Blubottle

Waiting for reviews is a wise decision for anybody that doesn't know our work, it needs a quaified helicopter to do a worthwile review so it might be a little while before one gets done on Avsim.Report from Hovercontrol staff member here . I fully understand that you would want to hear it from someone you know and trust oon Avsim, I would too. I recommend using keyboard or hardware controls for the starter and throttle and collective because:First of all note that there are 2 different start systems modelled Bendix and CECO according to the aicraft you select and second this isn't the normal "push buttons in the right order and it will start" process. Your start technique must take altitude density, residual eng temp. wind speed and direction and battery condition into account.Starting a 206 is a tricky business and requires both hands, left hand on throttle, left thumb on the detent release, right hand reaching across your body, right thumb on starter. If the engine has been run recently the starter is gunned to bring the engine temp to within limits, at the correct N1 you must operate starter and throttle together. If anything goes wrong the starter remains pressed to bring down egine temperature, press detent and close throttle and keep gunning the starterbut you are operating 3 things at once which can't be done with a mouse. You also need faster and more accurate response than the mouse permits in fsX. It is possible to accidently release the starter using the mouse, that would be catastrophic. While gunning the starter can get you out of a bad situation, keep an eye on battery temps, you can damage or even blow up the battery, preferable to blowing an engine but best avoided all the same.

Hi allThanks for the kind words, I will be as breif as I can so as not to turn this into an advert. will be offering a proper release announcement for Avsim's consideration shortlyExpensive - yes and no, the package contains a large lump of our commercial level training software (REALLY expensive), it isn't a normal aircraft add-on, It is aimed at real pilots and student pilots.you are paying for extreme accuracy in dynamics and systems that are external to fsX. If you want eye candy and fun flying don't buy our 206, you culd get 2 of somebody elses for the same money.Default gauges - we did build our own. Only the nav gauges are default, the others look similar in screen shots but not up close, basically we were looking at the same gauges MS were so they are bound to look similar at distance they respond very differently and don't contain the errors (default mph scale is wrong, fuel gauge only goes up to 75 etc)Framrates v gauges/detail - There is a lot of extra programming for the physics and systems expansion that was required, military customers and others will want to put large numbers of aircraft into the air over networks so the model and gauges are designed to run better detail than the default aircraft wth higher frame rates and still leave room for that extra programming to run If you fly for fun you will be much better off buying something elseIf Turbine hot-starts give you the heebie jeebies and you want to know your inflow roll from your flapback come and see us at dodosim.comthere is a free manual hereMark AdamsDodosimEdited for typo

The default helicopter engines in fsX are very disapointing and they just get worse with SP2. Unfortunately their is more than one reason for this so there is no simple fix (at Dodosim we have only recently managed to overcome all the problems on fo our payware).In the defalt R22, if you apply much higher engine revs before engaging the clutch you can get her to start almost all of the time; not realistic but might help preserve some of the atmosphere (it will still have the crazy idling dance and other strangeness)

Sorry about the delay, I don't check in here too often as there is very little helicopter traffic.I agree that Jordan's work is probably the best freeware heli available.I am working on fsX aircraft at the moment. The advanced 206 for fsX hit a problem when I was badly let down by the main contributer at a critical time. However we are in the late stages of recruiting a new software engineer with experience in pro simulatorsMy sig in my profile does not seem to be working or editable for some reason. I will try to correct that.Mark AdamsDodosim

I don't want to sound too much like an advert but as far as I know, so far our aircraft at Dodosim.com are the only ones to have helicopter behaviours such as VRS, LTE, and handling changes during autos. The list is a lot longer but like I said, this isn't an advert.The default helicopter dynamics are pretty scant and vary between the two main airfile types. The engine management does not really exist in either, the 206 doesn't even have a starter, the R22/Eh101 type has a malfunctioning governor. More advanced stuff like turbine hotstarts took years to create and probably only appeal to the helicopter realism nut but surely we deserve a starter and an engine that doesn't range over 70% rpm when idling (including impossible negative torque).There is a basic rotor droop in the R22 style airfile which is a plus point.Handling problems begin with the basic issues like the tail rotor being linked to power settings and the throttle and collective are blended when they should be seperate.All that is before you get into the dynamics. Flap back, vortex ring state, settling with power, and retreating blade stall are not modelled at all and must be added by "unsupported" means.Some auto functionality is there but they are far from satisfactory. Rotor RPM does not exceed the governor settings, the controls do not respond properly with the power off. None of the control changes associated with autos are present. The Aces have tried to improve things and the Jetranger now has some response to airflow through the rotor disc but only if you maintain forward speed (so no autos from the hover).Ground effect is modelled but you don't really fall off the edge of the air cushion the way that you should, translational lift is better in the Robinson than the Jetranger as it only exists in forward flight for the Jetranger. Torque reaction exists and I think tail rotor drift was added in fsX.With the Acceleration add-on it is now possible to have multi-engined helicopters and winch loads which is very welcome.It would be very nice to see the default helicopters brought up to the standard of the default Fixed wings

Quote "my pet peeve, which is a lack of accurate modeling of how the anti-torque pedals are supposed to work." At Dodosim we have created proper anti-torque (and LTE, VRS and rotor droop etc) for our Bell 206 and it was indeed very difficult to do, it was originally designe for realworld training and has turbine hotstart failures, overtorque and all that stuff too.Of course it is payware so not everyone's cup of tea but if you want take a look for yourself see www.dodosim.com/enthus.html or ask around.Most of the rotorheads seem to migrate over to www.hovercontrol.com which is very active, we are definately a minority over here!

quote "I would love a payware Huey myself."I am currently working on the Dodosim payware huey.The model is coming along nicely, custom animations, smooth gauge technology and hopefully more of the ground-breaking systems modelling we are known for.As this is a shameless plug I don't know if I can post screenshots here but I will put some on the Dodosim forums at Hovercontrol.com in the near future.

If you go into settings/scenery library and untick the addon files (usually the ones at the top)and then reload the sim, the unticked items will be disabled.Turn crash detect back on and see if that has made a difference. If it does we can narrow things dowwn by turning scenery back on until the problem arises again and then change the layer order or whatever needs doing. If it doesn't then we know to look somewhere else.Remember that you must restart FS9 to make scenery changes work.Just a seperate thought, is your default flight still the original cessna one?

Hi TomThis seems to be unique to your system which means it may take a little while to find a solution. While I am looking into it a temporary workaround might be to switch crash detection off.It would be useful to switch all your add-on scenery off, including mesh and fs-scene (you don't have to remove it just untick it all and restart) and then crash on purpose. This would help to show which part of the flight reload the problem occurs at. Also note wether the freeze happens the moment the aircraft crashes or 3-4 seconds later when the reload starts.Unfortunately, the fact that this is only happening with realstart does not narrow the problem down to the realstart files. I once had the same problem with one particular repaint of a bush plane, all the other paints worked fine; but the problem was actually being caused by some scenery files. I deleted the scenery/effect files and installed them after adding some other addons and everything worked fine. I think this is the same kind of interaction that is going on.You can try deleting the realstart files, de-fragging and then re-installing, in case something has been corrupted but I think switching scenery/mesh off should be the first step (and quickest :-) ).

Hi Tom,Did you try the diagnostic measure suggested when you posted in the dodo support forum?It will help work out what is going on.We have only ever had one crash problem so far and that was due to a file from a scenery add-on (the known problems that sometimes occur with effect and afcad files) and was easily remedied by re-installing the scenery once we tracked the problem file down.

For the best in helicopter controls I would go to simcontrols at www.simcontrol.co.uk/menuepage.htm ,they have a modular system designed for helicopters and used by the RAF.They also produce the superb "Ranger 5" system, an excellent piece of kit if you can afford it http://www.simcontrol.co.uk/ranger%20page.htm I still have a soft spot for my old MS sidewinder Force feedback 2 but I doubt if you can get hold of one very easily these days

Your point is a good one and we did consider it when writing the instructions. Our aim was to explain the difference between N1,N2,Nr,TOT etc in a simple way that a beginner could grasp. To quote our manual "The first step is to understand the basic principles behind a turboshaft engine, we will keep things very simple to begin with."The diagram I drew at that point is a schematic of the components and theory at it's most basic. It just happens to look like a through-flow engine because that is the most basic type of engine.We don't really have the scope in the manual to explain the workings of a given engine, but we did need to explain the theory and terms because it all works and fails just as it should and you have to know what you are doing. Only very seasoned pilots will ever notice some of the subtlety -obscure TOT parameters, charge/timing relationships etc. and explaining all that would take up a whole book.So the short answer is that we didn't draw an engine at all, but thanks to you, we will make sure our diagrams are clearly labelled in future :-)Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

The success of the Realstart 206 packaged as 3 complete aircraft helped us make up our minds to do a complete "in-house" aircraft.It had to be something we could get really excited about, be turbine powered, even more systems and innovations packaged with killer visuals.So we decided it had to be a..........secret!But only for a little while, we reckon it's goimg to blow your socks off (it worries me how much I like teasing you guys)

Glad you guys are enjoying it.For anyone that hasn't come across it. The Dodosim realstart 206 adds full startup/shutdown, hotstart meltdown, vortex ringstate, contact breakers, warning and test circuits and a load of other features to FS9. All based on our realworld trainer coding. Details at www.dodosim.com.Be warned, you wil need to stick to the checklist numbers exactly.To use it in something like Owen Hewitts 206, you basically add the new model into the realstart file and copy the contact points over.An easy solution is on its way, as Bursco said, it will be on our forums soon.Mark

Just downloaded it, had to try it out in it's natural envirionment - the Grand Canyon, then out to some low lying airfields for touch and go's.Absolutely fantastic as always guys. Love the gear bounce on unsurfaced strips, and I know how hard that can be to get right.Simply the best available.