Helicopter FlightSims

[paulo]

MS Fsim Jet Ranger

I'm a PPL(A) flying aeros, with a miniscule 20 mins an R44, who has just bought flight sim to practice radio nav and generally amuse myself during our wonderful british weather.. .. .Anyway, I thought I'd have a play with the sim Jet Ranger as it has some novelty value for a fixed wing pilot, and wondered if any of you rotor gang can give me some tips - either from real flying or playing with the sim.. .. .(a) How do you make an approach? I've been lowering the collective and pitching forward, trying to get GS down to something low-ish like 30 kts. Is there any kind of target GS?. .(b) Flaring? Do you pull some collective? Do you pull alot? I end always end up.... .(c) ...backwards, which doesn't seem to be fixed by a good chunk of forward cyclic.. .. .I'm probably expecting a bit much after a couple of hours - it took me a good 20+ hours to land real fixed wing.

[Grainger]

Paulo:. .. .You'll need an approach speed of 60-70kts until the last 100 feet or so. Then flare slightly to reduce to 50 kts at 50 feet, 40 kts at 40 feet and so on - as you do so you'll need to gradually bring in the power again by raising collective until you reach the hover - 0 kts at 0 feet.. .. .All the time while you're doing this, you need to keep your eyes _outside_ - maintaining a consistent 'sight picture' of your intended approach point. Keep looking at that spot and you'll fly to it.. .. .Tricky enough in a real helicopter: the problem I found on flight sim is that the controls are just far too sensitive on a standard joystick or so, and there isn't the range of movement that you need. Even with a full yoke, you don't have a proper collective lever, so it can be very tricky to fly on the sim.. .. .Good luck !. . . . <small>[ 04 March 2002, 12:35: Message edited by: Grainger ]</small>

[RW-1]

Grainger is spot on, I only wanted to note that there has been a lot of speculation on the quality of the flight model for the 206 in FS.. .. .Most of that being that depending upon your setup ('puter) and graphic needs of the program, that the remaining available frame rate isn't smooth enough to let you fly the heli well in an approach, and hover, etc.. .. .If you find this to be true on your system, you can either turn down the additionals in the program to ease the load on the graphics card, and (with my system anyway) I find I have to do running landings <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" /> . .. .Overall I much prefer the real 206, if it were not so darned expensive hehe ...

[paulo]

Glad to hear that some real helo pilots have played with the sim - I don't feel so sad now <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" /> . .. .Grainger, thanks for the advice! Now at least I know what I ought to be doing - let's see if I've got the patience. The trouble is, once I get really annoyed with it, I know what I'll go and do. Book another lesson. Oh how I thought I'd shaken off this financial demon. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> . .. .My setup is a VAIO, 1 gig Pentium. Frame rate seems reasonable, and I've got a force feedback joystick which is good - kind of reminds me of my R44 jolly where the instructor was cautioning me on stick movement, particularly because I was a fixed wing pilot (luckily his "don't move it, think it" advice seemed to pay off).. .. .The same stick on fixed wing sim demands realistic levels of movement. It even rattles on dodgy taxiways :-). .. .Right, time to go home and do some more practice.

[NigD]

Couldn't seem to get the hang of the 206 of FS2000 so I downloaded the HEMS explorer and the Blackhawk off some German flightsim website (sad or what) but these proved just as hard to land. . .I couldnt visualise if I was drifting quickly enough to stop it and found i toppled/bounced the heli quite a lot, or maybe I'm just crap at flightsims.. .Still, no bones broken and its damn good fun putting concorde into vertical climbs and descents and picturing those pampered (very rich) passengers in the back (oops there goes my chance of ever converting fixed wing and joining BA).. .. .If you want to pracise instrument flying RANT2000 is a reasonable piece of software.. .. .Regards. .. .NigD

[advancing_blade]

Paulo. .. .A useful tip I was given, is to keep a relative walking speed out side (lateraly) in the approach, as you descend this will keep the speed about right, but try not to lose translational lift too early. On the FS2000 you might try the virtual cockpit view, rather than the panel view. The problem realy, IMHO is that you don't get the motion or visual sensations that you require to stay stable (like inadvertant IMC in a helo). . .. .If you fancy helicopter sims, try SAR II which is flying a US coast guard Dauphine (with winch ops and all, or for super photo realistic panels where EVERYTHING works, try Fly II by terminal reality, beats the socks of FS and only about £15. I bought it for the turbine starts and checks (yes very sad) but there is a 407 to fly (which I find almost impossible) and lots of slabs if thats your thing. These are very authentic aircraft with full checks and start, pre start etc. Also you might try getting a seperate throtle control which can easily be adapted to a collective position

[CyclicRick]

I managed an engine off on it once!. .Helicopter Sims are not as good as fixed wing, I find them far too restrictive. Landing a full size sim is bad enough with only forward visual reference, especially when your used to the real thing.. .Keep going though, you'll get the hang of it one day...or trash it!

[Cron]

Get an old office chair, remove the left hand side armrest, get your throttle control, reverse the axis, attach end of old umberella handle to throttle (emulate collective), attach throttle to left hand side of chair at about handbrake height, set realism to medium, turn up the torque to max. (get some torque/rudder pedals). Place stick on lap somehow (bit of board maybe attached to desk underside). Works reasonably well for R22 but no decent R22's available yet for FS2002 until MS release the SDK.

[paulgibson]

I have found that the easiest way to fly the heli on FS2000 is to change the view so you are looking at it from behind, slightly to the left and above. This is particularly useful close to the ground as the shadow the heli casts gives a good reference point. The most crucial thing to flying it successful is pedal control IMHO. If you can download a Chinook it is good fun and the sound is quiet good.

[Paul Ledbury]

I'm taking my PPL(H) skills tests next week so I'm still learning, but IMHO FS2000 is nothing like the real (rotary) thing - I got the impression that the sim just flies rotary as a fixed wing with zero stall speed. It doesn't seem to know how to respond properly to attitude/power settings (eg low power/raised nose and the aircraft climbs when it should be flaring/descending). I chucked it in the bin. Without a better sim engine and decent controls (as per previous posts <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" /> ), it's just a game and not a simulator.

[paulo]

Cron,. .. .For the R22, if you use your toilet rather than an office chair, can you also simulate ****ting yourself on a low rotor RPM warning?. .. . <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" />

[Irlandés]

Ask the experts!

No point reinventing the wheel here. If you want to learn to fly the Bell on FS go to...

http://members.shaw.ca/hoversafe/Hoversafe.htm

They'll tell you all you need to know. A good system and the correct setting up of that system is crucial otherwise you'll just get annoyed with it all. But simming can be an important tool if you you're aware of its shortcomings. I did quite a bit before starting my PPL training (nearly finished). I wish I had a good maching here where I'm training to practice on. Can save you a lot of time and money. Alas...

Ciao!
Irlandés

[Barannfin]

X-Plane

Try using X-Plane, it is fairly realistic. Well dont let me get carried away, I managed to land a 22 on the deck of a frigate in 15ft seas , during a thunderstorm (yea right).

Anyways the aerodynamics are acceptable and its good fun.

[ptwaugh]

B206B III drivers

Hey,

Thanks for responding.

I noticed in cockpit pictures on airliners.net that there are 20 caution lights on the annunciator.

I would like to compile a list of them (annunciation, color, and perhaps function if not apparent) left to right, top to bottom perhaps.

Thanks,

Patrick

[Capt Hollywood]

G'day Patrick,

I just happen to have a copy of the B206III flight manual with me, the manual lists the caution lights as follows;

L to R top row : Spare, Spare, Spare, Spare or Gen Fail, A/F Fuel Filter, Fuel filter, Engine chip, Battery Hot, Trans Oil Press, Eng Out

L to R bottom row : Spare, Fuel low, Spare, Spare, Fuel pump, T/R Chip, Trans Chip, Battery Temp, Trans Oil Temp, Low Rotor RPM

All lights are orange except for the Battery Hot and Eng Out lights.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Hollywood

[BlenderPilot]

There are 20 but there are some 206's that only use 10, the others are optional, even some like FUEL LOW and GEN.

Other spare ones I have seen installed are, ENGINE RELIGHT, WPT, CALL, ENG FIRE, etc.

You can download the image below and print it and you will have a list, sorry about the bad quality but I just had some spare time, a camera and a computer with PS.

[Rotor1]

Patrick
If the ship has floats it will have the top left spare filled with float armed ,amber. and if it is fitted with a tactical air filter it will have the bottom left spare filled with alt air amber
cheers Rotor1

[ptwaugh]

Tactical Air?

What is "Tactical Air"?

Is this for a ship operating in a Chem/Bio environment?

Thanks for all the great info. New cockpit for FS2004 is coming along nicely.

Patrick

[leemind]

FS2004 vs X-plane??

Just a quick opinion if you have one... How is FS2004 for rotary vs say X-Plane 7.0? I'd heard FS2002 wasn't so good with the Jetranger but I was wondering if they improved it for this release.

Cockpit in X-Plane for 206 is pretty good. Flight characteristics are a little odd....

Cheers!

D.

[ptwaugh]

Rotorwing vastly improved in 2004

Well, IMHO, 2004 has made some vast improvements over 2002. As you add torque, you'll feel that familiar need to put in some left pedal on liftoff to hover, and flying at cruise the need for a bit of right to hold the nose on heading.

You'll want to set your realism to max, then back off general by one click to have the best rotorwing experience. You'll also want zero null zones on the flight controls with max sensitivity to get the response you need for hover.

Personally, I fly with the view at 0.75 for the most periferial vision without distortion and find it to be more than adequate to hover. I also stick with the 2D cockpit, but mainly because without the feel of the ship under you, you'll need those instruments which are bigger and in easy view.

I am building a custom cockpit complete with with GPS on the dash, a HUD, and a stereo for jamming while exploring at 115 knots at 5 ft AGL.

Oh, and nothing beats Megascenery, expect the real thing.