A Breakthrough Dev Stream for Helicopter Simmers?

We haven’t heard form the team for a while, so I was keen to tune in and see what’s on their agenda. And I wasn’t disappointed. The April stream turned out to be one of the most encouraging updates we’ve had in a while, especially if you fly helicopters. As I watched Jorg Neumann, Sebastian Wloch and Martial Bossard walk through what’s coming, Jorg reflected on just how far the sim has come since September. In that time, we’ve had Sim Update 4 and the Stranger Things pack with its Huey adapted from Taog’s Hangar — a surprising amount of progress in only a few months.

What struck me this time was the tone: 2026 appears to be the year of refinement. Jorg kept coming back to the idea of “polishing what we’ve got,” and he seemed proud of how many long‑standing issues have been cleared out in SU3, SU4 and now SU5. He even mentioned they’re down to just three “must‑fix” bugs before SU5 can ship, which he hopes will be as soon as next week.

Seb’s section was where things got exciting for performance. He explained that SU5 brings better multithreading and improved CPU utilisation, which should translate into smoother framerates in certain scenarios. The settings menus are also getting some long‑needed cleanup, with Global Rendering moving to its own page and the Flight Interface options finally consolidated. The airflow visualisation tools have been upgraded too, with an on-screen menu and colour gradients that make it easier to see what the air is actually doing around the aircraft.

But the moment that really grabbed me was Seb’s demonstration that helicopter ground effect on raised and sloped surfaces is finally fixed. This has been one of the most frustrating issues for helicopter flying, and hearing him talk through the fix — and then show it — was genuinely heartening. He showed a good understanding of helicopter aerodynamics, and the fact that the Asobo team went out and measured airflow with anemometers at ten points around real aircraft says a lot about their commitment to getting their Computational Fluid Dynamics model right. Seeing the corrected behaviour visualised in the new airflow tools was a highlight of the entire stream for me.

However, let me sound a note of caution… I jumped into SU5 Beta to see if I could recreate Seb’s demonstration. The following two images appear to show there is still a sharp cut-off between “over the raised surface” and “NOT over the raised surface”. Can you see in the second image how the airflow aft of my helicopter is at the raised height of the building’s roof? Perhaps this will be resolved when SU5 goes live? We shall soon see!

Martial’s updates were more about the broader experience, but still relevant to our community. ATC continues to improve, and model matching for multiplayer has been tightened up — great news for our group flights, with fresh hope that missing helicopter models won’t be rendered as 737s! Jorg mentioned conversations with TwoToneMurphy about multiplayer issues and said they’ve already made improvements with more to come. He also touched on the possibility of PS5 players joining PC/Xbox multiplayer sessions. It’s technically feasible, but a huge amount of work, so it remains undecided.

Weather came up again, with Martial explaining why players sometimes see different conditions in multiplayer. The sim uses a predictive weather model to fill in gaps where real‑world sensors don’t exist, looking ahead six hours to estimate how conditions evolve. It’s a helpful insight into why skies don’t always match between players.

And a personal highlight for me: World Update 21, coming in May, is Australia. This country hasn’t had a major refresh since WU7, and the new update looks substantial. Jorg showed expanded coverage for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Darwin. The Melbourne preview showed Albert Park Lake — which I happened to walk around a couple of days ago! — so seeing it in higher resolution felt personal. There are six new handcrafted airports, including Broome, Broken Hill and Coober Pedy, plus dozens of new areas and points of interest. Even “The Big Lobster” made the cut, which made me laugh! Jorg is right: Australians take their “Big Things” seriously!

We were told that every city in Australia with a population of more than 50,000 is now represented as an area of interest. Jorg thinks that’s amazing — and so do I!

The update lands on May 5th, and I gather Jorg and Community Manager Jayne are coming to Australia for the launch.

There were a few helicopter‑specific notes tucked into the conversation. Jorg acknowledged the ongoing frustration that helicopter pilots have to complete fixed‑wing missions to progress in the helicopter career. He called the feedback “fair,” though they haven’t addressed it yet.

The EC135 has officially moved from Nemeth to Asobo, which I think is a positive step given the type’s popularity and the need for deeper systems work. The H225 has shifted to iniBuilds after some confusion around the status of Hype Performance Group; Jorg later clarified his wording and acknowledged the team may not actually have dissolved.

Jorg also reiterated that Asobo will continue improving the base aircraft — helicopters included — but on a case‑by‑case basis. He encouraged everyone to keep reporting bugs and wishlist items through the official forums, which remains the best way to influence what gets attention.

The Marketplace is also evolving, with better tools for developers, improved written feedback systems, and the possibility of removing content that receives consistently negative feedback. Third‑party add‑ons will be coming to the PS5 Marketplace with SU5, and gifting is on the way too, though not between PC/Xbox and PS5 due to the separate ecosystems.

Looking back on the stream, I came away feeling optimistic. Between the ground‑effect fix, the performance improvements, the EC135 moving to Asobo, and a massive Australia update, 2026 is shaping up to be a strong year for helicopter simmers. It feels like the sim is maturing — not just expanding — and that’s exactly what many of us have been hoping for.

It’s been a big week of content creation for me. My latest video, on helicopter performance, took a lot of work but I think it’s a great outcome for those wanting to get a better understanding of why performance charts are so important — especially when we fly ‘hot, high, and heavy’. I’m grateful to the people who supported the production of the video with ‘Super Thanks’ in our group flight livestreams. You know who you are — thank you!

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