What is your favorite helicopter?

**Naismith** · August 1st, 2015, 14:37

I generally avoid helicopters but when I do I like Rick Piper's Bristol Sycamore best. It is a pity he never completed it as it is a Beta.

**kdfw** · August 1st, 2015, 16:05

to upgrade fsx helicopter flight models, try the htr module by Fred Naar.

cera's uh60 is one of the best models out there.

**airattackimages** · August 1st, 2015, 17:46

^ that was a fun little flight! Does the Cera UH-60 work in multiplayer now?

I know there are no perfect FSX helicopter FDEs, but I love the way the Cera 60 flies. Does anyone know comparatively speaking, how the Milviz MD530 flies in light of it? That could be my next purchase.

**ST0RM** · August 1st, 2015, 18:34

Originally Posted by airattackimages

Does the Cera UH-60 work in multiplayer now?

Nope. They gave up on trying to fix it. Lost a few customers over that.

-Jef

**DaveB** · August 2nd, 2015, 05:05

I think it's fair to say that the Milviz 530 flies completely differently. One is light and agile.. the other is borderline 'heavy'.. as are the real ones. I wouldn't be put off by that though. The 530 is a fine model even though it's not my favourite RW helicopter.

ATB
DaveB

**Dumonceau** · August 2nd, 2015, 05:12

My favourite, but the one from Area51.

Johan

**airattackimages** · August 2nd, 2015, 07:21

Originally Posted by DaveB

I think it's fair to say that the Milviz 530 flies completely differently. One is light and agile.. the other is borderline 'heavy'.. as are the real ones. I wouldn't be put off by that though. The 530 is a fine model even though it's not my favourite RW helicopter.

ATB
DaveB

Well yeah

I guess what I should have said how believable is the flight model... Because the Cera UH-60 is one of the more believable ones I have flown..

**DaveB** · August 2nd, 2015, 07:51

It's a difficult one to answer. Much depends on what you want out of a flight model and how your rig is setup. Is it believable.. I don't know. I like the flight model. It goes exactly where you want it to go and it sounds the part while you're doing it. There's a quick start option but you can run it up 'by the book' should you wish. It really has a lot going for it. One thing though.. on my rig, I often get a 'BEX' error on shutting the sim down after I've flown it. Trying to track down exactly what this is like finding the answer to the universe! I've not seen anyone else report this so I guess it's something unique to my rig.

I have my realism sliders backed off and it flies 'how I like' it to fly. Crank em up and I'm sure it would get livelier. It flies how I would expect one to fly but that doesn't mean a great deal

ATB
DaveB

**Wild Bill Kelso** · August 2nd, 2015, 08:19

Originally Posted by Naismith

...I like Rick Piper's Bristol Sycamore best.

Thanks for mentioning this gem!
Still my first choice for exploring new sceneries along with the Bell 47 by Jean-Marie Mermaz.

Cheers,
Markus.

**rezn550** · August 2nd, 2015, 09:25

Originally Posted by kdfw

to upgrade fsx helicopter flight models, try the htr module by Fred Naar.

cera's uh60 is one of the best models out there.

love the scenery in the vid.... very fitting

**kdfw** · August 2nd, 2015, 12:10

Originally Posted by rezn550

love the scenery in the vid.... very fitting

yes, the farm textures are quite nice for adding to the sense of speed at low altitude.

ok, some dangerous flying here

**airattackimages** · August 6th, 2015, 19:43

Originally Posted by DaveB

It's a difficult one to answer. Much depends on what you want out of a flight model and how your rig is setup. Is it believable.. I don't know. I like the flight model. It goes exactly where you want it to go and it sounds the part while you're doing it. There's a quick start option but you can run it up 'by the book' should you wish. It really has a lot going for it. One thing though.. on my rig, I often get a 'BEX' error on shutting the sim down after I've flown it. Trying to track down exactly what this is like finding the answer to the universe! I've not seen anyone else report this so I guess it's something unique to my rig.

I have my realism sliders backed off and it flies 'how I like' it to fly. Crank em up and I'm sure it would get livelier. It flies how I would expect one to fly but that doesn't mean a great deal

ATB
DaveB

Thanks Dave! How is it on frames in comparison to the 60?

Last question I promise

lol

**airattackimages** · August 6th, 2015, 19:46

Originally Posted by kdfw

yes, the farm textures are quite nice for adding to the sense of speed at low altitude.

ok, some dangerous flying here

Can you fill me in on what method you're using to get the 60 to work in a replay? Can send a PM if you prefer...

**DaveB** · August 7th, 2015, 00:11

Thanks Dave! How is it on frames in comparison to the 60?

I don't think there's a great deal of difference mate.. both it and the 60 run fine on my i5. One that does give a noticeable hit is the MV407. Looking at it.. it seems to be no more than a 206 with 2 extra blades.. certainly nothing visible to pull at FR's so it must be the whole unit being more resource hungry. Compare it to the MV/ND Wokka.. you'd think the Wokka, with all it's lumps, bumps and twin rotors would be heavier on frames not better but the Wokka is better.
Anywho.. I think it's safe to assume a slightly higher resource overhead with MV products than with comparable dev's products.. good or bad. In the words of Bruce Hornsby.. That's just the way it is

ATB
DaveB

***Victory103*** · August 7th, 2015, 12:49

As kdfw mentioned and has show in his vids, the Cera H-60 is a winner. Out of the box the FDE is off, with HTR most of the issues are corrected given the limitations in FSX. I have many of the payware models out, but my "go-to" model for a quick flight to check AI or scenery is the freeware ERS B206 make over.

**Hanimichal** · August 7th, 2015, 14:34

Originally Posted by ST0RM

Nope. They gave up on trying to fix it. Lost a few customers over that.

-Jef

watch this guy flying in VATSIM with friends all time in this heli without problems!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtL...zjlq0dgx5sqatA

**kdfw** · August 7th, 2015, 15:44

Originally Posted by airattackimages

Can you fill me in on what method you're using to get the 60 to work in a replay? Can send a PM if you prefer...

instructions are in the video description of the uh60x2 youtube video.

**SeanTK** · August 8th, 2015, 10:59

My top three in FSX:

Nemeth Mi-24V
Cera Bell 212
Virtavia/Alphasim AS365 Dauphin

The Nemeth model is realistic from a systems perspective, and it looks great - which makes it very enjoyable for me. There are a few bugs that will never be fixed, but I can live with them. As with most addon helicotpers though, the flight dynamics could be better.

The Cera 212 is also great from a systems and visual perspective, and gets about equal flying time from me when compared with the Hind.

I have a personal connection to the AS365 so despite some dated visuals, it's a solid model and I use it extensively as well. I believe that Cera Simulations is back in action and is beginning to progress on their Dauphin, but I believe they are making a "long-nose" model. Here's hoping for a short-nose.

I would also highly recommend Helicopter Total Realism (HTR) available on Hovercontrol to improve the flying properties (flight dynamics) of many helicopters!

Honorable mention to the Area51 Simulations OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, specifically with the flight dynamics update on Hovercontrol. Very enjoyable to fly, and with more convincing dynamics too.

Having been behind the controls of a few different types in the real world, FSX helicopters are not nearly sensitive enough regarding control inputs to be realistic, nor do many have features like yaw from rotor momentum built in.

**napamule** · August 18th, 2015, 00:00

Sikorsky S-97 'Raider' prototype (based on their X-2 Demonstrator). Model (for FS9) by David Allen. The FDEs are NEW and made from scratch by me, Chuck B (Napamule).

Well this is really for FS9 but I tried it in FSX Accel. Didn't go back to flying it in FS9 although it flys just as good in FS9, if not better, than in FSX (if that's possible). Been at it for a week or so. This is the first video over 5 min I ever made (been at YouTube since 2006). Here is a 9:23 video of it in FSX Acceleration: http://youtu.be/ACM3NkYQ8_w .

Of course this helio is not 'real' and this only shows what can be done with FDEs and does not mean that the S-97 can do these 'tricks'. So it's just for fun.
Napamule

**ZsoltB** · August 18th, 2015, 00:25

The best:

**ST0RM** · August 18th, 2015, 05:14

Originally Posted by Hanimichal

watch this guy flying in VATSIM with friends all time in this heli without problems!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtL...zjlq0dgx5sqatA

Hani, true. It does work in M/P, but only if there aren't any other people in the Cerasim UH-60 on the server as well. It would cause server lockups and such. Nice vids though. And it's a great product, just not as thoroughly completed as their previous work.

-Jeff

***huub vink*** · August 18th, 2015, 09:17

As I only have the default helicopters installed I assume this must be my favourite helicopter in FSX....

In FS2004 I used to the the Westland Wessex helicopters by the Simshed quite often,
but the one below was my absolute favourite!

Cheers,
Huub

***ian elliot*** · August 18th, 2015, 10:03

The Simshed, Brian Franklin Wessex works pretty well out of the box in FSX, all animations seem to work and most of the gauges show without warnings, the rotor disk is a little dark perhaps but its better than some other port-over helos ive try'd,

cheers ian

**DaveB** · August 18th, 2015, 12:26

It's one I always keep installed too Ian

Oh for an FSX native model!! Brian actually let a friend (who will remain nameless for fear of a full inbox) have the source code for it with a view to doing just that. I don't know what program Brian used to compile it but I think it involved a lot of masking tape and super-glue!! Needless to say.. the project didn't get very far.

Still.. the old FS9 model will do for now

ATB
DaveB