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Looking for One More Helicopter

falcon409

falcon409

Moderator
Staff member
MPDesigns has two Helicopters I'm debating on. I can only afford one and so I'm looking for a nudge in one direction or the other, lol. The Cabri G2 or the Sikorsky S-55. I was a passenger in an S-55 in Nam when I flew to Bien Hoa AB to pick up parts for one of our A-37 Dragonflies, so there's a bit of history there. The G2 is just a nice looking chopper that would be fun to fly.
 
Get the freeware Alphasim Sikorsky S-55 over at simviation and buy the other. That way, you get TWO more helos !!

Search "S-55" and find the Alphasim model, a sound package and gauge updates. It's a nice model, I can attest !!
 
Two fer the price of one! Great idea.
If I make a suggestion, too: DL and install HTR v1.62 SE (or not the SE version, whichever is applicable. It's Helicopter Total Realism, and it really makes a difference in how a helo flies in any MSFS. It takes the outputs from the sim, converts them to real, actual helicopter dynamics, and injects them back in whichever chopper you're flying. There's an entire forum dedicated to it on Hovercontrol. Made by an aerodynamics engineer, and vetted by actual helicopter pilots. Really amazing little bit of software. No impact on framerates.
Have fun!
Pat☺
 
I agree, buy the Cabri G-2. It's a great helicopter, and the freeware S-55 is good too. I have both. I wish someone would do a good updated Tweet !
Sue
 
I wouldnt argue with the sikorsky, but, are you sure you want to go back to nam?? We had some dragonflys fly out of our airbase in Nha Trang. God I love those things but i cant download any nam scenery. too many memories..
 
Penzoil3 said:
I agree, buy the Cabri G-2. It's a great helicopter, and the freeware S-55 is good too. I have both. I wish someone would do a good updated Tweet !
Sue
Click to expand...

Tweets a great plane, but the dragonfly with its uprated military engines is one step from heaven in my book..
 
I have the S-55 and I love it.
It is the piston engine, not the turbine one. The startup is a bit difficult, has you need to use the mouse scroll and the throttle in a certain sequence to increase the engine RPMs before triggering the clutch. Else the engine will stall. Can be frustrating at times, but quite rewarding when it works.
The flight model seems good, although I think it might be a bit over-reactive in some aspects. Probably it needs some tweaking, but MP Design was focused on the Cabri until now. Perhaps from now they'll start working on updates again ?

Anyways, the recommendations to try to Alphasim S-55 first is good, but I think you worked on the textures of that bird a long time ago already, didn't you ?
 
Since I like the vintage tin, I'd say go with the Sikorsky, although the
Cabri looks small and nimble which equals fun. (And since you mentioned the A/T-37, I think we need one of those too!!)
 
with bananna bobs s55 paints with the alphasim s55, your getting a more visual pleasing model

to me with freeware HTR there is no difference between the two
 
warchild said:
Tweets a great plane, but the Dragonfly with its uprated military engines is one step from heaven in my book..
Click to expand...
I agree WC. Having worked on the Dragonfly in a combat arena, I was impressed with how lethal they could be with the additional armament and VNAF Pilots who had a score to settle, lol. If I had a choice, I would much rather see the Dragonfly than the base Tweet.

Now, back to Heli's, lol
 
The consensus was to purchase the G-2 and download the S-55 Chickasaw. Mission accomplished. I found a few problems with the base S-55 Heli, such as no VC panel showing (turns out it was missing from the panel folder files, but easily corrected), I did not download the gauges update, but instead did my own fixes and additions. I did download the soundfile that was suggested and it's excellent, although switching views causes remnants of the previous sounds to linger, however a quick tap of the "Q" key and all is well. The S-55 is great fun (actually been flying it more than the G-2). Thanks for all the suggestions, I may not have gone with everything suggested, but the information was appreciated.
 
jeansy said:
with bananna bobs s55 paints with the alphasim s55, your getting a more visual pleasing model
to me with freeware HTR there is no difference between the two
Click to expand...
Jeansy are Bob's paints in the SOH Downloads area? I gave the HTR program a try, but didn't really try very hard to appreciate it's abilities. Consequently, I deleted it straight away. I've been flying Helicopters since FS9 and while I wouldn't consider myself a master pilot, I have come to enjoy handflying the Choppers. Between my CH throttle and the twist-grip joystick, I can hold my own. . .the only exception being extended flights of greater than 20nm where the terrain is flat and I have to constantly adjust to maintain a relative altitude and fwd speed. Mountain flying is different because of the constant course adjustments, altitude and fwd speeds and so longer flights under those conditions don't bother me as much. Without a competent AFCS system (yes I know HTR has that), long, straight, boring flights are tedious and I stay clear of those.
 
vora said:
Although I'm not Matt I dare to interfere because I always loved BananaBob's photorealistic repaints.
Here are his two fantastic liveries for the S-55:

Marines
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=189&id=10061
Army
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=189&id=10098
Click to expand...

Yep, excellent work!

Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-001.jpg


Chickasaw-2017-oct-7-002.jpg
 
These photoreal repaints look awesome !
I think you did a good choice with the G2 and the freeware S-55. If I remember correctly, the Alphasim S-55 also has the piston engine, and it has a working clutch as well, right ?
It had a missing texture (or incorrectly declared in the panel.cfg, perhaps) in the virtual cockpit, but you fixed that in the past, didn't you ? Or am I confusing with someone else ?

The MP Design S-55 is also a very nice beast, I hope somebody will make photoreal repaints for it too :)

daube_image0406.jpg
 
Daube said:
These photoreal repaints look awesome !
I think you did a good choice with the G2 and the freeware S-55. If I remember correctly, the Alphasim S-55 also has the piston engine, and it has a working clutch as well, right ?
It had a missing texture (or incorrectly declared in the panel.cfg, perhaps) in the virtual cockpit, but you fixed that in the past, didn't you ? Or am I confusing with someone else ?

The MP Design S-55 is also a very nice beast, I hope somebody will make photoreal repaints for it too :)
Click to expand...
Yep, good suggestions and a good choice on the freeware S-55. . .as a matter of fact I've spent 90% of my time since last evening either flying or working on the S-55. I took the G-2 for one quick spin around Eglin AFB and that's been it, lol. Yes, the S-55 was missing the "$vpanel.bmp" in the panel folder. . .easy fix was to save a copy of the vc panel from the shared texture folder, flip it (I had converted all of the textures to dds), then rename the bitmap and drop it into the panel folder. . .fixed. The contact points were off a bit as well. The left rear main was sunk in the ground and the two nose wheel tires were approx. 3" off the ground. With help from Tako Kichi, I got the contact points adjusted and so everything seems to be in good shape. A nice Helicopter that I can use to revisit my flight from Binh Thuy AB to Bien Hoa AB in early 69'.
 
wellll, I dont know.. If I can relearn everything i forgot about making fde's by the time they finish this, I can uprate the engines to the correct military level, but someone else will have to convince them to make the A-37 fuselage with hard points..
 
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