Yep! It’s another X-Plane 12 Flight Journal as I check out the sights of New York City and the newly added Downtown Manhattan Heliport (KJRB). The scenery was added in 12.1.3 and I thought it was time to check it out.

The history

Downtown Manhattan Heliport was first constructed in 1960 using a ship pier in downtown Manhattan – just as it says on the label! The heliport is used by dignitaries, VIPs, business executives and sightseers. Regular charter service to Newark Liberty International Airport, Teterboro Airport, Morristown Municipal Airport, JFK and other airports are common. In the fall of 2023, Joby Aviation and Volocopter provided public demonstrations of eVTOL use from the site.

X-Plane has just, as of 12.1.3, added this as a new location with custom details. It follows a previous update aimed at the Caribbean and appears to mark something new in the sim’s development possibly inspired by the World and City updates that MSFS 2020 and 2024 have been offering.

First flight

For my first flight I picked another old favourite. CowanSim’s 222B was my first (and to date only) helicopter purchase for X-Plane and the helicopter has seen updates to bring it up to X-Plane 12 standards. The helicopter comes with a ton of liveries and features and that seemed like a good way to check this one out.

For this flight I followed a familiar pattern flown by sightseeing operators. I took off, looped around the Statue of Liberty and then headed north along the Hudson river.

It’s been a bit since I last flew the 222B so it took me a bit of time to get things sorted out but eventually I did and away we went on our flight.

The trip went as planned looping around the statue and then continued on up the Hudson. Here I took an ample amount of screenshots. New York in MSFS is highly accurate thanks to its photogrammetry but its also older photogrammetry and slightly melted looking. X-Plane is far more generic with accurate building placement but generic buildings…. but the individual buildings are of a much higher quality in 12 than they were in 11 so the overall look is generally impressive. So was the frame rate which stayed at at very high level despite the geometry on screen.

After cruising up the Hudson, it was time turn around. Back down the river we went looping again around the Statue of Liberty.

Then it was time to bring it in for a landing. Here I misjudged the approach initially but quickly got my power settings right. The helicopter slowly descended into the heliport area. I got a little too low at one point but then corrected again and made what I think is the smoothest landing I’ve ever made in a helicopter in any sim.

Check it out in this YouTube short!

After that it was time to power down and we were done.

eVTOL time!

I wanted to tackle another sortie out of this location so this time I wanted to do a milk run with X-Plane’s included eVTOL. You may have forgotten but the sim features the Alia 250, a prototype eVTOL, and I haven’t flown it since I checked it out in October of 2022.

The objective was fly from the heliport, over to Newark, then Teterborough then Morristown and back to the heliport. Would I have enough battery to do it? Let’s find out!

Before getting started, I refreshed my memory of flying the Alia 250 which involved creating a separate profile and binding some controls to operate the airplane. It’s part helicopter, part general aviation airplane, all rolled into one and once you’ve got the basics down its really simple… but its got some quirks.

Powering up involves pressing the on button. After that, the system comes alive and you’re ready to go. Nothing happens until you touch the power and so once the throttle comes up the Alia comes alive and we were almost immediately off the pad.

I powered up the rear rotor (to generate forward speed) but pulled back on the upper rotors too quickly so we had a bit of a hairy moment there. Phew.

After departing Downtown Manhattan Heliport, I headed first for Newark. It didn’t take long to get there and while I was flying there I was getting a feel for the controls. My approach was horrible and after several concerning moments, I got the eVTOL largely on the ground.

After my first batch of passengers walked off (no doubt feeling a little green and ready to one star review my flying), I got going again. This time I was flying up to Teterboro airport which is just a short hop.

This second landing and approach was better, though not ideal, but I got the eVTOL down and parked close to the FBO I wanted to be at.

Departing again, this time for Morristown Municipal. This is where I really started to get the hang of the aircraft. I climbed to 2,500 feet, set the autopilot, got acquainted a bit more with the aircraft, took the autopilot off and settled down into a pretty good approach and a slightly better than average (so far) landing. Ok!

Looking at the battery charge, I still had about half at this point so I was feeling confident in getting back to the Heliport.

So, away we went picking up speed and climbing away! About 12-15 minutes later we were back over the heliport and ready for a landing. It wasn’t a great landing but it was my best by far in the eVTOL. Parked it and checked the charge… 19 KW-HR left! Could have flown much more!

So there you have it

There you go with a couple of different ways to work the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (KJRB) into your X-Plane flying. It’s a scenery that is already part of MSFS as well so expect me to revisit and return soon in another sim. Plus, I can see myself flying out of here again very soon in X-Plane!