Thanks Yoyo.
Heres what I found with this bird (purchased new in the past few days.)
1. You need to patch it. There are 3 patches and despite the fact that the helo dates back to 2011, it still needs to be patched.
2. Once patched, you do get an autostart button on panel 3, but you still need to tweak a couple buttons to fire it up. (much easier though). Standard start procedure takes 36 mouse clicks. I prefer to be up and flying sooner than that unless Im in a 747 practicing systems training.
3. Start up issues appear to be common with ND aircraft based on their support forums.
4. Once patched, the navcom computer is not present in the panel config. You need to go to panel.1 folder (a panel version that has the default GPS in place of the MFD), and copy window 5 to the panel cfg for the standard panel folder. No big, but its a quality control issue to me.
5. Once flying, there are a very limited number of views available hitting . Sub views hitting [A] renders few more if any. The virtavia CH-53A has more and better views.
6. The model radius needs correction because the default outside view radius is 39 meters. I used raditor to correct it to 20 meters. There are multiple models, so you need to do them all.
7. It comes with both crewed and uncrewed versions (in case you dont like the virtual guy in the left seat.) Thats good. However, going back to views, I'd like to be able to switch chairs. Cant do it with the limited current views.
8. Its a very nice model. If you are into heavy helos like I am, then this is a nice one. However, the effort to getting going has been a journey of discovery I find irritating with payware.
9. given the age of this aircraft, I am a bit surprised I didnt find more and better quality repaints. Especially since this product comes with a pretty nice paint kit.