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The Staff of SOH
Alphasim Ah-1W Super Cobra.
- Thread starter Ferry_vO
- Start date
kilo delta
Charter Member 2015
Native FSX model too...for those that haven't checked.
No matter what your views on Alphasim as a company, they've always been generous with their freeware.
No matter what your views on Alphasim as a company, they've always been generous with their freeware.
krazycolin
Banned
MY BABY!!!!!!
Murray Cod
Charter Member 2011
thanks for the HU:salute:
I grabbed her a couple of days ago and she's a very nice flier especially if you drop the 'heli trim' gauge in the panel.
She can be a bit difficult to slow down so you have to stay ahead of the game when it comes to landing and she hovers for a long time before starting to descend but she does come down gently and landings are easy to pull off.
I wonder if there is a paintkit out there for her. Hmmm!
She can be a bit difficult to slow down so you have to stay ahead of the game when it comes to landing and she hovers for a long time before starting to descend but she does come down gently and landings are easy to pull off.
I wonder if there is a paintkit out there for her. Hmmm!
You know what, I think that is not the helicopter, but a very annoying thing with FSX, I noticed that with so many Helicopters I fly in that sim, it really puts me off helo flying which I loved to do in FS9.
I'm not sure if any of you guys noticed the same thing...
The only one that really descends as it should on closing the throttle and doesn't float forever is the Sycamore freeware Helo done by british classics.
Must have been a real wiz who was writing the airfile.
I have a number of FSX helos that descend somewhat realistically but there are others that are definite 'floaters' as you described.
I love helos but the FM in FSX for them is totally fictitious.
Still, nice to have it as freeware.
It's unfortunate to see this FSX 'urban legend/myth' continues to exist in this community to this day.
While the rotor effectiveness is better than exists in real world helicopter operation, the FM for helicopter operation in FSX is quite frankly, not all that bad within the bounds made possible by FSX's engine.
To make a blanket statement saying it is a totally fictitious FM, well one would then logically have apply that same statement to fixed wing operations FM within FSX as well.
Bluntly, the FM is only as good as the developer who made it.
I think the Dodosim 206, which is built on the FM foundation of FSX, speaks volumes for itself.
While I'm sure many here won't except my opinion, I would encourage folks who are interested in helicopter simming to talk to some of the real world helicopter pilots over at Hovercontrol.com
Those pilots do find the FM to be quite satisfactory and are happy to explain the technical aspects of it, anytime.
And I do accept their opinions and experience with real world vs FSX, over that of the general FSX community. :salute:
I have to agree with you Dain. To be upfront, I know nothing about how a heli should fly other than in very general terms. I have also gotten a few lessons from the very knowledgeable folks at Hovercontrol and as you mentioned, their overall opinion of the FSX flight dynamics for heli's is a positive one. Could it be better. . .no doubt, but given the restrictions of the sim, they felt it was quite realistic. I don't have any problems with heli's in FSX, they're fun to fly, a real handful sometimes, but that's part of what makes them fun. . .you actually have to stay on top of them to do what you want.:salute:
michael davies
Charter Member 2012
And thats exactly why I game up doing them, they are quiet clearly crap, shame I didn't realise that after the 2nd or 3rd and not the 10th, could of saved myself a ****e load of grief and wasted man hours to be honest.
I could fix the float issue from experiance learned since the original FDE was done, quiet easily to be honest, but its only putting a bigger band aid on something that really needs redoing from new.
The Alphasim ethos was to produce FDEs that got more people into rotory winged flight, as such they were dumbed down and made to suit those who predominately flew fixed wing, to that end they were very popular and over the years got quiet a lot of new people into the rotary winged arena. However for every positive mail we got about how fixed wing could finally fly something rotatry we got 3 who slammed it as too dumb or just plain crap.
A rather large part of my FS career that I wish had never happend and quite frankly wish would just curl up and die horribly in a corner somewhere, thank goodness I'm back to basic poly bending.
krazycolin
Banned
As an FYI, we're in the middle of prepping this one for FSX as a REAL native bird. The model we sold to AS was modded down considerably for FS9 and so, even though it has "native" aspects, it's not nearly as good as the one we're now doing...
(sorry if this is a rip of the thread... I do apologize)
(sorry if this is a rip of the thread... I do apologize)
Right Ed.
And I don't want to come off as sounding like the helicopter FM is all wonderful, wholesome, fluffy, goodness.
It's not.
But it does it's job satisfactory, and gives someone a good indication of what it's like, minus some of the hazards like VRS (Vortex ring state).
Agreed.
But with the continued development by Fred Naar, in association now with real world rotorcraft pilots, of the freeware HTR library, things are getting better and more realistic.
The best in the realsim area, Dodosim has the 206 which bumps up the realism quite a bit, (and the Huey development appears to be coming along nicely).
There are additional 'realism' opportunities available, for those who wish to seek them.
Mick, I disagree with you and feel you are being too hard on yourself.
I saw your FM's as providing a good stable experience for the casual sim user who wanted the occasional helicopter flight.
It fit the niche quite well.
I think some of your hand in development of helicopter products have opened the door for some of us who went exploring a little deeper into the world of rotorcraft.
Even though I like to operate the Dodosim 206, I just finished a most enjoyable flight in the Alphasim/Virtavia Sea King as I'm typing this.
Thank you.
EDIT: Oh and thank you Mick and KC for the AH-1W.
I paid for my copy a couple years ago and never regretted it once.
I still dig it out from time to time.
Ferry_vO
Retired SOH Administrator
I know no flightsim will ever offer the perfect experience, but without FsX I would probably not fly a helicopter very often... I could do it in Fs9 but only if I dumbed down the settings a lot. In FsX I can fly 'em like I used to, with all sliders right.
I have five add-on helicopters in my FsX install, and all are Alphasim's; the Super Cobra, Seasprite, pavelow, Merlin and S.55 and I love them all.
I have five add-on helicopters in my FsX install, and all are Alphasim's; the Super Cobra, Seasprite, pavelow, Merlin and S.55 and I love them all.
michael davies
Charter Member 2012
Too harsh, or your too kind. It is important to recognize ones own limits and skills.
The sad fact is that some of the constraints placed upon Alphasim helo FDEs were not sim generated, there are other aspects, tools and gauges that can enhance the basic FS helo FDE, however these are generally created by the freeware fraternity, getting them on board a payware product is hard, especially if 'management' are cool to the idea, for what ever reason, real or perceived. Of course being freeware means anyone can 'dig' around and see whats what, and dare we say copy aspects and generate there own versions. However it wont take long for the community to unravel whats going on, lets be fair, once something is invented for FS its very hard to reinvent another way, and thus plagiarism is born.
Personally I prefer the tag of crappy default FS helo FDE to a plagiarist.
They had their place but that place is long gone and easily surpassed these days, the new Merlin FSx Accel FDE is quite good, one was developed for the Seaking but not shipped due to the late date and the changes it would have forced on the sound files, who's author is totally in-transient to changes and often caused the FDE to be totally changed to suit his sound format, with the loss of some fidelity and gauge issues, simply due to the type of engine parameter chosen (wrongly).
The S-55 was a good stepping stone, at the time the heaviest genuine weighted piston FDE, a FDE where the cfg weight actually represented the real weight, to that date most piston FDEs fitted to large piston helos still used the default Robinson weights, its not perfect, too much nose down at high speed but weight and lift were pretty good. The Stallion was pretty good, its sheer weight destroyed lift naturally and slowed pretty quick, the problem was the lighter weighted ones, Cobras, Dauphins, Apaches etc.
I did do two more FDEs, based on the Merlin FDE, one a 'big' zero torque yaw twin rotor jobby, the other a Soviet iconic helo, but since Alphasims demise, the low profile of Virtavia, other political issues and myself having lost all interest in ever doing any more helo FDE, they will probably remain still born, and on reflection, probably just as well.
Let me look at the Cobra in a moment, pretty sure the float can be dialed out in a few moments.
Best
Michael