After having gone under the radar for months, the Got Friends Mini-500 has suddenly made an appearance this week in preparation for a release in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The light kit helicopter, infamous for its unreliability and high failure rate, will soon be available. It will be the first helicopter from Got Friends, who have graced us with a variety of excellent aircraft such as the PZL-104 Wilga, the Discus-2c, or the Gee Bee R3 Special.
The Got Friends Mini-500 may sound familiar to some, who probably remember hearing about it nearly a year ago. At the time, Got Friends queried the community to know if a quick release with an AirlandFS flight model was desired over a native flight model, which would take longer to complete considering that, at the time, MSFS didn’t yet include official rotorcraft support. The majority of votes landed on the first option, but the truth is that the Mini-500 didn’t see the light of day. But that’s about to change!
Got Friends may have decided to prioritize other projects in their pipeline (with great success, as the Wilga is absolutely phenomenal!), but they didn’t forget about helicopter pilots who were looking forward to flying the treacherous Mini-500. With a teaser video published a few hours ago, Got Friends promises to let this bird out very soon in MSFS once the current testing phase is successfully completed.
It will be interesting to see how Got Friends tackles a new aircraft type in the simulator. The Mini-500 is a very simple machine, inspired by the larger Hughes 500 that, curiously, was also recently launched for MSFS by Cowan Simulation. The Mini-500, however, may attempt to kill you out of nowhere and fall apart as a deck of cards. I’m over-exaggerating, of course, as the virtual version will probably lack any of the ill-advised “features” of a poorly-built kit helicopter. But wouldn’t that be fun??
Got Friends says they will unveil more information about this project soon. What we know, for now, is that the Mini-500 is fitted with a fully custom flight model and that the release will take place for both PC and the Xbox.
Once it’s out, despite its poor history in the real world, the Mini-500 should make for an interesting aircraft to explore the scenery in Microsoft Flight Simulator, a personal helicopter with excellent visibility that you can take to inspect a particular feature in the scenery from up close. Now that Got Friends has brought this aircraft to the spotlight once again, it shouldn’t take too long to find out!
