are there any good free sims?

[steve3747]

im sure this is a well posted topic but are there any half decent free sims at the moment or an affordable alternative?any advice will be gratefully reieved.many thanks

[acwman]

You can try the FMS FLIGHT SIMULATOR but you will still need a controller/ lead to connect to it.

I have seen some sims with a controller for about £20 some places.. but I guess they maybe not very good flight physics.

[liambaker996]

not really you will need to pay at least 20 pound for a sim controller like the one for fms
i use phoenix even thought it is 70 pound you can pick them up for 50 pound off ebay or the odd one pops up here sometimes
phoenix is a good investment it is realistic also unlick fms

[GravityKills]

yes... I learned on FMS. In retrospect, I could have saved some time, had I bought Phoenix right from the start. Buy it now or buy it later, the costs are exactly the same.
That said, if you can't hover FMS, you'll have a hard time with a real heli. It's too easy (which is still very very difficult for beginners).

[Bladebeater]

Free simulator

Try HelisimRC

at HeliSimRC

Much more accurate than FMS, even "straight out the box" so to speak

Has a limited background / sounds etc. but if you are prepared to spend some time setting up the model parameters you're be rewarded by quite realistic flight characteristics.

Cheers

Blade

[Holst]

Another vote for helisimrc

Its not as good as phoenix but its pretty goof for a free sim.
Close enough to help you learn orientation and some basic hovering skills so that you stand some chance when it comes to the real thing.

[steve3747]

thanks for all your replys guys.i will try both of them and see,looks like its probably best to dig deep and buy one.cheers

[dam74]

I wouldn't bother with FMS as it has a lot of problems under Vista and Windows 7 with rendering textures. Results in a lot of flickering which you can stop but at a loss of losing the textures from what I experienced and read on other forums.

My vote for best free sim would be HeliSimRC. As others have said it's pretty good out of the box and you can configure quite a lot. Having said that I have just purchased Phoenix sim and HeliSimRC doesn't even come close

Take the plunge.

[Holst]

thanks for all your replys guys.i will try both of them and see,looks like its probably best to dig deep and buy one.cheers

When I first started to get interested in helis I bought a sim transmitter for £25 just to give it a try and see how I got on.

This got me far enough to hover my indoor heli (4#3B)

Once I decided I wanted to spend more money on an outdoor heli and a better transmitter I bought phoenix.

The simtransmitter is a nice way to play around and see if flying helis is for you without spending much money.

If your already 100% sure you want to get into the hobby just buy phoenix from the start.

[barryorbik]

I started with FMS because it came free with my King 2 but soon realized it was a bit too easy and bore no resemblance to flying the King 2.

I bought Pheonix but had problems using it on my laptop due to the graphics memory requirements, so I downloaded HeliSim which was much better than FMS. Later found an additional add on for HeliSim called sloppy/weak/setup which introduced a whole new set of variables and required much faster reaction times. The whole sim experience now seems much more like my King 2 especially when you add variable wind speed, direction and gusts, then add 30% -expo to the controls in HeliSim.

Now even my King 2 is starting to feel tame in comparison!

My current best sim time doing inverted and loops/rolls etc on Helisim before a crash is 22 minutes, used to be less than 3 minutes, so I must be getting better.

Have fun

Barry

[GravityKills]

BTW I'm running Phoenix on a Lenovo T61p laptop with virus scanner, firewall, hard disk encryption, and it works just fine. The most challenging is multiplayer; lowering shadow quality and turning off smoke seems to help a lot.

[Tombo242]

My vote for the best Free Sim is HeliSimRc by a mile. Of course it does not compare to the more expensive ones, but it out performs many of the cheaper if you only want to fly helis.

Here's a useful link for sim comparision Flight Simulator Test Results :: Electric Rc Helicopter it's been running for quite a while.

[Smudgyboy]

im sure this is a well posted topic but are there any half decent free sims at the moment or an affordable alternative?any advice will be gratefully reieved.many thanks

I've been using this: HELI-X - Homepage

on my Mac (also comes in PC) you get two free helis to try but you can pay a small fee and get the complete sim.

Best I've used so far.

Phil

[heliphil]

If you want I have USB leads which will work with FMS - I will give them away for the cost of postage (£2) just tell me which TX they are for.. ( ps I only have 6 or so !!!)

[steve3747]

great,so many answers.ive tried fms and was a bit disapointed,helisim is not too bad though.ive got the lead and transmitter as i have a mini pred.the sim is alot easier to fly than my pred,think i might have some set up probs.at least when i stuff the sim it costs me nothing.lol.thanks for your time guys