Flight Modeling in Helo Sims by Zero G
	As I see it A-H gets the climb rates right once beyond 50 knots, but if you go much below that, things are not right. I would have given the same examples for the Havoc but I can't find the numbers for that bird. Keep in mind that all speeds I talk about are actual airspeeds, since wind has a big effect on flying. The wind has some very noticeable effects on the helicopter when in the hover. These effects are very toned down in A-H to what a real helo pilot sees, but we can just assume that it is not very windy. Your helo will get blown around by the wind with both gusts and a steady wind. It will cause weather cocking in heavy wind and it has even been know to put guys into a tail rotor vortex spin. The only problem with the wind in A-H is that it doesn't have enough effect on the helicopter when in normal cruise flight. More on that later. In the real world when you put the helicopter in transition to forward flight you should need a little extra power to hold your altitude depending on how far you tip the helo forward. As you hit 15-20 knots airspeed the helo will hit translation, where you gain lift. At this stage the nose should kick up while you should need a drop in power to not gain unwanted altitude. Through all this movement pedal adjustment will be needed to keep the nose of your helo in the right direction. There is a noticeable movement to the pedals when translation is hit, the tail rotor acquires translational lift gains just as the main rotor does. Most of this isn't modeled in Apache Havoc. As I mentioned, however, with 1.1e you will no longer have a problem with the tail rotor causing odd drag that keeps your helo from going over 90kts while it is in use. This helps with the transition to forward flight and is more realistic. The power required to make the transition and the changes in pedal movement are very well done, except for when translation should occur. Another place where things depart from realism in Apache Havoc is flight to either side. It is very hard to pick up any speed while moving the helicopter sideways. In a real helo I have flown sideways at 80 knots. A helo will pick up speed in this direction just as they do in forward flight. This is one of the big things about helo flight; it doesn't matter what direction you move the cyclic the helo will respond basically the same as if you pushed forward to accelerate. The only difference in response for sideways movement is that the air is being encountered in a less aerodynamic manner. Click to continue		These departures from the real world made it very difficult to do some basic training moves in Apache Havoc. For instance, doing a circle around an object while keeping the nose of the helo facing it. This is a good training exercise to help control the helo in wind but it is very tough to do because of the way that Apache Havoc handles sideways flight. You should be able to input enough pedal while flying to cause the helo to fly way out of trim. This brings me to what the wind really does to a helicopter in cruise flight. When flying in even a 10 or 15 knot wind you do not fly with the nose pointed right where you are going. To keep in trim you must use pedal input to keep the helo in trim and to keep traveling the direction you want to go. If you were to fly right down the compass heading required you would find yourself way off course. Now I will admit that most players wouldn't want this in sims until a company will release proper pedals meant for helicopters. (These would have no spring return on them as helo pedals are very often left out of center while flying.) Apache Havoc really doesn't allow for the airframe to go off of the line you are flying, I assume for that very reason. I will not even try to compare how either helicopter handles to its real life counter because I have never flown them. For general handling characteristics they handle as well as one could expect from a sim. If you want to talk about a real helo you have to have a joystick that doesn't center and a helicopter that would be much happier if its rotor was below the airframe. The reason a cyclic doesn't center is because the center changes as you fly. This is one of the nice little features that is in Apache Havoc. You will notice as you gain speed that the cyclic must be moved off to the advancing blade side. You can trim this away just like you would in the real thing. Go to Page Three
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