Cowan Simulation MD 500E Helicopter Training Flight out of Southport Airport, Queensland - MSFS 2020 

Lol yes!! I had forgotten that movie!

You are absolutely bang on there Sparky! Loved that film. Need to rewatch! Cheers mate.

Crazy how good this sim can look isn’t it!!

Yes I haven’t started using trim yet in the 500E but, like with fixed wing, I know it’s going to make life easier lol

Many thanks, Yes thats what I did. There was a bug in this version which has now been fixed on an update released yesterday. On this version if you moved the fuel valve it messed with fuel flow, even if fuel valve open. Testing updated version today and it’s spot on.

It’s a great challenge and so much fun to fly!

@@Dreamsofwings Upgraded my flight stick from a Logitech 3d pro to a VKB with a thrustmaster throttle for the collective, and am flying and landing pretty well now!

@@billbaggins1688 fantastic! Definitely helps doesn’t it.

Ah many thanks! Must have been wonderful flying in the real thing!

@@Dreamsofwings I cant wait to flight it in VR 😁😁

Many thanks!

they have just released an update in the last couple of hours to sort a few things but it's a sprightly wee thing. Great fun. I haven't a huge amount of experience of helos in the sim and my time on the DCS Huey can be counted in minutes rather than hours but for what it's worth, this is a fun fly.

Same here; have many many hours in the DCS Huey, and the HPG H-135 (flew Dick Smith's 82/83 'round the world fight) and bundles of hours in HPG H-145. Thanks to your video now look forward to flying this MD500E, and also checking out that area / scenery!👍🏻👍🏻

Ah great, hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Ah thanks so much! As for the best, opinions are divided. Some on my Discord love the new Alloutte. My favourite is the H145 + Action pack because of all the things you can do and the system depth is good. I also love this 500E, especially since the recent update.

@@Dreamsofwings Chose MD 500E :) No information provided regarding chopper control settings. I saw TheSimHanger had a tutorial, I'll follow that, hopefully works :)

@@yams900 ah great stuff! Have fun!

Cheers, yes it’s a great form of meditation!

Hey many thanks! The 500 and my inability to fly her with any finesse will be appearing again very soon lol

@@Dreamsofwings I actually enjoy that more, there are a lot of experienced sim pilots that make it look sooo easy, then there are people like us that end up looking like weather vanes in an elevator, ok maybe that's just me lol! I think what I enjoy most was your honesty, I found it super refreshing, even with your accent lol! Keep representing 🤙

@@jlopez006 many thanks! 🤣

Ah fantastic! I can imagine it behaves quite differently

I am certainly seeing how a springless stick could help.

Many thanks! It isn’t something I’ve really done in previous sims but love it in this one with the 500E and the H145

I recommend the Fly Inside 206 if you want a simulation of rotary wing aviation. The Cowan models don't seem to model retreating blade stall and Vortex Ring state. 2 very important things you need to avoid when flying whirly birds.

@@CaptainBuzzBee yes I keep being told about the 206. Problem is, and I know I am unusual in this respect, I am not a fan of the 206 design. I have faith that Cowansim will update it. Have you got the 500E?

yes thats fixed in the update I mention in the pinned comment. I had touched the fuel valve to check it was in the right position and this introduced the bug. With the new patch it is all fixed now and you can do a checklist startup, as I was doing, and get a good start wether you have cycled the fuel valve or not.

Many thanks. Not using VR in this one. This is actually using a head tracker (hence why resolution etc is good.). This is the setup I have Grass Monkey Simulations 240hz Monkey King Puck Unboxing - Setup Review - Head Tracking ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HihxGMaGppA.html

Ah that’s interesting, I did wonder about that!

Traditionally pilot is left seat, copilot is right seat. You will notice that you get a skid mirror for the left side only.

With helicopters, pilot is traditionally on the right with the collective in the middle. (1) Most pilots are right handed, this lets them use their dominant hand on the cyclic. (2) The collective can be friction locked and briefly let go of without the helicopter dropping out of the sky, having the pilot's collective hand next to the console makes it possible for them to work radios etc (3) helicopters normally sit left side low because of the way everything rotates, pilot on the right balances the helicopter when it's being flown solo. That said, because helicopters normally sit left side low it's much easier to see what's happening underneath when you look out of the left side, so helicopters that are often used to lift things often put the pilot on the left.

@@ceegnz OK. Not on Coast Guard helicopters, but good to know. I have seen a number of videos where our hero was in the right seat and it seemed odd. Come to think of it, at least in the older CG helicopters (H-52, Hh-3F) the hoist was on the right side - pilot flies the plane, co-pilot runs the hoist. So pilot in the left seat may be a Coast Guard aberration , even in the military.

Thank you sir! Had about an hour and a half on this one at this point. I've not really touched the default. This 500E is very lively though isn't it!!

Hey there! I can’t recall what I had at the time, I don’t think I had anything set up. I prefer linear with as little deadzone as possible.

Many thanks! That effect is created afterwards by editing the voice audio.

@@Dreamsofwings ah makes sense. Sounds really good!

@@thomas_ger4098 many thanks! I hope it adds to the immersion 🍻

@@Dreamsofwings definitely it does

I found a way to change the voice already during the recording/streaming. You can do this in OBS via Filters. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AF8vQzkx-sw.html

Yes that’s really why I made the point about not having anything special. At the moment my desk mount can’t go low enough to take a stick extension so might look at that down the line as I will need to buy more than just the extension for it to work in my setup. 👍🏻

@@Dreamsofwings Yes that is true, there's a lot that goes into building your own "cockpit" around a desk. Now I have one of those clamp-on brackets for the Virpil base that'll allow me to fly center-stick and get the stick almost low enough down to be perfect. Before I had a very cheap and dirty, but quite well-working solution: I put the stick on a chair or side table that I bought second hand and that had exactly the height I needed. I bought a second one for my throttle. (Trickier with the Bravo though.) And then I moved the chair I'm sitting on a bit further back from the desk so that I could place the stick and throttle on either side of me on those side tables, rather than placing them on the desk itself. It can be fun to experiment a bit with the setup without spending much, but admittedly that all creates bulk and clutter around the desk.

ah that's interesting to know, thanks Volker.

Hi @Volker Jansen, is your Virpil Collective (and especially) Throttle supported by the 500E? Does it work like in the Cabri or the FlyInside Bell 206?

@@olivergrau4660 Hi I don’t have a Virpil collective. I am using a lever on the Bravo for that so can’t comment on that and the throttle. As you probably saw from the video I am using a mouse for the throttle.

@@Dreamsofwings Yeah, I know ;-) Question was for Volker. Thanks for the answer.

@@olivergrau4660 ah sorry, just answering comments and didn’t see that connection! :)

Many thanks!

@@DreamsofwingsI need to correct myself. I took time to play with the curves settings and I deleted all axis and assigned it again, lowered the reactivity and it starts to shape up really well. It still has some strange behaviour, but it´s 80% better. Please, can You tell me, how is the difference in flight model with MD500 and let´s say the original Bell407? Thank You.

I did wonder as I felt I had a much better experience. I have only flown the default 407 once and can’t really compare except that I cam;t have enjoyed or as much as I haven’t flown it since. Also since making this video Cowan have improved the 500E flight model.

@@Dreamsofwings ok, thank You very much. Can’t wait to try it. You say, You just train, but it was really well done flight.

Hi sorry I don’t use Vatsim

I’ve not really flown the default helicopters but I set up cyclic trim on a joystick hat switch and have used that successfully with the 500e

@@Dreamsofwings After contacting you, I went to SHFS' page and he showed me how to do that. Flew better after that. I'm so much better with the H145, but I've had over a year to do that. Practice makes perfect. Thanks for your perspectives. Cheers!

In the edit afterwards, adding effects

@@Dreamsofwings wish it was an addon for msfs for realism. I am a pilot and that sound brought back lots of memories.

@@buikhan it would be great having that as an addon wouldn’t it! Much easier than editing afterwards!

Many thanks!

I hope you saw the bit where I dedicated the video to you! I’ve been waiting to use this for something after you recommended it.

@@Dreamsofwings - Yep! around 17 min - Nice of you to give me a jersey - hope you saw the Avro Vulcan announcement on Just flight - just waiting now to see you do a Duxford pass in one BTW - you missed the Kangaroos at the end of the TO runway😀😀

@@jayteeaitch yes looking forward to the Vulcan! Ah I did look down at those and nearly said ‘ooh look at the cows’. Thank god I kept my gob shut.

Ah good to know! 👍🏻

oh no, how awful. Had not heard about that.

Helicopter collision

@@aviationnj8918 ah yes of course! For some reason had it in my head that was in the US. Terrible accident.

RIP to the 150,000 that died yesterday, and the 150,000 today etc etc.

I flew on a Bk117 as a medic. A night that I wasnt on board, My heli N911BK flew its last flight. All 3 on board were killed in a weather related crash. My Pilot with nearly 8000 hours flying Helis was likely disoriented. If there's anything I ever learned about real life Heli flying is that they're just not meant to fly. It takes a lot of "voodoo" (Engineering and working mechanicals) and skill to fly them. A crash is very often fatal.

🤣🤣🤣

We invented it... we get to name it ;)