Find aircraft background, systems descriptions and manuals for the aircraft you are researching. Each note keeps its source and version context close by.
Simulator manuals describe the developer’s implementation. Aircraft background is research-based; pilot accounts describe an individual’s experience. Coverage here is limited to the selected notes and linked resources, not the full contents of every manual.
OH-6A / H500C · Taog's Hangar · MSFS 2024
Light controls and working configurations
The OH-6A and H500C are separately selectable aircraft in Taog's package, with different skid and float choices. The manual describes electric actuators for cyclic trim and controls without hydraulic boost. Mission attachments add their documented weights at specified loading stations.
MSFS2024; flight manual 1.1 · PDF pp.9-10,22
Hughes OH-6 / 500 · CowanSim · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
Cowan documents separate collective and throttle controls
The MSFS manual requires separate collective and twist-throttle axes, naming COLLECTIVE AXIS and SET HELICOPTER THROTTLE AXIS. It distinguishes the collective’s engine-RPM beep switch from the cyclic trim controls. The starter is a toggle that must be cycled off before another start.
Cowan MSFS 500E manual · PDF pp.1–5,9
Hughes OH-6 / 500 · CowanSim · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
The searchlight shares a simulator lighting assignment
Cowan connects the searchlight to landing light number two. The manual warns that the general on/off binding can switch all landing lights together and recommends the individual cockpit switches for separate control. Aim uses the landing-light directional commands, with HOME restoring its starting position.
Cowan MSFS 500E manual · PDF pp.10–11
Hughes OH-6 / 500 · CowanSim · X-Plane 11 · X-Plane 12
Starting and cockpit equipment can be configured
The X-Plane 12 guide offers automatic starter-button holding and a complete automated start. AviTab supplies maps and PDF viewing when installed, while an installed Reality XP GTN750 can replace the standard GPS units through the configuration menu.
Cowan 500E X-Plane 12 manual · PDF pp.1–7
Hughes OH-6 / 500 · CowanSim · X-Plane 11 · X-Plane 12
The VR seating position can be saved
Clipboard arrows adjust the pilot’s view in six directions. Save Position writes the chosen position to the aircraft’s VR configuration, and the guide requires an aircraft reload to apply it. Cyclic trim uses the ordinary X-Plane 12 trim commands.
Cowan 500E X-Plane 12 manual · PDF p.9
Hughes OH-6 / 500
Hughes developed the compact, single-turbine OH-6 for the US Army's Light Observation Helicopter programme. Its reconnaissance and utility roles were followed by the civilian Hughes 500 lineage.
Engines, rotors and equipment changed across the OH-6 and 500 family. Taog's simulator package offers skid and float configurations and documents electric cyclic trim; it does not describe that trim as a full automatic flight-control system.
Aircraft / family
The Ferrari of helicopters
Murray Huling · 25 May 2023
Flying the legendary MD500
Christoph Andrykowsky · archived September 2017 magazine article
Flight 8: Crazy gyroscopes, MD500E
Personal flight-test recollection · 16 February 2022
Flying Fries Hughes XF-11 · Flying Fries · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
Three-axis trim and control lock
The manual identifies trim controls on all three axes. Its control lock removes normal aileron and elevator control while elevator trim remains usable. Engine-failure features and sounds have their own version context.
XF-11 manual v3.0.0, 1 June 2026; PDF pp.5–7 History; pp.19–20 and 32–34 trim and control lock
Flying Fries Hughes XF-11 · Flying Fries · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
The Flying Fries rendition
The v3.0 product represents a native MSFS 2020 aircraft with MSFS 2024 compatibility, period autopilot and contra-rotating propellers.
Product description and feature list
Hughes XF-11
The XF-11 began as Hughes' military reconnaissance project during the Second World War. The developer's history follows the programme from a larger intended production order to two flying prototypes after the war. The first used two Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major engines.
Flying Fries represents the contra-rotating-propeller configuration with period autopilot equipment and custom simulation features. Its manual describes three-axis trim and a control lock that can immobilise aileron and elevator controls while leaving elevator trim available.
Hughes XF-11
