Been contemplating picking up a more in depth but still somewhat retro helicopter for 2024 as it has great scenery to fly low and slow, the Taog ones seem to review and given they're on sale on on flightsim.to atm I might just add one or two to my hangar.  It states compatible with 2024 but I'd be keen to hear people's thoughts on these, do you fly them in 2024, any caveats, shortcomings, preferences?

Thanks

3 hours ago, stefaandk said:

Been contemplating picking up a more in depth but still somewhat retro helicopter for 2024 as it has great scenery to fly low and slow, the Taog ones seem to review and given they're on sale on on flightsim.to atm I might just add one or two to my hangar.  It states compatible with 2024 but I'd be keen to hear people's thoughts on these, do you fly them in 2024, any caveats, shortcomings, preferences?

Thanks

I own all of them and fly all of them in 2024 and they all work well. It’s difficult for me to pick just one, but the Lama is an excellent choice. Great for flying around at high altitude in the Alps!

And the new Cayuse/500C is probably my favorite, but it’s not on sale. And there is nothing like the blade flapping sounds of the Huey to put a smile on your face. 

Edited August 2, 2025Aug 2 by Gulf76

+1 for the 500C/Cayuse. It was developed only for MSFS 2024 (thus not 2020 compatible). It will march a little to one side when the skids starts to settle but this is an MSFS restriction. Otherwise it flies really beautifully and has a little bit of system depth (engine damage, hot start) if you choose to have it.

The Huey is also excellent, but the 500C is on a different plateau IMHO. It's X-Plane good (a statement I realise grinds a lot of folks here, but the XP heli model has been far superior for a long time).

What I don't like about the 500C: for some reason my sim installation will not remember that I last flew it and will always preload some native MSFS bird for the next sim session. Plus the GTN doesn't remember my custom screen settings (which I'd imagine is related to the aircraft selection issue and an Asobo glitch, not a Taog glitch – same problem with the Citation X ... and of course both via in-game store and cloud). Some of the sounds are a little annoying – my controller for the collective has a bit of noise/movement and this results in a repeating sound during flight. I haven't been able to isolate the sound channel for it so I just live with it.

I still frequently fly the Lama and its younger sister and love both, but find some of the modelling a little lacking compared to the Huey and 500C. I tried the Cowan 500D again yesterday and that test alone, and the fact that Cowan updates are rare, is enough for me to comfortably ignore his S76; spent enough wasted money there. Will rather wait for future Taog releases. 

So, er, yeah, I think the 500C is worth it. 🙂

52 minutes ago, lupedelupe said:

+1 for the 500C/Cayuse. It was developed only for MSFS 2024 (thus not 2020 compatible). It will march a little to one side when the skids starts to settle but this is an MSFS restriction. Otherwise it flies really beautifully and has a little bit of system depth (engine damage, hot start) if you choose to have it.

The Huey is also excellent, but the 500C is on a different plateau IMHO. It's X-Plane good (a statement I realise grinds a lot of folks here, but the XP heli model has been far superior for a long time).

What I don't like about the 500C: for some reason my sim installation will not remember that I last flew it and will always preload some native MSFS bird for the next sim session. Plus the GTN doesn't remember my custom screen settings (which I'd imagine is related to the aircraft selection issue and an Asobo glitch, not a Taog glitch – same problem with the Citation X ... and of course both via in-game store and cloud). Some of the sounds are a little annoying – my controller for the collective has a bit of noise/movement and this results in a repeating sound during flight. I haven't been able to isolate the sound channel for it so I just live with it.

I still frequently fly the Lama and its younger sister and love both, but find some of the modelling a little lacking compared to the Huey and 500C. I tried the Cowan 500D again yesterday and that test alone, and the fact that Cowan updates are rare, is enough for me to comfortably ignore his S76; spent enough wasted money there. Will rather wait for future Taog releases. 

So, er, yeah, I think the 500C is worth it. 🙂

Completely agree about Cowansim! He’ll never see another dime of my money. 

Looks like the 500C is a marketplace only product, odd and not sure if it's leaving itself without a potential audience because of that, I certainly didn't even know it existed  coz I certainly don't check back on MP releases, let alone go there to buy something, I might notice it when booting up the sim and that's it.   Also the fact that I can only find one single livery on flightsim.to would also confirm that it's probably flying totally under the radar, make no sense to me but hey what do I know about developing and selling these things.

In any case certainly no negative feedback on these Taog birds, the Huey seems a no brainer and between the alouette and lama I may as well flip a coin, both look good.

Cheers all

8 minutes ago, stefaandk said:

Looks like the 500C is a marketplace only product, odd and not sure if it's leaving itself without a potential audience because of that, I certainly didn't even know it existed  coz I certainly don't check back on MP releases, let alone go there to buy something, I might notice it when booting up the sim and that's it.   Also the fact that I can only find one single livery on flightsim.to would also confirm that it's probably flying totally under the radar, make no sense to me but hey what do I know about developing and selling these things.

In any case certainly no negative feedback on these Taog birds, the Huey seems a no brainer and between the alouette and lama I may as well flip a coin, both look good.

Cheers all

He only released it through the MP because he is planning to integrate it into Career Mode and MS has declared that only products sold through the MP will be able to be used in Career Mode. Not everyone is happy about that, but I understand the rationale. 

2 minutes ago, Gulf76 said:

He only released it through the MP because he is planning to integrate it into Career Mode and MS has declared that only products sold through the MP will be able to be used in Career Mode. Not everyone is happy about that, but I understand the rationale. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that that rationale is going to cost him dearly as that's a pretty niche target audience, let alone a helicopter in career mode.

Going off topic here, I tried career mode once and I thought hmm this might be ok to then find out that you won't be able to use non MP add-on planes, never touched it again and can't see me ever doing so either.  As I understand Asobo is enforcing that limit to avoid cheating because I assume there are online leaderboards maybe, they could just opt to limit the career mode to single player only that being the case so the only person you'd be cheating would be yourself.  Building a career with the default or MP only planes is way too limiting imo.   Anyway I digress.

4 minutes ago, stefaandk said:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that that rationale is going to cost him dearly as that's a pretty niche target audience, let alone a helicopter in career mode.

Going off topic here, I tried career mode once and I thought hmm this might be ok to then find out that you won't be able to use non MP add-on planes, never touched it again and can't see me ever doing so either.  As I understand Asobo is enforcing that limit to avoid cheating because I assume there are online leaderboards maybe, they could just opt to limit the career mode to single player only that being the case so the only person you'd be cheating would be yourself.  Building a career with the default or MP only planes is way too limiting imo.   Anyway I digress.

I agree. I don’t use Career Mode either and hate to purchase through the MP. MS should have enabled Missions to be run independently of Career Mode and allowed aircraft purchased outside the MP to be used with Missions. 

I have the Lama in 2024; a marvellous helicopter! My best flying helicopter in this sim so fast …. and great looking.

I own the 500c, Lama, and Huey.  They are all great, but the 500C is newly released and native 2024.  She's just a joy to fly.  Twitchy and responsive, but so rewarding once you get the feel of it.  

Of course you won't find the newly released 500C/Cayuse on sale, but it is worth the cost if you want to get into helis.  

I believe all of their 2020 products work fine in 2024 as well.  I know both the Lama and Huey do.  

I haven't touched the Lama or Huey since the 500C.  I never really fell in love with the Lama, I just couldn't get a feel for flying it for some reason.  Probably a "me" thing.  The Huey is a classic.  

Some real world heli pilots praise Taog for their realism and great flight dynamics.  You can't go wrong with Taog IMHO.  

This is an excellent video comparing Taog’s 500C to one in real life. 
 

 

Flyinside's B-206. I fly this, but carefully! Its flight model, so I'm told, is very realistic. Developed by someone who owns one. All manner of things can bite you as real helicopters can. So I'm told. 😉 All I know is that it's very satisfying when you fly it right. You won't get bored with it.

I also own the 206. Great helicopter but not made for 2024

The Taog 500 looks very interesting. Almost bought until I fo8nd out you could only get it on Marketplace.

May still get, but not today or tomorrow 

6 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

Flyinside's B-206. I fly this, but carefully! Its flight model, so I'm told, is very realistic. Developed by someone who owns one. All manner of things can bite you as real helicopters can. So I'm told. 😉 All I know is that it's very satisfying when you fly it right. You won't get bored with it.

I have that one too. It’s probably my favorite of all my helicopters. Not for beginners unless you want to be frustrated! It’s the only helicopter that screams in my ear:

“You know, you really should buy the Virpil Collective and Moza Force Feeback joystick to get rid of the self-centering spring!” 🤣 

I fly it well enough with my Warthog HOTAS, but tough to land it without wobble from user input oscillations due to the limits of my gear. 

3 minutes ago, Ron Lefebvre said:

I also own the 206. Great helicopter but not made for 2024

??? The Flyinside 206 has been updated for 2024 compatibility. It flies wonderfully in 2024.