The Midge II is a re-birth of my low-part Midge I helicopter, except with 3x the parts and lots of funky trees. I tried to make this helicopter as realistic as possible within the constraints of Simple Planes. If you are familiar with the start-up procedure of this helicopter, learning the startup procedure of a real piston helicopter should be straightforward. Although there are a few inaccuracies, I took advantage of xml to make it behave like a real helicopter using my own experience as a pilot. The Midge II, though small, is designed to emulate the experience of a typical 2-bladed, 2-4 seat piston helicopter. I kept the single-seat design because I thought a single seat helicopter would be more fun to fly.

This is a project that I have been working on casually for nearly 3 years. I already forget when I started. I also forgot half of the features I included. There are many. Below is a list of what I can remember:

• A custom Funky Trees throttle governor (this allows the player to turn it on and off in flight)
• Realistic autorotations
• Instrument panel shake when entering ground effect or in high G
• Compass and instruments also shake
• Somewhat realistic temperature gauges
• Voltage meter flickers when battery turned on/off
• Engine RPM reads poorly at low rpm (like on many Schweizer 300s)
• Most systems are affected by battery on/off
• Engine monitoring unit (light blinks when exceedance detected, hold test button)
• Low-g pushovers cause the helicopter to roll
• Directional gyro needs resetting after a certain time (the real ones lose accuracy every 5 minutes depending on how smooth you fly)
• The directional gyro heading bug is adjustable
• Realistice warning light behaviour
• Low rotor horn
• Added hidden propellers and gizmos for sound effects (engine start, prime, rpm)
• Tail rotor linked to rotor RPM
• Manifold pressure that lags behind power changes

I’d love to know if you notice any other features.

I included a startup procedure in the craft instructions. If you're reading this section, you might be looking for an easier way to start it. This would not work as well in real life and might even damage your engine, but here’s the shortened checklist:

• Mixture full in
• Alternator on
• Hold the fuel pump on for 6 seconds
• Turn the key
• Bring the engine RPM up halfway and wait for the blades to spin
• Once spinning, slowly bring the RPM up to 80% to avoid overspeeding the rotor

If this is still too boring, try this version which doesn't need the startup procedure. Some of the features won't work though.

No testing was performed to verify any numbers; however, the following can be used as a reference. These are the approximate performance stats the helicopter is designed for:

Cruise Speed = 80 kts
Best Lift/Drag = 45-50 kts
Cruising Power = 24 Inches of Manifold Pressure

Note

I noticed that I uploaded the manifold pressure gauge (measures the engine's output) without a label that was supposed to be on it. It would be difficult to go back and fix it now. For reference, it looks like this and is found on the lower left side of the instrument panel:

Also Note

If this post is good enough, it'll get curated which means I cannot update this description. Any future updates or notes will be pinned below. Feel free to ask questions if you have any trouble flying!

I would like to give credit to Beaufoco for using his turn coordinator.
I’d also like to thank KSB24 for the screenshots of the helicopter which I used to create the cover photos. They worked awesome.