MBB Bo 105 was a turbine powered helicopter introduced into service in the 1970s by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm. Develeopment started 1961, maiden flight was 1967. It was later produced by Eurocopter. The model in FGFS has three selectable liveries that can be changed with Y key, included a military variant with armament that can be fired.

Eurocopter Bo105 CBS
FGAddon
Bo105.jpg
Sitting inside the Bo105 on the right side of the cockpit.
Sitting inside the Bo105 on the right side of the cockpit.
Type Helicopter, Light aircraft, Aerobatic aircraft
Propulsion Twin-engine aircraft
Manufacturer Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, Eurocopter
Author(s)
  • HHS (caretaker)
  • Melchior Franz (3d, nasal scripts, configs)
  • Maik Justus (FDM)
FDM YASim
--aircraft= bo105
Status Beta
 FDM Stars-5.png
 Systems Stars-1.png
 Cockpit Stars-2.png
 Model Stars-3.png
Development
 Website The website for the Eurocopter Bo105 CBS developments.
 Repository The development repository of the Eurocopter Bo105 CBS.
Download Download the Eurocopter Bo105 CBS aircraft package for the current stable release (2020.3).
License GPLv2+

The fdm is based on various very detailed reports, so the flight handling and all needed inputs matches exactly the real values. It had been also tested sucessfully by at least two real life pilots, so it is currently the most realistic helicopter in FlightGear regarding flight handling. Like the real version it doesn't have any helping assistence, in Real Life only the militarian PAH-Version had a YAW-SAS.

Aircraft help

Key Function
{ / } Shutdown / Start turbines
D / Shift+D Select next / previous door
Ctrl+D Open / Close selected door
I Toggle ignition switch
M / Shift+M Shift engine balance to right / left engine
N / Shift+N Engine power adjustment up / down
R Apply rotor brake
Shift+R Toggle rotor brake
Y / Shift+Y Switch to next / previous variant
Ctrl+Y Open material dialogs
, Fire machine guns / missiles
Tab Open / Close Bo105 config dialog
Middle mouse button Adjust power lever
] AutoTrim / ForceTrim

Usage of AutoTrim/ ForceTrim on FGFS Bo105

  1. Move the stick such that the aircraft is in an orientation that you want to trim for (forward flight, hover, ...).
  2. Press autotrim button ] and keep it pressed.
  3. Move stick/yoke to neutral position (center).
  4. Release autotrim button ].

Video Tutorials

In developement 2015/ 2016

In April 2015 developlement started to replace the current 3d-model of the bo105 with a much more accurate model. The current 3d-model in FGAddon is very lowpoly and not very accurrate of shape and details. After just 10h work (inluding recherche of additional reference images) work had to be paused due reallife, but will continue now.

That means:

  • there will be a detailed accurate BO105C (short version)
  • there will be a detailed accurate BO105CBS (long version)
  • when done, there will be a detailed BO105M (PAH = military version)
  • they will have a realistic looking and accurate cockpit
  • there will be paintkit
  • bo105.xml and .ac will be kept for historic reasons.

Current state:

Progress after 10h work of the BO105C  
Progress of the BO105 CBS after 10h work including to-do-list in german language  
Update BO 105 CBS 12/03/2015: added lots of details like grips, doorstop, airvent, strobe and beacon, ....  

Realism

The Bo105 has one of the most realistic fdm regarding flight handling, based on collected detailed datas of the Bo105 from NASA-flight tests, flightmanuals, pilots and published scientific datas from various sources. Due to its unique flight character, and its nature of being a helicopter, there are some false assumptions about the realism:

  I believe the Bo105 also had AFCS (and it's from about the same era as the Lynx and also had a rigid rotor head). I think that the Bo105 is possibly one of the worst examples for a beginner because it requires about 45% back cyclic to lift off vertically /hover. This 45% is not too hard to maintain with a mouse, but it certainly is with a joystick. The EC145, for comparison, only needs about 5% forward stick during lift off/hover. Maybe the difference from StuartC's CH53 is the rigging of the main rotor head, i.e.: with no cyclic input, the lift is vertical. That's not cheating - just engineering
— Warty (Dec 5th, 2015). [Forum]Re: What/Where did you fly today? - Part 2.
(powered by Instant-Cquotes)
 

Answer: Though the BO105 was the first helicopter with a rigid rotor head, the civilian version had never been eqipped with any helping assistence like SAS or even autopilot. The only helping assistence installed is a ForceTrim System by Springloading. Only the militarian versions BO105 M-P, especially the armed versions, has a YAW-SAS to keep the helicopter better in place while aiming and shooting.

The 45% back cyclic is completly true and realistic on the BO105 and real values. The rigging of the controls of real helicopters are mostly not symmetrical like the joysticks we use. So the problem is on the hadware side, since realistic and affordable helicopter sim controls are rare. Especially the ForceTrimSystem can't be simulated 100% realistic, and would need corresponding hardware for, which does not exist yet. To counteract FGFS comes with a generic AutoTrim-function. It can be implemented to every aircraft (See Generic/Nasal/aircraft.nas). The Bo105 makes use of it by pressing | ] while moving the joystick. It has similar effect for joystick-users like a real AutoTrim/ForceTrim-System. Unfortunately it works on the pedals as well, which is unrealistic.

The 5% of the FGUK Version's EC145 is unrealistic btw. This helicopter (EC145 is just a maketing name. The real name is BK117 C2) has the same, but scaled, rotor head and rigging like the BO105. So it should have the same 45% back cyclic like the BO105. Depending on CoG, loads, and flight states the position of the cyclic will vary a lot anyway, so a 0% cyclic at lift-off would make problems on other flight states like fast cruise.

The only thing which makes the BO105 not 100% realistic as it could be are the known YASim-issues and the unrealistic underpowered flightperfomance. Later one will be fixed soon with the 3d-update.

--HHS (talk) 12:52, 6 December 2015 (EST)

Nice textures for the interior

Horacio has made a very nice new texture for the interior of the Bo 105. Get them here: “Versión de prueba del BO-105

Here you can view a video of the improved heli.

Aircraft Review

Flying a helicopter, at least in a flight sim, is a novel experience. It's mostly about torque, keeping the thing from spinning like a top around its vertical rotor axis. I would have thought that auto - rudder (patented somehwere I am sure) would have been invented to keep the aircraft pointing in the right direction unless something else was required.

Starting is easy enough, after which the helicopter tries to rotate about its axis while on skids. Using the rudder pedals stops the rotation, but the amount of rudder input required changes with the power applied as well as the angle of the blades - known as collective pitch. Left, right and fore and aft motion is controlled with the stick, which is hypersensitive.

Once the helicopter is kept pointing in the right direction, slowly increase the collective by tapping PgDn. As the aircraft lifts, carefully keep it upright for the climb, and it will climb slowly. The trick is to remember that rolling and pitching more than a little will get you into trouble.

Descending is easy enough, reduce the collective, but the forward speed unchecked, I arrived fast and impacted the ground in no uncertain manner.

Looking forward to my next flight, but if there is an aircraft crying out for fly-by-wire or better still fly-by-button, the helicopter is it.

Just an amateur's view though.

(Openflight)


Gallery

Bo105 at a heliplatform in the FlightGear NL scenery.  

External links