In aviation, we often see aircraft types that for any number of reasons become icons of their type, and when it comes to helicopters I’d argue one of the most iconic is the Bell UH-1, or as it’s more commonly known, the Huey.

Famed for its use by the American military during the Vietnam War the Bell UH-1 (or the Bell 204/205 if you’re referring to a civilian version) is a single-engine turbine helicopter that was developed for the US Army in the early 50s, and would see its first flight in October of 1956. The UH-1 has since gone on to serve with numerous other militaries, as well as civilian organizations.

Useful info

Before we get truly into the review I’d like to get some stuff out of the way. First off I’d like to thank Taog’s Hangar for supplying a review copy of the Huey, these get expensive without the help from developers and we appreciate when they’re willing to let us show off their products.

The second thing I’d like to touch on is the PC specs and other add-ons used throughout the review. For this review, I used my main home desktop which is powered by a Ryzen 7 3700x, an RTX2080ti, and 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. I’m also using Parallel 42’s SimFX, xEnviro, and Lossless Scaling for addons on top of the base sim.

Exterior Model

The exterior model of the Huey is on par with what we’ve come to expect from Taog’s hangar. While not as flashy as some larger developers, it holds its own against other similarly priced products. One thing that the Taog’s hangar helicopters get right though is the amount of customisations that are featured with each model, and the Huey is no different. With multiple configurations, the civilian and military models included in this package will be sure to fit whatever role you’re looking to simulate.

Interior model

The interior model of the UH-1 is about on par with the exterior model, it's adequate but nothing to write home about…and that's not to its detriment either, I think I’ve just been a bit jaded by how good cockpits and interiors look in MSFS. One thing I will note as a huge positive is the option to have analogue or modern avionics, this is a great feature for immersion and I wish more developers offered it. For interior customisation, you can either have a regular or medevac cabin, a tablet GPS, and a hula girl on the glare shield. One thing I am hoping can be added in a future update is the ability to have a second crew visibility option that excludes the pilot model when flying from the cockpit.

Sound

It's hard for me to put into words just how nice the sounds are for this helicopter. I’m going to preface what I’m about to say with the fact I’ve only been in the vicinity of a running Huey twice in my life, once when one flew over my house and again last year at an airshow. That being said, the sounds included with Taog’s Huey are second to none when it comes to available helicopters for MSFS. Between the whine of the turbine spooling up to the incredible sound of the blade slap I feel these are truly cinematic quality sounds and it’s a major reason this review has taken me so long to complete. I’m continuously baffled by how spoiled the flight sim community is when it comes to sound profiles for aircraft, Taog has done an amazing job of showcasing that here.

Flight Model

The flight model is another huge highlight of this helicopter for me…The way I’ve put it in conversation is that before Taog’s Huey I simply ‘liked’ flying helicopters in a simulator, the Huey has turned that like into love. Now, as I stated above I’ve only been in the vicinity of a Huey, so with that in mind the following comments will be simply from a flight simmer’s point of view, and not necessarily a comment on how true to life the flight model is.

The main thing I appreciate about the flight model of the Huey is how it reacts to inputs, I’d say overall they’re very intuitive and easy from the mindset of someone who’s typically stuck to fixed wing simulations. This has made for a lot of fun flying with other people as well as trying to get into some tricky landing spots (I very much suggest grabbing the freeware Machmell Fisheries scenery if you want a challenge!) 

Final Thoughts

As you’ve probably noticed I’m a huge fan of this helicopter, and would go as far as to say it’s now my go to helicopter in MSFS and it's gotten me into taking rotorcraft simulations a bit more seriously. It was really hard to find anything I didn’t like about the Huey. I’m definitely excited to see what Taog’s Hangar brings us next! 

‍

‍

‍