Flew a real authentic fake Mi-8 around Sochi the other day

[rox]

This was  a surprise birthday present, I had no idea that a random village near Zagreb hosts "one of Europe's most modern" helicopter simulators.

The instructor was this great young guy who told me to "forget what I've experienced in games, this is a whole new level". To be honest, it was easier to fly this thing in this simulator with the big, long stick and pedals that trim properly, than it was to fly it in DCS on my stunted Saitek twisty stick. Of course, the "wow" mostly comes from the 6-dof hydraulics the whole thing is on, and although I haven't flown in a helicopter, given my experience in small planes I'd say the hydraulics simulate the whole inertia feel of flying quite well, but with a noticeable difference.

The instructor's assistant set the winds for 30m/s for our first landing as a prank 🙄 . Also got to land on the Kuznetsov and nearly crash into the sea immediately after taking off again as I turned way too early and lost speed, the instructor bailed us out with probably centimeters to spare.

These guys get crews from all over the world coming to train with them, they opened a bit earlier in the morning so they could fit me into their schedule. It's 130 euros for 30 minutes, but we stayed 45 due to the whole wind pranks and the instructor being a good guy.

I need to make friends with these people so I can come here at 3 AM and fly for free.

Does anyone know if DCS makes these maps for simulators like this?