who has flown a real helicopter?

I've flown in a Robinson R22 and that thing is incredibly sensitive! To get the most realistic feel, you need to make a dead zone of zero and run the axis sensitivities up to the max. Its gonna be very hard to control, but that is the real deal.

I have a few hundred hours in military helo's, flightsim isn't as sensitive as the real deal. No dead zone, no force feedback as it gives you a false sense of movement and take it all up to high realism, then notch the general down one click and the landings down to about 85%. That should do it. Hold the joystick at the base, not the top and fly it with your fingers, not your wrist.

what do you mean landing down to 85% ?

do you mean crash tolerance?

Helicopters (rotorary wing) are very sensitive and easily over-controlled. Try a good amount of practice hovering and adding slight position changes. Getting the proper rudder pressure with rotation is the first prerequisite to a good flight.

Never flown a real chopper but had similar reaction to you when I first tried it on sim. Just keep practicing practicing and before long you'll start to get it. The secret is in being able to anticipate. Anticipate each response before it is called for. It's a thrill when you get it, --- even in sim.

Right on , lionlicker. One of my instructors had told me it's like transistioning from a 150 mph airplane to a jet. You have to think well ahead - anticpate! The helicopter becomes much more a part of you than a fixed wing airplane. Flying by the seat-of-the-pants is a reality in a chopper. The biggest I've flow is a Bell 206. It is much more stable and smooth compared to the Robinson R22 - or perhaps I was more experinece 🙄

Flying helicopters is much easier in FSX than in FS9, MS realized this and changed it.
I fly them now and couldn't before.

I have two joy sticks set up (one for collective column) that I used with FS9. I have not yet flown a helicopter in FSX. So, I'll see if I can use my two joystick setup with the Bell 206 in FSX.