How good is the R66 helicopter in MSFS2024?

[@outdoorsdelmarva5691]

Well done!! The Robie feels like the real deal. I fly R22 and 44. and Osobo got this one very close. Ground effect needs work...a little aggressive. HAve fun!

[@volkerjansen3901]

Awesome video, will definitely visit Alice Springs in the sim. The R66 is my most flown helicopter at the moment, really well made in my opinion. But I always tilt my view up and also move the viewpoint up as well, default camera seems to be a child looking at its feet. The Cowansim helicopters already work quite well in MSFS2024, my favorite is the R22. Taog's Huey does not have too many issues either. I feel really spoiled with so many wonderful helicopters, including the Asobo H125 now it has trim, and the HPG H225. Certainly lots of room for improvement, but I am having loads of fun with the new sim and could not go back to 2020.

[@BenMcphee]

I have been playing it on Xbox and the r66 is my favourite aircraft out of all of the other planes and helicopters in the game I have spent hours flying around remote Australia in it and it’s so much fun

[@matthew414347]

Excellent! Do you have any recommendations for future video locations? Maybe the Bungle Bungle Range? I guess the choices are nearly limitless!

[@BenMcphee]

@@matthew414347 umm well to me I have found the bush land to be pretty spectacular was flying around hungford small town on the QLD and NSW border the red ground mixed with the trees and rocks really shows off the new sim i would suggest Katherine gorge but tbh I’m a little disappointed to many trees and not steep enough cliffs but I recommend like outback QLD is pretty cool

[@matthew414347]

@BenMcphee I guess, when you model the whole world, there are going to be some compromises! I'll take another look at outback QLD soon!

[@BenMcphee]

@@matthew414347 cheers mate look forward to seeing it in a video guess I’m a bit biased as I live out here but it’s really stunning

[@Rickk69er]

The # Hype performance helicopters are by far the best ones for anything Microsoft flights in

[@matthew414347]

I'll do some videos with them eventually. I like the H225 but it doesn't seem finished yet. Have they talked about a development schedule for that machine?

[@OZ1967]

Thanks for the entertaining video Mathew, worth a sub. Once you try VR setup correctly, it’s all over. 😊

[@matthew414347]

Hahahahh! I'm trying to hold it off as long as possible! Also, I think my controls are currently a higher priority to improve, especially the CH Throttle which has quite a short throw and so I often find it hard to set the collective.

[@hyperion2502]

I like this robinson. The feeling is solid. I've learn assist off with this one. The h125, despite its flaws, is really fun if you have a secondary axis to recreat a trim. Perfect for crazy fast low level runs and stunts. The chinook is my favorite. My god this flight model is awsome. And the h225 is kinda great, once you've figured out the MISD menu (button on the left corner of the MFD), and change deadzone input to "hands-on" for both rudder and stick. The flight model with and without autopilot, is a bit weird.

[@matthew414347]

Agreed with the Robinson! I like the H125 too, but I think they should just re-do it with the trim option - it seems a strangely user-unfriendly choice to model a machine without cyclic trim!? I'm thinking of making a Chinook vs Chinook video to look at the Miltech and Blackbird machines in MSFS2024. The H225 seems unfinished, but I'll look forward to seeing how it develops.

[@hyperion2502]

@matthew414347 good news!!! The h125 has a functional trim now.

[@matthew414347]

@@hyperion2502 thanks for sharing! Yes, that is a really great improvement! I wonder if they also fixed the "set parking brakes" problem for the R66 in career mode?

[@andrew-macrocannon7292]

Thanks for the video Matthew. Love the R66 but I did notice either the animation of the main rotor is reversed, or the blades are on back to front - hope they fix that soon. Alice is one of my goto spots in the sim, particularly with the Impulse Simulations Alice Springs scenery addon (in 2020 and works great in 2024) - they have done an amazing job with that scenery and the apron textures are just spot on and very immersive. I notice in another comment that you mentioned the Bungle Bungles ... unfortunately it hasn't got the detailed elevation there to conform to the textures. There are some improvements where textures were stretched across steep slopes as there is throughout the 2024 world. I also had a look at Kakadu (taking off from Jabiru (YJAB) and heading north east and found some areas where there was photogrammetry level terrain data, and other areas where it was still just flat and not confirming to what the textures were indicating. The photogrammetry areas were fantastic though ... if the world looked like that everywhere it would be impressive. As with other areas there are too many tress covering what should be rock outcrop with very small shrubs. Actually, if you head south east about 5-6 Nm from YCAN, you should be right on that photogrammetry area that I discovered.

[@matthew414347]

OMG! Mind blown! The rotor R66 is going the wrong way around! I hadn't noticed that! Let's hope they fix that soon. Thanks for your scenery tips too... YJAB I can find, but what is YCAN?

[@andrew-macrocannon7292]

@@matthew414347 YCAN is Cannon Hill Community Airport (shows in LNM), but you could also go to YOEN and head south (and every so slightly west) 6Nm to find that area.

[@mauritsbol4806]

Fun vid dea. Simulate escape flight by Bashar Al-Assad from Damascus to Lakatia.

[@MagnusThornberg]

Are you using any assist? I have tinkering with my settings on my new thrustmaster t.flight pedals about 10 hours. It’s so twitchy. Maybe because I’m new with tail rotor assist off and pedals. It’s goes constant left and right and I have hard time to keep it straight. It looks so stable when you fly 😮

[@matthew414347]

I fly with all assists off. Helicopters are not easy! Which is why they're fun, right? 😀 It's great that you have some new pedals, and that will make it easier for you. Have you tried lowering the sensitivity on your inputs? By default, I find they are way too sensitive, which can result in, as you mentioned, a twitchy flight experience.

[@MagnusThornberg]

@ yeah Helicopter are so fun to fly. I have been flying without pedals and only tail rotor assist on about 200 hours. I did pretty well I think. Then got my pedals and oh my good it’s was like start from the beginning 😁 I have tried adjusting all the settings and have an -4 S-curve now. It’s all about getting use to it and practice I think. It shouldn’t be easy 😁 After watching real pilots on KZbin it seems like the pedal movement in a real helicopter are very small. Just a pressure change with the ball of the foot. With the adjusted curve the pedals move very much. Maybe I doing myself a disservice. Thanks for the input and great videos🙏

[@ancientmonotheism5118]

Start with hovering practice and landing. When you get used to it, you'll get addicted

[@MagnusThornberg]

@@ancientmonotheism5118 yes I will do that. I always practicing hovering before I start a flight. But now with pedals and no rotor assist I have a hard time keeping it straight. Goes from side to side the whole time. I will give it time 😁

[@sal98]

May I ask what key you use to bring up that controller display on the top right half of your screen, I thought only DCS had this option to view your inputs on your display. I always felt it was a handy tool to help orient yourself with control inputs before picking up into a hover on new aircraft.

[@matthew414347]

Hi! That's a free add-on called 'Input Viewer' - you can find it on flightsim.io - and yes, it is super-handy!

[@JohnE-v1m]

G'day mate! Wonderful video. Just wondered if you could help me out a bit. When i fly the R66 helicopter - I sometimes get the MR Temp Pressure light to come on. I adjust the throttle and it will go away for a minute or two - and then it comes back again. Is there something that i am doing wrong? Also, I have the Saitek Rudder Pedals that i use as my Anti-Torque pedals. They seem to work pretty well but i notice that when i am landing and need to apply a bit of left pedal, the pedals start to flutter rapidly and i can't control the helicopter as i descend. Can you tell me what you have set your pedals to. I have the sensitivity set to 0.1 + and - and Neutral to 0.19 and Dead Zone to 0.5. Thank you very much in advance. I really appreciate any assistance you can provide. Have a wonderful day!!

[@matthew414347]

Hi, and thanks for the compliment! :D MR TEMP PRESS is easy - you're asking for too much torque from the machine - if you can, just ease down on the collective and then the governor will reduce the demand on the engine and gearbox. Maximum Continuous Power is 83% torque in the R66 but something I didn't mention in the video is that you're allowed to use 100% for Takeoff Power, but for a maximum of five minutes. Regarding your controls, I wonder if you might have a phantom control input? Have you tried the Input Viewer add-on? It might help you to figure out where the unwanted control inputs are coming from?

[@PianomanKY]

You can absolutely forget trying to fly this thing with anything but an actual joystick or HOTAS. It's virtually impossible to fly it with an Xbox controller, at least for me it is. It's either instant over-torque spin death or just hovering 3 feet over the ground and not getting any altitude. Any attempt to gain altitude gets overtorque.

[@matthew414347]

Oooh, ouch! Sorry to hear of your struggles. Have you heard of any other people having success with an Xbox controller? I assume you would need assists on?

[@PianomanKY]

@@matthew414347 Yeah I've got all assists on. I can finally get it off the ground and fly around a little bit, but it's so squirrelly compared to the Guimbal. I can fly that one just fine, even do some hard reverse turns in it where you nose up and kick the pedal hard to spin it around for a quick 180. The R66 has so much torque on it that even a tiny fraction of too much collective and it'll go into an uncontrollable spin. It's the only heli that acts like that. I guess it's because it's so light. What I think I'm going to try, and honestly it's probably half the problem, is assign the collective to an axis instead of the default buttons. But then have to sacrifice the view controls via joystick. I wish they had an arcade mode where you can just fly around and enjoy the scenery without having to deal with the super-realistic complex stuff.

[@matthew414347]

@@PianomanKY Hmm interesting! I wonder if the R66 assists are bugged? That might be worth posting on one of the official forums?