Garuda

The button mapping for turning the IFF on/off (L-alt + L-shift + I) does not work as intended. When using the keybind it turns on and then off immediately after. This is also the case when changing the keybind to something else or mapping to HOTAS. The clickable cockpit switch does work though.

Fixed keybinds would be tremendous and what I am hoping for the most. It was pretty disappointing when I realized none of the switches could be properly bound to the Virpil panels. As far as I can tell all of the switches have this issue. Buttons like on the autopilot and countermeasures panels are of course fine.

I used to work as a helicopter flight instructor, and while I only taught in small helicopters (R22, R44, and R66), the function of the slip/skid ball is identical to how it works in the Huey. Doing normal turns, there is no need to add any pedal regardless of the direction you are turning. The only time you would do it is if you are also making a large change in power, by raising or lowering the collective during the turn. For small collective changes at airspeeds of 60+ kts the addition of any pedal is negligible, but the pedal input is only needed to counteract the increase or decrease in torque. A standard practice for turning in cruise flight (using maximum continuous power/torque at approximately 110kts) would be to roll the helicopter with the cyclic, and then apply a little aft cyclic to maintain altitude, while still holding the same collective setting. At no point is any pedal input required in this situation, regardless of how shallow or steep the turn is. Pedal inputs are normally only made during power changes and for turning at slow airspeeds. We never actually used the slip/skid ball for anything other than practice instrument flight, because the trim strings are inherently superior at telling if the helicopter is flying in trim. The reason for this is that while flying in trim, the ball may not necessarily be centered. The trim strings are affected by the airflow over them, where as the slip/skid ball is affected by gravity and g-forces. If your helicopter is loaded in a way to have its lateral center of gravity left of the rotor mast, then in a hover the slip/skid ball will be left of center. This is the indication you would also want to maintain during forward flight to stay in trim. In this situation, the trim strings would be straight up and down (outside the cockpit, affected by airflow) and the ball would be slightly left of center (inside the cockpit, affected by g-forces). The same would be true with a right side heavy CG (ball would be slightly to the right while in trim or in a hover), and a centered lateral CG (ball sits in the middle while in trim or in a hover). For this reason, we would always do an instrument check before takeoff for a practice instrument flight, and one of those checks would be to check the slip/skid ball's location in a stable hover so we knew what to look for in flight (you couldn't see the trim strings while wearing a view limiter). I'll admit, I'm not quite sure what to make of the slip/skid ball in the Huey. It will stay centered during a hover, but in forward flight I need excessively left pedal to keep it anywhere near center. It's my understanding that most helicopters are designed so that the pedals will be in a neutral position during cruise flight. The ball in the Huey seems to kind of do its own thing so I mostly just ignore it and fly what looks right, but that only really works in a no wind/direct headwind/direct tailwind situation. Sorry if that was a bit of a ramble, I did not proof read this before submitting.

I've only ever flown Robinson helicopters, so the closest I've gotten to flying something like a Huey would be an R66 which is similar in that it is a two bladed single engine turbine helicopter. The emergency procedure for loss of tail rotor thrust in forward flight says to immediately enter autorotation and perform an autorotation landing, but it also includes a note afterwards that says this: "NOTE: When a suitable landing site is not available, the vertical stabilizers may permit limited controlled flight at low power settings and airspeeds above 70 KIAS; however, prior to reducing airspeed, re-enter full autorotation." So, not a Huey but at least some helicopters can do it. I would think most helicopters with a decently sized vertical stabilizer would be capable of it if they were not too heavily loaded.

You wouldn't have to cut fuel to the engine though, just roll the throttle down and lower the collective to enter an auto. Doing both of these will reduce the torque effect and help keep you fairly straight. As long as you have airspeed and altitude already it's not much different than doing an auto for an engine failure, you just get to decide when to enter to auto. At least some helicopters are capable of limited forward flight if you keep your airspeed up and collective setting low to give you a little more time to get to an area that looks better for an auto rotation landing. What would suck is if enough of your tail gets shot off that CG shifts forward enough that you are unable to keep the nose level or to perform a flare. You're just a lawn dart at that point.

Okay, well I don't know why mine is different. I just tried it again and made sure to save the track. I do not move the collective at all once in a hover, and I do not see any loss in lift with full left pedal input. I even start by applying full right pedal for a few seconds before putting in hard left pedal and the helicopter does not settle even one inch. I have the current updated version. Pedal_Turns.trk

If you want any flight instructor's opinion, I can tell you mine again. I do both right and left pedal turns in R44s and R22s every day I'm at work. I completely disagree with your statement that left pedal turns in either of these aircraft cause a loss in lift, since the piston engine combined with low inertia blades means the governor can keep rotor rpm right at the top of the green arc when turning without issue. The most important thing to stress is the use of lateral cyclic due to an increase or decrease in translating tendency in order to maintain position over the ground (as well as keeping the cyclic pointing into the wind on windy days). I will say again that I have zero experience in Hueys, and that I've never flown any turbine helicopter. Yes, turbine engines are not capable of increasing power as rapidly as a piston by a decent amount of time. I will say that I just jumped into DCS Huey not 5 minutes before posting this and checked to see if left pedal turns caused any noticeable decay in rotor RPM. The only time the RPM needle even moved was going from full right pedal to immediate abrupt full left pedal, and even then it barely moved at all. Also to note, zero loss in lift, even after doing this repeatedly as aggressively as I could for a few minutes, at no point ever moving the collective from its original hover position. So either the sim needs an update, or there is no noticeable effect to lift while making left pedal turns. I am not an expert on anything about helicopters, but I do get paid to fly them a lot.

As you pull up on the collective drag on the main rotor increases, which will decrease main rotor RPM and tail rotor RPM if engine power is not increased. The governor automatically does this, so rotor RPM is maintained. Same thing applies to the tail rotor. As you apply left pedal drag increases on the tail rotor, which would decrease both tail rotor RPM and main rotor RPM if no additional power is applied. Again, the governor automatically increase engine power so rotor RPM is maintained. If rotor RPM is maintained, there is no loss in lift. Only if large abrupt inputs are made (increasing drag too quickly for the engine to supply more power), or there is no governor automatically increasing engine power would you lose rotor RPM while applying left pedal. Also, I know you have experience in the R22 from the other VRS thread. While I appreciate that you have helicopter flying experience, do not think that other people on this forum do not.

There is no tail rotor power vs main rotor power. You would only lose lift if main rotor rpm is decayed, which would only happen if you made large abrupt inputs to the left pedal. In that case you may decrease both main rotor (and tail rotor) rpm before the engine can add more power to compensate for the increase in drag.

Adding power to maintain tail rotor RPM also maintains main rotor RPM, there is no decrease. As long as the engine is capable of producing more power there is no loss in lift

A smooth transition is important, much the same in real helicopters. I feel the transition to airspeeds below ETL is much rougher in DCS Huey right now than it should be, based on my own experience. It is not impossible, but I find that while most other aspects of flying the sim Huey are very similar to flying an R44, the transition through ETL when slowing down is many times more difficult. I will note that transitioning from a hover to airspeeds above ETL feels very similar to what I expect it to be like. I agree that once you're in VRS it is not easy to recover, but my concern is how quickly it develops. I did not mean to imply a heavier load on the same helicopter, but rather a larger helicopter compared to a smaller helicopter. For example, an Mi-26 would need a higher rate of descent in an OGE hover to enter a VRS than an R22.

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. VRS is entered when upward flow of air near the rotor hub exceeds induced flow causing an excessively high AoA near the blade root causing it to stall. What do you mean by inertia equation? If anything, a heavier helicopter would need to produce more lift to hover, meaning more induced flow velocity, meaning more difficult to enter VRS.

Just so you don't feel like you're crazy I'll comment and say that I agree with you. I am not a Huey pilot, I am a flight instructor and all my flight experience is in the R22 and R44. At no point in all of my flying time have I ever felt I was even on the verge of potentially entering a VRS, except for like you when purposefully demonstrating it. Even when intentionally doing it, the increase in descent rate is not anywhere near as fast as it is in this sim. Once a student gains some proficiency in the recovery (usually only takes them 2 or 3 tries) they tend to lose only 100ft of altitude from when the VRS developed. The R44 is even better off than the R22. Even on hot days flying at max gross weight it can be difficult to induce a VRS. I know the sim is a work in progress which is why I didn't ever feel the need to comment before, but I agree with all those who want this to be as realistic as possible, not difficult just for the sake of being difficult. The whole transition out of ETL to an IGE hover is very difficult in this sim. In my flying experience, the only thing you need to worry about during transition to a hover is that you apply continuous smooth left pedal to prevent the helicopter from yawing to the right.