RSP Robinson R44 Released Wednesday 15 on Flighstim.to

[Stoopy 1,627]

Heads up, updates for both the R44 and AirlandFS are available at the ".to".   About to start a flight and check 'em out, but of note, the R44 update now provides two separate flight cfg files for AirlandFS, a "blue" and a "black".  Blue for all-round flying, and Black for more "pro" setups or people with pedals.  Nice that they are giving people options.   Gonna go try the Black version with sliders all the way to the right.  

https://flightsim.to/file/20566/robinson-r44-raven-ii-helicopter-project

https://flightsim.to/file/21417/airlandfs

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by Stoopy

[Stoopy 1,627]

Good Gravy.  They're not kidding around when it comes to the "Black" flight model.  I don't recommend sensitivity sliders all the way right.  Words like "Unhinged" and "Spastic" came to mind on my wild first flight.  But setting it back down somewhere close to the intended landing spot made me feel like I suddenly grew a Yeti-sized patch of hair on my chest.

Research continues at KAVX using 60% realism flight model and 0% (mid-range) sensitivity settings...

[captain420 3,099]

The R44 has been growing on me and is by far the best helicopter in the game. I use it primarily for VFR flight seeing and exploration and it's a ton of fun with just an xbox controller with the BLUE profile!

[Pastaiolo 1,690]

Having fun with it as well.

 

[Stoopy 1,627]

15 hours ago, captain420 said:

The R44 has been growing on me and is by far the best helicopter in the game. I use it primarily for VFR flight seeing and exploration and it's a ton of fun with just an xbox controller with the BLUE profile!

I tried the Blue profile very very briefly but immediately saw why you would like it.   I agree that for anyone looking to use helos for fun relaxing flight this is an option that would be hard to beat.  And a really nice approach they are taking to accommodate both the serious and recreational users.

I am still clinging tenaciously to my beloved Bell 47 as the preferred ride but the gap is closing tighter with each release of this project.

Edited October 15, 2021 by Stoopy

[captain420 3,099]

2 hours ago, Stoopy said:

I tried the Blue profile very very briefly but immediately saw why you would like it.   I agree that for anyone looking to use helos for fun relaxing flight this is an option that would be hard to beat.  And a really nice approach they are taking to accommodate both the serious and recreational users.

I am still clinging tenaciously to my beloved Bell 47 as the preferred ride but the gap is closing tighter with each release of this project.

Yes, I also think the Bell 47 is a close 2nd. These are my 2 favorite helis in MSFS. One thing I like about the Bell 47 more is the view is slightly better in the cockpit and you see a little more due to the center bar not being there as it is in the R44. But that's very minor. I enjoy both!

[dogmanbird 269]

Imho it now feels really nice. I too agree that with the black profile, it's a close tie with the 47g

There's some abrupt torque changes as the heli transitions through different airspeeds (not sure how accurate that would be?) Other than that it's terrific, especially for a freebie 😀

BTW the Uh-60 now feels pretty good too (imo) if anyone hasn't tried that in the last day or so.

Has anyone tried this? I've only just seen it.

https://flightsim.to/file/21679/helicopter-mil-mi-2?utm_source=HeliSimmer.com

Edited October 16, 2021 by dogmanbird

[Stoopy 1,627]

Interesting thing about the new Black profile.  It was all over the place for me from the second I lifted off, and after thinking about it I adjusted my flightstick sensitivity settings in MSFS to give a verrrry small (2%) deadzone for the X and Y axis.  This had the effect of calming the Black profile WAY down (you still have to be on the ball with it) but it was very, very good.  After doing a nice, smoothly controlled flight with Realism set at 80% in AirlandFS, I bumped it back up to 100% with AirlandFS Sensitivity settings set right in the center of the range (0%) and it was a perfect blend of control, smoothness and what I would consider realistic difficulty.  Things can still get away from you in very slow flight or a hover if you have a lapse of attention, but overall it was a very different animal than that first unhinged, spastic flight a few days ago.

Flying the Bell 47 immediately afterwards, the Bell was harder to control and maybe it doesn't like a deadzone.   But the two felt extremely close - I'd say closer than they ever have felt up to this point.

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Stoopy
Correct the usual idiotic typos

[jimcarrel 688]

11 hours ago, dogmanbird said:

Imho it now feels really nice. I too agree that with the black profile, it's a close tie with the 47g

There's some abrupt torque changes as the heli transitions through different airspeeds (not sure how accurate that would be?) Other than that it's terrific, especially for a freebie 😀

BTW the Uh-60 now feels pretty good too (imo) if anyone hasn't tried that in the last day or so.

Has anyone tried this? I've only just seen it.

https://flightsim.to/file/21679/helicopter-mil-mi-2?utm_source=HeliSimmer.com

I think this one came out of the box in a better state than most when they 1st appeared and it hasn't had an update yet (that I know of)

Edited October 16, 2021 by jimcarrel

[Mike S KPDX 598]

4 hours ago, Stoopy said:

Interesting thing about the new Black profile.  It was all over the place for me from the second I lifted off, and after thinking about it I adjusted my flightstick sensitivity settings in MSFS to give a verrrry small (2%) deadzone for the X and Y axis.  This had the effect of calming the Black profile WAY down (you still have to be on the ball with it) but it was very, very good.  After doing a nice, smoothly controlled flight with Realism set at 80% in AirlandFS, I bumped it back up to 100% with AirlandFS Sensitivity settings set right in the center of the range (0%) and it was a perfect blend of control, smoothness and what I would consider realistic difficulty.  Things can still get away from you in very slow flight or a hover if you have a lapse of attention, but overall it was a very different animal than that first unhinged, spastic flight a few days ago.

Flying the Bell 47 immediately afterwards, the Bell was harder to control and maybe it doesn't like a deadzone.   But the two felt extremely close - I'd say closer than they ever have felt up to this point.

 

 

I loaded both the black and blue and with both a very slight lift on the collective sent the thing wildly skidding across the tarmac on its nose like a henna on fire.  At that point I just binned the entire package.

your statement here is Interesting, I may have to try this but I hate having to adjust controller setting this much just for one aircraft.  I think (hope) that Asobo will allow for profile settings per aircraft.  

[Stoopy 1,627]

34 minutes ago, Mike S KPDX said:

 

I loaded both the black and blue and with both a very slight lift on the collective sent the thing wildly skidding across the tarmac on its nose like a henna on fire.  At that point I just binned the entire package.

your statement here is Interesting, I may have to try this but I hate having to adjust controller setting this much just for one aircraft.  I think (hope) that Asobo will allow for profile settings per aircraft.  

They do.  You can go into your control options and duplicate your existing profiles, rename the duplicate to something suitable, and change sensitivities and assignments as you see fit. 

I have separate controller profiles for my stick and throttle quadrant to suit fixed wing, rotary wing, H145 (because of it's special bells and whistles) and also reversed and normal brake assignments for my rudder pedals to accomodate that Asobo Husky with the backwards brakes.  On my rotary wing profiles I use straight sensitivity curves as opposed to more variable sensitivity curves for fixed wing.  

Your experience with the black and blue profile is similar to my first wild ride and the very small deadzone fixed it.  My assumption is that the new version of AirlandFS changed the way it reads joystick inputs to accommodate more precision. I'd encourage you to try again when you feel up to it. 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Stoopy

[Stoopy 1,627]

12 hours ago, dogmanbird said:

Has anyone tried this? I've only just seen it.

https://flightsim.to/file/21679/helicopter-mil-mi-2?utm_source=HeliSimmer.com

I have been eyeballing that Mi-2 and your post made me go try it.  It looks pretty cool on the inside, the screenshots don't do it justice.  The exterior model has huge rivets which make the airframe look like it was pounded into shape out of cast iron and belongs on a locomotive, which in a weird way fits my expectation for an early Soviet-era helicopter.  There isn't much in the cockpit in terms of clickable stuff, except for some buttons that enable/disable some visual interior options for a copilot, medical assets like a stretcher table and oxygen tank, an injured passenger (a pretty gruesome-looking one at that, just in time for halloween maybe) and a medical assistant to take care of the poor injured dude, who frankly doesn't look like he's gonna make it.    The simple readme file says just to use CTRL-E to start and SHIFT-CTRL-E to shut it down, pretty simple affair.

So it struck me as pretty cool - unfortunately I could not get it to lift off. I copied the profile for AirlandFS to the right folder for the AirlandFS application, and it loaded fine and seemed to recognize the helicopter, but with the engines spooled all the way up to 100% she just sat there.  Which doesn't seem like good news as far as that injured dude is concerned.  Maybe the profile provided in the download is for an older version of AirlandFS. 

EDIT: Yeah that's what it was. Looks like the new version of AirlandFS utilizes the ATC code for each aircraft to ensure it's running with the right helicopter.   If you add the line shown in bold below to the first section of the "airlandfs_Mi-2.cfg" file that comes with the Mi-2 download, that fixes things:

 [Main]    
Author=    BeeKay (Romantic Wings)
Version=    1.0
Title=    Mi-2 v.1.0
Description =    Flight model for Romantic Wings Mil Mi-2 Hoplite. 
atc_model ="Mi-2"

With that done, she jumps right up in the air and is a pretty nimble little helicopter.  Flies fairly well, too.  You can feel that same AirlandFS pedigree to it, it might tend towards being just a bit more like the previous version of the R44, not quite as refined and sweet as the R44 BLUE profile.  But landing manners are very docile and it was pretty easy to put her down exactly on the precise spot I wanted.  With the gory passenger and medic options this would be a good choice for doing S&R missions in NeoFly.  And with her appearance leaning much more toward Babushka than Svetlana, you gotta admit she looks right at home on an oil rig!

Edited October 17, 2021 by Stoopy

[Stoopy 1,627]

Actually the more I fly that Mi-2 the more I like it.  It has tons of power, perfect for either hauling huge buckets of sand to dump into an open reactor core at Chernobyl, or carrying a full load of prisoners off to the Gulag for political re-education.  I can't emphasize how easy it is to fly and land and in hindsight it doesn't have the same quirks as the Beta 2 version of the R44.  It's simple, powerful, quick to start up and fly, and very gentle and honest in it's flight model.  It actually is a gem and might be the best beginner's helicopter for MSFS yet!

There's a bare minimum of working gauges in the cockpit. Compass, Altimeter, VSI, the airspeed is the thing to the left of the pilot's Attitude Indicator (of which there are two and neither function) and the thing above it that looks like it might be an airspeed indicator is some kind of radio altimeter that gives you somewhat precise readings between 0 and 100 feet (not meters I believe) AGL.  It feels weird to fly a Soviet aircraft that doesn't yield altitude in Meters after all that time flying Yak-1's and La-5's in IL2 Sturmovik.  But the airspeed appears to be in kilometers per hour so it has that going for it.  Anyway, although it has all the jazzy styling and cool sex appeal of a Trabant, it's enough to get the basic jobs done for sure.

Yeah, it's cool and kind of a fun and different change of pace.  Just... don't... look in the back... if you load up that injured passenger.  😁

Edited October 17, 2021 by Stoopy

[Mike S KPDX 598]

3 hours ago, Stoopy said:

They do.  You can go into your control options and duplicate your existing profiles, rename the duplicate to something suitable, and change sensitivities and assignments as you see fit. 

I have separate controller profiles for my stick and throttle quadrant to suit fixed wing, rotary wing, H145 (because of it's special bells and whistles) and also reversed and normal brake assignments for my rudder pedals to accomodate that Asobo Husky with the backwards brakes.  On my rotary wing profiles I use straight sensitivity curves as opposed to more variable sensitivity curves for fixed wing.  

Your experience with the black and blue profile is similar to my first wild ride and the very small deadzone fixed it.  My assumption is that the new version of AirlandFS changed the way it reads joystick inputs to accommodate more precision. I'd encourage you to try again when you feel up to it. 

I know the profiles can be saved and recalled, but I understood that the actual input device curves and zones applies to all profiles, I will look forward to checking this out, thanks.

[jcomm 6,092]

5 hours ago, Mike S KPDX said:

I know the profiles can be saved and recalled, but I understood that the actual input device curves and zones applies to all profiles, I will look forward to checking this out, thanks.

Thought that too when I started using MFS post SU5, but it is actually possible to bind curves for specific aircraft or classes of aircraft.

When you create a profile based on the default or another already existing one you can name it whatever you want. Unlike the solution adopted in X-Plane 11 where we can further organize aircraft in our "hangar" by profile, associating with each one a given profile, all you have to do is select the intended profile for the aircraft you selected for your flight.

I didn't create profiles for each specific aircraft. Instead I have generic "single-prop", "multipprop", "rotary-wing", "jet" s well as some where I have disabed the throttle quad and opted for keyboard input only.

There is yet another more granular level of detail - aircraft-based - and that is a recently added feature that allows you to program a Delay in control axis response to inpus in roll, yaw and pitch. That one is accessible through the specific aircraft configuration screen, the same used to set the W & B... This last "feature" is a workaround for the overall MFS control over sensitivity experienced in MFS, and unfortunately doesn't take into consideration dynamic pressure, so, is pretty much useless / unrealistic unless you're willing to model physiological problems with your virtual pilot 🙂

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by jcomm