Man the creators nailed it with the 500E! It’s as realistic as it gets, it’s fast, agile, and it technically can do aerobatics, but in the flight manual it specifically says “aerobatic maneuvers prohibited.” Can’t wait for it to be released on Xbox. Great video!
A tip for hovering is to look out at an angle and not straight ahead. This technique can help pick up forward and aft drift faster than looking straight ahead. Instead of looking straight ahead and relying on depth perception for fore and aft drift or moving you view a full 90 degrees and then back, it is faster to focus at 45 degrees and then glance forward to 0 and back to 45, pause, and then glance to 90 and back to 45 again. It doesn't need to be a full 45 degree view offset, even a 25 or 30 degree offset view is faster and helpful in recognizing drift.
I tend to perform slow maneuvers with the aircraft at an angle because of this - usually means your feet aren't blocking the view out the bottom screens too.
Thanks for video. I was a little reluctant to buy since it is not finished, but it was my favorite on XP and was so hoping Cowan would get this on MSfS. After I got out of the USAF years ago, I worked at an FBO in my hometown and had a lot of opportunities to ride with a friend who flew the 500 for a coal company. Talk about fun. I always described it as a magic carpet, because it was smooth, quiet and zippy. And it is just so cool-looking.
I simply love this Cowan Hughes 500 Helicopter module, after picking it up in the recent MSFS2020 sale and oooh man, I'm not disappointed, I had to put curves and reduce response time on my joystick and new rudder peddles and I'm learning to fly it just using my left foot on the rudder peddles (one foot on rudder/ yaw peddles), she need a bit of left rudder on take off and neutral or left rudder/ yaw during flight, depending on your collector and power position. Then on landing I use the left ruder peddle to control a right clockwise turn, in sympathy with the rotation of the rotor blades (not anticlockwise or left turn), using more or less left yaw when required and you nail your landing every time, using stick and collective to control angle of attach and height/ vertical speed. This is a great module, if you don't have it.
@@cgaviator very cool! I've been playing MSFS for 40 years since 1982 when it came out and wishing for that for quite a while since that was an 80"s show to begin with...very cool!
I didn't think that 'regular' helicopters were able to perform loops (I thought it was reserved to rigid rotors aircrafts)... So I looked up, and... I learned something thanks to your channel. Thanks.
Hey that´s a nice one! The Bell JetRanger, Bell 47 and the small nimble beautyful MD500 (especially the old version with the Y-shaped tail fins) are my favorite helis! These were absolute eighties-style rotorheads.
Wonderful video, and 100% agreed! This heli is so much fun to fly. Even with a 20 cm cyclic extension, you only need the smallest movements to make it go wherever you want it to. Hope Cowansim will be able to fix the torque gauge, which to me is the biggest problem at the moment.
Great vid mate . Loved the loop . The trim i found on the hat switch on the stick , possibly have to map a profile in msfs for that . your camera angles are superb it looks so sexy the 500 , the reason i've had a version in every sim. Its 50 Australian dollars so really want to get good at it . Thanks again for the sensitivity inputs , i'll keep working on my profile .
Leaning to the left in a hover is normal, because the as the tail rotor counteracts the main rotor, it’s also pushing it to the right. If you tried to hover perfectly level, you’d find yourself sliding to the right. 😎 Do you recall having to use the torque pedals in forward flight? The stock Bell 407 required very unrealistic pedal work in forward flight, until I added the Improvement mod for it. Does this helicopter suffer from the same thing? I’m really hoping Asobo continues to refine their flight model, but I think the console compatibility hamstrings the whole process. Anyway, thanks for the review! 🖖😀
Makes sense. I found myself putting a lot of rudder in for forward flight but only out of habit. When I took it out it seemed to be balanced ok. The ball doesn’t move out too much
I found myself banking a little in forward flight - I thought I'd leave the pedals alone & let the aircraft crab like most helicopters do, but it wants to gently turn if you do that. The Mi-24 is built with the main body ( and thus the main rotor ) at an angle to naturally balance the tail rotor - very peculiar when you look at one head on on & the cockpits are vertical but the main body isn't. Edit: flown it a bit more, it won't fly straight even with full left boot, so that definitely needs work.
@@Karibanu it's a flight model bug, all native helis do that - they should be nearly yaw neutral in cruise flight, they're not at all. Cowan 500E introduced a **very** dampened slip ball so you don't see it on the dashboard as much but it's still there.
@@mikoajpytlik5225 Almost as if they modelled a vertical propeller & not a rotor :p I picked this up on a whim - usually for rotary sims I use DCS or XP12, or occasionally in times past the old airlamd version of the msfs r44 - so not much experience of the native ones other than swearing at how bad the Cabri is, and I can't say it's been the best experience so far. I wonder if its possible to port an existing FM from another sim into Airland for this one.
@@Karibanu there's a way to correct this, maybe several. I've had some luck by increasing main rotor left tilt and compensating this by moving cyclic center position right. This resulted in getting 407 to fly more or less straight and coordinated at cruise speed with no pedal input
awesome to hear the rotor rpm increasing as you pushed the speed up in the auto rotation. I dont think Ive ever heard that in P3D or msfs helis to date although I probably am wrong on that
Totally different from my Hype H160. Maybe because the H160 is fly-by-wire? When I first tried Cowan's 500e I thought I made a mistake buying it, but an hour later I could hover and land no problem. VR has really helped me get a handle on helo flying in MSFS 2020.
Same as for an aircraft, the throttle in the helicopter will be bound when MSFS adds the option. So for now, throttle is actually via mouse and the collective is bound to ‘Throttle!’
New on flysimulator, ne w on Msfs2020, have this Heli with my own livery and love it; fly is exciting and realistic; thanks for all your review and stating procedure
I wonder how our friend in the UK, Wonky Joystick, is doing these days. Was hoping to fly choppers with him on MFS2020 but things must have been giving him trouble that he cant run the sim. Hang in the Wonky.
I enjoyed this, especially that loop with artic truck avoidance! Off topic, do you own the Flying Iron Spitfire? They've just done a mahoosive update to it (which I embarrassingly have not got around to testing). Be interested in your thoughts on it.
As it happens, yes I am! Must be as I’m in the middle of nowhere in a fairly simple machine! 😂 Also updated my nvidia drivers today but I’m not giving them credit! 😄
Certainly hope that isn't the default camera position - far too low! Yes you tilt to the side in hover as the tail rotor is pushing you sideways with all the pitch needed to counteract the hover torque, so you need to counteract with cyclic. Also the 500 is considered the 'Ferrari' of helicopters - so yes the performance is pretty awesome :) Can easily get 6,000 ft/min in the 530F. Also yea you need to trim constantly with the trim hat on cyclic.
Lol… you should be the ‘helo guy!’ 😁 But thanks, useful to know. Think it is the default position but easily changed. Crikey, that’s a hell of a climb rate! But great to know it’s realistic. Though I wonder why the VSI doesn’t indicate higher if it’s capable?
@cgaviator The VSI doesn't show a higher max +/- figure as that would need more graduations on the gauge, meaning less accuracy. With each graduation being a smaller amount, you get more needle movement for small variations in climb or descent, which is important in a chopper when hovering and descending to land etc 😀. When you are climbing at 6,000 ft/min you don't need a gauge to tell you 😎
Great autorotation move. Can you put it into VRS? How about that tail rotor failure mode, called...? Somebody else use the hat for their trim Long/Lat mappings. Currently when landing, or trying to land the MFS Bell and Cabri, I start down and it will stop moving forward in descent, only straight down, and it locks up and after a bit suddenly drops! UHG.
Thanks! I tried to in this video and didn’t appear possible. I have fixed wing trim bound but wasn’t sure if it was working or something else was needed for this.
Great video, even if it did bug me a little you flew from the ‘wrong’ seat 😉Really looking forward to this coming to Xbox (have his 206, which I love). I’m guessing this has a governor so when you put it into full throttle, did it automatically engage the governor? Trim is essential for helicopters, I’ve mapped mine to the hat switch on my TM HOTAS with a modifier so I can also keep the view changes on there. I find a few clicks of forward and some side (depends on rotor direction which side) to compensate for a roll tendency. Regarding the lean, helicopters usually hover one skid low, if the main rotor spins clockwise it will be right skid low, counterclockwise will be left skid low, it’s due to an effect called translating tendency (tail rotor drift) 👍🏼
@@cgaviator you know, I did some research and you’re absolutely right for the 500/300 flying from the left is indeed the correct seat. Most helicopters are flown from the right seat, but apparently due to the military and the option for a 3rd seat in the front these are flown from the left.. so I stand corrected!
Very nice video of the 500E. I have this same helicopter in a 1/4 RC version. Plus I'm also a long time Flight Simmer. May I ask you a question? I notice in your video that your mouse pointer glows bright colors when on an adjustable device ie switch, knob. I'd like to get my sim to do that too. it's make it much easier for my old eyes. Thank you.
Certainly: in General Settings - Accessibility (I think) - change cockpit interaction to LOCK or LOCKED… can’t remember off top of my head. That should work though 👍🏻
Love the “Magnum” paint job on the E model though. Will definitely be my colour choice when I win the big one and go shopping at MD Helicopters. Check out their new “slimline” instrument panel option on the E and 520N models, which increases visibility by 4” on each side, similar to the D? It’s pretty slick. Cheers!!!
Nope, just having an extension tube on my controls was enough. For me it’s more the feel of the controls rather than the reaction per inch of movement if that makes sense
@@cgaviator The trim button on the stick, but you cannot assign it to your trimming button on your joystick only it give you the option to point the mouse on the trim + hold the mouse and you can adjust the trim but in this case you need to let your hand free of the stick to hold the mouse and the heli will go crazy nose up. Just try to point the mouse on the trim and check it out, it will give you straight flying!
Sorry for the delay, been covert for a while. And no, not yet. Nothing special about my setup really. Apart from a 10cm extension tube on my thrustmaster stick
I mentioned it just prior to takeoff. Warthog stick with extension tube. It’s not impossible to fly with a yoke and rudder pedals but it would completely unrealistic.
I would not use a yoke, it's not natural at all. Collective is easy though, just rebind a throttle lever to work backwards so you pull to go up like an actual collective.
The big difference between the sims is intertidal. There’s not enough in MSFS. The H145 still feels a bit binary though it’s making good progress. I’m not a fan of the automation that even the real Airbus helos use.
Do captains not normally sit on the left? And it also means that the collective doesn’t conflict with the center console? Can you tell I’m guessing!? 😂
@@cgaviator Haha, totally guessing! On helicopters it's very common to sit on the right side. You'll have your left hand free to operate instruments whilst still holding the cyclic. On helicopters it's very uncommon to sit on the left side. But I've seen that the 500E has left seat controll on other sims aswell. FSX, XP etc, and I must guess that this is taken from real life, otherwise they wouldn't release these 500E with left-seated control. I have to figure out why 😂😂
@@cgaviator Usually RHS for western helicopters at least ( and it's definitely correct here, the pilot is on the left in this aircraft ). You can just hit the copilot camera & fly from the RHS, but you'll have to use the left seat collective to adjust the throttle. The MD500 maybe something to do with it being a US Army observation helicopter first? maybe they wanted an observer on the right? I'll have to dig up Low Level Hell for a reread & see if that mentions it.
No - the heli model in general & this one as well have a lot of problems. It'd probably be worth dragging yourself away from the DCS Gazelle in it's current state, but even the ancient Huey is worlds ahead still ( let alone some of the newere helis ).
@@cgaviator me too- wierdly if you try and follow a road at say, 5ft, you'll run into the thing having some control delay! it is a good laugh to use as a scout even if the dynamics are iffy.
The Gazelle leaves a bit to be desired for sure. The Huey is starting to show its age also. It’s still really good, but the native MSFS FM is competing with DCS and XP12. Depends on the heli though, the products from Cowansim are good, as well as the Cabri. Fred’s last update of the R44 using the native FM is really good too.
I thought that, and it’s already had one update. But I think given inflation etc that addons will become more expensive regardless. But in hindsight, I’m really enjoying the flight dynamics and visuals of this aircraft. Opinion of course, but it is a lot of fun!
@@1943L depends how strong that spring is, if it takes a lot to move it delicately, it’ll always be a struggle. You could lower sensitivity if the axis perhaps
Mentioned it in the video.. in short… not sure. Check Cowan website and social media. I don’t see why not though. It may take a while to go through the marketplace process
Only so friendly you can make it when there are hundreds of inputs required. I used the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro for a long time! $30 and has everything you need. And the mouse does the rest 👍🏻
@@cgaviator DCS should be about pure seat of the pants flying and air combat using the weapons and radar and not about all the technical details of flying, navigation, prechecks for take offs and landings. Those should be a automated process where only attention to flying the aircraft to the waypoint is important. For those that really want to learn how to fly perhaps MS Flight Sim is the answer.
@@onetruekeeper actually it’s the other way around. DCS is much closer to the study level that MSFS simmers are after. MSFS for jets is very basic indeed. If only DCS could use bing or google maps for real world replication!
@@cgaviator DCS should study how Star Wars Tie Fighter has it's control scheme layed out. It is easy and intuitive to remember since there is not that many keyboard commands. The best space combat sim of all time in my opinion.
For a few Dollars more you can buy the H145 with tons of features and not a just helimodel that is build on the asobo physics. Way too expensive for what you will get. Even the H135 which you can get for free is miles ahead.
Well, $10-17 more for the base pack H145, but I do mention the 145 in this video. The 145 also uses the Asobo helo physics and has fly by wire taking over a lot from what I remember. I like the raw flying experience without ‘computer assistance’ in the 500E. Each to their own of course 👍🏻
@@cgaviator But H145 has force trim a good vortex and autorotor and much more. Cowan just just takes its models they have already in XPlane. The Asobo flight model is far from away from the real thing. Starts with the lack of feeling of weight ends with a weird vortex ringstate and autorotation. Though about showing it on my channel for the german speakers but I would never spend that money on it just to show that it isnt worth the money :D
@@cgaviator If you have no actual pilot experience in helicopters, go to a local flying school, take a 20 min intro or what ever they are offering and you'll see in the first 2 mins just how bad retail flight sims are.
I've ridden in a few of these and they are definitely "twitchy", extremely responsive & fast, and climb like scalded cats :) IDK if Cowan's is "on the numbers" but the description you gave is similar to IRL, at least. I'll definitely get this as Cowan did a good job on it (and his others) in X-Plane. It was a little under-done at first, but then he came back and fixed it up nicely. Hopefully he'll do the same here with whatever needs attention. I'll probably get the Fly Inside B206 just to balance things out a bit, esp since Cowan said he's bringing the rest of his stable across to MSFS, as well.
I wouldn’t go so far to say “twitchy” especially if you trim the cyclic? Hydraulic boosted M/R and T/R helicopters are far more sensitive than a 500, which needs very little cyclic movement.
Picked it up, not bad - as with most small MSFS things seems to lack any inertia, some of the transitions are *really* rough, and it gives absolutely no warning of when it's about to pick up, but it's pretty fun & I found it dead easy to control, at least. A big improvement on default helicopters even if it's not quite up to the - now ancient - R44/AirlandFS which is what I use as a standard for MFS helicopters. Will be expecting some good improvement from it, feel like there's potential here at least as far as the currently rather limited native heli model goes. Good fun and feels enough like a helicopter to be satisfying as you're messing about :) not something to use seriously but there's other things for that.
@@cgaviator JustFlight's last beta FM for their PA28s seems to have given them their wallowing feel back ( the beta Hawk still bumps around too fast I think ) so it *is* possible, but I haven't yet checked to see how they've done it. I - and I've probably said it before - have a suspicion there's a scaling problem in the core aero code & there's just too much force applied to the airframe; as there'd be equal scaling for the active force and reactive, then it'd all look fine until you try and change the state, at which point the input from airframe mass becomes trivial. We'll see, I guess.
I concur. The Airland R44 is very impressive and quite realistic I feel. It's a ton of fun to throw around at low level between the trees. Search "R44 cattle mustering" on RU-vid and you'll see what I mean :) I find the 500E in XP ok but at times a little odd, esp. in the transitions. I don't have any turbine hours so don't really know what to expect from a turbine. It's certainly very easy to overpitch and bites hard. Still good fun and very zippy.
Vortex in the real 500 is a lot more ferocious than this, you want zero airspeed, face downwind and put the collective down nearly to the bottom, you will get the shudder and shake which is the incipient stage and then raise the collective and hold on tight. Recovery is just getting the airspeed back up to 30 knots by lowering the collective and flying out of the downdraft, forwards, sideways, backward, it doesn't matter.
@@cgaviator I did a lot of my training with Dennis Kenyon and full vortex and recovery is a lot different to what you are taught in the flying schools which is just the incipient stage, same with autos, most of the training is just to the flare and then power on recovery. Dennis was a master at the autos and everyone was to the ground for a run on landing but then he stepped it up and got you to auto to a specific spot with no run on including sloping ground. Sadly he's no longer with us but I have lots of memories in my training with him
Kinda, yeah! I like the simplicity, the performance, the seat of the pants twitchiness! The 145 has a lot of automation to make it less exciting. Good, but not as fun
In the words of Biggles, "if you can fly a Sopwith Camel, you can fly anything!" :) Looks super fun although I need more practice with the included helicopters before I feel confident investing in a payware one.
Thanks Chris for another fun simulator demonstration. Yes, it should lean to the left. When you press left pedal the aircraft tries to translate to the right, so you have to roll left to hold position. Twitchy? The MSFS heli flight model is in it's infancy, as (ahem) looping around a bridge demonstrates. The default G2 is really not bad though and recommended for budding heli pilots to learn essential skills. Then they can buy XP12 for a more realistic heli experience (i.e. spending an hour trying to learn how to hover).
Left seat pilot is quite common in heli's, especially if the heli is ever used for lifting under-slung loads (which the 500 is quite capable at), as when the pilot is leaning over towards his side window (or out the door if the doors are removed) to get a better view of the strop / load, he's getting closer to the collective (easier reach) rather than further away from it as would be as a right seat pilot, where there's more chance of accidentally lifting the collective while trying to view the load.
