Stephen Posted May 1, 2020 Report Share Posted May 1, 2020 Aircraft Review : Dynali H3 Project - VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot' Series Most recent releases from VSKYLABS in their "Test Pilot" series have been ultra-light helicopters, and here is another one in the Dynali H3 after the Cicaré-8, Guimbal Cabri G2 Heli and the Mini-500 Project, so there is now definitely a pattern going on here... The Dynali is a Belgian ultralight two-seat helicopter with a side-by-side seating configuration. It is authorised in several European countries under the ultralight helicopter category to comply with the European Class 6 microlight helicopter rules, in particular the French Class 6 Microlight Category, at a gross weight of 450 kg (992 lb). The H3 is supplied as a ready-to-fly helicopter, or as a kit from the manufacturer. H3 was designed for the flight training, utility and personal-use roles. Remember the VSkylab philosophy is that you purchase an ongoing project, so any aircraft you purchase is not fully completed and is 100%, that is the deal you sign up for to get access to the aircraft and all the development is ongoing. Small, inimate, teeny, dinky, pocket-sized, tiny and compact it is the whole thesaurus of a mini sized helicopter, with barely space for one human-being and never mind squeezing two inside that H3 tight cockpit. Detail is of course VSkyLabs quality and brilliant... Modeling quality is breathtaking... just look at the realism of the cockpit cowling and the hinged front canopy, the numbers must be very high to get that sort of smoothness and curves, the glass in shape and realism is also top notch. The highlight is of course the innards of the flying machine. The airframe is highly visible, as is the Rotax 912ULS four cylinder, liquid and air-cooled, four stroke aircraft engine that pumps out 75 kW (100 hp). The four-belt drive of the tail-rotor is really well done, and authentic in motion and note the under belly twin-fan cooling arrangement with working fans. Heat resistant material between the powerplant and basically your backsides is also highly realistic, so overall the reproduction of the machines internals are all very good. Details of the rotorhead in design and linkages are very good, but.... the main assembly is static in that nothing moves when you move the control stick, the collective however does move the blades to bite into the airflow... .... pusher tail-rotor looks and feels very small and fragile, components and assembly looks really well done and the rudder movement is active and visible. Internal Detail The whole canopy hinges forward for access. And the carbon-fibre seats look like the perfect fit... Seat detail is phenomenal even outstanding in realism, note the tank switch on the rear panel. Overall though the cockpit is basic and so is the instrumentation... .... flying controls are a twin-crossbar between the pilots. The T-Bar can be hidden by touching the base. Across the top of the instrument panel are seven warning lights, Instruments left to right/top to bottom are... Airspeed indicator (Km/h), Rotor/Engine Temp, Manifold Pressure - CHT Indicator (Cylinder Head Temperature), VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator), Altimeter, Engine Oil Temp - Battery Voltage, Engine Oil Pressure and MTG Temp (Main Transmission Gearbox). Lower is a row of seven power switches, All start but for a single light external switch. Lower panel has a Garmin GNS430 COM/NAV panel that pop-up (default Laminar), Garmin GTX327 Transponder. There is a working Circuit Breaker panel with seven breakers active, Power switch (starter button is on the T-Bar) and a low RPM indicator. Far bottom row is the Fuel Gauge and OAT (Outside Air Temperature. Hanging left of the main instrument panel is a very nice H3 Engine Information System and on the right is the heading dial and Vertical Card Compass. The Altimeter can be changed via clicking on the instrument from hPa to both hPa/in.Hg, but the in.Hg is however more blurry in detail to read? The AviTab Plugin tablet is also now fitted onto the canopy. It is a fixed unit that you can't move or hide, but it is well placed and a nice tool to have. You get a pilot who is oddly in the left hand seat?, you can hide him if you want to via pressing his seat. He comes with excellent hand and feet movements that look very realistic, but take the internal view external and he loses his head! Click on the passenger seat and a very attractive female pilot appears. There is no weight for the extra pilot noted but it is added, and the maximum total human weight allowed is 200 kg (440 lbs). There are no menus or static elements with the Dynali H3, and only the clickspots noted. There is the REALLY annoying STMA auto-updater that constantly pops up on the left of your screen, I usually pull the plugin out and throw it away. Flying the Dynali H3 The H3 is a Ultra-Light machine at 688 lbs empty, so that means it is a very nervy experience. vSkyLabs note to have the "Experimental Flight Model Mode" switched on (Menu/General). Twist the throttle on the collective to increase the power, and when the instruments have settled down then slightly raise the collective. I found even trying to hover above the ground a very tricky experience, even the slightest touch in movements sent the machine in directions I didn't really want to go in, but I sort of felt my way back to the zero movement point. The tail (rudder) feels very light with not a lot of power, that is more of the light weight of the machine than thrust from the tail-rotor, but even small changes for side-slip and changes in direction by yaw is hard... If you are used to more larger machines like the Bell 407 then you are going to have to relearn your skills, coming from vSkyLabs earlier light-weight machines is not as bigger a gap, but it is certainly the lightest chopper I have tried to fly. There is no doubt the high-range dynamics are at work here, this H3 is EXTREMELY responsive, so you have to adapt, but sorta carefully. There are Vertical and Horizontal marks on the canopy to aid your horizon orientation, but I also mixed up the lines up with the surrounding lighting masts around Bristol Airport? In a more distant situation then the lighting masts blurred into the same as the etched lines on the screen... very odd. Once you get a bit of a speed forward the machine very quickly comes back to you with a standard helicopter feel, the flying smooths out and the machine will cut through through the air very quickly... "Brisk" is the word I would say comes to mind, but you have to be aware of the red limiter zone above 155 km/h, VskyLabs notes the full four set of flying zones as: Red zone .......................................................................... 0 km/h – 85 km/h : Green zone......................................................................85 km/h - 130 km/h Yellow zone .................................................................. 130 km/h - 165 km/h : Red zone (VNE) ............................................................................. 165 km/h With also the first IAS red zone as marked between 0 and 85 km/h, and which is the recommended flight profile during any take-off and landing. There is a sort of Go-Kart in the sky feel as you power along, and certainly if you cruise fast and (very) low over the landscape... Sounds are in a dynamic Multi-Layer FMOD sound pack and sounds great, and certainly the aircraft is carefully aimed towards VR... Virtual Reality, so that full on VR experience must be exceptional. Specifications include: Cruise speed: 130 km/h (81 mph, 70 kn) and a never exceed speed of155 km/h (96 mph, 84 kn). Endurance is set at 3 hours, with a Service ceiling of 3,000 m (10,000 ft), and the Rate of climb is 4.6 m/s (900 ft/min) There are no flying aids in here, so it is all about the stick and rudder feel and being in one with the light machine. Coming back to translational-lift in from flying forward to the hover position is quite easy... then it wasn't in the actual very slow speed to the still hover zone... .... I landed, but under duress, as when in that hover zone the H3 was a bit of a handful or squirmy.... ... I got back into a static hover and was able to finally hold the H3 there, but I also completely lost the Dynali sometimes with some nasty results. Practise... of course and with time I would master the machine, but it requires a lot of skill in the hover zone as the H3 can very easily get away from you. Lighting The Dynali H3 is not the sort of aircraft you would really fly at night? But there is a nice reddish glow over the instruments that is pleasing, but the AviTab is quite bright in the dark, so there is a need to be able to turn it off or tone it down? External lighting is very basic, with red and green navigation lights and a tail-boom red beacon. Liveries There are four quite cool liveries, with the H3 Experimental as the default. H3-Orange, H3-Racer 14 and H3-VR Driver are all excellent. Three liveries have the carbon-fibre grey instrument panel, but the H3-Orange has the Orange instrument panel colour. ________________________ Summary This Dynali H3 is another Ultra-Light Helicopter from VSkyLabs, and now the fourth in a series of the same type of ultra-light rotor based machines. Extremely light the H3 carries two pilots in a tandem seating arrangement, it is quite fast, nervy, squirmy at slow speeds so the light-weight machine requires a lot of skill to fly professionally, obviously the highly skilled will revel in the dynamics, but the rest of us will just have to do a lot of practise to get it all right. Note that you are purchasing an ongoing project with any vSkyLabs aircraft and all that all the development is ongoing, so this is not a 100% fully developed project. Overall most vSkyLabs aircraft are basic, but is fully detailed to the extreme. There are no menus or static objects or extensive features as the focus is on the dynamics and flying performance and in that area the Dynali H3 really delivers. Only interactions are with the few interaction zones to select pilots, change altimeters, open the canopy and hide the T-Bar control column. AviTab intergration and exceptional VR-Virtual Reality is also available. Well designed and highly dynamic then the Dynali H3 is a challenge even for the medium helicopter pilot's out there, but that is also the attraction of mastering these Ultra-light machines... If you love that, then this Dynali H3 will be at the very top of your list. Now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore or directly from vSkyLabs ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Dynali H3 Project - VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot' Series is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Dynali H3 Project - VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot' Price is US$29.00 - Currently on special for only US$17.00! Project Main Features: VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot' Project. Highly defined model of the Dynali H3 helicopter Built around the powerful, native X-Plane 11.40+ 'Experimental Flight Model' environment (must be selected in the General settings window in X-Plane 11 Fully functional VR (Virtual Reality) compatibility 3D Pilot and passenger visualization for increased VR immersion Built-in Avitab compatibility (Avitab plugin not included) Multi-Layer FMOD sound pack STMA Autoupdater included Easy-to-use paint-kit included The project is under constant development Highly responsive VSKYLABS support forums Requirements: X-Plane 11 (latest stable version) Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current and Review version: 1.0 (April 29th 2020 ) The AviTab Plugin is required for this aircraft. Note: In order to use and enjoy VR environment in X-Plane, user hardware and system specs should meet the required specifications for OS, CPU, GPU, MB and RAM which are specified both in the given VR hardware websites and at X-Plane.com. Designed by VSKYLABS Support forum for the Dynali H3 ______________________________________________________________________ Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton 2nd May 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 18, 2023 Report Share Posted March 18, 2023 I own it; my first payware choppa. I cautiously recommend it if you are a first time helicopter pilot. It is a bit of a handful landing. Lot of crashes. But I fly it now competently-even in light winds. I use only a Saitek throttle for collective and Logitech 3d Pro stick. Everything set to '0'. As per instructions I use 'experimental checked in settings. I mastered it and it made me a better copter pilot because it is a very light choppa. Don't forget to check your weight in payload. As I recall it was too light to be human weight and I found that made a difference. Knowing what I know now -it's a solid little package....and a challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.