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.
Starship · Black Square · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
What persists between flights
State saving is selective. The guide identifies radio settings, stored routes and user waypoints, engine health and oxygen pressure among the items retained. Some primary operating switches are instead initialized from the flight's starting position. Fuel restoration also has a condition: it applies when the next flight loads with the default fuel levels. The guide records a payload-restoration limitation and notes that the simulator must shut down normally for its native saving mechanism to retain changes.
The tablet adds system visualizers and failure management. Failures can be scheduled or generated using configurable mean-time-between-failure settings, and existing failures persist between flights. These features make the tablet useful for understanding the simulated systems as well as configuring the aircraft.
Black Square Starship User Guide (2025) · PDF pp.87,128,151 · State saving, tablet and failures
Beechcraft Starship
Beechcraft's Starship departed sharply from the conventional King Air outline. The main wing sits aft, a small forward wing provides the canard arrangement, and two pusher propellers turn behind the cabin. Extensive carbon-fibre construction was another defining part of the programme.
Its avionics were equally ambitious for the period. Black Square's simulation centres on the AMS-850 flight deck, including display reversion and supporting systems such as avionics cooling. That combination of unusual airframe and period electronic cockpit gives the Starship considerable depth as a reference subject.
Aircraft / family
206 family · CowanSim · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
Stability assistance and upper modes do different jobs
Cowan's HeloSAS uses small cyclic corrections to stabilise the helicopter. The manual distinguishes force-trim behaviour with SAS engaged and disengaged, and explains the difference between spring-centred and non-centring controls. Its upper autopilot modes become selectable above 44 knots in the documented implementation. Stability assistance, rotor-speed governing and route-following modes are separate systems.
Archived document; installed package version not observed · PDF pp.1-2
206 family · CowanSim · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
Two different meanings of trim
On Cowan's 206B3, engine trim adjusts the governed rotor-speed setting, while rotor trim changes the cyclic trim state. The latter has its own reset binding. Keeping the two separate avoids treating a rotor-RPM adjustment as a change to the cyclic controls. The guide also records the hydraulic-switch binding limitation for this version.
Archived document; installed package version not observed · PDF pp.4-5,9
206 family · CowanSim · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
LongRanger controls have their own guide
The 206L3 manual separately documents engine-RPM trim, longitudinal and lateral cyclic trim, and cyclic trim reset. It also identifies a hydraulic-switch hardware-binding limitation. The longer cabin does not make the LongRanger's instructions interchangeable with every JetRanger package.
Archived document; installed package version not observed · PDF pp.4-5,9
B-206 · FlyInside · MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
A developer-specific helicopter model
FlyInside's Bell 206 guide describes its own helicopter operation, including longitudinal and lateral force-trim bindings, governor adjustment and a hydraulic switch. The manual discusses the changing corrections needed as speed changes. Its controls and flight model should be identified as FlyInside's implementation rather than inferred from the bundled helicopter.
Archived document; installed package version not observed · PDF pp.11,17,21
206 family · CowanSim · X-Plane 11 · X-Plane 12
Disconnecting an upper mode can leave SAS active
The X-Plane SAS guide distinguishes trim release, upper-mode disconnection and the underlying stability system. Its published force-trim-release and autopilot-disconnect commands have different effects: disconnecting the upper modes can preserve SAS. The documented 44-knot threshold applies to mode availability, not to a universal helicopter operating limit.
Archived X-Plane SAS/AP manual · PDF pp.1-4
Bell 206 family
Bell reworked an unsuccessful military observation-helicopter proposal into the commercial JetRanger. The resulting 206 family became widely used for passenger transport, observation and utility work. The familiar single-engine versions use a two-bladed main rotor.
The 206B JetRanger and stretched 206L LongRanger are separate branches of that story. Their cabins, engines and equipment are not identical. Cowan's simulator documentation also separates the models and their stability-assistance features, making the exact add-on name important when reading about trim or autopilot controls.
Aircraft / family
407 · Microsoft Flight Simulator · MSFS 2024
Microsoft Flight Simulator aircraft manuals
Bell 407 · Microsoft Flight Simulator · MSFS 2020
Microsoft Flight Simulator aircraft manuals
Bell 407
The Bell 407 retained a family resemblance to the 206L while adopting a four-bladed main rotor and associated structural changes. It is a single-engine helicopter used for passenger, emergency-service and utility missions.
The rotor is an immediate visual clue when comparing a 407 with the two-bladed JetRanger and LongRanger. Cockpit equipment has also evolved through the programme. Simulator implementations can therefore share the 407 name while representing different avionics and assistance systems.
Aircraft / family
B-47 · FlyInside · MSFS 2020
Engine control and helicopter phenomena
FlyInside describes a custom helicopter flight model, manual piston-engine throttle control and an optional governor for the Bell 47. The published feature list includes autorotation, vortex-ring state and retreating-blade stall. These are developer-described features; they are not an independent assessment of physical fidelity.
Product page retrieved 2026-09-10 · Flight Dynamics; Systems; Features
