#11 Helicopters
XPH-1 Goldfish by Ping
User friendliness:
Getting into the Goldfish is easy, and when you get inside, you're met with a very simple cockpit with all of the necessities. Starting up is very simple, and great visibility allows you to easily see the helicopter-killing hangar roof. Flying is super easy, making it a good helicopter to learn on. However, when you activate the "Acrobatics Controls", the helicopter becomes a "widowmaker" to a new pilot, and it's easy to turn it on by accident. On odd occasions, the helicopter does a very high-G flip, but rarely causes a crash.
8.5/10
Performance:
The Goldfish has a top speed of ~34 M/S in normal flight with the range to possible go to the arctic if you're patient enough. With acrobatics controls on, it can reach almost 60 M/S at the cost of no upward lift. It maneuvers well, but the yaw is a bit lazy and likes to keep going after you've stopped inputting. It has no clear role aside from being experimental, but works well enough in just being to be fun to fly.
6.5/10
Design:
The Goldfish has a very simple shape and sports a yellow/tan main body with a gray tail complete with contra-rotating propellers. The forward spotlights and a center weight block give the Goldfish a face. All of this give the Goldfish its name. The only problem I had with the overall design was the unpainted blocks in the right air intake.
8/10
Overall: 7.66/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Add some more functions, it's currently very simple
-Make the acrobatics setting be a switch or something to avoid accidently turning it on
-Make an attack version
CH-52 Super Stallion by Sparks
User friendliness:
The Stallion is a simple helicopter to use. It requires one button to turn on which is very nice. There is a gyro switch, but the gyro should be kept on unless quick maneuvering is required. All the buttons do as one would expect. During a hover it drifts around a bit and makes it harder to pick stuff up with the winch although a bit of trim helps counteract this. There's no camera or window for the pilot to see the winch so the external view needs to be used. There is no engine RPS dial which is a bit concerning. Overall it works exactly as one would expect.
8/10
Performance:
The Stallion is a capable helicopter. It can carry a pretty heavy load, although it does get much harder to fly. It has a mediocre top speed of 30 m/s. It has a large fuel tank with over 4000 units of fuel giving it a very good range of about 300 km and an endurance of about 2 hours. The radar scans all around the helicopter and has a range of 2.5 km. It is fairly effective and could be useful if an enemy got near. Generally it performs very well, but it doesn't have too much capability beyond transport and cargo.
6.5/10
Design:
The CH-53 looks good. It looks like the real thing. The proportions are correct and the cockpit glass looks excellent especially for using no XML editing. It has a few paintable blocks around giving it a few details such as the horse by the cockpit and the star roundel. There is a refueling probe that sticks out the front. It is all one gray color which is a bit bland. The interior is well decorated. The back has seats and the cockpit looks nice and surprisingly simple. The landing gear retracts but when viewed from the bottom the slots that hold the landing gear can be seen. There is a fake control stick in the cockpit that moves with the inputs which is just awesome. Using some folding doors here would make it look even better. But other than that, the Stallion is very good looking.
7.5/10
Overall: 7.33/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Add a low gain mode for when picking up cargo
-Have a downwards facing camera for viewing the winch while picking up cargo
-Add some fake control surfaces with pivots
OV-51 "Carolean 2" by Dio
User friendliness:
The OV-51 has a very intimidating cockpit layout, with lots of buttons. It requires 3 buttons to start up. The buttons are sorted well making it a bit easier to use. There is a default of 0.33 trim forward which is weird and means a retrim is required to hover. The collective is a bit sensitive and tends to lurch a bit then go back down. This makes it hard to do small adjustments. At the same time it's sluggish and hard to control fluidly. There is a map screen that displays radar contacts which is really cool. The gun modes are a bit confusing since there's no explanation on what they do. Sometimes the gun will get stuck on the fuselage and will make the helicopter spin uncontrollably and then crash. The other weapons are all easy to use. There is a range calculator which is very useful for longer distance flights. The trigger is a toggle which is very annoying. All of the buttons work but practice is definitely required to do anything very effectively.
5.5/10
Performance:
The Carolean 2 is a very zippy helicopter with a max speed of 70 m/s. It also has a massive fuel tank of 11000 L giving it an excellent range of about 350 km and an endurance of about an hour and a half. Radar contacts can appear on both the hud and map, allowing targets to be found and destroyed quickly. This little helicopter has some advanced systems and super impressive capability. A slight downfall is the low survivability, but because it's a helicopter, that is to be expected. The controls are bit heavy making it harder to attack but with a good pilot the OV-51 is a force to be reckoned with.
9 /10
Design:
The OV-51 is a single seat attack helicopter. It has a green paint job with some black, yellow, and red accents. The colors look good, but aren't super cohesive. The red clashes a lot with the green. Behind the vents for the engine there is black staining on the paint which is an excellent detail. The wings have lots of armament and look very dangerous with spikes and rockets. The shape of the fuselage is very good too. The landing gear is fixed and is "attached" with some XML pipes. On top of the rotors is not 1, but 3 radars, which look kinda weird. Under the nose there is a pivoting gun and a camera. Under the main part of the body there are some ropes attached that look out of place and don't appear to serve any purpose. The cockpit looks very intimidating but realistic. Overall good looking, albeit a bit too busy.
7.5/10
Overall: 7.33/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Have a more comprehensive guide on how to use all the systems
-Fix the gun hitting the body
-Simplify the paint a bit for a less busy look
Nuggie by Bomps
User Friendliness:
The controls in the cockpit of the Nuggie are not easy to press. They are too close to the seat and the player has to look around a lot to press any of the buttons. The starter button is not a starter but rather an on switch. There aren't many controls and they all work as one would expect. There's a hud right in front of the player too. Throttle is not automatically controlled but is set by the player. It is not very stable and is not fun to use unless the stabilizer is on. Once turned on, the helicopter is very easy to fly. It feels very sluggish and drifts around a bit. At max throttle the helicopter becomes very difficult to control. The best throttle for controllability appears to be around 40%. The HUD has a night vision mode that doesn't work very well but it is better than nothing. There is a map screen and digital compass which come in handy. Overall a bit janky but it does work well if set up right.
6/10
Performance:
The Nuggie is a nugget. Small and delightful but doesn't serve too much of a purpose. It can carry up to 8 people + the pilot. There are two seat winches on either side that can be used to rescue people. There's plenty of equipment to keep those people safe. It has about 370 units of fuel and has a very slow top speed of 15m/s while the stabilizer is on. While the stabilizer is off it can reach about 30 m/s. It has a solid max range of about 200 km. Because of the Nuggie's bad top speed it wouldn't be the most fun thing to go rescue people in but it would get the job done.
5/10
Design:
The Nuggie is a conventional helicopter. It has a tail rotor and a main lifting rotor. It has an open cockpit. It's well painted with the main color being orange with white and gray scattered around. There are details such as naming and fake vents on the side. There is a locker that opens and fits well into the main body of the helicopter. It does not have landing gear, instead opting for skids made of regular blocks. On these skids are some seats. Overall the helicopter looks pretty good, with enough details to be interesting, while remaining pretty basic and not very unique.
7/10
Overall: 6/10
Feedback and Suggestions:
-Make weapon systems more intuitive to use
-Add some details to the exterior
-Add a modular fuel tank for more rangeompany name
MH-25 by Timindergray
User Friendliness:
The Timindergray has a very complex looking cockpit. It has good visibility. There are windows directly in front of the seats so pilots can see where they're landing. Like real aircraft, It requires a lot of buttons to start up. This is annoying but charming. It oscillates and drifts around a bit while hovering. It is not hard to fly, but isn't as stable as other helicopters. If pitched forwards too much, the helicopter will end up doing a nose dive that is very hard to recover from. All the buttons do as you'd expect. The dials do as well, with the exception of the turbine temp. All the dials are also labeled with units which is a nice little touch. Cruise mode is a useless and dangerous button that just pitches the helicopter forwards until it nose dives and crashes. While going forwards the helicopter will lose altitude although some collective trim can be applied to prevent this. Overall a very janky and charming helicopter to use.
3.5/10
Performance:
The Timindergray is designed to carry light cargo and transport people. It has a slow max speed of about 30 m/s. It has a very impressive max range of 1000 km. The cable is very hard to use because of the twitchy controls and drifting while hovering. When the cable finally gets attached, the helicopter cannot lift too much. The rear cabin can hold 4 people and has sufficient equipment. With a massive range it can certainly transport people, but not much more.
5/10
Design:
The MH-25 is a small coaxial civilian helicopter. It is gray on the exterior with some red detailing. It has two fake turbine exhausts that are smaller than real ones. They look good and proportional to the rest of the fuselage. There are bars above the side doors to prevent decapitation. The rear of the fuselage tapers very smoothly and nicely. The gear is fixed in place. The front gear is not centered which is slightly bothersome. The cockpit looks busy and functional. The cabin behind it is much more bland, but not too much so. All the details are well placed and don't clutter up the look. All in all the helicopter looks very nice and has no major flaws, but it doesn't do much super interesting either.
8/10
Overall: 5.5/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Adjust gyro to make helicopter less drifty
-Fix cruise mode
-Add autopilot system
RAM-801 Hades by ReOns
User Friendliness:
The RAM-801 Hades has a very well organized cockpit. It requires the engines and battery to be turned on before flight. The engines take a very long time to spool up. The helicopter is stable vertically but tends to drift quite a bit horizontally. This makes landing especially hard. Overall it's a bit hard to fly and feels very heavy. The seat is gyroscopically stabilized which is a bit disorienting at times and generally very annoying. In some maneuvers the seat will stick the player's head into the control panel. When flying forwards the helicopter loses altitude which is annoying. The autopilot will not hold the helicopter's altitude meaning it is essentially useless. There is no gun sight but the guns are easy to aim anyway. There's no master arm so the guns will fire whenever a waypoint is put into the autopilot. The winches work well enough. While going forward at any high speed, the helicopter is unable to gain altitude.
4/10
Performance:
The RAM-801 is armed with 2 light autocannons and 10 small missiles. The autocannons work well enough and have plenty of ammo but don't have a gunsight making them hard to use. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the seat rotates to be horizontal at all times. The missiles track pretty well and there are plenty at the pilot's disposal. It can reach about 45 m/s without high speed cruise. With it, the top speed goes up to 60 m/s. It has a max range of about 230 km which is plenty for a helicopter. Because the turning performance is so poor, ground attack is difficult to do.
5.5/10
Design:
The RAM-801 is a fat helicopter. It is mostly blue with some black detailing. The canopy is xml and looks very nice. The shape of the fuselage is very nice albeit a bit bland. Some more details would help with that. There are some small gaps in the walls for little windows presumably. The doors on the side open quite nicely. The little wings on the side of the fuselage have a lot of anhedral and look very good. The interior continues the trend of being nice but bland. There are some seats in the back with some fake netting made out of pipes. That's all there is for interior decoration. There are lots of hatches on the side. The gear retraction looks funky because the wheels stick out the bottom a bit. The cockpit itself is very clean and has minimal buttons that are organized well. Good looking but not very exciting to look at.
6.5/10
Overall: 5.33/10
Feedback and Suggestions:
-Remove stabilized seat
-Tune gyro
-Add a HUD or gunsight
Zaunkönig by Alex
User Friendliness:
The Zaunkönig is a strange helicopter to use. The throttle is controlled manually, so that and the collective needs to be controlled. The controls are well laid out. It takes 4 switches to turn on, all of which are located right beside each other. Then the throttle must be turned up for the engines to start. There is no reason it needs to take 5 clicks to turn on. One switch could do the exact same thing. There is a camera so the pilot can see where they are landing easily. The "Temperature Coolant" and "Temperature Turbine" dials do not work. The screens around the cockpit display radar, speed, and orientation instruments. When in a hover the helicopter bobs around a bit and is not very stable. When trying to go forward the gyro lets the helicopter tilt forwards but then pulls it back and oscillates. There is no master arm so if the player is trying to input a number into one of the keypads, the guns or one of the pylons will fire. The side to side strafe is very very slow and feels heavy. Yaw is the same. The pylon system is strange but simple. The player can select a group which controls different weapons. None are labeled but it's easy enough to figure out.
4/10
Performance:
The Zaunkönig is a slow helicopter with a max speed of 28m/s. It has a fuel tank of 1800 L which seems like a lot, but because of the twin turbines it does not last long. It has a pitiful max range of 40km. The cruise missile does not work. It points in the correct direction then just hits the ground. It cannot tilt forwards very well making ground attack very hard. While turning and shooting, the gunpods will hit the helicopter, bringing it down. Not very good at its job, and ends up killing itself if it tries.
3/10
Design:
The Zaunkönig is a twin turbine helicopter. It has large wings and a large tail section, making it look a lot like a plane. The shape of the wings is nice, with the wingtips having some dihedral. It has some chicken leg landing gear that looks very unstable. There are some paint blocks around the helicopter that have iron crosses and other symbols. On the nose there is VHF radar, represented by fences. The paint is a bit basic and with blue on the bottom and green on top. There are also lots of xml pipes for struts. There's a huge cruise missile that hangs on the bottom and there are autocannon pods on the side. There's a cabin behind the cockpit that cannot be accessed. The cockpit is well laid out with good visibility Overall a very strange looking helicopter with some good details.
6/10
Overall: 4.33/10
Feedback and Suggestions
-Tune the gyro
-Reduce fuel consumption
-Make sure guns don't hit fuselage
