"Helicopter Test Pilots Needed !!!"

[Guest]

Hello chopper drivers,I've always wanted to fly the default Bell (for lack of any comparible vc's) but, found it nearly impossible to control.Well the other day I recieved my Tracker IR, coupled with 3d glasses and the Aura Interactor, and flying the Bell became a quest. Yet, flying it around was easy, getting it off the ground was a chore let alone hover or try to land on a target. It became frustrating.I have ridin in a chopper a few times, but I'm no expert or real pilot. I read an article in AOPA about a robinson r22 and noted the comments the pilot made about the hydralics. Well I'm no rocket scientist but if I had a control that used hydralics, wouldn't I have a stick that was stable and took a slight amount of pressure to move, and shouldn't the aircrafts reaction be corresponding the same ? When I rode in them they seemed very stable and manueverable, I never took the stick, but it never flopped around like fish out of water. I also read that it only takes finger pressure to make corrections while flying. Well, I did some tweaking, nothing serious. I have not changed anything in the airfile. I just added flight tuning.Here's How I fly it: Saitek x35T stick and throttleCH pro pedals Tracker, glasses and InteractorUsed FSUIPC to set sticks*Set null to minimum**Realism settings maxed**sensitivies maxed*Add this line to Default Bell aircraft.cfg file..........{flight_tuning}cruise_lift_scalar=1.0parasite_drag_scalar=1.0induced_drag_scalar=1.0elevator_effectiveness=0.5aileron_effectiveness=0.4rudder_effectiveness=0.8pitch_stability=1.6roll_stability=3.0yaw_stability=3.2elevator_trim_effectiveness=1.0aileron_trim_effectiveness=1.0rudder_trim_effectiveness=1.0There will be some torque, and left pedal just seems a way of life. If you have trouble with the Bell try this out. If there are any real helicopter pilots out there that would try this out and let me know if this is comparible to a real one. Would be very cool. If you don't like these settings just remove the flight tuning section.All comments pos or neg welcomed.....................Thanks,Rex

[Guest]

Rex, in the realism options have you set the sliders to one "click" left from maximum?I had the realism sliders set to maximum, and the helo was impossible to control. One click left from maximum, and a lot easier!-brian

[Guest]

Brian,I have tried every setting I could think of. I prefer realism to max. I have more than one controller and prefer to be able to keep as many settings the same for any aircraft I fly. I have an FSUIPC cfg file for yoke aircraft, stick aircraft, and choppers, then I just change the throttle (collective), reverse the axis and assign one rotary switch for helo throttle.My thinking is this, I have read that many control problems come from trying to over control the aircraft, the helo being the toughest one to control. I compensate for over control by lessening the effect the aircraft has to stick input, not by lessoning stick sensitivity, but aircraft reaction to the same stick input, then what I perceive as a normal stick input, the aircraft will respond with the expected reaction, the aircraft responds how I feel it should and stays under control. Hover is then attainable and controllable with normal stick inputs. I'm going to test this with fixed wing aircraft pitch. Not taking away what a stick has to offer, but dampening the effect over controlling has. It really intrigued me when I read it only takes finger pressure to control the helo, I wonder if it's the same in fixed wing stick aircraft.I hope this makes sense.......I appreciate the input.......Rex

[Guest]

Rex:You may be on to something. I think this worked great. I believe the helicopter is improved with your input. I am truly rusty on flying the 206. It has been twenty two years since I flew one. But this thing handled well with all your changes. The only thing that gave me a problem: landings a little. I have a tendency to move backward due to either poor outside visibility, not being enough aware of the wind, or the chopper being underpowered. Tell me how to do screenshots and I'll get you some great shots now of the chopper. I had a ball with it. But I was flying it with one eye (I just had one cataract removed, the other one next monday and so I have great vision in one eye, and very bad in the other). In the end, all that different movement, motion almost made me a little wheezy in the old stomach. Now I noticed that scotch and 7up at dinner did the same thing. So. Can't blame the 206 perhaps. At KLIT there was a lot of traffic on the ground. Two airliners, a Caravan, a C172, one or two more. I played around with them in the chopper, flying in small circles around them at low altitude. Amazing they almost seemed to know I was there bugging them and they seemed to stop and wait till I moved off. Unreal, how real it was. I have made NO screenshots in MSFS. I am just converting over from my days as a FLYer. I may go back. But I don't know how to do screenshots. I could not tell what happened with PRINT SCREEN. Since I have used your file inputs, and they do seem to work well, let me ask for more details on how you figured all that out? I'd like to know just a bit more. I am sure you can bowl me over with detail, but prehaps a bit more knowledge won't hurt. I have no idea where my sliders are set at. I'll try to look. I have been happy with the aircraft I fly, mostly the Caravan, and the new Debonair. And so I did not change them. I fly the Twin Bonanza a lot. Would like to fly the King Air but it seems to have too many problems. I have to look into it. Thanks for the work on the chopper. I'll work on this some more. Boy it has a lot of realism in it, or it seems real to someone who has not been in the 206 in 22 years.Thanks.

[Guest]

Boy. I hate getting this thing almost ready to upload, then losing it. I had this written like I wanted it, and boom...it is gone. Well, I'll try again.First: I forgot some things in my reply about flying the Bell 206.One: I flew it with the CH Pro USB Yoke and Pedals. Worked fine, but I think tomorrow I'll stick on the MS Precision Pro Sidewinder stick. It seems much more natural to fly the Bell 206 with a stick.Two: I agree that a light touch is needed. Helicopters respond to an easy, light touch, maybe, just perhaps, a bit more so than airplanes. It is probably a matter of perception. But being gentle and easy is helpful for the Bell 206. Can anyone tell me how to make screen shots in MSFS2002? I'll upload some good Bell shots.I enjoyed flying around the ground traffic at KLIT in small circles. Some of the airplanes seemed to respond to me as if I was a real helicopter. I just gently circled them. I swear one airliner was just waiting on me to get out of his way. Ha.I also liked the effect made in the grass off the end of the runway where I was at by the Bell 206's downwash. It was very, very good. And the realism of this thing seems good to me. Best maybe in the virtual cockpit, but the panel is too much out of straight alignment with my seat when I can see the needed or desired guages.All in all I think this "Flight_Tuning" was okay.

[Guest]

Download fsscreen.zip from the AVSIM. It's small, easy, ...You will need to first load the bmp files into an editor and then save them as a jpg which has file size smaller then 125K.Good luck and looking forward to some great pictures. If you have a fast machine you can make short videos. You would have to save them some place other then here becasue of the file size limit.Get http://www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc/ CamStudio ... It's free.Save the video at http://free.prohosting.com/ 50 meg limit and it's free also.Post link here and we can all watch and enjoy.Best Regard,Bob look here for an example I made of the B33 with my 1.2 tbird machine.http://www.mtco.com/~rsam/B33.zip

[Francois_Dumas 10]

Thanks Rex, I posted a link to thismessage in the Helo Forum.... ;-) :-outta Francois :-wave[table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0][tr][td valign=bottom" align="center]"At home in the wild"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:avsim.com/alaska/alaska_051.htm|Don's Alaskan Bush Charters]"Beavers Lead the Way"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:www.avsim.com/vfr_center/mainpages/vfr_flights_main_page.htm]VFR Flight Center]"Looking Good Outside"[/td][/tr][tr][td valign=top" align="center]http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif[/td][td valign="top" align="left" colspan=2]http://www.fssupport.com/images/moose2.gif[/td][tr][/table]________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online![/bemail: fdumas@avsim.com________________________