Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King For X-Plane 10

I've waited for this add-on forever and it's finally out since a couple of weeks. It's available from the X-Plane store, for X-Plane 10.20 and above.


I have some screenshots and impressions from my first flight in this beauty.



I always do a "local" flight (i.e. near my real life location) for that first spin of the rotors with a new X-Plane toy. Here I am taking off from the Montgomery County Regional Airport (MD, USA).

The Sea King is very stable and hovers solidly during the pre-flight hover check.

I changed the livery to one of the 17 available. Just for showing up.
Heading north towards the Frederick Regional Airport.
Another paint scheme available, this one for the Deutsche Marine.
Landing at the Frederick Regional Airport. The Sea King is heavy and displays a great deal of stability, which makes it a good candidate for the newbie virtual helicopter pilot.
Another practice landing at Frederick. Note the new paint job. I just can't get enough of these skins!

The cockpit interiors are very well done, with many clickeable buttons and switches.

The center console. That group of switches in the center is the automatic flight control system for hovering. It is fully implemented and functional in this addon.
Hovering near the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, a very conspicuous landmark in my county. I took the Sea King into an initial hover manually, but right now I am using the automatic flight control system to keep the helicopter stationary.
The hover control system has a series of switches that allow changing position in the three axis of movement. In this screenshot I am flying the Sea King laterally, hands off the collective or cyclic, by using one of those switches.
After that mountain top hovering, I am flying to a local VA airport located across the Potomac River.

Approaching the local airport. The stability of this helicopter really pays off when you need to make small adjustments in your forward speed.
Safe touchdown on the destination.
Great add-on. One can only wish X-Plane would allow third party developers to take their aircraft to the level of avionics/systems simulation seen in DCS World. Nonetheless I am pleased to try my virtual pilotage skills on this legendary ASW helicopter.

Looking forward to try this helo in naval maneuvers through rough seas ...

Cheers,

2 comments:

  1. I hear FSX helicopter Flight models are not as detailed and accurate as DCS, is that true?

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  2. I think that DCS is a very serious contender to FSX and X-Plane when it comes to flight modelling. When it comes to systems/avionics modelling, DCS runs circles around both.

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