SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

[jaeger52]

For those of you have a hankering to fly helicopters in FS9, but have given up because they're just too darn complicated and unweildy to operate? Believe me, you're not alone!

Ever since helicopters were introduced into MSFS, it has been my passion to master the art of rotary winged flight. And believe me, I have struggled like many of you for endless hours without a great deal of success. Eventually I was able to get the aircraft into the air and was able to fly around, but my landings always resulted in catastrophic crashes. Mastering the hover was absolutely the worst part!

Then I discovered Jordan Moore's www.hovercontrol.com!

HoverControl is the world's largest helicopter simulation website in the world! If you like rotary winged flight simulation, you ABSOLUTELY MUST visit this website!

HoverControl owner/operator Jordan Moore has published his own idea about how to adjust your Realism and Control settings in MSFS. For the beginner or intermediate helicopter pilot, I have found Moore's suggested settings to be very USER-UNFRIENDLY!

Sorry Jordan!

Here are my suggested settings (for FS9)....

From within an open session of FS9:

1. Adjust your REALISM and SENSITIVITIES settings to match what you see below.

Using my suggested settings, I think you'll discover a huge difference in how helicopters handle in FS9.

Enjoy!

[harkonnen]

Thanks for posting Jaeger, I remember just giving up in disgust after a few attempts at helo flight. Dampening the joystick responses to taste, and a little practice will have you pushing the 'Realism' settings back up to normal in no time. You can leave the joystick responses how you like them and get 'realer and realer' on the 'Realism' page as you gain confidence. Also being prepared to counter the tail-rotor effect with your rudder as soon as the struts leave the ground helps. Over steering and then over compensating will get you out of control pretty fast too....easy does it on the stick! And your pointer to Hovercontrol is spot on, thanks again. :)

BTW...my helo-flying is not bad at all now....landings?....not so much! :lol:

[mel wilson]

Good stuff jaeger, i'm sure everyone has been bugged by this problem, seems to me that some Helo's are easier to control than others.

Thanks for posting your results, not much coverage on this topic, and very helpful.

@Hark, a steady hover and a gentle landing are not the easiest things to master. Tip, I always tell my passengers to brace themselves as we drop like a brick the last 20ft. Plus I always make them wear parachutes, not to use, but to sit on, it softens the impact. LOL

Mel.

[jaeger52]

Thanks Hark and Mel.

After (long, long ago) discovering HoverControl, I followed Jordan Moore's lessons and adjusted my control settings to match his suggestions. All of which presented me with a whole new learning curve, which I spents months to master pretty well, in fact!

But it needn't have been that difficult. After using Jordan Moore's suggested settings, I discovered that controlling any helicopter was better accomplished NOT by holding the joystick in the normal fashion for which it was designed to be held, but rather, by gripping the lowest possible end of the stick between my thumb and forefinger, thus minimizing my control inputs relative to Jordan Moore's nearly "Maxed Out Sensitivities" and nearly "Zeroed Out Null Zone". For the longest time, I was thinking I needed a joystick that was only three inches in height!

If you can get your head around the physics of joystick height, hand grip, weight of arm pressure on the grip (BASED ON JORDAN MOORE'S SUGGESTED SETTINGS), you will discover that, The higher the hand is located on the pistol grip of the joystick the input movements become more exaggerated and therefore more difficult to make "very refined control inputs" which are (of course) being translated to the rotorhead of any given helicopter. Conversely, if you shift your handgrip down nearer to the base of the pistol grip, and using only finger-tip applied pressure to the base of the stick, I discovered that my "fingertip inputs" were actually more accurate when attempting to make "very refined control inputs".

I nearly mastered Jordan Moore's suggested settings by taking my hand off the "handgrip" of my joystick and began using only "fingertip" pressure near the base of my joystick. In this fashion, I was able to eventually get near mastery of rotary wing flight dynamics. I personally don't use foot pedals, although I do have an old "gameport" set. I prefer the twist grip function. My choice.

Historically, I became involved with a short lived Virtual Airline Experiment that never got off the ground. For many months, I moved away from rotary winged flight. When I finally came back, I had a devil of a time getting myself back to where I had been previously. I discovered a little known fact, which is that flying helicopters in FS9 is not like riding a bicycle. Neither is it like normal ingrained typing skills which apparently cannot be altogether forgotten once learned.

I double and triple checked my control settings up and down, inside and out to match those that Jordan Moore had long since established on his infamous HoverControl.Com site. The plain and simple fact is that I had simply "lost my delicate touch techniques!!!"

Aaarghh!

"This can't be happening," I thought to myself. Yet it was true! I had lost my long practiced touch (using Jordan Moore's recommended control settings) over the course of three months away from flying my beloved helo's.

I was really dumbfounded! I was not about to go through another year long learning curve to get myself resituated! So I began tinkering with the Realism and Sensitivities settings.

I will be interested to hear from other rotary wing pilots who have used my suggested settings.

Jaeg-

[harkonnen]

I thought I should mention...try ticking 'Autorudder' on the 'Realism' page. You still have rudder input with your twist-handle joystick or your rudder pedals, it's just aided and dampened or equalized in a certain way....may be a little more comfortable for flying helicopters, depending on your experience.
Also....keep practicing, You get way better after 100 flights! :twisted:

[jaeger52]

Thanks for the additional tip, Hark! :D

Now let's nail this one down a bit more precisely so that everyone is on exactly the same page. 8)

What "Hark" is telling us is that--and please correct me if I'm wrong, Hark:

By placing a checkmark in the AutoRudder feature on the Realism page, YOU ARE "turning on" the AutoRudder feature in FS. However, in actuality, YOU ARE "turning off" the helicopter's physical need for Anti-Torque Pedal Input in order to maintain a constant heading.

Hark's tip is a very helpful one for those of us who get tired of applying constant Pedal Input or Joystick / Twist-Grip Input.

I call these wrist and foot busting anomolies Pedal Fatigue or "Twist-Grip-Itis!"! :wink:

HOWEVER: It should be very clearly noted that by turning "on" the AutoRudder Feature on the Realism page when flying any FS helicopter, you are--in effect-- "turning off" a realism feature that is naturally inherent in rotary winged flight.

FLYING LOW AND SLOW IS A COOL THING TO DO!

Jaeg-

[harkonnen]

To be clear on that I'd better do another flight or two and post back but I believe with autorudder on you still have to fight that torque effect in order to keep flying straight along. (It's good for you...better sense of achievement when you can keep 'em flying straight.) Autorudder seemed to me a way that the sim combines a bit of automatic rudder input depending on how hard you're banking with just side to side stick movement, no twist. The consensus is that it's meant for people with no twist handle on their joystick, or a lack of rudder pedals. So it doesn't kill the realism that much as far as handling goes, particularly if you do have a twist stick, or the pedals. IMHO. I personally would rather have all those realism sliders on the left pushed right up and have the rudder and aileron axis' on the joystick dampened to taste...particularly the rudder sensitivities...so your chopper doesn't lurch left or right when your grip gets a bit 'twisty' without you wanting it to.
Oh yeah, fly around a bit in that Robinson 'trainer' that Microsoft offers up in FS9...it's fairly forgiving compared to those Bell helicopters.

EDIT: This is where I'm at now...Thanks Jaeg, you got me flying around a chopper again enough to actually land that Robinson a few times without driving the struts through the floor and up our butts. :lol: Here's my settings, I turn 'Autorudder on for certain aircraft ...especially the ones with really sensitive rudder action. I think the trick is to get as real as possible - so don't forget to go back into these settings and quit 'cheating' once you start to get 'THE TOUCH"! 8) :) Oh, and with Autorudder on you definitely still torque to the left a bit as soon as the struts leave the ground - just be ready with slight 'right rudder' activity! :wink: