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falcon409
October 6th, 2017, 17:54
MPDesigns has two Helicopters I'm debating on. I can only afford one and so I'm looking for a nudge in one direction or the other, lol. The Cabri G2 or the Sikorsky S-55. I was a passenger in an S-55 in Nam when I flew to Bien Hoa AB to pick up parts for one of our A-37 Dragonflies, so there's a bit of history there. The G2 is just a nice looking chopper that would be fun to fly.

glh
October 6th, 2017, 18:52
Get the freeware Alphasim Sikorsky S-55 over at simviation and buy the other. That way, you get TWO more helos !!

Search "S-55" and find the Alphasim model, a sound package and gauge updates. It's a nice model, I can attest !!

PhantomTweak
October 6th, 2017, 22:19
Two fer the price of one! Great idea.
If I make a suggestion, too: DL and install HTR v1.62 SE (or not the SE version, whichever is applicable. It's Helicopter Total Realism, and it really makes a difference in how a helo flies in any MSFS. It takes the outputs from the sim, converts them to real, actual helicopter dynamics, and injects them back in whichever chopper you're flying. There's an entire forum dedicated to it on Hovercontrol. Made by an aerodynamics engineer, and vetted by actual helicopter pilots. Really amazing little bit of software. No impact on framerates.
Have fun!
Pat☺

Penzoil3
October 6th, 2017, 22:33
I agree, buy the Cabri G-2. It's a great helicopter, and the freeware S-55 is good too. I have both. I wish someone would do a good updated Tweet !
Sue

warchild
October 6th, 2017, 22:58
I wouldnt argue with the sikorsky, but, are you sure you want to go back to nam?? We had some dragonflys fly out of our airbase in Nha Trang. God I love those things but i cant download any nam scenery. too many memories..

warchild
October 6th, 2017, 23:00
I agree, buy the Cabri G-2. It's a great helicopter, and the freeware S-55 is good too. I have both. I wish someone would do a good updated Tweet !
Sue

Tweets a great plane, but the dragonfly with its uprated military engines is one step from heaven in my book..

Dimus
October 6th, 2017, 23:20
I wish someone would do a good updated Tweet !
Sue

Someone IS doing it:

http://simworksstudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=639.0

Daube
October 7th, 2017, 00:08
I have the S-55 and I love it.
It is the piston engine, not the turbine one. The startup is a bit difficult, has you need to use the mouse scroll and the throttle in a certain sequence to increase the engine RPMs before triggering the clutch. Else the engine will stall. Can be frustrating at times, but quite rewarding when it works.
The flight model seems good, although I think it might be a bit over-reactive in some aspects. Probably it needs some tweaking, but MP Design was focused on the Cabri until now. Perhaps from now they'll start working on updates again ?

Anyways, the recommendations to try to Alphasim S-55 first is good, but I think you worked on the textures of that bird a long time ago already, didn't you ?

Josh Patterson
October 7th, 2017, 06:14
Since I like the vintage tin, I'd say go with the Sikorsky, although the
Cabri looks small and nimble which equals fun. (And since you mentioned the A/T-37, I think we need one of those too!!)

jeansy
October 7th, 2017, 06:49
with bananna bobs s55 paints with the alphasim s55, your getting a more visual pleasing model

to me with freeware HTR there is no difference between the two

falcon409
October 7th, 2017, 07:10
Tweets a great plane, but the Dragonfly with its uprated military engines is one step from heaven in my book..
I agree WC. Having worked on the Dragonfly in a combat arena, I was impressed with how lethal they could be with the additional armament and VNAF Pilots who had a score to settle, lol. If I had a choice, I would much rather see the Dragonfly than the base Tweet.

Now, back to Heli's, lol

falcon409
October 7th, 2017, 07:17
The consensus was to purchase the G-2 and download the S-55 Chickasaw. Mission accomplished. I found a few problems with the base S-55 Heli, such as no VC panel showing (turns out it was missing from the panel folder files, but easily corrected), I did not download the gauges update, but instead did my own fixes and additions. I did download the soundfile that was suggested and it's excellent, although switching views causes remnants of the previous sounds to linger, however a quick tap of the "Q" key and all is well. The S-55 is great fun (actually been flying it more than the G-2). Thanks for all the suggestions, I may not have gone with everything suggested, but the information was appreciated.

falcon409
October 7th, 2017, 07:28
with bananna bobs s55 paints with the alphasim s55, your getting a more visual pleasing model
to me with freeware HTR there is no difference between the two
Jeansy are Bob's paints in the SOH Downloads area? I gave the HTR program a try, but didn't really try very hard to appreciate it's abilities. Consequently, I deleted it straight away. I've been flying Helicopters since FS9 and while I wouldn't consider myself a master pilot, I have come to enjoy handflying the Choppers. Between my CH throttle and the twist-grip joystick, I can hold my own. . .the only exception being extended flights of greater than 20nm where the terrain is flat and I have to constantly adjust to maintain a relative altitude and fwd speed. Mountain flying is different because of the constant course adjustments, altitude and fwd speeds and so longer flights under those conditions don't bother me as much. Without a competent AFCS system (yes I know HTR has that), long, straight, boring flights are tedious and I stay clear of those.

vora
October 7th, 2017, 08:04
Although I'm not Matt I dare to interfere because I always loved BananaBob's photorealistic repaints.

Here are his two fantastic liveries for the S-55:

Marines
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=189&id=10061

Army
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=189&id=10098

falcon409
October 7th, 2017, 08:48
Although I'm not Matt I dare to interfere because I always loved BananaBob's photorealistic repaints.
Here are his two fantastic liveries for the S-55:

Marines
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=189&id=10061
Army
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=189&id=10098

Yep, excellent work!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/ejwells409/Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-001.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/ejwells409/Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-002.jpg

Daube
October 7th, 2017, 09:46
These photoreal repaints look awesome !
I think you did a good choice with the G2 and the freeware S-55. If I remember correctly, the Alphasim S-55 also has the piston engine, and it has a working clutch as well, right ?
It had a missing texture (or incorrectly declared in the panel.cfg, perhaps) in the virtual cockpit, but you fixed that in the past, didn't you ? Or am I confusing with someone else ?

The MP Design S-55 is also a very nice beast, I hope somebody will make photoreal repaints for it too :)

http://sapdaube.free.fr/p3d/daube_image0406.jpg

falcon409
October 7th, 2017, 12:19
These photoreal repaints look awesome !
I think you did a good choice with the G2 and the freeware S-55. If I remember correctly, the Alphasim S-55 also has the piston engine, and it has a working clutch as well, right ?
It had a missing texture (or incorrectly declared in the panel.cfg, perhaps) in the virtual cockpit, but you fixed that in the past, didn't you ? Or am I confusing with someone else ?

The MP Design S-55 is also a very nice beast, I hope somebody will make photoreal repaints for it too :)
Yep, good suggestions and a good choice on the freeware S-55. . .as a matter of fact I've spent 90% of my time since last evening either flying or working on the S-55. I took the G-2 for one quick spin around Eglin AFB and that's been it, lol. Yes, the S-55 was missing the "$vpanel.bmp" in the panel folder. . .easy fix was to save a copy of the vc panel from the shared texture folder, flip it (I had converted all of the textures to dds), then rename the bitmap and drop it into the panel folder. . .fixed. The contact points were off a bit as well. The left rear main was sunk in the ground and the two nose wheel tires were approx. 3" off the ground. With help from Tako Kichi, I got the contact points adjusted and so everything seems to be in good shape. A nice Helicopter that I can use to revisit my flight from Binh Thuy AB to Bien Hoa AB in early 69'.

warchild
October 7th, 2017, 13:33
Yep, excellent work!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/ejwells409/Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-001.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/ejwells409/Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-002.jpg

OHHHH.. Its a Jolly Green Giant.. :) Dustoff :).. Built like a tank, and a beautiful angel..

Penzoil3
October 7th, 2017, 15:18
Someone IS doing it:

http://simworksstudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=639.0
Wahoo! I have the MicroSimulator Tweet, but it has problems. This is a must have!
Sue

warchild
October 7th, 2017, 15:40
wellll, I dont know.. If I can relearn everything i forgot about making fde's by the time they finish this, I can uprate the engines to the correct military level, but someone else will have to convince them to make the A-37 fuselage with hard points..

warchild
October 7th, 2017, 15:41
Wahoo! I have the MicroSimulator Tweet, but it has problems. This is a must have!
Sue

You Lucky GI.. ::LOL::

gray eagle
October 7th, 2017, 16:43
These photoreal repaints look awesome !
I think you did a good choice with the G2 and the freeware S-55. If I remember correctly, the Alphasim S-55 also has the piston engine, and it has a working clutch as well, right ?
It had a missing texture (or incorrectly declared in the panel.cfg, perhaps) in the virtual cockpit, but you fixed that in the past, didn't you ? Or am I confusing with someone else ?

The MP Design S-55 is also a very nice beast, I hope somebody will make photoreal repaints for it too :)

http://sapdaube.free.fr/p3d/daube_image0406.jpg

Where did you get "Hoppy?

gray eagle
October 7th, 2017, 16:45
Looking for a H19 paint in this lovery

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2869/9071362967_b886e27bf1_b.jpg

https://farm1.static.flickr.com/719/21975688041_d46c8e42d0_b.jpg

or like this one

https://www.helis.com/h2/s-58_hss-1_seabat.jpg

jeansy
October 7th, 2017, 18:23
MSD s55 didnt come with a paintkit when released like everything with them the phrase "its comming" was thrown around a lot by the 2 MSD staff posters

so the old saying wish in one hand and S#i# in the other and see what fills first applies to this package just like their gazelle

due to the lack of bump and spec mapping with their models, i havent been bothered to look back after deleting them



but the alpha sim s55 has hundreds of paints, mainly in fs9 format however every one is easy to convert and you will get the same finish that the msd s55 gives you

warchild
October 7th, 2017, 19:00
why dont you take the freeware s-55 and use its model to replace the model in the payware s-55? that way you can use any paints you want, and still have a great flying chopper..

jeansy
October 7th, 2017, 20:34
why dont you take the freeware s-55 and use its model to replace the model in the payware s-55? that way you can use any paints you want, and still have a great flying chopper..

a valid point, there will be no loss to the exterior texture quality, at least with the freeware model you can add bump and spec mapping and publicly release it, for the others who already have it, its really not a bad idea

however for falcon, it kind of defeats the purpose of him buying only one to get the most bang for his buck

warchild
October 7th, 2017, 20:56
This, in the immediate, is quite true. However, there is, next month, the month after and gods willing and the creek dont rise, next year. Once Falcon has one, theres no saying he cant get the other at a later time, and use the myriad of textures now, while upgrading the flight model later on. It's really the best of both worlds as the newer model comes with no paint kit, but the alpha one does..

jeansy
October 8th, 2017, 00:55
This, in the immediate, is quite true. However, there is, next month, the month after and gods willing and the creek dont rise, next year. Once Falcon has one, theres no saying he cant get the other at a later time, and use the myriad of textures now, while upgrading the flight model later on. It's really the best of both worlds as the newer model comes with no paint kit, but the alpha one does..

very very very true, its a cant loose

Daube
October 8th, 2017, 05:41
Where did you get "Hoppy?

It is one of the included paints in the MP Design S-55 package (payware).

Brian_Gladden
October 8th, 2017, 06:25
Speaking of old Helo's...

has anyone tried an FSX Native conversion of Brian Franklin's Westland Wessex? That was probably my favorite Helo in FS9

MZee1960
April 19th, 2019, 22:23
She's seen better days, I'm sure ....... but IMHO she looks and flies like a dream ! :encouragement:

https://i.imgur.com/2IHd9OM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nC5a9de.jpg

MZee1960
April 21st, 2019, 22:24
https://i.imgur.com/UF6meJ3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iiBSfBm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ybmDxTA.jpg

MZee1960
April 23rd, 2019, 21:49
https://i.imgur.com/7YeXgno.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OQ2QwNe.jpg

FlyingsCool
April 26th, 2019, 06:53
Yep, excellent work!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/ejwells409/Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-001.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/ejwells409/Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-002.jpg

Apparently a bit of a hard landing by those Army pilots, eh?

And should someone put a bit of air in that left rear tire?

Ray LaMontagne...
https://youtu.be/yFUlpY_VBg4

MZee1960
April 27th, 2019, 10:58
"And should someone put a bit of air in that left rear tire?"


I scoured SOH as well as many other sim sites to adjust this and add other little tidbits ..... contact points, HD VC with new seats, heli-trim gauge, smoke effects, engine smoke gauge, heli dust landing effects, ... and all seems very nice and quite realistic. A great little model. Thank-you, @falcon409, @BananaBob and all others involved in this project.