New Flight Simulator from MS

[Bill Bridges]

Hi Bill,

. X-Plane had some very realistic helicopter dynamics. I was able to hover a real Alouette II first try, no problem, just with experience using X-Plane and observing other pilots flying the Alouette for a few hours.

Personal computer sims done come a long way. Someday I’ll likely get back into messing with that stuff.

Regards,
Tom Charlton

I have never been able to hover a flight sim helicopter. There were two issues for me. The first was the outside visual cues I used to hover are not available. Like landing an airplane my peripheral vision is extremely important when it comes to hovering. The second issue is the controls of the helicopters I flew were synced together closely. An example of synced together would be where a movement of an anti-torque pedal would require a corresponding movement of the cyclic and collective. They all had the same feel.

Contrary to what most folks might think, hovering a UH-1 "well" is a lot harder than it looks. I could go to a Cobra, a OH-6/58, or a Ch-54 without any problems, but the first few minutes back in a UH-1 took a little time to get the feel back.

[Tom Charlton]

Some video on the new Flight Simulator coming from MS.

Hi Bill,

Very interesting. Looks like they’ve done a complete revamp on the core software. More in line with X-Planes’ methodology since its beginning. https://www.x-plane.com/
Actually . . . X-Plane had some very realistic helicopter dynamics. I was able to hover a real Alouette II first try, no problem, just with experience using X-Plane and observing other pilots flying the Alouette for a few hours.

Personal computer sims done come a long way. Someday I’ll likely get back into messing with that stuff.

Regards,
Tom Charlton

[Bill Bridges]

Some video on the new Flight Simulator coming from MS.

[Bill Bridges]

MS is coming out with a new flight simulator.

The original trailer from MS.