HPG H145 - Action Pack Expansion Available Now For Pre-Order

[HPG 403]

HPG H145 HELICOPTER - ACTION PACK EXPANSION 

Hype Performance Group is proud to present the Action Pack Expansion for our HPG H145 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Our original HPG H145 has been hailed by users, real world H145 pilots and flight sim review outlets as one of the most immersive civilian helicopter simulations ever developed. Our Action Pack Expansion builds on that foundation with 5 new rescue and utility focused H145 variants that will allow sim pilots to perform many new roles and activities within Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Five New Variants

The pack includes new 3D models and textures for all variants, including exterior components, interior configurations, new liveries and additional features and capabilities. Our configurations have been carefully created from real H145 references and offer new elements that can be easily configured by users and livery artists. Unlimited custom key bindings and SDK support are provided for all new functionality.

 

Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) & Search and Rescue (SAR)

* Complete EMS interior with stretcher, various medical equipment and gear
* 3D Crew: 2 pilots, doctor, hoist operator / medic, hoist crew
* Functional hoist with multiple interactive animations, mechanical system management and the ability drop and collect the crew
* High Intensity Search Light with steering, dim, zoom, filters and more (TRAKKA800)
* Ejectable stretcher to pick up and carry wounded civilians
* 4 new liveries of popular worldwide EMS operators
* Helionix integration as well as a friendly user interface added to the tablet to operate the new capabilities
* Switches and panels have been added to the Overhead Panel and Center Console to allow new capabilities
* New weight elements (Hoist) have dynamic impact on the flight model
* More options: Short Skids/Long Skids, Emergency Floats, Skid skis for cold climate

 

Firefighter

* Bambi bucket simulation with functional pick up and drop
* 3D Crew: 2 pilots, hoist operator, hoist crew
* Functional hoist with multiple interactive animations, mechanical system management and the ability drop and collect the crew
* High Intensity Search Light with steering, dim, zoom, filters and more (TRAKKA800)
* 2 new firefighter liveries
* Helionix integration as well as a friendly user interface added to the tablet to operate the new capabilities
* Switches and panels have been added to the Overhead Panel and Center Console to allow new capabilities
* New weight elements (Bambi bucket, Hoist) have dynamic impact on the flight model
* New dedicated effects (fire, smoke, water drop)
* New dedicated sounds
* More options: Short Skids/Long Skids, Emergency Floats, Skid skis for cold climate

 

Offshore Utility & Coast Guard

* Functional hoist with multiple interactive animations, mechanical system management and the ability drop and collect the crew
* High Intensity Search Light with steering, dim, zoom, filters and more (TRAKKA800)
* 3D Crew: 2 pilots, hoist operator, hoist crew, and 2 optional engineers
* 4 new liveries of popular worldwide coast guard and offshore utility operators
* Helionix integration as well as a friendly user interface added to the tablet to operate the new capabilities
* Switches and panels have been added to the Overhead Panel and Center Console to allow new capabilities
* New weight elements (Hoist) have dynamic impact on the flight model
* New dedicated sounds
* More options: Short Skids/Long Skids, Emergency Floats, Skid skis for cold climate

 

Civilian Cargo

* External Cargo Hook with loads and the ability to move objects around in MSFS
* High Intensity Search Light with steering, dim, zoom, filters and more (TRAKKA800)
* 3D Crew: 2 pilots, load observer, 2 civilians
* 2 new cargo liveries
* Helionix integration as well as a friendly user interface added to the tablet to operate the new capabilities
* Switches and panels have been added to the Overhead Panel and Center Console to allow new capabilities
* New weight elements (External load) have dynamic impact on the flight model
* More new options: Short Skids/Long Skids, Emergency Floats, Skid skis for cold climate

 

Military Cargo

* External Cargo Hook with loads and the ability to move objects around in MSFS
* 3D Crew: 2 military pilots, load observer, 2 troops
* 2 new military cargo liveries
* Helionix integration as well as a friendly user interface added to the tablet to operate the new capabilities
* Switches and key bindings for cargo hook cable cutting electrical system and activation
* New weight elements (External load) have dynamic impact on the flight model

 

Background

The HPG H145 remains the perfect aircraft to tour the full world scenery in Microsoft Flight Simulator or to execute your missions with precision. You can hand fly or employ the unique auto-flight control system features to spend more time focusing on the job (or sightseeing!) and less time on managing the aircraft. This product is an artistic rendition of the real H145, developed from the flight manuals and pilot feedback.

Designed to deliver excellent performance throughout the flight envelope, The H145 is the latest member of its 4-ton-class twin-engine rotorcraft product range – with designed-in mission capability and flexibility, especially in high and hot operating conditions. Compact in size, this helicopter’s small footprint and large, flexible cabin make it the aircraft of choice for a variety of civil or military missions. The best-selling H145 family (BK117, EC145 and H145) has more than 1,350 helicopters in service around the world and has clocked more than 5.5 million flight hours.

THE FULL HPG H145 HELICOPTER FLEET (BASE & ACTION EXPANSION PACK

Edited February 24, 2022 by HPG

[captain420 3,099]

This looks amazing! Wow, I can't wait to get this as well!

[bbking 80]

Yep! Beautiful addon. Just did a pre-order. Release somewhere in april 2022. Can't wait as well!

[HPG 403]

Thanks for your support, and patience!

 

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

The graphic quality is on spot as usual. I'll consider it at a later date however because the price is steep for an expantion pack considering what i also paid for the main addon.

 I just wish you guys were focusing more on the flight dynamics envelope and further integration with AirlandFS because i haven't heard news on this front since quite some time 😞

[RW1 615]

Looks great. Why is there no 5 blade option? Not complaining, but was curious why HPG was not interested with modelling them.

[HPG 403]

10 hours ago, Pastaiolo said:

The graphic quality is on spot as usual. I'll consider it at a later date however because the price is steep for an expantion pack considering what i also paid for the main addon.

 I just wish you guys were focusing more on the flight dynamics envelope and further integration with AirlandFS because i haven't heard news on this front since quite some time 😞

 

For every major stable update I post a blog post with a pretty lengthy changelog and we have indeed made many flight model changes, dano (TNBNDR) on our Discord server has also been working on the AirlandFS profiles quite frequently. If you aren't on Discord you're probably missing out on a lot of the news - our team just posted this update yesterday for example:

- Flight Model: Updates to lift, drag and performance. Replace legacy ETL model with a new model derived from the flight manual performance charts

 

8 hours ago, RW1 said:

Looks great. Why is there no 5 blade option? Not complaining, but was curious why HPG was not interested with modelling them.

 

The 5 blade variant would pose a lot of development challenges for our team. I believe that none of our real world pilots are currently flying the 5 blade variant and because it's so new there's not a lot of reference material available for it. This is one of those areas where I wish we had a 2nd team under us that could work on a smaller, but complex project like this.

[andy1252 4,058]

Just to put in another point of view.

I jumped in with a pre-order the day it became available, but I've stopped using this now. I'm going to wait until there is a more settled version - I seem to get emails telling me to update every week or two lately and to be honest I'm tired of constant updates. I have literally hundreds of addons of one sort or another and it can get really tiresome constantly trying to keep up with all the updates, especially when they often seem to be relatively minor changes. Not necessarily saying that's the case with the H145 - i don't know what's changing there as I've stopped looking.

Don't get me wrong - I really think this is a wonderful beast, but I'm beginning to suffer from update overload generally, and I just wonder if all the updates are necessary in the way/frequency they're delivered? Anyway, I'll probably weaken and pre-order this expansion pack as well <grin>, but I personally would be quite happy to wait for the fully functional release version to be available rather than the constant drip feed of changes.

Just saying.

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

2 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Just to put in another point of view.

I jumped in with a pre-order the day it became available, but I've stopped using this now. I'm going to wait until there is a more settled version - I seem to get emails telling me to update every week or two lately and to be honest I'm tired of constant updates. I have literally hundreds of addons of one sort or another and it can get really tiresome constantly trying to keep up with all the updates, especially when they often seem to be relatively minor changes. Not necessarily saying that's the case with the H145 - i don't know what's changing there as I've stopped looking.

Don't get me wrong - I really think this is a wonderful beast, but I'm beginning to suffer from update overload generally, and I just wonder if all the updates are necessary in the way/frequency they're delivered? Anyway, I'll probably weaken and pre-order this expansion pack as well <grin>, but I personally would be quite happy to wait for the fully functional release version to be available rather than the constant drip feed of changes.

Just saying.

You are correct, that is indeed another point of view...

HPG, please keep the updates coming.  Loving every minute of it.  Thanks for all you're doing!

[DylanM 1,069]

Looks amazing. Any chance this is making it to the in-sim marketplace, or will that have to wait for the formal support for helis?

[Waldo Pepper 1,953]

2 hours ago, DylanM said:

Looks amazing. Any chance this is making it to the in-sim marketplace, or will that have to wait for the formal support for helis?

They tried.  Asobo shot it down,  stating that they (Asobo) wanted to do their own helo's before allowing any on the marketplace.  It was in one of the Asobo dev talk videos.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Waldo Pepper

[Alaska738 8,551]

Looking amazing! It will be a product that i'll buy with pleasure!

[kdfw__ 545]

3 hours ago, Waldo Pepper said:

They tried.  Asobo shot it down,  stating that they (Asobo) wanted to do their own helo's before allowing any on the marketplace.  It was in one of the Asobo dev talk videos.

that''s odd, last time i checked flyinside's bell47 is a helicopter and is on sale in mktplace...

[Stoopy 1,623]

On 2/24/2022 at 3:48 AM, Pastaiolo said:

The graphic quality is on spot as usual. I'll consider it at a later date however because the price is steep for an expantion pack considering what i also paid for the main addon.

 I just wish you guys were focusing more on the flight dynamics envelope and further integration with AirlandFS because i haven't heard news on this front since quite some time 😞

I felt the same way about integration with AirLandFS initially, but have since changed my tune based on observation of trends and developments:

• AirLandFS seems to have its own limitations and growing pains as seen by the results of the (otherwise extremely nice freeware) RSP H125.  It is a gorgeous and highly anticipated helicopter, but even with Fred Naar spending what seems to be a lot of time in developing several revisions of an AirLandFS profile for it, still suffers from some unusual and downright wonky flight characteristics particularly in a very noticeable transition phase from slow to cruise flight and back.  I get the impression that AirLandFS itself, not the profiles, is what may need attention as it is not yet mature.  That "other" payware helicopter in the MSFS Marketplace does not have these problems and demonstrates that realistic flight dynamics can be achieved via an external flight model program, so this is why I think Fred may still have some work to do on the AirLandFS internals.
• Meanwhile, it seems constant work has been put in by the HPG team to further refine the flight dynamics of the H145, with good results - for instance it no longer "jumps" off the ground like it used to (as did their freeware H135) and has become smoother and more consistent throughout the flight regime.  Of course, it flies a bit differently anyway due to the automated stabilization systems they are trying to model from the real H145.  Which leads to...
• A major feature of the HPG H145 is the simulation of the autopilot systems and beep trim on the collective and cyclic.  It is a bit time-consuming to set up your controller mapping but is really, really worth doing.  I was a bit disappointed when some of the mapping functionality was changed a few beta releases ago but after I bit the bullet and followed the instructions I saw what everyone was raving about.  It is a joy to use as long as you are looking for an experience that doesn't require constant attention to pedal and cyclic inputs.  However, there is no way to integrate the AP beep trim and other functions with AirLandFS, so you give all that up when in AirlandFS mode which makes the heli feel suddenly very basic and even unrealistic considering no one actually flies an H145 without these automated systems engaged during normal flight (maybe outside of immediate takeoff or landing).

So mark me as a very happy customer even after going through the transition between controller mappings and many updates.  Which is pretty much what I expected when I signed on as an early access customer.  I think I'd have been really concerned if HPG didn't provide such frequent updates to this bird, since that was the whole point of buying in early.  From what I've seen on their Discord channel they are really working their tails off and the results have definitely been apparent along the way.

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Stoopy
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