FREE Heli Sim

[Dood]

HeliSim (http://www.marksfiles.net/HeliSim/index.htm)

A guy on HeliFreak named MarkB created a computer heli flight sim.
The best thing about it, it is free.

There is no sound, and the graphics aint all that, but honestly, it flies totally decent.
I downloaded the 1MB file (yes, 1MB!!) installed it, and it runs totally, well, GREAT!

I used my RealFlight controller. You have to set up the channel mapping, and all that, but it only takes about a minute to set up.

There are some el cheapo USB flight controllers that you can get on eBay pretty cheap, or you could use a USB anolog joystick gaming controller if you really wanted to.
From what I understand, if you have a JR or Spektrum radio, you can plug a trainer cord (or headphone style cord with Dual male phono plugs) and plug directly into your microphone jack on your computer.

For anyone who has an older or otherwise low end computer, this should run really smoothly for you.

It flies rather well. The heli's are a bit more stable than they should be, but this sim will help you with orientations, even learning some 3D. (I was doing piro flips on this thing :D)

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w155/DJB78_bucket/HeliSim12.jpg

[Dood]

Here is MarkB's post from HeliFreak:


New free simulator

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I would like to announce the offering of HeliSim: a new free simulator for RC electric helicopters.

I wrote this simulator, mainly to fill the needs of new RC heli pilots. I genuinely believe it to be substantially better than FMS for helicopters, especially 450 electrics. I hope it offers new fliers a simulator that will provide good training, and save them a bundle of money compared to the commercial sims (to be spent on batteries or parts, obviously).

If you already have a commercial sim, you have less motivation to get it. But you may still want to so everyone has a common simulator. It can then be used to exchange flight recordings! One thing it offers that I hope will be useful for learning new maneuvers, is a visual indication of stick positions during record/playback. So you can watch what the heli is doing, and simultaneously see the stick positions that caused it!

Anyway, its available for download now.

http://www.marksfiles.net/HeliSim/index.htm

This simulator is in basically final form, but if there is consensus among experts that something needs to be tweaked to achieve more realism… I am open to feedback, and will do my best to improve it.

I hope you enjoy it!

[Dood]

For any support questions you might have (most should have been asked and already answered, here is the thread from HeliFreak.com

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=53245

[Helifino]

Thanks for the link Dan. I downloaded it, haven't opened it yet. It looks to be impressive and it's free people. My thanks to MarkB for developing it. It should be the perfect "tool" for learning stick movements and eye/hand coordination.

[Dood]

This needs a bump.

Like I said, I tried the sim, it flew well.
Its EXCELLENT for being free.

I rate it a "DECENT" if it were like $50

[Helifino]

It is a pretty "decent" sim for free.

I downloaded it. I'm having a problem whenever giving right cyclic, it keeps crashing and resetting. Can't figure out why it's doing that. :confused: