After a disastrous attempt a few years ago in MSFS 2020, I had given up on flying helicopters. But after watching your video, I decided to give them another shot using MSFS 2024. I spent about half an hour getting the hang of things, and then managed to land on the center circle of my local football team’s pitch! I’m so happy! I need to do some more research and understand what I’m doing better, like why the Xbox controller suddenly starts vibrating like a wild thing. But I’m looking forward to it. Thanks so much for the inspiration!
This makes me so happy! Thanks so much for this comment. I’m all about enabling fun and discovery in flight simming - so your experience brings me joy! 😂 I LOVE it that you used your local football pitch for practice!! The vibration could be the simulation of “vortex ring state” which is what happens when the helicopter settles into its own downwash. I think you should keep going! 😀
Awesome video! After adjusting the sensitivity according to your settings it was suddenly a whole lot easier to fly heli's with the XBox pad. Thanks! 😊
This video is incredible! Thank you so much for making helicopter flying enjoyable. I have been trying and somehow passed my license exam before I found your video. I have only applied turning of the collective assist and it was an immediate improvement. I can't wait to use your settings on my controller. Now if I could only land them instead of crashing lol.
Thank you very much! I didn't use the extremity deadzones until now. Great idea! I fly with cyclic assist, and just learn to do without the tail rotor assist. You basically need it only during takeoff, landing, and hover. So that's doable, and I enjoy the challenge. There are issues with specific helicopters. In the H125 the collective is set in steps of 5%. Too much to be smooth. I made a Python script to intercept my inputs and interact with SimConnect. Works great for me now. What I still find "hard" (need to practice) is losing altitude while slowing down to land. I crank down the collective a lot, and then have to "catch" it again to get down from traffic pattern altitude.
Wow, I stand in awe of your talents - personalised Python scripts to intercept your inputs! Wow! Still, I'm so glad this video has been informative for you. The last part you mentioned is a common 'poor habit' that we sim pilots need to overcome. Yes, it's very easy to 'sink' when we get close to our landing zone, and then to end up in Vortex Ring State and sink yet further. You can see this in various of my other videos. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to limit your rate of descent to 300fpm when you're 30kias or less - this figure is actually published in the manual of the Robinson R66, but you can take it as a guide for other machines.
@@matthew-lets-fly actually, I'm a dev, although in another area. I got some help from ChatGPT, the Microsoft docs, and a helpful forum member. 😅 I actually meant the opposite: I have to practice to reduce altitude quick enough. As long as I keep at least 30 kn I try to go down relatively quickly. I lower the collective aggressively, because I don't fear vortex ring state at this airspeed. But I have yet to figure out a smooth transition when I approach at 100 kn, get visual on the airfield, have to slow down and lose 1000 ft in relatively short time.
@@matthew-lets-fly appreciate it a lot that your promote using the Xbox controller while you're dedicated to helicopters. I'm a casual player, don't have space for a dedicated setup, and I'm tired of hearing: "You shouldn't / can't use a controller anyway".
@@detourist5541 thanks for your encouragement. I want to make the hobby open and accessible to as many people as possible! Regarding your descent from 1000ft from 100kias... my method is to lower collective and raise the nose so that we first lose some airspeed while retaining height. That helps to slow down the process and give you some room to work on reducing your altitude. They key thing to remember is that it will likely take longer than you think... so leave enough time and space to descend gradually and safely. I hope that helps!
Indeed, I need more patience. Do a proper traffic pattern maybe. One more thing: I needed to change my force trim release binding to stay active as long as I hold the key down. That’s the top setting when you click the cog icon. And I use the trim mod from fs.to. The gradual trim reset is very helpful.
I’m so happy to hear this has been helpful for you! I’m currently focusing my content on helicopters but I’m sure many of the same principles about sensitivity also apply to fixed wing aircraft. 🙂
Thank you so much I am trying to hover with Xbox Controller without All Assist. I find it very difficult to stay with cockpit camera. It’s better when I change to external camera. I can see the position and the change of helicopter. I just watched your lastest video, it helps. I want to try to turn off all the assists. I am trying to minimise the correction. Avoid over control it. The challenge is hard to determine and adjust to make correction with cockpit camera when hovering. I tried turn on cyclic assist or tail assist separately. While practicing , it’s tired to hold and keep adjustment with Xbox controller. Do you have any advice ?😊
Thanks for the positive reaction. 😀😀 I think, with Xbox Controller and Helicopters, it's best to start with at least tail rotor assist switched on. Then you can relax your trigger fingers. If it's still too hard then add cyclic assist. When do your hands get tired? During hover practice or during cruise?
I had a bit of inspiration from this. My newest stick (Velocity One something or other) comes configured as an X-Box controller out of the box. Shifting it to PC mode works fine for DCS and X-Plane 12 but there is some kind of invisible control conflict for MSFS 2024. You can’t raise landing gear in fixed wing aircraft. Might be related to the fact that it shows up in Blue Tooth on the PC despite operating through USB. Switch to an older Thrustmaster stick, problem solved. Just out of curiosity I will try it in the X-Box mode. And probably get a conventional X-Box controller also. I have had a bit of a problem getting collective to behave using the one I have
Mmm, that sounds tricky. I don't have any experience with the Velocity One stick but I would assume you would get more satisfactory results from that than the Xbox controller - assuming you can get it working properly! Yes... I advise you to be thorough about investigating controller conflicts. I use a USB hub with on/off switches for my various gear - when I made the Xbox video, I was sure to power off any controller that could potentially cause a conflict.
I sent back my Velocity One flight stick. Helicopters were impossible for me to control. Couldn't even finish the cyclic tutorial, it just went bonkers on me no matter how much of a dead zone or curve I put in. I found it far easier on the controller to do subtle movements. Also controlling the camera with my right hand is a must. The thumb stick on the flight stick is horrible to use. Then there's the trimming wheel which is useless, the mouse pad which is useless. The stick itself is way too stiff. The HAT1 doesn't want to work right, the trimming is all over the place and goes mental when you just touch the HAT, but the HAT won't let you bind anything else to it. So many problems I knew I just had to get rid of it. Oh and the collective was impossible to control with the sensitive throttle. Found it easier just tapping A and B to set it and hold it. Otherwise it danced around
@ Don’t blame you. I will be interested to see if they fix it. I never got beyond fixed wing, spent about three hours reconfiguring controls before I concluded that landing gear were not going to come up as long as that stick was plugged in, then solved the problem by just switching to the Thrustmaster T16000.M I have had for years. Way too late to send it back, and some day I may switch it to X-Box mode to see what it does. The non-adjustable springs will still be too stiff, no matter what.
@@old_guard2431 I took it apart and bent the spring to make it less stiff, that was one fix. Plenty of videos showing it done but it was a pain trying not to break the wires as you delicately work round it. But I found that using a stick anyway means you give up good camera movement, so you would need either VR or a face tracker
@@old_guard2431 I had a problem with the landing gear unable to be lowered with Velocity One. It doesn't sound exactly like the issue you described but if you go into settings and look for the landing gear up/down control and clear all the buttons that are assigned to it - it might help. Also, I use the controller to fly helicopters - much easier than with the stick.
@@wojglu58 hi! In the cabri g2, the governor automatically controls the rotor rpm for you. So, if everything is correct, you only need to increase the collective.
I found it unplayable with anything BUT the gamepad. Have the same one as you. Velocity One Flight Stick was a disaster with this game. Sent it back immediately. Excellent use of controller setup, I've been using the hardware or just getting used to the sensitivity. I think you extremity deadzone will come back to bite you in bad weather though when you take off the assistances, which come off when going for your licence so it's better to learn with it ASAP. I found that flying round India once the cross wind was so bad I was at full rudder to hold a straight heading. Was hoping to see how you did trimming with this controller though. That's the only downside. In a plane I use the keyboard with the controller but with the sensitivity of the copters it's not practical especially as you have 2 sets of trim to worry about
Indeed! Trimming is an art form! I’ve been doing some experiments with “force trim” on the Xbox controller but I’m not fully happy with the results yet. More to come later! Thanks for your comment!
Hi! Sorry to hear that! Did you change the 'neutral' value on any of the inputs? Because that could skew the controller to one direction? 'Neutral' should usually be left as... neutral! 😂 Other things I would check... do you have assists on? do you have any other active controllers? are you on Windows, in which case you could use the Input Viewer to analyse your inputs?
@@matthew-lets-flyuse the Bell. The easiest to control. Train the fingers you have on the triggers Not to move a mm If you need to do another Input. Understand the physiks of a helicopter , calibrate your sight with the instruments to understand/get a feeling how the position of the helicopter is in the air and than its Not to hard. ruclips.net/video/B3ZoJyDT_8I/видео.htmlsi=Tl24OXomXZnmVbor Thats me with No assists on Controller . Ok ITS the flightsimulator 2020 but it does look same in 2024.
After a disastrous attempt a few years ago in MSFS 2020, I had given up on flying helicopters. But after watching your video, I decided to give them another shot using MSFS 2024. I spent about half an hour getting the hang of things, and then managed to land on the center circle of my local football team’s pitch! I’m so happy!
I need to do some more research and understand what I’m doing better, like why the Xbox controller suddenly starts vibrating like a wild thing. But I’m looking forward to it. Thanks so much for the inspiration!
This makes me so happy! Thanks so much for this comment. I’m all about enabling fun and discovery in flight simming - so your experience brings me joy! 😂 I LOVE it that you used your local football pitch for practice!!
The vibration could be the simulation of “vortex ring state” which is what happens when the helicopter settles into its own downwash. I think you should keep going! 😀
Thank you for helping calibre the controller! A setting which is clear and in great detail!
You are very welcome, and I'm so happy that this been useful for you! I hope you have many hours of enjoyable flying! 😀😀
Awesome video! After adjusting the sensitivity according to your settings it was suddenly a whole lot easier to fly heli's with the XBox pad. Thanks! 😊
That is great news, and I’m so happy to hear it so thanks for commenting!! I wish you many hours of flying pleasure! 😀
This video is incredible! Thank you so much for making helicopter flying enjoyable. I have been trying and somehow passed my license exam before I found your video. I have only applied turning of the collective assist and it was an immediate improvement. I can't wait to use your settings on my controller. Now if I could only land them instead of crashing lol.
Wow, thanks so much for your kind comments! I really hope this will make MSFS much for fun for you! Let me know how you go! 😀😀
Thank you very much!
I didn't use the extremity deadzones until now. Great idea!
I fly with cyclic assist, and just learn to do without the tail rotor assist. You basically need it only during takeoff, landing, and hover. So that's doable, and I enjoy the challenge.
There are issues with specific helicopters. In the H125 the collective is set in steps of 5%. Too much to be smooth. I made a Python script to intercept my inputs and interact with SimConnect. Works great for me now.
What I still find "hard" (need to practice) is losing altitude while slowing down to land. I crank down the collective a lot, and then have to "catch" it again to get down from traffic pattern altitude.
Wow, I stand in awe of your talents - personalised Python scripts to intercept your inputs! Wow! Still, I'm so glad this video has been informative for you.
The last part you mentioned is a common 'poor habit' that we sim pilots need to overcome. Yes, it's very easy to 'sink' when we get close to our landing zone, and then to end up in Vortex Ring State and sink yet further. You can see this in various of my other videos. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to limit your rate of descent to 300fpm when you're 30kias or less - this figure is actually published in the manual of the Robinson R66, but you can take it as a guide for other machines.
@@matthew-lets-fly actually, I'm a dev, although in another area. I got some help from ChatGPT, the Microsoft docs, and a helpful forum member. 😅
I actually meant the opposite: I have to practice to reduce altitude quick enough. As long as I keep at least 30 kn I try to go down relatively quickly. I lower the collective aggressively, because I don't fear vortex ring state at this airspeed. But I have yet to figure out a smooth transition when I approach at 100 kn, get visual on the airfield, have to slow down and lose 1000 ft in relatively short time.
@@matthew-lets-fly appreciate it a lot that your promote using the Xbox controller while you're dedicated to helicopters. I'm a casual player, don't have space for a dedicated setup, and I'm tired of hearing: "You shouldn't / can't use a controller anyway".
@@detourist5541 thanks for your encouragement. I want to make the hobby open and accessible to as many people as possible!
Regarding your descent from 1000ft from 100kias... my method is to lower collective and raise the nose so that we first lose some airspeed while retaining height. That helps to slow down the process and give you some room to work on reducing your altitude. They key thing to remember is that it will likely take longer than you think... so leave enough time and space to descend gradually and safely. I hope that helps!
Indeed, I need more patience. Do a proper traffic pattern maybe.
One more thing:
I needed to change my force trim release binding to stay active as long as I hold the key down. That’s the top setting when you click the cog icon.
And I use the trim mod from fs.to. The gradual trim reset is very helpful.
thx for this video helped a lot, do you have settings for planes too?
I’m so happy to hear this has been helpful for you! I’m currently focusing my content on helicopters but I’m sure many of the same principles about sensitivity also apply to fixed wing aircraft. 🙂
Thank you very much!
Thank you so much
I am trying to hover with Xbox Controller without All Assist.
I find it very difficult to stay with cockpit camera.
It’s better when I change to external camera. I can see the position and the change of helicopter.
I just watched your lastest video, it helps.
I want to try to turn off all the assists.
I am trying to minimise the correction. Avoid over control it.
The challenge is hard to determine and adjust to make correction with cockpit camera when hovering.
I tried turn on cyclic assist or tail assist separately.
While practicing , it’s tired to hold and keep adjustment with Xbox controller.
Do you have any advice ?😊
Thanks for the positive reaction. 😀😀 I think, with Xbox Controller and Helicopters, it's best to start with at least tail rotor assist switched on. Then you can relax your trigger fingers. If it's still too hard then add cyclic assist. When do your hands get tired? During hover practice or during cruise?
I had a bit of inspiration from this. My newest stick (Velocity One something or other) comes configured as an X-Box controller out of the box. Shifting it to PC mode works fine for DCS and X-Plane 12 but there is some kind of invisible control conflict for MSFS 2024. You can’t raise landing gear in fixed wing aircraft. Might be related to the fact that it shows up in Blue Tooth on the PC despite operating through USB. Switch to an older Thrustmaster stick, problem solved.
Just out of curiosity I will try it in the X-Box mode.
And probably get a conventional X-Box controller also. I have had a bit of a problem getting collective to behave using the one I have
Mmm, that sounds tricky. I don't have any experience with the Velocity One stick but I would assume you would get more satisfactory results from that than the Xbox controller - assuming you can get it working properly!
Yes... I advise you to be thorough about investigating controller conflicts. I use a USB hub with on/off switches for my various gear - when I made the Xbox video, I was sure to power off any controller that could potentially cause a conflict.
I sent back my Velocity One flight stick. Helicopters were impossible for me to control. Couldn't even finish the cyclic tutorial, it just went bonkers on me no matter how much of a dead zone or curve I put in. I found it far easier on the controller to do subtle movements. Also controlling the camera with my right hand is a must. The thumb stick on the flight stick is horrible to use. Then there's the trimming wheel which is useless, the mouse pad which is useless. The stick itself is way too stiff. The HAT1 doesn't want to work right, the trimming is all over the place and goes mental when you just touch the HAT, but the HAT won't let you bind anything else to it. So many problems I knew I just had to get rid of it. Oh and the collective was impossible to control with the sensitive throttle. Found it easier just tapping A and B to set it and hold it. Otherwise it danced around
@ Don’t blame you. I will be interested to see if they fix it. I never got beyond fixed wing, spent about three hours reconfiguring controls before I concluded that landing gear were not going to come up as long as that stick was plugged in, then solved the problem by just switching to the Thrustmaster T16000.M I have had for years. Way too late to send it back, and some day I may switch it to X-Box mode to see what it does. The non-adjustable springs will still be too stiff, no matter what.
@@old_guard2431 I took it apart and bent the spring to make it less stiff, that was one fix. Plenty of videos showing it done but it was a pain trying not to break the wires as you delicately work round it. But I found that using a stick anyway means you give up good camera movement, so you would need either VR or a face tracker
@@old_guard2431 I had a problem with the landing gear unable to be lowered with Velocity One. It doesn't sound exactly like the issue you described but if you go into settings and look for the landing gear up/down control and clear all the buttons that are assigned to it - it might help. Also, I use the controller to fly helicopters - much easier than with the stick.
Subscribed
how does this look so good?
It’s all default scenery in Queenstown. A glorious location! 😀
How to increase rotor RPM? When I push A button then blue arrow on the indicator goes up and nothing happens
@@wojglu58 hi! In the cabri g2, the governor automatically controls the rotor rpm for you. So, if everything is correct, you only need to increase the collective.
I found it unplayable with anything BUT the gamepad. Have the same one as you. Velocity One Flight Stick was a disaster with this game. Sent it back immediately.
Excellent use of controller setup, I've been using the hardware or just getting used to the sensitivity. I think you extremity deadzone will come back to bite you in bad weather though when you take off the assistances, which come off when going for your licence so it's better to learn with it ASAP. I found that flying round India once the cross wind was so bad I was at full rudder to hold a straight heading.
Was hoping to see how you did trimming with this controller though. That's the only downside. In a plane I use the keyboard with the controller but with the sensitivity of the copters it's not practical especially as you have 2 sets of trim to worry about
Indeed! Trimming is an art form! I’ve been doing some experiments with “force trim” on the Xbox controller but I’m not fully happy with the results yet. More to come later! Thanks for your comment!
@@matthew-lets-fly By Force Trim, do you mean getting the game to do trimming for you in the assistance menu? I'm not familiar with the term
@ please see my most recent video. It’s all about force trim and explains everything. 🙂
@@matthew-lets-fly I think I started to watch that but it refers to a joystick with hat switch which I haven't got
Cant do this on xbox with xbox controller. It's a nightmare. Cursor just has a mind of its own and jitters and dances all over the place.
Hmm is it possible you have a controller conflict there? Two controllers trying to control the same thing?
According to your settings, my helicopter automatically flies to the right, so it no longer flies straight. What do I have to adjust there?
Hi! Sorry to hear that! Did you change the 'neutral' value on any of the inputs? Because that could skew the controller to one direction? 'Neutral' should usually be left as... neutral! 😂 Other things I would check... do you have assists on? do you have any other active controllers? are you on Windows, in which case you could use the Input Viewer to analyse your inputs?
bro I thought u found out how to fly without assist LOL
It's a work in progress! 😂
@@matthew-lets-flyuse the Bell. The easiest to control. Train the fingers you have on the triggers Not to move a mm If you need to do another Input. Understand the physiks of a helicopter , calibrate your sight with the instruments to understand/get a feeling how the position of the helicopter is in the air and than its Not to hard.
ruclips.net/video/B3ZoJyDT_8I/видео.htmlsi=Tl24OXomXZnmVbor
Thats me with No assists on Controller . Ok ITS the flightsimulator 2020 but it does look same in 2024.
LOL everyone can fly it with this assists on
@@hoiwgp9 well still some challenge in my opinion but much better than flying with assist on