There’s plenty here that I haven’t learned elsewhere. Plus, plenty of Austin. Despite the title, there’s not really much the sink one’s teeth into regarding the “World”. Aerodynamics is more the focus of the discussion. Episode 2: The Sky, is also now out.
In Episode 2, they very shortly segue into a video showing the weather. This is just my screenshot of the video but man! this sim is really looking good! The last ten minutes of ep. 2 is loaded with geek goodness.
X-Plane. It feels like such a lonely little corner of Mudspike. But I like it here. It’s quiet and dark (I think maybe the admins have turned off the power…or there’s a light switch in here somewhere…).
Cowan keeps getting better. I skipped his B206s because I felt that separating the two models was a bit of a cash grab. But with Dreamfoil allegedly out of the picture and no current H125 on offer I didn’t feel I had much choice other than to roll the dice.
It’s a very well done model. The exterior is second to none. Where his 500E showed some laziness in rotorhead artwork and rivet scaling, I can find no errors except a slightly exaggerated “orange peel” effect in the paint. Airbus might take some offense at such characterization of their paintwork but it actually gives the H125 a more pleasant look in the sim.
I do wish that the cabin, especially the panel showed a hint of wear. Not that it is Cowan’s fault but the instrument panel, as conceived by Airbus, is a big slab of dark grey. Why they felt the need to shut out the world with so much panel space is a mystery. IT’S A VFR HELICOPTER! Fresh from the factory, that dark grey wall probably is every bit as stark and featureless as Cowen has painted it. To me, it could benefit from some artistic abuse. Make her the mountain workhorse that she is.
Flying-wise, it feels plausible. There is gobs of power! My favorite flight so far has been climbing the spine of the Matterhorn until I hit ETL and had to turn away from the wall at the last hut. It’s nice to have a right power pedal since the helicopter I am building has the same “wrong turning” rotor. The H125 hovers right skid low with decent stability. My only comparison is the R44. The AS350/H125 as imagined here is slightly easier which would be expected.
There are dozens, maybe by now, hundreds, of livery options. Cowan has been more than generous with every imaginable configuration of winches, spotlights, cargo, passengers and equipment. The available power of the H125 makes it a great choice for winching light loads but I haven’t yet figured out how to get the function to work. X-Trident has spoiled me in making winching easy.
Im still here. Cant get on with MSFS flight model.
Plus Md11 on here
It seems to be OK with GA singles, but rotor aircraft is a no-go for me, especially after flying something like the DCS Huey.
It’s quiet here but, for me, it’s all about the upcoming XP12. I have been holding off on any module purchases, MSFS or XP until the new version drops.
That helicopter is on my list, though 
Same here. I dont have a large hanger on xp11 but although it never feels as believable as DCS, it definitely has a more realistic feel and a more interesting experience than msfs.
The plane set in msfs does absolutely nothing for me either.
X-Plane gets (as in thoroughly ‘understands’) helicopters. And I think the physics modeling will be little changed from 11. Really, I am not expecting much new from XP12 beyond weather, clouds and sound. We’ll know soon enough, hopefully.
I come to this corner whenever I miss the excellent FlyJSim 727 and 737 
good user review!
I tend to look at that ‘206 incident’ from more generous perspective. it was probably enough work for him to make it separate modules. and as a result one can buy the preferred version for less maybe. I have chosen B3 and skipped L3.
back to the new B3 surly will be adding it as the DreamFoil one is really obsolete as you mentioned.
that panel is big as it was designed for old-school gauges plus some dinosaur displays of the past days. the more modern combined displays doesnt occupy that much space. but wear-n-tear would be nice though.
two features make it hard to pass :
Free Future Updates (Including X-Plane 12)
Around the world adventure version
Perfect for a certain Xmas flight.
its the perfect sim platform for it imo … sometimes I just forget that and do some GA flight with it as it can do also the other flying really good
in November MSFS with its update containing helicopters will maybe shake a bit this XP position. but XP12 can stir the pot some more.
According to the poster on the dot org forum, this came out today.
F5 key time…
Looks like it’s out in early access. I’m curious to see how it does, the biggest selling point for me would be backwards compatibility with the aircraft I already own for xp11.
As soon as I can get a stable connection for long enough, I’ll be downloading. Hope to have comments by tomorrow (especially since I’m still getting annoyingly regular crashes right now in MSFS).
I’m in two minds as to whether I should jump in immediately or wait until the Challenger 650 is updated for XP12.
People on the fence can always try the demo…
Win: https://lookup.x-plane.com/_lookup_12_/download/ins500r2/X-Plane12InstallerWindows.zip
Linux: https://lookup.x-plane.com/_lookup_12_/download/ins500r2/X-Plane12InstallerLinux.zip
Mac: https://lookup.x-plane.com/_lookup_12_/download/ins500r2/X-Plane12InstallerMac.zip
After my first 15 minutes with the demo, it seems to be running smoother and with less difficulties so far than XP11, even with my old 1070. Still getting a bit of shimmery-ness with the clouds, but that’s because I haven’t yet tried tweaking settings. I’ll keep you posted.
