Bravo!
Enough talking... back to work! 
Helicopter implementation being planned at all?
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there already is a heli for AFS1. I don´t understand why it is so hard to make a heli for AFS2.
Interestingly enough there is no heli in FSW either and that one is FSX based! Maybe it is one of the most difficult of vehicles to model in any sim?
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Is it hard to learn to fly?
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We have been a very quiet lately and I apologize for that, so I wanted to insure everyone that we are ALL very hard at work here.
I will update everyone soon as to what's happening but for now, everyone can ponder over this
Haha! Such a tease...
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Is it hard to learn to fly?
I find it hard. I tried several times (and keep trying now and then) but it's so unstable in comparison to fixed-wing planes. I actually can fly it over a certain distance, but hovering and notably landing is quite hard.
Add the fact that most of us (including me) don't have helicopter-specific hardware like collective and have to rely on poor substitutes.
Kind regards, Michael
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.. it's so unstable in comparison to fixed-wing planes. I actually can fly it over a certain distance, but hovering and notably landing is quite hard.
Add the fact that most of us (including me) don't have helicopter-specific hardware like collective and have to rely on poor substitutes.
It is unstable and so you have to pay attention to the flying all the time.
I fly them with a twist-grip joystick, with throttle lever as collective, with no problem.
The best flying experience is a midsize helo with autopilot, preferably autohover too.
In the MSFS world, that was the ICARO AW139.
You do the interesting (manual) stuff while around the heliport, then set course and fly to destinations further afield.
It is a genuine alternative to small GA flying, with many bonus features!
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We may have a nice surprise coming your way down the road a bit
I'll leave it at that for now.
Oh that’s the best news since we won WWII.
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As any real helicopter pilot will tell you - “if you can fly a Robbie, you can fly anything!” The smaller they are, the less inherent stability they posess and a Robbie helicopter in Aerofly FS2 would be a VERY welcome indeed. Waiting with baited breath!
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Maybe it is one of the most difficult of vehicles to model in any sim?
Well yes it actually is. Having the rotor system turning gives you one part of the airspeed on the blades (stationary hover is relatively easy) and the second part is flying forward. Then the airflow for a rotor blade is changing in velocity and direction which causes the blades to move up and down, forwards and backwards so the position of the blades and the incoming airflow onto the blades is no longer stationary... You get airflow on one side of the rotor that comes from the trailing edge of the rotorblade... you have angles of attack from 0 to +/-180 degrees and back.
And of course each blade at its deflected position creates a downforce on the air around it, accelerating it. But the next blade is so close that this washed down air complicates the airflow even futher. Then you have tip vorticies going off from the blade tips, those are trailing off, being chopped by the next blade (blade vortex interaction), they cause sudden increase in angle of attack for example and a little bit of extra airspeed...
and then you also have the issue of the forward going blade approaching the speed of sound. Airflow creates shock waves, the lift, drag and moment change....
So yeah all in all the blade goes probably something like from -100m/s to plus 250m/s, Mach -0.2 to plus 0.8, angles of attack change from like 2 degrees to 14 degrees on the tip and like 4 to 180 degrees on the inside and of course the side slip angle (so to say) varies a lot to.
Its impossible to simulate all this in real time, at least on current hardware.
At the universities they simulate 10 full rotor rotations in about a week computing time on one of the most advanced computer clusters out there. So yes that is probably the most difficult vehicle simulation. Aircraft are relatively easy because they don't have this nasty rotating system, they have nice stationary flying wings at relative constant angle of attack, almost no sideslip, near constant velocity, very little interaction from the main wings onto the tail surface. You only have two vortecies trailing off, not actually hitting anything else.
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As any real helicopter pilot will tell you - “if you can fly a Robbie, you can fly anything!” The smaller they are, the less inherent stability they posess and a Robbie helicopter in Aerofly FS2 would be a VERY welcome indeed. Waiting with baited breath!
Indeed, that's what I experienced in P3D. While I could tame a few big choppers, smart little R22s & Co. always tend to tip over.
Kind regards, Michael
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Maybe you should read this article !!!
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Oh Boy
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Its not strictly true to say small helicopters are more unstable. The major factor in stability is the type of rotor head fitted. Of course size does come into it but its not the major factor.
A rigid rotor head without a stabilization system is very unstable. if you take out the AFCS (automatic flight contol system) on a Lynx it handles very badly indeed and you are always chasing inputs.
In order of stability rotor heads are
Rigid
Semi rigid or semi articulated
Fully articulated
Here endeth the lesson according to Steve
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R22 in Aerofly FS2. One airfield one can see is Speck near Zurich, but also LOWI Innsbruck can be seen, and the Matterhorn.
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hehe awesome!
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YEEEEEEESSSSS ! !
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Finally YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS....
I have been an RC heli pilot all my life, still fly them electric now.For those that have problem flying them forget the pedal for now and use the joystick twist motion (if you can) for the yaw.
A bit like a RC radio where your hand control everything.
I have 12 hours on a Sikorsky S-300 and the transition from fix wing at that time was hell. You need to forget 80% of your fix wing flying.
If the team don't mind as they are working with ORBX, here an heli only video I just did on their new Gold Coast
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Are there any affordable (say within the Saitek-range) helicopter controls available? The ones I know start at 600 $ which is a bit steep for a casual chopper flyer. I know there are numerous do-it-yourself solutions on YouTube but that's not what I would be looking for. And of course it should work with AeroflyFS2.
At present, I use a Saitek Quadrant for Collective, the Saitek Cessna Pedals (pretty poor for that purpose) and a TM16000.
I doubt there is, but just in case, thanks a lot, Michael
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Well, for us VR pilots, you will catch a glimpse early in the video of VR hands.........
