Hello,

I've asked this question in beginners area for helicopters and was advised to ask it here for a better answers.

In most threads people are saying that Reflex XTR is the best sim for heli's. Problem is nobody explained
why is that. There is lots of copmarisons how planes fly in XTR and AFPD, but nothing about heli's.

Could someone with experience in heli's and both packages explain as to why XTR is so good about heli's?
I'm wondering is it physics engine for helis is better, or just model looks nicer etc.

For some reason after reading all threads I still want to buy AFPD but problem is that I want to train on heli's
and XTR is good for this ( is it? )... anyway, you know what I mean

Thanks,
Ernest

Hi Ernest. The physics in Reflex for helis is better than others. I have afpd, g3, and Reflex and I would deffinately lean more towards Reflex for helis. I am not a big heli pilot but for the little stick time I do have on helicopters Reflex seems to feel more realistic. IMO

Chris

Hi Ernest,
I strongly agree with chris. If anyone, this is the man that knows whats going on with reflex. In my honest opinion, W3 made reflex planes more realistic then the ones that come with the program. The Katanas just dont feel realisic to me at all. As far as your helicopter question, I did learn how to fly helis on reflex. If you havnt flown planes before, I wouldnt recomend going right into helis. You need to develop hand-eye coordination first. Learning to fly a heli first can definatly be done, but its much easier if you have aircraft experiance first. I dont have AFP, or G3, but I did use G2 untill XTR came out. Hope this helps and good luck!

thanks for replay guys!

I was hoping that I can learn to fly heli's with simulator first and then try real thing.
Is this achievable? Or should I really start with planes and only when I'm confident try heli's?

To be honest, I've tried planes..more like one plane Was to naive and after two crashes I lost it
in the australian mangroves. Oh well.. stupid me.. So it put me away for a while and now I've decided
to try it again.. and discovered that people on this forum are recommending simulator software first.
What a good idea, could of bought it for the price of plane I've lost.

Btw, if I'll begin with planes would it better if I buy AFPD instead? How bad heli's are in this sim?

Ernest

Having never flown a model Helicopter, I started learning to fly a Helicopter on the G2 Sim, and then I bought Aerofly Pro, I got quite good IMO and was very confident of being able to fly a model helicopter.
So off I went to the model shop, and I purchased a Humminbgbird V3
But I really struggled to control the Heli, all the practise on the Sim had hardly done anything
So I then purchased Reflex, and found that I could'nt fly the Helis to save my life, just like I had just found out!
After hours and hours of more Heli practise on Reflex, I re-learned how to fly a Heli (again!), and when I got back onto the Hummingbird, I found that I could fly it reasonably well.
So I would definitely say Reflex is the most realistic Sim at the moment.

Andy

Ernest,
Your first plane lasted twice as long as my first. Reflex would still be a very good sim for you. It will teach you the fundamentals and the hand eye coordination, but its also very diffrent when you are flying a real aircraft. You have the wind factor, witch is constanly changing, and more importantly, your nerves. I would recomend getting used to the controls on the sim, then getting a durable plane that you can crash a few times and only change the prop. My second plane was a druaplane trainer. I couldnt belive the stuff this thing went through. Its not the best looking plane on the market by any means, but it will help you get good stick time in...

The thing about flyn a heli is you can learn to fly the thing 1 inch of the ground and slowly work your way up. Flyn a fixed wing will help, but starting with a heli teachs you what to do with that other little stick.