Well, it was a crazy good month, that’s what happened!
During the month of December, we had no less than 7 helicopter releases. Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane were the stars of this impressive flow of helicopters. I don’t remember having a month with so many helicopter releases, EVER.
Microsoft’s simulator got the freeware Beekay Sikorsky H-34 and the (also freeware) Rotorsim Pilot Airbus H125 .
On the X-Plane side, we had 5 releases with the XFER Design H145 being the only freeware helicopter for the platform.
As for X-Plane payware, the X-Rotors AW109, JRX Design Bo105, FlyInside Bell 47G, and the most recent release, the Cowan Simulation Bell 206B3 JetRanger filled our virtual hangars.
Not only we had a great month, but we have also been getting new developers coming into the hobby and great quality products reaching the market.
It’s a wonderful thing to see the offer for helicopter simmers expanding as the community itself is growing (we can see that in the latest Navigraph Community Survey results ).
2022 is right around the corner and, if the releases we are seeing at end of 2021 are a sign of what’s to come for our community, it certainly seems a like a big positive one.
We already know Microsoft Flight Simulator will bring native support to helicopters next year as well and, even if we may not see a complete set of features, it’s a step towards the right direction.
X-Plane 12 is also bringing a new helicopter, the R-22 , and Laminar Research seems to be improving some helicopter features on the background.
Am I excited about what 2022 can bring us? Oh yes! Especially after this amazing, beautiful, crazy month of December 2021.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
