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Autogyro's in FSX. Recommendations?

arrowmaker

arrowmaker

SOH-CM-2024
I just watched this video on YouTube and got a hankering for flying autogyro's in FSX. Anyone have some recommendations, both freeware and payware?

 
Well, Gyros have never really been my cup of tea, but after seeing that video, I have to confess I wouldn't mind taking one for a test flight :)
 
I can recommend the GAS Pitcairn. They worked most of the autogyro dynamics with clever use of twin engine coding. FSX can't really do gyros, but this one does a decent approximation, at least for very slow flight. It's fun.
 
Only other one I've seen at FlightSim.com is the Xenon XLC2 Gyrocopter, but I've yet to try it out. I don't think either FSX or FS2004 can ever really do justice to the amazing nimbleness and agility of small gyros. There are scads of videos of them over at YouTube; here are a couple:




N.
 
ThinkingManNeil said:
..... I don't think either FSX or FS2004 can ever really do justice to the amazing nimbleness and agility of small gyros. .....
N.
Click to expand...

I don't agree :)
This mis-conception (IMHO) is exactly the reason why there are no good Autogyro models around yet. Freeware or payware.
It's just bringing the right "knowledge" together to make it happen.

Rob
 
Actually, I don't think that FSX can model autorotation at all. Like I said, the GAS model worked around the problem by using a twin engine model, with one engine driving the rotor animation, I believe. And it will allow you to get pretty slow, but it doesn't really model the physics. The Pitcairn does have little wings, though, so has more in common with the usual FSX models than most autogyros would.

Helicopter modeling in FSX is not very good, although Dodosim has managed some incredible results. Still, a powered rotor is very different from an auto-rotating gyro rotor. Not even the Dodosim does auto-rotation very well.

While in flight rpm, an auto-rotating disk is a kind of wing, but it's not like any solid surface wing, and the physics are quite different. I suppose that someone might be able to develop a separate engine to model the physics of an auto-rotating disk and feed it to FSX via simconnect, such as A2A does with some of their systems, like prop physics or hydraulics. But even then it might not be possible. I don't know, of course, since I'm not a software developer and have no real knowledge of FSX. But most every one I've heard discuss this who is and does says it's not really possible. I don't think they're just being pessimistic.

I sure would love it if it were, of course. I've never flown an autogyro, but I'd sure love to, even if only virtually.
 
Thanks, griphos. You make some interesting points. Possibly you are correct in FSX not being able to do autorotation. However some developers seem to have got more out of FSX than even Ace's probably dreamt of. So there may be hope yet.

I have looked at the GAS Pitcairn. However from the quick research I have done it seems to have prop issues in Acceleration. Taken from Flight 1's product page:

"Known FSX Issues: at very high autogen settings and cloud density, minor interference with prop alpha textures; the aircraft kneeboard does not support graphics. This in no way affects the performance of the model. This model is not intended for use DirectX 10."

Can anyone who has the current updated model state whether this interference is indeed "minor" or does it actually spoil the model? To be honest, I am quite fussy about this kind of thing, which I why I have virtually no FS9 imports.
 
arrowmaker said:
However from the quick research I have done it seems to have prop issues in Acceleration.
Click to expand...

NO - that was the old (2007) version, which was created for FS9. The FSX native version was released this year and has no such issues.

 
arrowmaker said:
Thanks, griphos. You make some interesting points. Possibly you are correct in FSX not being able to do autorotation. However some developers seem to have got more out of FSX than even Ace's probably dreamt of. So there may be hope yet.

.
Click to expand...

Which is what I ment to say in my previous post.
Like true VTOL for jet aircraft wasn't suppost to be possible in FSX either; but just look at various Harrier and Tiltrotor addons out there now.

Meaning: with limitations of course, almost anything can be made for FSX, even if it's not possible or envisaged in the standard FSX.
The open interfaces of FSX like Simconnect makes that possible, as proven by many other type of addons in FSX.

Regards, Rob
 
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