I'm new to heli's but have been training for a couple of weeks on my mSR and doing pretty decent. Orientation is ok, can fly decent figure eights, precision landings, etc...

Just got the new Phoenix sim and practiced the mSR and found it a tad harder to fly in the sim, only for the lack of real life "feel", but for the most part, no big deal. So I bump it up to the Trex 500 for grins, put the sim in training hover mode and I'm all over the friggin map. After feeling pretty full of myself flying the mSR, this was an eye popper. Hovering for a full minute was a challenge.

Can some of you "veterans" out there tell me how close you've found the simulator to be for someone like myself who eventually wants to outgrow the mSR FP for a CP? The mSR and the Trex are two completely different animals in the simulator. Can I expect the same in the real world? Would love to hear your feedback... thanks

i got my first cp today and its pretty cool and not that much different then my blade cx2 which is a coaxial heli as far as real life hovering. I really need a sim that works with vista 64 or that dll file that is missing. I am not going to be flipping the 3d switch on in real life with out some sim practice. anyone out there have any suggestions?

ps the the out door big lama is the easiest 4 channel I have ever flown and they are dirt cheap just go with the 2.4 ghz and not the crystal kind. Don't worry about upgrading anything on it though. I know everyone says you need the extended shafts but It almost never gets blade strikes unless you let all for blades just hang down in a group.

RealFlight 5 will work with Vista, and I'm pretty sure Phoenix does too.

Your experience is pretty much right - the CP is going to be a little harder. Trex 500 might not be the best model to start off with - try to get a big 90 or a scale heli. Those should be a bit more stable. A CP heli needs constant management - not control, management, particularly in a hover. The big ones will need less management - the mSR needs no management. Using a 90 in this video...

Helicopter Flight Training Lesson 1 (9 min 50 sec)

Thanks Jasmine... I'll give the scale a shot. I'm using my plane 4 ch TX until I can get a Dx7, so I'm thinking a more appropriate heli TX might help a little as well. Great Vid!... thanks!

Bobomatic,

Unfortunately, the MSR is way over-hyped as being "the" single rotor heli trainer. I also own the MSR and it is slightly more difficult to fly than a coaxial heli, but MUCH easier than a CP heli. The MSR and CP helis are apples and oranges by comparison. If you want to learn to fly CP helis, then copious amounts of sim time will help get you there.

Yep.. I'm quickly finding that out. I'm doing fairly decent on the mSR, but the CP is a whole other animal. I think the mSR has helped a little, but the CP takes it to another level.