The Flight Simulator

It is more expensive (at the time of this writing, anyway) to learn how to fly a plane than to learn how to fly a helicopter – at least in the real world. Most pundits suggest learning how to fly an aircraft first – especially since the aeronautical knowledge one learns is then carried over when one learns to fly the helicopter.

There are way more airplane pilots than helicopter pilots..and when the economy is healthy helicopter pilots are a highly desired commodity. That’s where a helicopter flight simulator comes in.

Click Here for a Real Life Helicopter Flying Experience

Helicopters are much slower than aircraft, and are more expensive to run. But, they have the ability to land anywhere and the ability to fly very low, or very slow.

(Flying both very low and very slow is not recommended!)

FlightProSim is both an airplane and a helicopter flight simulator. The helicopters you can fly are:

Robinson R22
Alouette III
Bell Boeing V22 Osprey
Lynx-WG13
Piasecki H-21C
Piasecki HUP
Sikorsky-S51
Sikorsky-76C
Sikorsky-S58 (Choctaw)
Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion
Sikorsky UH60 BlackHawk

These are all military helos (well, the Osprey is actual a Vertical Take Off and Landing/Short Take Off and Landing aircraft), with the exception of the Robinson 22, and are rather difficult to fly.

FlightProSim comes with a manual which gives its readers a basic education in flying aircraft. There’s also a section at the back which is a helicopter tutorial, for those who want to use FlightProSIm as a helicopter flight simulator.

FlightProSim allows its players to fly aircraft from the keyboard alone, but it also supports joysticks, yokes and throttle controls. Here’s what the FlightProSim manual has to say about what kind of joystick should be used: “A joystick without springs is recommended because it will not centre by itself. You can either remove the spring from a normal joystick, or use a force feedback joystick, with a disconnected voltage supply. Further, the joystick should have a “thrust controller” (throttle).

For controlling the tail rotor you should have pedals or at least a twistable joystick – using a keyboard is hard. Flight Pro Sim supports multiple joysticks attached at the same time.”

Thus the user can rest assured that this helicopter flight simulator is pretty near the real thing…or as close as a computer home simulation can get.  Some details are simplified – such as the engine handling and some over-stresses are not simulated, or are without consequences, but overall it is a realistic experience.

In real life, a motivated helicopter student can earn a private helicopter license with about 55 hours of in-air training, usually spread out over about 60 to 90 calendar days. Most helo pilots in the US learn on a Robinson R22, so you might want to start your helicopter training in FlightProSim with that aircraft.

The user of the helicopter fight simulator will be able to experience the same types of beautiful scenery that are provided for the aircraft pilot, and the same 20,000+ airports.

Click Here for a Real Life Helicopter Flying Experience

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