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Are they any better in X than in Century of Flight? One of the main reasons I bought Century of Flight was because of the "realistic" helicopters, only to be presented with an experience that can only be defined as "odd". Honestly, though, what's "realistic" about the helicopter being able to pitch without its blades turning and suddenly doing barrel rolls in mid air for no aparrent reason? (Stick was near enough centered and helicopter was near enough level when the helicopter went mental)

I don't know because I can't play it decently. It seems like the game was made thinking that everyone would be playing it on computers made 10 years from now. I have to turn everything down, so it looks as bad as 2004 or worse, and it still runs slow in cities.

Helicopters are tricky beasts to dominate. You'll want a precision throttle to properly control them, as helicopter flight control is about 70% collective and 30% pitch/ roll/ yaw, or at least that's how it is in MSFS. Start out with a small amount of power and bring the collective forward and back in a sort of pumping motion. If your helicopter begins to roll or yaw, apply some rudder (if you have 3D twist that is) and bring your collective down a bit until she evens out, and then re-apply your collective to maintain altitude. The trick is using slight, simple, calculative movements... treat the collective and flight stick like a chopstick, not a baseball bat. I strongly recommend you stick to the Bell as it's easier to fly and much more forgiving on beginners.

From what I've read and heard, MSFS is the best helicopter simulation on the market. They use it to train real helicopter pilots, just as they use it in Cessna training. But the only other helicopters I've flown have been in Commanche 2, Battlefield Desert Combat, and Battlefield Vietnam, so my experience is pretty limited. What can I say... I'm a Beechcraft guy .

I'm going to take this opportunity to suggest what is, in my opinion anyway, the best flight control system on the market. It's around USD $120 in price, but has made my flight simming at least 300% better, and that's not an exageration or guess. Check out the Saitek X52 Flight Control System, and if you can afford it, I definitely recommend purchasing it. It uses Magic Bus (keyboard emulation) and can be programmed for each individual game you play (programming is remarkably easy; you press a button on the joystick, then click the box it highlights, then type in a key you want that button or axis to emulate). And each of the 25+ buttons, three toggles, three hats, etc. on the stick can be programmed to display a line of text on the LCD screen during play (so if you set one of the toggle switches to your incremental flaps, you can make it say "incremental flaps up" or "... down" on your LCD). A really awesome joystick and easily the best I've owned or used, and it makes helicopter flying a walk in the park (or clouds, I suppose that's a better phrase lol). Oh, and it has a safety switch over the secondary fire button, a two-stage trigger, and a pinkie trigger... okay, I'm done bragging about it now lol. Check it out

I know how to fly a helicopter. I have a pretty good RC one. I know how collective pitch works, but can't find an option for it in the controls menu. I have to use the one in the 3D cockpit.

What sort of stick are you using? That's odd, I haven't a problem with it before. At least not with the Bell, probably because it doesn't torque out or require you to twist the collective to adjust torque. On my joystick my throttle works as a collective, but I didn't have to set it or anything, it just worked out that way for me, both with the X52 and the ST290 I had prior to it (before that I didn't fly choppers). If your joystick has a throttle, what axis is it set to?

Well, the throttle control adjusts just the RPM in my case, quite annoying. The joystick is old and has put its throttle on Z Rotation, which I have mapped from within MSFS.