Milviz MD530F

[chopper_nut]

I broke down and bought the MD530 today, mainly because it is my favorite helicopter.
I was aware of all the issues that have been put up on Hovercontrol and the like and I know there has been a SP put out for it. I haven't put the SP on yet because I haven't been granted access to the support forums. I have installed the unofficial patch however.

If anyone from Milviz is on here, I am not bashing your product necessarily, I am making informed criticisms. I am a real life 500 pilot with time in the 369C and 520N.

Installation: Easy. The usual self installer with just a few mouse clicks to install the machine. After installation, the 'configuration manager' or whatever it's called, pops up so you can add wire cutters, various avionics upgrades, hook etc. You can configure different options to different paints which I think it's a good system.

First impressions: Fair. You are given the option of a number of (supposedly) real world machines although despite the preview screens, there are no NZ paints in there. In the sim, the machine looks pretty good. The textures are fairly crisp and panel lines seem to be pretty accurate. Overall, it looks about right. The fuselage MAY be a bit fat when viewed front on but I'm not sure about that. The pilot is too small in the cockpit although, interestingly enough, in the cockpit, the pedals are set up for a short pilot (I fly with the pedals at the longest setting in real life). When shutdown, the M/R blades have negative pitch which is incorrect. On the real machine, the blades have flat pitch. The cockpit is fairly good. The default view point is OK and of course you can change this if it doesn't suit you. All the controls seem to be modeled accurately but I haven't had too much of a play around yet. The rotor brake animation is very poor. On the real machine, it has a leather shroud around the handle that covers where it joins the pillar. In the sim, when you pull the handle out it just looks like a mass of polygons.

Systems: Below Par. This is where the model gets let down. I am a long time Dodosim flyer and as such have grown accustomed to a high standard of realism in helicopter simulation. The start procedure for the 530 is similar to the Bell 206 but it is simpler.
1: Bleed air off
2: Throttle, full open, back to the stop and into the cutoff
3: Battery switch on
4: Key, on
5: Start Pump, as required. It WILL start without it.
6: Push the start button with the right hand while your left hand is on the throttle. Monitor N1. At between 12% and 15% N1, rotate the throttle until fuel is introduced. In the 530 and the Longranger, you modulate the amount of fuel by watching TOT and twisting the throttle to keep in within acceptable limits. (on Jetrangers and 500c, d, e and 520s in general this is done automatically) Keeping an eye on TOT and N1, which should be increasing up to the 61% mark, continue to manipulate the throttle until the engine is 'self sustaining' (61% N1) Once at this point, the throttle can be opened until the collar pops out to the 'ground idle' setting.
7: I usually start the clock for two minutes here to give the starter gen time to cool down before engaging the generator. Of course in the sim this is not necessary so the gen switch can be moved to on immediately. After this all that remains is to open the throttle to 'flight idle' and you're away. Shutdown is strange. On the real machine, after cooling down at ground idle, you simple push the collar forward and rotate the throttle back towards you. This cuts off the fuel. In the sim, for some reason, turning the start pump off shuts the engine down. Pushing the collar in does nothing.

In the sim, we are good up until step 5. In Milviz's model, the start pump MUST be on. Not sure why this is. The start sequence is the real issue though. Pushing the start button seems to do nothing until the throttle is rotated at which point the sounds and everything start. TOT doesn't seem to be fluid, rather seems to be directly connected to the throttle setting. To get the engine to Ground Idle, one has to keep opening the throttle well past the idle cutoff point and in fact N1 ends up at about 80% before you can back it off to ground idle. In real life, this is just hard on the engine. Once the engine is running, I don't get a positive indication of oil pressure which is also incorrect. Even at ground idle, the needle should be at least at the bottom of the green arc. Another thing I noticed was the Ammeter. I'm not sure what is going on with that but it is always showing a charge, even when the starter is energized. On the C that I was flying, during the start, the Ammeter went to around -30A initially. Once the engine is started, opening the throttle to 'Flight' shows up another problem. The throttle travel is far too short. Now this MAY be a C30 thing but on the C18 and C20, you have to open the throttle quite a bit to get the needles to start moving. The torque needle doesn't appear to move while winding the throttle up either. In real life, this limits how quickly you can open the throttle.

Flying: Fair to Good. Picking up into the hover is very easy. The 530 has plenty of power in real life and at sea level gets off the ground with no troubles. The sim is the same although, I think I should be using quite a bit more left pedal than is required. It's nice and stable, just like the real thing. Going through translation is no big drama. The sim has force trim modeled which while not accurate to the real aircraft, is a great thing to have for those of us with springy flight sticks. I hear this is being disabled in the patch though. Once in the cruise, the machine balances itself more or less which is certainly accurate for a C but I thought the 530 would have required more left pedal. I may be wrong on this though. One big thing that I did notice was that at 1500ft with full fuel, I was able to fly at 130kts with FULL collective. This most certainly inaccurate. I have NEVER pulled full collective in ANY helicopter. To do so would either cause a large RPM droop and subsequent engine failure, or, over temp and or over torque, followed by an engine failure. The 500 series has a LOT of collective travel. Coming into land, it is nice to see that it doesn't like slowing down and I had to do what I do in real life which is, stand her on her tail and then kick in a whole heap of left pedal and stop sideways. It doesn't sit left skid low while in the hover as the real thing noticeably does. Overall, it's actually quite fun to fly.

Sounds: Poor. While at first glance, the sound appears to be well done however, on closer inspection, the looping in the hover and at low speed is terrible. There is actually a gap in between the sounds. While spooling up and down, there appears to be a 'swoosh swoosh' sound much like a Jet Ranger. I'm not sure where this has come from. The start pump doesn't make any noise, which at least in the C and 520 is incorrect. I also think that the battery noise (gyros) isn't really up to par but this is a small issue. The interior noise in flight is as it is heard through a good headset or helmet but I think that the transmission whine should be a little louder. If the wind is light but gusty on the ground, then the wind noise starts and stops really abruptly and is really annoying. I'll probably delete it.

Other: I noticed while flying from an external view, that the T/R pitch links don't move with the T/R. It's very odd. There have been complaints about the wire cutters being wrong but I cannot confirm that. The doors are strange with no door vents. While this may be correct, it is certainly not prototypical. I'll probably find other things as time goes on. The GPS can be called up as a 2d panel which I like as in the VC, it is down on the tunnel. Quite hard to look at without Track IR.

I am running a laptop (I7 3610 2.3Ghz, 8GB RAM, NVIDEA 610M, Windows 7) that is a couple of years old now and I was worried about how it would perform. With Orbx's NZSI and their AI package, I flew from Gore to Balclutha with Orbx's airports and REX Essential w/ OD. Most settings in FSX on the higher side. I averaged 15 to 20 FPS the whole way with the usual micro stutters. It certainly wouldn't be like that around a city.

I'm sure that as SPs are released, the 530 will improve however at the moment, I think that it is suffering from poor testing and I won't be flying it exclusively.

[NZ255]

Good report, hopefully Milviz will fix some these.
I'm thinking about getting it for my sporty helicopter fix as pushing around a flying ambulance can get dull... but I've been spending a bit lately so will hold off.

Cheers,
Nick

[Ian Warren]

Very in-depth, I don't need to read the manual now to start it up when I get it, maybe you should contact Milviz since you are a 500 driver with your findings and ask to be put on the beta testing group, I'm sure they would be very happy to have a very experienced pilot

[Narutokun]

Will do what I can to fix...just got back from holiday in the mountains on hiking trails so I have a lot to catch up with.

[NZ255]

QUOTE (Narutokun @ Dec 31 2014,1:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Will do what I can to fix...just got back from holiday in the mountains on hiking trails so I have a lot to catch up with.

That's fantastic. I love supporting a company who fix things... I'll have my card ready and waiting

I forget people have lives sometimes....

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Narutokun @ Dec 31 2014,1:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...just got back from holiday in the mountains on hiking trails so I have a lot to catch up with.

The father of New Zealand flight simulation scenery (FS4/5 to FS98 era), Phillip Middlemiss, I asked him were did he get the time, he told me when he went out camping and hiking, he took his laptop with him to build the mesh and bits and pieces, under a tree in the whop whops ... maybe an idea

[Narutokun]

Lol...Considering that this was my first proper holiday (more than just a weekend) in 2 years I cant say a laptop would have been welcome assuming I could afford one. I actually turned my phone off as well (it was useless beyond the bible apps for my personal devotions in the morning anyway) since I wanted no distractions as it was also the first time in a year that I got to see my parents (missing my mom's hugs already).

Anyways....I have gone over chopper_nut's list in more detail and I have to say that aside from the startup pump, the rest of the systems bugs are things that will require an entirely custom turbo-shaft engine model, which, although it is on my personal cards(if I promise it for the company I will get my feathers fried), is going to take some time. FSX/P3D seem to have been designed only for the 206, R-22, and EH101. I believe Dodosim's work was a full on external flight and systems model like that of DCS. Most of the bugs listed were actually reported during testing but the lead programmer (not myself otherwise I wouldn't have given anything to the testers until I satisfied myself that all was behaving properly) cant fix them that easily by himself. And limited resources mean that we could only do our best to make it flyable and fun before releasing. More effort is certainly being put into our more popular projects like the KingAir, F-4E, and some other upcoming projects. Way more. That said, as my research goes on, improvements to the helos will come. We have yet to abandon a project. The MD530 is only our second helo and as such we still have quite a ways to go before we reach Dodosim levels.

As for the sound and animation bugs, those are much easier to fix and will be looked at.

[Ian Warren]

Following Nicks full write-up having you returning and looking at fix's or least as much as you can do ... the 500/530 series is a fave.

[Nosecone]

haven't bought the model yet and may wait till all the updates are installed one question can the start procedures be mapped through the registered version of fsuipc.

Rhys

[Narutokun]

QUOTE (Nosecone @ Jan 1 2015,8:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

haven't bought the model yet and may wait till all the updates are installed one question can the start procedures be mapped through the registered version of fsuipc.

Rhys

They could be....Ill have to get the mouse input code available.

[Nosecone]

Hi thank you for the quick reply. Currently building a MD sim and will be using a real md500e collective with the button start which would be great if it could be mapped in fsuipc

Cheer
Rhys

[chopper_nut]

Still on holiday here but I thought I should clarify some things. I installed the machine initially with all my virus scanning software going. I run McAfee which I HATE but NOTHING else installs correctly and you can't turn McAfee off. I uninstalled the 530 and uninstalled McAfee. Feeling very vulnerable, I went back and downloaded the 530 again. Nothing really changed when I tried to fly it again. The throttle collar thing where the throttle doesn't roll back after popping the collar seems to be unique to me according to the Milviz forums. According to the video on YouTube, the start sequence does start when the button is pushed so again, this seems to be unique to me. I was running the unofficial patch at the time too. On closer inspection, the thing about the collective being up under my armpit seems to be as a result of the patch. Without it, the collective position seems more correct. I was probably being a little unfair about the rotor brake, it could be a little tidier but it isn't that bad. When I get home, I'll have a bit more of a play with it to flesh out some of the flight characteristics.

[Narutokun]

QUOTE (chopper_nut @ Jan 2 2015,7:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Still on holiday here but I thought I should clarify some things. I installed the machine initially with all my virus scanning software going. I run McAfee which I HATE but NOTHING else installs correctly and you can't turn McAfee off. I uninstalled the 530 and uninstalled McAfee. Feeling very vulnerable, I went back and downloaded the 530 again. Nothing really changed when I tried to fly it again. The throttle collar thing where the throttle doesn't roll back after popping the collar seems to be unique to me according to the Milviz forums. According to the video on YouTube, the start sequence does start when the button is pushed so again, this seems to be unique to me. I was running the unofficial patch at the time too. On closer inspection, the thing about the collective being up under my armpit seems to be as a result of the patch. Without it, the collective position seems more correct. I was probably being a little unfair about the rotor brake, it could be a little tidier but it isn't that bad. When I get home, I'll have a bit more of a play with it to flesh out some of the flight characteristics.

Will check when I can. Back in the heat of multi tasking again lol.

[chopper_nut]

Yeh I know what that's like haha

[SeanTK]

Side-note Antivirus recommendation....try Avast...I've used it for years with zero problems, and zero viruses.

[Splitpin]

QUOTE (SeanTK @ Jan 4 2015,10:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Side-note Antivirus recommendation....try Avast...I've used it for years with zero problems, and zero viruses.

Same here ... works a treat.

[chopper_nut]

You guys are bloody geniuses. Much better than that junk McAfee

[Ian Warren]

Think McAfee and the Norton group must have a following for the average - but when you start tinkering and tiddeling and and the other stuff CRIKEY!

[Narutokun]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jan 4 2015,12:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Think McAfee and the Norton group must have a following for the average - but when you start tinkering and tiddeling and and the other stuff CRIKEY!

Im having to resort to encrypting certain parts of my code so that AVs cant pick up on what Im doing.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Narutokun @ Jan 5 2015,8:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Im having to resort to encrypting certain parts of my code so that AVs cant pick up on what Im doing.

The "heat of multi tasking again" Again