Kristofski

Its not really something that comes up in the helicopters that are included in the standard edition of 2024, you don't need to have the twist throttle bound to operate normally. It seems to be just fixed to Idle and On, and it moved off of idle automatically as needed? Unless maybe its a cold + dark thing (I just use CTRL+E to start everything)? I remember something about the governor switch, if you have that on, it manages RPMs so you don't need to worry about the throttle. I therefore assume, if you wanted to run with the governor off, then you'd have to manually throttle to ensure you don't over-torque. Are there any specific advantages to doing this? Are there any choppers that require this? Asking mostly as I'm ready to purchase a dedicated collective to replace my awful HOTAS T-flight, but I'm torn between the two versions on Etsy (I don't want to link in case that's against TOS - but there's only two). One has more buttons, but no twist throttle. The other has the twist throttle, but less buttons, and is a bit more expensive. SO FAR, twist throttle hasn't been required, but I don't want to set myself up without it, only to find out it actually would have been important to have. Thoughts?

That certainly gives me hope! On the one hand, I could use 3rd person camera which would be easier, but then you aren't learning the right references, so I'm trying to avoid it. I'll angle the cockpit POV to the right and down a bit, and try to start my hover in front of the circle, stabilize there while I have the circle in sight ahead of me to reference, then slowly creep forward until the mission objectives update.

Coming back to hover practice; spent another couple hours last night just working on this exercise, just trying to keep a 5ft hover for as long as I could. I got better at it over time, and I think the main issue is the T-Flight HOTAS throttle is self-sabotaging for the Airbus H125. Once I stopped caring about that stupid mid-point indent and just started rocking over it, the height stability issue got easier, and once you stop going up and down in 10ft oscillations, your cyclic control also becomes more stable. I'll try and record and post a video of the problem, its perhaps hard to understand if you don't have a T-Flight. Basically there is a dead spot right at 50% on the throttle for an indent, as you push to 50% the throttle locks in to the indent and you have to push slightly harder to overcome that. AS IT HAPPENS, the H125 hovers right at that spot, 50% locked in isn't enough to lift you up, but 51% is enough to raise you up slowly. To stop going up, you need to constantly alternate between 50% and 51% which means feeling and hearing this awful click as you rub against that indent over and over and over. Which means, ultimately, I need to upgrade my HOTAS to something better. Or at least the throttle portion. I want the Moza AB6 but I dont care for any of the HOTAS throttles out there; I found a 'desktop collective' on Etsy that looks like the best, maybe only option that doesn't break the bank for a single axis. Some DIY collectives out there using Racing Handbrakes, but for the setup and cost, the pre-made collective seems the better choice.

Thats interesting! I'm mostly flying the vision jet around France/England/Germany. I had read 5000 on another post and assumed that to be the case for all the non-FAA regulated spaces. Where do you typically find the regional standard baro listed? Its not in the ATIS. I assume the regional differences are why you don't get dinged for not setting it correctly in career missions (they will ding you for overspeed below 10,000ft however)

I've also experienced this; I do not use the this trick as a consequence, I just manually adjust when ATC calls out a new QNH. One thing I've noticed in the Vision Jet; In Europe, Standard Baro is above 5000, and that might be why you see your Baro flashing blue - the Vision Jet is trying to tell you to switch to standard. It does seem like the Vision Jet is aware of the difference between Europe and USA but only if you have the setting in the PFD configured to the right units. If you are doing missions in career mode, you will not get any penalties for setting baro wrong. It's only ever an issue if your destination is at a significant elevation difference than your departure.

Thanks for the reply - definitely just expressing my frustration at the leap in difficulty from flying, take off and landing a helicopter, which I can do no problem now, to hovering stable above a circle the size of the parking stall. I think too that the hoist missions have added difficulty taking place mostly over the water where you have almost no references apart from the horizon. Spent several hours practicing in the H125 and the EC135 on the weekend. I appreciated that the EC135 had more engine output, so the hover point on the collective/ HOTAS throttle was below that mid-point indent, which I found made hovering easier. I also re-bound the throttle rocker axis from a duplicate of rudder to a collective duplicate. In the H125, Hover is just 1 notch, 1mm ABOVE the indent and it can be so hard to keep it steady while constantly in and out of that indent. The rocker lets me engage the indent, then very lightly press up or down with my finger tips to float up and down in the hover. Feels bad :( I was all ready to buy the EC135 for my company too only to discover it doesn't have a hoist option, and so cannot be used for career mode missions other than regular SAR. Seems like only the Airbus and the Huey have the SAR hoist. I found a good exercise at CYTZ there's a circle that's the right size near a wind sock, and a red and white tower that gives you good increments to reference. Mixed results with wind on or off. In some ways, its easier to hover if you match the natural lateral translation against the wind vs no wind. Alt+5 is interesting to see, but I don't know how helpful it is to constantly try and visualize.

Question for @AJZip2 - you mentioned you have VR as well; Have you tried one player in flat screen and while one is in VR with Copilot? I'm curious if that's possible, as that would allow you to fly the plane in flat, while another player in VR could sightsee as a passenger. I know you cannot do it with the same rig - two PCs required for sure.

I'm also just starting to learn the helicopter ropes after having some very positive experiences with the Search and Rescue missions. I had made my 3rd career mode company for SAR but the plane missions would never spawn; maybe 2-3 at a time max, and I'd chew through them with a Draco very quickly. Decided to get the chopper certifications and low and behold, there's literally hundreds of Helicopter SAR missions now, I feel like I've unlocked another 200 hours of content/things to do with that alone. To that end, started getting serious about updating the hardware. My pedal set is actually from a G29 racing wheel, its an automotive 3 pack, but the pedals are all axis, not buttons, and the clutch and gas pedals actually work very similar to the set posted above (in that you're pressing down, not back and forth). Not realistic, but has definitely saved me some coin - Until I get a proper set, I'm doing the career mode missions with the Tail Rotor Assist on, but everything else off. This lets me focus on things like proper trimming, speed, etc, without crashing and losing rep. In Free Flight, all assists off for practice. I do want to upgrade to the VKBs but I'm going to first get the Moza AB9 stick to replace my T-Flight HOTAS from 20 years ago. The AFB seems like the lowest cost stick that allows for Force Trim as it would work IRL - the stick is not spring centered and will stay where you set it. I've read from others, this isn't super important as not every chopper has Force Trim in the first place, so if this matters to you, I'd read up on it. I've also seen a few people modding the T-Flight stick with ABS piping to make it longer, and longer = more sensitive, so there's options even for cheap center spring sticks to perform well. I despise the T-Flight throttle however - it has a large indent in the middle for no good reason and it really messes with trying to hover and hover taxi properly. I am replacing it with a PC Handbrake for racing sims - I'll try and find the link but someone on the MSFS forums has a whole tutorial on how to set it up to mimic a collective, with options steps on replacing the grip with a twist throttle handle from an e-bike. This option is about 100$ CAD vs the 300-400$ or more that some online shops are asking for a more realistic looking collective.

I'm more bothered by the fact that the player avatar CANNOT have a beard, but your co-pilot, several passengers, and a lot of the SAR NPCS are rocking glorious mountain man beards. But yeah, also confirming the surprise co-pilot changes on my end

I hadn't seen these before, I don't think they are available in Canada; US amazon had a set though in the 350 USD range. These are proper heli pedals though so no toe breaks - I feel like, for the investment, its better to get a set that can do both. Assuming the Saitek ones? I have the Logitech Yoke and Throttle Quad, and my Racing wheel is the G29 (Also my mouse and KB are G series) I really do think Logitech makes a solid product, I've had their peripherals for years. Glad to hear about the longevity. The Thrustmaster pedals are in the same price range, but look very plastic. One of the reasons I've been using the G29 racing pedals is how well they are built, and the axis are surprisingly sensitive. Moza has a nice throttle in the 280$ range; the Moza AFB stick is 550$ and seems like the minimum stick required for Force Trim to work correctly. All the cheaper sticks return to center on springs. I was able to fake it with my T-Flight junk for the past weekend, but man what a struggle. The Indent at the midpoint on the throttle is actually driving me nuts I've heard you can use a dremel and mod it to be smoother maybe. The cable that joins the stick and throttle is too short and makes placement haggard; You can use it center stick though. I MacGyver'd together a center stand for the T-flight stick out of an old guitar floor stand and some velcrotape lol The real shame is how much I'm actually enjoying the helicopters in MSFS - unlocked the SAR missions over the weekend and there is literally hundreds of missions now (Plane SAR missions would generate 3-4 at a time)

Have been flying now without a proper set of rudder pedals and I'm certainly not doing myself any favors putting off the purchase and using my G29 Racing wheel pedal set as a scab for the real thing. For fixed wing, I've done most of the flying with my feet on the ground so to speak, very little need for coordinated turning I find. 95% of the pedal use is for taxi and breaking. This is not the case for Helicopters however, as the rudder seems to be entirely necessary and incredibly important; I don't want to learn with assists for rotation or translation, so I need to get used to using the pedals. I have a T-Flight Hotas from a decade ago, which I also need to replace as the throttle has that mid-point indent which is bad for fine collective control and the stick itself is not great. But I think the pedals might be more important, since I at least have a stick, even if its inferior. So my questions for the crowd are: What is more important for helicopter controls, a good set of rudder pedals or a proper stick? Is the stick extension worth it? Thrustmaster makes an entry lever rudder set in that 200$ range that looks similar to the Saitek/Logitech one. They also have an 800$ set. I assume the difference is FFB - is FFB on the rudders worth the extra 600$? Definitely seems like the cheaper set is meant for planes only. Shame there's few options. I've read that without FFB you only have visual feedback to make minor corrections for hovering and taxi, and sometimes that visual feedback just isn't enough? Comparing the actual flight sim rudder pedals to the automotive sim pedals, how are the axis different? I've never found a set in the wild to try out for feel, but looking online it seems the main difference is that the axis on the flight rudder set are connected - you push right and the left pedal comes forward. Is that correct? The 3-pack does not do this obviously and this is my main gripe with using it for helicopter flying, there's a constant pressure where the pedals want to return to the un-pressed position. I've been flying with both clutch and accelerator held at roughly half pressure, that way it feels more like the left-right movement of a proper rudder set - but that is very fatiguing on the legs. Bonus Question: They make a 70-80$ USB lever action handbrake for racing sims - does anyone here think that would work as a collective (spring removed ofc)?

GPU first, Id agree; I have a similar setup with the Quest 3 and a 4060 and the VRAM too low message is the bane of my existence. Pop-ins and stuttering in VR when looking too quickly currently prevent me from using VR more. I dont think the Quest 3 is a bad headset by any means, coming off the Oculus stuff a generation earlier it felt like magic to be free of cords and base stations, hand tracking and passthrough etc

Some mission type variety would be nice too. I think that a rudimentary Scouting type of SAR mission would be a great; where you don't need to land, but the focus is on getting to a crash site and identifying possible survivors/fire hazards etc, that you'd communicate over radio to have dispatch send the right secondary team out. Even have them linked - Scouting mission has you fly to a crash site and scan the area for survivors, lets say you locate some. Fly back and the next mission has you fly out to the crash site to rescue them, now that you know the situation and can prepare better; maybe you cannot take a plane and need to go out in a helicopter. Maybe you spotted multiple injured and need to get out there and land a 208 and branch into a Medivac situation. Maybe the plane crash started a forest fire and now a firefighting mission is required once you chopper the survivors to safety. You can see the bones of such a system are there in the game already, just need someone to make a mod or mission pack, cause Asobo sure wont. As an IRL SAR pilot, do you find the plane missions underwhelming? I'm guessing the helicopter ones are more challenging and especially with the hoist, I suspect those are the most difficult mission types (mind you I can barely hover at all with assistances off, I cant imagine how difficult it is in actual weather or at higher altitudes)

So far Career Mode has been fairly excellent at creating Cargo and Charter missions, there are always so many to choose from that you are never at a loss for where to fly next. I know a lot of folks dislike the 2024 career mode in general, but as a 'mission generator' its definitely fully functioning as long as you take the time to set up the flight plan correctly (I'd say 90% of the time the FL is way too high or the approach/arrival needs to be changed). There's never been a point where I've cleared off or finished all those mission types, more generate all the time. I cannot seem to figure out what generates SAR missions and how frequently that happens. I had 4 appear this weekend, two in the Nevada desert area and 2 in South America, I want to say near Chile/Bolivia. Once I cleared those out on Saturday, I expected more to generate for Sunday but nope. On the Firefighting side, I did finally see about a dozen or so spread out over the world, but SAR was so few I thought something might be broken. I thought that, as you do them, more would generate. I do not have the helicopter Certifications, but that shouldn't matter for Plane SAR missions. Figures I make my 3rd company for SAR only to have no missions generating, or generating in areas I haven't uncovered. I've dumped a lot of credits into just hopping around with my pilot from airport to airport to remove the fog which is also ridiculous that isn't a better method for that. I have most of South America, Southern USA, all of Europe, most of Canada completely uncovered - I've got about half of Australia uncovered as well. Never seen any SAR in Australia or Europe. Only ever seen SAR missions in desert areas as well, nothing spawning in any snowy or forested areas. I know about the "Hot Spot" map on the company page and I went to and unlocked all those areas as well. Super frustrating as SAR missions in the Draco are currently my jam - been watching STOL competitions on Youtube and spent a bunch of time this past weekend practicing beach/dirt landings, trying to learn how to approach from a steeper AOA and use Beta to stop without diving my nose into the ground. Completing those 4 SAR missions that did show up was quite exciting too, it's a very fun mission type that pretty much guarantees variety since you aren't following any charts or RNAV or ILS, the ground conditions can be very challenging. In some cases you need to make a judgement call - if you cannot land close by, you have to land nearby and taxi over. Or get out and walk over to trigger the cutscene. The Searching part is some of the most fun I've had in MSFS; catching a glimpse of the target flashing a mirror reflector at you (and you wondering if its a texture glitch) then flying over to confirm your hunch and spotting the car, all very satisfying. Some QOL wishes - While I haven't run into a mission that was impossible to get close to the target, I have read other posts, especially with helicopter SAR, where the landing area is entirely impossible/uneven. In those cases, a "CLOSE BY" rating would help; if you can land 0.5nm/1nm/2nm away, you get points deducted for how far away you're forced to land, but the mission is still doable. All 6 or 7 of the missions I've done now were desert landings; it would be nice to have missions generate in other environments. I do wonder if the plane missions simply do not spawn everywhere so that the game can better manage the generation of the scenery and make sure there is enough clear space to land. One of the desert missions was rockier than the others and I'd swear the game carved/smoothed out a patch of rocks near the target that I was able to land on. Would love to see more beach landings. Or water landings in general to help stranded boaters. Don't know how others here are making out with SAR missions, if there's guys here even trying to do them. It is truly frustrating how Asobo can build something fun but then lock it to the career mode and hide all the information around generation. I'd love to have a Free Flight SAR mode; just generate the mission, spawn the guy and let me try to pick him up, points for search speed and landing distance to target.

Another weekend of Career Mode shenanigans Got the scoop and tailwheel certs and started doing firefighting and search and rescue missions. Wanted a change of pace from the Charter missions, which are numerous and bountiful lol. Firefighting and Search and Rescue, not as much Sitting around 2m credits and letting AI fly my Vision jet and 172 while I poked around employee missions, putting out fires and dipping a toe into the search and rescue, I learnt a few things that seem to run counter to the intended progression: In Firefighting, you start loaded up with water for the first pass, and can actually put out the fire in one shot, which sends you back to base to land, mission accomplished. I thought I'd get bonus points for not having to scoop and make a second pass, but alas, not so. I actually LOST points for being so timely about it, 0% in the execution category as I guess the game scores the mission on your scoop timing, and if you don't do that, cause you put the fire out in 1 shot, you are locked into a B rating that tanks your reputation. Oh, what fun. Because of that, I opted not to start a firefighting company, also the incredible lack of missions. By far, the least spawned mission type. Both firefighting and search and rescue were surprisingly sparse in mission generation. I did not find many. I had to move my player character around the map paying credits to blindly unlock airports and the circle radius and just guess where missions might spawn based on the "hot spots" in the company creation page. The hot spots are seasonal, but no dates to indicate when a season starts of ends. I assume we are in Spring? but I could barely find 3 or 4 missions. This is very very poorly done by Asobo, you should just be able to pay a fee to unlock a region or pay a fee to refresh/force mission generation. In my hubris, I started my 3rd company as a search and rescue with a Draco; I can always keep the plane for light cargo once the missions dry up. And they sure did, southern USA and South America had about 2-3 each, and once I had those done, that was it. Nothing more spawned. I'll try again tonight but that was a bummer. I rather enjoy the mission type, searching and low pass are fun and immersive, the landing is quite challenging as the terrain is usually uneven, so you need to really practice slow flight and STOL. When everything goes well, this mission type feels very rewarding, but has the potential to go south fast, with the uneven terrain on landing. I've had a few bugs where the tail of the plane locks/stays hovering in the air and wont sit, even at full stop. Never done so many go arounds - sometimes you just have to land elsewhere and taxi up the mountain a bit. Definitely a few moments where you just want to yell at the guy to walk over to you, instead of you having to take the plane to them. Uneven terrain meant clipping issues as well, sometimes tires would sink into the ground and stick under the texture plane, the tailwheel especially. Hopefully the mission generation gets better. Its a tad misleading seeing plenty of cargo and charter missions after you create those companies, but I guess those are more common IRL so maybe I can look at it that way. One question I had for anyone that has a search and rescue company - once you exhaust the missions you have visible, if you set an AI pilot, will you still get passive income? Or does passive income require missions to be generated? Anyone with firefighting/search and rescue companies? Tips?