So, what is it that's coming for us, helicopter flight enthusiasts? I hate to be the bearer of bad news but folks, right now, not much.

Let me start by saying this: do not stop reading after the next paragraph. Keep on reading and you'll understand DTG's plan for helicopters. Because there is one. And I, personally, am putting a lot of faith in it.

Dovetail Games Flight Sim World will not bring any helicopters at launch. It won't even ship with a helicopter flight dynamics module. That's right: nothing. Not right now.

DTG decided not to develop helicopters from the start. Why is that? Because they are taking a baby step approach to their sim. Remember that FSW is coming from a rather old base code (FSX) and they need to improve a lot of areas, enhance what's done, rebuild a lot of stuff and get the sim up to pair with their competition and our expectations.

If you take a look at this video from FlightSimCon 2016, Steve Hood mentions exactly that: they have a huge list of stuff they want to add but they are starting with the basic stuff and growing the sim from there. Flight School was a huge part of it (and now Dovetail is giving us, Flight School users, a free copy of FSW).

This video is great to understand a lot of what's going on and why is it that FSW will bring some stuff and not some other stuff. Do make yourself the favor and watch it.

At minute 48:15 our friend Belgeode asks specifically about helicopters and Steve mentions that it's on the list and they will get there. But not just now. At minute 48:57 he says a certain guy (I will leave it up to you to guess who that is *wink*) has pressing him about helicopters. Dovetail is aware of our existence. And they are aware that helicopters, in the base code FSX, sucks.

As such, they will be working on it and, hopefully, do a great job at it. We need good simulators that can give us all the bells (no pun intended) and whistles we required to experience our sims and enjoy our hobby to the fullest.

So, when exactly will we have helicopters available?

We don't know. Heck I don't know if DTG knows. They might have it slated but this is software development. From experience as an 18+ year software developer, I know things can and will always will go the wrong way and software may get delayed.

Should we wait for it? I would say yes. Should we get FSW even without helicopters? Definitely. Why?

Well, because if we all start pitching in, giving our opinions towards other areas of the sim such as scenery, weather, physics (remember: fixed-wing physics obviously also apply to helicopters), tools and everything else that, though not particular to helicopters, help us enjoy our sim better.

I'll do my best and my part on this as I know a lot of you will as well. For those who won't, for whatever reason that might be: we'll do our best to help DTG make FSW a great sim for you all to give it a proper try in the future. As a community, we owe it to each other.

We'll make sure to let you know whenever something about these birds come out. Until then, let's give our support to this new sim and hope DTG does a darn fine job with it.