Back in November 2023, Cera Sim released their first helicopter for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the Mi-17.
As usual, the community started providing its feedback, and Cera Sim, being the veteran developer they are, gathered all the information and worked on the model to fix any issues and make some improvements.
After having some community members reach out to me about this model and seeing some requests for the Xbox, I contacted Cera Sim and asked them if they could fill us in regarding what’s happening with the model and what we can expect in the future.
Cera Sim was quite transparent and honest about what happened/is happening.
The first thing they told me is that they are not happy with the fact that they spent so long before releasing an update. A lot of the delay had to do with the fact that they faced quite a few challenges with implementing the autopilot. Cera Sim “based the flight dynamics on the autopilot integration” in the beginning but then SU15 happened and, with that, we got some improvements for helicopters.
That was a good thing in general but not quite brilliant for Cera Sim, since this update “completely threw off” the team’s “pre-programmed dynamics”. This forced the team to go back and rework the dynamics. And this eventually caused more issues with the autopilot. This delayed things even more.
Cera Sim is currently working on another update with “an active member of the community who managed to strike a balance between the helicopter’s real-world dynamics and their adaptation to MSFS2020”.
Unfortunately, these changes completely disrupt the autopilot (specifically the YAW and ALT channels) and that is forcing Cera Sim to remove it completely from the next version, along with the Force Trim system. It’s not a decision the team is taking lightly but it’s the one they feel needs to be made, at this time, to improve flight dynamics.
Cera Sim says they are “hopeful that MSFS2024 will incorporate an autopilot system specifically for helicopters” and that, in the meantime, they will “continue researching how to better integrate with MSFS2020’s dynamics to create a more realistic autopilot”.
Back in 2023, I interviewed Sebastian Wloch, CEO of Asobo, and one of the questions I asked was exactly about a helicopter autopilot. You can read the full interview here, but here’s his answer to that question:
So yeah, […] that's in the works. I don't know exactly what, timeframe. I had just last week before I left someone asked me how exactly AI would work. And I said, yeah, well, when I'd fight a circuit, once you're flying 15 knots or more plus it's actually very close to an airplane. Right. […] You trim it. […] The difficulty is more taxiing and stuff like that. […] Autopilot and AI are using the same subsystems, right? And in a similar way, when you, the autopilot or the copilot commands something, it goes down to the same piece of software. So, um, once this gets working, probably both systems be solved. But people are working on it.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel soon™(ish?).
About Xbox, Cera Sim wants to bring the Mi-17 to the platform, but the helicopter is quite complex and the team – together with Asobo/Microsoft – is still evaluating that possibility. It’s not discarded but it’s yet another big challenge and some serious obstacles need to be overcome for this to happen.
So, unfortunately, I don’t think we will see the Mi-17 in Xbox for quite some time.
