Aerofly FS 2 Robinson R22 Helicopter Released!

  • Took that maiden flight a few hours ago and I'm really impressed!

    First thing I did was turn on profi mode. Lifted off from the Downtown Manhattan heliport, briefly danced a bit until my feet woke up and the rest is history. Flew at 500 AGL over the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, then proceeded northbound over the East River (as I've done many times IRL at 1500' in fixed wing aircraft). After passing Roosevelt Island, I headed over to Central Park, then reversed course for the Empire State Building at 1000', looped around her and came in for a landing on the roof of the Metlife building (formerly the Pan Am building) which used to have a heliport.

    Departed and headed south for "The Lady", did a few left orbits then came to a hover at 200AGL and was able to maintain a stable hover for several minutes before sitting her down on Liberty Island. Next I will crank up the winds to add challenge, but so far, I must say...

    The R-22 is an absolute dream to fly!!!

    One minor critique about the scenery. The bridges are well lit as in real life, however, the heliport is not. This was also the case in X-Plane's third party NYC scenery package (which I modded myself to add helipad lighting). Not sure why proper lighting is overlooked, but this is one of the most important and active heliports in NYC! Please look into adding proper night lighting.

    Overall, the R-22 is a blast!

    Thanks Ipacs.

    I added the windsock, signage and ALL of the heliport lighting in this video:

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    Redtail

    KFRG, KTEB, KEWR, KLGA

    ~Straighten up and fly right~

    DESKTOP: i7-7700k @5GHz (water cooled), Nvidia GTX 1080Ti FTW3, 32GB DDR4, 500GB SSD, Oculus Rift CV1, Windows 10 Home 64 bit,

    TM HOTAS Warthog (large spring removed), Saitek PRO Flight Combat Rudder Pedals, YOKO yoke!

    Laptop (gaming): Acer Predator Helios 500- Intel Core i7-8750H @4.1GHz, Nvidia GTX 1070, 32GB DDR4, 256GB SSD/1TB HDD.

    Gametrix JetSeat FSE (Flight Sim Edition)-USB Vibrating pad. Nextlevel V3 Motion Platform / Sim cockpit.

    Edited 3 times, last by Redtail (January 2, 2019 at 6:58 AM).

  • Sounds like a great flight. I usually fly the easy mode, just gave profi mode another shot. It's safe to say I feel a bit of motion sickness now. Nice X Plane light work on the helipad!

    Profi mode is very rewarding, especially having flown helos in DCS (or real ones, which I have not). It's good that they've added an easy mode, but I'm happy with the more challenging flight model of Profi. I just flew around some more in NYC and Chicago and I'm feeling a little light headed myself, but that may be due to general tiredness and body temperature. My wife has a cold and has the heat up a bit high today ^^.

    Thanks for the compliment. I had very little experience with the editor when I did it, so I got a bit carried away with the tools, lol.

    I added far more lights than the real helipad has (including strobe lights and a Cessna parked up there)..haha. I worked at Newark and LaGuardia as an airfield electrician for over ten years, on airport lighting and signage, so I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted it lit. In reality, there are fewer lights and night ops are very limited now, due to noise complaints downtown. However, I drive over the Brooklyn bridge several times a week and the helipad is definitely lit.

    I hope this isn't taken as a complaint, because overall, NYC looks incredible! The best I've seen in ANY flightsim. I'm just hoping to eliminate the others from my hard drive eventually :thumbup:

    Redtail

    KFRG, KTEB, KEWR, KLGA

    ~Straighten up and fly right~

    DESKTOP: i7-7700k @5GHz (water cooled), Nvidia GTX 1080Ti FTW3, 32GB DDR4, 500GB SSD, Oculus Rift CV1, Windows 10 Home 64 bit,

    TM HOTAS Warthog (large spring removed), Saitek PRO Flight Combat Rudder Pedals, YOKO yoke!

    Laptop (gaming): Acer Predator Helios 500- Intel Core i7-8750H @4.1GHz, Nvidia GTX 1070, 32GB DDR4, 256GB SSD/1TB HDD.

    Gametrix JetSeat FSE (Flight Sim Edition)-USB Vibrating pad. Nextlevel V3 Motion Platform / Sim cockpit.

    Edited 2 times, last by Redtail (January 3, 2019 at 4:42 AM).

  • I think one of my favourite things about FS2 scenery, and New York City in particular, is the way you can land on pretty much any building. It's only now that we have a helicopter that we can appreciate that, and it's a real buzz in the R22 hopping around the skyscrapers that would be impossible to land on in a real flight.

    i5-12600K/MSI RTX 3080/Win11/64Gb RAM/Asus Xonar DX+ Beyer DT990 pro headphones/LG 34" UM65 @2560x1080/Quest Pro/TM Warthog+VKB MkIV Rudder pedals

  • I find profil mode in fact easier in VR!

    I rate this aircraft in VR surely one of the best flightsimming experiences ever.

    The low-res environment of the Rift is quickly overcome by the situational awareness you gain.

    Downside is it's also the first time I've experienced motion sickness in a simulator, after a spell of active antics in it...

  • I think one of my favourite things about FS2 scenery, and New York City in particular, is the way you can land on pretty much any building. It's only now that we have a helicopter that we can appreciate that, and it's a real buzz in the R22 hopping around the skyscrapers that would be impossible to land on in a real flight.

    Exactly!

    That was another frustrating thing in XP. The buildings weren't solid, so I had to add my own helipads in order to land on them, which became tedious and time consuming. How can you have helicopters in your sim and the buildings are hollow?

    The only good that came from it, was the ability to learn a little bit about the editor (which was nice to experiment with). But I'm no programmer. I have a few more videos on my YT page showing one I placed on the Metlife building and a few in Chicago.

    AFS2 is already a heck of a lot more fun and rewarding to use, because you can land on any rooftop! AFS2 and DCS got it right. I've all but given up on everything else.

    Hey Redtail, great story! Are you flying in VR at all? Gave profil mode another shot today, very rewarding indeed.

    I've been exclusively VR (Rift CV1) for a little over a year now. No going back for me ;)

    Updated my sig.

    Redtail

    KFRG, KTEB, KEWR, KLGA

    ~Straighten up and fly right~

    DESKTOP: i7-7700k @5GHz (water cooled), Nvidia GTX 1080Ti FTW3, 32GB DDR4, 500GB SSD, Oculus Rift CV1, Windows 10 Home 64 bit,

    TM HOTAS Warthog (large spring removed), Saitek PRO Flight Combat Rudder Pedals, YOKO yoke!

    Laptop (gaming): Acer Predator Helios 500- Intel Core i7-8750H @4.1GHz, Nvidia GTX 1070, 32GB DDR4, 256GB SSD/1TB HDD.

    Gametrix JetSeat FSE (Flight Sim Edition)-USB Vibrating pad. Nextlevel V3 Motion Platform / Sim cockpit.

    Edited once, last by Redtail (January 3, 2019 at 5:05 AM).

  • Quite surprising my quote about issues with reaching someone in development regarding the problems with the R22 flight model was deleted.

    Not a good start for this sim.

    Rick

    We are the developers on here responding to everyone directly. Your post was not suited for this thread.

    Also, we have been around for quite some time.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff