I started heli simming with X-plane to supplement my actual helicopter training on the Robinson R22. I have been using the R22 beta by Dreamfoil and it’s reasonably accurate to the real thing, but there is one huge and I mean MASSIVE issue I have with it making it almost un-flyable and that is the manifold pressure.
The real R22 I practise in starts to lighten on the skids around 18mp to 20mp, around 23mp to 24mp for hovering and 21mp when cruising at 70kts at 1200ft to 1600ft.
In X-Plane11 the manifold pressure gauge needle starts at 10mp and will never go any lower than this, even with collective fully down (I am using a Pro Flight Trainer Puma collective). When raising the collective the correct amount the needle will very slowly climb up to 14mp to 15mp before the skids start to lift quite violently, rocketing the chopper up. If I do manage to take off without a rollover cruising power is about 14mp. Anything over 15mp makes the heli act as if it’s gone well over the pressure limit. Hovering is a total impossibility, and anything but steady level flight isn’t much fun.
I also have a freeware version of the R44 Raven II by Brett S (link here; [https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/52056-robinson-r44-raven-ii/] ) which sadly suffers the same manifold pressure gauge problem, though it is a little more manageable to fly with.
Is this a usual problem with all X-Plane11 piston engine helicopters or is it specific to these two models? I have found this issue using both the Experimental Flight Model and without it.
Is it simply the version of X-Plane11 I am using (the latest version to date)?
Is there any fix for this that anyone knows of? I rather not start buying up every payware piston engine helicopter just to check.
I cannot find any info on this issue using Google search, so if anyone has any ideas I would be very grateful.