NZFF

For those that want to know about IPACS' R22 and how realistic it is. The review I wrote has just been uploaded to Helisimmer.com For those of you that don't know, Helisimmer is the one stop shop for helicopter simming resources now that hovercontrol has gone.

Nick ...I think you have found your second calling.
100% superbly written article, well done.

As always, input from those actually flying things is gold.

Fly safe, and thanks for taking the time.

Grump, grump - why do they keep letting all these other people on the 'Net when I want to use it?. I'll have to sneak in under cover of darkness

Nice review.
It got me wondering how in the heck you’d even program a helicopter simulation.
My thinking is you’d have to simplify the whole thing down to one point. You don’t need to simulate everything that really makes it fly in real life. Could you just use lookup tables? Eg at this rpm(?), this blade pitch, would generate this much lift force etc....? When that exceeds the mass of the helicopter go up.
I’ve read they’ll operate differently with temp and altitude. Does that just affect the RPM output?
Then I wonder how easy it would be to tweak it without throwing everything else out. Like the air cushion.
Your review got me thinking I could give it a go, then I kept thinking about it.
The systems would be doable I think. That follows a much for logical process, less “fluid”

Then you have to throw wind in to the equation......

NZ255 wrote:Nice review.
It got me wondering how in the heck you’d even program a helicopter simulation.
My thinking is you’d have to simplify the whole thing down to one point. You don’t need to simulate everything that really makes it fly in real life. Could you just use lookup tables? Eg at this rpm(?), this blade pitch, would generate this much lift force etc....? When that exceeds the mass of the helicopter go up.
I’ve read they’ll operate differently with temp and altitude. Does that just affect the RPM output?
Then I wonder how easy it would be to tweak it without throwing everything else out. Like the air cushion.
Your review got me thinking I could give it a go, then I kept thinking about it.
The systems would be doable I think. That follows a much for logical process, less “fluid”

Then you have to throw wind in to the equation......

The trouble with FSX / P3D and where they completely fall over in terms of helicopters is all of the little variables. Wind is but one that does effect almost everything else. The trouble with lookup tables is that it doesn't actually simulate the aerofoil moving through the air so things like Coriolis and load factor are incredibly difficult to get right. There's so much going on that you can't really program all of the variables. That is why FSX / P3Ds flight model is dumbed down somewhat. It's fine for most people but there are a whole heap of things that they don't simulate. Things are changing a little though and developers are getting more experimental with trying to mimic flight behavior within the native sim. Some are moderately successful, some aren't. To this day, the best helicopter for FSX by far was the old Dodosim Bell 206. Nothing else came close to that.

With regard to altitude, yes, altitude and temperature affect the output of the engine but also affects the output of the blades. In less dense air, the blades have to work harder to pull the same amount of air through. The limiting factor of altitude is always the engine but it's the engine not being able to power the blades with enough pitch to pull enough air down.... If that makes sense...

To be honest, with my knowledge as a C-Cat instructor and the flight hours that I have, I still can't think about some of the aerodynamic forces acting at the same time... The math just doesn't work. It's not really surprising that FSX didn't get it right with their flight model. Some of the helicopters in X-Plane are very close but still do some odd things, the IPACS R22 is very close to the real aircraft but doesn't do some basic aerodynamic stuff as described in the review.

So to answer your first question, FSX did dumb down the aerodynamics.

emfrat wrote:Grump, grump - why do they keep letting all these other people on the 'Net when I want to use it?. I'll have to sneak in under cover of darkness

Finally got into it from the IPACS forum.
Very informative review, I learned a lot from it, and it was a great pleasure to read something so well written
Well done Nick! In fact if you fly as well as you write you might even get me up in one of them things
Mike

If ever the opportunity presents itself to get NZFF members who haven't been in a helicopter before presents itself, I'll try to make it happen.

chopper_nut wrote:If ever the opportunity presents itself to get NZFF members who haven't been in a helicopter before presents itself, I'll try to make it happen.

Back around 1962 or 3, some of us on a school/ATC visit to RAF Leuchars got a ride in a Westland Whirlwind before some brasshat appeared and stopped the fun
I was one of the lucky ones.

emfrat wrote:

chopper_nut wrote:If ever the opportunity presents itself to get NZFF members who haven't been in a helicopter before presents itself, I'll try to make it happen.

Back around 1962 or 3, some of us on a school/ATC visit to RAF Leuchars got a ride in a Westland Whirlwind before some brasshat appeared and stopped the fun
I was one of the lucky ones.

Now that's something that I really do want to have a go in... That and a Wessex / S58 particularly the T version for some reason. People think that I'm sick....

Great review. Always good to see reviews from people that have extensive RL experience of the subject.