Some of the booths drawing attention at the Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In and Expo this week are those with piston-powered helicopter trainer simulators. We checked out a couple of affordable simulator versions, the Elite TH22 and X-copter flight simulators, both of which feature models from the largest helicopter manufacturer in the world — Torrance, California-based Robinson Helicopter Company.
Both systems are capable of simulating the full helicopter flight environment, including takeoff, landing, autorotation and hovering. They also both use the X-Plane 10 software from Laminar Research, which provide very realistic, detailed visuals of the flight environment. The systems are available for sale, but neither one has yet achieved FAA certification for the purpose of logging the simulated flight time.
