Helicopter ground effect transition is broken in MFS24

Version: 1.1.9.0

Frequency: Consistently

Severity: Blocker

Marketplace package name: N/A

Context: All helicopters, all over the world.

Similar MSFS 2020 issue: Helicopter ground effect transition is abrupt and requires large inputs to recover

Bug description: Helicopter ground effect calculations result in violent flight model response when the ground below the visual model changes elevation. This bug is NOT about general ground effect, it is specifically limited to the scenario where the helicopter is crossing over terrain which impacts the calculations without a smoothing delay.

Repro steps:

  1. Load up any helicopter. The effects scale with size, but smaller helicopters will still feel the issue.
  2. Approach an elevated pad laterally. (Normally a steep approach is suggested for safe operations, but doing a bad approach will illuminate the issue)

Expected: As the helicopter crosses the threshold of the pad, the ground effect will cause the helicopter to have increased lift, but this transition is not abrupt, and there are no violent torque effects.
Actual: Various abrupt behaviors as the calculations change over seemingly 1 frame.

The previous fix would smooth the transition. NOTE, the complaint is not about ground effect (which no doubt has some change in MFS24), it is specifically about the transition and the subsequent loss of control.

Attachments: N/A

Private attachments: N/A

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The same issue appears in the challenges with the lighthouse helicopter landing and oilrig platform.