jcomm - yes i have used many simulators - mostly full motion FTD level 4 simulators for work. These have included - Lynx, Super Puma, S92, S76, AW169, and very soon H145. I have been instructor on 92, 76 and 169, so spent most time in those sims - both in the instructor operating station and in the pilot seat as well as of course flying normal line flying ops and instructing in the real helicopters - mostly offshore and HEMS. I have not used any other non-professional simulator software though.
I am very new to DCS and am using it with VR and i have to say i am blown away by the level of realism. It way exceeded my expectations and in some ways it is better than the professional simulators we use for work. Granted it does not have the motion and the full mock-up physical cockpit, but the resolution and fields of view the VR offers over traditional screens is not to be underestimated for helicopter training. I initially was investigating VR for training potential, but found all the fun stuff as a sideline distraction ;)
As far as the flight characteristics and modelling go, I have to say they are pretty damn good. I think the main limitations are actually in the controls and how u set them up. I am using the thrustmaster warthog controls and they are pretty good. I have not flown the huey in real life but i expect it is pretty close in flight characteristics. I suspect some of the interlink actions are a little over sensitive in dcs, but again that could well be a result of the controls. I have not managed to really get to grips with a decent cyclic beep-trim set-up yet as this is something we basically fly with most of the time, constantly beeping. For low work and hover/take-off/landing you would usually have the force-trim release button on the cyclic pushed in for the large movements. I havent managed to get this to work on the dcs huey yet, so am flying around with the force trim release on the console switched off. That seems to work ok. This morning i did a few circuits, take-offs and landings to an oil rig - and yes it is pretty damned good and realistic and i had no problems flying a few patterns. The hover and take-off characteristics are certainly pretty close and felt comfortable enough for me to use. It seems to be about right in stability for and old SASless helicopter. Landing back on the rig is fairly straightforward too and as long as you fly a normal stabilzed type approach, it works as it should. I really was very impressed, and never though it would be that realistic.
Overall i see huge potential in this for good training for helicopter pilots as an addition to the training we already do. It cannot yet really replace the level 4 FTD for licence checking, but as a cheap way to get some really good rehearsal and more mission related training i find it extremely interesting and very much look forward to exploring all the possibilities - of which I am convinced there are many.
My normal day-job these days is flying HEMS in day/night/NVG/IFR environment and I can see a lot of use in VR sims for training scenarios for this. Already from what little i have seen, the modelling and characteristics is more than sufficient. I just wish now they could get some form of H145 variant in here :thumbup:
