So, for reference, I got my CPL last year at Chinook helicopters in BC, which operates 6 Bell 47G2s and has a rep as one of the main Bell47 operators remaining. (Including full maintenance, etc)
I also have a full cyclic/collective/anti-torque system + VR set up at home, so it’s not like I’m fighting with a regular joystick. At home I fly both DCS, Xplane and AFS2 and have no issues flying any of the helis there. Some parts are easier, some are harder.
I can now fly the FlyInside Bell47, but if the ones I trained on where like this, I’m pretty sure I would still be trying to solo…or most likely quit as I like living too much.
The controls simply aren’t that sensitive and the response that slow. It’s an easy helicopter to fly. Sure, it takes work to fly it well, but it’s simply not that hard. Many solo below 20 hours, whereas the R44 students would be pushing 30+.
I have the controls set up as suggested, I have reduced quality, just in case it was a FPS issue as some suggested on Discord and sure, with a lot of effort, I can pick it up, hold it in a hover, etc…but it’s way harder than it should be.
This is the main issue. Cyclic is too sensitive and the response too laggy.
There’s a bunch of other stuff, that just seems off.
- Pedals : Not a lot of work needed. Granted, I can’t do any drastic accelerations, as the laggy controls will throw me into PIO straight away.
Similar power changes have little effect (manual throttle) - Throttle/RPM: RPM response seems super laggy as well. Sure. hot and heavy it can be sluggish, but not this much. I flew 4 of the 6 '47’s we had and while they were all different in their throttle response, none of them were remotely as bad as this.
- Hover attitude: US helicopters hang left skid low, due to compensating for translating tendency. This is further exaggerated in the '47, as the pilot sits in the left seat. It also, with only 1 person on board, sits tail low.
Normally you land left heel, whole left skid and then the right skid.
This one seems to sit flat laterally and if anything slightly nose low. - No flapback? This doesn’t appear to be modelled at all. I’ll start accelerating gently and without any input, it will just continue to do so.
There’s a bunch of other issues that caught my eye, but I would need to spend more time to check, but frankly, the control issue keeps getting in the way.
I really wanted this to be good. I bough MSFS this week just for this, but this simply isn’t even close. Sounds about right, looks about right, flies nothing like it.