It was almost 2 years ago that I was pretty bored with FSX, so I decided to get the much-recommended Dodosim 206 helicopter, and also try my hand with the KA-50 in DCS.  I fooled around with both for a few hours, wasn't very good with either of them, and then went back to fixed wing aircraft, without having accomplished much.  All I learned was that helicopters were hard to fly, and that even though I wasn't horrible/horrible for a newbie, I would just never be able to attain any level of competence.  DCS eventually got uninstalled because I wasn't really set up for learning it (will reinstall soon with EDGE), and the Dodosim 206 sat idle for over a year with probably less than 10 hours on it, total.  In the meantime I did several upgrades to increase FSX performance all around.

 

   Recently, I got the rotorcraft bug again, so I reconfigured my desktop for a "stick" aircraft with my TM Warthog controllers, and loaded the Dodosim up, just to screw around.  This time around, I wasn't really concerned with being good, I just tried some basic things like hovering, with no expectations. 

 

   I lost track of the time, but it wasn't more than a few hours.  Suddenly it dawned on me that I was throwing the 206  around the sky and doing some very precise maneuvers with it, at the highest realism settings, like I'd been flying it all my life!   I have no idea what it was that I didn't "get" about helicopters before, but this time somehow it must have clicked.  I'm landing with precision, I'm performing sudden stops in mid-air, etc.  Not ready for autorotation practice yet, but I'm working up to it.  Maybe its because when I first got the aircraft, I was so nose down in the manual and trying to think too hard about the physics, that I wasn't really letting the muscle memory take root.  I don't know, but all I know is that I'm loving the Dodosim, and wondering why I haven't done more with rotorcraft.  Soon I will reinstall DCS too.

 

   It is kind of a shame that there aren't more FSX helicopters that have the good physics like the Dodosim, and I imagine that's because helicopters simply aren't very popular in FSX.  All I can say that I'm glad I gave helis another chance, because I really feel like I've breathed some new life into the sim, and I've had more fun in the last two days than I've had in a long time.  Thanks for letting me share a little of my excitement!

Thx for the very interesting post!

 

Yes, I did use the Dodo 206 with fs9 - the best helicopter ever made availoable for MSFS...

One thing that I'm starting to feel might be a real advantage to flying helicopters is to have the hall effect throttle unit to use as a collective.  I briefly experimented with using a standard Saitek throttle and it just didn't seem to be cutting it.  Not the right feel and quite possibly not the pre-requisite amount of sensitivity to make the minute changes that are demanded.