I Thought I Could Fly This Home Helicopter Simulator. I Was Wrong.

All right, we're here with Scott, one of our Final Approach course members taking his checkride in a couple weeks, end of April. And he's used a flight simulator at home, and I'm gonna let you give him the details because I know a lot of people are really into simulators and they're gonna be asking a ton of questions probably in the comments. So share, Scott, with us whatever you want to share about how you put this together and what are the components, because we know like You know more than I do. What kind of things are people going to want to know?

Uh, well, first it started out as a basic, just a single curved arc, and then, uh, what started out was just kind of a learning tool to help kind of got out of hand. Um, so right now it is a triple screen, uh, triple 55-inch arcs. This is X-Plane 12. It is currently powered by a 5090 with a 14900 CPU. I've been through many different, many different cyclic setups, and the VKB is hands down really— people are going to argue with me, but hands down the best. I did try a straight stick with the, the 44 and the 22, it does not handle like the real handle does. Something with the actual handle and the dynamics, and it just completely changes the feel. So, uh, your pedal setup, your collective is all pretty basic there. Uh, we are running an old-school ButtKicker setup with SimHaptic. So it is the old, uh, old 1500-watt amp. Um, actually this could be better placed, but that's for future upgrades.

And, uh, tell them what you're getting ready to do with the whole motion part. Like, what's that part of the setup? What's that going to entail?

So after the checkride, because we got a lot of studying to do still. Yep. Um, after the checkride It's going to be a motion setup. So I already have two old CRJ real jet chairs. Got them off eBay for cheap. They're somewhat narrow, so they actually fit inside the platform. So it will be a full motion platform. It will have multiple bass shakers on it. We'll be incorporating full surround sound. We'll actually have a sub built into the platform. I have real R44 pedals that are at home waiting, so it's going to be a true-to-life, true trainer basically. So I could sit in here with you or another CFI, whatever, and they could— if I move the pedals, they're going to know. I pick up, they're going to know. They're going to feel the exact same inputs just like real life.

Scott took it out and flew it around just a little bit, and immediately as soon as this came up, I'm like, holy shit, it is as good as you say. Like, I cannot believe we're at Warsaw right now. So we're at the Warsaw airport. He has Warsaw set in here, and I'm blown away with how realistic it looks. He just took it for a flight and he goes, hey, don't you want to fly it before we turn the camera on? I go, no, I want to sit in it and do it without any perceived notion, just to see what it feels like, how realistic it is.

So, and obviously you're a master pilot. I mean, this is where I usually find it's for me about real life, but okay, I've said just accordingly.

So it feels pretty good. All right, so I feel the little bit of vibration in the seat. That's cool. That gives you a little, what, authenticity, right? That you can actually feel something in the seat. And I know I first noticed was like, it's just like a real helicopter. Compass is sitting there jiggling, the attitude indicator is jiggling. You see the tail boom jiggling back there. There's a car driving down the road over there. And this is Warsaw Airport. I mean, the buildings aren't perfect, but who cares? I mean, the layout when I was watching you fly, I mean, the runways, the taxiways, it's all perfect. So, all right, you said just roll it up.

Just roll it up and let the governor take over.

Like the real thing at 80%. Governor will pick it up. All right, 2-step process. So we're in R22 mode, correct?

Yes.

Yep. And you can also do R44 in this, you said?

You can also do a 44, but the flight dynamics, they're, they're good, but they're not quite as good as the, uh, the default 22.

All right, so I haven't been in R22 in a long time. About what manifold pressure do you know Uh, when it comes up, do you know?

Usually it starts lifting around 19, 20.

All right, so we're about 14, 15. All right, nose is moving a little bit. Two-step process. All right, nose is moving. A little left pedal, a little more up. 15 inches. Man, that is sensitive.

Holy cow, it is more sensitive than real life. It all—

there's— all right, there we go. Oh, Oh, holy cow. No wonder you want to let me practice before I try picking this thing up.

It is extremely sensitive. It is. It'll make you. Yeah.

That is insane. All right. See if we can get her up. Oh my God. Holy shit. Oh my God. I'm getting, I'm getting fucking woozy here. All right, there goes. All right, okay. Holy shit, you get that? It gives you a— oh my God, like I was losing— yes, like I couldn't—

and that's not even motion yet, that's still just the haptics, the sound, the The screens.

Holy shit.

All right, I'm gonna restart the flight.

Wow. All right, well, I think what we'll do is let you jump in here because we didn't have it on camera with you flying yet, right?

Oh, you don't want to get up? I mean, once you're up, it gets a lot easier to control. All right, so I gotta adjust the—

yeah, I know I'm sitting in a hangar, but My body had those— you can come over. Well, I guess we got those cameras too. I should have put a hat on. Got my big bald spot hanging out there. I'm just— I'm flabbergasted. Holy cow. I thought, yeah, when Scott said, don't you want to pick it up first and fly before we turn the camera on? I'm like, oh no, right? Macho. Let me in there. I'll show you how to fly this thing. I was not expecting that.

It is super, super sensitive. Yeah.

Holy cow. The sensation I got is just unreal. I can't believe— All right, let's try it again. And once it started going, I'm like, I can't— like, I couldn't— I couldn't comprehend how to—

if you're new, I know Hauser is gonna, you know what, in the simulator, if you're your first time simulator, you almost got to kind of pick it up a little fast, and then once you get used to it, that's when you do the slow kind of My instinct this time, as soon as I get up, start moving forward.

See if that'll help me. 16 inches. Here we go. Push the pedal. Man, this is flipping weird. I'm not sure if I'm going to want to show this video, but why not? It's reality. I had no idea.

There you go.

Oh my God, it almost makes me want to kind of like get sick and throw up. Holy goddamn, I can't do it.

It is, it is sensitive. It is ultra sensitive.

Can we get some speed here? Airspeed, airspeed, airspeed.

Get out of it.

Come on.

You'll feel it go through ETL too. You'll feel it in the vibrations and—

Whoa. What I'm trying to explain is the sensation is— I know that I'm in the hangar sitting in a chair, but you feel like you're in the damn helicopter.

Whoa.

I know they'll be making fun of me in the comments, but whatever. That is freaky. Holy cow. All right, well, now I'm gonna put altitude. I feel a bunch better.

I mean, it takes a little while to get used to how sensitive the—

oh my God. All right, so I go back and find the airport. There's my lake where I live. We go find my house.

So just so the fans know, there is no plugins. Um, the only plugin we're running is SimHaptic. This is all base X-Plane. Most of the graphics are pretty turned up, but they're not 100%. Even with a 5090, you're still only running— right now we're running 70 frames per second. It's still very decent for X-Plane. It is almost impossible to run triple screens on anything probably less than a 4090 or 5080 or 5090, uh, with any— without the glitching and keeping it very realistic. So it is— you do need a lot of graphics card.

All right, well, I can do this at altitude. Let's see if I can land. And this is weird because I'm out here all the time. So the landscape is right as far as the highways, the lake, the channels. That's all real realistic. This is where we're normally doing our base, right base to 18, I mean 36.

And it will pick up your VASI lights too and all that as well. So wherever you have them, it'll It'll pick them up too.

This is insane. I think it's— do you think it's more sensitive than the real thing?

I, I do think it's more sensitive than the real thing, yes.

All right, let's see if I can get down to the numbers 3-6, because yeah, I do this in real life and I'm trying to do it in a simulator. All right, well, I ain't gonna make the numbers. So what do we do? We go around. Let's pull some power, get some airspeed. I got an idea. How about if I go around and I actually use the instruments and try to fly an actual normal approach using the instruments? That sensation, man, is I don't know how to describe it, that first pickup and how disoriented I was. Like I was— like I felt I was going to fall out of the damn chair. And I know I'm sitting still in a damn hangar in a chair. That's how I felt when I first walked in and just was filming with my phone. I just started It takes—

it probably takes a good 10 or 20 hours to really get used to it.

All right, so there's my 500 AGL, 70 on the airspeed. I'm on right downwind, so let's just do like we do in route for real. We'll go out to the edge of the lake. You can start a little bit of a descent. I wonder if sitting closer to the screen would help.

It might.

Or maybe it's just don't be a sissy, get over it. All right, so let's get down to 1,150 and keep 60 on our speed, right base over the edge of the lake. All right, still got 60. It's 1,200. Pull in a little bit of power, keep our 1,150. Get lined up with the runway. 50 feet low, but I'm going to deal with it. That's fine. 250. It's got 60. Line up with the runway. Now it should look like we're always approaching the numbers at the same speed. Collective controls the angle, cyclic controls the speed. I'm just hoping I can just actually make the landing and actually hover the thing. I'm too slow, but that's okay. Rate of descent's only about 100 feet per minute. Feel the shuddering in the seat. 200 feet per minute. Oh, now I'm sinking, so a little up collective. This is by far the hardest part, down to near the end, last part of the approach. Oh, about 40 feet.

Oh.

All right, let's have her high here. Let's do a little bit high first. Let's get some airspeed and try a quick stop. 1, 2, 3, quick step. Oh, here we go! Oh shit, whoa! Okay, so for me so far, the hovering is the hardest part.

And you are, you're pulling almost 30 inches, right?

Holy shit, yeah, I just, yeah, look at that. I just, luckily I didn't seize the engine. So how long does it take before the wooziness goes away?

Uh, usually about, I want to say about 10 hours.

So it takes a while.

So it's not an instant thing. Um, having the lights on does not help. Have the lights off Makes a big difference. Oh, so because now you're not— your peripherals in your eyes kind of change and just— so, or your rods and cones as we discussed.

Uh, okay. Would, would you mind walking over and shutting the lights off? Yeah, just for the hell of it. Oh wow. All right, let's see if that can— see if that will help me try to land the thing. All right, let's see if I can set it down. I'm sitting here tense on the controls, got the monster grip. Why? I'm in a simulator in a hangar and I'm gripping the controls like normal, like, or I mean like when you're nervous. Uh-oh, look at the end of the runway. You're almost there. Come on, I don't want to wreck it. All right, I'm going to pull power. Uh-oh, uh-oh, what the hell happened there? Yeah, I wonder what that was. Well, yeah, you're right, I did. Whoa, what's going on?

Are you grabbing the throttle or—

I didn't think I was.

Yeah, I think you grabbed the throttle.

All right, I probably did.

I probably just like back tripped it a little bit there.

It's like a student. I'm just doing weird shit for no reason.

I mean, it's not an easy thing to learn, and it'll— it, uh, it forces you to be good, I'll say that.

Oh, it definitely teaches you super finesse.

Autos are a royal pain in this thing.

Are they?

Oh yes. And when you roll the throttle on this thing, if the governor's on, it all— it snaps at you and you got to have that left pedal in like immediately.

Really?

Yeah. Full downs are actually easier than doing power recovery in this. If you want to try an auto and chop the throttle, you can too.

I'm gonna do it.

I would suggest a full down though, because the way the throttle comes on this thing is very—

Do what?

I would suggest a full down.

Full down? Yep. 1, 2, 3, enter.

I gotta roll. Oh yeah, okay.

65.

Wow, that is smooth. Wow.

Looking for treetop. Start a flare. Am I going to get a bigger flare? Keep flaring, keep flaring, keep flaring, keep flaring. Whoa, whoa! Hey, it's upright! Whoa, holy cow! All right, so can we— how about we let you get in here now? All right, and show us how smooth you can do it.

I'm gonna try my best. I mean, still, uh, only 100-ish hour student, so—

well, I watched you earlier, so I saw how— I saw how You looked— you made it look so freaking smooth, it wasn't even funny. I thought, well, hell, I can get in there and do that. Your eye, your peripheral will see all that. Oh, it's— and it makes you dizzy. Oh my God, it's crazy.

I've flown this thing, you know, 100 times. I've never had this kind of pressure.

Never had this kind of what?

Never had this kind of pressure.

So it's just, it's just Kenny and Heather. What I do with my phone, I want to snap some pictures while it's dark in here. There it is. All right, so Scott's going to take his hand at it. So how many hours you got in the simulator itself?

Uh, actually a little embarrassed to say this, but I have about 180 hours in this thing.

Okay, so, all right, so we're going to watch you at 180 hours.

And, uh, taking House's advice has made my pickup smoother in here. So just got to be very, you know, just smooth and let it kind of come to you. So I don't know if the camera's picking up on it, but you can actually watch the nose kind of move. Kind of dancing with the pedals a little bit here.

And oh, that's making me woozy standing here.

That was a rough pickup there. That was a rough pickup. So let's get her into a hover.

I literally— as you— as when you first came up, it— me standing here, it made me feel like I was gonna fall over.

I gotta get some left, uh, a little left collective here. Okay, I'm gonna try and keep her, uh, low, and you'll actually see Oh, that looks good.

Now you got nice—

you will see, you actually see ETL. Keep that nose down. You can— it's going to shake as they come through it. It's kind of rough. All right, we got our 40. We're just going to ease, just release that pressure in your hand. Push that nose back. We're going to pull some power to get our climb and get to about 55 for a good climb rate. So a little more nose down, get our line back up on the runway, and a little left collective using the right pedal. Okay, I'm going to turn her in for, uh, 36. So watch that nose, watch that nose. All right, level her off around 1,400 and get away from these power lines. Bring her up to about 70. A little more nose. A little less power. I'm not sure if the camera will pick it up, but I mean, these are really small, really small movements, maybe even smaller than real life. All right, we got our 70, we're going to start descending. I am not going to be aiming for the numbers, we're going to be aiming towards the end of the runway. All right, slow her down a little bit. Not a nice 90 turn. We got to bring her down here. We are very, very high. Very high. We are past ETL, so we're gonna, we're gonna bring her down about 500. Slower down. A little off of the collective. We are aiming for the end of the runway. I'm pulling back as I'm pushing down the collective at the same time, trying to bleed off some of the speed. Right about there. Okay, all right, as we get closer to 35. We're going to slow our descent. So we want less than 300. We'll see if I can do it. Slow down more, slow down more, pull up. That's about 300. Go a little slower. We're going to be hitting ETL. You see we only got 14 pounds of manifold pressure, so we're not at ETL yet. Keep that— watch that descent rate. Keep that nose forward till we're down. Keep a little bit of speed.

You're doing good.

All right, little nose down, and we're gonna pull power here. All right, all right, bring her to a hover. Okay. I'm going to spin her around.

That's a nice smooth hover.

Oh, you can make your life— you can crank the winds up to like 40, 40, 50 knots if you want to. If you want to challenge yourself, you can really challenge yourself in this thing. I'm gonna try for a nice smooth set down here. Trying to keep my eyes outside, not looking in. And you do, uh, you do feel that ground effect because if I don't touch anything, it won't, it won't go down. You got to kind of push it through that ground effect a little bit there, just, just like in real life.

Nice job, you're almost there.

A little off, and we are down.

Nice.

All right. Wow.

I guess I could turn the lights on. We could do a little debriefing. Yeah, I'm still— I'm still standing here like— I'm like, even standing here after the fact, when he was flying, when it was a little bit wobbly, it made me unstable on my feet standing here. And in it, that first pickup, I thought, honestly, I'm being 100% transparent, I thought I was gonna jump in there and I was just gonna lift that thing up and show off and turn and do all kinds of fancy shit like it was no problem. I got an awakening.

Even my pickup was trash though, so.

Holy cow. And that first time that I dumped it, crashed it, whatever, like, or did I get going? I can't remember. I just know I felt like I'm sitting there in the seat. And when the screen's going wild and crazy and I'm looking at the ground, like, you feel like you're really fucking crashing.

Yep.

It feels real. It feels like, yeah, like your heart races and you Holy shit, like it just— I don't know how to also explain it. Like, it makes me wonder how close to spatial disorientation for real is. Like, is that what it feels like?

Oh, we can— if you want to fly over some water, this thing will mess with your brain. You can fly into the clouds, you can— it'll— oh, it'll put you— you know, in your videos when you say you got to trust your gauges if you accidentally fly into things, You got to trust your gauges because if you don't, you think you're going straight and then you look at the gauges and you are— yeah, you are not where you think you are.

I was trying to fly it by looking outside and I think that— I think I calmed down once. I'm like, okay, look at the instruments, dumbass, right? Like, look at what's going on with the helicopter and this airspeed. And all I could say is I'm almost nauseated. I'm not, but I could be. Like, I'm close. Like I don't know, I'm kind of pukie feeling, kind of in a way, which, you know, this isn't even motion yet. Now I know why you were going, dude, let me bring this thing down, let's make a video, let me show it to you.

Very cool. I, I, I also, there's a lot of time dialing this in because I was flying at my CFI, I'd come home I tweak the settings, I fly again, I come home, I tweak the settings, I fly, tweak the settings. Be happy to share some with anybody if they want them, but there's a lot of time kind of dialing everything in.

So, well, we'll make sure you get a link to the video because if you feel like getting in there and talking to people, I'll bet you you're gonna get a whole ton of questions and I can't answer much about it. So we'll have to have you when occasionally now and then when you get time, maybe check the comments, maybe you can answer to people. But that's— oh yeah, I'm impressed. Like you said, that, that's— I guess it's what I expected with technology in 20 years that I haven't been in a simulator. That is flipping amazing. That is really, really crazy. And I can imagine that once you get over the woozy part—

yeah, it takes a little bit. It does.

Once you could get over that, I mean, I see a lot of benefit to it, right? Especially starting off, going and navigating, flying cross-country. Oh yeah, doing a cross-country flight and going and finding your landmarks in your cities or whatever. Perfect for that. Flying the pattern.

Um, so kind of since you brought up a point, um, in reference to cross-country, and this is going to spark some debate here, Sure, we love debate.

Go ahead.

Um, honestly, I mean, I'll turn it on for you later, but Microsoft Flight Simulator, the graphics are way better than X-Plane. I mean, you can do plugins, you can do other things, but out of the box, Microsoft Flight Simulator graphics way better for cross-country. I mean, like, because they're using Google Earth, so it's right very close to the real thing.

I got you.

However, the flight dynamics for helicopters anyway. Planes are a different story. The flight dynamics suck. They are not realistic. I, I could probably have my, my 2, 3-year-old daughters hovering in there. There's not a chance, you know, right? Uh, flight dynamics are completely different. Significantly easier in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Please don't hate me.

Um, hey, you're just— you're calling it like you see it.

If you want to learn helicopters in real life X-Plane is the only way to go.

Gotcha.

It's just so— and I love— I mean, there's so many extra pros to Microsoft Flight Simulator. So cool in the graphics, but without the dynamics, it's just— it's almost useless. So airplanes, different story, but we're not flying airplanes.

All right, well, I guess we'll wrap this video up then. Like, that's kind of what we wanted. Just let's turn on the camera, see what happens. And if I had to do it all over again, yeah, I'd probably practice first. But you know what? It's real. It's realistic. That's what it's like when you haven't been in one for— well, I've never really— yeah, I mean, 25 years ago or 30 years ago, I was sitting at home and, you know, a little computer with a little joystick trying to— at that time you're doing this and twisting to do the tail rotor pedals. And then I've been in a couple other simulators since, but 20 years not being in one, That's freaky. All right, well, who knows what you'll see next? Comment down below. We'll see you next video. Peace out.