Helicopter Variables
The tables below indicate the properties for the Simulation Variables that can be used to get and set properties related specifically to helicopters. For information on the units listed for each variable, please see here: Simulation Variable Units
You can find a complete index of all available SimVars here: SimVar Index
NOTE
Many of the SimVars listed here require an engine index. This is a value between 1 and 16 that signals which of the engines on the aircraft is being targeted to get or set the value for the SimVar. In addition, most SimVars will let you supply the value 0 to target all engines (if not, then this will be stated in the SimVar description).
Collective
| Simulation Variable | Index | Description | Units | Settable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
COLLECTIVE POSITION | N/A | The position of the helicopter collective. 0 is fully up, 1 fully depressed. | Percent Over 100 | |
VORTEX RING STATE PROTECTION ASSISTANCE IMPACT | N/A | Indicates how much the current collective lever position has been increased by the vortex ring state protection assistance, compared to the user input. See Note On Helicopter Vortex Ring Protection Assistance for more information. | Percent Over 100 |
Rotors
| Simulation Variable | Index | Description | Units | Settable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
DISK BANK ANGLE | Engine Index💡︎ | Rotor bank angle of the given engine index rotor.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Radians | |
DISK BANK PCT | Engine Index💡︎ | Rotor bank percent of the given rotor index.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
DISK CONING PCT | Engine Index💡︎ | Rotor coning percent of the given rotor index.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
DISK PITCH ANGLE | Engine Index💡︎ | Rotor pitch angle of the given rotor index.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Radians | |
DISK PITCH PCT | Engine Index💡︎ | Rotor pitch percent of the given rotor index.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
HOVER INDUCED VELOCITY | N/A | The difference between average rotor inflow and outflow velocity (\(Vi\_0\)) in meters per second. | Meters per second | |
NUMBER OF MAIN ROTORS | N/A | This will return the number of main rotors available for the helicopter. This will be 2 if neither [MAINROTOR] nor [SECONDARYROTOR] are flagged as tail rotors, or 1 otherwise. | Integer | |
ROTOR BRAKE ACTIVE | N/A | Whether the rotor brake is active (1, TRUE) or not (0, FALSE). | Bool | |
ROTOR BRAKE AVAILABLE | N/A | Whether the rotor brake is available (TRUE) or not (0, FALSE). Will only be TRUE if one or both of the rotor_brake_scalar and rotor_brake_torque parameters are > 0. | Bool | |
ROTOR BRAKE HANDLE POS | N/A | The percentage actuated of the rotor brake handle. | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR CHIP DETECTED | N/A | Whether the rotor chip is detected (1,TRUE) or not (0, FALSE). | Bool | |
ROTOR CLUTCH ACTIVE | N/A | Whether the rotor clutch is active (1, TRUE) or not (0, FALSE). | Bool | |
ROTOR CLUTCH SWITCH POS | N/A | The rotor clutch switch position, either on (1 TRUE) or off (0, FALSE). | Bool | |
ROTOR COLLECTIVE BLADE PITCH PCT | N/A | The rotor collective blade pitch.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR CYCLIC BLADE MAX PITCH POSITION | Engine Index💡︎ | The position (angle) at which blade has the maximum cyclic pitch.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Degrees | |
ROTOR CYCLIC BLADE PITCH PCT | N/A | The rotor cyclic blade (maximum) pitch.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR GOV ACTIVE | Engine Index💡︎ | Whether the rotor governor is active (1, TRUE) or not (0, FALSE).The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the engine to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first engine (for backwards compatibility since this SimVar was changed to take an index). | Bool | |
ROTOR GOV TARGET PCT | Engine Index💡︎ | Gets or sets the target RPM as a ratio of nominal RPM for the indexed engine governor. For example, if the helicopter has a nominal RPM of 390 and its idle state RPM is 52% of this value, then setting the target value here to 0.52 will make the governor target the proper 200 RPM when idle.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the engine to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first engine (for backwards compatibility since this SimVar was changed to take an index). | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR GOV ENGINE TRIM | Engine Index💡︎ | Retrieves the trim offset percentage for the governor target RPM of the indexed engine.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the engine to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first engine (for backwards compatibility since this SimVar was changed to take an index). | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR GOV SWITCH POS | Engine Index💡︎ | The rotor governor switch position, either on (1 TRUE) or off (0, FALSE).The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the engine to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first engine (for backwards compatibility since this SimVar was changed to take an index). | Bool | |
ROTOR LATERAL TRIM PCT | N/A | The rotor lateral trim percentage.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR LONGITUDINAL TRIM PCT | N/A | The rotor longitudinal trim percentage.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR RADIUS | Engine Index💡︎ | The radius of the indexed rotor (either 1 for the main rotor, or 2 for the secondary rotor). | ft | |
ROTOR ROTATION ANGLE | Engine Index💡︎ | Rotor rotation angle of the given rotor index.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Radians | |
ROTOR RPM | Engine Index💡︎ | The indexed rotor RPM.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | RPM | |
ROTOR RPM PCT | Engine Index💡︎ | Percent max rated rpm of the given rotor index.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor. | Percent Over 100 | |
ROTOR TEMPERATURE | N/A | The main rotor transmission temperature. | Rankine | |
STRUCT ROTOR POSITION | Engine Index💡︎ | The position of the indexed rotor.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor. | Struct XYZfeet (ft) | |
TAIL ROTOR BLADE PITCH PCT | N/A | The pitch position of the tailrotor blades. | Percent Over 100 | |
TAIL ROTOR PEDAL POSITION | N/A | Percent tail rotor pedal deflection. | Percent Over 100 |
Engine
| Simulation Variable | Index | Description | Units | Settable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ENG ELECTRICAL LOAD | Engine Index💡︎ | The electrical load on the indexed engine. | Percent scalar 16K (Max load * 16384) | |
ENG FUEL PRESSURE | Engine Index💡︎ | The fuel pressure for the indexed engine. | PSI scalar 16K (psi * 16384) | |
ENG ROTOR RPM | Engine Index💡︎ | Returns the indexed rotor RPM.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor.NOTE: This is available in multiplayer to all far aircraft. See here for more information: Note On SimVars In Multiplayer. | Percent scalar 16K (Max RPM 16384) | |
ENG TORQUE PERCENT | Engine Index💡︎ | Returns the indexed rotor torque.The SimVar takes an index value, which is the index of the rotor to target. Note that an index of 0 will target the first rotor. | Percent scalar 16K (ft/lbs 16384) | |
ENG TRANSMISSION PRESSURE | Engine Index💡︎ | The transmission pressure of the indexed engine. | PSI scalar 16K (psi * 16384) | |
ENG TRANSMISSION TEMPERATURE | Engine Index💡︎ | The transmission temperature of the indexed engine. | Celsius scalar 16K (Degrees * 16384) | |
ENG TURBINE TEMPERATURE | Engine Index💡︎ | The turbine temperature for the indexed engine. | Celsius scalar 16K (degrees * 16384) | |
FREEWHEELING UNIT ENGAGED | Engine Index💡︎ | Indicates whether the indexed engine freewheeling unit is engaged and transmitting torque to the rotor system (1, TRUE), or disengaged/freewheeling (0, FALSE). Engines that are disconnected from the transmission will no longer contribute shaft torque to the rotor system. Their RPM is no longer updated internally and can be controlled externally via the GENERAL ENG RPM SimVar (without external writes, it will remain unchanged). Connected engines will continue to use the existing clutch and transmission simulation.NOTE: This SimVar has the following constraints:FWU engagement and disengagement are discrete and instantaneous. There is no slipping phase, RPM synchronization, or transient engagement torque.When an FWU is engaged while the engine is running at a different RPM, the engine is immediately set to the shared engine speed. This is physically incorrect and can create or remove kinetic energy.When several engines are connected, a single shared RPM is selected. Sometimes it is taken from the first engine, and sometimes it is the maximum RPM of the connected engines. This is inconsistent and can cause RPM jumps.As a result, reconnecting an engine may cause its immediate RPM change. These transitions will therefore need to be managed on the aircraft side. | Bool | |
HELICOPTER MASTER THROTTLE POSITION | N/A | Returns the position of the master throttle as a value between 0 and 1. | Percent Over 100 |
Sling
| Simulation Variable | Index | Description | Units | Settable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
IS ATTACHED TO SLING | N/A | Set to TRUE if this object is attached to a sling. | Bool | |
NUM SLING CABLES | N/A | The number of sling cables (not hoists) that are configured for the helicopter. | Number | |
SLING ACTIVE PAYLOAD STATION | Sling Index | The payload station (identified by the value being set) where objects will be placed from the sling (identified by the index). | Number | |
SLING CABLE BROKEN | Sling Index | This will be TRUE (1) if the indexed cable is broken, or FALSE (0) otherwise. | Bool | |
SLING CABLE EXTENDED LENGTH | Sling Index | The length of the indexed sling cable extending from the aircraft. | Feet (ft) | |
SLING HOIST PERCENT DEPLOYED | Sling Index | The percentage of the full length of the indexed sling cable deployed. | Percent Over 100 | |
SLING HOIST SWITCH | Sling Index | This will be TRUE (1) if the indexed sling hoist is enabled or FALSE (0) otherwise. | Bool | |
SLING HOOK IN PICKUP MODE | N/A | This will be TRUE (1) if the hook is in pickup mode or FALSE (0) otherwise. When TRUE, the hook will be capable of picking up another object. | Bool | |
SLING OBJECT ATTACHED | N/A | If the SimVar units are set as boolean, this will return TRUE (1) if a sling object is attached, or FALSE (0) otherwise.If the SimVar units are set as a string, this will return the container title of the object.Note that there can be multiple sling positions, indexed from 1. The sling positions are set in the Aircraft Configuration File. | Bool/String |