interested in the Vietnam war, then it's certainly worth checking out. Ironically, even Carenado are on the Nam bandwagon this week I see, what with their little FAC Cessna twin. Given that 1C have another Vietnam game on the way, it is at least not the end of their dabbling with Hueys either, although sadly not a dedicated chopper sim. Similarly, the wonderfully engaging Apache Air Assault is another one from the same developers who made Whirlwind of Vietnam, and that in itself was enough to get me to buy it even though it looked somewhat 'arcadish', which in fact it is not in many ways, what with real AH-64 pilots apparently saying it flies quite like a real one, although there are obvious nods to playability in the arcade direction (i.e. tons of weaponry), but for all that it is a convincing heliborne experience and it has a great multiplayer game including one where you can lase targets for a buddy so he can fire Hellfire missiles from cover. Back with FS, Nemeth's FSX Huey is not bad, but it has been trumped somewhat by the Aerosoft one at least as far as frame rates and textures go although full marks to Nemeth for making a short cabin gunship variant. Some of the modeling on the Aerosoft Huey leaves a bit to be desired in the dimensional accuracy stakes, and the pilots are quite badly modeled in it too, especially their helmets. Nevertheless, what really matters is that it does fly well in spite of not modeling VRS. Cera's Bell 212 is a decent stab at an N variant twin Huey and I like that a lot, also out there for Huey fans is the Area 51 UH-1Y Venom, which is a decent 3D model but the flight modeling and systems modeling is strictly utilitarian as opposed to being a convincing emulation of the real thing, although it does at least give us a glass cockpit Huey variant to tootle around in. What we really need is Dodo to get their Huey out of the door though, because if their 206 is anything to go by, it should be the Huey to beat them all. On the subject of chopper sims incidentally, the forthcoming Take on Helicopters standalone sim/game is now on sale for pre-order at a discounted price right now if anyone cares to pick that up early. Given that the choppers in games from that developer are actually pretty good fun to fly, I think that might be something to look forward to. Sadly, when I tried X-Plane out some time ago, I thought its emulation of chopper flight was very poor indeed, although that may of course change, let's hope so. Al

[flyerkg 62]

Imagine the quality of Dodo 206 applied to some of the military helos mentioned here. The Dodo 206 keeps you thinking and engaged from start to shutdown. It does a fine job at modeling the only helicopter I have ever flown in real life.I am very interested in getting the Dreamfoil Bell 206 for X-Plane and looking for reviews of that product.

[Fielder 3,644]

Anybody try RDJ's vietnam missions for FSX?You can use any add-on HU-1.The only review I know of is in Polish, or some such language, but the pics look nice...http://yoyosims.pl/FSX_UH-1.htmledit: The chopper is the Nemeth Designs, the sim is FSX, the missions and scenery are RDJ's (payware)edit 2: Here's google translation:http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fyoyosims.pl%2FFSX_UH-1.html