1 hour ago, Stoopy said:

Fascinating - who'da thunk we'd be this fortunate. .

Indeed 🙂  Even the changes to to the H145 seem decent, and the fact they have opened it up to AirlandFS is going to be very interesting!   The Robinson is much better than before, behaving much more like expected.  I'm addicted to it at the moment.  The Bell is flying great as usual.      Happy days to be a heli pilot  in MSFS

On 9/15/2021 at 3:39 PM, mikegrr said:

 i tried this but it wouldn't take off. is there a setting to get it off the ground? Is there a brake somewhere?

Later...Wait, i see there are instructions I have to follow I just noticed 

Did you figure it out?  I can't get off the ground.  I put everything in the Community folder.  

Stan

You have to run the separate airland app after you load the chopper ... It's  a separate exe file included with the download. There are instructions about how to set the sensitivities as well.

It's a little too unstable for me and gives me tennis elbow from twitching and turning the joystick so much. I have a twist rudder and no pedals. The springs on the thrustmaster T1600 are stiff. I watched videos of people maneuvering this thing and it takes a light touch, but the real collective moves easily and does not recenter like a joystick. It's also much harder to fly than the 135.

So it's too unstable for me so after a couple tries I gave up. I managed to fly around Manhattan, but l was exhausted and dizzy from bouncing around so much and landing was near impossible. What do I know about helicopters but it doesn't feel right where as the H135 behaves the way I would expect. Still tough to control but the controls at least feel right and the response seems appropriate to the amount of input. Even copters in XP are easier to fly than this one.

I'm still having the issue where it yaws back and forth in level flight....makes me a little motion sick.  Not sure why it's doing that.

Yep me too...i don't know what makes it yaw like that, but it seems wrong. It should be way more stable in transition flight at 60 knots.

Edited September 24, 20214 yr by mikegrr

Not got any yawing issue with this version as long as not over torqued or over sped.  Seems extremely natural and stable. A pleasure to fly.

3 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

I'm still having the issue where it yaws back and forth in level flight....makes me a little motion sick.  Not sure why it's doing that.

Just installed the update and the docs for the AirLandFS app actually mention this - that if you experience this yawing back and forth, increase the null zone of your joystick slightly,  Might be worth a try.  I didn't get any such yawing on the eval flight I just did. 

Also I'm very pleased to report that the Robinson technician must have took his chewing gum out and plugged the vacuum leak that was causing the constant drop in manifold pressure, since it held a steady 22 inches for me all the way from KSBA out to the nearest oil rig, and back on the return flight.  Additionally, there's no sudden awkward transition phase from cruise to slow speed flight and back like there was before... this is now an extremely smooth heli to fly.  Maybe too smooth?  I had realism at 100% but sensitivities set only 20%  above the new default mid-range.  Oh yeah, the AirLands FS app now seems to keep your settings persistent - at least it did for me. 

I also had the pleasure of doing the same flight (KSBA out to oil rig, land on platform, take off, return to KSBA, set it down precisely in the rectangle at parking spot 162) in all 3 helis and they are ALL very much improved from where they were.  The Robinson has more of an improvement than the others but they're all markedly better due to updates it seems.

The R44 is smooth and I have to say quite easy to fly at default settings but with a really good feeling of inertia.  She's like the girl nextdoor - pleasant, easy to get along with, easy on the eyes and easy to spend time with.

The H145 is better than it was and feels less "programmed" than before but still has a kind of twitchy/notchy feel as you sense it transitioning from one mini-regime (hover to slow hover-taxi, then to slow flight, then to faster flight) each step of the way.  It's hard to put into words but I'd say it has less inertia/momentum to it.   She's like a girl from a well-off family with lots of luxurious appointments but doesn't quite know what she wants out of life yet, though she'll go out of her way to please you even if that means doing all the flying for you if you take advantage of the automation and autopilot/auto-trim stuff.  It's kind of like a beer drinker's helicopter.

The Bell 47 is still my favorite and feels a bit unhinged after flying the other two but it comes to you easily enough and is highly rewarding.  It's just lighter and agile. She's like the wild Italian girlfriend you had in college that wasn't looking for a serious relationship but loved to have a good time.  Better leave the beer in the fridge, have a good strong cup of coffee to keep up with her, and if you handle her with care and a gentle hand you'll have the time of your life and have some great memories of your escapades.

Think I'll go fly some more now... 😄

New update is way more controllable. Still likes to spin on it' s axis but rudder control is still a work in progress.

^ yep I think it's made it easier too. It still has some quirky behaviour over 40knots when turning. I'm not sure if this is realistic or not for a full sized helicopter? 

It's unfortunate that there aren't more experienced RL pilots of these 3 or 4 helis currently available, who also fly the sim and participate on the forums.  Especially pilots who have thrown them around a bit, and who can give genuine feedback.

Comparing them to scale flying my RC's, 47g and R44 feel the closest to the handling of a docile larger RC. The 47G feels closest during forward flight and turns, but the R44 is closest in hovering close to the ground

Edited September 25, 20214 yr by dogmanbird

I was getting some of the annoying yawing back nd forth at cruise as well earlier today and added a null zone to my rudder pedal sensitivity settings.  Didn't take much, about 5 to 8%, and finally had a good half-hour flight going from Point A to Point B with a minimum of fuss and drama.  Was not able to do that prior to the update at all.  So it looks like this thing is getting dialed in, given that it's now considered 8% complete instead of 5 per the docs. 

24 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

I was getting some of the annoying yawing back nd forth at cruise as well earlier today and added a null zone to my rudder pedal sensitivity settings.  Didn't take much, about 5 to 8%, and finally had a good half-hour flight going from Point A to Point B with a minimum of fuss and drama.  Was not able to do that prior to the update at all.  So it looks like this thing is getting dialed in, given that it's now considered 8% complete instead of 5 per the docs. 

Just doing the update got rid of the yawing.  A lot nicer now.  I did about 22" at 80-90 kias.

Version 3 is out and per the accompanying video on it, looks pretty good.  Like, really good - coming along very well.  Can't wait to try it out:

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

EDIT:  It seems AirLandFS is now a separate download, should go into the Community folder by itself, and supports multiple config files that can be put in it's config folder. BE SURE TO READ THE R44 QuickStart guide in the docs folder.  The R44 also comes with a newer config file for AirLandFS (R44 v.3.0) than the one that's included in the AirLandFS download, which is R44 v2.5.

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

 

Edited October 9, 20214 yr by Stoopy

This is my favorite helicopter! Especially for VFR and doing some exploring and sight seeing! I hope they will further improve the interior/exterior model, but the controls and the way it flies is perfect for this type of flying! Not to mention the view from inside the cockpit. You really get minimal distraction because of the windows.

2 hours ago, captain420 said:

This is my favorite helicopter! Especially for VFR and doing some exploring and sight seeing! I hope they will further improve the interior/exterior model, but the controls and the way it flies is perfect for this type of flying! Not to mention the view from inside the cockpit. You really get minimal distraction because of the windows.

If that's the case I think you'll really love this update particularly the new version 3 flight model that is included with the R44 (R44.cfg).  I just spent an hour hopping from one oil rig to another offshore of Santa Barbara and found it to be extremely well behaved and fluid.  They are really dialing this thing in!

 

Removable doors and floats.... doesn't get much better than this!