Just like in real life, airliners and other fixed-wing aircraft tend to take center stage in the simulation world. I want you to remember this as you progress and learn your new skills because you will find obstacles along the way and that is perfectly normal. The first thing you should know: helicopters are hard to control! I’m not saying this to deter you from trying. You’ll have your hands full learning to fly rotorcraft: you don’t need more than just the basics yet! Instead, this guide is designed to help build a foundation for virtual helicopter flying, hopefully with just the right amount of detail. There’s lots more content, in plenty of detail, on ! For real!Ī note before we get started: don’t expect this to be a tutorial filled with all sorts of tiny details, obscure tips and tricks, lots of hacks, and guides for everything. That went on for years, until that day the 206 caught my eye and looked like it could be a nice new challenge.įast forward to today, and 99.9% of my flight simming since then has been with helicopters. But after overcoming the initial excitement around shiny metal, I moved to the smaller aircraft that I felt presented a bit more of a challenge. Like many others, I had spent several months flying airliners. I had been ignoring it since MSFS 98 but now, for some reason, it was right there on my screen and something inside me made me wonder “why not”? After spending several years flying fixed wing aircraft, something caught my attention: the Bell 206 helicopter. Over 15 years ago, I looked into the list of aircraft in my Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. Bear in mind, though: these beasts are tricky, complex, and addictive!Īlong the way, Sérgio has augmented this guide with some personal tips and tricks he hopes you'll find useful as you begin your helicopter simulation journey. If you've ever been curious about helicopters simulation but haven’t adventured into it-or don’t know where to start-this guide will help get you up to speed. FSA thanks Julien C., IVAO Training Documentation Assistant Manager, for his contributions to this guide. The content on this page was reviewed by Chris O., a VATSIM controller, simulator pilot, and US Army Chinook pilot. If you enjoy this content and are looking for an even more in-depth look at helicopter flying, view their How to Fly Helicopters guide. Use your browser's find function or the Table of Contents to find more information.For this resource, we’ve partnered with Sérgio from, a popular helicopter simulation news site. The X-Plane 11 manual is a great online resource for finding answers and solving problems. You can also assign actions to buttons.įor more information review our manual's section: Configuring Flight Controls. Third, assign axes and buttons.Īfter calibrating and centering, you can make sure that each axis of your device is assigned to the correct axis in X-Plane. Second, center each axes.įor the next step, return the controls to their natural at rest position before running the centering process. You will be able to see that X-Plane registers all axes correctly. Use the "calibrate" button to begin and move the device through all of its ranges of motion. You can use joysticks, yokes, rudders, and throttles with X-Plane 11 and these instructions cover all such devices.These settings apply to all flight control devices, not just joysticks.This tutorial shows how to calibrate and assign axes & buttons for USB hardware used with X-Plane 11.