Military aircraft in X-Plane are somewhat scarce when compared to civilian aircraft. But thanks to Sergei Mironov (who now goes by the payware name Red Eyes), he opted to let his Mil Mi-2 become freeware for the X-Plane community. Fast forward nearly five years, and another user (Ekre,with full permission), fixed the Mi-2 for X-Plane 11, which today’s edition of No Money Mondays focuses on.

The Mil Mi-2 can accommodate up to 8 people or 700 kilograms of payload, but the weights selection lets you add both maximums for interesting flying! Starting the systems and engines may not be straight-forward at first, but after a few successful attempts it will stick in your memory. Included are both English and Russian manuals to assist your flight operations.

Combine this with the flight model, which was constructed using technical documentation and the feedback of real-world pilots, and you are guaranteed an enthralling flight from lift-off to touch-down.

The Mi-2 features a fully modelled 3D cockpit, with a passenger section to boot. The systems of almost every switch and dial is simulated, which is not too common in freeware aircraft. Instrument dials and lights respond to these custom systems, which are powered by SASL to offer plenty of realism – which Sergei has clearly taken advantage of.

The exterior model still looks great many years onward. It’s almost as if the exterior wear texturing was done because of this! Although there is no PBR in use, it certainly does not disappoint visually; the rotor blade animations do not transition from their 3D model to 2D counter-parts for example, which most helicopters in X-Plane rely on.

The sounds do not disappoint either for a freeware helicopter. From doors to switches, the engines to the rotor blades, it helps complete the features of what is a great freeware aircraft for X-Plane.

The combination of custom systems, accurate flight modelling and sounds help deliver an excellent freeware helicopter to the X-Plane community, which can be downloaded here. The addon aircraft has already been updated with an ACF file conversion, AviTab integration and other small tweaks. It’s great to see the community help resurrect addons that do not natively work with X-Plane 11!