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The choppers in FS are perfectly flyable, albeit not terribly realistic.If you head over to www.hovercontrol.com , there are a ton of lessons and tutorials to help you master it.It takes a lot of patience and practice, but it is certainly possible.Dan.

I find if I find if I move the control sliders to easy, then it seems more realistic and easier to control. Check out the training and education at this site if you have not already. http://www.hovercontrol.comThere is also a helicopter forum here at AVSIM with lots of rotorheads willing to help you.

MSFS should include a EC135 in its next sim! Sweet copta!http://www.pilotlist.org/helico/ec135.jpg

If you are after a good tutorial about learning to fly the Fs2004 helicopters, Avsim's Senior Staff Reviewer Steve "Bearracing" Cartwright has written a very comprehensive tutorial on this very subject. You can find it here:http://www.avsim.com/pages/0604/heli/helitutorial.htmhttp://www.avsim.com/pages/0100/avsim_sig.jpg

There is an established company marketing a FAA/JAA certified helicopter flight simulator system that uses little more than the default MSFS FS2002 Jet Ranger. For anyone that was at Heli-Expo this year, you'll know who I am referring to. The helicopter framework in MSFS still has a few technical limitations as far as development goes, but they fly quite well over all. Usually does take a little bit of practice first though (and a few configuration tweaks), because they won't fly themselves, instead the take a lot of pilot control from start to finish. This is not unrealistic.When I first started my real-world helicopter training, the instructor was very anxious to know where I learned to perform a rock-solid hover on the first attempt...if I had never flown a helicopter before. When I told him that MSFS could be used to learn this skill almost entirely before setting foot in the real thing, he needless to say, wanted to know a little more about the product. I was also able to do several other difficult tasks on the first attempt that new students would find very difficult...(ie, smoothly compensating for translational lift in the transition to foward flight, tracking a straight line in a cross wind, altitude changes while performing standard rate turns while controling rotor RPM and manifold pressure, and final approach to a fixed point on the helipad).I spent a good deal of time comparing the real-world flight dynamics and physics of the light helicopter I was training in to those available in the software, and I found them to be quite accurate. Especially when using the R-22 flight model in FS2004 (with a few minor adjustments).I have also flown in some very expensive "professional" helicopter simulators that did not feel as good (or look as good) as the set up I have at home using MSFS and the helicopter cockpit hardware from flightlink.com Of course they weren't impressed when I told them that. doh! Many of them have failed to track the improvements that have been happening in home flight simulation sector. So they are often quite unaware of how good we have it.Jordan Moore

The Hoversafe Academy also has a good set of lessons, and they provide some great advice regarding the joystick grip that I haven't seen anywhere else.http://members.shaw.ca/hoversafe/Hoversafe.htmKen

Well if you turn everything to easiest you shouldn

Jordan,If you speak of 'a few minor adjustments' to fly the Robinson, could you explain those adjustments to me?I'm quite happy with the Bell but I have some serious trouble flying the Robinson. I guess every help is welcome.You can mail me at [email protected] or post your adjustments here in the forum.ThanksLuc 'Glaudrung' BrusselmansBelgium

Hi Luc,Although many find the R-22 to be a little to reactive to input, when using realistic cockpit hardware, for example, a full length cyclic and collective, with pedals, you are able to put in much finer control inputs. With that being said, in order to make the sim helicopter very much like the real-world heli in terms of control response I actually turned up the effectiveness of several of the controls in the aircraft.cfg file. That is one of the nice things about the new R-22 framework that MSFS developed, is that you can adjust some of the simple parameters without needing to change the .air file. In the Jetranger, we often made other characteristics worse, while trying to improve others.So simply put, I increased the pitch, roll, and yaw scalars as well as the torque effect scalar in the aircraft.cfg file. With the flightlink system in use, I found increasing them from 1.0 to 3.0 was about right. However, if you try this with a standard joystick I think it would a real pain to fly, and will be far to touchy.So when using the normal joystick I keep them at 2.0 I believe. I say "believe" because I don't have access to the file right this moment and can't double check my settings for you. When on the flightlink controls, I also have my null zones set at zero, or 1 notch. And my control sensitives for aileron, rudder, and elevator set to the maximum. Once again, these might be a little much when using a standard joystick. As a standard joystick is much smaller, has much less travel and thus tends to produce much larger responses to your inputs. (this is also a matter of practice, and the quality of the joystick).I used to leave the flightlink system hooked up 100% of the time, but I am developing a new aircraft right now, and I find that spending 8 hours on the computer designing graphics while sitting in a cockpit-style seat is very tough on the back. So I have switched to my trusty joystick while I work on the project.Jordan Moore

By the way, I have never flown a Jet Ranger in the real-world, but several of our members that have (some as their regular day job), as well as some Huey pilots that freqent the site have said that the MSFS default jet ranger flight dynamics are pretty good. Of course they have a few weaknesses to point out, but over-all its a good representation.The only reason I say the R-22 is better, is because some of the general physics are better. Making for a more realistic sense of motion and gravity when hovering or doing things near the ground. Where as if you watch the Jet Ranger closely while flying in "Tower" view you can still find some strange motions that Mr. Newton would not approve of. These are very small though, and normally only noticable from an external viewpoint. Its more of a visual representation of motion problem, than it is a physics problem. Because I like to make videos, I notice them, but most users probably would not. Jordan Moore

Look in the library for "helicopter HUD"There are a few of them. It gives you a better feel for how your control changes are affecting your flight.

Hi, Practice, patience and have good tools....Flight Sim has been approved by the FAA for use with some hardwaretraining device. http://www.flyit.com/index.htmlX-plane applied for certification in conjunction with expensive hardware package only and not all the fuzz about FAA from x-planeaustin.If you look at the certification requirements for FAA approval, flight model have little to do with the simulation. The majority of the requirements are focused on the hardware and avionics fidelity.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

Both the default FS9 Bell aRobinson are perfectly flyable.But you need much patience and exercise to learn to fly them.Do not give up.It 's the same with real helicopters. They are perhaps easier to land because of the peripheral vision you have in the real world.Guy

Yes and the Robinson R22 is about as tough as it get in real life too. If you can fly that one you can fly just about any chopper :) Guess that is why they use it as a trainer that and cost of course.