This is my son Mark's input as to what he has experienced with the flight simulator via Microsoft which may help out some or gather more input. Maybe of some assistance
Gordie
Hey dad, whaddya think of this? Feel free to share with Ben, whoever.
Guys like Larry, and Ben actually know the "feel"....and I had too
little experience too long ago to be any judge of it.
I flew the UH-34 model that's up for Microsoft Flight Sim quite a bit a
few years ago. I might download this FG UH-34 model and compare the
two
When you fly helo's under flight sim, you tweak your controls a
bunch....stick is the cyclic, throttle becomes collective, and throttle
is on the keyboard (very interesting with only two hands)
Regarding Microsoft's Flight Sim UH-34 available @ SimViation....
Comparing it to Microsoft's JetRanger III model (which supposedly is
pretty acurrate in MOST regimes), the UH-34 is much more forgiving.
Collective and cyclic authority is very relaxed - it took a lot of input
to get reaction.
Under 20 KIAS it was really a forgiving version of the jetranger....true
to helicopter controls, but really felt like a sluggish jetranger. That
might be accurate given the Dog's weight and size.
Once you were at 20 KIAS forward airspeed, it was like a hybrid of a
helo and fixed wing, leaning towards fixed wing. About the only really
helo-ish features were that the rudder pedals had a LOT of authority
even as 20 JIAS....and that sudden hard down collective was an instant
disaster (models settling with power)...almost impossible to recover.
At 50 KIAS or so, it pretty much a fixed wing aircraft for smaller
control movements. Radical actions on any control, however, would
instantly remind you it was a helo. ...but you could recover.
I found the UH-34 model pretty easy to fly. I could easily maintain a
hover and could make it do just about anything I wanted it to do. Jim
(with his background in Robbies/Bell 47's/Huges 500's) took to it like a
fish out of water, but said it was like driving a van vs. a
mustang....except in the vertical. The UH-34 model impressed him with
it's tendency to climb...and climb...and climb....and climb....
Of all the helo models I've used, I found it the easiest to one of
those "running fast and then pull nose up and stop RIGHT NOW
manuevers"...somehow I don't think that part of themodel is that
realistic.