Before start-up at Chelan Muni

ast month brought some great airliners to the FlightSim.Com library, but very few light aircraft. One of note was Steven Grant's Helio Courier. Since it was a small file (1.6 MB), and the text advertised a great bush plane that could operate out of an area the size of a football field, I thought it would be worth a try. In many ways, this is a great plane. When you consider the download size, it is a fantastic plane.

To begin with, the installation process is very standard, and since Steve included a nice panel by Fred Choate, a search for additional downloads was unnecessary. Once I had all of the files copied properly, I fired up FS2000 and got out my Seattle Area Sectional Chart to find a good flying route. If you have read my reviews before, you could probably guess that I would do some flying in the North Cascades, and you would be right. I planned a nice circuit trip from Chelan Muni to Darrington, Darrington to Concrete Muni (where I did some "advanced flight testing"), Concrete to a small field in the North Cascades, and back to Chelan.

My initial impression of the visual model for the aircraft was very positive. The textures used are really nice and crisp, and the tail number is customizable like the default craft. Steven really paid a lot of

With all those flaps, this was only a 70 knot dive from 10,000 feet down to the deck.

attention to detail in this airplane. He added things like steps, exhaust covers, a pitot tube on the wing, antennas, chocks (which appear in flight if the engine dies), a great pilot, moving yokes and a really well done propeller texture. Sometimes the small details like that get overlooked, but they are what separates a nice model from a very good one. Furthermore, Steven added the leading edge slats that the real aircraft has. In FS2000, these are actuated by the elevator control (and have nice detail on the backside). This didn't seem quite right to me, so I sought some more information. According to the operating manual for the H-295 (which I downloaded from Helio Aircraft's web site at www.helioaircraft.com), these slats were "operated fully automatically by the air-loads on them". I suppose that for the sake of simplicity, actuating them with the elevator isn't all that bad.

Regardless, it was time to see how this bird handled, and I really wanted to test out those claims about operating in a football field sized area. For my first flight from Chelan to Darrington, I planned to cruise high and use to autopilot to see how stable the plane was in this configuration. I taxied onto the runway and took off with no flaps, just

In flight over Lake Chelan

to see how it performed. The plane didn't really fly itself off, but with a click of up trip, it was airborne at about 75 knots. One neat feature is that the gear angle changes when they are off the ground, just like the real ones do as the struts rebound when the weight of the aircraft is removed. After takeoff, I trimmed for climb and reduced power, and proceeded to evaluate the panel. Overall, I would say that the panel and interior are good, but there are just a few drawbacks that made them fall short of being great.

The panel is functional, and all the useful instruments are represented well without having to switch to other views. For a plane like the Courier, this was very nice. However, I found that the panel sat just a touch high in the view screen, so that when I was flying level, I couldn't see the horizon. This might be realistic, but it made takeoff harrowing at best. I had to cheat and use a second view panel to show me the forward view for taxiing and takeoff. The only gauge problem that I had with the panel was the fuel flow indicator. It didn't work at all. The gauge lit up, and just said that I wasn't using any fuel. I knew this not to be the case since I was monitoring the fuel levels in the tank. Not a major detractor, but noticeable. Finally, the bitmaps used for the

A nice view of the Puget Sound from 14000 feet

interior and the panel backing were not up to the highest quality that we have seen lately. I don't want to seem like a complainer here, since the panel was absolutely fantastic for a plane that was only 1.6 MB. If you download this plane, don't expect a panel that would be comparable to a 20 MB download, but you can expect one of the best small file panels I have seen in a long time.

The flight characteristics of the plane were great (based on my zero hours of flying Couriers), and the plane was a snap to fly. The long flight to Darrington went by really fast, and the landing was also a breeze. With all that acreage in the flaps on this plane, it really handles well at low speeds. Remember that in a plane like this, you can use a steep descent and not build up speed if you use the flaps correctly. From Darrington, I flew by hand at treetop level to Concrete Muni, which is just up the pass, and has a very long runway (compared to a football field). At Concrete Muni, I decided to check out the performance characteristics of the craft, and tried some STOL work. The takeoff with full flaps is very short, and the landing can be very short as well if one uses the same techniques that Mike McCarthy has discussed in his How To columns.

With full flaps and full slats it doesn't take long to get airborne!

After the STOL checks, I evaluated the stall characteristics of the craft, which are really gentle even with no flaps. This was followed by a long and boring climb to check out the high altitude performance of the engine. Since this plane isn't turbo or supercharged, the carburetted engine can't provide fuel at high altitudes (noticed as a drop in manifold pressure). As with all of these engines, horsepower drops as altitude drops, and in the case of this Helio Courier, the manifold pressure dropped rapidly above 5,000 feet. Even at full throttle, the manifold pressure was at the bottom red line at only 12,000 feet. That being said, it was still possible to fly the plane with adequate power well over 10,000 feet, which made it good enough in my book.

I landed at Concrete Muni and attached the external cargo pod (by hitting /) for the rest of my flights. The remainder of the testing was all done in the Lake Chelan area, and was all VFR flying by hand. I really enjoyed flying this aircraft. It is unique, and a bit of a classic since they were originally produced almost half a century ago. This plane goes with several others in my bush plane collection that I get out from time to time when I want to travel between some of the smaller airports around Washington state. My only true complaint about this aircraft is that I

After takeoff from Richard Goldstein's dirt strip in the North Cascades (a great place to do some bush flying and tree appreciation). Note the attached belly pod for cargo.

was unable to find any more realistic sounds for the Lycoming engine. I placated myself by acknowledging that the default Cessna's are powered by Lycomings as well, so the sounds were pretty close. I would recommend this aircraft to anyone who likes small singles, or bush flying, especially with the small download size.

Ratings:

Aircraft: 90/100 (only improvement could have been digital textures)
Panel: 80/100 (not a great panel, but good enough to get the job done)

As always, I welcome comments.

Happy Flying,

 

Matt Tillman
matt.tillman@calalum.org

Download the Helio Courier.