Nowadays, one of the issues we always have with helicopter controls has more to do with price than with the number of products on the market. Fortunately, more manufacturers have shown an interest – and released new products for the helicopter virtual pilots.
We have more products for us out there, but the prices are still a bit high. Much of this has to do with the fact that most of these companies are small and the scale of production is low. As with real-life aviation, virtual helicopter pilots are far less than fixed-wing virtual pilots.
These companies sell fewer units, so it doesn’t make sense to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars/Euros/whatever currencies they use in establishing a powerful production line that eventually reduces the price per unit.
If you are someone trying to make a living out of selling these products, things can be even harder, and prices rise a bit more.
But there are some solutions out there, that aim to offer a… I don’t want to call it “less professional”, but let’s call it more of an already-built DIY. For the lack of a proper, decent, original, and interesting name.
But being “less professional” doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just not as polished as products for bigger manufacturers.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by someone called Donovan, who is the person behind a small business called 3DAFI.
3DAFI sells a couple of products on Etsy, and one of these products is a collective for helicopter flight simulation at an affordable price. At the time this review is being published, the 3DAFI Helicopter Collective is being sold at €249,00 (€236,55 with a 5% discount going on right now).
Donovan was very kind and sent me a unit to review and I have put it through a few weeks of tests with X-Plane, MSFS, and DCS.
Let’s dive into it.
First contact
The collective is mostly made of plastic/fiber with a section made of metal. The plastic/fiber area (which I will just call plastic from now on) is clearly 3D-printed but the material used, and the printing process seem to be very good.
I do not think it feels “cheap” at all. The collective does feel light, so you don’t get that satisfying sturdy feeling. But, again, that doesn’t mean the quality is not there. Weight can be meaningless after all.
The collective is comprised of the base, which is a small box, with a nut that you can use to control the collective friction, the USB cable, the twist throttle, and the collective head which has 2 buttons and 3 switches.
These are 2-way ON-OFF switches, which means they are either off or always on.
Installation
Windows recognized the collective immediately, which was identified as “Arduino Leonardo” as soon as I connected it to my PC.
From there, it was just a matter of calibrating the 2 axes (collective and throttle) and taking care of the usual assignments in the sims of choice.
The collective comes with a few accessories to help you attach it to your chair. It’s not a huge “attachment kit” so, depending on your chair, you may need to get some more hardware to attach to your chair and then you can use the L-shaped bracket.
Testing the collective
I set things up in X-Plane and took it for a spin.
I noticed one of the switches sometimes didn’t register the signal. After turning it on and off a few times, it started working properly.
I got into the default R-22 and flew her around without any issues.
After about an hour in X-Plane, I tried it in MSFS and DCS, before including it in my regular testing routine. This usually means using the collective at least 3 times a week. In this case, I used it almost daily, for about an hour, for about a month.
I mostly used it in MSFS, but I threw some time into X-Plane 12 and DCS as well. In total, I must have tested it for 30-40 hours before writing this review.
During that time, I didn’t find any issues with the electronics, and I got used to the mechanical parts quickly. The collective up/down movement is not exactly the smoothest but it’s not bad either. Funny enough, I was expecting a rougher throttle movement, but it is actually very, very smooth.
All in all, I had a great experience with the collective. It feels comfortable and balanced. The metal section gives me some guarantee that it’s a sturdier model than I anticipated. The USB cable is not exactly the sturdier one ever, but it’s not bad. I don’t expect it to break easily. But I would pay some attention to it and make sure it wouldn’t be under stress.
There’s just one thing that I would probably change in the collective.
I don’t see a reason for the 3 switches. In reality, being 2-way ON-OFF switches means that they are either off or permanently sending a key signal. It’s kind of like having a button that you are either not pressing (OFF) or constantly pressing (ON).
I would probably prefer if these were temporary 2-way switches (OFF -> temporary ON) or even buttons with a different design/color.
Conclusion
Let’s see things the way they are.
The 3DAFI Helicopter Collective is not a product from a big manufacturer. It’s not pretending to be one and it’s not trying to compare itself with one.
Donovan knows exactly what he’s doing and for whom. So, when considering this collective, we need to know exactly what we are looking at. This is a product for those who want to have a decent collective at a more affordable price.
And it delivers exactly that. Is it a brilliant, polished, super-high-performance product?
No.
It’s not supposed to. But it’s more polished than I expected for a product like this. The smoothness of the axes is better than I anticipated, and the buttons are of better quality. The switches, honestly, are not bad. They don’t move sideways, and they do their job. But I would like to see some bigger, more sturdy switches. This would probably increase the price, though.
It's not perfect and it doesn't have the same feeling as higher-end products, but it sure does its job.
Keep in mind that a 7.5, the rating I am giving this collective, on these kinds of products is not exactly the same as if I would be rating a higher-end product. You can't compare this collective with a VIRPIL collective, for example, but it would also not be fair to penalize it and drop the rate dramatically because it is not a bad product.
If you are looking for a collective under €250 that offers you good performance, this may just be it. It’s nicely built, it performs well, it installs easily, and I suspect it will offer you many hours of entertainment – and better helicopter control. I haven’t used it for months, of course, but it does seem like it may last quite some time.
I think 3DAFI did a great job and I will definitely recommend it for folks looking for a solution within this price bracket.
