Concorde pilot Captain John hasn't flown a chopper for years - in-flight champagne, caviar and sonic booms are more his scene. But this month he's putting away the wings in favour of a set of rotor blades as he tests US Gold's latest flight-sim, Super Huey II from Cosmi.

I used to fly helicopters many years ago when they were much more difficult than fixed-wing aircraft to fly; it was rather like trying to balance on top of a church spire.

These days, choppers are much easier to control, so it was with great interest that I loaded up Cosmi's Super Huey II simulation. I wasn't disappointed in its flying qualities. It's a docile and skimmy machine, which was a pleasant surprise.

Super Huey II has more game elements to it than most flight sims. In fact, there are six scenarios:

1. Renegade A Huey has been stolen by a madman whose aim is to destroy all the bases in the area. You must try to stop him.

2. Brushfire Takes place in the rolling hills of California. Fly over the affected area using thermal imaging to locate the fire and release carbon dioxide to put it out.

3. Gulf of Terror Highly topical, this one. You're on carrier duty in the Mediterranean and the role is reconnaissance of shipping and reporting on possible terrorist activities.

4. Oil Fire An American oil drilling operation has been attacked and you must use the equipment at your disposal to rescue personnel and put out the fire.

5. Bermuda Triangle This one's a mystery. Nobody knows what will happen in this infamous Triangle.

6. Arctic Rescue Puts you near the Pole, where you will encounter severe weather, constantly moving mountains rising up from the ice and compass problems.

To help deal with these various scenarios, the Super Huey is equipped with two 9mm machine guns holding 1,000 rounds each and 20 short-range air-to-air missiles. You can tank up with carbon dioxide for the fire-fighting role and lower a hoist for rescue operations.

But before you can start on any of these missions, you'd better read the instruction booklet carefully. Sadly, this isn't as informative and explanatory as it should be. The instructions about navigation were confusing and complex and the write-ups about the different game plans left me in the dark about what to expect, and what precise objectives I was supposed to achieve. You get a cockpit computer which is virtually impossible to use with the information available.

In the end, I decided that success was going to depend very much on trial and error, so I selected one of the mission plans and got ready to fire up the helicopter and get used to its flying qualities.

You must be careful to follow the instructions for engine start precisely. If you take shortcuts, there's a strong risk of causing rotor wear which will necessitate a forced landing in mid-mission. By the way, the sound effects here are very good. The noises made by the engine and rotor winding up are very realistic.

Then just practise takeoff and touchdown and acceleration to forward flight. Get used to the feel of the aircraft by trying turns, climbs and descends. Above all, try and get used to the instrumentation.

Here we come up against what I see to be a major problem. Neither the flight nor engine instrumentation bears any resemblance to what you'd find inside a real Huey. The instruments are far too small to read properly, and the overall effect is of a very cluttered flightdeck which caused me much frustration.

Still, there is a vast array of information available in the form of instruments and warning lights but you need to make constant reference to the manual to interpret it.

As for the navigation logic, I eventually came to the conclusion that there wasn't any. I found that the convention of the navigation plot of the helicopter's position moving southwards while I was steering due north to be absurd and disorientating. Similarly, the plot moves east whilst you're steering west; the whole thing is 180 degrees out of phase.

Generally, the reality of embarking on any one of these six missions is considerably more complex than the instruction manual would suggest. I never found any fires in California, for instance, and I suspect this was a result of confusion caused by the navigation problems I referred to earlier.

The moving mountains in Arctic Rescue appear out of nowhere to strike you down - it's all thoroughly unrealistic. On the other hand, Bermuda Triangle is so realistic it's incomprehensible whilst ships and submarines in the Gulf of Terror looked like cardboard cutout models.

Worst of all, the home base (be it a carrier or a landing pad in California) is not graphically represented at all. The only indication that you're over the landing pad is that the navigation display starts to flash. There is absolutely no visual clue whatsoever until you're a few feet above the touchdown zone. Only then does a symbol appear to indicate that all is well and you've landed in the right place. I found this very disconcerting.

In fact, the graphics were very weak by comparison with other flight sims I have seen. So I never actually got the visual impressions of flight at any one time. Surely that's the whole point of a flight simulation?

On the missions in which you have to use weapons, I found aiming them to be a very hit or miss process. In short, I never succeeded with any of the objectives and felt vaguely disheartened and dissatisfied by the whole thing.

On the plus side, the Super Huey was a delight to fly. It was easy to handle and forgiving of mistakes. It's definitely possible to get more out of the missions with more precise and by becoming more competent with the Huey.

To be fair, the instruction manual suggests that the simulation is ideal for a pilot and co-pilot situation. I couldn't test this for myself but I'm sure that it could make a lot of difference with the huge amount of information available. With a two-man crew, the pilot can get on with the job of flying, leaving the co-pilot to manage weapons, navigation and the computer. Maybe that's the real key to this game.

Despite that, I still think Super Huey II doesn't really make it as a flight simulator - it's just not good enough. The designers should be stripped of their wings and assigned fatigue duties immediately.