For some community members, this is the news they were waiting for. Joshua Cowan has started porting his fleet to Microsoft Flight Simulator and the Bell 206B3 is now out.
I am a big fan of Joshua’s work and have bought this straight up.
I fly the B206 b3 in real life so I am really impressed with the X plane models .
In X plane 12 they fly very realistically and the systems are great and the only place I find them a little bit off is the start up TOT’s and timing, The X plane version N1 RPM rises 2 x as fast and the TOT peaks are not high enough especially on the first rise . However its close enough that is about all I can be critical of !
Now the MSFS is not as good as the X plane model but it relies on the crappy MSFS rotary wing physics but its heads and shoulders above the native B206 in all respects but its hard to compare it to the X plane 12.
I am wondering how to set the throttle as it seems to suffer the same problem as the native version with no working axis on the throttle.
I also can’t find the manual for setup.
I also note the checklist is not quite correct in detail as when we push the fuel pump boosters we go left in check for pressure rise , push right pump in and check for a further ( much smaller ) rise, pull out left pump and check that we only have a small fall ( you are checking the right pump works stand alone) then left pump back on.
Thanks Joshua as I know you will keep improving the model as MS fixes its underlying sim issues.
I own 4 Cowan helicopters for X-Plane.
It’s a great shame that there is no discount or promo code for existing Cowan Simulation customers for the MSFS Bell 206B3, especially for those that own the Bell 206B3 for X-Plane.
A huge oversight in my opinion!
That’s always an option and it was Joshua’s choice. But here’s the thing:
The only thing that is common to both versions is the 3D model and possibly the textures (even those I suspect were changed somehow but can’t confirm). Everything else was done from scratch and Joshua even had to hire an external developer, increasing the production cost.
It’s not just copy+paste to another sim and change a few things. There are, literally, months of work between Joshua and the other developer (they both worked on it) to bring it to MSFS.
Yeah sorry I don’t agree . I don’t work for nothing and I don’t expect Joshua to work for nothing either.
If we want him to keep up the development and putting out quality product we need to reward him.
I’m guessing neither of you have ever worked in consumer affairs and marketing.
Customer loyalty is frequently rewarded with discounts or a promo code, take a look at simMarket and you will see this there too, some developers understand, others are clueless.
This has nothing to do with commonality in products, but everything to do with rewarding loyal customers and helping grow your brand and customers base across diverging sim platforms.
Had there been a discount or promo code I would have already bought the MSFS version, and I’m going to suggest I’m not alone in feeling this way.
I’ve been working on the development of software products for over 20 years so I am no stranger to software development, product planning and management, selling and customer loyalty.
Providing meaningful customer discount on a product that costs the amount of money these addons cost mean doing at least a 30% off offer (about $10 less or so).
That doesn’t necessarily mean 50% more sales which would have to be the amount of sales needed to compensate for the offset.
Especially on a product that cost pretty much the same as the original X-Plane version, considering the need to hire another person.
It could pay off, it could not pay off. If it was an upgrade on the same platform, without extra production cost, it would probably be a no-brainer.
In this case, I can’t say I would jump on the idea.
Of course you’re not alone in that idea. Who doesn’t want to pay less for a product?