Review: Take On Helicopters

Erik "EinsteinEP" Pierce and Chris "BeachAV8R" Frishmuth team up to review
the helicopter sim produced by Bohemia Interactive.

http://www.simhq.com/_air14/air_514a.html

As usual on SimHQ, a vey good article that i enjoyed reading. A special thanks for the explanation about all the effect a helo can have, it was really clear and well explained, even for someone not speaking english as 1st language. As a huge fan of BI studio's game, i'll surely give a try one day... if i can stop playing BS2.

Thanks for the review. I was debating on ordering this helicopter sim, but now I will wait until they fix/add everything.

Being a former Army pilot I have to have an accurate helicopter sim. Otherwise I will tear my hair out.

Scout's Out!!!

Thanks for the review.
I only disagree with one little thing -> the medium helicopter doesn't seem to be based/inspired on the AW-139 but instead it seems to be based/inspired on the Bell 412 instead.

@ricunes,

After seeing this pic I agree: the resemblance is uncanny!

Yep, thanks for the review and especialy the summary of the helo dynamics and how it is implemented or even not (now). Hopefully the FM patch will make it worthwhile.

Thanks for the lobbying and filling us in. I'd been wanting to watch this one more closely (I didn't get into DCS:BS as I found the switchology swamped the flying, but I'd love a less complex military sim or an equally complex civil one - I miss helicopters).

I think I may have come off as too harsh in my critique of the Take On Helicopter physics: no, the FM (even with the Beta 1.04 patch I tested) is not perfect, and I stand by my assessment, but I still find it quite enjoyable, even at the Expert level. The fact that BIS is working with RTDynamics to improve the dynamics is a great sign and I think they should be commended for taking that action instead of accepting the product as it was.

If you're looking for a "real" helo sim, Take On Helicopters does quite nicely.

EinsteinEP & BeachAV8R

Thanks for the review, glad to see I'm not the only one that had "doubts" about the fidelity of the TOH flight model. I was starting to think I was going crazy. I fly helicopters for a living and agree with your assessment that you can count the number of high-fidelity helo sims on one hand.

Looks like a pretty fun game. I may have to try it out sometime.
But semi on topic, i wish we could get that city map in ARMA2. Would make for some great missions!

Thanks guys for taking the time to do an updated review, and I pretty much concur with your words.

I have been on a rotor kick lately, building a 600 sized AH-6 RC heli and rereading Night Stalkers. So, I bought TOH at 1.02, flew it around in free flight, but came away unimpressed. Then, tried it again when 1.04 was released, went through some of the training and began Career mode. Now I get it. It's accessible, good looking, and engaging enough for someone interested in how helis work and interested in the day-to-day of a commercial rotor pilot. So far, the story line isn't bad either. Time will tell, but I'm sucked in at this point. It will be interesting to see where BI takes it in 6 mos. to a year.