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Stephen got a reaction from Busair in Aircraft Review : F-104 FXP Starfighter by Colimata
Aircraft Review : F-104 FXP Starfighter by Colimata
This is the first operational fighter aircraft to fly a sustained twice the speed of sound. It is of course the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter", or otherwise known as a "Missile with a man in it".
The F-104 is a pure machine built for pure speed, it looks fast... Supersonic fast, just a long pointy fuselage, with those small straight, mid-mounted, trapezoidal wings, and a high stabilator (fully moving horizontal stabilizer) which was mounted atop the fin to reduce inertia coupling, it was the ultimate interceptor aircraft. Of course NASA loved it, the USAF not so much.
But an iconic aircraft it still was. The F-104 is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an all-weather multi-role aircraft in the early 1960s and was produced by several other nations, seeing widespread service outside the United States than within.
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, vice president of engineering and research at Lockheed's Skunk Works, visited USAF air bases across South Korea in November 1951 to speak with fighter pilots about what they wanted and needed in a fighter aircraft. At the time, the American pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, and many felt that the MiGs were superior to the larger and more complex American fighters.
The pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance, especially high-speed and high-altitude capabilities.[4] Johnson started the design of such an aircraft upon his return to the United States. In March 1952, his team was assembled; they studied over 100 aircraft configurations, ranging from small designs at just 8,000 lb (3,600 kg), to large ones up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg).
To achieve the desired performance, Lockheed chose a small and simple aircraft, weighing in at 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) with a single powerful engine. The engine chosen was the new General Electric J79 turbojet, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs.
Colimata is a well known X-Plane developer of considerable skills. His main claim to fame has been the extraordinary Concorde FXP project, complex but truly original to the most famous airliner ever built. Colimata is not immune to fast military jets either, as his earlier projects were the FA18-F Super Hornet and the MiG-29 Fulcrum. This F-104 however is all new, and available only for X-Plane 12.
First the F-104 Starfighter by Colimata comes in three different variants, the FXP G, the FXP S and the FXP 21C (21st century). You can see what variant you are flying by the menu notice in the X-Plane Banner.
‘G’ F-104G was the most-produced version of the F-104 family, a multi-role fighter-bomber with a total of 1,127 aircraft built. They were manufactured by Lockheed, as well as under license by Canadair and a consortium of European companies that included Messerschmitt/MBB, Fiat, Fokker, and SABCA. The type featured a strengthened fuselage, wing, and empennage structures; the larger vertical fin with fully powered rudder as used on the two-seat versions; fully powered brakes, a new anti-skid system, and larger tires; revised flaps for improved combat maneuvering; and a larger braking chute. Upgraded avionics included the Autonetics NASARR F15A-41B radar with air-to-air, ground-mapping, contour-mapping, and terrain-avoidance modes, as well as the Litton LN-3 inertial navigation system (the first on a production fighter). Here the "G" is the most authentic and the base version of the F-104 package.
"S" F-104S was upgraded for the interception role, adding the NASARR R-21G/H radar with moving-target indicator and continuous-wave illuminator for semi-active radar homing missiles (initially the AIM-7 Sparrow), two additional wing and two underbelly hardpoints (increasing the total to nine), the more powerful J79-GE-19 engine, and added were two additional ventral fins to increase stability. The M61 cannon was sacrificed to make room for the missile avionics in the interceptor version, but was retained for the fighter-bomber variant. Typically two Sparrow and two (and sometimes four or six) Sidewinder missiles were carried on all the hardpoints except the central (underbelly), or up to seven 750 lb (340 kg) bombs (normally two to four 500–750 lb [230–340 kg] bombs). The F-104S was cleared for a higher maximum takeoff weight, allowing it to carry up to 7,500 lb (3,400 kg) of stores; other Starfighters had a maximum external load of 4,000 lb (1,800 kg). Its combat radius was up to 775 mi (1,247 km) with four external fuel tanks
"21C" or 21st Century. It is the most modern variant which can be seen immediately from the cockpit instruments with the digital displays. It doesn't exist obviously, as there is no real "21C" but F-104's do come with digital instruments as shown in the video. Debatable here is there should be a YF-104A variant, this is the NASA No.818, and this aircraft was flown for 19 years as a flying test bed and a chase plane.
The Colimata F-104 comes in that original skin metal only livery. The airframe was all-metal, primarily duralumin with some stainless steel and titanium as part of the structure. The fuselage was approximately two and a half times as long as the airplane's wingspan. The wings were centered on the horizontal reference plane, or along the longitudinal centerline of the fuselage, and were located substantially farther aft on the fuselage than most contemporary designs. The aft fuselage was elevated from the horizontal reference plane, resulting a "lifted" tail, and the nose was "drooped". This caused the aircraft to fly nose up, helping to minimize drag. As a result, the pitot tube, air inlet scoops, and engine thrust line were all canted slightly from centerline of the fuselage.
The Colimata F-104 is beautifully done, it glows in the X-Plane 12 sunshine, the light bouncing off the metal realistic skin. You can feel the "Skunk Works" talent here, in the way they created and crafted these formidable machines, metallurgy at it's finest.
The panels and rivet patterns are beautifully crafted, and of course those razor sharp wings... notable this is the "S" variant.
The wing design was extremely thin, with a thickness-to-chord ratio of only 3.36% and an aspect ratio of 2.45. The wing's leading edges were so thin (.016 in; 0.41 mm) that they were a hazard to ground crews. Hence, protective guards were installed on them during maintenance. The thinness of the wings required the fuel tanks and landing gear to be placed within the fuselage, and the hydraulic cylinders driving the ailerons were limited to 1-inch (25 mm) thickness to fit.
You can see the different types of metal here to absorb the engine output heat, and the built in fuselage Speedbrake doors
Flaps are "Barn Door" deep, and note the extremely large aileron for supersonic control and manoeuvrability. Notable is the Boundary Layer Control System (BLCS) at the rear side of the wings right above the flaps. Compressed air is taken from the compressor of the engine and injected in the airflow right above the flaps. This improves lift by reducing the probability of turbulent airflow above the flaps. This way reasonable landing speeds were achieved.
Because the vertical fin was only slightly shorter than the length of each wing and nearly as aerodynamically effective, it could act as a wing-on-rudder application, rolling the aircraft in the opposite direction of rudder input. To offset this effect, the wings were canted downward at a 10° negative-dihedral (anhedral) angle. This downward canting also improved roll control during high-G maneuvers, common in air-to-air combat.
Under the fuselage are both the central ventral fin, and this being the "S", the twin empennage structures.
The maw of the jetpipe exhaust is excellent, not only externally, but deep internally as well in finite detail.
The stabilator is also razor thin, and has a very wide tilt angle, all set in a T-Tail configuration.
The undercarriage is a simple three wheel setup, basically very basic in a system to fold up into the tight fuselage. Extremely well executed here by Colimata with metal hydraulic piping the highlight, and all of the internal bay detail is a feast for the eyes, links and joints are also perfectly created, and note the taxiway lights mounted internally on the outer bay doors.
Single nose wheel is again simple, with the single landing light on the front strut, again the internal bay detail is excellent, notice with the way the twin doors frame and clamp the strut when closed.
Glass is excellent as well... a deep dark green tint, shows off the thickness of the glass, and reflections are perfect. The canopy opens to the left side, and you can see the mottled glass detail... the frame is extraordinary in it's perfect detailing.
Externally there is a well developed "Cold War" style pilot, he is not animated, but looks authentic.
Cockpit
This is the ultimate "Cold War" warrior, the next generation up from the Second World War fighters. The detail is very black, but worn, highly realistic and authentic. Colimata has done a really great workmanship in getting the details right, right down to the worn text, that needs a second glance to read it.
Bit of trivia... the original F-104 had a Stanley C-1 Ejection Seat, and this seat ejected downwards through the floor at 500ft, this was to clear the high T-Tail for a safe ejection from the aircraft... later F-104s used the Martin Baker Q7 seat, this seat was now powerful enough to clear that troublesome tail. Here it is the later Q7. The ejector seat works! so don't pull the hoop unless you want to vacate the aircraft, oh and get rid of the canopy first as well..
The simple stick has no operational buttons or switches, but can be hidden via "hotspot" on the base.
The three different G, S and 21C instrument panels are all quite different with their layouts. It is best to study them all and then select the one you like, as each have a very different role. I'm going to stay with the original "G" layout.
It is a complicated panel layout, and you would need a little study before serious use. The manual provided "Quickstart", is in my mind a little bit too under detailed for the complexity here, you need the areas to be broken down and explained, this is only a "Quickstart" so a better manual as noted might follow, it is needed.
Dials and gauges are beautifully created and reflective, very realistic. Centre seven dials cover (anti-clockwise) AirSpeed, Angle of Attack, Vertical Speed (V/S), Artificial Ball Horizon, Turn and Bank rate, a Position & Homing Indicator (sort of Heading Indicator) and Altitude.
Left is a G-Meter, Radio Altimeter, and right are the engine RPM, Temperature, Oil Pressure, Fuel Flow and Nozzle Position, the Whisky Compass is upper left glareshield... sticking out far right is a intricate clock/chronometer.
Lower panel is the Engine Start and Landing/Taxi lights far left, then the Weapons panel, landing gear switch is here as well. Central is the huge RADAR system, that covers both AIR to AIR mode and AIR to GROUND mode.
Right lower panel is the Cabin Pressure, and internal and external fuel gauges. Oxygen is far right.
Side panels are again quite different between the variants. On the "G" the layout is smaller and less detailed, highlight is the lovely white stubby throttle lever, the Flap position indicator is set behind, but you can also hide the throttle if you want to. Left side has radio, fuel switches, Radar position lever (nice) and Stability Control.
Right side has Oxygen Regulator, IFF (Identification Friend or Foe), IN Inertial/flightplan (note here, this panel tends to move around, on the 21C it is lower left Instrument panel) and ECM. There are various types of displays between the G and S/21C. Here there is no flightplan screen on the G, but on the other variants. The G has a "Range Timer", the S the fully interactive flightplan panel.
The autopilot is very basic, in a set the aircraft and "HOLD" the situation in Altitude and Mach, you can TURN left or right via the lower switch.
But it is in the extreme detailing that you get here, something simple like opening the canopy is a marvel to watch, the catches are all animated and reassuring that the canopy will be safely locked down at Mach 2, they click and clank as well... it's all beautifully done, and more importantly VR (Virtual Reality) ready, with the goggles on, you will be immersed in a Cold War environment like no other.
Menu
The menu GUI is accessed on the X-Plane banner Menu under the aircraft title, the CHECKLIST window is here as well.
There are Eight tabs to select on the menu; MAIN, SETTINGS, ROUTE LOADING, EQUIPMENT, WEAPONS, FUEL, DOORS & GROUND and STATUS. If you have Colimata;s Concorde they are all quite familiar in design and use. MAIN tab is a welcome screen.
SETTINGS: Covers PRO Mode. This mode changes the aircraft from simple (aerodynamics and systems) to the PRO mode, where you get access to everything, but be aware the already difficult F-104 is far more harder to fly and use. SOUND, Includes Engine Volume internal and external, cockpit fans, G-Suit sounds and Oxygen mask sounds, RADAR, HD Resolution and Simple mode or heavy shadows, MORE includes, Simple Air-refueling, Cockpit lamp glow and Intake doors... here you can have the optional variable (moving) intake doors on the "S" and "21C" variants.
Before we go any further. You will find that most systems here on the Colimata F-104 are very X-Plane default based, so if you know how X-Plane systems work, then you will easily understand how to set up and use the F-104.
ROUTE LOADING: Here is a Flightplan Loading tool. flightplans are stored in the X-Plane "Output/FMS plans" folder and can be accessed and loaded via this tab. Obviously they have to saved in the .fms format.
EQUIPMENT: There are four options on the "Equipment" tab... Selecting the Air Re-Fuel Probe, Radar Warn Receiver.. which is located top right instrument panel, Chaff Flare Dispensers... which are both located on each side of the rear exhaust pipe, and the Rocket Motor!
WEAPONS: Weapons are selected via the X-Plane "Flight/Weight&Balance/Weapons menu, standard X-Plane default settings. The list is huge at a mix of 22 armaments and fuel tanks for the 10 stations on the aircraft. Overload and you get a RED weight indication "Caution Very Heavy Aircraft".
FUEL: If you add on Fuel tanks in the "Weapons" menu. Then the tank(s) selected will appear in the Flight/Weight,Balance & Fuel Menu to add in more fuel onto the aircraft, again watch the weight as the F-104 is very easily overloaded. A point to make is that if you "Drop" the both wing-tip tanks then you get the "Stubby" wing version of the F-104
Lower menu the page notes your RANGE, in High altitude flight, Mix Altitude flight and Low Altitude flight... Also if your route is loaded, it will note the distance available in NM (Nautical Miles). Also noted if your AIR REFUEL is switched on or not.
DOORS & GROUND: This menu gives you options on the ground. You can reveal the RCA AN/ASG-14T1 ranging radar. Put a very nice ladder on the right side of the aircraft, Open/Close the Canopy. There are also four bays you can access... lower right Electronics bay, the left lower Cannon Bay of which is the 20 mm (0.79 in) M61 Vulcan auto-cannon, Top forward is the Avionics bay, and behind it is the Ammunition bay... lower left rear is the RAT (Ram Air Turbine).
Centre selections include, a load of flags, pins covers and chocks. There are far too many to even count! Note the lovely wing edge covers and authentic engine inlet covers.
Lower D&S menu covers two static items in vehicles. A military Heavy Duty Tanker and GPU (Ground Power Unit)
STATUS: The final menu tab is the "Status" of the aircraft. This is a one look view of the total status of the F-104. Included is Fuel and your current Range, System status in Oxygen, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Fuel (system), Landing Gear, Elevator (Trim Position), Aircraft Weight and required Approach, Final and Touchdown speeds.
CHECKLIST
As noted also on the menu bar is the F-104 Checklist tool
The first page is a "walkaround" diagram, it's not animated by set views, but just a guide around the aircraft. The menu window is moveable and scaleable around your screen.
There are thirteen checklists from Pre-Flight to (engine) Shutdown. Then four "Emergency" pages and five "Custom Content" pages for your own use. Navigation is via the two PREVIOUS and NEXT buttons.
Altogether it is a very comprehensive and detailed menu, certainly very well done by Colimata... Easy to use and has loads of current required data avalable.
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Flying the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
The Startup sequence will not find a battery switch inside the cockpit. Electric energy is only available as soon as the GPU is connected
externally. Complete the cockpit checks, then make sure that the Fuel Shutoff switch is in the ON position.
Engage a starter switch. Switch 1 on uneven days, Switch 2 on even days. The engine will start spooling up. Now click on the lower right side of the throttle to bring it from OFF to IDLE position. With this the engine will continue its spool up and the dials start to revolve. This is a very "Ground Crew" aircraft start, you almost want to stick your hand up out of the cockpit and twirl your hand.
Engine start up sounds are seriously "Amazing", first the startup compressor, then that familiar whine out of the J79 turbojet, it fills the air in the cockpit (always have the canopy open), the starter switches will go off automatically, when the engine is above 40%, then engage the Generators GEN1 and GEN2.
You don't want to close that canopy yet, but to hear the noise, absorb your surroundings. Let of the brakes and a slight throttle and your rolling..
You soak up the feeling, this iconic jet aircraft. Now quickly it is also time to get down to business, and you pull down the canopy...
... suddenly your immersed in another world, a tightly contained space, a cold-war scenario, and the F-104 feels of what it is, a Skunk Works project to go very fast. You need a very long and wide runway to takeoff, those petit fine wings don't give off much lift, so you need a lot of air around them to make them work.
Hold the brakes, then put up the throttle to full thrust, yes you will need everything you have for the initial push...
You get a dragons ROAR! out of the rear, and when you let the brakes go, the F-104 bounces with the forces, it moves, but slowly at first then gradually gains speed, you need a lot of runway to get enough to get around 200 knts, there is a marker you can adjust for your rotate moment, tracking needs full concentration in keeping the Starfighter tight and straight to the lift point.
Even then the lift is slow, worse you have to have a very steady firm hand to keep the F-104 stiff and clean, if not the nose will bounce...
Immediately you clean up the flaps, more clean lift is now required, speed as well, more lift... then your climbing out. Gear up next, and the undercarriage all folds into the fuselage and gives you a very nice shiny clean underside, the gear animations are extremely well done by Colimata, very professional.
Shredded of it's earthly bounds, the Starfighter will now seriously climb, so you tone the throttle back a bit, rate of climb here is 48,000 ft/min (240 m/s) Initially... fast, really fast, needed as you can fly as high as 73,000 ft (22,000 m), almost in space, SR71 territory (84,000ft).
Some points here. The F-104 bounces around a lot, not wind mind you, but just nervy. The nose jiggle is very disconcerting. You can tone this down a little via the X-Plane settings to dull the controls out a lot, then to perfect the trim and it can really help, problem is? that flying like this even for a short time is very tiring, you are working consistently hard all the time in just flying the aircraft. It does get better with familiarity, but the F-104 is not an easy aircraft to fly. The Autopilot is of only a minor help, or relief, so your workload is high in here.
A trick is to use the AOA ‘Angles Of Attack’ equivalent gauge. It does not show the exact angles, but a scale that informs you about how near to the maximum AoA the aircraft currently is... the so trick is staying within the boundaries. There is also the APC "Automatic Pitch Control" system which provides additional safety. If AoA value limits are exceeded too far it will even ‘kick’ the stick forward to get back to safe levels, but not when landing gear is down.
There was a special version of the F-104 was that ‘NF-104’. It was equipped with a rocket motor in addition to the jet engine. In the 1960s the NF-104 broke many records and it was used in the training for the X-15. The motor can be switched on and off, and the thrust can be set between 50 % and 100 %. The rocket provides thrust for 90 seconds. The rocket panel is only visible if the "Rocket Motor" is selected, situated on the left side.
Since air is super thin at high altitudes, the conventional flight controls will loose authority. For this an RCS ‘Reaction Control System’ can be activated. It provides controllability in very thin air. There are both controls for the actual rocket motor, and the RCS system.
Re-heat the J79 turbojet, then flick the switch and your head slams back like in the "Right Stuff", and your climbing like.... well "Hell, hang on" actually... dials are twirling and you really can't make any sense of them, you are just along for the ride!
Passing through 65,000ft and that air is now extremely thin, and your controls don't respond as they should... the F-104 is EXTREMELY hard to fly up here, slight movements you will are all you need, but if you lose it, then there is no coming back... and you will simply spiral away to your death.
It took a few high-altitude flights to get the feel of it all right and to get the use of the RCS system, exhilarating, certainly. Worse is that at these extreme altitudes the jet engine will switch off, and it is required to be restarted during the reentry. If the jet engine nozzle stays open, close it via the emergency engine nozzle handle before the restart attempt.
This is not a Air-superiority fighterjet, an agile, lightly armed aircraft and ready to eliminate any challenge over control of the airspace. Even turning is an effort for the F-104, you bank, but you will still take a very wide circumference to go to your new heading.
The word "Interceptor", says it all, and in reality it is all the F104 can really do, go fast, go high and "Intercept!" First you climb as high as you need. There is a marker on the Artificial Horizon to get the 15º climb angle perfect, then up you go, almost to 4000fpm...
... now at a high altitude, you can let the F-104 loose, on goes the burner again and your soon pushing a mach, then m.1.5. The aircraft is a handful to keep in a straight bullet line, turning... only for the faint-hearted. I can see and feel why it was called the "Widowmaker".
Yes the Starfighter is bullet, but more X-15 than fighter jet. The Autopilot takes ages to settle down on a course and altitude, but in time will hold the aircraft with a "hands off the stick" relief, turning is tricky with the turning knob "left-Right", again it works, but difficult to put the aircraft on a straight heading again, so you readjust with ENGAGE off, then when at a set altitude and heading, then (Re)ENGAGE the Autopilot... and hopefully it will HOLD either the speed or the altitude, you can't have both.
The F-104 ships with a sophisticated RADAR system covering AIR to AIR mode and AIR to GROUND mode, in the AIR to GROUND mode can require quite a few computer system resources. It is therefore possible to switch it from HD ‘High Definition’ to a lower definition. Furthermore the interpretation of the AG ‘Air to Ground’ image can be complex. Therefore the system comes with a "Standard-Simple mode" and a "Complex" mode.
In "Complex" mode we see the same landscape from above but with ‘RADAR shadows’. If the RADAR beam is blocked by an obstacle, everything behind is in its ‘RADAR shadow’ and will then be displayed black.
In AIR to AIR mode or AA mode, we can track and lock on to other aircraft. The available ranges are 20 nm, 40 nm and 80 nm. The RADAR beam sweeps 45° on both sides in the ‘G’ variant and 60° in the ‘S’ and ‘21C’ variants. To lock an enemy aircraft the target line can be moved left or right. When the target line is aligned with the target aircraft, press the ‘lock’ button or use the custom command. When the aircraft is locked (on target) the symbology on the display changes. We then see a circle that represents the distance to the target. The smaller the circle diameter the closer we are to the target. It shows direction and altitude to the enemy jet relative to our aircraft.
The system is very good, but needs time to study and work it all out. To be honest I only had the "Quick" guide for information, and you really need a detailed depth of information to use it.
Nightlighting
Very night fighter... that is the feeling inside the "Starfighter" cockpit, there are a lot of instrument adjustments, but the knobs are spread around both sides of the instruments. Three separate knobs covers the instrument lighting; INTERIOR INSTRUMENT, INTERIOR CONSOLE (sides) and INTERIOR FLOOD. The lighting is the instrument backlighting and two spot lights each side of the pilot.
All set at full BRT and it is all a bit overwhelming in the brightness...
So the trick is to tone it all down, even below the halfway marker, then it becomes all "Very Nice". Externally you have some very (very) nice rotating beacon's top and lower, and Navigation lights, that can be set to FLASH or STEADY. As noted there are two landing lights on the inner gear doors and a single nose taxi light.
Landing is probably one of the trickiest treat of them all. The wings here are relatively small, and therefore they need substantial speed to keep you airborne. The ‘BLC’ Boundary Layer Control’ system above the flaps is of great help and the engine is very powerful in case we need to get out of critical situations. So you need to engage the burner to prevent sinking or even stalling, or for a worst case scenario, for a go-around
At the lower speed, the flaps and with the gear lowered the roll rate is also significantly reduced, in other words the stick and rudder responses are dull, laggy. It keeps you on your toes to get the speed right at around 200 knts - 190 kts, that's very fast, with not much control response.
If your clean and straight, then all you want to do is plant the aircraft, no groundeffect or lift to help you here, it is a carrier shot in reverse. Touched down should be around 150 knts.
Even before the nose hits the ground, you release the "Chute", no reverser thrust here to slow you down, but the "Parachute" is extremely effective, you don't (or even dare) touch the brakes. I recommend to set a key command to deploy or lose the chute, your too busy to look down in the cockpit for the hard to find white "DRAG CHUTE" handle.
At taxi speed, you let go of the "chute", then flip the catch and open up the canopy... now you can "Breath".
We have to be very clear here, that the Starfighter F-104 has some very, very unsual flying characteristics, this is not a forgiving aircraft, rewarding yes, but totally unforgiving... to fly the aircraft well, it would need a lot of commitment and focus, as it is though all its different flight phases, the one aircraft that changes personalities consistently, it is your job to understand each one of them and master the differences, for the novice, not really, even the usual pro's will find it a challenge, but a major repect to those with the "Right Stuff".
In the release I had (early) there was only three liveries; The Metal default, a German Luftwaffe and an Italian Air Force. More liveries will be available for download at no additional cost.
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Summary
The first operational fighter aircraft to fly a sustained twice the speed of sound. It is of course the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter", or otherwise known as a "Missile with a man in it". The F-104 is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), later it was also a NASA test aircraft. Loved more by international Airforces than the American ones. It was created by the famous Lockheed "Skunk Works", and in performance and design it has a the same particular traits as the later SR-71, just to go exceedingly fast.
F-104 Starfighter by Colimata comes in three different variants, the FXP G, the FXP S and the FXP 21C (21st century). Known for his excellent Concorde FXP project, Colimata is also not immune to fast military jets either, as his earlier projects were the FA18-F Super Hornet and the MiG-29 Fulcrum. This F-104 however is all new, and only available for X-Plane 12.
The F-104 is sensationally designed and developed here, in reality X-Plane, and X-Plane 12 gives this aircraft one of the best positions in Simulation, the top and the best, a very high accolade. It's top notch stuff, the best you can invest in.
The quality and detail is excellent, nothing is missed here, that is from the shiny metal skin to the worn but highly detailed cockpit and instruments, super detailed 4k textures and complex landing gear and brake chute.
Features are as long as your arm, with an extensive menu. With panels that can open up (Electronics bay, gun bay, avionics bay, radar dome and canopy), ladder, full tags, wing covers and chocks, featured GPU and Fuel trucks, and an NF-104 Rocket and Reaction Control System. There are extensive weapons, with highly replicated "Cold War" era weapon and radar systems, the later 21c has modern glass instruments and avionics.
It is extremely tricky to fly, as was the original "Widowmaker", but that is a major part of the attraction to this sort of Simulation, so what you will put in, is what you get out of the aircraft, it is demanding, but highly rewarding as well as it brings out the best of your "Right Stuff", those generation of pilot's that pushed the extreme boundaries of speed and space.
This Starfighter aircraft allows you to experience that era and fly something very unique, an icon, a classic... the best of it's time.
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Yes! - the F-104 FXP Starfighter by Colimata is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
F-104 FXP Starfighter
Price is : US$45.00
Requirements
-Plane 12 Only Windows, Mac and Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Download Size: 941 MB
Versions 1.01 - December 1st 2023 Developed by Colimata
Support forum the F-104 FXP Installation
Installation of F-104 FXP Starfighter XP12 is done via a download of 825 Mb... With a total installation size of 1.17Gb.
There is one basic Manual pdf (45 pages)
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.08b3 (This is a Beta review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- KTCM - McChord AFB - Seattle - Boeing Country 10.5 by Tom Curtis (Sorry not now available)
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Classic Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
1st December 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from SteveDe in Aircraft Review : F-104 FXP Starfighter by Colimata
Aircraft Review : F-104 FXP Starfighter by Colimata
This is the first operational fighter aircraft to fly a sustained twice the speed of sound. It is of course the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter", or otherwise known as a "Missile with a man in it".
The F-104 is a pure machine built for pure speed, it looks fast... Supersonic fast, just a long pointy fuselage, with those small straight, mid-mounted, trapezoidal wings, and a high stabilator (fully moving horizontal stabilizer) which was mounted atop the fin to reduce inertia coupling, it was the ultimate interceptor aircraft. Of course NASA loved it, the USAF not so much.
But an iconic aircraft it still was. The F-104 is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an all-weather multi-role aircraft in the early 1960s and was produced by several other nations, seeing widespread service outside the United States than within.
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, vice president of engineering and research at Lockheed's Skunk Works, visited USAF air bases across South Korea in November 1951 to speak with fighter pilots about what they wanted and needed in a fighter aircraft. At the time, the American pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, and many felt that the MiGs were superior to the larger and more complex American fighters.
The pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance, especially high-speed and high-altitude capabilities.[4] Johnson started the design of such an aircraft upon his return to the United States. In March 1952, his team was assembled; they studied over 100 aircraft configurations, ranging from small designs at just 8,000 lb (3,600 kg), to large ones up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg).
To achieve the desired performance, Lockheed chose a small and simple aircraft, weighing in at 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) with a single powerful engine. The engine chosen was the new General Electric J79 turbojet, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs.
Colimata is a well known X-Plane developer of considerable skills. His main claim to fame has been the extraordinary Concorde FXP project, complex but truly original to the most famous airliner ever built. Colimata is not immune to fast military jets either, as his earlier projects were the FA18-F Super Hornet and the MiG-29 Fulcrum. This F-104 however is all new, and available only for X-Plane 12.
First the F-104 Starfighter by Colimata comes in three different variants, the FXP G, the FXP S and the FXP 21C (21st century). You can see what variant you are flying by the menu notice in the X-Plane Banner.
‘G’ F-104G was the most-produced version of the F-104 family, a multi-role fighter-bomber with a total of 1,127 aircraft built. They were manufactured by Lockheed, as well as under license by Canadair and a consortium of European companies that included Messerschmitt/MBB, Fiat, Fokker, and SABCA. The type featured a strengthened fuselage, wing, and empennage structures; the larger vertical fin with fully powered rudder as used on the two-seat versions; fully powered brakes, a new anti-skid system, and larger tires; revised flaps for improved combat maneuvering; and a larger braking chute. Upgraded avionics included the Autonetics NASARR F15A-41B radar with air-to-air, ground-mapping, contour-mapping, and terrain-avoidance modes, as well as the Litton LN-3 inertial navigation system (the first on a production fighter). Here the "G" is the most authentic and the base version of the F-104 package.
"S" F-104S was upgraded for the interception role, adding the NASARR R-21G/H radar with moving-target indicator and continuous-wave illuminator for semi-active radar homing missiles (initially the AIM-7 Sparrow), two additional wing and two underbelly hardpoints (increasing the total to nine), the more powerful J79-GE-19 engine, and added were two additional ventral fins to increase stability. The M61 cannon was sacrificed to make room for the missile avionics in the interceptor version, but was retained for the fighter-bomber variant. Typically two Sparrow and two (and sometimes four or six) Sidewinder missiles were carried on all the hardpoints except the central (underbelly), or up to seven 750 lb (340 kg) bombs (normally two to four 500–750 lb [230–340 kg] bombs). The F-104S was cleared for a higher maximum takeoff weight, allowing it to carry up to 7,500 lb (3,400 kg) of stores; other Starfighters had a maximum external load of 4,000 lb (1,800 kg). Its combat radius was up to 775 mi (1,247 km) with four external fuel tanks
"21C" or 21st Century. It is the most modern variant which can be seen immediately from the cockpit instruments with the digital displays. It doesn't exist obviously, as there is no real "21C" but F-104's do come with digital instruments as shown in the video. Debatable here is there should be a YF-104A variant, this is the NASA No.818, and this aircraft was flown for 19 years as a flying test bed and a chase plane.
The Colimata F-104 comes in that original skin metal only livery. The airframe was all-metal, primarily duralumin with some stainless steel and titanium as part of the structure. The fuselage was approximately two and a half times as long as the airplane's wingspan. The wings were centered on the horizontal reference plane, or along the longitudinal centerline of the fuselage, and were located substantially farther aft on the fuselage than most contemporary designs. The aft fuselage was elevated from the horizontal reference plane, resulting a "lifted" tail, and the nose was "drooped". This caused the aircraft to fly nose up, helping to minimize drag. As a result, the pitot tube, air inlet scoops, and engine thrust line were all canted slightly from centerline of the fuselage.
The Colimata F-104 is beautifully done, it glows in the X-Plane 12 sunshine, the light bouncing off the metal realistic skin. You can feel the "Skunk Works" talent here, in the way they created and crafted these formidable machines, metallurgy at it's finest.
The panels and rivet patterns are beautifully crafted, and of course those razor sharp wings... notable this is the "S" variant.
The wing design was extremely thin, with a thickness-to-chord ratio of only 3.36% and an aspect ratio of 2.45. The wing's leading edges were so thin (.016 in; 0.41 mm) that they were a hazard to ground crews. Hence, protective guards were installed on them during maintenance. The thinness of the wings required the fuel tanks and landing gear to be placed within the fuselage, and the hydraulic cylinders driving the ailerons were limited to 1-inch (25 mm) thickness to fit.
You can see the different types of metal here to absorb the engine output heat, and the built in fuselage Speedbrake doors
Flaps are "Barn Door" deep, and note the extremely large aileron for supersonic control and manoeuvrability. Notable is the Boundary Layer Control System (BLCS) at the rear side of the wings right above the flaps. Compressed air is taken from the compressor of the engine and injected in the airflow right above the flaps. This improves lift by reducing the probability of turbulent airflow above the flaps. This way reasonable landing speeds were achieved.
Because the vertical fin was only slightly shorter than the length of each wing and nearly as aerodynamically effective, it could act as a wing-on-rudder application, rolling the aircraft in the opposite direction of rudder input. To offset this effect, the wings were canted downward at a 10° negative-dihedral (anhedral) angle. This downward canting also improved roll control during high-G maneuvers, common in air-to-air combat.
Under the fuselage are both the central ventral fin, and this being the "S", the twin empennage structures.
The maw of the jetpipe exhaust is excellent, not only externally, but deep internally as well in finite detail.
The stabilator is also razor thin, and has a very wide tilt angle, all set in a T-Tail configuration.
The undercarriage is a simple three wheel setup, basically very basic in a system to fold up into the tight fuselage. Extremely well executed here by Colimata with metal hydraulic piping the highlight, and all of the internal bay detail is a feast for the eyes, links and joints are also perfectly created, and note the taxiway lights mounted internally on the outer bay doors.
Single nose wheel is again simple, with the single landing light on the front strut, again the internal bay detail is excellent, notice with the way the twin doors frame and clamp the strut when closed.
Glass is excellent as well... a deep dark green tint, shows off the thickness of the glass, and reflections are perfect. The canopy opens to the left side, and you can see the mottled glass detail... the frame is extraordinary in it's perfect detailing.
Externally there is a well developed "Cold War" style pilot, he is not animated, but looks authentic.
Cockpit
This is the ultimate "Cold War" warrior, the next generation up from the Second World War fighters. The detail is very black, but worn, highly realistic and authentic. Colimata has done a really great workmanship in getting the details right, right down to the worn text, that needs a second glance to read it.
Bit of trivia... the original F-104 had a Stanley C-1 Ejection Seat, and this seat ejected downwards through the floor at 500ft, this was to clear the high T-Tail for a safe ejection from the aircraft... later F-104s used the Martin Baker Q7 seat, this seat was now powerful enough to clear that troublesome tail. Here it is the later Q7. The ejector seat works! so don't pull the hoop unless you want to vacate the aircraft, oh and get rid of the canopy first as well..
The simple stick has no operational buttons or switches, but can be hidden via "hotspot" on the base.
The three different G, S and 21C instrument panels are all quite different with their layouts. It is best to study them all and then select the one you like, as each have a very different role. I'm going to stay with the original "G" layout.
It is a complicated panel layout, and you would need a little study before serious use. The manual provided "Quickstart", is in my mind a little bit too under detailed for the complexity here, you need the areas to be broken down and explained, this is only a "Quickstart" so a better manual as noted might follow, it is needed.
Dials and gauges are beautifully created and reflective, very realistic. Centre seven dials cover (anti-clockwise) AirSpeed, Angle of Attack, Vertical Speed (V/S), Artificial Ball Horizon, Turn and Bank rate, a Position & Homing Indicator (sort of Heading Indicator) and Altitude.
Left is a G-Meter, Radio Altimeter, and right are the engine RPM, Temperature, Oil Pressure, Fuel Flow and Nozzle Position, the Whisky Compass is upper left glareshield... sticking out far right is a intricate clock/chronometer.
Lower panel is the Engine Start and Landing/Taxi lights far left, then the Weapons panel, landing gear switch is here as well. Central is the huge RADAR system, that covers both AIR to AIR mode and AIR to GROUND mode.
Right lower panel is the Cabin Pressure, and internal and external fuel gauges. Oxygen is far right.
Side panels are again quite different between the variants. On the "G" the layout is smaller and less detailed, highlight is the lovely white stubby throttle lever, the Flap position indicator is set behind, but you can also hide the throttle if you want to. Left side has radio, fuel switches, Radar position lever (nice) and Stability Control.
Right side has Oxygen Regulator, IFF (Identification Friend or Foe), IN Inertial/flightplan (note here, this panel tends to move around, on the 21C it is lower left Instrument panel) and ECM. There are various types of displays between the G and S/21C. Here there is no flightplan screen on the G, but on the other variants. The G has a "Range Timer", the S the fully interactive flightplan panel.
The autopilot is very basic, in a set the aircraft and "HOLD" the situation in Altitude and Mach, you can TURN left or right via the lower switch.
But it is in the extreme detailing that you get here, something simple like opening the canopy is a marvel to watch, the catches are all animated and reassuring that the canopy will be safely locked down at Mach 2, they click and clank as well... it's all beautifully done, and more importantly VR (Virtual Reality) ready, with the goggles on, you will be immersed in a Cold War environment like no other.
Menu
The menu GUI is accessed on the X-Plane banner Menu under the aircraft title, the CHECKLIST window is here as well.
There are Eight tabs to select on the menu; MAIN, SETTINGS, ROUTE LOADING, EQUIPMENT, WEAPONS, FUEL, DOORS & GROUND and STATUS. If you have Colimata;s Concorde they are all quite familiar in design and use. MAIN tab is a welcome screen.
SETTINGS: Covers PRO Mode. This mode changes the aircraft from simple (aerodynamics and systems) to the PRO mode, where you get access to everything, but be aware the already difficult F-104 is far more harder to fly and use. SOUND, Includes Engine Volume internal and external, cockpit fans, G-Suit sounds and Oxygen mask sounds, RADAR, HD Resolution and Simple mode or heavy shadows, MORE includes, Simple Air-refueling, Cockpit lamp glow and Intake doors... here you can have the optional variable (moving) intake doors on the "S" and "21C" variants.
Before we go any further. You will find that most systems here on the Colimata F-104 are very X-Plane default based, so if you know how X-Plane systems work, then you will easily understand how to set up and use the F-104.
ROUTE LOADING: Here is a Flightplan Loading tool. flightplans are stored in the X-Plane "Output/FMS plans" folder and can be accessed and loaded via this tab. Obviously they have to saved in the .fms format.
EQUIPMENT: There are four options on the "Equipment" tab... Selecting the Air Re-Fuel Probe, Radar Warn Receiver.. which is located top right instrument panel, Chaff Flare Dispensers... which are both located on each side of the rear exhaust pipe, and the Rocket Motor!
WEAPONS: Weapons are selected via the X-Plane "Flight/Weight&Balance/Weapons menu, standard X-Plane default settings. The list is huge at a mix of 22 armaments and fuel tanks for the 10 stations on the aircraft. Overload and you get a RED weight indication "Caution Very Heavy Aircraft".
FUEL: If you add on Fuel tanks in the "Weapons" menu. Then the tank(s) selected will appear in the Flight/Weight,Balance & Fuel Menu to add in more fuel onto the aircraft, again watch the weight as the F-104 is very easily overloaded. A point to make is that if you "Drop" the both wing-tip tanks then you get the "Stubby" wing version of the F-104
Lower menu the page notes your RANGE, in High altitude flight, Mix Altitude flight and Low Altitude flight... Also if your route is loaded, it will note the distance available in NM (Nautical Miles). Also noted if your AIR REFUEL is switched on or not.
DOORS & GROUND: This menu gives you options on the ground. You can reveal the RCA AN/ASG-14T1 ranging radar. Put a very nice ladder on the right side of the aircraft, Open/Close the Canopy. There are also four bays you can access... lower right Electronics bay, the left lower Cannon Bay of which is the 20 mm (0.79 in) M61 Vulcan auto-cannon, Top forward is the Avionics bay, and behind it is the Ammunition bay... lower left rear is the RAT (Ram Air Turbine).
Centre selections include, a load of flags, pins covers and chocks. There are far too many to even count! Note the lovely wing edge covers and authentic engine inlet covers.
Lower D&S menu covers two static items in vehicles. A military Heavy Duty Tanker and GPU (Ground Power Unit)
STATUS: The final menu tab is the "Status" of the aircraft. This is a one look view of the total status of the F-104. Included is Fuel and your current Range, System status in Oxygen, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Fuel (system), Landing Gear, Elevator (Trim Position), Aircraft Weight and required Approach, Final and Touchdown speeds.
CHECKLIST
As noted also on the menu bar is the F-104 Checklist tool
The first page is a "walkaround" diagram, it's not animated by set views, but just a guide around the aircraft. The menu window is moveable and scaleable around your screen.
There are thirteen checklists from Pre-Flight to (engine) Shutdown. Then four "Emergency" pages and five "Custom Content" pages for your own use. Navigation is via the two PREVIOUS and NEXT buttons.
Altogether it is a very comprehensive and detailed menu, certainly very well done by Colimata... Easy to use and has loads of current required data avalable.
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Flying the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
The Startup sequence will not find a battery switch inside the cockpit. Electric energy is only available as soon as the GPU is connected
externally. Complete the cockpit checks, then make sure that the Fuel Shutoff switch is in the ON position.
Engage a starter switch. Switch 1 on uneven days, Switch 2 on even days. The engine will start spooling up. Now click on the lower right side of the throttle to bring it from OFF to IDLE position. With this the engine will continue its spool up and the dials start to revolve. This is a very "Ground Crew" aircraft start, you almost want to stick your hand up out of the cockpit and twirl your hand.
Engine start up sounds are seriously "Amazing", first the startup compressor, then that familiar whine out of the J79 turbojet, it fills the air in the cockpit (always have the canopy open), the starter switches will go off automatically, when the engine is above 40%, then engage the Generators GEN1 and GEN2.
You don't want to close that canopy yet, but to hear the noise, absorb your surroundings. Let of the brakes and a slight throttle and your rolling..
You soak up the feeling, this iconic jet aircraft. Now quickly it is also time to get down to business, and you pull down the canopy...
... suddenly your immersed in another world, a tightly contained space, a cold-war scenario, and the F-104 feels of what it is, a Skunk Works project to go very fast. You need a very long and wide runway to takeoff, those petit fine wings don't give off much lift, so you need a lot of air around them to make them work.
Hold the brakes, then put up the throttle to full thrust, yes you will need everything you have for the initial push...
You get a dragons ROAR! out of the rear, and when you let the brakes go, the F-104 bounces with the forces, it moves, but slowly at first then gradually gains speed, you need a lot of runway to get enough to get around 200 knts, there is a marker you can adjust for your rotate moment, tracking needs full concentration in keeping the Starfighter tight and straight to the lift point.
Even then the lift is slow, worse you have to have a very steady firm hand to keep the F-104 stiff and clean, if not the nose will bounce...
Immediately you clean up the flaps, more clean lift is now required, speed as well, more lift... then your climbing out. Gear up next, and the undercarriage all folds into the fuselage and gives you a very nice shiny clean underside, the gear animations are extremely well done by Colimata, very professional.
Shredded of it's earthly bounds, the Starfighter will now seriously climb, so you tone the throttle back a bit, rate of climb here is 48,000 ft/min (240 m/s) Initially... fast, really fast, needed as you can fly as high as 73,000 ft (22,000 m), almost in space, SR71 territory (84,000ft).
Some points here. The F-104 bounces around a lot, not wind mind you, but just nervy. The nose jiggle is very disconcerting. You can tone this down a little via the X-Plane settings to dull the controls out a lot, then to perfect the trim and it can really help, problem is? that flying like this even for a short time is very tiring, you are working consistently hard all the time in just flying the aircraft. It does get better with familiarity, but the F-104 is not an easy aircraft to fly. The Autopilot is of only a minor help, or relief, so your workload is high in here.
A trick is to use the AOA ‘Angles Of Attack’ equivalent gauge. It does not show the exact angles, but a scale that informs you about how near to the maximum AoA the aircraft currently is... the so trick is staying within the boundaries. There is also the APC "Automatic Pitch Control" system which provides additional safety. If AoA value limits are exceeded too far it will even ‘kick’ the stick forward to get back to safe levels, but not when landing gear is down.
There was a special version of the F-104 was that ‘NF-104’. It was equipped with a rocket motor in addition to the jet engine. In the 1960s the NF-104 broke many records and it was used in the training for the X-15. The motor can be switched on and off, and the thrust can be set between 50 % and 100 %. The rocket provides thrust for 90 seconds. The rocket panel is only visible if the "Rocket Motor" is selected, situated on the left side.
Since air is super thin at high altitudes, the conventional flight controls will loose authority. For this an RCS ‘Reaction Control System’ can be activated. It provides controllability in very thin air. There are both controls for the actual rocket motor, and the RCS system.
Re-heat the J79 turbojet, then flick the switch and your head slams back like in the "Right Stuff", and your climbing like.... well "Hell, hang on" actually... dials are twirling and you really can't make any sense of them, you are just along for the ride!
Passing through 65,000ft and that air is now extremely thin, and your controls don't respond as they should... the F-104 is EXTREMELY hard to fly up here, slight movements you will are all you need, but if you lose it, then there is no coming back... and you will simply spiral away to your death.
It took a few high-altitude flights to get the feel of it all right and to get the use of the RCS system, exhilarating, certainly. Worse is that at these extreme altitudes the jet engine will switch off, and it is required to be restarted during the reentry. If the jet engine nozzle stays open, close it via the emergency engine nozzle handle before the restart attempt.
This is not a Air-superiority fighterjet, an agile, lightly armed aircraft and ready to eliminate any challenge over control of the airspace. Even turning is an effort for the F-104, you bank, but you will still take a very wide circumference to go to your new heading.
The word "Interceptor", says it all, and in reality it is all the F104 can really do, go fast, go high and "Intercept!" First you climb as high as you need. There is a marker on the Artificial Horizon to get the 15º climb angle perfect, then up you go, almost to 4000fpm...
... now at a high altitude, you can let the F-104 loose, on goes the burner again and your soon pushing a mach, then m.1.5. The aircraft is a handful to keep in a straight bullet line, turning... only for the faint-hearted. I can see and feel why it was called the "Widowmaker".
Yes the Starfighter is bullet, but more X-15 than fighter jet. The Autopilot takes ages to settle down on a course and altitude, but in time will hold the aircraft with a "hands off the stick" relief, turning is tricky with the turning knob "left-Right", again it works, but difficult to put the aircraft on a straight heading again, so you readjust with ENGAGE off, then when at a set altitude and heading, then (Re)ENGAGE the Autopilot... and hopefully it will HOLD either the speed or the altitude, you can't have both.
The F-104 ships with a sophisticated RADAR system covering AIR to AIR mode and AIR to GROUND mode, in the AIR to GROUND mode can require quite a few computer system resources. It is therefore possible to switch it from HD ‘High Definition’ to a lower definition. Furthermore the interpretation of the AG ‘Air to Ground’ image can be complex. Therefore the system comes with a "Standard-Simple mode" and a "Complex" mode.
In "Complex" mode we see the same landscape from above but with ‘RADAR shadows’. If the RADAR beam is blocked by an obstacle, everything behind is in its ‘RADAR shadow’ and will then be displayed black.
In AIR to AIR mode or AA mode, we can track and lock on to other aircraft. The available ranges are 20 nm, 40 nm and 80 nm. The RADAR beam sweeps 45° on both sides in the ‘G’ variant and 60° in the ‘S’ and ‘21C’ variants. To lock an enemy aircraft the target line can be moved left or right. When the target line is aligned with the target aircraft, press the ‘lock’ button or use the custom command. When the aircraft is locked (on target) the symbology on the display changes. We then see a circle that represents the distance to the target. The smaller the circle diameter the closer we are to the target. It shows direction and altitude to the enemy jet relative to our aircraft.
The system is very good, but needs time to study and work it all out. To be honest I only had the "Quick" guide for information, and you really need a detailed depth of information to use it.
Nightlighting
Very night fighter... that is the feeling inside the "Starfighter" cockpit, there are a lot of instrument adjustments, but the knobs are spread around both sides of the instruments. Three separate knobs covers the instrument lighting; INTERIOR INSTRUMENT, INTERIOR CONSOLE (sides) and INTERIOR FLOOD. The lighting is the instrument backlighting and two spot lights each side of the pilot.
All set at full BRT and it is all a bit overwhelming in the brightness...
So the trick is to tone it all down, even below the halfway marker, then it becomes all "Very Nice". Externally you have some very (very) nice rotating beacon's top and lower, and Navigation lights, that can be set to FLASH or STEADY. As noted there are two landing lights on the inner gear doors and a single nose taxi light.
Landing is probably one of the trickiest treat of them all. The wings here are relatively small, and therefore they need substantial speed to keep you airborne. The ‘BLC’ Boundary Layer Control’ system above the flaps is of great help and the engine is very powerful in case we need to get out of critical situations. So you need to engage the burner to prevent sinking or even stalling, or for a worst case scenario, for a go-around
At the lower speed, the flaps and with the gear lowered the roll rate is also significantly reduced, in other words the stick and rudder responses are dull, laggy. It keeps you on your toes to get the speed right at around 200 knts - 190 kts, that's very fast, with not much control response.
If your clean and straight, then all you want to do is plant the aircraft, no groundeffect or lift to help you here, it is a carrier shot in reverse. Touched down should be around 150 knts.
Even before the nose hits the ground, you release the "Chute", no reverser thrust here to slow you down, but the "Parachute" is extremely effective, you don't (or even dare) touch the brakes. I recommend to set a key command to deploy or lose the chute, your too busy to look down in the cockpit for the hard to find white "DRAG CHUTE" handle.
At taxi speed, you let go of the "chute", then flip the catch and open up the canopy... now you can "Breath".
We have to be very clear here, that the Starfighter F-104 has some very, very unsual flying characteristics, this is not a forgiving aircraft, rewarding yes, but totally unforgiving... to fly the aircraft well, it would need a lot of commitment and focus, as it is though all its different flight phases, the one aircraft that changes personalities consistently, it is your job to understand each one of them and master the differences, for the novice, not really, even the usual pro's will find it a challenge, but a major repect to those with the "Right Stuff".
In the release I had (early) there was only three liveries; The Metal default, a German Luftwaffe and an Italian Air Force. More liveries will be available for download at no additional cost.
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Summary
The first operational fighter aircraft to fly a sustained twice the speed of sound. It is of course the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter", or otherwise known as a "Missile with a man in it". The F-104 is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), later it was also a NASA test aircraft. Loved more by international Airforces than the American ones. It was created by the famous Lockheed "Skunk Works", and in performance and design it has a the same particular traits as the later SR-71, just to go exceedingly fast.
F-104 Starfighter by Colimata comes in three different variants, the FXP G, the FXP S and the FXP 21C (21st century). Known for his excellent Concorde FXP project, Colimata is also not immune to fast military jets either, as his earlier projects were the FA18-F Super Hornet and the MiG-29 Fulcrum. This F-104 however is all new, and only available for X-Plane 12.
The F-104 is sensationally designed and developed here, in reality X-Plane, and X-Plane 12 gives this aircraft one of the best positions in Simulation, the top and the best, a very high accolade. It's top notch stuff, the best you can invest in.
The quality and detail is excellent, nothing is missed here, that is from the shiny metal skin to the worn but highly detailed cockpit and instruments, super detailed 4k textures and complex landing gear and brake chute.
Features are as long as your arm, with an extensive menu. With panels that can open up (Electronics bay, gun bay, avionics bay, radar dome and canopy), ladder, full tags, wing covers and chocks, featured GPU and Fuel trucks, and an NF-104 Rocket and Reaction Control System. There are extensive weapons, with highly replicated "Cold War" era weapon and radar systems, the later 21c has modern glass instruments and avionics.
It is extremely tricky to fly, as was the original "Widowmaker", but that is a major part of the attraction to this sort of Simulation, so what you will put in, is what you get out of the aircraft, it is demanding, but highly rewarding as well as it brings out the best of your "Right Stuff", those generation of pilot's that pushed the extreme boundaries of speed and space.
This Starfighter aircraft allows you to experience that era and fly something very unique, an icon, a classic... the best of it's time.
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Yes! - the F-104 FXP Starfighter by Colimata is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
F-104 FXP Starfighter
Price is : US$45.00
Requirements
-Plane 12 Only Windows, Mac and Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Download Size: 941 MB
Versions 1.01 - December 1st 2023 Developed by Colimata
Support forum the F-104 FXP Installation
Installation of F-104 FXP Starfighter XP12 is done via a download of 825 Mb... With a total installation size of 1.17Gb.
There is one basic Manual pdf (45 pages)
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.08b3 (This is a Beta review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- KTCM - McChord AFB - Seattle - Boeing Country 10.5 by Tom Curtis (Sorry not now available)
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Classic Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
1st December 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Busair in Experimental Vehicle Review : LLTV - Lunar Landing Training Vehicle by NHAdrian
Experimental Vehicle Review : LLTV - Lunar Landing Training Vehicle by NHAdrian
It was a moment of inertia. A pause in the air that could have changed history as we know it. It is 6th May 1968 at Houston’s Ellington Air Force Base (AFB) in Texas. As the strange web framed vehicle was now suddenly frozen at 200ft above the ground with the sudden loss of helium pressure, that then caused the depletion of the hydrogen peroxide that was used for the reserve attitude thrusters. The pilot only had one option, "to get the hell out of there", he did so by ejecting upwards as the machine twirled downwards into the ground and violently exploded beneath him, he landed safely by parachute with only a few aches to his back and a bit tongue from the intense jerk upwards... in two hours he was back at his desk at the Houston Space Centre, doing paperwork.
The pilot in question here was Neil Alden Armstrong. The same person that commanded the Apollo 11 mission, during which he became the first man to set foot on the moon (20th July 1969).
That infamous moment was captured on film, observing it closely, you saw the nerves of steel to defeat the jaws of death, just like Armstrong had done a few times before. In Korea, as he was making a low bombing run at 350 mph (560 km/h) when 6 feet (1.8 m) of his wing was torn off after it collided with a cable that was strung across the hills as a booby trap. He planned to eject over the water and await rescue by Navy helicopters, but his parachute was blown back over land. A jeep driven by a roommate from the flight school picked him up.
Then again in a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which was to air-drop a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket. Climbing to 30,000 feet (9 km), the number-four engine stopped and the propeller began windmilling (rotating freely) in the airstream, then the propeller disintegrated. Pieces of it damaged the number-three engine and hit the number-two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the damaged number-three engine, along also with the number-one engine, due to the torque it created. They then made a slow, circling descent from 30,000 ft (9 km) using only the number-two engine, and landed safely.
Then the most dangerous moment of all in orbit in Gemini 8. While out of contact with the ground, the docked spacecraft began to roll, and Armstrong attempted to correct this with the Gemini's Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS). Following the earlier advice of Mission Control, they undocked, but the roll increased dramatically until they were turning rotations about once per second, indicating a problem with Gemini's attitude control. Armstrong engaged the Reentry Control System (RCS) and turned off the OAMS. Mission rules dictated that once this system was turned on, the spacecraft had to reenter at the next possible opportunity. Armstrong was a cat that had 10 lives, so they sent him to the moon, were he saved the long landing in the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) and made history, which brings us to our weird looking machine in this review.
The Bell Aerosystems Lunar Landing Research Vehicle LLTV (nicknamed the "Flying Bedstead") was a Project Apollo era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings.
But lets clear something up first. There was five of these vehicles built, the first two were the LLRV or "Research Vehicle". Then later three more were commissioned and called LLTV or "Training Vehicle", they are in design almost identical, but the LLTV's were slightly improved and the forward Styrofoam cockpit enclosure (to simulate the LEM's cockpit) had also the roof removed, to stop an excessive yawing force. Secondly they also had a new mode introduced, called "Lunar Simulation Mode"... of which we will see later.
Built of aluminum alloy trusses, the LLRVs (and LLTV) were powered by a General Electric CF700-2V turbofan engine with a thrust of 4,200 lbf (19 kN), mounted vertically in a gimbal. The engine lifted the vehicle to the test altitude of 500ft, and was then throttled back to support five-sixths of the vehicle's weight, simulating the reduced gravity of the Moon. Two hydrogen peroxide lift rockets with thrust that could be varied from 100 to 500 lbf (440 to 2,200 N) handled the vehicle's rate of descent and horizontal movement. Sixteen smaller hydrogen peroxide thrusters, mounted in pairs, gave the pilot control in pitch, yaw and roll.
The LLTV is an ungainly insect like machine. Really well designed and produced here by NHAdrian, a developer known for his quirky but very interesting machines, a flying AirCar anybody?
The LLRV evolved out of the Bell X-14 (Bell Type 68) experimental VTOL aircraft, but it had problems with ground effects. The X-14 had the reverse effects of helicopters, in that when close to ground, a helicopter needs less power to stay aloft, were as the X-14 needed exactly the opposite in a huge amount of downward thrust. The LLRVs were built by Bell Aerosystems and were used by the FRC (Flight Research Centre) now known as the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, to study these VTOL dynamics.
Helicopters were the obvious choice to simulate Lunar Control Characteristics. And astronauts at the time who were very familiar with helicopters, pushed heavily for them to be used as the LEM training vehicles. But Dick Day the simulations expert at the FRC, pushed heavily for the LLRV to become the better (or correct) vehicle to do the LEM simulations. The person put in charge of the conversion was no other person than Neil Armstrong (the reason he was not on the Apollo 1 fire committee) and was and in the early part of the LLTV "Design Engineering Inspection" that was the selection committee for the program. He quickly deduced that to build a fully modified LEM Trainer, which he called "prohibitively time consuming and expensive" was not the answer, and noted that the characteristics of the LLRV was not at all that different in physical size, and had the same control rocket geometry from the Lunar Lander.
When the earlier VTOL program had been completed, the two LLRV's were shipped to Houston in December (12th) 1966, and three new vehicles in trainers with modifications were ordered by NASA, these were the LLTVs, all five machines were used in Lunar training. The earlier LLRV's were reassigned as LLTV A1 and LLTV A2, the new LLTV's were designated LLTV B1, B2 and B3.
Neil Armstrong's strong views against Helicopters was against the current normal thinking. This was because Armstrong was noted as a "Engineer Pilot", and not a "Training Pilot", so basically Helicopter pilots were flying Lunar Simulations on Earth, were as Neil Armstrong was studying and flying Lunar Simulations on the Moon. It was a critical assignment that produced an Historic moment. He of course later had that vexatious moment in LLTV A1 in the final 100 ft of descent going into land when his controls had suddenly degraded. By a rule Apollo Commanders had twenty-two flights to certify them for the mission, but for backup commanders in the later stages of the program, these numbers of flights were reduced to maybe a dozen.
The LLTV's design is beyond simple, a frame holds the CF700-2V and surrounding it are the four downward facing HP thrusters (earlier LLRV had only two), then the clusters of HP directional thrusters are positioned on the outer frame, it is all a very spacecraft LEM like in design. Tanks hold the Jet-A1 fuel and the twin globes of Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) are outer centre, rear is balance weights and the large equipment/avionics pack.
The whole design has been intricately recreated for your flying pleasure, everything is perfectly done here, like noted, very simple, but intricate at the same time to get it all perfectly authentic... and yes you can spend a lot of time just looking at all of the design and on how it all works, this is one clever aspect of a Simulator, as you have almost the real thing on view for your inspection.
Can this be called a cockpit? sort of. The original LLRV just had the pilot hanging out on the front on the frame, in the LLTV version is was boxed in to recreate the feeling of the inside of the LEM. The light metal frame construction and riveting is totally excellent, and note the nice touch of the Apollo mission patches... but there is an important one missing? An oversight or just a small trivia question by the developer?
The cockpit layout is very familiar if you are also familiar with the LEM's controls. The hand controls both sides, and the instrument box right.
Left side here are two levers, the "Lift Engine Control Lever", and the secondary "Lift Thrusters Control Lever" known as the "T-Stick". Top left panel is the CB Control Panel, with Circuit Breakers (fuses) and system switches.
Note the rear COM Radio with 25khz and 8.33 khz modes and fuel cock lower. The "Main Control Panel" covers Battery A/B and Generator A/B switches, Altitude Controller over-ride, Lunar Simulation wind compensation switch, Helium Isolation valve, Altitude Thrusters operations mode, Inverter A/B switches, Pitch/Roll AHRS source, Artificial Horizon source and Altitude controller rate sensitivity adjustment knobs for; Pitch, Roll and Yaw.
Right side is the "Main Instrument Panel", from top; Engine Fire annunciator and test button, HD quantity indicator, Annunciator Panel, Lateral/Forward velocity indicator, lift rockets chamber pressure, Helium Pressure, analog stop-watch/button cycle, Artificial Horizon, Radio Altimeter and V/S (vertical Speed) indicator, Thrust-to-Weight ratio indicator LSM mode, EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature gauge), Oil Pressure, Analog Altimeter, Analog Variometer, N1 Indicator, Jet fuel quantity and aft Jet fuel quantity.
On the right is the actual LEM panel for comparison, and the main flying instruments in layout are almost identical. The Annunciator panel has 4x4 block of warnings and failures. Note the "LUNAR MODE" selection.
Bottom right is the "Right Control Panel". It includes; "Attitude Control mode switches", DC Volts and AC Volts, "Source Switch A/B and finally the same famous "Ground Contact" light.
Right hand joystick is fully animated in forward-back and left/right movements, as is the well done NASA pilot in his arm movements... let us call him "Neil".
You can hide "Neil" by pressing the seat base, but be careful, it is very easy to mix up the hotspot of the "Ejection Seat", and just disappear. If you move the slider on the pilot's helmet... it will push down the visor, also then go into "Sunglasses" mode, in dimming the view, honestly I'm not sure about this while flying, as you need as much a clear view as possible, and an option to turn it off, but the idea is very clever.
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Installation and Settings
In X-Plane, you will find the LLTV in the "VTOL" section at the bottom of the "Flight Configuration" page. There are no liveries (laughs)
LLTV Authorization is standard with a key, then a restart is required. Control settings are for all the "Control Response" (Pitch,Roll and Yaw) sliders to be at the minimum setting, and at least "5 Flight Models" per frame, it is highly recommended to have at least a 30 frames or more capacity, if not it will struggle to simulate.
The LLTV fuel and weights are setup via the X-Plane "Weight, Balance & Fuel" Page, the HP is top, and the Jet Fuel is set lower, note the correct CoG (Centre of Gravity).
If you have (or I recommend) a 3-Axis Joystick... then move your Yaw axis to the Joystick X-Axis from the rudder pedals for an authentic feel of the machine, the LEM did not have rudder pedals as both pilots stood up side by side together.
A final tip is to set the "Lunar Simulation Mode" to a Toggle or "On/Off" switch, I used the hat on my joystick, the custom command is available and as all the usable "Custom Commands" are noted in the manual. This action will reduce the distraction of the switch between the different modes, and keep your hands on the controls.
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Flying the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle
I found that before every flight you have to set your fuel quantity, it resets back to zero if you don't, in other times also top up the H202 tanks, the LLTV guzzles fuel like nothing else, so this is always your first action.
The fuel cock is down under the COM Radio, and this needs to be horizontal for fuel flow, then it is the simple need just to flick up the Ignition switch, then the START ENG switch, the system does the rest of the startup sequence, when done it will settle down around 20% RPM and EGT around 450º
The startup whine and thrust from the CF700-2V is very good, then becomes a roar if you add in a bit of throttle, plus there is the puffs and blasts of Hydrogen Peroxide all around the vehicle, and you haven't done anything yet?
Increasing the throttle increases the noise and the activity from the thrusters as they intensely fire off (really well done) the HP, and slowly your off the ground... and your first target is just to hover. Honestly it's not that hard, just like flying a drone in every aspect... up/down... hover.
Then your just glad to lower the LLTV back onto the ground... safety.
Confidence restored, "Lets try that again". This time I hovered far higher, the limits are 500 ft and 2 minutes of fuel, and the clock is ticking.
Again it was easy to climb and hold, twist the throttle grip and turn easily in the yaw, left or right... then front or back with a slight dip in each direction... "easy peasy"
Trickier is sideways... any slip has to be carefully coordinated, and keeping the vehicle almost upright. Push too far in angle or speed and you will easily lose the LLTV, and there is no coming back, except for an explosive crash on the ground. A note that there is an "Ejection" to do an "Armstrong" and get the "hell out of there".
There are two modes, the first is really the "Drone" mode were the LLTV flies basically just like a drone. Second flying mode is called "Lunar Simulation Mode" that is activated on the joystick. The difference between them is that with the first (drone) mode the CF700-2V is locked in it's cradle, so the thrust is completely downwards.
In Lunar Simulation Mode (LSM)" the engine is now loose on a Gimbal to still produce the balance thrust, but the vehicle angle can now change, however the engine (thrust) stays relative to the ground to simulate the Moon's gravity (1.625 m/s2, about 16.6% to that on Earth's surface or 0.166 ɡ), to replicate the same propulsion system on the LEM.
Several other actions also happen when you initiate LSM, first you change levers to the T-Stick, this lever now controls the downward thrusters and in giving you only control over them (disengages the Jet Engine) and lifts the rockets thrust between 20% and 100% power range.
Note... there has been an update, v1.01 now has the animation working that moves "Neil's" hand from the throttle to the T-Stick, and the T-Stick movements are now animated as well...
The LSM system won't work unless you are at 500ft (or slightly more), then you flick the switch to change the modes...
Then the "Luna Mode" light is illuminated to show you are in the active mode. The transition between modes is seemless, initially you can't tell the difference, but adjust the T-Stick and you are quickly aware of the more heavier thrust at your disposal, with both the Jet engine and thrusters now producing lift, actually altitude control is far more easier, you as you have significantly now more control over the machine, but there is more and more lag in reactions the closer you get to the ground.
Yaw and slip is still the same, so be careful... but the flying of the "Bedstead" was far easier than I had imagined, you would love to stay here in this controlled environment all day, but your now guzzling fuel at a ferocious rate, so it is time to descend and do a nice controlled landing.
The amount of thrust power is excellent, and in reality you do feel what piloting the LEM would actually be like, I was amazing on the amount of power that was available to you, even on the moon!
The trick here of course is to learn an actual moon LEM sequence landing, moving forward and picking your landing spot, controlling the flow of the descent and the angle of approach to a hover position and then a "Contact". It would take a fair bit of practice and familiarity with the LLTV to get that all right, but the adrenalin rush would be worth it, remember the old "Lunar Lander" game, well this is far more better and in 3d, you also have the same limited amount of fuel as well! Armstrong noted on his return from the moon.
"Eagle (the Lunar Module) flew very much like the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle which I had flown more than 30 times at Ellington Air Force Base near the Space Center. I had made from 50 to 60 landings in the trainer, and the final trajectory I flew to the landing was very much like those flown in practice. That, of course, gave me a good deal of confidence — a comfortable familiarity"
Considering the traumatic events on 6th May 1968, then the LLRV and the later LLTV, were actually very reliable over thousands of test flights. Actually only two crashed, the LLTV A1 (Armstrong) and Test pilot Stuart Present ejected again safely from crashing LLTV-2, 29th January 1971, the surviving rest are listed below
LLRV-2 (LLRV NASA 951) is on display at the Air Force Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. It was lent to the museum by NASA in 2016.
LLTV-3 (LLTV NASA 952) is on display at the Johnson Space Center.
A Replica of NASA 952 is in a partially complete state in the aircraft boneyard at the Yanks Air Museum.
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Summary
So how do you replicate landing on the Moon when you have never actually been there? This was the problem facing NASA in 1966. To build a full trainer of the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM, that was the lunar descent vehicle, was considered then be too expensive and even impractical.
Then came the idea to convert two VTOL experimental aircraft at the FRC (Flight Research Centre) now known as the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. These were LLRVs, later renamed LLTVs (A1/A2) and to build three more for training lunar astronauts in the skills of using the lunar lander in B1/B2 and B3.
The LLTV vehicle is reproduced here by NHAdrian, and brilliantly good it is. This is not a helicopter, more drone in skills, but the "LUNAR MODE" is replicated in absolute realism, in allowing you to practise Lunar Landings on Earth, or to practise this significant skill set, and actually get the feel of what flying the LEM was really like.
Sounds and the feel of the machine are simply excellent here (it's very loud), the rocket pulses perfectly synchronised, there are no extras or liveries, but a very well detained machine. The LLTV is also fully VR (Virtual Reality) ready, for an even more authentic immersion. With the update v1.01, the T-Stick in "Lunar Mode" is now also animated as well as the throttle control...
It is all very clever, very X-Plane as well, and the modeling detail and systems recreated here are exceptional, it is also very Lunar Lander, the 1979 video game, you get addicted to it, and try over and over again to achieve your goal... of landing on the Moon.
Highly recommended, and great authentic fun.
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Yes! - the LLTV - Lunar Landing Training Vehicle by NHAdrian is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
LLTV - Lunar Landing Training Vehicle
Price is US$19.95
Requirements
X-Plane 12
Windows, Mac (using Rosetta) or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 331 MB
Current Version : 1.0 (December 1st 2023) Important note for MAC OS X users: please read this article about enabling Rosetta: https://www.x-plane.com/kb/using-x-plane-11-addons-with-x-plane-12-on-mac-systems/ Designed by NHAdrian - Support forum for the LLTV by NHAdrian
Installation
Installation of LLTV is done via a download of 296 Mb... With a total installation size of 566Mb into the Aircraft Folder. Authorization is required, then a full X-Plane restart. As noted above there is a requirement to use Rosetta on the Mac System
There is one basic highly detailed Manual pdf (29 pages) with an install, set up, description of the LLTV, plus full checklists. The menu design is to replicate an official NASA document.
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.08b3 (This is a Beta review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- KEFD - Ellington Field - X-Plane default - Free
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News by Stephen Dutton
1st December 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Jack_57 in Aircraft Review : Schweizer S300CBi Helicopter X-Plane 12 by Dreamfoil Creations
Aircraft Review : Schweizer S300CBi Helicopter X-Plane 12 by Dreamfoil Creations
Without doubt the biggest pioneer in X-Plane Helicopters is Dreamfoil Creations. The list is too long to mention here of over a decade of development, but the Eurocopter AS350 B3+ and Bell 407 are brilliant examples of his work... not to mention the brilliant plugins like DreamEngine sounds. Then Dreamfoil went quiet about three years ago, disappeared off the X-Plane Simulator radar.
There was another brilliant project released for X-Plane 11 by Dreamfoil Creations and that was a small gem of a ultra-light Schweizer S300CBi two-seater helicopter, now both DreamFoil and the S300CBi are back for X-Plane 12.
By all accounts this the S300CBi a small machine, almost more like a large backpack of strapping on an engine and rotor blades, James Bond style, than a fully fledged flying machine. But even when considering the compact size of the aircraft, it has the capacity to be not only a good working machine, carry two people and fly a fair distance, but I doubt I would want to spend 101 hours in a hover pattern in it.
The prototype of this machine first flew as far back 2nd October 1956. In other words only weeks before I was born, and that is nearly sixty seven years ago. That aircraft was the Hughes Model 269, and only by 9th April 1959 did the 269 actually receive certification. In 1964, Hughes introduced the slightly-larger three-seat Model 269B which it marketed as the Hughes 300.
The Hughes 300 was followed in 1969 by the improved Hughes 300C (sometimes known as the 269C), which first flew on 6 March 1969 and received FAA certification in May 1970. This new model introduced a more powerful 190 hp (140 kW) Lycoming HIO-360-D1A engine and increased diameter rotor, giving a payload increase of 45%, plus overall performance improvements. It was this model that Schweizer began building the 300C under license from Hughes in 1983. In 1986, Schweizer acquired all rights to the helicopter from McDonnell Douglas, which had purchased Hughes Helicopters in 1984. the helicopter was known for a short time as the Schweizer-Hughes 300C and then simply, the Schweizer 300C.
The basic design remained unchanged over the decades. Between both Hughes and Schweizer, and including foreign-licensed production civil and military training aircraft, nearly 3,000 units of the Model 269/300 have been built and flown over the last 50 years.
The CBi version available here is the fuel injected version of the 300CB that alleviates carburetor icing concerns in colder temperatures. The 300CBi also includes overspeed protection and an automatic rotor engagement during start-up, as well as a low rotor RPM warning system.
So here is the X-Plane 12 version of the S300CBi. If you had flown the original X-Plane 11 version you will find this new version very familiar. It is modeling and detail wise, but there is still a substantial twist on the basics to make the aircraft really shine in X-Plane 12.
First off is that the XP12 version has the new 4k PBR textures... and "Wow"
I remember the quality was good, but the striking thing here is that the X-Plane 12 detail now feels levels above again over the X-Plane 11 version, you can almost touch those molded pressed metal panels and the rivet construction. Note the absolutely perfect window frame and door panel. The 32.5 gallons (123 liters) fuel tank is perfectly designed as well, most S300's have two for a full 65 Gal capacity, the frame is there, but the tank isn't attached? but wait it is! as the extra range auxiliary tank is now set as an option.
The highlight here is the amazing belt system running off the Lycoming HIO-360-D1A engine that connects to the tail rotor prop-shaft, in detail it is astounding in creation and animation, of course your life depends on any of those bands not breaking.
The whole guts of the machine is on show, beautifully created, you can spend hours dissecting it all and marveling at the intricate work here, as all detail is so complete. Even small items like the engine oil and air filters, piping and exhaust systems which are all exceptionally well done. Again you feel it all looks very different from the XP11 version, as everything pops out at you and simply cries "Realism". Same options are available with the exhaust, with "Short", "Long" and "Long+Tip" versions all available.
Rotor linkages and control rods are the heart of great helicopter design, and shows the skills of the developer. DreamFoil is certainly the best, and the expert work really shows here. As all the links are animated and perfectly done too, and they work (animated) from the cockpit all the way up to the rotor hub and out to the moving blades.
Move the controls, Cyclic, Collective and they all work perfectly. More clever stuff is also the rubber covers will also move in shape to the linkage movement... the detail here is in the extreme with great texture work in that the assemblies are perfectly worn and highly realistic.
At the end of the long boom tail, the tail rotor assembly is just as highly detailed, with again those magnificent animated boots. Yaw movement (Rudder) is again animated and perfect.
Another change is that the rotor hub adjust, where you could move the rotor blades to a set position is now gone (or moved). It is replaced by a "Rotor Tie" menu, that can add on the blade, hub and windshield covers. You can also use the same point and click tool on each of the separate blades.
Another point and click menu will lower or raise the wheels, note the lovely spring and cover action to the skids.
Initially I found the cockpit windows too dark, almost black compared to the XP11 S300CBi? Then I found in the Menu, now there is a slider that will adjust the translucency of the windows from 0% to 100%, and I found that 50% opacity was about perfect (as before).
Doors of course can be opened, or removed altogether, either by touch or via the menu.
Cockpit
Internally the cockpit is the same, with the same seats and materials. But again everything is highlighted more by the higher quality textures and the excellent X-Plane 12 lighting... Realism 101
Those seats are thin, but the vinyl seating covers are just so realistic in their shapes, stitching and light reflections. Quality headphones that are hanging on the center roof support can be used by clicking on them, and the external sound goes down (slightly) with their usage. Slender collectives both sit between the seats for either pilot or co-pilot use, and you can hide the control set (collective and cyclic) if you want to. Twist throttle movement is excellent.
Panel instruments are quite basic which would mean VFR rules only, turn on the power and the GPS Garmin GNS 430 powers up as does the Garmin GTX 32, which is the built in transponder unit.
Instruments are top row down is (left to right).... Chronometer, Vertical speed, Speed (knots/MPH), Altitude, Engine RPM, Manifold Pressure.
But wait?
You can now also select (or insert) an Artificial Horizon (missing before), and that makes the V/S and Altitude instruments shuffle across and down to fit.
Another option is to replace the GNS 430 with a Bendix/King KY 98A that is usable for COMM 1 use.
A set of six gauges cover... Fuel Gauge - Fuel Pressure Gauge - Cylinder Head Temperature, and lower, Oil Pressure Gauge (PSI) - Oil Temperature Gauge - Ammeter Gauge. Below the gauges is a hourly Hobbs Meter.
Lighting switchgear includes - both adjustable avionic and panel lighting, panel main switch, position and beacon switches. Fuel mixture and fuel shutoff knobs with electrical main key switch, Battery and Alternator switches are also lower right panel. All the Circuit Breakers (fuses) are active, and each function is fully listed in the manual.
To note that the Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT) here is driven by a custom algorithm which simulates more realistically the CHT behavior to give a more realistic flying experience, instead of it being just a dumb gauge.
The Panel at night is very nice (so was the XP11, but a bit too bright) here it is lit perfect.
Menu
For X-Plane 12 the menu system has been overhauled. Gone is the spinning dial menu, mainly because it was too limited for all the options. The menu now is a bit more a standard rank and file square, but it can hold far more features and options. You access the menu via a "hotspot" top right corner of the Instrument panel...
You can also access the menu externally by pressing a "hotspot" lower windshield.
Originally you had eight selections, but here you have two more in ten selections... Menu items include: Smart livery - Stability - Customize - Report - Volume - Weights - Correlator - Quick Views - Extra - Settings. Missing is the POV (Point Of View) feature.
Smart Livery: There was Eleven liveries with the XP11 version. Installed here are Five liveries: White (default), Calypso, Grapite, Orange, Purple and Silver Blue. But on the X-Plane.Org there are another 25 selections!, so altogether there are 36 liveries to choose from. Note the Calypso, this livery comes with floats.
The new Smart Livery menu is of course different than the circular version before, in the choice, it is now on a horizontal scroll.
Stability: This feature allows you to specify the percentages for (Yaw, Roll and Pitch) in stability augmentation. The "Rigid Cruise" feature shares the same principle of Stability Augmentation, but instead of keeping in a fixed value, and it will progressively increase the values from Hover to Cruise, in so making long flights an easier task for general simmers.... in other words holds the aircraft to make it easier to fly.
Customize: There are a lot (loads) of options were you can customize the S300CBi... top is the "Panel" options in the shown "Alt Indicator" and "Garmin 430" (or Bendix/King KY 98A)
Next are options for the "Covers & Tie(downs)", shortcuts include "All On" and "All Off", and "Doors" on/off
Next is the "Exhaust" options... Short, Long and Long+Tip
"Wheels/Floats/Spray kit" these options first remove the wheels on the skids, put some very nice floats on the S300CBi, and finally install a very nice "Spray Kit" with twin mounted inboard tanks.
"Windshield Opacity" can be graded from 0% to 100%, note here is that the setting is not saved? so you have to adjust it at every new startup?
Next three options include a "GPU" (Ground Power Unit), but it is more of a Power Stick, called a Li-Ion start stick, which is stuck into the side of the machine. The second "AUX fuel tank" option, and an external "Hook" under the S300CBi.
"Governor Kit" allows you to have on the Collective a Governor, or a clean short collective. The Schweizer 300CBi is not equipped with governor from the factory, but in few cases owners do install the kit which is unofficial and may vary on functionality.
Last customized options include, a Yaw String in the cockpit window, and the Co-Pilot Cyclic and Rudder Pedals on/off
Report: Report gives you a status message about helicopter usage, it's useful to see if you have stressed the helicopter. Includes Fuel estimate – It's an estimate in hours of your current - Datcom Engine (engine hourmeter), Datcom Flight (flight hourmeter), Min and Max G's - This indicates the maximum and minimum values that helicopter structure has experienced, including during a crash. You can also reset "ALL" or "G".
Sounds: Sadly the original "DreamEngine" plugin sounds are now long gone. Now replaced with the same sounds, but under the FMOD XP12 system. This is the menu adjustment for eight different sound parameters, the slider adjustment is used to change the percentage %
Weights: The Weights menu shows you your: Pilot Weight, Pax Weight, Main Fuel Weight, Aux Fuel Weight - Fuel Estimate and Total (aircraft weight).
Colelator: More a developer tool, this shows the aircraft parameters and presets, with a debug option panel lower left.
Quick Views: this menu selection gives you ten pre-set views of the internal and external aspects of the S300CBi
Extra: There are two "Extra" options. The first is a one page (basic) "Checklist", you scroll it up and down at your convenience. Second option is the "Slung Window" or to see the position of your hung load from the hook.
Settings: There are four "Settings" available in... "Units" Metric or Imperial. "External Spots" will put "animated hotspots" on the aircraft for actions like; Rotor Brake, Adding Fuel, Moving Wheels.... One action that has been moved from the top of the main rotor to the tail rotor, is the blade centre adjust. Here now you turn the tail, which moves the main rotor blades to the centre parked position.
GeForce... This option allows you to adjust the "Lateral" and "Vertical" forces against the aircraft, and a slider or keypad is used to adjust the percentage %
Final "Settings" option is the "Rotor Particles" or the exhaust plume in on/off.
In the external view you get a pilot, not the most detailed human, and he is non-animated as well... but he looks fine for the job in hand.
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Flying the Schweizer S300CBi
I was expecting the Schweizer S300CBi to be very, very nervous or twitchy aircraft, as it is such a very small agile little insect of a machine. But in fact it was quite a well balanced and quite a stable aircraft to fly... the trick is to manage your X-Plane and Dreamfoil settings to get the best balance and control... playing with the yaw response curve can do wonders, also there is a "Cyclic Adjustment" below the front of the main pilot's seat, this actuator is a small electrical motor on cyclic base which can apply lateral and longitudinal forces, and you can adjust it via two rotating knobs.
Startup was quite easy. Power (Bat) and Alt switches on, make sure the mixture knob is in, turn the key and hold the starter switch for a short while... (the switch changes if you use the governor, on the short stick the start button is on the front)... so starting is easy, lawnmowers are harder.
The Governor will correctly simulate the correlator behavior which is a link between the collective and the throttle to reduce pilot workload, when raising the collective it will also increase throttle or vice-versa. Also notable is the clutch which has 3 modes... OFF – Manual, SLOW – Automatic engage in slow speed and FAST – An automatic engage used when belt system is already on a high temperature, like after a flight.
When the temps are up to their correct temperature then you can increase the RPM via the throttle grip, the RPM settles down around 2,700 rpm
The slim boom tail yaw can be twitchy at first until you feel it, then your away... slight cyclic forward (not too much!) as you gain height moves you forward, when have enough ground, you can give the cyclic more of a forward push, so you can climb and collect speed at the same time, but don't over do it... just nice and easy. Rate of climb is tops at 750 ft/min (3.82 m/s).
Anyway you don't want to go too high, as skimming the trees gives you the feeling of speed, as this critter doesn't really go that fast.... Maximum speed is only 95 kn (109 mph, 176 km/h) and your cruise speed is 86 kn (99 mph, 159 km/h), you could probably run faster.
Biggest advantage with the XP12 version is the addition of the Artificial Horizon... I found when I used to fly the S300CBi, it was it always flew a bit lop-sided, because it suited itself flying at this angle. Now I have a reference line to straighten the machine up correctly and it makes a huge difference in your flying... in going straight!
Sounds are the same, but slightly more advanced than before in now being FMOD based, but there is still the same excellent 3D zoom with directional sound, with an authentic HO-360 engine sound in the rear, blade slap is great if you push the nose too high and volumetric cockpit sounds come with more noise if you don't wear your headset, or even louder if you open or remove the doors...
As you bank or roll, there is the need to push the cyclic slightly forward to keep the altitude correct, keep it centre, and you will climb. But that sweet flying aspect is still there, small cyclic movements does all the work, as this was the biggest attraction to the S300CBi, probably even better now with the superior X-Plane 12 dynamics. Range of the S300CBI is only 195 nmi, 360 km (204 miles).
Even though it is only a small container sized cabin. It is all very panoramic, as you feel open and every view is excellent, even the machinery twirling above your head is very noticeable. Certainly if you have a VR (Virtual Reality) headset, it would be levels better again.
Effective translational lift (ETL) here is excellent, as you reach into the lower speed zone, around 15 knots, but restraining the speed is quite tricky in trying to slow the Schweizer down... it takes a little practise to get that aspect perfectly right, but Dreamfoil's aircraft were always based very highly on the skills, it is again here. Approaches are low and slow, then find that perfect ETL point as you go into the hover.
The S300CBi is still classed as a "light utility" machine, so it is very light in the feel, but you soon switch in... get it wrong though, like I did in the last few feet and the absorbing skids will compress and soften the blow (and your ego)... another great detail from Dreamfoil.
Probably need to do that one again.
Lighting
Cockpit and panel lighting is excellent, the panel as noted is not as bright as the XP11 version, but far better here.... both the instruments and Avionics that can be adjusted separately. External lighting is great with navigation (side rear boom) which are steady, and rear flash strobes.
There is a green spot map light on the rear bulkhead that can be fully adjusted in all axis and it is also very good.
Under the aircraft there is a spotlight, that is accessed by a hard to see switch on the front of the cyclic. The spotlight is also fully adjustable to get the right lighting angle via a pop-up slider.
Summary
One of the great X-Plane helicopter developers in Dreamfoil Creations has had a break for a few years. Now he is back with a transition aircraft to X-Plane 12 of one of his earlier excellent helicopters in the Schweizer S300CBi, a twin-seat Ultra-Light for X-Plane 11.
This machine was very popular with the punters and chopper jockeys, because of it's sweet flying capabilities, and nothing has certainly changed in that area here, if anything the dynamics are even more heightened in X-Plane 12.
When one of the "Old Guard" comes up with a release you can see and feel the difference. Certainly Dreamfoil is a mastercraftsman, but the S300CBI is even more masterful and the extreme quality shows in every part of this helicopter now available in X-Plane 12. It comes with fully functioning systems and components in the rotors and the controls are to be marveled at here, in fact everything can be admired, as the whole machine is exquisitely crafted to the highest degree and takes advantage of all the X-Plane 12 features, a bonus is this is also one of the very best sweetest machines to have and fly. VR ready as well.
This is not just a straight conversion to X-Plane 12 of the S300CBi. As almost every area has had attention, notable the PBR textures to 4K, but the glass, sounds (now FMOD) and the details are all enhanced or transformed into a higher quality. The Menu is expanded as well, as long as your arm, and probably your leg as well, it is full of options and tools... including the Smart Livery system (but different here), Stability, Covers/Ties, removable Doors, Floats and an excellent Crop Spray Kit, Aux Tank, Li-Ion start stick, Hook, Governor Kit and on it goes, and new is windshield Opacity. And all the external spots will give you access to the various parts of the aircraft, and Quick Views is in there as well.
Basically the "Master" is back, and again Dreamfoil delivers an exceptional Simulation machine in the Schweizer S300CBi. Fabulous investment, but skills are required to get the most out of this Ultra-Light Helicopter. Hopefully more of his Creations in the AS350 B3+ and the Bell 407 will follow the S300CBi into X-Plane 12, until then, you already have a Premier Helicopter Simulation here for the X-Plane Simulator with this amazing Schweizer machine.
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Yes! - the Schweizer S300CBi XP12 by Dreamfoil Creations is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Schweizer S300CBi XP12
Price is US$39.95 : On sale: $39.95 US$34.95
You Save:$5 (13%)
Requirements
X-Plane 12
Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 445 MB Current version : 1.0 (November 20th 2023) Designed by DreamFoil Creations Support forum for the S300CBi XP12 Installation
Installation of Schweizer S300CBi XP12 is done via a download of 423 Mb... With a total installation size of 1.02Gb. (Excluding extra liveries)
There is one basic Manual pdf (20 pages)
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.08b3 (This is a Beta review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- KFMY - Page Field - Fort Myers, Florida 1.0 by timbenedict3 (X-Plane.Org) - Free
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News by Stephen Dutton
25th November 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Scenery Review - YBCS Cairns International Airport Australia by Taimodels
Scenery Review - YBCS Cairns International Airport Australia by Taimodels
Australia is strange place to visit, by sea or air, as you can travel thousands of kilometers past the northern coastline until you reach any major population centre. More oddly is the continent's relationship with Asia, again to the north. In some ways Asia is on Australia's doorstep, but to the Australians they could be half the world away. It is a remote land.
You have to in reality fly to Brisbane on Australia's east middle coast, or to Perth on the country's lower west coast if you want to mix with the main population centres, Sydney and Melbourne are set even far lower again, with Melbourne on the southern coast, the rest is just a wide open barren landscape. Those were your only main port choices until only less than a decade ago.
Things are changing. Two northern ports however are in particular very important to this change, one is Darwin's International Airport, and it is still not what you would call a big airport as in also being part of a military base. The second is Cairns International, in Far North Queensland (FNQ), and it is strategically Australia's closest airport to Asia.
Cairns Airport goes back to 1928, but it was not until the second world war the Australian Government bought the airport for use by the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1943, the main runway was hard surfaced and lengthened to handle military aircraft. It was also used by the United States Army Air Forces as a transport base, with the 33d Troop Carrier Squadron (374th Troop Carrier Group) operating from the base during 1942.
During the mid-1960s, the airport was upgraded and the runway further lengthened to 2,020 m (6,630 ft) and also strengthened so jets could land.
During the 1970s, Australia's two domestic airlines Trans Australia Airlines and Ansett then provided regular scheduled services out of CNS to most Australian capital cities and also Papua New Guinea, while in 1975 Air Niugini became the first international airline to commence flights out of Cairns, to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. In 1982, redevelopment of the airport commenced. This involved further lengthening of the runway to 2,600 m (8,500 ft) (making it the longest runway in Queensland) and construction of a new terminal building.
At the end of the 70's decade the second stage of redevelopment was completed. This included a new separate International Terminal, associated aprons and taxiways, costing an estimated $80 million. The main runway was again extended, to 3,196 m (10,486 ft). In 1997, the third stage of redevelopment was completed, during which a three-storey Airport Administration Centre was also constructed providing 4,000 m2 (43,000 sq ft) of office space.
In January 2010, Auckland International Airport Limited announced that it had purchased 24.6 per cent of North Queensland Airports (NQA). Then a $55 million Domestic Terminal upgrade was completed in August 2020. Check-in facilities was expanded into a common-user facility for all airlines, and the building again enlarged. Five new jet bridges replaced the existing three old bridges.
In early 2023, it was announced that the International Terminal (Terminal 1) would undergo its first major upgrade in April 2023 to a value of AUD$40-50 million. The first of which would feature the installation of four new glass air-bridges and the re-cladding of the exterior of the building.
Everything in passenger numbers were building nicely over the last decade, mostly Asian tourists, coming in to view the famous Great Barrier Reef which is situated very close to Cairns, then the pandemic rolled in and the numbers flat-lined, and yet have to recover. But operations are already starting to open up with international Jetstar services to Osaka–Kansai, Tokyo–Narita in Japan.
But if one airport in Australia is primed for huge expansion it is CNS Cairns, as noted it is the most northern of Australian Airports, but it's neighbour Papua New Guinea is a big market, not to mention surrounding regional services, FI-FO (Flyin - Flyout) services to the mining industry is also a huge traffic bonanza, and the famous Australian Flying Doctor also has a facility here... Its a busy place, for somewhere so remote.
For X-Plane users Australia has not been at the front of quality scenery, in fact for a simple demographic population, the releases have been dismal, there is even a poor representation in freeware, never mind quality payware, but the last few years it has got marginally better. Orbx delivered an excellent Brisbane BNE and even a city package that is well worth the investment, Perth is served by Axonos as is the Gold Coast YBCG. But there is currently no MEL - Melbourne, the biggest port in Australia, and that aspect that shows how lacking we are over here, Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide are also non-existent, the last Alice Springs YBAS actually made me cry it was so badly made.
So thank god for Taimodels. First they delivered an excellent YSSY - Sydney International last year, and now here we have again another Australian scenery from Taimodels, this one is YBCS - Cairns International.
Obviously I wanted to do the usual BNE-CNS route (QF 5908). Departure from Brisbane was under a heavy low cloud, its been like this for a week now, with the odd patches of rain. The service today is by the Zibo Boeing 737-800, and it is a 2h 5m + flight.
You always know when you are approaching Cairns, it is brighter up here, hotter too.
Most approaches into Cairns will mean an easy parallel track, mostly you arrive via RWY 15, as RWY 33 is a more tighter approach and departure, actually through the Goldsborough Valley, or a left tight 015º turn after departure.
Cairns Airport
IATA: CNS - ICAO: YBCS - WMO: 94287
15/33 3,156m (10,354ft) Asphalt
Elevation AMSL 10 ft/3 m
Your approach is usually via SUNNY, to D16.0 and then track 150º until you collect the ILS (109.9 ICS)
I always loved a Cairns Approach, as you have be really on your alerts and as to get the landing sequence right, for there is a wall of high terrain to your west, so you can't afford to mess up the approach.
Now you will get your first clear view of YBCS, most of the airport (terminals) are to the eastern side.
As you pass over the Barron River, there is some very well designed and placed Approach Lighting, this why you buy Payware, because you get detail.
Finals!
Both ends of 15/33 have turnarounds... ground linage is very impressive, if a little confusing from the cockpit.
No guidance boards, but a marshaller... and there is a little, but still ample clutter, but no animated ramp traffic? so it all feels slightly empty.
Looks like Cairns, certainly feels like Cairns... so it must be the Cairns I know so well.
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The single long 15/33 magnetic runway 3,156m (10,354ft) now dominates, as the shorter sealed light aircraft runway 12/30 has been decommissioned. The Terminal layout is a square L shape with the earlier Domestic Terminal sited North/South, and the newer International Terminal sited East/West.
The airport has two passenger terminals on the eastern side of the airport on reclaimed mangrove swamp. They are approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) north of the Cairns Central Shopping Centre and situated on Airport Avenue off Sheridan Street (Captain Cook Highway). The terminals are in two separate buildings 200 m (660 ft) from one another. The Domestic terminal is number 2 and it has five jet bridges and 17 gates, while the International Terminal is number 1 and it currently has six jet bridges and ten gates in total.
Domestic
In all my time in X-Plane, the CNS Domestic terminal has been a long rectangle box, with five stick airbridges sticking out, that is freeware for you. But here we get the fully replicated domestic terminal from Taimodels... yes its very good, as Taimodels are very, very good at modeling terminals.
Impressive are the five scissor walkways to each airbridge, they are a very nice detail of the terminal's hodge-podge design. Landside is extremely well done, with great glass and signage. But the area is devoid of any life, no passengers or vehicles to make it look like a busy airport, so what is wrong with a bit of life clutter?
All of YBCS uses the SAM3 animated airbridges for aircraft connection, plugin is needed of course, but it's a nice interactivity.
Arrivals, Departure and the main Terminal internal lounge are all internally present, nicely done, but again devoid of any life, a shame as it's well done.
International Terminal
I'm not sure of the presented International Terminal is the older, or newer? but will say it is the current facility in being very colourful. The design is very basic, really a big shed style terminal, but again Taimodels have done a perfect job in recreating the look and feel of the facility.
The building detail is first rate, there is also the added bonus of animated traffic through the international arrivals area, and even a bus.
Internally the International Terminal is well done, bright and very FNQ in style and feel, but again not much activity or passengers.
Notable is the glass, as it is nicely transparent, the trees outside will move if the wind is strong enough, and cars passing by helps as well. On the Airside, the departure lounges are done, but its all a bit sparse, so in areas here it feels not completed either with empty shops. So you wish for more as more intimate detail here, as it would lift the scenery to the higher grade it deserves.
Cargo
The freight zone south of the Domestic Terminal is small, in fact it only has one parking bay (23). But it is a generously sized one and could easily cater for a large B748 or B744 freighter. There is a little bit of cargo clutter that is nice, but again it is sparse around the buildings.
Central Control Tower and Airport Administration Centre stand out, both are very nicely done. Important as they are so very visible in the scenery. The Australian design and feel of the buildings is very evident in the scenery, so Taimodels have done a great job in this aspect.
There is a basic layout set out in the tower control room, but the heavy blue glass tint makes it (very) hard to see the two approaches.
Landside is really good. There is a photo underlay, but it's not at all intrusive. Carparks are well laid out with loads of 3d vehicles, and auxiliary buildings are also numerous and photo correct. More signage would have been nice, but again that Aussie feel comes across well.
In clutter, some service vehicles are Qantas branded, but again everything in services is not overwhelming.
Southwest is the General Aviation and Services area. This area includes the famous Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), and they have a significant base here covering the Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Country.
Again some signage or aircraft denoting the Service would have been nice. Hinterland, GSL and JetAviation are all represented... there are a few static aircraft, but these ramps are usually very crowded and busy, were as here the opposite.
Nautilus Aviation and GBR Helicopters are also represented, in fact there is a wide choice of landing pads over most of the scenery.
Northwest is the (photographic) Northern Waste Treatment plant, but there are some 3d buildings surround it, making the area realistic. Several points are the missing vehicle Captain Cook Hwy bridges over the Barron River, visible from any northern arrival or departure, it's an ugly join as well. Another missing piece is the retired Bush Pilots Airways DC-3 memorial that is now gone, it was originally a visible statement on the entrance to the domestic airport... it was moved to the western side, then later broken up, the significant white Hercules is however still present but not shown here.
Secondly there is only a small section of parameter fencing on the west side, and all the airports boundaries are very well defined, so it is noticeable sadly.
Ground textures
As this scenery is X-Plane 12 certified, you do get an odd situation considering the foliage. X-Plane 12 has seasons, that turns the foliage into colours or trees with no leaves in the winter... here in FNQ the system works badly against you. First of all in Northern Australia there are no typical four block seasons, just a Dry or Wet season, and it's a tropical clime up here as well, so the trees don't really change that much thoughout the year.
But X-Plane does what X-Plane does, and it swaps the seasons around as well, actually the wrong way, as this is the Southern Hemisphere. So what you get are brown autumn trees in the Spring/Summer? here Taimodels have used the XP12 3d foliage trees...
.... and it simply doesn't work, as the colours don't match in with the surrounding textures or the area
There is a trick to get it right. Turn off the "Time of Day" and set (Customize) your month to June or July, and the colours will come green and right again, odd as those months are set deep into the Australia's winter?
Another small nark is the grass. Here you get 3d grass, but the VOD is very small, and so the big bushes here tend to appear and disappear in a heavy line as you move, or when you takeoff/land. Basically you are better off by removing the 3d foliage as the ground is lighter below as well... overall the grass it just doesn't work and it looks artificially horrible.
The main textures are okay, certainly not totally realistic, but still in the "not bad" category as well, grain is good, as are the marks, and there is depth to the textures...oil/fuel spills and grunge on the ground are realistic, with a good sense of weathering and usage at the airport. PBR reflective (wet) active textures and burnt-in ambient occlusion is also available here, and are excellent for those sudden explosive summer rainstorms, but there are no winter textures this close to the equator. Only bloat on the copybook are the iron rod straight lines set on the edge of the runways and taxiways.
Lighting
Overall the lighting is pretty dire.... not a strong area with Taimodels, but Cairns is their worst lighting to date. Approach lighting adheres to the X-Plane 12 standards, but everything else goes downhill from there.
Ramps are shown in a soft yellow glow, but most of the working areas and gates are in darkness.
Only bright spots (pun intended) are the Domestic and International arrival areas, the rest depends on the odd spot lighting and road lighting, signage lighting is also non-existent.
Internal Domestic and International terminals relies on intermittent spot lighting? again it all looks very average. On the GA services side it is lit up like a Christmas Tree with tons of of harsh spot lighting...
.... but the real concern here is all the missing taxiway side and centreline lighting, as there isn't any at all, not impressed!
Summary
Considering the long distances to get to Australia, there is not a lot of quality X-Plane scenery available when you do finally get here. Only Sydney (Taimodels) and Brisbane (Orbx) have extensive payware scenery, Melbourne is sadly lacking even a decent freeware, so don't mention a quality payware. That is the very sad state of affairs down under.
But here is their second Australian scenery from Taimodels, and it's set in the Far North Of Queensland, Cairns International. A welcome choice from the earlier cheap YBCS rectangle boxes and five stick airbridges.
The CNS scenery shows the absolute strength and weaknesses of Taimodels as a developer, gladly the strong is way better than the few weak here.
Starting with the excellent terminal modeling, both externally and internally, it is all very well done and has that Cairns FNQ feel and look. Airbridges are all SAM3 powered and animated, but with marshallers and not guidance boards. Good photo underlays give a solid base that covers all the areas of the airport, including an excellent landside, and the west side General Aviation and Services areas, including the Royal Flying Doctor Service building. Control tower, airport administration building and auxiliary buildings are all very well done.
The average is not a lot that could not be fixed up in an update. Far more detail and signage with clutter and landside detail, including passengers and their baggage, both inside and external Terminals would be very nice, some airside animation in service vehicles would also add in some activity... this is all fine tuning stuff, but the real detail required here is the lighting. It needs to be far better than this, but no taxiway lighting is not just a oversight, but is even detrimental to the developers reputation at this level.
First thoughts are that any payware scenery, rather than no quality scenery is what is probably delivered here by Taimodels. But that is not the case, as overall this Cairns International scenery for X-Plane 12 is excellent, and far, far better than just filling in a location to fly to. It delivers an excellent representation of Cairns International, in look and feel, and the cost at around US$20 it is value packed as well.
Taimodels as scenery developers are extremely good now, but need to do or finish the finer, finer detail to reach that coveted 5 star status, its close here, so very close. But overall Taimodels YBCS is quality scenery for the X-Plane 12 Simulator.
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The YBCS - Cairns International Airport Australia by Taimodels is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store
YBCS - Cairns International Airport Australia
Priced at US$20.00
Requirements
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 (both versions included) Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 810 GB Released Nov 3rd 2023 Installation
Installation of YBCS - Cairns International Airport Australia is done via download of 775 Mb...
There two files
TMS_Cairns_International_YBCS (1.42Gb) TMS_YBCS_Mesh (3.05Mb)
With a total installation size of 1.48Gb. The "YBCS_Mesh" must be in the lower order in the SCENERY_PACK_INI, and set below the main "TMS_Cairns_International_YBCS" scenery file.
SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 3.0 or higher is required for this scenery
There is one basic installation pdf (3 pages)
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.07r1 (This is a Release Candidate review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
-Zibo Boeing 737X -
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Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton
14th November 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Anthony96 in Aircraft Update Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate
Aircraft Update Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate
Up at dawn, time to load the freight... we are at Leipzig/Halle Airport EDDP, for a routine flight to the UPS Facility at Philadelphia, US, KPHL.
God it's a "Beast" of an aircraft is the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, but Airhaulers love the "Diva". Those ghost pilots that fly at night, unseen, unknown, but moving tons cargo around the world for your livelihoods or self-indulgence.
You start the centre positioned No.2 Engine first to provide power and air-conditioning and other AUX systems, then pushback on time (note the BetterPushback issues have now already been fixed). Then once out of the bay, you can start the other two General Electric CF6-80C2D1F high-bypass turbofan engines, rated at 52,200–61,960 lbf each.
I'm not going to shy away from the reality. To get the DC-11 ready for flight, there is a lot of filling in of data and setting up of the route. There are a few helpers in the menu. But overall the developers approach is to make this aircraft as realistic and authentic as possible, that is good obviously, but a bit daunting if you are not familiar with these machines and their complex Honeywell Pegasus MCDUs. The instrument panel and DU (Display Units) have very different layouts as well, their operation are also different from most other flightdecks. But these aspects are also the attraction to the aircraft, you are flying and mastering something entirely different, that is also the seduction of the MD-11.
The focus with the release of X-Plane 12 in it's beta phase... a Version 1.05 beta (September 26th 2022) allowed the Rotate MD-11 aircraft to function in the new Simulator version. Then two updates followed with v1.05 (October) and v1.06 (December) and both were focused on X-Plane 12. The final DC-11 (official) release for X-Plane 12 was the v1.07 update in March 2023.
For a comprehensive look at the aircraft, here is the X-PlaneReviews review of the XP11 release; Aircraft Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 by Rotate
If you are a "hauler" in these "Heavy, Heavy" aircraft, say a B744F, B748F and the MD-11F. The critical phase is just after you leave the runway. You need to climb (obviously), but with a really heavy aircraft, brimmed with Cargo and Fuel, then you need to coax the machine into the air, then have the skill to keep it up there. You pitch is critical, too low and you lose height, too high and you stall, badly and literally fall out of the sky. Between the two barrier zones to a perfect climb-out, and you usually do it very carefully and slowly... the MD-11 is totally like this.
Once settled in at 12,000ft you, then have more flexibility on setting speed (usually for me around 295 knts) and an altitude climb-rate (1800 fpm), down to 1,000 fpm from 26,000 ft up. You would never go to full cruise altitude either, usually say 32,000 ft for the first 500 nm to burn off weight in fuel, then step up 2,000 ft at a time to your cruise altitude, here 36,000 ft, you step the speed as well, from m.76, to the cruise speed of m.82. I learnt these tricks/skills well on an underpowered Boeing 747-200 F with 46,300–54,750 lbf of thrust, compared to the 66,500 lbf thrust of the latest GEnx-2B67 on the B748F and the 52,200–61,960 lbf available here.
Before we get into the update... In doing reviews you are also evaluating the current situation of the Simulator as well (X-Plane12.07r1), and how it interacts with your flying. There has been a lot of development around the weather this year in X-Plane 12 by Laminar Research, some changes were really bad very early in the year, but with lots of improvements of reading GRIB forecasts which are based on the National Weather Service (NOAA) since v12.06.
But real world simulations are getting very good in X-Plane... Here I was approaching the European Coast and the weather was getting quite nasty. Navigraph have this year added a weather component to there excellent "Charts" application, and you can see the weather topographic mappings, look outside of the MD-11 and I have the same precipitation areas around me... I needed to climb, but instead stayed at FL320 until I saw a gap (shown on the topographic) to finally climb from below the weather, to be on the top (FL360)... I was impressed with not only the exact weather mirrored on the Application, to the weather situation around me, and to take advantage of that... it also shows how X-Plane in this area is also getting very close to the real weather situations we crave, admittedly there is still more development needed for upper level Cirrus clouds and shading, but the improvements are there to not only see, but to feel as well.
Update v1.08
But to the business at hand, the latest v1.08 update. There is again a massive list of fixed and improved areas on the XP12 MD-11 in this update, but first three new additions.
Added into the MD-11 cockpit are two EFB (Electronic Flight Bags) or tablets, one positioned each side of the pilots.
You can adjust the angle of the EFBs to your personal preference, but you can't hide them.
Power switch is lower left corner.
There are eleven tabs to select from. They are an amalgamation of the MD-11 Menu, and AviTab (Plugin Required). The list is HOME, W&B, GndOps, Fails, Man, Chart, Maps, Apts, Rtes, Data and Notes.
All HOME (Options), W&B (Weight & Balance), GndOps (Ground Operations) and Fails (Failures) are all direct copies of the same Menu items found in the Plugins/Rotate MD-11/Aircraft Menu.
Basically they have been repositioned there in the tablets for convenience. The other seven tabs are the various AviTab tools set differently.
MAN - Manuals
This MAN option allows you to navigate folders to find Manuals or Tutorials within the Computer's file system, here set in Windows, and you can display pdfs on the screen. Its clever, handy but pretty basic as well.
Chart - AviTab
You can insert a navigation chart or other document in the AviTab "charts" folder (X-Plane 12/Resources/plugins/AviTab/charts) and have it appear in this tab... It will also show pdf files, ideal for loading in SimBrief "Briefings". Basically this option would be used if you didn't have a Navigraph or another chart account.
Maps
Is the standard AviTab Maps function.
Apts - Airports
Airports is the standard AviTab function to get airport information, and if you have a Navigraph account and access to their charts
Rtes - Routes
This is the "Route Wizard", A tool to compute a route for you to enter into the aircraft's FMC. First you add in your Departure Airport, then your Arrival Airport and it creates a route for you.
Data
You use the "Data" tab to authorise accounts, like for Navigraph and ChartFox, both charts can be viewed in the "Apts" (Airports) tab when selected.
Notes
This tab uses the AviTab "Notes" Function... Honestly I can't get it to work, there are no manual notes and the Rotate Developer doesn't know either... but the idea is to write down notes, but how do you save them? it is supposed to be for VR (Virtual Reality) users.
Basically most users are very familiar with AviTab functions and tools, and having it built in well in here is obviously a bonus to the pilot.
The last two additions to the v1.08 update, are both for those long distance pilots that move away from the Simulation. There are two options now to pause the Simulator... the first is to pause the Simulation on a "Master" warning alert, the second is again to pause the Simulation before T/D or Top of Descent.
The list is split between "Improved" Areas and general fixes. In the improved focus there has been a lot of attention on the ATS (AutoThrottle) in the Servos behavior, in the AFS (AutoFlight) there is improved altitude capture, speed on pitch guidance and better system stability and accuracy. There is also better lateral guidance for NAV/VOR/LOC modes and improved LAND sequence guidance.
For engines there is better N1 trim and thrust precision and and engine drag near idle. The VNAV descent prediction has also had attention, drag prediction for non-clean configurations, and finally there are Improved navigation lights textures.
I do really like the nice strobe effect, not one strobe but two in sequence.
Rotate is always very serious about bugs, finding those nasties in there and improving the Simulation. The list here is very long... 35 fixes that covers a lot of areas, we can't cover every item here, that would drive you nuts, so we will take only the important items.
There was a radio bug in the VHF2 Channel, in that it could receive but not transmit, it's been fixed. Flight Mode Annunciations (FMA) has had attention as well, in Altitude mode blinking during capture, and PROF TO (Profile) reading during climb. There was some negative values in the altimeter tapes that have been corrected, a bug in the PERF page predictions. Finally a rounding error in some lat/lon readings (mostly Oceanic coords).
There was a discrepancy between active and shown flight plans... fixed. And a problem with direct bearing to AT/B restriction during descent calculation. Also speed used for flight path prediction below speed transition altitude was not working properly. speed tape logic has been refined, and a bug in Vspeeds boxes color codes has also been rectified.
On hardware, there was a bug in the start lever sounds, and intermittent repose of TCA hardware handles, toe-brakes didn't work either without a joystick plugged in. The wingflex has also been refined a little better, and for XP11, the wingtip glass (floating) has also been fixed.
My thoughts with the UPS flight are actually few, but worth noting. The LWR Cargo TEMP LO warning (yellow) is still (very) persistent, even though Rotate acknowledged the bug very early in the release phase. My other thoughts are with a lot of current classes of complex aircraft, as there is no SAVE feature for the aircraft. Using the default "Situation" save creates a not very realistic return to the cockpit, and a major reset to make the aircraft flyable again. So you are restricted to do a flight from block to block in one go to get a smooth Simulation. Biggest offender is the non-working ATS (AutoThrottle), that refuses to reset, and the gymnastics when you restart the Simulation... it can be reset to fly correctly, but you will need patience and skill to do so. My point is this is very long-haul flying, and sometimes for ten hours in the left seat, and sometimes you have to break up the simulation, of which you can't do here, it also hates the replay and the X8-X16 speed changes with the complexity... And I loath the ghost throttle simulation, there should be an option to hide the distracting animation.
The rear rest cabin still has extremely low-res textures and a non-working toilet, and the cargo loading feature, while well done, is still restricted to 4 containers that disappear when loaded, you need better here if you are a serious cargo hauler.
MD-11 is a seriously nice machine in the air, one of the best simulations in X-Plane 12. Internally it is a very nice environment, again with the long hours you have to have change from the left seat options, like a snooze in the third rear seat, or a break in the rear...
Great to watch is the excellent fuel management system on the MD-11. It has a fully automatic aircraft balance system, like Concorde it pumps fuel forward after takeoff to keep the CG (Centre of Gravity) within limits, shown upper left on the Fuel page display.
In flight the pumps are always switching on or off, you don't just have a Tail Tank, but an Auxiliary tank as well. All fuel tanks are simulated here, including the separate outboard and inboard wing compartments, 18 fuel pumps, 16 valves, 5 manifolds and the 4 fuel feed valves... The full system is modeled for as a physical model for fuel flow and thermal behavior. There are also Automatic and manual modes.
Quantity, pressure and temperature for each of the fuel tanks are computed separately. All this data is processed in the custom Fuel System Controller, where logic for most of the sub-systems have been written to simulate most of the system’s functions, including fuel scheduling, cross-feed, CG management, ballast fuel management, anti-ice re-circulation, tip transfer, fuel dump, and abnormal operation. Manual mode, failures and electrical dependencies are also simulated. It's altogether very authentic and realistic.
Interesting on the MD-11, is that you can only set your departure Takeoff details, but not the Arrival/Approach settings. This is done as you reach your TOD (Top of Descent) phase by pressing the TO/APPR button. Then you set your Flap position and speeds. Secondary is setting your Arrival Radio Approach Frequency, here at Philadelphia, KPHL, Rwy 27L... the Freq is 109.30 IGLC, but you have to wait until it is available from the list to insert. So you insert the ILS Freq 109.30, then you are taken to selection page to select the correct frequency, here LK6 as it has just shown up on the list, selecting the correct frequency will then insert it into the ILS/CRS box, adding in the Course º degree and the ILS name "IGLC. This is a change in selecting from the list, instead of just earlier inserting the ILS Freq late into the the flight.
I'm now over Pennsylvania, tracking into JIIMS4 STAR, but I had to make an adjustment to the flightplan with an extra way point VC177 to make a cleaner rounded turn to finals on Rwy 27L.
Going into the final turn it's time to drop the gear! "Chunk, Clunk,Clunk" and its down and we are ready for landing.
You press the upper large centre APPR/LAND button centre FGCP to ARM the approach phase (as noted this also arms only the LOC if you selected that option)
If you have activated the ILS Frequency correctly it will show lower left in the PFD with the set Flap degree, you can also now set the APPR screen in the ECP, for better approaches. Notable is the auto selection of "Single" or "Dual" landing (Land) selections (green banner top right PFD) , it will flash the selection it will use then LOC it in.
I'm sitting at 175 knts, but in reality the MD-11 is certainly a gut sort of aircraft in this phase like I found in the release review, the throttle response is very slow on resetting the speed, so you have to be ahead of the aircraft, sometimes by a long way, to get the right speed in the approach phase, same with the ILS landing phase in resetting the approach speed to the descent angle.
Yes your always nervous, it's a tricky approach to get right, with a very heavy and fast aircraft rushing towards the ground. MD-11 as we were told, had the fastest VAPP of any civilian airliner. At MGLW (Maximum Gross Landing Weight), it was usually known to be landing at around 168kts.... and you are aware of that aspect and all that weight in the back.
In landing again the MD-11 is very much like the Airbus, as there are landing modes, certainly the callouts are very good, with also "LAND and FLARE on the PFD... I was however seriously again very impressed on how I could just pitch the nose up nicely in the flare to touch the main gear down first.
I'm on the runway, so you activate everything you can, in reversers, airbrakes and stand on the toe-brakes to stop the momentum of a landing weight of 204,331 kg, thankfully it all works...
... it's a real substantial beast of an aircraft, so mastering it with skill and ambition is certainly a challenge, but also the MD-11 gives back huge rewards for all the effort...
If we are looking at substantial Simulations then the Rotate MD-11 is certainly it, not for the absolute novice, but certainly for the brigade of users that have Long-Haul experience and want a "Heavy, heavy" aircraft to master.
Summary
The release of X-Plane 12 in it's beta phase... a Version 1.05 beta (September 26th 2022) allowed the Rotate MD-11 aircraft to function in the new Simulator version. Then two updates followed with v1.05 (October) and v1.06 (December) and both were focused on X-Plane 12. The final DC-11 (official) release for X-Plane 12 was the v1.07 update in March 2023.
This is the v1.08, with three new features and along with another long bug and fix update. Biggest addition is two EFB (Electronic Flight Bags) or tablets for each pilot. They have four tabs that mirror the Rotate MD11 Menu in... HOME, W&B (Weight & Balance), GndOps, Fails (Failures), the rest of the; Man, Chart, Maps, Apts, Rtes, Data and Notes tabs are the same tools as in the AviTab plugin (required). Other additions are to pause the Simulation on a "Master" warning alert, and the second is again to pause the Simulation before T/D or Top of Descent.
There are thirteen improvements to systems, and 35 fixes that covers again systems and hardware intergration, it is a very extensive upgrade here in the fix department. But there are still a few areas that need attention, a warning light for the cargo hold is beyond annoying, the ghost throttle that requires a hide option is another annoyance. But most of all the MD11 needs a SAVE option as it is difficult (not impossible) to restart mid-flight, or if you have a CTD, it is simply too complex to rebuild the systems to work effectively from the standard X-Plane Situation save.
I will again state if you are going to think if purchasing the aircraft, is it just too far in it's complexity? I'm not going to waver from the fact that this is noted as a "Study" aircraft, yes you need a skills and heavy aircraft skills to fly it. But once you understand the systems and preferences, it is simply a brilliant aircraft to fly, and a very good simulation, if one of the best currently in X-Plane 12 (also available for XP11).
Being a Long Hauler, I obviously really love this aircraft, and with any chance or free time it is one of my prime simulations to fly. The images in this review highlight the the brilliant look and feel the aircraft delivers in X-Plane 12, a top simulation, and a prime simulation for those serious Cargo Jockeys out there.
_____________________
Yes! the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate is currently available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Rotate MD-11
Price is US$83.95
The feature list is HUGE, so if you want to read it, then open the text file.
Feature List.txt 5.83 kB · 147 downloads
Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows 8 or Mac OSX 10.12 or newer (using Rosetta for ARM Processors) , Linux Ubuntu 64b 18.04 or newer 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM recommended Current version: 1.08 (November 1st 2023) You can download this updated v3.0 Updater free here; SkunkCrafts Updater Standalone client
AviTab Plugin is now required.
Navigraph
Subscription only on a monthly or yearly basis or EUR 9.05 / mo or EUR 81.64 / year
Designed by Rotate
Support Forum at X-Plane.org or http://support.rotatesim.com/
Full v1.08 changelog is here;
Changelog v1.08.txt
_____________________
Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
7th November 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.07r1 (This is a release review).
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Skunkcrafts Updater
Scenery or Aircraft
- EDDP - Leipzig/Halle International Airport by JustSim/Digital Design (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$20.00
- KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.00 - Full review available here: Scenery Review : KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Anthony96 in NEWS! - Scenery Released : KAUS-Austin Bergstrom Intl Airport XP12 by Dominicdesignteam
Problem with SAM3 is that it is seriously bloated for this job, yes I agree the developers have been MIA for awhile, and SAM needs attention
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Stephen got a reaction from Medellinexpat in NEWS! - Scenery Released : KAUS-Austin Bergstrom Intl Airport XP12 by Dominicdesignteam
Problem with SAM3 is that it is seriously bloated for this job, yes I agree the developers have been MIA for awhile, and SAM needs attention
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Update Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate
Aircraft Update Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate
Up at dawn, time to load the freight... we are at Leipzig/Halle Airport EDDP, for a routine flight to the UPS Facility at Philadelphia, US, KPHL.
God it's a "Beast" of an aircraft is the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, but Airhaulers love the "Diva". Those ghost pilots that fly at night, unseen, unknown, but moving tons cargo around the world for your livelihoods or self-indulgence.
You start the centre positioned No.2 Engine first to provide power and air-conditioning and other AUX systems, then pushback on time (note the BetterPushback issues have now already been fixed). Then once out of the bay, you can start the other two General Electric CF6-80C2D1F high-bypass turbofan engines, rated at 52,200–61,960 lbf each.
I'm not going to shy away from the reality. To get the DC-11 ready for flight, there is a lot of filling in of data and setting up of the route. There are a few helpers in the menu. But overall the developers approach is to make this aircraft as realistic and authentic as possible, that is good obviously, but a bit daunting if you are not familiar with these machines and their complex Honeywell Pegasus MCDUs. The instrument panel and DU (Display Units) have very different layouts as well, their operation are also different from most other flightdecks. But these aspects are also the attraction to the aircraft, you are flying and mastering something entirely different, that is also the seduction of the MD-11.
The focus with the release of X-Plane 12 in it's beta phase... a Version 1.05 beta (September 26th 2022) allowed the Rotate MD-11 aircraft to function in the new Simulator version. Then two updates followed with v1.05 (October) and v1.06 (December) and both were focused on X-Plane 12. The final DC-11 (official) release for X-Plane 12 was the v1.07 update in March 2023.
For a comprehensive look at the aircraft, here is the X-PlaneReviews review of the XP11 release; Aircraft Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 by Rotate
If you are a "hauler" in these "Heavy, Heavy" aircraft, say a B744F, B748F and the MD-11F. The critical phase is just after you leave the runway. You need to climb (obviously), but with a really heavy aircraft, brimmed with Cargo and Fuel, then you need to coax the machine into the air, then have the skill to keep it up there. You pitch is critical, too low and you lose height, too high and you stall, badly and literally fall out of the sky. Between the two barrier zones to a perfect climb-out, and you usually do it very carefully and slowly... the MD-11 is totally like this.
Once settled in at 12,000ft you, then have more flexibility on setting speed (usually for me around 295 knts) and an altitude climb-rate (1800 fpm), down to 1,000 fpm from 26,000 ft up. You would never go to full cruise altitude either, usually say 32,000 ft for the first 500 nm to burn off weight in fuel, then step up 2,000 ft at a time to your cruise altitude, here 36,000 ft, you step the speed as well, from m.76, to the cruise speed of m.82. I learnt these tricks/skills well on an underpowered Boeing 747-200 F with 46,300–54,750 lbf of thrust, compared to the 66,500 lbf thrust of the latest GEnx-2B67 on the B748F and the 52,200–61,960 lbf available here.
Before we get into the update... In doing reviews you are also evaluating the current situation of the Simulator as well (X-Plane12.07r1), and how it interacts with your flying. There has been a lot of development around the weather this year in X-Plane 12 by Laminar Research, some changes were really bad very early in the year, but with lots of improvements of reading GRIB forecasts which are based on the National Weather Service (NOAA) since v12.06.
But real world simulations are getting very good in X-Plane... Here I was approaching the European Coast and the weather was getting quite nasty. Navigraph have this year added a weather component to there excellent "Charts" application, and you can see the weather topographic mappings, look outside of the MD-11 and I have the same precipitation areas around me... I needed to climb, but instead stayed at FL320 until I saw a gap (shown on the topographic) to finally climb from below the weather, to be on the top (FL360)... I was impressed with not only the exact weather mirrored on the Application, to the weather situation around me, and to take advantage of that... it also shows how X-Plane in this area is also getting very close to the real weather situations we crave, admittedly there is still more development needed for upper level Cirrus clouds and shading, but the improvements are there to not only see, but to feel as well.
Update v1.08
But to the business at hand, the latest v1.08 update. There is again a massive list of fixed and improved areas on the XP12 MD-11 in this update, but first three new additions.
Added into the MD-11 cockpit are two EFB (Electronic Flight Bags) or tablets, one positioned each side of the pilots.
You can adjust the angle of the EFBs to your personal preference, but you can't hide them.
Power switch is lower left corner.
There are eleven tabs to select from. They are an amalgamation of the MD-11 Menu, and AviTab (Plugin Required). The list is HOME, W&B, GndOps, Fails, Man, Chart, Maps, Apts, Rtes, Data and Notes.
All HOME (Options), W&B (Weight & Balance), GndOps (Ground Operations) and Fails (Failures) are all direct copies of the same Menu items found in the Plugins/Rotate MD-11/Aircraft Menu.
Basically they have been repositioned there in the tablets for convenience. The other seven tabs are the various AviTab tools set differently.
MAN - Manuals
This MAN option allows you to navigate folders to find Manuals or Tutorials within the Computer's file system, here set in Windows, and you can display pdfs on the screen. Its clever, handy but pretty basic as well.
Chart - AviTab
You can insert a navigation chart or other document in the AviTab "charts" folder (X-Plane 12/Resources/plugins/AviTab/charts) and have it appear in this tab... It will also show pdf files, ideal for loading in SimBrief "Briefings". Basically this option would be used if you didn't have a Navigraph or another chart account.
Maps
Is the standard AviTab Maps function.
Apts - Airports
Airports is the standard AviTab function to get airport information, and if you have a Navigraph account and access to their charts
Rtes - Routes
This is the "Route Wizard", A tool to compute a route for you to enter into the aircraft's FMC. First you add in your Departure Airport, then your Arrival Airport and it creates a route for you.
Data
You use the "Data" tab to authorise accounts, like for Navigraph and ChartFox, both charts can be viewed in the "Apts" (Airports) tab when selected.
Notes
This tab uses the AviTab "Notes" Function... Honestly I can't get it to work, there are no manual notes and the Rotate Developer doesn't know either... but the idea is to write down notes, but how do you save them? it is supposed to be for VR (Virtual Reality) users.
Basically most users are very familiar with AviTab functions and tools, and having it built in well in here is obviously a bonus to the pilot.
The last two additions to the v1.08 update, are both for those long distance pilots that move away from the Simulation. There are two options now to pause the Simulator... the first is to pause the Simulation on a "Master" warning alert, the second is again to pause the Simulation before T/D or Top of Descent.
The list is split between "Improved" Areas and general fixes. In the improved focus there has been a lot of attention on the ATS (AutoThrottle) in the Servos behavior, in the AFS (AutoFlight) there is improved altitude capture, speed on pitch guidance and better system stability and accuracy. There is also better lateral guidance for NAV/VOR/LOC modes and improved LAND sequence guidance.
For engines there is better N1 trim and thrust precision and and engine drag near idle. The VNAV descent prediction has also had attention, drag prediction for non-clean configurations, and finally there are Improved navigation lights textures.
I do really like the nice strobe effect, not one strobe but two in sequence.
Rotate is always very serious about bugs, finding those nasties in there and improving the Simulation. The list here is very long... 35 fixes that covers a lot of areas, we can't cover every item here, that would drive you nuts, so we will take only the important items.
There was a radio bug in the VHF2 Channel, in that it could receive but not transmit, it's been fixed. Flight Mode Annunciations (FMA) has had attention as well, in Altitude mode blinking during capture, and PROF TO (Profile) reading during climb. There was some negative values in the altimeter tapes that have been corrected, a bug in the PERF page predictions. Finally a rounding error in some lat/lon readings (mostly Oceanic coords).
There was a discrepancy between active and shown flight plans... fixed. And a problem with direct bearing to AT/B restriction during descent calculation. Also speed used for flight path prediction below speed transition altitude was not working properly. speed tape logic has been refined, and a bug in Vspeeds boxes color codes has also been rectified.
On hardware, there was a bug in the start lever sounds, and intermittent repose of TCA hardware handles, toe-brakes didn't work either without a joystick plugged in. The wingflex has also been refined a little better, and for XP11, the wingtip glass (floating) has also been fixed.
My thoughts with the UPS flight are actually few, but worth noting. The LWR Cargo TEMP LO warning (yellow) is still (very) persistent, even though Rotate acknowledged the bug very early in the release phase. My other thoughts are with a lot of current classes of complex aircraft, as there is no SAVE feature for the aircraft. Using the default "Situation" save creates a not very realistic return to the cockpit, and a major reset to make the aircraft flyable again. So you are restricted to do a flight from block to block in one go to get a smooth Simulation. Biggest offender is the non-working ATS (AutoThrottle), that refuses to reset, and the gymnastics when you restart the Simulation... it can be reset to fly correctly, but you will need patience and skill to do so. My point is this is very long-haul flying, and sometimes for ten hours in the left seat, and sometimes you have to break up the simulation, of which you can't do here, it also hates the replay and the X8-X16 speed changes with the complexity... And I loath the ghost throttle simulation, there should be an option to hide the distracting animation.
The rear rest cabin still has extremely low-res textures and a non-working toilet, and the cargo loading feature, while well done, is still restricted to 4 containers that disappear when loaded, you need better here if you are a serious cargo hauler.
MD-11 is a seriously nice machine in the air, one of the best simulations in X-Plane 12. Internally it is a very nice environment, again with the long hours you have to have change from the left seat options, like a snooze in the third rear seat, or a break in the rear...
Great to watch is the excellent fuel management system on the MD-11. It has a fully automatic aircraft balance system, like Concorde it pumps fuel forward after takeoff to keep the CG (Centre of Gravity) within limits, shown upper left on the Fuel page display.
In flight the pumps are always switching on or off, you don't just have a Tail Tank, but an Auxiliary tank as well. All fuel tanks are simulated here, including the separate outboard and inboard wing compartments, 18 fuel pumps, 16 valves, 5 manifolds and the 4 fuel feed valves... The full system is modeled for as a physical model for fuel flow and thermal behavior. There are also Automatic and manual modes.
Quantity, pressure and temperature for each of the fuel tanks are computed separately. All this data is processed in the custom Fuel System Controller, where logic for most of the sub-systems have been written to simulate most of the system’s functions, including fuel scheduling, cross-feed, CG management, ballast fuel management, anti-ice re-circulation, tip transfer, fuel dump, and abnormal operation. Manual mode, failures and electrical dependencies are also simulated. It's altogether very authentic and realistic.
Interesting on the MD-11, is that you can only set your departure Takeoff details, but not the Arrival/Approach settings. This is done as you reach your TOD (Top of Descent) phase by pressing the TO/APPR button. Then you set your Flap position and speeds. Secondary is setting your Arrival Radio Approach Frequency, here at Philadelphia, KPHL, Rwy 27L... the Freq is 109.30 IGLC, but you have to wait until it is available from the list to insert. So you insert the ILS Freq 109.30, then you are taken to selection page to select the correct frequency, here LK6 as it has just shown up on the list, selecting the correct frequency will then insert it into the ILS/CRS box, adding in the Course º degree and the ILS name "IGLC. This is a change in selecting from the list, instead of just earlier inserting the ILS Freq late into the the flight.
I'm now over Pennsylvania, tracking into JIIMS4 STAR, but I had to make an adjustment to the flightplan with an extra way point VC177 to make a cleaner rounded turn to finals on Rwy 27L.
Going into the final turn it's time to drop the gear! "Chunk, Clunk,Clunk" and its down and we are ready for landing.
You press the upper large centre APPR/LAND button centre FGCP to ARM the approach phase (as noted this also arms only the LOC if you selected that option)
If you have activated the ILS Frequency correctly it will show lower left in the PFD with the set Flap degree, you can also now set the APPR screen in the ECP, for better approaches. Notable is the auto selection of "Single" or "Dual" landing (Land) selections (green banner top right PFD) , it will flash the selection it will use then LOC it in.
I'm sitting at 175 knts, but in reality the MD-11 is certainly a gut sort of aircraft in this phase like I found in the release review, the throttle response is very slow on resetting the speed, so you have to be ahead of the aircraft, sometimes by a long way, to get the right speed in the approach phase, same with the ILS landing phase in resetting the approach speed to the descent angle.
Yes your always nervous, it's a tricky approach to get right, with a very heavy and fast aircraft rushing towards the ground. MD-11 as we were told, had the fastest VAPP of any civilian airliner. At MGLW (Maximum Gross Landing Weight), it was usually known to be landing at around 168kts.... and you are aware of that aspect and all that weight in the back.
In landing again the MD-11 is very much like the Airbus, as there are landing modes, certainly the callouts are very good, with also "LAND and FLARE on the PFD... I was however seriously again very impressed on how I could just pitch the nose up nicely in the flare to touch the main gear down first.
I'm on the runway, so you activate everything you can, in reversers, airbrakes and stand on the toe-brakes to stop the momentum of a landing weight of 204,331 kg, thankfully it all works...
... it's a real substantial beast of an aircraft, so mastering it with skill and ambition is certainly a challenge, but also the MD-11 gives back huge rewards for all the effort...
If we are looking at substantial Simulations then the Rotate MD-11 is certainly it, not for the absolute novice, but certainly for the brigade of users that have Long-Haul experience and want a "Heavy, heavy" aircraft to master.
Summary
The release of X-Plane 12 in it's beta phase... a Version 1.05 beta (September 26th 2022) allowed the Rotate MD-11 aircraft to function in the new Simulator version. Then two updates followed with v1.05 (October) and v1.06 (December) and both were focused on X-Plane 12. The final DC-11 (official) release for X-Plane 12 was the v1.07 update in March 2023.
This is the v1.08, with three new features and along with another long bug and fix update. Biggest addition is two EFB (Electronic Flight Bags) or tablets for each pilot. They have four tabs that mirror the Rotate MD11 Menu in... HOME, W&B (Weight & Balance), GndOps, Fails (Failures), the rest of the; Man, Chart, Maps, Apts, Rtes, Data and Notes tabs are the same tools as in the AviTab plugin (required). Other additions are to pause the Simulation on a "Master" warning alert, and the second is again to pause the Simulation before T/D or Top of Descent.
There are thirteen improvements to systems, and 35 fixes that covers again systems and hardware intergration, it is a very extensive upgrade here in the fix department. But there are still a few areas that need attention, a warning light for the cargo hold is beyond annoying, the ghost throttle that requires a hide option is another annoyance. But most of all the MD11 needs a SAVE option as it is difficult (not impossible) to restart mid-flight, or if you have a CTD, it is simply too complex to rebuild the systems to work effectively from the standard X-Plane Situation save.
I will again state if you are going to think if purchasing the aircraft, is it just too far in it's complexity? I'm not going to waver from the fact that this is noted as a "Study" aircraft, yes you need a skills and heavy aircraft skills to fly it. But once you understand the systems and preferences, it is simply a brilliant aircraft to fly, and a very good simulation, if one of the best currently in X-Plane 12 (also available for XP11).
Being a Long Hauler, I obviously really love this aircraft, and with any chance or free time it is one of my prime simulations to fly. The images in this review highlight the the brilliant look and feel the aircraft delivers in X-Plane 12, a top simulation, and a prime simulation for those serious Cargo Jockeys out there.
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Yes! the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate is currently available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Rotate MD-11
Price is US$83.95
The feature list is HUGE, so if you want to read it, then open the text file.
Feature List.txt 5.83 kB · 147 downloads
Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows 8 or Mac OSX 10.12 or newer (using Rosetta for ARM Processors) , Linux Ubuntu 64b 18.04 or newer 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM recommended Current version: 1.08 (November 1st 2023) You can download this updated v3.0 Updater free here; SkunkCrafts Updater Standalone client
AviTab Plugin is now required.
Navigraph
Subscription only on a monthly or yearly basis or EUR 9.05 / mo or EUR 81.64 / year
Designed by Rotate
Support Forum at X-Plane.org or http://support.rotatesim.com/
Full v1.08 changelog is here;
Changelog v1.08.txt
_____________________
Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
7th November 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.07r1 (This is a release review).
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Skunkcrafts Updater
Scenery or Aircraft
- EDDP - Leipzig/Halle International Airport by JustSim/Digital Design (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$20.00
- KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.00 - Full review available here: Scenery Review : KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Blueb in Aircraft Update Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate
Aircraft Update Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate
Up at dawn, time to load the freight... we are at Leipzig/Halle Airport EDDP, for a routine flight to the UPS Facility at Philadelphia, US, KPHL.
God it's a "Beast" of an aircraft is the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, but Airhaulers love the "Diva". Those ghost pilots that fly at night, unseen, unknown, but moving tons cargo around the world for your livelihoods or self-indulgence.
You start the centre positioned No.2 Engine first to provide power and air-conditioning and other AUX systems, then pushback on time (note the BetterPushback issues have now already been fixed). Then once out of the bay, you can start the other two General Electric CF6-80C2D1F high-bypass turbofan engines, rated at 52,200–61,960 lbf each.
I'm not going to shy away from the reality. To get the DC-11 ready for flight, there is a lot of filling in of data and setting up of the route. There are a few helpers in the menu. But overall the developers approach is to make this aircraft as realistic and authentic as possible, that is good obviously, but a bit daunting if you are not familiar with these machines and their complex Honeywell Pegasus MCDUs. The instrument panel and DU (Display Units) have very different layouts as well, their operation are also different from most other flightdecks. But these aspects are also the attraction to the aircraft, you are flying and mastering something entirely different, that is also the seduction of the MD-11.
The focus with the release of X-Plane 12 in it's beta phase... a Version 1.05 beta (September 26th 2022) allowed the Rotate MD-11 aircraft to function in the new Simulator version. Then two updates followed with v1.05 (October) and v1.06 (December) and both were focused on X-Plane 12. The final DC-11 (official) release for X-Plane 12 was the v1.07 update in March 2023.
For a comprehensive look at the aircraft, here is the X-PlaneReviews review of the XP11 release; Aircraft Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 by Rotate
If you are a "hauler" in these "Heavy, Heavy" aircraft, say a B744F, B748F and the MD-11F. The critical phase is just after you leave the runway. You need to climb (obviously), but with a really heavy aircraft, brimmed with Cargo and Fuel, then you need to coax the machine into the air, then have the skill to keep it up there. You pitch is critical, too low and you lose height, too high and you stall, badly and literally fall out of the sky. Between the two barrier zones to a perfect climb-out, and you usually do it very carefully and slowly... the MD-11 is totally like this.
Once settled in at 12,000ft you, then have more flexibility on setting speed (usually for me around 295 knts) and an altitude climb-rate (1800 fpm), down to 1,000 fpm from 26,000 ft up. You would never go to full cruise altitude either, usually say 32,000 ft for the first 500 nm to burn off weight in fuel, then step up 2,000 ft at a time to your cruise altitude, here 36,000 ft, you step the speed as well, from m.76, to the cruise speed of m.82. I learnt these tricks/skills well on an underpowered Boeing 747-200 F with 46,300–54,750 lbf of thrust, compared to the 66,500 lbf thrust of the latest GEnx-2B67 on the B748F and the 52,200–61,960 lbf available here.
Before we get into the update... In doing reviews you are also evaluating the current situation of the Simulator as well (X-Plane12.07r1), and how it interacts with your flying. There has been a lot of development around the weather this year in X-Plane 12 by Laminar Research, some changes were really bad very early in the year, but with lots of improvements of reading GRIB forecasts which are based on the National Weather Service (NOAA) since v12.06.
But real world simulations are getting very good in X-Plane... Here I was approaching the European Coast and the weather was getting quite nasty. Navigraph have this year added a weather component to there excellent "Charts" application, and you can see the weather topographic mappings, look outside of the MD-11 and I have the same precipitation areas around me... I needed to climb, but instead stayed at FL320 until I saw a gap (shown on the topographic) to finally climb from below the weather, to be on the top (FL360)... I was impressed with not only the exact weather mirrored on the Application, to the weather situation around me, and to take advantage of that... it also shows how X-Plane in this area is also getting very close to the real weather situations we crave, admittedly there is still more development needed for upper level Cirrus clouds and shading, but the improvements are there to not only see, but to feel as well.
Update v1.08
But to the business at hand, the latest v1.08 update. There is again a massive list of fixed and improved areas on the XP12 MD-11 in this update, but first three new additions.
Added into the MD-11 cockpit are two EFB (Electronic Flight Bags) or tablets, one positioned each side of the pilots.
You can adjust the angle of the EFBs to your personal preference, but you can't hide them.
Power switch is lower left corner.
There are eleven tabs to select from. They are an amalgamation of the MD-11 Menu, and AviTab (Plugin Required). The list is HOME, W&B, GndOps, Fails, Man, Chart, Maps, Apts, Rtes, Data and Notes.
All HOME (Options), W&B (Weight & Balance), GndOps (Ground Operations) and Fails (Failures) are all direct copies of the same Menu items found in the Plugins/Rotate MD-11/Aircraft Menu.
Basically they have been repositioned there in the tablets for convenience. The other seven tabs are the various AviTab tools set differently.
MAN - Manuals
This MAN option allows you to navigate folders to find Manuals or Tutorials within the Computer's file system, here set in Windows, and you can display pdfs on the screen. Its clever, handy but pretty basic as well.
Chart - AviTab
You can insert a navigation chart or other document in the AviTab "charts" folder (X-Plane 12/Resources/plugins/AviTab/charts) and have it appear in this tab... It will also show pdf files, ideal for loading in SimBrief "Briefings". Basically this option would be used if you didn't have a Navigraph or another chart account.
Maps
Is the standard AviTab Maps function.
Apts - Airports
Airports is the standard AviTab function to get airport information, and if you have a Navigraph account and access to their charts
Rtes - Routes
This is the "Route Wizard", A tool to compute a route for you to enter into the aircraft's FMC. First you add in your Departure Airport, then your Arrival Airport and it creates a route for you.
Data
You use the "Data" tab to authorise accounts, like for Navigraph and ChartFox, both charts can be viewed in the "Apts" (Airports) tab when selected.
Notes
This tab uses the AviTab "Notes" Function... Honestly I can't get it to work, there are no manual notes and the Rotate Developer doesn't know either... but the idea is to write down notes, but how do you save them? it is supposed to be for VR (Virtual Reality) users.
Basically most users are very familiar with AviTab functions and tools, and having it built in well in here is obviously a bonus to the pilot.
The last two additions to the v1.08 update, are both for those long distance pilots that move away from the Simulation. There are two options now to pause the Simulator... the first is to pause the Simulation on a "Master" warning alert, the second is again to pause the Simulation before T/D or Top of Descent.
The list is split between "Improved" Areas and general fixes. In the improved focus there has been a lot of attention on the ATS (AutoThrottle) in the Servos behavior, in the AFS (AutoFlight) there is improved altitude capture, speed on pitch guidance and better system stability and accuracy. There is also better lateral guidance for NAV/VOR/LOC modes and improved LAND sequence guidance.
For engines there is better N1 trim and thrust precision and and engine drag near idle. The VNAV descent prediction has also had attention, drag prediction for non-clean configurations, and finally there are Improved navigation lights textures.
I do really like the nice strobe effect, not one strobe but two in sequence.
Rotate is always very serious about bugs, finding those nasties in there and improving the Simulation. The list here is very long... 35 fixes that covers a lot of areas, we can't cover every item here, that would drive you nuts, so we will take only the important items.
There was a radio bug in the VHF2 Channel, in that it could receive but not transmit, it's been fixed. Flight Mode Annunciations (FMA) has had attention as well, in Altitude mode blinking during capture, and PROF TO (Profile) reading during climb. There was some negative values in the altimeter tapes that have been corrected, a bug in the PERF page predictions. Finally a rounding error in some lat/lon readings (mostly Oceanic coords).
There was a discrepancy between active and shown flight plans... fixed. And a problem with direct bearing to AT/B restriction during descent calculation. Also speed used for flight path prediction below speed transition altitude was not working properly. speed tape logic has been refined, and a bug in Vspeeds boxes color codes has also been rectified.
On hardware, there was a bug in the start lever sounds, and intermittent repose of TCA hardware handles, toe-brakes didn't work either without a joystick plugged in. The wingflex has also been refined a little better, and for XP11, the wingtip glass (floating) has also been fixed.
My thoughts with the UPS flight are actually few, but worth noting. The LWR Cargo TEMP LO warning (yellow) is still (very) persistent, even though Rotate acknowledged the bug very early in the release phase. My other thoughts are with a lot of current classes of complex aircraft, as there is no SAVE feature for the aircraft. Using the default "Situation" save creates a not very realistic return to the cockpit, and a major reset to make the aircraft flyable again. So you are restricted to do a flight from block to block in one go to get a smooth Simulation. Biggest offender is the non-working ATS (AutoThrottle), that refuses to reset, and the gymnastics when you restart the Simulation... it can be reset to fly correctly, but you will need patience and skill to do so. My point is this is very long-haul flying, and sometimes for ten hours in the left seat, and sometimes you have to break up the simulation, of which you can't do here, it also hates the replay and the X8-X16 speed changes with the complexity... And I loath the ghost throttle simulation, there should be an option to hide the distracting animation.
The rear rest cabin still has extremely low-res textures and a non-working toilet, and the cargo loading feature, while well done, is still restricted to 4 containers that disappear when loaded, you need better here if you are a serious cargo hauler.
MD-11 is a seriously nice machine in the air, one of the best simulations in X-Plane 12. Internally it is a very nice environment, again with the long hours you have to have change from the left seat options, like a snooze in the third rear seat, or a break in the rear...
Great to watch is the excellent fuel management system on the MD-11. It has a fully automatic aircraft balance system, like Concorde it pumps fuel forward after takeoff to keep the CG (Centre of Gravity) within limits, shown upper left on the Fuel page display.
In flight the pumps are always switching on or off, you don't just have a Tail Tank, but an Auxiliary tank as well. All fuel tanks are simulated here, including the separate outboard and inboard wing compartments, 18 fuel pumps, 16 valves, 5 manifolds and the 4 fuel feed valves... The full system is modeled for as a physical model for fuel flow and thermal behavior. There are also Automatic and manual modes.
Quantity, pressure and temperature for each of the fuel tanks are computed separately. All this data is processed in the custom Fuel System Controller, where logic for most of the sub-systems have been written to simulate most of the system’s functions, including fuel scheduling, cross-feed, CG management, ballast fuel management, anti-ice re-circulation, tip transfer, fuel dump, and abnormal operation. Manual mode, failures and electrical dependencies are also simulated. It's altogether very authentic and realistic.
Interesting on the MD-11, is that you can only set your departure Takeoff details, but not the Arrival/Approach settings. This is done as you reach your TOD (Top of Descent) phase by pressing the TO/APPR button. Then you set your Flap position and speeds. Secondary is setting your Arrival Radio Approach Frequency, here at Philadelphia, KPHL, Rwy 27L... the Freq is 109.30 IGLC, but you have to wait until it is available from the list to insert. So you insert the ILS Freq 109.30, then you are taken to selection page to select the correct frequency, here LK6 as it has just shown up on the list, selecting the correct frequency will then insert it into the ILS/CRS box, adding in the Course º degree and the ILS name "IGLC. This is a change in selecting from the list, instead of just earlier inserting the ILS Freq late into the the flight.
I'm now over Pennsylvania, tracking into JIIMS4 STAR, but I had to make an adjustment to the flightplan with an extra way point VC177 to make a cleaner rounded turn to finals on Rwy 27L.
Going into the final turn it's time to drop the gear! "Chunk, Clunk,Clunk" and its down and we are ready for landing.
You press the upper large centre APPR/LAND button centre FGCP to ARM the approach phase (as noted this also arms only the LOC if you selected that option)
If you have activated the ILS Frequency correctly it will show lower left in the PFD with the set Flap degree, you can also now set the APPR screen in the ECP, for better approaches. Notable is the auto selection of "Single" or "Dual" landing (Land) selections (green banner top right PFD) , it will flash the selection it will use then LOC it in.
I'm sitting at 175 knts, but in reality the MD-11 is certainly a gut sort of aircraft in this phase like I found in the release review, the throttle response is very slow on resetting the speed, so you have to be ahead of the aircraft, sometimes by a long way, to get the right speed in the approach phase, same with the ILS landing phase in resetting the approach speed to the descent angle.
Yes your always nervous, it's a tricky approach to get right, with a very heavy and fast aircraft rushing towards the ground. MD-11 as we were told, had the fastest VAPP of any civilian airliner. At MGLW (Maximum Gross Landing Weight), it was usually known to be landing at around 168kts.... and you are aware of that aspect and all that weight in the back.
In landing again the MD-11 is very much like the Airbus, as there are landing modes, certainly the callouts are very good, with also "LAND and FLARE on the PFD... I was however seriously again very impressed on how I could just pitch the nose up nicely in the flare to touch the main gear down first.
I'm on the runway, so you activate everything you can, in reversers, airbrakes and stand on the toe-brakes to stop the momentum of a landing weight of 204,331 kg, thankfully it all works...
... it's a real substantial beast of an aircraft, so mastering it with skill and ambition is certainly a challenge, but also the MD-11 gives back huge rewards for all the effort...
If we are looking at substantial Simulations then the Rotate MD-11 is certainly it, not for the absolute novice, but certainly for the brigade of users that have Long-Haul experience and want a "Heavy, heavy" aircraft to master.
Summary
The release of X-Plane 12 in it's beta phase... a Version 1.05 beta (September 26th 2022) allowed the Rotate MD-11 aircraft to function in the new Simulator version. Then two updates followed with v1.05 (October) and v1.06 (December) and both were focused on X-Plane 12. The final DC-11 (official) release for X-Plane 12 was the v1.07 update in March 2023.
This is the v1.08, with three new features and along with another long bug and fix update. Biggest addition is two EFB (Electronic Flight Bags) or tablets for each pilot. They have four tabs that mirror the Rotate MD11 Menu in... HOME, W&B (Weight & Balance), GndOps, Fails (Failures), the rest of the; Man, Chart, Maps, Apts, Rtes, Data and Notes tabs are the same tools as in the AviTab plugin (required). Other additions are to pause the Simulation on a "Master" warning alert, and the second is again to pause the Simulation before T/D or Top of Descent.
There are thirteen improvements to systems, and 35 fixes that covers again systems and hardware intergration, it is a very extensive upgrade here in the fix department. But there are still a few areas that need attention, a warning light for the cargo hold is beyond annoying, the ghost throttle that requires a hide option is another annoyance. But most of all the MD11 needs a SAVE option as it is difficult (not impossible) to restart mid-flight, or if you have a CTD, it is simply too complex to rebuild the systems to work effectively from the standard X-Plane Situation save.
I will again state if you are going to think if purchasing the aircraft, is it just too far in it's complexity? I'm not going to waver from the fact that this is noted as a "Study" aircraft, yes you need a skills and heavy aircraft skills to fly it. But once you understand the systems and preferences, it is simply a brilliant aircraft to fly, and a very good simulation, if one of the best currently in X-Plane 12 (also available for XP11).
Being a Long Hauler, I obviously really love this aircraft, and with any chance or free time it is one of my prime simulations to fly. The images in this review highlight the the brilliant look and feel the aircraft delivers in X-Plane 12, a top simulation, and a prime simulation for those serious Cargo Jockeys out there.
_____________________
Yes! the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.08 by Rotate is currently available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Rotate MD-11
Price is US$83.95
The feature list is HUGE, so if you want to read it, then open the text file.
Feature List.txt 5.83 kB · 147 downloads
Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows 8 or Mac OSX 10.12 or newer (using Rosetta for ARM Processors) , Linux Ubuntu 64b 18.04 or newer 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM recommended Current version: 1.08 (November 1st 2023) You can download this updated v3.0 Updater free here; SkunkCrafts Updater Standalone client
AviTab Plugin is now required.
Navigraph
Subscription only on a monthly or yearly basis or EUR 9.05 / mo or EUR 81.64 / year
Designed by Rotate
Support Forum at X-Plane.org or http://support.rotatesim.com/
Full v1.08 changelog is here;
Changelog v1.08.txt
_____________________
Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
7th November 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.07r1 (This is a release review).
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Skunkcrafts Updater
Scenery or Aircraft
- EDDP - Leipzig/Halle International Airport by JustSim/Digital Design (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$20.00
- KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.00 - Full review available here: Scenery Review : KPHL - Philadelphia International Airport by StarSim
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
-
Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Behind the Screen : October 2023
Behind the Screen : October 2023
Developers have been in my thoughts lately. Those creative souls that disappear for a year or two, then reappear with something amazing, something you can immerse yourself in, also to look at the incredible detail and wonder how it was all created and designed.
I have also come to a conclusion. Developers are the soul of a simulator, the life blood as well. Not the simulator developers, although obviously they are important, but the aircraft and scenery developers that produce a constant stream of products that keeps you flying.
What would happen if they didn't produce their work, add to the vitality of the Simulation, the answer is that very quickly the Simulator would wither and die, most would point out there is still enough in there to keep on flying, the free stuff, so why worry about that. But I do and sometimes at night.
The reason for the worry beads is that if you look over the last decade of development of the X-Plane Simulator, and it was always the developer pioneering aspect that drove the Simulation forwards. Every great step forward and innovation came from their agile minds. Set yourself in 2013 and in X-Plane 10, and then look at your X-Plane 12 universe now. The differences are very expansive, it is really is a totally different environment, the feel and the detail.
I have rode that explosive development trail, wondered at the marvels the developers have created and shared, a good example will be the original Boeing 777 from FlightFactor, totally overwhelming for it's time, but below average today... soon the new v2 B777 will be released, and you won't even begin to compare the two. But the new version will be more expensive, maybe even over that barrier of US$100. Yes a few aircraft are already priced above that $100 barrier, but soon will it become the normal?
There are several problems facing developers, a weakening market and inflation. But before we go there, there was another big debate around Upgrades. First let us note that Upgrades are for payment, and Updates are for free.
When X-Plane 11 was released, the word "Upgrade" was barely visible. Then developers gradually crept in these financial changes. Obviously there was an uproar. X-Plane users expected with a purchase the updates were to be there for life. Another source of income for Developers, was extensions, in buying a basic package, but then to get a different variant or extra features you had to pay to get access. FlightFactor took both to the extreme, certainly with the extensions, with so many packages and options, they even outnumbered the size of the review.
Both options are now the normal. As the X-Plane 12 revolution came around, you found that most developers did do a "Upgrade" transition with this version change, so you got a fair discount on the newly updated aircraft or scenery. The few just updated X-Plane 12 products however were mostly just basic X-Plane 12 changes with no new features or even aircraft revisions. Again most complained that it wasn't fair to pay for something they had already purchased with the Upgrades, but that isn't fair to the developers which either way you looked at it.
The X-Plane 12 metamorphosis is in reality a bigger change for the X-Plane Simulator than any in the past. Yes we have new features and better dynamics and now amazing weather options. But the change is bigger than that of what it looks on the surface.
As long as I have been in X-Plane of over a decade, the Simulator went in a certain direction, but basically the old (in my case the huge collection) of aircraft and scenery would be passed over from one X-Plane version to the next. But X-Plane 12 is different, as that phase really came to an end. Yes a lot of the collections of scenery do still work in X-Plane 12, but for the first time, it was also showing their very dated age. Also the default WED Gateway scenery is improving year on year, but it would never ever replace a well modeled 3d custom scenery.
Also this time was that X-Plane aircraft were also affected, only really the best of the best have been transitioned to X-Plane 12, so again a lot of decade old aircraft are now retired. A few survived by MODS, in users fixed broken areas of X-Plane 12 functionality, they work, but not as complete as they were in X-Plane 10/11. Sadly a lot of these early developer projects are now also gone or retired, but most really couldn't keep up with the exorbitant changes to the modeling quality and features required to compete in today's market. Was it best to completely remodel and design a new aircraft or to walk away, a lot bit down and recreated a better product, like X-Crafts with their sensation E-Jet Family Series, but a lot of developers just don't have the talent or the time to go to such extremes. Thankfully there are new Developer entrants, creating new aircraft, but their learning curve to high quality products is very long, and a still really a Work in Progress, but that is okay, as at least they are in there, creating a future for X-Plane and a reputation for themselves.
This is the trick. Once a developer created aircraft and scenery (even plugins) as a sole output. You could learn PlaneMaker or WED (WorldEditor) and create a product. The only things you needed was the basic skills and a bit of talent. But today that era is very much gone. Only teams or a group of developers can create product, most specialise on a particular area of the design, say Modeling or Systems, but the basic number you require now is usually around three developers on a project. The sole developers time was expanding out as well, an aircraft that could a decade ago could take two years, became three then four as the work required escalated, again a team can split off portions and reduce the development time back to a reasonable 18 months to two years. But if you have invested in a team. Then the product has to be more expensive to cover the returns to distribute a fair share to each team member for their input.
Prices to be honest in X-Plane have been very gradual, most X-Plane 11 $25 aircraft are now $35 to $40, the middle sector between $50 to $65 has been steady for years, then the upper sector of between $65 to $80 has also been very steady if rock solid. But the amount of detail and features delivered has gone through the roof, in fact tripled in the last five years, and the system depth is extraordinary, but expected in the higher cost categories.
Significantly today the X-Plane 12 Simulator price has gone up US$20 to $79.99 from $59.99, after a long decade at the old price, so we have now arrived at an impasse.
Can we still expect more for the same, and the ongoing accumulation of even more features and quality for the same cost? If you want these features and depth of systems, then you will have to pay more for them. But what of that price barrier, can products be priced higher and not lose sales... the problem is that developers with their time and resources are getting closed in from both sides. The freewheeling past is being confronted by the mid-twenties inflation reality, and something will have to give.
One point maybe that we will have less to choose from, but at a far higher quality, because we always expect the better, better with each release. Aerosoft tried with their ATR a hybrid cheap aircraft, with restricted systems. That idea didn't fly well (Pun Intended), personally I hated it, it felt under developed, and we are still waiting for a decent ATR Turboprop Series years later (yes there is finally one in development), but as you can see, you can't cost cut on features and systems either.
The worry is that current great developers would walk away. Expectation can be a terrible thing, "I want more for the same or less", will not work now going forward. Being a Developer is also being a businessman, at the top of list is profit, or to at least get a remuneration for the years of work put in, or to a least keep the team together to create more products, developers are the unsung hero's of the Simulator world, but they also have their own realistic real world limitations.
In X-Plane 12 going forward we have to change our attitude. If we want expansive clever products then we will have pay more for them, plus if a developer asks cap in hand for an Upgrade cost, then you should be willing to pay for the extra work and service provided of what that upgrade cost will deliver. It goes the other way as well, the developer has to deliver a high quality product and deliver updates over the required time of the new version of the Simulator, then don't bunk out and say sayonara when ever it pleases them, but let the product be ongoing in development by another developer.
The X-Plane Simulator has over the years created it's own doctrine, what was expected, will always seem to be. But I think that the change to X-Plane 12 will be a more significant change as the earlier attitudes and the use of the Simulator, will have to accommodate the more realistic changes this time for the future, to allow the Simulator to not only thrive, but even to survive. Expectation is a horrible word, and that attitude needs to change... so let us see T-Shirts with the slogan "Support your local X-Plane 12 Developer", and wear it with pride, but also to put your money to where it counts, for X-Plane's future, or they may just walk away.
See you all next month.
Stephen Dutton
1st November 2023
Copyright©2023 X-Plane Reviews
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Update Review : Embraer E-Jets Family v1.03 by X-Crafts
Aircraft Update Review : Embraer E-Jets Family v1.03 by X-Crafts
Earlier this year was one of the year's most significant new aircraft releases for the X-Plane 12 Simulator. The E-Jet Family series of aircraft was released on the 10th May 2023 by X-Crafts, and obviously X-PlaneReviews did the full release review on the aircraft: Aircraft Review : E-Jets Family by X-Crafts.
Release reviews are always an early in-depth look of the aircraft. Detailing the Features, Systems, Instruments and focusing on the Modeling, look and feel of the release. In this case it was a long review, because there are five different variants of the E-Jet family, four in E 170 - E 175 - E 190 - E 195 as they all were part of the release package, the fifth is the still to be released E 190 Lineage Business Jet.
So it is always interesting to come back to the aircraft a few months after the initial review, to not only see the updates (fixes) on the package, but also have another perspective on the aircraft after a period of flying the machine and absorbing it's features. These update reviews are not a totally in-depth review like a few months ago, but to pick out the highlights and changes since that original release.
The new E-Jet Family from Embraer in Brazil, was not the first Embraers from X-Crafts, first was the E 175 LR: Aircraft Review : Embraer E 195 LR by X-Crafts, which came into X-Plane 10 in August 2014, with then later the smaller E 175 on December 5, 2015.
The difference with the 2023 release in that it was a completely different remodeling and systems redesign for X-Plane 12, and nothing on the earlier E-Jet aircraft was passed over to the new, the E-Jets also came with a significant price increase. But I found with the extremely high quality and huge feature list, it did also certainly realign the product to this new price point level, in some ways it is a remarkable achievement for X-Crafts on what they delivered.
Since the release there has been three updates, v1.01 (19th May), v1.02 (26th June) and this latest update to v1.03 (October 3rd). The first v1.01 update was a reaction to release, to fix immediate bugs and issues. v1.02 was a more in-depth revision focusing on System Improvements, PFD (Primary Flight Display), MFD (MultiFunctional Display) fixes and sounds. Which brings us to the latest v1.03. This update is what you could call a mature update. All updates can be done via the excellent new Skunkcrafts Updater... and first impressions back in the E-Jet cockpit support that feeling.
Those first impressions are simply "Wow", it really is superbly created. The detail and quality really does jump out at you. Remember this is really the first X-Plane 12 aircraft (in this category), created and designed specifically for the X-Plane 12 version and it's new lighting effects.
And the E-Jet certainly has that extremely look and realistic feel...
In the release review I flew the E-195, this aircraft is the E-190, slightly shorter (36.25 m (118 ft 11 in), less passengers, but comes with a longer range in 2,450 nmi (4,537 km; 2,820 mi) and by flying an extra 150 nm. It is still a huge cabin... galleys are small, but extremely well done.
The cockpit is stunning as well, the detail is even overwhelming, even though I know it in complete detail from May.
And you can slip yourself into the pilot's seat and adjust it forward.
The E-Family uses the Honeywell Primus "Epic", Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) glass cockpit...
I really don't have a lot of negative comments with X-Crafts E-Jet Family, but there are two, or really one that can absorb the second one.
The custom "Authentic" FMS is very good, yes authentic. But it is very long-winded to programme, not just the actual route, but there is a lot of performance and data to feed in. But there are helpers... On the EFB there are three pages covering Weight & Balance, Takeoff Perf and Landing Perf.
You can import the Flight data from SimBrief (Simbrief ID Required), and it fills out your loadsheet, you can then use this data to "Load (the) Plane"... but it won't insert your route? The quickest way is to use the X-Plane 12 FMS flightplan (you can use the SimBrief Downloader App to insert the file in the X-Plane FMS plans folder). Then load in the route as a CO ROUTE
You still have to insert your Departure and Arrival procedures, to complete the route detail.
Again on the EFB, you can create the "TakeOff" and "Landing" performance data. You then have to fill in the Wind, (Airport) Temperature and Baro QNH.
When computed, you can send the data directly to the FMS, via the upper right link. It is hard to find, but to set these Takeoff and Landing speeds you then have to go to the ACARS MAIN MENU, under NAV-INDEX/DATALINK.
But it does not set other crucial data... one of the big annoying diversions is caused by setting the TO-CG (TakeOff - Centre of Gravity). The TO-CG is shown on TAKEOFF INIT page 2, but it won't accept the TO-CG %, as you would usually program in the Trim on the TAKEOFF page.
The TO-CG is actually set on the PERFORMANCE INIT-KG page 2, then it fills in the TAKEOFF INIT (page 2) setting... it also then sets the "PITCH TRIM" and "TO PITCH", both slots you usually do manually, here it is automatic.
Another diversion is to set the Takeoff flap setting. Here it is set to FLAPS 2, to change the Flap setting you go to the TO INIT lower left LK6
Select Page 2 and the Flap selection is the first row RK1... OR Then select your Flap Setting 1, 2, or 4 and the "ACT" is the active flap setting, when done press RETURN. The Flap setting change is now done on the TAKEOFF main page.
More data also has to be filled out on TAKEOFF INIT, this time page 1. WIND is required RK3...
Another one... back to the PERFORMANCE INIT-KG Page 2, to fill in ISA DEV, ZFW, CRZ ALT (Altitude) and CRZ WINDS.
Get it all right and your FMS active FLT PLAN lights up with SPEED and ALTITUDE data.
Don't get me wrong, it is a brilliantly deep FMS system, really well done. Once you get skilled at the way you programme in the data, you will be well pleased with the result... but what if you make a mistake, or your flight is tomorrow?
That is the crunch... you can't save all your set up hard work, shut down the Simulator, and it's all gone. So it becomes a use it or lose it situation, and it's a lot of (programming) work to lose, and it's time consuming to reprogramme everything back in ready again.
Developer note- "Use the ICAO code instead of the identifier to search for airports. This should fix some airports not being found on the EFB, If this still happens to you, then quit X-Plane, then navigate to …\X-Plane\Output\caches\xcrafts, and delete the airports.db folder. It will be recreated automatically next time you start X-Plane. And this should resolve the issue".
Throttles
Those lovely throttles have been troublesome since the original release of the XP12 E-Jet Family. Certainly if you have some add-on hardware throttles, like I do with the Saitek X56 Rhino. At first they didn't work at all with the Add-on set up, in v1.02 they did work, but both levers were locked together?
In v1.03 the throttles now work independently of each other and realistically... nice!
But there is something working even better here now, and clever as well. Reverse on these sort of "BETA" gate style throttle quadrants was always very tricky to get right with Add-on throttle systems Just try FlyJSims DASH Q4XP to see how hard it is to get it working realistically.
But X-Crafts have come up with a novel solution here. Select your Reverser Mode as usual (Toggle thrust reversers), and the throttles drop back into the MIN REV gate, push up the throttle power and the throttles do the reverse action in going rearwards to MAX REV....
So simple it makes you cry, but so easy to use. Do the reverse procedure to get back to IDLE position (pull back throttles then re-toggle the reversers)... brilliant, you can play and marvel with them for hours. X-Crafts has also changed the Throttle Retarding detection method to prevent previous hardware issues, also the LNAV and VNAV will not disconnect if you disengage AP anymore.
One of the biggest protestations with the release version was the aircraft would lift off the runway before the v2 (149 knts) + Rotate position was acquired.
X-Crafts have done a lot of work on this issue, and it shows, at the rotation point it is now perfect, and at the correct vSpeed. Visually it's better as well with improved wingflex. So as the wings take the weight, they will bend now higher (or more realistically) on takeoff, but they don't flex in the replay mode, a Laminar bug it seems.
I initially climb to 12,000ft, or 15,000ft if the airport is at a high altitude. Once there you switch off the seatbelt signs and clean up the lighting, and increase the speed (285 knts).
Lately I have been comparing FLCH (Flight Change) modes in various reviews, to see how they stack up. I have in the past always been a procedures person and did all the Flight Level and Speed changes (Knts/Mach) myself. But decided to see how the E-Jet performed. And the results are impressive. Like noted I was at 12,000ft with an altitude change to FL320 (32,000ft), so I pressed the FLCH and watched it perform...
The (vertical) climb was originally set at 3,200 fpm, but quickly settled down to around 2,200 per minute, then over the climb it changed the pitch feet per minute from the 2,200 - 1800 - 1600 - 1200 - and going past FL300 it was down to 800, until reaching the correct altitude. Like I said, that was sensational in the sort of climb rates I would do manually. in v1.03 there has been some adjustments on the Mach number changeover point, now 31,000 ft. The VNAV has had a lot of attention as well... first the VNAV not engaging if AP not selected before 1200ft AGL, thats now also been fixed...
... TOC is now visible if it occurs within the SID. TOC is displayed currently based on average climb performance, but you may even reach FL before or after TOC, and that is normal. Route waypoint altitudes didn't before conform to climb or descent altitude profiles when before TOC or after TOD, thats been fixed as well. Finally the Vertical deviation bug does not stay in the middle during level offs during the descents, now it does... all small stuff in being corrected, but it adds up to a very realistic Simulation.
The results are impressive, in reality you can press the FLCH button (after selecting the new altitude), and climb professionally straight up to the new flight level in perfection, no dramas, with a Mach switch over on the ride up, in fact the E-Jet is fully automated, a one button press does the lot.
I will note though that the FL change to my cruise altitude of FL340 (2,000ft) was a bit abrupt, 2,000 fpm was a bit excessive, but it quickly readjusted to 900 fpm, me I usually change levels around 500 fpm to 600 fpm in this category of aircraft over small altitude steps, don't want to scare the passengers.
Glass transparency was debated, and the conclusion by X-Crafts was that the transparency was true to life and depends highly on the lighting conditions in the sim, that is a point... I don't think any developer can adjust cockpit lighting at the moment, it's still to transient.
The one distraction I don't like is Throttle hunting. I have a nasty tailwind of 67 knots, so the Yokes are flickering and the Throttles are adjusting to the wind changes... but it's actually good here, not that abrupt movement, but a seemless casual adjustment as required, so the actions of the systems look and feel very realistic in flight.
Is this E-Jet a great reflection on the state of X-Plane 12 currently, yes it is, very impressive.
Rear Navigation lights are now white, from the earlier red, look nice as well... all Navigation lights have been increased in intensity of around 20%, and so have the strobe lights.
Cockpit lighting is excellent, but the Autopilot glareshield controls are still very hard to read in the daylight, fine at night... but confusing in the day.
FLCH descent felt a little excessive at 3,500 fpm? I would usually descend around 2,000 - 2500 fpm, only 3,000 fpm in an emergency, you press FLCH and the nose just goes DOWN... I'll do it manually.
Our arrival at Athens, love it when the gear unfolds.
On the E190/E195 variants, the engine pylon was going through the flap when the flaps were extended, now that is fixed, another change is that the Flap extension times were reduced after evaluating some real-world videos. Flap 1 now takes 15 sec to extend instead of the earlier 20 seconds... so quicker.
Manual approach flying is exceptional, you have to be impressed on how really good Flight Simulation is today, X-Plane dynamics give you an exceptional "hands on" feel for the aircraft in "Finals".
Sound changes in v1.03 are all mostly focused on the landing contact... with added cabin mains (gear) ground contact, cabin nosegear ground contact, a new cockpit mains ground contact and cockpit nose ground contact sounds. The "autobrake" warning is also now aural. One other aural adjustment was the rather noisy electric hydraulic pump by about 6dB, so the sound pitch is now down slightly.
Obviously I couldn't wait to try out the better engine reverser actions, and they look and feel excellent, inside throttle actions and external.
The E-Jet is fantastic and impressive as well.
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Summary
Released to great fanfare in May 2023, is the totally upgraded E-Jet Family Series from X-Crafts. The aircraft set new standards for regional aircraft design and detail, and was the first completely new X-Plane 12 focused release, plus it went up into the upper elite category price wise.
Since the release there has been three updates, v1.01 (19th May), v1.02 (26th June) and this latest update to v1.03 (October 3rd). The first v1.01 update was a reaction to release, to fix immediate bugs and issues. v1.02 was a more in-depth revision focusing on System Improvements, here we focused on the largest update yet with v1.03. A full changelog is below.
The update list is long, but highlights in v1.03 include fixes for the earlier troublesome Throttle quadrant for Add-on hardware. This time the fixes are done, and with the added extra of a well designed Thrust reverser action, for the same add-on throttle systems.
Aircraft dynamics relating to early runway lifting has also been attended to, in fact TOC and TOD points have also had attention with a focus on the Knts/Mach transition, lots of attention for all VNAV, LNAV, PFD, MFD elements and the EFB Tablet are also well detailed, and goes a long way to giving the aircraft a maturity it deserves.
A few physical changes are done as well, Navigation rear lights are now white, and all Nav lights are 20% brighter, modeling Engine Pylon into flaps is fixed, as is the flap speeds. Sounds are focused on Cockpit and Cabin runway contact speeds, and all have been revised.
This is a very complex aircraft, programming the Primus "Epic" FMS, can take time, but gets far easier with familiarity and use, but X-Crafts have done a lot to make it a realistic, if also a provided a lot of "helper" options, but the important global save is still missing, and badly needed here. The non-connection to the Tiller is still there, and the lighting is still unusual in excellent night lighting, is in contradiction to the various daylight lighting being blanked out? an X-Plane 12 issue? The Guidance Panel is still impossible to see the daylight.
Every thing here with the E Jet Family from X-crafts comes down to price. The packages are set in the high quality category, a single aircraft version is priced only US$5 lower than the category leader the FlyJSim Q4XP, the full five aircraft package (the lineage coming later) is US$134.95, yes that is expensive. For the past purchaser of the X-Plane 11 v2 version, the new purchase still gets a 15% discount, if you upgrade later to the full package, then there is a 50% discount, the best deal is 15% off the full package if you are a previous owner, still a big investment, and one that runs the full life of the X-Plane 12 version.
The astounding quality of the aircraft here hits you in the face, this is "Top Notch" category that easily matches the class leader in FlyJSim's Q4XP Dash 8 aircraft, but there is also that "New Gen" feel of the quality and detail that gives this series the signal that it was created and designed for the future, or X-Plane 12, and it is not a conversion aircraft of the past. In truth this is the first (in this high-level category) of a pure X-Plane 12 release, and you see and feel it, and the E-Jets still feels very new and fresh after six months of release.
The E-Jet Family from X-Crafts is a standard bearer in quality and systems for the X-Plane 12 Simulator. These revisions and consistent updates are moving the aircraft very quickly to a mature standard. It's a brilliant in-depth Simulation, that shows off X-Plane 12 to it's ultimate best.
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Yes! the Embraer E-Jets Family v1.03 by X-Crafts is currently available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Embraer E-Jets by X-Crafts
Price per single aircraft is US$74.95
Embraer E170 by X-Crafts
Embraer E175 by X-Crafts
Embraer E190 by X-Crafts
Embraer E190 by X-Crafts
Purchasers of the E-Jet v2 (X-Plane 11) can get this new XP12 version with a 15% discount
Embraer E-Jets Family by X-Crafts
Price for the FULL E-Jet Package is US$134.95
Includes every E-Type | E170 | E175 | E190 | E195 Plus + Linaeage 1000 Private jet (When Released)
Purchasers of the E-Jet v2 (X-Plane 11) can get this new XP12 version package with a 15% discount
Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 The first few initial updates will still be X-Plane 11 compatible, however, 6 months after the release, the X-Plane 11 version will be final and development will continue only on the X-Plane 12 version. Windows, MAC or Linux - 4 GB VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.03 (October 3rd 2023) Download via Skunkcraft Updater Download (Package) installed is; 5.56GB. The AviTab plugin is also required to use this aircraft, and it is deposited in your X-Plane Plugins folder.
Designed by X-Crafts
Support forum for XCrafts
Documentation
There is excellent full coverage documentation and built in checklists, including;
E-Jets Family by X-Crafts - User Manual
Changelog v1.01, v1.02 and v1.03
Version Notes v1.0.3.txt
_____________________
Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
28th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.07r1
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 :
Scenery or Aircraft
- LIMC - Milano Malpensa XP by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$29.95
- LGAV - FlyTampa - Athens (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$28.00
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Blueb in Aircraft Update Review : Embraer E-Jets Family v1.03 by X-Crafts
Aircraft Update Review : Embraer E-Jets Family v1.03 by X-Crafts
Earlier this year was one of the year's most significant new aircraft releases for the X-Plane 12 Simulator. The E-Jet Family series of aircraft was released on the 10th May 2023 by X-Crafts, and obviously X-PlaneReviews did the full release review on the aircraft: Aircraft Review : E-Jets Family by X-Crafts.
Release reviews are always an early in-depth look of the aircraft. Detailing the Features, Systems, Instruments and focusing on the Modeling, look and feel of the release. In this case it was a long review, because there are five different variants of the E-Jet family, four in E 170 - E 175 - E 190 - E 195 as they all were part of the release package, the fifth is the still to be released E 190 Lineage Business Jet.
So it is always interesting to come back to the aircraft a few months after the initial review, to not only see the updates (fixes) on the package, but also have another perspective on the aircraft after a period of flying the machine and absorbing it's features. These update reviews are not a totally in-depth review like a few months ago, but to pick out the highlights and changes since that original release.
The new E-Jet Family from Embraer in Brazil, was not the first Embraers from X-Crafts, first was the E 175 LR: Aircraft Review : Embraer E 195 LR by X-Crafts, which came into X-Plane 10 in August 2014, with then later the smaller E 175 on December 5, 2015.
The difference with the 2023 release in that it was a completely different remodeling and systems redesign for X-Plane 12, and nothing on the earlier E-Jet aircraft was passed over to the new, the E-Jets also came with a significant price increase. But I found with the extremely high quality and huge feature list, it did also certainly realign the product to this new price point level, in some ways it is a remarkable achievement for X-Crafts on what they delivered.
Since the release there has been three updates, v1.01 (19th May), v1.02 (26th June) and this latest update to v1.03 (October 3rd). The first v1.01 update was a reaction to release, to fix immediate bugs and issues. v1.02 was a more in-depth revision focusing on System Improvements, PFD (Primary Flight Display), MFD (MultiFunctional Display) fixes and sounds. Which brings us to the latest v1.03. This update is what you could call a mature update. All updates can be done via the excellent new Skunkcrafts Updater... and first impressions back in the E-Jet cockpit support that feeling.
Those first impressions are simply "Wow", it really is superbly created. The detail and quality really does jump out at you. Remember this is really the first X-Plane 12 aircraft (in this category), created and designed specifically for the X-Plane 12 version and it's new lighting effects.
And the E-Jet certainly has that extremely look and realistic feel...
In the release review I flew the E-195, this aircraft is the E-190, slightly shorter (36.25 m (118 ft 11 in), less passengers, but comes with a longer range in 2,450 nmi (4,537 km; 2,820 mi) and by flying an extra 150 nm. It is still a huge cabin... galleys are small, but extremely well done.
The cockpit is stunning as well, the detail is even overwhelming, even though I know it in complete detail from May.
And you can slip yourself into the pilot's seat and adjust it forward.
The E-Family uses the Honeywell Primus "Epic", Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) glass cockpit...
I really don't have a lot of negative comments with X-Crafts E-Jet Family, but there are two, or really one that can absorb the second one.
The custom "Authentic" FMS is very good, yes authentic. But it is very long-winded to programme, not just the actual route, but there is a lot of performance and data to feed in. But there are helpers... On the EFB there are three pages covering Weight & Balance, Takeoff Perf and Landing Perf.
You can import the Flight data from SimBrief (Simbrief ID Required), and it fills out your loadsheet, you can then use this data to "Load (the) Plane"... but it won't insert your route? The quickest way is to use the X-Plane 12 FMS flightplan (you can use the SimBrief Downloader App to insert the file in the X-Plane FMS plans folder). Then load in the route as a CO ROUTE
You still have to insert your Departure and Arrival procedures, to complete the route detail.
Again on the EFB, you can create the "TakeOff" and "Landing" performance data. You then have to fill in the Wind, (Airport) Temperature and Baro QNH.
When computed, you can send the data directly to the FMS, via the upper right link. It is hard to find, but to set these Takeoff and Landing speeds you then have to go to the ACARS MAIN MENU, under NAV-INDEX/DATALINK.
But it does not set other crucial data... one of the big annoying diversions is caused by setting the TO-CG (TakeOff - Centre of Gravity). The TO-CG is shown on TAKEOFF INIT page 2, but it won't accept the TO-CG %, as you would usually program in the Trim on the TAKEOFF page.
The TO-CG is actually set on the PERFORMANCE INIT-KG page 2, then it fills in the TAKEOFF INIT (page 2) setting... it also then sets the "PITCH TRIM" and "TO PITCH", both slots you usually do manually, here it is automatic.
Another diversion is to set the Takeoff flap setting. Here it is set to FLAPS 2, to change the Flap setting you go to the TO INIT lower left LK6
Select Page 2 and the Flap selection is the first row RK1... OR Then select your Flap Setting 1, 2, or 4 and the "ACT" is the active flap setting, when done press RETURN. The Flap setting change is now done on the TAKEOFF main page.
More data also has to be filled out on TAKEOFF INIT, this time page 1. WIND is required RK3...
Another one... back to the PERFORMANCE INIT-KG Page 2, to fill in ISA DEV, ZFW, CRZ ALT (Altitude) and CRZ WINDS.
Get it all right and your FMS active FLT PLAN lights up with SPEED and ALTITUDE data.
Don't get me wrong, it is a brilliantly deep FMS system, really well done. Once you get skilled at the way you programme in the data, you will be well pleased with the result... but what if you make a mistake, or your flight is tomorrow?
That is the crunch... you can't save all your set up hard work, shut down the Simulator, and it's all gone. So it becomes a use it or lose it situation, and it's a lot of (programming) work to lose, and it's time consuming to reprogramme everything back in ready again.
Developer note- "Use the ICAO code instead of the identifier to search for airports. This should fix some airports not being found on the EFB, If this still happens to you, then quit X-Plane, then navigate to …\X-Plane\Output\caches\xcrafts, and delete the airports.db folder. It will be recreated automatically next time you start X-Plane. And this should resolve the issue".
Throttles
Those lovely throttles have been troublesome since the original release of the XP12 E-Jet Family. Certainly if you have some add-on hardware throttles, like I do with the Saitek X56 Rhino. At first they didn't work at all with the Add-on set up, in v1.02 they did work, but both levers were locked together?
In v1.03 the throttles now work independently of each other and realistically... nice!
But there is something working even better here now, and clever as well. Reverse on these sort of "BETA" gate style throttle quadrants was always very tricky to get right with Add-on throttle systems Just try FlyJSims DASH Q4XP to see how hard it is to get it working realistically.
But X-Crafts have come up with a novel solution here. Select your Reverser Mode as usual (Toggle thrust reversers), and the throttles drop back into the MIN REV gate, push up the throttle power and the throttles do the reverse action in going rearwards to MAX REV....
So simple it makes you cry, but so easy to use. Do the reverse procedure to get back to IDLE position (pull back throttles then re-toggle the reversers)... brilliant, you can play and marvel with them for hours. X-Crafts has also changed the Throttle Retarding detection method to prevent previous hardware issues, also the LNAV and VNAV will not disconnect if you disengage AP anymore.
One of the biggest protestations with the release version was the aircraft would lift off the runway before the v2 (149 knts) + Rotate position was acquired.
X-Crafts have done a lot of work on this issue, and it shows, at the rotation point it is now perfect, and at the correct vSpeed. Visually it's better as well with improved wingflex. So as the wings take the weight, they will bend now higher (or more realistically) on takeoff, but they don't flex in the replay mode, a Laminar bug it seems.
I initially climb to 12,000ft, or 15,000ft if the airport is at a high altitude. Once there you switch off the seatbelt signs and clean up the lighting, and increase the speed (285 knts).
Lately I have been comparing FLCH (Flight Change) modes in various reviews, to see how they stack up. I have in the past always been a procedures person and did all the Flight Level and Speed changes (Knts/Mach) myself. But decided to see how the E-Jet performed. And the results are impressive. Like noted I was at 12,000ft with an altitude change to FL320 (32,000ft), so I pressed the FLCH and watched it perform...
The (vertical) climb was originally set at 3,200 fpm, but quickly settled down to around 2,200 per minute, then over the climb it changed the pitch feet per minute from the 2,200 - 1800 - 1600 - 1200 - and going past FL300 it was down to 800, until reaching the correct altitude. Like I said, that was sensational in the sort of climb rates I would do manually. in v1.03 there has been some adjustments on the Mach number changeover point, now 31,000 ft. The VNAV has had a lot of attention as well... first the VNAV not engaging if AP not selected before 1200ft AGL, thats now also been fixed...
... TOC is now visible if it occurs within the SID. TOC is displayed currently based on average climb performance, but you may even reach FL before or after TOC, and that is normal. Route waypoint altitudes didn't before conform to climb or descent altitude profiles when before TOC or after TOD, thats been fixed as well. Finally the Vertical deviation bug does not stay in the middle during level offs during the descents, now it does... all small stuff in being corrected, but it adds up to a very realistic Simulation.
The results are impressive, in reality you can press the FLCH button (after selecting the new altitude), and climb professionally straight up to the new flight level in perfection, no dramas, with a Mach switch over on the ride up, in fact the E-Jet is fully automated, a one button press does the lot.
I will note though that the FL change to my cruise altitude of FL340 (2,000ft) was a bit abrupt, 2,000 fpm was a bit excessive, but it quickly readjusted to 900 fpm, me I usually change levels around 500 fpm to 600 fpm in this category of aircraft over small altitude steps, don't want to scare the passengers.
Glass transparency was debated, and the conclusion by X-Crafts was that the transparency was true to life and depends highly on the lighting conditions in the sim, that is a point... I don't think any developer can adjust cockpit lighting at the moment, it's still to transient.
The one distraction I don't like is Throttle hunting. I have a nasty tailwind of 67 knots, so the Yokes are flickering and the Throttles are adjusting to the wind changes... but it's actually good here, not that abrupt movement, but a seemless casual adjustment as required, so the actions of the systems look and feel very realistic in flight.
Is this E-Jet a great reflection on the state of X-Plane 12 currently, yes it is, very impressive.
Rear Navigation lights are now white, from the earlier red, look nice as well... all Navigation lights have been increased in intensity of around 20%, and so have the strobe lights.
Cockpit lighting is excellent, but the Autopilot glareshield controls are still very hard to read in the daylight, fine at night... but confusing in the day.
FLCH descent felt a little excessive at 3,500 fpm? I would usually descend around 2,000 - 2500 fpm, only 3,000 fpm in an emergency, you press FLCH and the nose just goes DOWN... I'll do it manually.
Our arrival at Athens, love it when the gear unfolds.
On the E190/E195 variants, the engine pylon was going through the flap when the flaps were extended, now that is fixed, another change is that the Flap extension times were reduced after evaluating some real-world videos. Flap 1 now takes 15 sec to extend instead of the earlier 20 seconds... so quicker.
Manual approach flying is exceptional, you have to be impressed on how really good Flight Simulation is today, X-Plane dynamics give you an exceptional "hands on" feel for the aircraft in "Finals".
Sound changes in v1.03 are all mostly focused on the landing contact... with added cabin mains (gear) ground contact, cabin nosegear ground contact, a new cockpit mains ground contact and cockpit nose ground contact sounds. The "autobrake" warning is also now aural. One other aural adjustment was the rather noisy electric hydraulic pump by about 6dB, so the sound pitch is now down slightly.
Obviously I couldn't wait to try out the better engine reverser actions, and they look and feel excellent, inside throttle actions and external.
The E-Jet is fantastic and impressive as well.
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Summary
Released to great fanfare in May 2023, is the totally upgraded E-Jet Family Series from X-Crafts. The aircraft set new standards for regional aircraft design and detail, and was the first completely new X-Plane 12 focused release, plus it went up into the upper elite category price wise.
Since the release there has been three updates, v1.01 (19th May), v1.02 (26th June) and this latest update to v1.03 (October 3rd). The first v1.01 update was a reaction to release, to fix immediate bugs and issues. v1.02 was a more in-depth revision focusing on System Improvements, here we focused on the largest update yet with v1.03. A full changelog is below.
The update list is long, but highlights in v1.03 include fixes for the earlier troublesome Throttle quadrant for Add-on hardware. This time the fixes are done, and with the added extra of a well designed Thrust reverser action, for the same add-on throttle systems.
Aircraft dynamics relating to early runway lifting has also been attended to, in fact TOC and TOD points have also had attention with a focus on the Knts/Mach transition, lots of attention for all VNAV, LNAV, PFD, MFD elements and the EFB Tablet are also well detailed, and goes a long way to giving the aircraft a maturity it deserves.
A few physical changes are done as well, Navigation rear lights are now white, and all Nav lights are 20% brighter, modeling Engine Pylon into flaps is fixed, as is the flap speeds. Sounds are focused on Cockpit and Cabin runway contact speeds, and all have been revised.
This is a very complex aircraft, programming the Primus "Epic" FMS, can take time, but gets far easier with familiarity and use, but X-Crafts have done a lot to make it a realistic, if also a provided a lot of "helper" options, but the important global save is still missing, and badly needed here. The non-connection to the Tiller is still there, and the lighting is still unusual in excellent night lighting, is in contradiction to the various daylight lighting being blanked out? an X-Plane 12 issue? The Guidance Panel is still impossible to see the daylight.
Every thing here with the E Jet Family from X-crafts comes down to price. The packages are set in the high quality category, a single aircraft version is priced only US$5 lower than the category leader the FlyJSim Q4XP, the full five aircraft package (the lineage coming later) is US$134.95, yes that is expensive. For the past purchaser of the X-Plane 11 v2 version, the new purchase still gets a 15% discount, if you upgrade later to the full package, then there is a 50% discount, the best deal is 15% off the full package if you are a previous owner, still a big investment, and one that runs the full life of the X-Plane 12 version.
The astounding quality of the aircraft here hits you in the face, this is "Top Notch" category that easily matches the class leader in FlyJSim's Q4XP Dash 8 aircraft, but there is also that "New Gen" feel of the quality and detail that gives this series the signal that it was created and designed for the future, or X-Plane 12, and it is not a conversion aircraft of the past. In truth this is the first (in this high-level category) of a pure X-Plane 12 release, and you see and feel it, and the E-Jets still feels very new and fresh after six months of release.
The E-Jet Family from X-Crafts is a standard bearer in quality and systems for the X-Plane 12 Simulator. These revisions and consistent updates are moving the aircraft very quickly to a mature standard. It's a brilliant in-depth Simulation, that shows off X-Plane 12 to it's ultimate best.
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Yes! the Embraer E-Jets Family v1.03 by X-Crafts is currently available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Embraer E-Jets by X-Crafts
Price per single aircraft is US$74.95
Embraer E170 by X-Crafts
Embraer E175 by X-Crafts
Embraer E190 by X-Crafts
Embraer E190 by X-Crafts
Purchasers of the E-Jet v2 (X-Plane 11) can get this new XP12 version with a 15% discount
Embraer E-Jets Family by X-Crafts
Price for the FULL E-Jet Package is US$134.95
Includes every E-Type | E170 | E175 | E190 | E195 Plus + Linaeage 1000 Private jet (When Released)
Purchasers of the E-Jet v2 (X-Plane 11) can get this new XP12 version package with a 15% discount
Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 The first few initial updates will still be X-Plane 11 compatible, however, 6 months after the release, the X-Plane 11 version will be final and development will continue only on the X-Plane 12 version. Windows, MAC or Linux - 4 GB VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.03 (October 3rd 2023) Download via Skunkcraft Updater Download (Package) installed is; 5.56GB. The AviTab plugin is also required to use this aircraft, and it is deposited in your X-Plane Plugins folder.
Designed by X-Crafts
Support forum for XCrafts
Documentation
There is excellent full coverage documentation and built in checklists, including;
E-Jets Family by X-Crafts - User Manual
Changelog v1.01, v1.02 and v1.03
Version Notes v1.0.3.txt
_____________________
Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
28th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.07r1
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 :
Scenery or Aircraft
- LIMC - Milano Malpensa XP by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$29.95
- LGAV - FlyTampa - Athens (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$28.00
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in NEWS! - Scenery Upgraded to X-Plane 12 : CYLW-Kelowna International Airport XP12 /11 by Canada4XPlane
NEWS! - Scenery Upgraded to X-Plane 12 : CYLW-Kelowna International Airport XP12 /11 by Canada4XPlane
CYLW Kelowna International was first released for the X-Plane 11 Simulator in late May 2020 by Canada4Xplane. It was a collaborative deal with FSSim Studios, as the original version of CYLW was created for Prepar3D. But don't get the wrong idea here, because the earlier Kelowna was highly developed from the ground up for X-Plane in using assets from FSimStudios, and to totally rebuild the airport, so it was not a simple conversion between the two platforms.
This version v2 release is another complete redesign for X-Plane 12 of CYLW-Kelowna, to include Ultra-High Resolution (4K) Textures, Ambient Occlusion, Volumetric grass and the use of X-Plane 12 effects for weather and lighting.
Kelowna International Airport (CYLW) is a Canadian airport located approximately 10 minutes or 6.2 nautical miles (11.5 km; 7.1 mi) northeast of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, on Highway 97. The single-runway airport operates scheduled air service to Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, and Seattle, as well as less frequent seasonal service to Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, and Phoenix. Currently, the airport handles up to 38 commercial departures a day, or approximately 266 departures per week. Three major airlines serve the airport; Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, and WestJet. In 2018, YLW overtook Victoria International Airport to become Canada's 10th busiest airport by passenger traffic with 2,080,372, representing a 9.9% increase over 2017.
Full Features include
Both X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 versions included Highly detailed representation of Kelowna International Airport CYLW Detailed Representation of the Kelowna General Hospital Heliport CKH9 330 sqKm of 0.42 cm/pix seasonal Orthoimagery, covering the entire city of Kelowna Custom Made objects for the city of Kelowna, including the William R. Bennet Bridge, shopping malls, hotels and more Ultra-High Resolution (4K) Textures. Dynamic Lighting Custom Autogate Jetways Volumetric grass Ambient Occlusion X-Plane 12 Dynamic lighting World Traffic 3 Compatibility
Both X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 versions are included in the CYLW package
Quality Canadian Addons for XPlane 11/12, the Canada4XPlane site is here: Canada4XPlane
__________________________
The PCYLW-Kelowna International Airport XP12 /11 by Canada4XPlane is NOW available here at the X-Plane.OrgStore...
CYLW-Kelowna International Airport XP12 /11
Price is US$19.99
Requirements
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 (both versions included)
Windows, Mac or Linux 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 2 GB Current Version: 2.0 XP12 (October 25th 2023) ___________________________
News by Stephen Dutton
27th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from tbaac in Updated Aircraft Review : Eurocopter EC130 B4 v1.2 X-Plane 12 by HSF
Updated Aircraft Review : Eurocopter EC130 B4 v1.2 X-Plane 12 by HSF
The Bell 206 JetRanger changed helicopter operations forever. Before this light rotor craft came on to the scene, then Helicopters were used mainly for Military, Oil or Government operations. But the Bell 206 was reliable and cheap enough to operate in commercial areas. Hence the load of television stations that became the "eyes in the sky", also Fire Police and Customs used the aircraft for their own particular services, but more so was the commercial aspect of personal transport, or the use of helicopters in the field of consumer usage. Not only for heliport to airport transfers, but the flourishing tourism market of which where the real action was... or sightseeing from the air.
Today we take this air tourism market for granted in "Sightseeing Flights", but a few decades ago they were then very compelling and opened up a world to the masses and not only for the rich few. It's big business, go to the Grand Canyon, Nevada and see the huge flightlines of machines, or at any scenic attraction, and there is also a very good chance you will be able to also go for a sightseeing flight.
The Bell 206 dominated this tourism market for decades, it was the perfect machine for the job, so how do you replace it. The French developed the Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil, or Aérospatiale initiated a development programme to produce a replacement for the aging Aérospatiale Alouette II and in so created another iconic helicopter. But for tourism operators the AS350 was slightly too small, so (then Eurocopter, now Airbus Helicopters) had to develop something else for the market. The designed EC130 was achieved in close cooperation with the said tour operators, one such operator, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters was also in being the launch operator; The EC130 has been described as having a spacious cabin for accommodating up to seven tourists and also providing excellent external visibility.
It also created a strange machine in being very wide with it's three forward seats and four rear seat configuration, the pilot flies from the left seat, even a dual operation it puts the second pilot in the middle seat. Another change on the EC130 for safety was the use of the guarded Fenestron anti-torque device in place of a conventional tail rotor, the Fenestron also has unevenly spaced blades to reduce noise generation by 50% compared to a tail rotor; this enabled an FAA Appendix H fly-over noise signature of 84.3 EPNdB, 8.5 dB and below stage two limits. So the EC130 is a quiet machine for operations over densely packed environments.
Update v1.1 and v1.2
This is the second updated review of the EC130. Original release date was the 26th August 2023, a comprehensive update v1.1 was released almost a month later (17th Sept 23), now a third update v1.2 (23rd Oct 23) includes the addition of a Medivac version. Again it made sense to combine all the three versions together, and highlight the changes with the newer updates included. A full changelog is included below.
HeliSimu France are a newly formed (2019) community dedicated to French designed helicopters. The EC130 is their first collaborative venture for the X-Plane 12 Simulator, there will be no X-Plane 11 version of the aircraft. And there is a lot of collaboration going on here, mostly by HSF with a design by highly renowned NemethDesigns. First views of the HSF EC130 are extremely good for a first time developed aircraft. Particularly for a helicopter as the quality and detail in this sphere is, always been extremely high...
The EC130 is a single-engine helicopter. It uses a three-bladed Starflex main rotor which is matched to an enclosed tail fan anti-torque device, known as a Fenestron, the latter feature replacing the traditional tail rotor found on the older AS350. The EC130 uses the Turbomeca Arriel 2D turboshaft engine; the performance of this powerplant 710 kW (950 hp) has led to the type having been described as possessing "better power margins and range than competing models, particularly in hot and high conditions". The B4 is the Initial launch model of the type. First flight 24 June 1999, and 700 aircraft have been built to date.
First of all there are two versions of the aircraft from HSF, one is the standard "Analog" avionics, the second is "G500" for FAR Part 23 Class 1/Class 2 aircraft, dual-screen electronic flight display classification. You select either system from the X-Plane Flight Configuration menu.
On the G500 EC-130 aircraft there is also the extra option to install a RealSimGear G500 for a more higher detailed and menu driven avionics version of the unique system.
Detail
As noted the modeling and design here is by highly renowned NemethDesigns. It shows as the quality is very good, again we will note that helicopters are a level above in quality and detail than the usual aircraft fare in the simulator.
The complex construction of the EC-130 is really well done here, all the panels are all perfect and so are the locking latches, steel/chrome highlights are well done as well. Underside of the fuselage is also highly detailed, highly realistic. Noted as PBR 2K textures, they are very good.
The burnt exhaust is very realistic, as is it's complex shape, but the air-vent circular pipes could be more rounded. The Fenestron in flight looks great as is the nicely surrounding sculptured enclosure.
The construction detail of the rotor hub is excellent, all rods, tower and joints are perfectly modeled with a cap on top.
- Version 1.2 -
In the v1.0 release the rotor hub was not animated, But now in v1.2 there are fully articulated rotor hub movements, including Collective, Pitch and Roll, by having these elements present in the detail is a pointer to the depth of the design... The actions here are excellent, as the hub is now fully animated.
Collective
Pitch
Roll
... on the Fenestron the blades they also simulate the Yaw aspect by movement with the rudder controls.
Glass is exceptional, dark thick and beautifully curved and intergrated into the fuselage, notable are the central window panels, that give the aircraft it's width, and excellent skylights set in above, it is a very scenic built forward cabin for sightseeing.
So the modeling and detail is excellent, very high quality and very well executed by NemethDesigns. As we go into the cabin, we will look at the menu options as well, because they are related.
Menu
The Menu is situated upper left panel by clicking a hotspot on the Caution Warning Panel (CWP)... you can move the menu panel in a semi-circle around you via the arrows, left or right. Obviously this menu system has been created for VR or Virtual Reality users in mind, its easy to use and accessible as well.
All the four doors can be opened, the left rear is a slider, the right rear an opening dummy door.
The seven seats are tall, very thin and built on a metal frame, three front and four rear. The seat construction frames are excellent, and the cabin interior is most all shades of grey with black. nice carpets and the interior is a darkish grey.
There are also the various material design options (and colours) from seat covers to changeable seat patterns, via the differently selected livery.
Also via the menu you have the option to remove both the forward (two) seats and the full rear four seats.
Clever is the use of the X-Plane Weight & Balance menu to add in the pilot and passengers...
.... slide the Pilot weight slider above 50 kgs and he will appear. Slide the "Front" passenger (PAX) to 75 kgs and a passenger will appear, another 75 kgs and a second passenger appears. The same system is used in the rear with the four passengers left to right.
- Version 1.1 -
There are changes to the Weight and Balances menu with the addition of new features in v1.1... added are four new sliders to cover the weights in "Cargo" and "Basket" loads.
There are excellent cargo baskets on each side of the EC130, Adjusting the weight slider (v1.1) and you can now have baggage (cargo) in the baskets, nicely done.... and you can also open the baskets with a hotspot.
Another v1.1 change is the addition of opening side cargo (baggage) compartments... like with the Baskets, if you adjust the W&B menu slider you will get internal compartment bags (luggage)
Other external options include; Left side Mirror and underside Sling Hook.
You can select the Sling Load weight and Object on the X-Plane W&B menu, but there are no objects to load, or provided? Set the weight, turn on the "Sling" selection in the SCU or system control unit... and the weight is shown on the far left "Sling load Indicator". Externally because there is no object you get a white and red box to lift, In time I would expect real objects to lift. The EC-130's aircraft keel is of high-strength, with chemically milled beams rather than the usual stamped metal, so it's lift capacity is higher. Notable in v1.2, AlpineHoist sling load weight indicator if the plugin is installed (Available with the next version of AlpineHoist)
More external options include lower and upper wire cutters...
Working "Floats" and rear skid "Bear Paws".
Final external option are the "Handling Wheels" again on the rear part of the skid.
You can manoeuvre the helicopter by the wheel control panel when you select the Handling wheels selection... just press the arrow on the direction you want to move, but it is very, very basic... even primitive in action?
- Version 1.2 -
Added into v1.2 update is a full medivac fitout. This includes seating, a stretcher and Medical Equipment bay.
The quality and detail of the Medical interior is excellent, really well thought out and executed. The Medical option is selected via the menu or the Medivac Livery. You can also add in the medical flight crew via the same X-Plane/Weights & Balances menu. The crew are all dressed in the correct uniforms of Pilot (black), Doctor and two air Paramedics.
It's very versatile as well. Need just the doctor (flying out), then put in a Front Passenger weight below 150 kgs and there is no patient, above 150 kgs, and there he is (flying back). The rear two Paramedics use the same weight system to have one or two medics present... clever.
A Ohio State "MedFlight" livery is also provided, but I expect others to follow.
Also added to v1.2 is a very nice GPU (Ground Power Unit) a branded HOBART. It also can be found on the 3d Menu.
Instrument Panel - G500
The Instrument binnacle is huge, but still small in this wide cockpit... set to the far left it is very well done here in look and detail. Black on black, it is quite dark internally.
There are the two layout configurations as noted... Analog and G500, we will look first at the G500.
And it has built-in a "Synthetic Vision" feature that is excellent, the best Synthetic I have seen yet. The G500 avionics package is designed specifically for FAR Part 23 Class 1/Class 2 aircraft (singles and twins less than 6,000 lbs.), G500 system is an affordable, dual-screen electronic flight display that works with your avionics stack to provide a fully certified “glass cockpit” retrofit option.
Dual 6.5" LCDs are mounted side-by-side in the bezel, put both the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multifunction Display (MFD) capabilities directly in your field of view to help streamline instrument scanning. There is real-time True Airspeed calculations and selectable Winds Aloft data as well as aircraft ground speed, GPS active waypoint, distance-to-waypoint, desired/actual track, and more.
PFD consolidates all primary situational information regarding your aircraft’s position are in tapes, speed, attitude, vertical rate, altitude and flight progress. plus Nav 1, Nav 2 and GPS data.
This version from HSF is very, very good, but you can also install a payware version as noted from RealSimGear G500. There is a provided folder and instructions in the package to install the RealSim G500 version correctly.
The left display MFD provides detailed moving-map graphics of your aircraft’s current position in relation to ground features, chart data, navaids and more. TCAS and Weather overlay (X-Plane) are both supported. On the HSF version I couldn't see the flightplan tools, and too a point the MFD is a little basic here, but more detail may follow.
How to use the G500, I will cover in the flying section of this review, it is a one knob operation, clever.
v1.1 Added is a Toggle custom command for the starter and hydraulic switch, mostly for home cockpit builders, but also for a button press start on your keyboard.
VEMD - Vehicle and Engine Management Display
Aérospatiale helicopters use the excellent VEND (Vehicle and Engine Management Display) system. It is a two display (Upper & Lower) arrangement with screen options available via right side buttons, on power up you will get a test loop of the system.
Upper screen shows two displays, "Starting" and in "Flight".
Shown on the upper "Starting" display is; Fuel gauge, Fuel quantity, Bleed valve flag, Starting T4 indication, Torque indication NG and delta NG indication, VEND caution messages and OAT (Outside Temperature). On the "Flight" display is; Fuel gauge, Fuel quantity, Bleed valve flag, In flight T4 indication, Torque indication, NG and delta NG indications and OAT.
On the lower "Flight" display is more flight performance data; Engine oil temperature, Engine oil pressure, Voltage ( Battery and Generator), Generator amperage, Fuel Flow and Endurance in hours.
When you shut down the Ec-130, the lower VEND display will create a "Flight Report", incuding; Total flight number(s), Last flight duration, Last flight N1 and N2 cycles, Total N1 and N2 cycles and a Over-limit indication if detected during the flight.
What is missing from this HSF system is the "Test" routines for the VEND system and displays, and you miss that visual (and colourful) test loop (There is a static test, but not the animated loop testing), and most of the buttons on the two displays are false, except for ON/OFF, Reset and Brightness?
Analog Panel
Besides the G500 Avionics you also have a standard analog instument package, this layout is excellent with instruments; Caution Warning Panel (CWP), NR indicator (rotor/ N2 speed) 3 way Emergency switch, Standby Horizon, Gyro slaving control, indicated air speed (kts), Pilot Horizon, Altimeter (ft), large Radio Altimeter (ft), HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator), Variometer (ft/min), Clock/Chronometer, HSI source switch, lower Cockpit Lightings Knobs and NAV 1 GPS.
Switiching Avionics (G500 - Analog) changes the display (slightly). The Airspeed and Altimeter become lower panel backup instruments, and the Lighting Panel is moved to the right hand side. A custom instrument is the NR (Top Left) Indicator, which shows the rotor speed and the N2 engine speed, Low NR will send alarm sounds in the headset if NR is under 360 rpm, and high NR alarm sounds in the headset if the NR is above 410 rpm. There is also an "Electric Emergency Switch" (Emer SW), that switches off all DC power, except vital power consumers.
There are two other instrument menu options with the Artificial Horizons (main and backup), as they can be the switched between a Floating Globe, or Electronic Horizon instrument. I prefer the nicer Floating Globe option.
The other (menu) option is to install the SAS (Stability Augmentation System), which is basically a Helicopter Autopilot System. It is situated below the GNS 430 GPS unit.
Lower console is really well done, with a Garmin GMA 340 radio top, Bendix/King NAV 2 radio centre and Garmin GTX 327 Transponder unit bottom.
The lower console has the "SCU" or System Control Unit, with a multitude of operations, including; Battery on (bat epu and dct/bat work together), Generator on, Horn (low NR and high NR alarms in the headset), Cockpit light, Avionics on, Generator reset, Anti-Collision light, Nav lights, Fuel pump, System lights, Instruments lights, Pitot heat, Sand filter, Sling load indicator, Taxi & Landing lights, Floats arm on, Crank engine, Warning lights test, Fire test and Servo test. Pressing the W/L switch will test the Caution Warning Panel (CWP), VEND and SCU, like I mentioned earlier it is only a lights test here, not a VEND system test?
You have (more) options for changing the Avionics in replacing the GNS 430, and the Analog Radio/NAV 2/Transponder with a Reality XP GNS 430W and Reality XP GTN 750 Touch on the main panel and upper console, if you own those external options, and then the switching can be done in the menu.
There is the option to use the AviTab, positioned on the far right of the instrument panel, the plugin is of course required.
The option for a "Single" or "Dual" controls (Cyclic and Collective) is also available via the Menu.
You can "Lock" the Cyclic by pressing the base plate... the Collective has a huge amount of active functions available, including; Landing light, Inflate floats, Hydraulic switch, Taxi light, Wiper, VEND scroll function, Landing light pitch, Twist (Throttle) grip in idle or flight positions and Collective Lock. The Huge massive two section Wiper is an option, and the switch is hard to find, but it is situated far left on the collective handle.
Above you are four very nice Bose headsets... click for sounds and instrument warnings! The "Rotor Brake" lever (apply below 170 rpm rotor speed) and the Fuel shut off lever and Fuel shut off lever guard are all situated forward roof.
Added in v1.1... is that the aircraft registration is now noted on the top of the instrument panel, it changes with the applied livery registration.
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Flying the EC130 B4
Helicopters are all about feel, mostly in the controls. Get it right and it a glorious place to be, get it wrong, and your struggling with the machine. The type of machine helps as well. Big heavy helicopters are more gentile, easier to fly, but light helicopters can be tricky and nasty. The AS350 can be like that, it will take smooth control and minimum inputs to get it right... so where does the EC130 stand, well in the middle, with more a benign nature, than a hairy jiggling machine. Yes a novice could fly this EC130 B4, it is nice enough and benign enough to warrant that. But it does have its odd characteristics.
Changed in v1.1 is the Rotor animation... to a smoother rotor blur or a more realistic rotor movement, very nice it is. There is also the allowance now of Rotor blur on both blades sides, it also allows you to customise each side differently, but there are no notes on how to do this? Another note is that the Fmod external sound has been increased, and so has the doors (open) sound in external view.
Taking off and the Yaw (rudder) feel is odd, there is thrust, then give the rudder more right foot and the thrust becomes less, then kicks in higher in a boost that sends you in the opposite direction (twirling). But I eventually controlled the yaw oddities, even got a low hover in place above the pad without drifting... then a forward motion (in the direction I wanted to go)... so the EC130 not (thankfully) one of those sweary impossible machines to fly.
Find your groove and the machine is very good, nice to fly once you have settled the angle of forward flight to the altitude.
An option you have is to switch on the "Vibrations", so you don't need an external "Effects" plugin to get realistic movements... and I really like them, nice movements, without not being too severe or silly, if you don't like them, you can "Kill" the effect in the Menu.
The famous Matterhorn looms in the scenic windshield as I try to gain as much height as I can...
The rate of Rate of climb is 9 m/s (1,800 ft/min), a Cruise speed of 237 km/h (147 mph, 128 kn), with a Never exceed speed of 287 km/h (178 mph, 155 kn) over a Range of 606 km (377 mi, 327 nmi), or 4 Hours endurance. Service ceiling is a remarkable 7,010 m (23,000 ft) with a Hover ceiling IGE of 3,429 m (11,250 ft). So the EC130 is a very capable machine.
Manual hands on flying is easy, not at all tiring as some Helicopters are, they require a lot of concentration, physical tension to keep the movement and motion going forward... but not here, its a nice aircraft to fly, hands on the controls, as I hate aircraft you have to fight all the time, but that is not what you get here. v1.1 brings even more Improved flight "Stability", a more hands on feel from the machine, and yes it is improved.
Notable is that HSF recommend 6 Flight Models per Frame, on the X-Plane/General Menu page, and I will confirm that action for a smoother flight and less weight on your framerate.
Sounds, quite brilliant with FMOD 2... All the startup whines and the blades cutting the air, with the howl of the turbine Arriel 2D in the background, the blade slap is good as well if you dip or turn too fast, in cruise it is excellent, but I can't hear any doppler sounds.
My aim is to get over that ridge and into clear air...
... now that is done we will look at the G500. The operations here are in conjunction with the SAS (Stability Augmentation System)
It is a nice simple system, select your operation from; HDG (Heading) CRS (Course), ALT (Altitude), V/S (Vertical Speed) and BARO from the left selections, then adjust the knob for that selection, a single handed operation... clever, very easy to use!
Only two notes, one be careful you react to the right selection if connected to the SAS, otherwise the helicopter will go bananas, its easy to do, as I did did it not once but twice. Second is how to use the V/S selection? No tutorial manual (or video) makes it hard to use? BARO can be set in both hPa and inches Hg.
The SAS is very good, clean entry and exits to the system, and it is very easy to use. But you need brighter operation lights, you can't see which selection is selected in the daylight? The SAS selections are not noted in the G500 either.
v1.1... the SAS selection operation lights have been brightened in the update, it is far better to to your selections now. Also the tail beacon strobe light is brighter.
Two final v1.1 notes include an Analog Barometer setting bug fix and a Autopilot disconnecting bug fix. Notes for v1.2 include a HeliSAS heading mode behaviour Fix, RealSimGear G500 slip indicator Fix and a RealSimGear G500 autopilot NAV mode Fix.
Lighting
Lighting is good, but not brilliant.... The instruments can be faded by a 3 way dim switch...
... two knobs adjust the backup instruments, and the VEND/G500 surround highlight buttons.
There are two rear DOME lights, but they are not very effective? Certainly no use for MAP reading, or for even lighting the rear compartment.
v1.1... as noted above the internal lighting was average. But in the update it has had attention. The Instrument lighting has now more adjustment, meaning far brighter, and much more nicer it is, the G500 panel lightning has also had a bug fix.
The overhead DOME lights have had adjustment as well, again far brighter... but I still think a couple of overhead spot (map reading) lights would be nice or more useful.
External lighting is basic... A large Landing light, then a Taxi light is set behind it. Navigation lights are small, but the nice Anti-Collision beacon on the top of the tail is good.
v1.1... external lighting has had adjustment as well, all lights are brighter (it needed more brightness), and the landing light has more pitch as well (and now works in the replay).
All in all the Eurocopter EC130 B4 by HSF is an excellent first release, yes there are a few areas to still or could be developed deeper, but the basics are all really good here, modeling, flight dynamics and it comes with a huge feature list... It's nice to fly, unusually for both the Pro's and the Novices, basic Helicopter flight is always a challenge, but this aircraft will at least meet you halfway....
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Liveries
There are 29 liveries! a lot, with most current EC130 operators provided. Liveries are all of a high quality and are brilliantly presented. We can't show you them all, but here is a small selection. The aircraft including the individual liveries all use "XPersistence".
Which is a plugin for X-Plane 12 which adds persistence by saving some datarefs at the end of a flight and restores them at the beginning of the next one. The datarefs are all saved individually per livery and with the options selected.
V1.1... Two new liveries have been added in the update; C-GPHF Phoenix Heli-Flight and F-GXPG Private Owner... Also there is a new paintkit, with or without dirtiness.
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Summary
The Eurocopter EC130 was created basically for one major role, Sightseeing and Tourism, hence its ultra-wide cabin and seven seat arrangement. The spacious cabin also makes the machine a great Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) aircraft as well. It was a role created initially by the venerable Bell 206 JetRanger. But the EC130 was developed to be a larger and faster Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil. Built around the Turbomeca Arriel 2D turboshaft engine and a Fenestron anti-torque device in place of a conventional tail rotor, the EC130 B4 first flew 24 June 1999, and to date 500 aircraft have been built.
HeliSimu France are a newly formed (2019) community dedicated to French designed helicopters. The EC-130 is their first collaborative venture for the X-Plane 12 Simulator, there will be no X-Plane 11 version of the aircraft. Design and modeling is by highly renowned NemethDesigns, the quality and detail is therefore very good.
Helicopters in X-Plane are certainly some of the best simulations in the simulator, complex and usually come with a load of options and features, that aspect is well delivered here. The menu is simple (popout 3d) but loaded with detail.
All the usual features are here, Opening doors, doors removal, cargo baskets (2), underside Sling Hook, Mirrors, Wire cutters, single or twin controls and a great Weight & Balance Menu is used to add in a Pilot and six Passengers.
Also are there two versions with either the glass version G500 or Analog avionic choices, and options for the addon RealSim G500 and Reality XP GNS 430W, Reality XP GTN 750 Touch intergration. Vibration Effects and AviTab are also included. The VEND (Vehicle and Engine Management Display) system is also very good, but not as deep in systems as seen in others.
The Fenestron system is unusual to fly and use (Yaw thrust), but overall the aircraft is very good for Novices and Pro's alike, with a good SAS (Stability Augmentation System) to help out on longer flights. Sounds are universally very good as well, with all the required aural alarms.
Obviously the Eurocopter is a collaboration of French Helicopter enthusiasts, certainly the people were focused for good detail, as this is an extremely good first release. Nothing is perfect, certainly a few areas in the VEND, G500 and the internal lighting could have more depth, Object provided for hoisting and physical cargo... and a tutorial manual would also be a good addition as well considering the complex aircraft systems.
Notable is the v1.1 update (17th September 23). It brought New opening side Cargo doors, with 3d baggage and for the side baskets, better rotor blur and animation, and various internal and external lighting improvements, and now this new update v1.2, that adds in a Medivac interior and Medical crew, also added was the Ground Power Unit and Rotor hub animations.
But overall the EC500 B4 is excellent, another brilliant machine to use and to fly regularly. The X-Plane Simulator always did lead the simulation market with excellent Helicopter designs with a lot of features, this one from the French Developers is another one to savour and certainly to invest in, great value price as well....
Highly Recommended!
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The Eurocopter EC130 B4 by HSF is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore!... Here:
Eurocopter EC130 B4 Price is US$27.95
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11)
Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Size: 1.11 GB Current version: 1.2 (October 23rd 2023) Designed by Ceds from HSF (Heli Simu France) Support forum for the EC 140 B4 _____________ Installation and documents: download for the EC130 B4 is 1.16Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "Helicopter" X-Plane folder.
Full Installation is 1.33GB
Full version v1.2 changelog
EC 130 v1.2 changelog.txt
AviTab Plugin is required for this aircraft
Documents supplied is:
1 HSF EC130 B4 Introduction.pdf 2 HSF EC130 B4 Configurations.pdf 3 HSF EC130 B4 Normal Procedures.pdf 4 HSF EC130 B4 Normal Procedures Printable white version.pdf 5 XPersistence Plugin.pdf 6 HSF EC130 B4 Acknowledgements.pdf 7 HSF EC130 B4 End User License Agreement.pdf 8 HSF EC130 B4 G500 RSG installation.pdf Eight documents cover setup, configurations and general options on the aircraft available, details for XPersistence Plugin is also provided, as is the installation details for the RealSim G500. No Tutorial, which is a small annoyance as the systems are complex to a novice.
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.06b4 (This is a beta review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- Alps UHD XP12 by Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini.- (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$49.95
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Updated Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
24th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
EC 130 v1.1 changelog.rtf
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Stephen got a reaction from Blueb in Aircraft Release Review : DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design
Aircraft Release Review : DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design
In aviation folklore, there are machines that have created an impact by their design alone, but a few have gone even higher into a sort of immortal status, Say Spitfire or DC-3, Concorde and even the Boeing 707. One other aircraft can also join this upper echelons of achievement, and that is the de Havilland Canada Type 2... also known as the "Beaver". Often referred to as the “best bush plane ever built”, the DHC-2 has been instrumental in developing and servicing far-reaching frontiers since it was first introduced in 1947.
The DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft that was developed by de Havilland Canada in 1946, and is known as a bush plane, in fact one of the most highly regarded bush aircraft ever created. There was 1,657 Beavers built between 1947–1967 and half are actually still flying and working hard. In fact you can currently buy a zero-time frame and just rebuild your current aircraft and keep the machine flying as long as you can service the radial engine and afford the new airframes...
History
de Havilland Canada hired Punch Dickins, a famous bush pilot, as Director of Sales who began an extensive program of collecting requests from other pilots and to understand what they needed in a new type of aircraft. Almost without variation, the pilots asked for tremendous extra power and STOL performance, in a design that could be easily fitted with wheels, skis or floats. When de Havilland engineers noted that this would result in poor cruise performance, one pilot replied "You only have to be faster than a dog sled". Other suggestions that seemingly sound mundane but important in the bush plane world; full-sized doors were installed on both sides of the aircraft so it could be easily loaded no matter which side of a dock it tied up on. The large doors (known as Alaska doors) were also made wide enough to allow for a 45 Imperial gallon drum to be rolled directly up and into the aircraft.
On September 17, 1946, de Havilland officially put together a design team consisting of Fred Buller, Dick Hiscocks, Jim Houston and W. Jakimiuk, led by Phil Garratt. The new aircraft was designed to be all-metal in using "steel from the engine to the firewall, heavy aluminum truss frames with panels and doors throughout the front seat area, lighter trusses toward the rear and all monocoque construction aft". At the time de Havilland Canada was still a British-owned company and there were plans to fit the evolving design with a British engine. This limited power, so the wing area was greatly increased in order to maintain STOL performance. When Pratt & Whitney Canada offered to supply war-surplus 450 hp (340 kW) Wasp Jr engines at a low price, the aircraft ended up with extra power as well as the original long wing. The result was unbeatable STOL performance for an aircraft of its size.
it was decided that the new bush plane was much like the hard-working beaver and so as many aircraft at the time were named after animals, the aircraft was designated after this industrious animal. The first flight of the DHC-2 Beaver was in Downsview, Ontario by Second World War flying ace Russell Bannock on August 16, 1947. The first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, a design partner, in April 1948.
The Beaver was designed for flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Its short takeoff and landing capability made it ideal for areas normally only accessible only by canoe or foot. Because it often flies to remote locations, often in cold climates, its oil reservoir filler is located in the cockpit and the oil can be filled in flight. A series of upgrades to the basic design were incorporated. One major customer introduced the use of flat steps replacing the earlier tubes, a feature that is now almost universal. In 1987, the Canadian Engineering Centennial Board named the DHC-2 one of the top ten Canadian engineering achievements of the 20th century.
The current ownership of the certificates and tooling gives Viking Air of Victoria, Canada the exclusive right to manufacture new Beavers. Viking now sells a remanufactured and rebuilt DHC-2T Turbo Beaver upgraded with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 680 hp (507 kW) turboprop engine. With a maximum gross takeoff weight increased to 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) it can carry 2,450 lb (1,110 kg) of freight. However, Viking Turbo Beavers are only rebuilt from existing air frames, and are not new-builds, unlike Viking's own DHC-6 Series 400 Twin Otter, which is manufactured from a completely new airframe. (wikipeida)
Performance - Maximum speed: 158 mph (255 km/h) - Cruise speed: 143 mph (230 km/h) - Range: 455 miles (732 km) - Service ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,486 m) - Rate of climb: 1,020 ft/min (5.2 m/s)
Thranda Design
This is the second Beaver for X-Plane by Thranda Design, their first release was the X-Plane 11 version released in November 2020, and this is the totally revised aircraft for X-Plane 12. Current users of the earlier Thranda XP11 Beaver can also get 30% off this new XP12 version of the DHC-2 Beaver. The older XP11 version is still also currently available, if you want to fly the aircraft in X-Plane 11
This version is the Beaver that incorporates the "Holmes Extended Engine Mount", which moves the 917lbs engine forward by almost 10 inches. This modification then moves the center of gravity of the plane forward, and in then allowing additional loads to be carried in the back without exceeding the aft CG limit.
First impressions are quite impressive. This is now also X-Plane 12, so you also get that huge photographic realism from the aircraft as well with the X-Plane 12 lighting and effects.
In features and detail, there is is not that much difference outward between the two XP12 and XP11 versions, on the surface they are quite the same aircraft package. It is in the hidden areas, like textures (more soon), lighting, aircraft dynamics, aircraft performance, aircraft flight models is in were they differ. One significant difference is that the extra Floats and Amphibious floats variant is already included in this XP12 package, were as with the original version release they came a short few months awhile after, you also get a canoe as well!
Thranda quality is extreme in detail and fittings. As noted the new XP12 Beaver comes with 8K textures, a huge pixel area 7680 x 4320. Just because it is 8K doesn't mean that you need a 8Gb Graphic Card to run them. 4 Gb VRAM is still recommended as Minimum. And 8 Gb+ VRAM is however recommended as normal. But like with the earlier Thranda releases, they had more than one 4K texture size, sometimes two 4K textures to fill in the same 8K area. So in reality you are only using the 8K to fill the same gap of the two 4K set of textures before. So Graphic Card size is not the issue, if you can run your current Thranda aircraft with your current graphic card size, then the DHC-2 will be exactly the same, in fact even a bit more efficient in that it only has to load in only the one texture sheet, rather than the load of old 2(K)or 4(K) texture sheets.
As a classic Beaver, you won't get any better in modeling and design than this one, there was the original X-Plane Beaver from SoulMade Simulations DHC-2 version a few years back, that aircraft is a pure DHC-2, but without any updates, certainly no upgrade to X-Plane 12, the SMS DHC-2 is now quite dated and in the past.
The detailing is exceptional, the mapping of the precision of the rivets are simply excellent, and I love the gap in the cowling, actually done twice with the Holmes extended engine mount if you look closely. The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior engine, is rated at 450 BHP at sea level. This is an air-cooled, carburetted, 9-Cylinder radial engine, incorporating dual magnetos and an engine-driven single-stage supercharger. And the engine detail really jumps out at you with the coloured inner components, that aspect should not work on such an old aircraft, but it simply looks brilliant here...
Undercarriage is basic, but again very well done in total authentic detail, the DHC-2 is a taildragger, so there is only a small loose swivel wheel at the rear.
Notable in the detail are the excellent double metal plate reinforce plates, they are all over the fuselage and they all make the aircraft very authentic.
They are beautifully done, and shows the high craftmanship of the aircraft. Rear Rudder, Elevator control surfaces reinforce work is also top notch.
Wing shape and camber is perfect, again you have a highly realistic wing, realistically modeled and designed with all the correct rivets.
Oddly the aileron goes only about 3º up, but 8º down, note the full barn door flap deflection of 58º, mostly used for slow water landings.
There is the debate if X-Plane 12 surfaces are too "shiny, shiny". The X-Plane 11 surfaces were certainly in the opposite of being very flat, but it also bought out the intimate detail, here, or for all current Thranda Aircraft, is that every surface is shiny, reflective.... I'm not sure if I am a total fan of this look. In one aspect aircraft certainly looks realistic in X-Plane 12, but in other ways they just don't, as the shininess can hide a lot of the wear detail that presented well on the older XP11 version of Thranda's Beaver.
Glass is superb, thick where it counts (windscreen), with a mottled/scratch wear in the glass. All glass is a heavy green tint, and "Bubble" windows is an option on the passenger doors. Reflections can also be turned off.
There are four forward doors, Two for the pilots, and two behind for the front row passengers (note the right side door has no external handle, and can only be opened outside via a hotspot). Rear are two separate large upward opening "Alaska" doors. Space inside was created to be wide enough to allow for a 44 Imperial gallon drum to be rolled up into the aircraft.
There are four passenger seats, and one large rear bench seat in the rear, all seats are beautifully done in blue canvas, with metal legs and rear plate supports. All of the five Passenger seats backs can be folded forward.
You can take one or all five seats out, to create a huge cargo space. This space can then be filled with cargo, including cases, crates and (small oil drums), cargo is also put in the small baggage area behind the restriction net (bench seat if installed). You can of course also mix the passengers with cargo...
Cockpit
You sit up there very high at the front of the machine... Both the pilot seats are amazing, with their metal clamshell bucket rear design, and hardwearing blue patterned levi Jean look cushions.
Both pilots windows can be opened, or positioned in any place, up or down... you can play with the small window air-vent as well.
The Thranda Beaver cockpit is not like the antique cream version like on the SoulMade Solutions DHC-2, that is very much beloved by me as to it's reference to an early Beaver. But this version is very much a more relative version to most of the working Beavers out there and it is extremely well done. The SMS version had a single left side Yoke, but here you get the TwinBar Y double version that disappears if you press the base. The logo we all admire... all in it's chrome and black plate glory "De Havilland" and in the right lighting conditions it just glows and shines like it has just been lovingly and newly polished. The cosmetic detail here is excellent, and you simply can't believe the intimate authentic detail all around you here.
There are two choices of the famous throttle quadrant, the older original classic version with the Throttle Lever left, with in order Propeller lever and Mixture right... or the more modern squared off version with the Throttle now centre, Prop left and Mixture right.
Centre top are the magnificently large DHC-2 iconic Manifold Pressure and RPM gauges, and the mid-screen mounted whiskey compass.
The pilot gets all the flying instruments in the form of the six standard flight instruments in the Airspeed, Artificial Horizon, Altitude, Turn/Slip Indicator, Heading Indicator and the Vertical Speed, left is the main fuel tank selector It has positions of OFF, FRONT, CENTRE, REAR.
Top panel is the (very) hard too find "Avionics" switch, and the metal plate flaps indicator is a work of art.
There is a sensational JOS. POLLACK CORP Ignition switch, ELT and the logo plated MaxDim panel lighting knobs lower left panel, the metal plate storage box opens as well, to revel the three faces of the Thranda Design team.
Right side panel has the avionics and electrical panel... There is an altitude selector top, then an S-Tec Fifty-Five x Autopilot, KX 155 NAV/COMM Radio (NAV 1/COM 1), Garmin GMA 340 Comm radio, and a Garmin GTX 325 Transponder lower... it is to be noted that these items are the default set of avionics, but as we shall see, you can use more different units if you want to. To the far right is an OBS Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) - VOR NAV 2.
Lower right panel is a fully active (Fuse) Circuit Breaker panel, with the relevant electrical switches set below for power and lighting (Avionics power switch is as noted is high up on the left side panel facia). Next to the Fuses is the AMP's gauge, and Suction Gauge, and below is a lovely PS radio volume panel.
Like with the XP11 Thranda Beaver there are still the two basic panel selections, the iconic version we know so well, but also a flat metal grey facia version, with the fancy LED lights under the glareshield.
Centre panel is a default X-Plane GNS 530, but it can be replaced with a Reality XP GTN 750 if you own the extra feature. Mid-Panel are the engine gauges, with the Oil temperature shown on the top of the gauge, oil pressure on the left, and fuel pressure on the right. Next right is the sublime gauges to indicate the quantity of fuel remaining in the three primary internal fuel tanks. From left to right these gauges indicate the Front tank, Rear tank, and Middle tank, and below is a CYL. (Cylinder) Temperature gauge, with a Hobbs hour meter.
Three lower levers cover (LtoR) the carburetor heat control lever, the famous Fuel Wobble Pump Lever and the Fuel and Oil Emergency Shutoff Lever. To the right is the internal Oil filler (yellow cap). Detail again comes to the fore with the Manufacture's and Aircraft registration plates. The authenticity is simply mind-blowing and it keeps on coming with the ratcheting carb heat lever, the manually pumped flap system (with direction valve), and the primer system that are all faithfully modeled for maximum immersion.
The fuel system is complicated, with three internal tanks Front (35 GAL/132 Lts), Centre (35 GAL/132 lts) and Rear (25 GAL/95 lts), two wing tanks (21.6 GAL/85 Lts each) and an optional Belly Fuel Tank (43.1 GAL/163 Lts)... for a total of 181 GAL/685 Lts of fuel.
The main internal tanks are controlled via the red switch upper left panel, the wing tip tanks via a red switch upper door left, and the belly tank via a handle under the instrument panel (Vacuum air pressure is required). On the roof are the manual Rudder and Elevator trim wheels and indicators. Lighting is two side spot lights and ceiling LED lights, note the roof mounted temperature gauge, both (green) blinds twist and turn into place.
There are loads of pumps and levers on the Beaver, one is the pump handle for the flaps, down right of the pilot's seat and another is the engine primer pump on the left of the pilot's seat, the actions of both are really well done and authentic.
You are probably now thinking "This Beaver is exactly the same as the X-Plane 11 version?". It is, nothing at all is different in here except for the Thranda team image in the storage box. But there is a difference though... in the look and feel. Oddly it feels different in here with the X-Plane 12 lighting, far more grey and dark metal. The centre quadrant(s) are now all black, not the steel metal grey of before, so the aircraft feels more modern now than aged, it has also lost something from the organic feel of a Traditional Beaver in the process.
Cabin Lighting
You still get the post style instrument lighting, but the brightness (even when adjusted to full), is nothing as bright as the X-Plane 11 panel lighting? And the Avionics are too bright for the main instruments, thankfully you can tone them down a little.
The grey metal panel facia, has those lovely LED lights, but the instrument lighting can barely be seen?
A switch on the lighting panel (arrowed) will turn on all four forward cabin overhead lights...
... oddly there is STILL no lighting in the cabin? But you can turn the roof LEDs right backwards to give some illumination, but a few rear lights in the cabin would be nice. Overall the lighting although the same, is actually worse?
External lighting is also worse than in X-Plane 11. Basic lights and the landing lights have no flare or floor shine? Beacon on the roof and tail light. Navigation and a very bright strobe on the wings.
Floats and Amphibious floats
In the X-Plane 12 package, the earlier extra Floats and Amphibious floats version are now included. Both variants can be found in the X-Plane "Configuration Menu", The Seaplane version is shown twice, under "General Aviation" and "Seaplane".
Both the land (Amphibious) and standard Float design is excellent, all the usual Thranda Design quality detail, both the forward wheels, and rear rudder system, the four float supports are well intergrated into the Beaver fuselage, detail is first rate as well.
Both Amphibious and Standard Floats are really well shaped and perform nicely on the water, and with the right amount of drag in the air.
The wheeled floats do create more drag than the cleaner "Float", and it is noticeable (slightly) from the cockpit.
Menu
Thranda's Menus are very feature rich and highly detailed. There is a popout TAB under the arrow, that can be (mouse) scrolled to hide it, that is if you don't like these sort of items crowding your screen (I don't). The Menu system includes the "Dynamic Generation Series" or DGS, a Thranda speciality feature that takes full advantage of X-Plane's flexibility for in-sim, real-time modifications.
As noted the "Menu" Tab (arrow) is far left middle of your screen, this will activate the Pop-Out Menu... The Menu has seven menu tabs in; GENERAL, LIVERY, WEIGHT/BAL, CAMERA, AUDIO/SLEW, PANEL and MISC (Miscellaneous). Basically it is the standard Thranda default menu.
Menu - General
The menu "General" sections covers quite a lot of options, the layout is highly detailed and very comprehensive.
General menu selections cover; Engine Mode (Simplified/Realistic), Electric Tug, Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off (sets aircraft to full running mode), External Belly Tank, Chocks and Brakes on/off, Steering (Simplified/Realistic).
Three selections placed right cover group items, but any one item can be also accessed via "Click Spots" and can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic. "ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot covers, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for rear fuselage and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for both the cockpit doors and the right side luggage door. All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can the ALL INT - Internal lights. And finally "Radial Engine Animation". Static Items include Wheel chocks, wing pitot cover and that rugged heavy duty engine cover over the nose. The Engine cover can only be seen/hidden via the forward selection on the General-Menu page (arrowed).
Engine Mode - Toggles the engine realism between "Realistic" and "Simplified". When this is set to "Realistic", the engine will require the correct amount of priming for it to start, depending on the engine's temperature. When the Engine Mode is set to "Simplified", it makes starting easier.
Electric Tug can be used to move the aircraft around on the ground via your Throttle (Forwards/Backwards) and Rudder Yaw (Left/Right), brakes can be used as well.
Startup Running on/off this switch will re-load the plane either cold and dark or with the engine running.
EXT Belly Tank is really well done (note the filler pipe), too much weight? then remove it, but I like the extra range it adds.
Steering Toggles between "Realistic" and "Simplified". In Simplified mode the tail wheel steers directly with the rudder, through a range of +- 30 degrees. In Realistic mode it functions as in the real aircraft, becoming free-castoring past +- 25 degrees of deflection.
There is an exciting separate animated pop-up window that shows details of the Beaver's engine in operation.
At the top of this pop-up is a graph that indicates whether the engine is properly primed for starting. A small indicator line moves horizontally along the bottom of the graph to indicate the current conditions. This graph is only active if the Engine Mode is set to Realistic.
There are no pop-up checklists for the Beaver, usually set on the General page, but there is a basic set of checklists in the provided POH Documents.
Menu - Liveries
Second Menu option is "Liveries", there are two options here with the first being "PAINTED LIVERIES". There are altogether 10 liveries and one blank (DynamicLiveryResource) overall Eleven designs, and all the liveries are of extremely high quality and have creative flare with the package. I will note that seven liveries only loaded after I ran the Skunkscrafts Updater to v1.0.1.
The X-Plane 11 Beaver is supplied with fourteen liveries, but there is now only eleven on the XP12 aircraft? with the DynamicLiveryResources being the currently selected "Dynamic" livery.
Dynamic Liveries
Not happy with any of those designs, then why not create your own! With their earlier release of their Kodiak then Thranda also introduced a clever feature to design your own livery.This is done by switching from PAINTED LIVERIES to DYNAMIC LIVERIES top. I created this orange, black and grey for this review...
You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want, and then adjust the RGB colours for that area, it looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes...
You can also change the aircraft's registration number, or have original de Havilland logo on the tail.
There are also four effects you can apply. The said "Dirt" and "Scratches", and also "Metal" and "Rough(ness)" this gives the aircraft a dirty rough appearance. So applying these Dirt and scratches on the airplane will make the surfaces rougher, this is giving you the full PBR control in creating stunning metallic liveries, or matte, sand-blasted look, and these aspects will also slightly affect the Beaver's drag, and therefore it's cruise speeds. With full dirt and scratches you can expect a loss of 2 to 3 mph of cruise speed. Cleaning the plane by setting both values back to 0 will give you a smoother and slightly faster plane.
... when done you can then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. It was all quite easy to do. Then the aircraft goes through a sort of transmogrifying process that takes around a minute and a half....
... you can "SAVE" the livery, in that then the custom livery becomes the "DynamicLiveryResources" livery in the "Painted Liveries" selection. Altogether there are 29 optional Dynamic Liveries to change or use. New to the Dynamic Livery application is ERA options in "Modern' or "Classic".... and of course personal taste is optional!
In the Float/Amphibian menu, you can also colour in the float design to your own preferences, or to match the floats in with the same aircraft fuselage design, all the same livery options (29) are available here also.
Menu - Weight/Bal
The Beaver also has a great Weight and Balance menu.
Lbs and Kgs which can be selected and changed via the toggle... Lbs In Green, and Kgs in Blue.
There is the weight selection of all the seats. The X option on each seat will toggle the seat off/on, or go from a Passenger to Cargo layout.
Fuel (including the EXT Tank) can be added in and the amounts are then shown and are adjustable as well in the menu (above)... pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for individual weights and all are selected via a scrollwheel... and then all of the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on two graphs, go too far or too heavy and the CofG goes red. When done you can Save the Configuration and then later re-load it, or press Load to add back in the set weights.
Working out that right CofG balance here is critical, setting just inside the parameters is just not really good enough, as you need for the aircraft to be balanced in it's fuel and load weights, or you will have difficulty in flying the aircraft. So put too much (cargo) weight aft and you are tail heavy and unbalanced in the TakeOff, and in Flight.
Menu - Camera
There is a camera feature under the menu "Camera" selection. The left side of the panel is the "Walkaround" views, just pick the dot for the external viewpoint you want to see to rotate around the aircraft. To the right is the default views can be selected via a menu, or press the keypad to select the internal viewpoints. The FoV or "Field of View" is adjustable via a slider.
Menu - Audio/Slew
Sound can be adjusted via the Audio menu. There are seven slider selections with: Master, Aircraft External, Aircraft Internal, CoPilot, Radios, Environmental and User Interface. One other sound setting is on the Flap panel... As noted, on the right and left of the panel you get the audio simulation of an active noise canceling headset, which is seen as wearing a headset. Sound quality is beyond excellent as it is a built in audio mixer, so you can individually control the audio channels in real-time and you can adjust the volumes while hearing them play.
Slew mode allows you to manually move the aircraft around in a disconnected X-Plane space. It functions by temporarily overriding the various aerodynamic and physical forces on the X-Plane settings, it is to allow the user to reposition the plane as desired. This feature is however highly touchy and it is used mostly only really with the Amphibian/Floats option in docking the aircraft to say a pier or marina.
Menu - PANEL
The sixth "PANEL" Tab option allows you to adjust or change the instruments and dials.
Scroll the "PANEL BACKGROUND" number to see all the four background preset layouts.
Scroll the "Panel Preset" number to see all the five preset layouts. The layouts can include both GNS 430/530 and the Aspen EFD. Even the The Reality XP GTN 750/650 Touch can also be installed if you have that external option, as the 3d bezels are provided.
Aspen EFD is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not as highly featured with the GPSS, MAP, 360 and Menu functions all not simulated... all the lower NAV1/NAV2/GPS selections are however available, as is the TPS (Tapes) see/hide option with the MIN (Minimums) selectable as well. and the PFD can be reversed with the EHSI. The EFD 1000 PFD pops-out for convenience.
Customising the panel to your own personal layout is just as easy. Just select the "3D EDIT PANEL MODE" (arrowed) that gives you access to all of the 54 individual instruments and avionic units... There some great options including the Aspen EFD 1000, S-TEC 55x Autopilot, Angle of Attack gauge and so on...
For those that find instruments are not to their liking, in say, "I wish I could move that altitude meter just a bit more to the left", then here you can simply adjust and move that particular instrument, or even swap the instruments around the panel to your liking. Here I have added in a Reality XP GTN 650 Touch instrument on the right lower panel... You can even adjust the brightness of the instrument.
When you can "ADD" (or Duplicate) in a new "Preset", and then "SAVE" that new layout Preset (Preset /6). So basically you can start off with a completely blank instrument panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout if you have the time and patience... and you can have up to or save 14 different instrument layouts. It is however very important to restart X-Plane to lock in the new instrumentation layout before flying.
Panel features include; S-Tec Fifty Five autopilot and the noted Aspen EFD 1000, KR 87 ADF Radio, Garmin GMA 340, Garmin GTX325 Mode C Transponder and the usual GNS 430/530 PS/Nav/Comm units. Both GNS units also require their own installation area. Note that the "Gear Advisory" Panel for the Amphibious/Float version can also be added to the custom panel.
The DGS system is certainly very clever and versatile, but a small annoyance is that to get your custom livery or panel, you have to reset everything, every time you fly? Yes the custom SAVES are all there ready for you, but not when you start/load the aircraft.
Menu - MISC
The Misc (Miscellaneous) page has four panels that cover External; Skis, Wheels; Tires and Mud Flaps. Internal; Windows options and Throttle Quadrant options. Notably missing here is the usual "DynaFeel" Feature.
High quality designed "Skis" are available for the Beaver...
Tyres can be changed from "Regular" size, to the larger "Tundra" style. The larger tundra tyres however won't work with the skis...
On the rear you can have "Mud Flaps", and here they work with either the regular or tundra tyre options.
Rear Door windows can be "Flat" or "Bubble"...
Throttle Quadrant options include; OLD (classic) or NEW...
On most Thranda Design aircraft they have a "Pilot" option in that the pilots can be changed around from Male to Female. There is no Female pilot with the Beaver, but only the Male "Beaver Dan"... he is also fully animated in the arms, legs and head movements.
The Float/Amphibian MISC Menu is different. You still have the earlier Throttle Quadrant (Old/New)/Window options (Flat/Bubble).
Yes, you get a canoe!
Amphibian or Float option...
There is a Ventral Fin, that is an option under the tail...
You can Retract or Extend the rudders from the MISC Panel
There are another two options to raise and lower the rudders, One is a handle and cord in the cockpit, left floor... another (the most simple) is to use the Keyboard command "Toggle Water Rudder".
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Flying the DHC-2 Beaver
There are two options to starting the DHC-2, the (very) easy way via the Simplified "Engine Mode" option in the Menu/General panel... and the long winded "Realistic" way. With the full engine start up procedure as is explained in the manual.
Did you always want to look actually inside your engine? Well now you can and the idea is to see how the engine is primed to start... here Dan Klaue's genius strikes again! There is the option via a menu selection "Radial Engine Animation" that brings up an animated Wasp Radial engine, you can also "PreHeat" and "Prime" your Wasp ready for start, but you have to be careful not to "OverPrime" the Cylinders.
You can also prime the engine via the hand pump, deep left of the pilot's seat, switch the large ignition switch on (Fuel on as well of course)... setting the Mixture to almost full RICH lever and a slight 5th throttle... then flick the left switch under the red cover to start the Wasp.... get the procedure right and the Beaver's prop will rotate then fire into action... and also the Radial Engine Animation" will erupt into activity.
On the Animation the pistons are exploding, and the animation is amazing beyond belief, adjust the throttle for a some serious movement, but the animation will also react to the adjustment of not only the throttle inputs, but with the fuel mixture from "Rich" to 'Lean" adjustments as well. Just move the mixture lever (not fully back) and see changes and the weakness in the sparks.
These movements and the running of the DHC-2 also compliment the amazing sound range as well, there is a consistent adjustment of the excellent engine sounds to the condition of the running of the engine, that is the "Ugh, Ugh" of low lean to the high power "roar" of the full throttle. Also no two starts will sound alike, as there is coughing, sputtering, and the clanking of valves that all contribute the full aural experience, it's clever and highly realistic as well.
The sounds actually also give you clues as to what's happening under the hood as is for the shear band of extensive sound patterns available here that show no gaps or the same patterns that just gets you all tinkly down your back... it is highly, highly aurally realistic... well like a full throated real 450 hp Wasp Jr engine sounds like.
As noted you can have a freewheeling rear or locked to the rudder yaw, You really need a set of rudder pedals for the Thranda Beaver with built in toe brakes to use the freewheeling option, that aspect takes a little skill to get right. Taildraggers are a feel thing, and thankfully the Beaver is one of the better taildraggers. Of course experiment with the load and trim until you get that feeling the DHC-2 is rightly balanced.
Thankfully the DHC-2 Beaver is one of the easiest taildraggers to taxi, keeping the right speed though is important, otherwise it's just easy to track straight. Thank God, because you can't see anything (sh**) with the nose high profile of the aircraft, so a slight hunch up out of the seat left is needed to follow the runway.
I have also become quite adept at twisting the Beaver 180º to takeoff, right speed, then a touch more throttle, and then the full yaw tight turn, then quickly off the throttle again...
You sit high, and the view out is quite good for a taildragger, but a slight glance to the left will align you up with the runway... flaps are set to "Takeoff" which feels extreme here, in a very high degree setting. But the Beaver has a very wide flight dynamic in that the flaps can be set to extreme positions, but still be well within the aircraft's STOL (Short TakeOff and Landing) performance envelope.
Speed builds gradually then suddenly the tail unstick's, and you need a kick of full of right rudder to maintain the straight ahead line...
... another tool is to lightly touch the right toe-brake slightly to maintain the correct aligned course, between the two movements you can keep the Beaver straight. Takeoff is usually around 90 knts, but you don't need to pull back the stick as the Beaver just glides into the air on lift alone (the heavy set flaps), and to climb, it then only requires a little pitch to meet the 600 fpm climb-out you need.
You can climb-out to the extreme of 1,000 fpm, but the 600 fpm angle is perfect, the one thing that should be highly noted is the aircraft's weight and feel, it is excellent. Now a slight adjustment to 800 fpm, which is perfect with still no loss of speed, also the Flaps are now at the "Climb" marker, as I need to climb up to 6,000 ft... high? not really as the Beaver can do a ceiling of 18,000 ft (5,486 m)... impressive.
Unlike other aircraft you can consistently use the flaps and even in level flight, most aircraft need the flaps in and clean as soon as possible, but not the Beaver, as if you have a slightly uneven balance (front to rear) in the aircraft you can use the flaps to even out the balance without touching the trim, it is a tool every Beaver pilot's use.
Stewart River is a 533-kilometre tributary of Yukon River. And heading up river towards Hecate Strait. But I am also not going all the way to the Strait either, just far enough to climb up high to turn west, but with the high mountains surrounding me, it means a climb of at least 6,000 ft, maybe more.
Obviously you don't go very fast... 158 mph (255 km/h) or 140 knts is max and your cruise speed is only 143 mph (230 km/h) or 125 knts, but you don't really care about that factor, as this DHC aircraft is an absolute dream to fly.
You can see why tourists love this lower Alaskan part of the world, the views are amazing, even X-Plane 12 amazing...
I'm now at 6,000 ft, but it's still not enough, so another 2,000 ft to go up to 8,000 ft.
Now higher I finally see a gap in the mountains and head west...
Trimming the DHC-2 out is easy, the trims are set up up on the roof (But I use keyboard commands), and the Beaver trims out the pitch beautifully, now just small stick and rudder inputs keeps DHC straight, but better still yet is if you trim out the rudder as well, and now you can take both hands and feet off the controls and the Beaver will still fly like a dream straight and level.... this is one amazing simulation of a real aircraft.
Fuel management is critical... Six tanks altogether, but basically you switch between three, Front - Middle - Rear, via the big knob, far left panel. The three tanks are shown on the lower console. The Wing tanks are selected via another large knob on the left side above the door.
Select Left or Right Tanks or BOTH, and all selections feed to the Front main tank, usually you would leave it on BOTH, for an even balance...
The EXT (external) Tank also feeds into another tank, the Middle one. There is a lever under the pilot's instrument panel to turn on the EXT tank flow, this then moves the ancillary fuel into the Middle tank, obviously it is good idea to select the middle tank to use all the extra fuel in there...
The EXT tank lever is moved vertical (down) to access the fuel, when done then shut it off by moving the lever left. it will fill up the Middle tank quite quickly.
I know why I love the Beaver, as you just purr along doing the job. The Beaver is like a light truck of the aircraft world, it shifts people and cargo with a ruggedness into a wilderness. Your sitting up there high, in charge, master of your own little universe, just shuttling along... heaven is a Beaver in flight, you can easily see why any pilot loves the DHC-2 so much.
Ketchikan is rear to my left, Clarence Strait is to my immediate left...
... soon the Stikine Strait comes into view on my right, a glance down and I'm horrified on how much fuel, including the extra top up amount has been used from the middle tank, I switch again to the rear tank, supping more fuel from that one instead, the whole trip distance is only 177 nm, but I'm also using a lot of fuel with that powerful Wasp.
Time to turn into the Strait... I have already lost 4,000 ft as I enter, but it was a slow descent.
At first the Beaver dropped altitude, then crawled to a stop? the only way to continue the descent was to pull half back on the throttle, then you were moving downwards again. As we already know, the Beaver is known as a "flap-happy" aircraft and you can see and feel that aspect of why here... That is the "Landing" setting, but you can go even slower if you go deeper with more flap and into the red zone to the full 58º degrees... Usually you would never use 58º, that aspect just gives you too much drag, but it is useful for the water landings, as it gives you a far lower speed and more lift at those almost static water approaches.
Wrangell pops up now on my right. I'm down to 800 ft, and ready for the approach into PAWG Rwy 10 (6000 ft). Approach speed is around 70 knts, here your altitude is controlled only via your throttle, more power to go up and less power to go down, but even the mixture adjustments can even have an effect, so be aware if you are leaning out the engine more while reducing power.
One note I will say is that the touchdown speed is still around 70 knts, dropping to 60 knts on the runway, and that feels a tad fast at full flap? but the speed does still give you full aerodynamic control on the landing and you can finely follow the centreline as good as when you took off...
The landing bit is quite easy, the tricky bit is lowering the tail and keeping tracking directly straight, master that and you master the DHC-2. Part of the trick is to use the toe-brakes, but lightly and the rudder (stabs) and find that straight line... I'm not saying it is easy because it isn't, but it comes to you with practise.
But let us be thankful, this is an amazing experience of an aircraft, and now the Beaver is available to fly in X-Plane 12.
Summary
Often referred to as the “best bush plane ever built”, the DHC-2 has been instrumental in developing and servicing far-reaching frontiers since it was first introduced in 1947. The DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft that was developed by de Havilland Canada. This version has the "Holmes Extended Engine Mount", which moves the 917lbs Wasp Jr engine forward by almost 10 inches for a better rear load balance (Centre of Gravity).
Any aircraft coming from Thranda Design is usually full of amazing features and outstanding quality design, and certainly you are not disappointed here. In the design aspect the aircraft is extremely the best yet from Thranda, the quality is overwhelming to the point of ridiculous... the DHC has full hi-res PBR realistic effects, featuring true-to-life plate deformation and to-the-rivet precision, not to mention the high quality materials internally and externally. Detailing and the modeling is absolutely first rate, this is an outstanding Beaver.
Not only is the instrument Panel one of the best yet in X-Plane, it is also fully customised via the "Dynamic Generation Series" in not only giving you your own control over the way the instruments are laid out, but to swap and change other instruments as well including; Aspen EFD 1000, S-Tec 55x autopilot, RealityXP GTN 750 (these are optional addons) and a Collins 614-12 ADF. Eleven liveries are provided, but also again you can create and design your own liveries with the DGS system. Options include, Skis, mud flaps, Old and New quadrants and bubble windows, and the Amphibious/Float version is now part of the X-Plane 12 package.
Sounds are outstanding, with High fidelity, multi-track sounds with smooth transitions and amazing atmospheric effects, 3D audio effects, including "blade slapping" sound when view is perpendicular to propeller, start up and engine mixture variance is also highly realistic.
Menus are also extensive, with sound adjustments, weight and balance manager with visual chart, lighting, doors, views, reflections and an amazing radial engine visualisation in a pop-up window, which showcases the inner workings of the engine.
Yes a lot in this review is very much like the X-Plane 11 original version, as most in the design features and menus are the same, but a lot of the hidden areas, including the flight dynamics and performance related to X-Plane 12 have all been revised. Also the textures all now 8K, up from two 4K textures for better fidelity, the Skunkcrafts Updater is also now used for direct updates. All earlier purchasers of the Thranda X-Plane 11 DHC-2 can upgrade for 30% off with the new XP12 model. This aircraft is X-Plane 12 only, but the XP11 version is available.
But a few things have been affected in the transition with the Beaver. Debatable is the "Shiny, shiny feel" of XP12, although overall the aircraft looks extremely better than XP11. Lighting has lost a lot of it's shine (pun intended) Instruments are hard to read and external lighting is virtually not visible, but to note a lot of X-Plane 12 aircraft are like this, we feel that lighting needs a lot more adjustment from Laminar Research. Thranda Aircraft also extremely dark, hard to see inside and use, but that also may improve over the X-Plane 12 changes.
This is the iconic de Havilland Canada Beaver as in depth simulation, with as much quality and it comes with the sheer force of ideas available here, and in reality isn't that is what simulation is really all about, brilliant aircraft with exceptional quality and flying dynamics and a huge feature list. So really want the very best then here it is....
Highly, Hugely Recommended.
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Yes! the DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design is NOW! available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12
Price is US$34.95
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Minimum. Download Size: 1.2 GB Current version 1.0.1 (October 16th 2023) The plane comes with the Skunkcraft auto-updater Owners of the Thranda DHC-2 XP11 can get this new XP12 model for 30% off. Please find the coupon code in your original DHC-2 XP11 Invoice. ________________
Installation and documents: Download is 1.66Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder.
Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file.
Full installation is 3.27GB
Documents supplied are:
Changelog.txt Thranda Beaver Documentation XP12 v1.0.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf
Checklists and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the extensive manual.
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.07r1 (This is a release candidate review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Skunkcrafts Updater
Scenery or Aircraft
- CZST - Stewart - XPORG (formally Beti-x) (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$25.00
- PAWG - Wrangell Airport, Alaska by NorthernSky Studios (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.95
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News by Stephen Dutton
20th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Release Review : DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design
Aircraft Release Review : DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design
In aviation folklore, there are machines that have created an impact by their design alone, but a few have gone even higher into a sort of immortal status, Say Spitfire or DC-3, Concorde and even the Boeing 707. One other aircraft can also join this upper echelons of achievement, and that is the de Havilland Canada Type 2... also known as the "Beaver". Often referred to as the “best bush plane ever built”, the DHC-2 has been instrumental in developing and servicing far-reaching frontiers since it was first introduced in 1947.
The DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft that was developed by de Havilland Canada in 1946, and is known as a bush plane, in fact one of the most highly regarded bush aircraft ever created. There was 1,657 Beavers built between 1947–1967 and half are actually still flying and working hard. In fact you can currently buy a zero-time frame and just rebuild your current aircraft and keep the machine flying as long as you can service the radial engine and afford the new airframes...
History
de Havilland Canada hired Punch Dickins, a famous bush pilot, as Director of Sales who began an extensive program of collecting requests from other pilots and to understand what they needed in a new type of aircraft. Almost without variation, the pilots asked for tremendous extra power and STOL performance, in a design that could be easily fitted with wheels, skis or floats. When de Havilland engineers noted that this would result in poor cruise performance, one pilot replied "You only have to be faster than a dog sled". Other suggestions that seemingly sound mundane but important in the bush plane world; full-sized doors were installed on both sides of the aircraft so it could be easily loaded no matter which side of a dock it tied up on. The large doors (known as Alaska doors) were also made wide enough to allow for a 45 Imperial gallon drum to be rolled directly up and into the aircraft.
On September 17, 1946, de Havilland officially put together a design team consisting of Fred Buller, Dick Hiscocks, Jim Houston and W. Jakimiuk, led by Phil Garratt. The new aircraft was designed to be all-metal in using "steel from the engine to the firewall, heavy aluminum truss frames with panels and doors throughout the front seat area, lighter trusses toward the rear and all monocoque construction aft". At the time de Havilland Canada was still a British-owned company and there were plans to fit the evolving design with a British engine. This limited power, so the wing area was greatly increased in order to maintain STOL performance. When Pratt & Whitney Canada offered to supply war-surplus 450 hp (340 kW) Wasp Jr engines at a low price, the aircraft ended up with extra power as well as the original long wing. The result was unbeatable STOL performance for an aircraft of its size.
it was decided that the new bush plane was much like the hard-working beaver and so as many aircraft at the time were named after animals, the aircraft was designated after this industrious animal. The first flight of the DHC-2 Beaver was in Downsview, Ontario by Second World War flying ace Russell Bannock on August 16, 1947. The first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, a design partner, in April 1948.
The Beaver was designed for flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Its short takeoff and landing capability made it ideal for areas normally only accessible only by canoe or foot. Because it often flies to remote locations, often in cold climates, its oil reservoir filler is located in the cockpit and the oil can be filled in flight. A series of upgrades to the basic design were incorporated. One major customer introduced the use of flat steps replacing the earlier tubes, a feature that is now almost universal. In 1987, the Canadian Engineering Centennial Board named the DHC-2 one of the top ten Canadian engineering achievements of the 20th century.
The current ownership of the certificates and tooling gives Viking Air of Victoria, Canada the exclusive right to manufacture new Beavers. Viking now sells a remanufactured and rebuilt DHC-2T Turbo Beaver upgraded with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 680 hp (507 kW) turboprop engine. With a maximum gross takeoff weight increased to 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) it can carry 2,450 lb (1,110 kg) of freight. However, Viking Turbo Beavers are only rebuilt from existing air frames, and are not new-builds, unlike Viking's own DHC-6 Series 400 Twin Otter, which is manufactured from a completely new airframe. (wikipeida)
Performance - Maximum speed: 158 mph (255 km/h) - Cruise speed: 143 mph (230 km/h) - Range: 455 miles (732 km) - Service ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,486 m) - Rate of climb: 1,020 ft/min (5.2 m/s)
Thranda Design
This is the second Beaver for X-Plane by Thranda Design, their first release was the X-Plane 11 version released in November 2020, and this is the totally revised aircraft for X-Plane 12. Current users of the earlier Thranda XP11 Beaver can also get 30% off this new XP12 version of the DHC-2 Beaver. The older XP11 version is still also currently available, if you want to fly the aircraft in X-Plane 11
This version is the Beaver that incorporates the "Holmes Extended Engine Mount", which moves the 917lbs engine forward by almost 10 inches. This modification then moves the center of gravity of the plane forward, and in then allowing additional loads to be carried in the back without exceeding the aft CG limit.
First impressions are quite impressive. This is now also X-Plane 12, so you also get that huge photographic realism from the aircraft as well with the X-Plane 12 lighting and effects.
In features and detail, there is is not that much difference outward between the two XP12 and XP11 versions, on the surface they are quite the same aircraft package. It is in the hidden areas, like textures (more soon), lighting, aircraft dynamics, aircraft performance, aircraft flight models is in were they differ. One significant difference is that the extra Floats and Amphibious floats variant is already included in this XP12 package, were as with the original version release they came a short few months awhile after, you also get a canoe as well!
Thranda quality is extreme in detail and fittings. As noted the new XP12 Beaver comes with 8K textures, a huge pixel area 7680 x 4320. Just because it is 8K doesn't mean that you need a 8Gb Graphic Card to run them. 4 Gb VRAM is still recommended as Minimum. And 8 Gb+ VRAM is however recommended as normal. But like with the earlier Thranda releases, they had more than one 4K texture size, sometimes two 4K textures to fill in the same 8K area. So in reality you are only using the 8K to fill the same gap of the two 4K set of textures before. So Graphic Card size is not the issue, if you can run your current Thranda aircraft with your current graphic card size, then the DHC-2 will be exactly the same, in fact even a bit more efficient in that it only has to load in only the one texture sheet, rather than the load of old 2(K)or 4(K) texture sheets.
As a classic Beaver, you won't get any better in modeling and design than this one, there was the original X-Plane Beaver from SoulMade Simulations DHC-2 version a few years back, that aircraft is a pure DHC-2, but without any updates, certainly no upgrade to X-Plane 12, the SMS DHC-2 is now quite dated and in the past.
The detailing is exceptional, the mapping of the precision of the rivets are simply excellent, and I love the gap in the cowling, actually done twice with the Holmes extended engine mount if you look closely. The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior engine, is rated at 450 BHP at sea level. This is an air-cooled, carburetted, 9-Cylinder radial engine, incorporating dual magnetos and an engine-driven single-stage supercharger. And the engine detail really jumps out at you with the coloured inner components, that aspect should not work on such an old aircraft, but it simply looks brilliant here...
Undercarriage is basic, but again very well done in total authentic detail, the DHC-2 is a taildragger, so there is only a small loose swivel wheel at the rear.
Notable in the detail are the excellent double metal plate reinforce plates, they are all over the fuselage and they all make the aircraft very authentic.
They are beautifully done, and shows the high craftmanship of the aircraft. Rear Rudder, Elevator control surfaces reinforce work is also top notch.
Wing shape and camber is perfect, again you have a highly realistic wing, realistically modeled and designed with all the correct rivets.
Oddly the aileron goes only about 3º up, but 8º down, note the full barn door flap deflection of 58º, mostly used for slow water landings.
There is the debate if X-Plane 12 surfaces are too "shiny, shiny". The X-Plane 11 surfaces were certainly in the opposite of being very flat, but it also bought out the intimate detail, here, or for all current Thranda Aircraft, is that every surface is shiny, reflective.... I'm not sure if I am a total fan of this look. In one aspect aircraft certainly looks realistic in X-Plane 12, but in other ways they just don't, as the shininess can hide a lot of the wear detail that presented well on the older XP11 version of Thranda's Beaver.
Glass is superb, thick where it counts (windscreen), with a mottled/scratch wear in the glass. All glass is a heavy green tint, and "Bubble" windows is an option on the passenger doors. Reflections can also be turned off.
There are four forward doors, Two for the pilots, and two behind for the front row passengers (note the right side door has no external handle, and can only be opened outside via a hotspot). Rear are two separate large upward opening "Alaska" doors. Space inside was created to be wide enough to allow for a 44 Imperial gallon drum to be rolled up into the aircraft.
There are four passenger seats, and one large rear bench seat in the rear, all seats are beautifully done in blue canvas, with metal legs and rear plate supports. All of the five Passenger seats backs can be folded forward.
You can take one or all five seats out, to create a huge cargo space. This space can then be filled with cargo, including cases, crates and (small oil drums), cargo is also put in the small baggage area behind the restriction net (bench seat if installed). You can of course also mix the passengers with cargo...
Cockpit
You sit up there very high at the front of the machine... Both the pilot seats are amazing, with their metal clamshell bucket rear design, and hardwearing blue patterned levi Jean look cushions.
Both pilots windows can be opened, or positioned in any place, up or down... you can play with the small window air-vent as well.
The Thranda Beaver cockpit is not like the antique cream version like on the SoulMade Solutions DHC-2, that is very much beloved by me as to it's reference to an early Beaver. But this version is very much a more relative version to most of the working Beavers out there and it is extremely well done. The SMS version had a single left side Yoke, but here you get the TwinBar Y double version that disappears if you press the base. The logo we all admire... all in it's chrome and black plate glory "De Havilland" and in the right lighting conditions it just glows and shines like it has just been lovingly and newly polished. The cosmetic detail here is excellent, and you simply can't believe the intimate authentic detail all around you here.
There are two choices of the famous throttle quadrant, the older original classic version with the Throttle Lever left, with in order Propeller lever and Mixture right... or the more modern squared off version with the Throttle now centre, Prop left and Mixture right.
Centre top are the magnificently large DHC-2 iconic Manifold Pressure and RPM gauges, and the mid-screen mounted whiskey compass.
The pilot gets all the flying instruments in the form of the six standard flight instruments in the Airspeed, Artificial Horizon, Altitude, Turn/Slip Indicator, Heading Indicator and the Vertical Speed, left is the main fuel tank selector It has positions of OFF, FRONT, CENTRE, REAR.
Top panel is the (very) hard too find "Avionics" switch, and the metal plate flaps indicator is a work of art.
There is a sensational JOS. POLLACK CORP Ignition switch, ELT and the logo plated MaxDim panel lighting knobs lower left panel, the metal plate storage box opens as well, to revel the three faces of the Thranda Design team.
Right side panel has the avionics and electrical panel... There is an altitude selector top, then an S-Tec Fifty-Five x Autopilot, KX 155 NAV/COMM Radio (NAV 1/COM 1), Garmin GMA 340 Comm radio, and a Garmin GTX 325 Transponder lower... it is to be noted that these items are the default set of avionics, but as we shall see, you can use more different units if you want to. To the far right is an OBS Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) - VOR NAV 2.
Lower right panel is a fully active (Fuse) Circuit Breaker panel, with the relevant electrical switches set below for power and lighting (Avionics power switch is as noted is high up on the left side panel facia). Next to the Fuses is the AMP's gauge, and Suction Gauge, and below is a lovely PS radio volume panel.
Like with the XP11 Thranda Beaver there are still the two basic panel selections, the iconic version we know so well, but also a flat metal grey facia version, with the fancy LED lights under the glareshield.
Centre panel is a default X-Plane GNS 530, but it can be replaced with a Reality XP GTN 750 if you own the extra feature. Mid-Panel are the engine gauges, with the Oil temperature shown on the top of the gauge, oil pressure on the left, and fuel pressure on the right. Next right is the sublime gauges to indicate the quantity of fuel remaining in the three primary internal fuel tanks. From left to right these gauges indicate the Front tank, Rear tank, and Middle tank, and below is a CYL. (Cylinder) Temperature gauge, with a Hobbs hour meter.
Three lower levers cover (LtoR) the carburetor heat control lever, the famous Fuel Wobble Pump Lever and the Fuel and Oil Emergency Shutoff Lever. To the right is the internal Oil filler (yellow cap). Detail again comes to the fore with the Manufacture's and Aircraft registration plates. The authenticity is simply mind-blowing and it keeps on coming with the ratcheting carb heat lever, the manually pumped flap system (with direction valve), and the primer system that are all faithfully modeled for maximum immersion.
The fuel system is complicated, with three internal tanks Front (35 GAL/132 Lts), Centre (35 GAL/132 lts) and Rear (25 GAL/95 lts), two wing tanks (21.6 GAL/85 Lts each) and an optional Belly Fuel Tank (43.1 GAL/163 Lts)... for a total of 181 GAL/685 Lts of fuel.
The main internal tanks are controlled via the red switch upper left panel, the wing tip tanks via a red switch upper door left, and the belly tank via a handle under the instrument panel (Vacuum air pressure is required). On the roof are the manual Rudder and Elevator trim wheels and indicators. Lighting is two side spot lights and ceiling LED lights, note the roof mounted temperature gauge, both (green) blinds twist and turn into place.
There are loads of pumps and levers on the Beaver, one is the pump handle for the flaps, down right of the pilot's seat and another is the engine primer pump on the left of the pilot's seat, the actions of both are really well done and authentic.
You are probably now thinking "This Beaver is exactly the same as the X-Plane 11 version?". It is, nothing at all is different in here except for the Thranda team image in the storage box. But there is a difference though... in the look and feel. Oddly it feels different in here with the X-Plane 12 lighting, far more grey and dark metal. The centre quadrant(s) are now all black, not the steel metal grey of before, so the aircraft feels more modern now than aged, it has also lost something from the organic feel of a Traditional Beaver in the process.
Cabin Lighting
You still get the post style instrument lighting, but the brightness (even when adjusted to full), is nothing as bright as the X-Plane 11 panel lighting? And the Avionics are too bright for the main instruments, thankfully you can tone them down a little.
The grey metal panel facia, has those lovely LED lights, but the instrument lighting can barely be seen?
A switch on the lighting panel (arrowed) will turn on all four forward cabin overhead lights...
... oddly there is STILL no lighting in the cabin? But you can turn the roof LEDs right backwards to give some illumination, but a few rear lights in the cabin would be nice. Overall the lighting although the same, is actually worse?
External lighting is also worse than in X-Plane 11. Basic lights and the landing lights have no flare or floor shine? Beacon on the roof and tail light. Navigation and a very bright strobe on the wings.
Floats and Amphibious floats
In the X-Plane 12 package, the earlier extra Floats and Amphibious floats version are now included. Both variants can be found in the X-Plane "Configuration Menu", The Seaplane version is shown twice, under "General Aviation" and "Seaplane".
Both the land (Amphibious) and standard Float design is excellent, all the usual Thranda Design quality detail, both the forward wheels, and rear rudder system, the four float supports are well intergrated into the Beaver fuselage, detail is first rate as well.
Both Amphibious and Standard Floats are really well shaped and perform nicely on the water, and with the right amount of drag in the air.
The wheeled floats do create more drag than the cleaner "Float", and it is noticeable (slightly) from the cockpit.
Menu
Thranda's Menus are very feature rich and highly detailed. There is a popout TAB under the arrow, that can be (mouse) scrolled to hide it, that is if you don't like these sort of items crowding your screen (I don't). The Menu system includes the "Dynamic Generation Series" or DGS, a Thranda speciality feature that takes full advantage of X-Plane's flexibility for in-sim, real-time modifications.
As noted the "Menu" Tab (arrow) is far left middle of your screen, this will activate the Pop-Out Menu... The Menu has seven menu tabs in; GENERAL, LIVERY, WEIGHT/BAL, CAMERA, AUDIO/SLEW, PANEL and MISC (Miscellaneous). Basically it is the standard Thranda default menu.
Menu - General
The menu "General" sections covers quite a lot of options, the layout is highly detailed and very comprehensive.
General menu selections cover; Engine Mode (Simplified/Realistic), Electric Tug, Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off (sets aircraft to full running mode), External Belly Tank, Chocks and Brakes on/off, Steering (Simplified/Realistic).
Three selections placed right cover group items, but any one item can be also accessed via "Click Spots" and can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic. "ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot covers, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for rear fuselage and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for both the cockpit doors and the right side luggage door. All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can the ALL INT - Internal lights. And finally "Radial Engine Animation". Static Items include Wheel chocks, wing pitot cover and that rugged heavy duty engine cover over the nose. The Engine cover can only be seen/hidden via the forward selection on the General-Menu page (arrowed).
Engine Mode - Toggles the engine realism between "Realistic" and "Simplified". When this is set to "Realistic", the engine will require the correct amount of priming for it to start, depending on the engine's temperature. When the Engine Mode is set to "Simplified", it makes starting easier.
Electric Tug can be used to move the aircraft around on the ground via your Throttle (Forwards/Backwards) and Rudder Yaw (Left/Right), brakes can be used as well.
Startup Running on/off this switch will re-load the plane either cold and dark or with the engine running.
EXT Belly Tank is really well done (note the filler pipe), too much weight? then remove it, but I like the extra range it adds.
Steering Toggles between "Realistic" and "Simplified". In Simplified mode the tail wheel steers directly with the rudder, through a range of +- 30 degrees. In Realistic mode it functions as in the real aircraft, becoming free-castoring past +- 25 degrees of deflection.
There is an exciting separate animated pop-up window that shows details of the Beaver's engine in operation.
At the top of this pop-up is a graph that indicates whether the engine is properly primed for starting. A small indicator line moves horizontally along the bottom of the graph to indicate the current conditions. This graph is only active if the Engine Mode is set to Realistic.
There are no pop-up checklists for the Beaver, usually set on the General page, but there is a basic set of checklists in the provided POH Documents.
Menu - Liveries
Second Menu option is "Liveries", there are two options here with the first being "PAINTED LIVERIES". There are altogether 10 liveries and one blank (DynamicLiveryResource) overall Eleven designs, and all the liveries are of extremely high quality and have creative flare with the package. I will note that seven liveries only loaded after I ran the Skunkscrafts Updater to v1.0.1.
The X-Plane 11 Beaver is supplied with fourteen liveries, but there is now only eleven on the XP12 aircraft? with the DynamicLiveryResources being the currently selected "Dynamic" livery.
Dynamic Liveries
Not happy with any of those designs, then why not create your own! With their earlier release of their Kodiak then Thranda also introduced a clever feature to design your own livery.This is done by switching from PAINTED LIVERIES to DYNAMIC LIVERIES top. I created this orange, black and grey for this review...
You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want, and then adjust the RGB colours for that area, it looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes...
You can also change the aircraft's registration number, or have original de Havilland logo on the tail.
There are also four effects you can apply. The said "Dirt" and "Scratches", and also "Metal" and "Rough(ness)" this gives the aircraft a dirty rough appearance. So applying these Dirt and scratches on the airplane will make the surfaces rougher, this is giving you the full PBR control in creating stunning metallic liveries, or matte, sand-blasted look, and these aspects will also slightly affect the Beaver's drag, and therefore it's cruise speeds. With full dirt and scratches you can expect a loss of 2 to 3 mph of cruise speed. Cleaning the plane by setting both values back to 0 will give you a smoother and slightly faster plane.
... when done you can then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. It was all quite easy to do. Then the aircraft goes through a sort of transmogrifying process that takes around a minute and a half....
... you can "SAVE" the livery, in that then the custom livery becomes the "DynamicLiveryResources" livery in the "Painted Liveries" selection. Altogether there are 29 optional Dynamic Liveries to change or use. New to the Dynamic Livery application is ERA options in "Modern' or "Classic".... and of course personal taste is optional!
In the Float/Amphibian menu, you can also colour in the float design to your own preferences, or to match the floats in with the same aircraft fuselage design, all the same livery options (29) are available here also.
Menu - Weight/Bal
The Beaver also has a great Weight and Balance menu.
Lbs and Kgs which can be selected and changed via the toggle... Lbs In Green, and Kgs in Blue.
There is the weight selection of all the seats. The X option on each seat will toggle the seat off/on, or go from a Passenger to Cargo layout.
Fuel (including the EXT Tank) can be added in and the amounts are then shown and are adjustable as well in the menu (above)... pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for individual weights and all are selected via a scrollwheel... and then all of the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on two graphs, go too far or too heavy and the CofG goes red. When done you can Save the Configuration and then later re-load it, or press Load to add back in the set weights.
Working out that right CofG balance here is critical, setting just inside the parameters is just not really good enough, as you need for the aircraft to be balanced in it's fuel and load weights, or you will have difficulty in flying the aircraft. So put too much (cargo) weight aft and you are tail heavy and unbalanced in the TakeOff, and in Flight.
Menu - Camera
There is a camera feature under the menu "Camera" selection. The left side of the panel is the "Walkaround" views, just pick the dot for the external viewpoint you want to see to rotate around the aircraft. To the right is the default views can be selected via a menu, or press the keypad to select the internal viewpoints. The FoV or "Field of View" is adjustable via a slider.
Menu - Audio/Slew
Sound can be adjusted via the Audio menu. There are seven slider selections with: Master, Aircraft External, Aircraft Internal, CoPilot, Radios, Environmental and User Interface. One other sound setting is on the Flap panel... As noted, on the right and left of the panel you get the audio simulation of an active noise canceling headset, which is seen as wearing a headset. Sound quality is beyond excellent as it is a built in audio mixer, so you can individually control the audio channels in real-time and you can adjust the volumes while hearing them play.
Slew mode allows you to manually move the aircraft around in a disconnected X-Plane space. It functions by temporarily overriding the various aerodynamic and physical forces on the X-Plane settings, it is to allow the user to reposition the plane as desired. This feature is however highly touchy and it is used mostly only really with the Amphibian/Floats option in docking the aircraft to say a pier or marina.
Menu - PANEL
The sixth "PANEL" Tab option allows you to adjust or change the instruments and dials.
Scroll the "PANEL BACKGROUND" number to see all the four background preset layouts.
Scroll the "Panel Preset" number to see all the five preset layouts. The layouts can include both GNS 430/530 and the Aspen EFD. Even the The Reality XP GTN 750/650 Touch can also be installed if you have that external option, as the 3d bezels are provided.
Aspen EFD is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not as highly featured with the GPSS, MAP, 360 and Menu functions all not simulated... all the lower NAV1/NAV2/GPS selections are however available, as is the TPS (Tapes) see/hide option with the MIN (Minimums) selectable as well. and the PFD can be reversed with the EHSI. The EFD 1000 PFD pops-out for convenience.
Customising the panel to your own personal layout is just as easy. Just select the "3D EDIT PANEL MODE" (arrowed) that gives you access to all of the 54 individual instruments and avionic units... There some great options including the Aspen EFD 1000, S-TEC 55x Autopilot, Angle of Attack gauge and so on...
For those that find instruments are not to their liking, in say, "I wish I could move that altitude meter just a bit more to the left", then here you can simply adjust and move that particular instrument, or even swap the instruments around the panel to your liking. Here I have added in a Reality XP GTN 650 Touch instrument on the right lower panel... You can even adjust the brightness of the instrument.
When you can "ADD" (or Duplicate) in a new "Preset", and then "SAVE" that new layout Preset (Preset /6). So basically you can start off with a completely blank instrument panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout if you have the time and patience... and you can have up to or save 14 different instrument layouts. It is however very important to restart X-Plane to lock in the new instrumentation layout before flying.
Panel features include; S-Tec Fifty Five autopilot and the noted Aspen EFD 1000, KR 87 ADF Radio, Garmin GMA 340, Garmin GTX325 Mode C Transponder and the usual GNS 430/530 PS/Nav/Comm units. Both GNS units also require their own installation area. Note that the "Gear Advisory" Panel for the Amphibious/Float version can also be added to the custom panel.
The DGS system is certainly very clever and versatile, but a small annoyance is that to get your custom livery or panel, you have to reset everything, every time you fly? Yes the custom SAVES are all there ready for you, but not when you start/load the aircraft.
Menu - MISC
The Misc (Miscellaneous) page has four panels that cover External; Skis, Wheels; Tires and Mud Flaps. Internal; Windows options and Throttle Quadrant options. Notably missing here is the usual "DynaFeel" Feature.
High quality designed "Skis" are available for the Beaver...
Tyres can be changed from "Regular" size, to the larger "Tundra" style. The larger tundra tyres however won't work with the skis...
On the rear you can have "Mud Flaps", and here they work with either the regular or tundra tyre options.
Rear Door windows can be "Flat" or "Bubble"...
Throttle Quadrant options include; OLD (classic) or NEW...
On most Thranda Design aircraft they have a "Pilot" option in that the pilots can be changed around from Male to Female. There is no Female pilot with the Beaver, but only the Male "Beaver Dan"... he is also fully animated in the arms, legs and head movements.
The Float/Amphibian MISC Menu is different. You still have the earlier Throttle Quadrant (Old/New)/Window options (Flat/Bubble).
Yes, you get a canoe!
Amphibian or Float option...
There is a Ventral Fin, that is an option under the tail...
You can Retract or Extend the rudders from the MISC Panel
There are another two options to raise and lower the rudders, One is a handle and cord in the cockpit, left floor... another (the most simple) is to use the Keyboard command "Toggle Water Rudder".
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Flying the DHC-2 Beaver
There are two options to starting the DHC-2, the (very) easy way via the Simplified "Engine Mode" option in the Menu/General panel... and the long winded "Realistic" way. With the full engine start up procedure as is explained in the manual.
Did you always want to look actually inside your engine? Well now you can and the idea is to see how the engine is primed to start... here Dan Klaue's genius strikes again! There is the option via a menu selection "Radial Engine Animation" that brings up an animated Wasp Radial engine, you can also "PreHeat" and "Prime" your Wasp ready for start, but you have to be careful not to "OverPrime" the Cylinders.
You can also prime the engine via the hand pump, deep left of the pilot's seat, switch the large ignition switch on (Fuel on as well of course)... setting the Mixture to almost full RICH lever and a slight 5th throttle... then flick the left switch under the red cover to start the Wasp.... get the procedure right and the Beaver's prop will rotate then fire into action... and also the Radial Engine Animation" will erupt into activity.
On the Animation the pistons are exploding, and the animation is amazing beyond belief, adjust the throttle for a some serious movement, but the animation will also react to the adjustment of not only the throttle inputs, but with the fuel mixture from "Rich" to 'Lean" adjustments as well. Just move the mixture lever (not fully back) and see changes and the weakness in the sparks.
These movements and the running of the DHC-2 also compliment the amazing sound range as well, there is a consistent adjustment of the excellent engine sounds to the condition of the running of the engine, that is the "Ugh, Ugh" of low lean to the high power "roar" of the full throttle. Also no two starts will sound alike, as there is coughing, sputtering, and the clanking of valves that all contribute the full aural experience, it's clever and highly realistic as well.
The sounds actually also give you clues as to what's happening under the hood as is for the shear band of extensive sound patterns available here that show no gaps or the same patterns that just gets you all tinkly down your back... it is highly, highly aurally realistic... well like a full throated real 450 hp Wasp Jr engine sounds like.
As noted you can have a freewheeling rear or locked to the rudder yaw, You really need a set of rudder pedals for the Thranda Beaver with built in toe brakes to use the freewheeling option, that aspect takes a little skill to get right. Taildraggers are a feel thing, and thankfully the Beaver is one of the better taildraggers. Of course experiment with the load and trim until you get that feeling the DHC-2 is rightly balanced.
Thankfully the DHC-2 Beaver is one of the easiest taildraggers to taxi, keeping the right speed though is important, otherwise it's just easy to track straight. Thank God, because you can't see anything (sh**) with the nose high profile of the aircraft, so a slight hunch up out of the seat left is needed to follow the runway.
I have also become quite adept at twisting the Beaver 180º to takeoff, right speed, then a touch more throttle, and then the full yaw tight turn, then quickly off the throttle again...
You sit high, and the view out is quite good for a taildragger, but a slight glance to the left will align you up with the runway... flaps are set to "Takeoff" which feels extreme here, in a very high degree setting. But the Beaver has a very wide flight dynamic in that the flaps can be set to extreme positions, but still be well within the aircraft's STOL (Short TakeOff and Landing) performance envelope.
Speed builds gradually then suddenly the tail unstick's, and you need a kick of full of right rudder to maintain the straight ahead line...
... another tool is to lightly touch the right toe-brake slightly to maintain the correct aligned course, between the two movements you can keep the Beaver straight. Takeoff is usually around 90 knts, but you don't need to pull back the stick as the Beaver just glides into the air on lift alone (the heavy set flaps), and to climb, it then only requires a little pitch to meet the 600 fpm climb-out you need.
You can climb-out to the extreme of 1,000 fpm, but the 600 fpm angle is perfect, the one thing that should be highly noted is the aircraft's weight and feel, it is excellent. Now a slight adjustment to 800 fpm, which is perfect with still no loss of speed, also the Flaps are now at the "Climb" marker, as I need to climb up to 6,000 ft... high? not really as the Beaver can do a ceiling of 18,000 ft (5,486 m)... impressive.
Unlike other aircraft you can consistently use the flaps and even in level flight, most aircraft need the flaps in and clean as soon as possible, but not the Beaver, as if you have a slightly uneven balance (front to rear) in the aircraft you can use the flaps to even out the balance without touching the trim, it is a tool every Beaver pilot's use.
Stewart River is a 533-kilometre tributary of Yukon River. And heading up river towards Hecate Strait. But I am also not going all the way to the Strait either, just far enough to climb up high to turn west, but with the high mountains surrounding me, it means a climb of at least 6,000 ft, maybe more.
Obviously you don't go very fast... 158 mph (255 km/h) or 140 knts is max and your cruise speed is only 143 mph (230 km/h) or 125 knts, but you don't really care about that factor, as this DHC aircraft is an absolute dream to fly.
You can see why tourists love this lower Alaskan part of the world, the views are amazing, even X-Plane 12 amazing...
I'm now at 6,000 ft, but it's still not enough, so another 2,000 ft to go up to 8,000 ft.
Now higher I finally see a gap in the mountains and head west...
Trimming the DHC-2 out is easy, the trims are set up up on the roof (But I use keyboard commands), and the Beaver trims out the pitch beautifully, now just small stick and rudder inputs keeps DHC straight, but better still yet is if you trim out the rudder as well, and now you can take both hands and feet off the controls and the Beaver will still fly like a dream straight and level.... this is one amazing simulation of a real aircraft.
Fuel management is critical... Six tanks altogether, but basically you switch between three, Front - Middle - Rear, via the big knob, far left panel. The three tanks are shown on the lower console. The Wing tanks are selected via another large knob on the left side above the door.
Select Left or Right Tanks or BOTH, and all selections feed to the Front main tank, usually you would leave it on BOTH, for an even balance...
The EXT (external) Tank also feeds into another tank, the Middle one. There is a lever under the pilot's instrument panel to turn on the EXT tank flow, this then moves the ancillary fuel into the Middle tank, obviously it is good idea to select the middle tank to use all the extra fuel in there...
The EXT tank lever is moved vertical (down) to access the fuel, when done then shut it off by moving the lever left. it will fill up the Middle tank quite quickly.
I know why I love the Beaver, as you just purr along doing the job. The Beaver is like a light truck of the aircraft world, it shifts people and cargo with a ruggedness into a wilderness. Your sitting up there high, in charge, master of your own little universe, just shuttling along... heaven is a Beaver in flight, you can easily see why any pilot loves the DHC-2 so much.
Ketchikan is rear to my left, Clarence Strait is to my immediate left...
... soon the Stikine Strait comes into view on my right, a glance down and I'm horrified on how much fuel, including the extra top up amount has been used from the middle tank, I switch again to the rear tank, supping more fuel from that one instead, the whole trip distance is only 177 nm, but I'm also using a lot of fuel with that powerful Wasp.
Time to turn into the Strait... I have already lost 4,000 ft as I enter, but it was a slow descent.
At first the Beaver dropped altitude, then crawled to a stop? the only way to continue the descent was to pull half back on the throttle, then you were moving downwards again. As we already know, the Beaver is known as a "flap-happy" aircraft and you can see and feel that aspect of why here... That is the "Landing" setting, but you can go even slower if you go deeper with more flap and into the red zone to the full 58º degrees... Usually you would never use 58º, that aspect just gives you too much drag, but it is useful for the water landings, as it gives you a far lower speed and more lift at those almost static water approaches.
Wrangell pops up now on my right. I'm down to 800 ft, and ready for the approach into PAWG Rwy 10 (6000 ft). Approach speed is around 70 knts, here your altitude is controlled only via your throttle, more power to go up and less power to go down, but even the mixture adjustments can even have an effect, so be aware if you are leaning out the engine more while reducing power.
One note I will say is that the touchdown speed is still around 70 knts, dropping to 60 knts on the runway, and that feels a tad fast at full flap? but the speed does still give you full aerodynamic control on the landing and you can finely follow the centreline as good as when you took off...
The landing bit is quite easy, the tricky bit is lowering the tail and keeping tracking directly straight, master that and you master the DHC-2. Part of the trick is to use the toe-brakes, but lightly and the rudder (stabs) and find that straight line... I'm not saying it is easy because it isn't, but it comes to you with practise.
But let us be thankful, this is an amazing experience of an aircraft, and now the Beaver is available to fly in X-Plane 12.
Summary
Often referred to as the “best bush plane ever built”, the DHC-2 has been instrumental in developing and servicing far-reaching frontiers since it was first introduced in 1947. The DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft that was developed by de Havilland Canada. This version has the "Holmes Extended Engine Mount", which moves the 917lbs Wasp Jr engine forward by almost 10 inches for a better rear load balance (Centre of Gravity).
Any aircraft coming from Thranda Design is usually full of amazing features and outstanding quality design, and certainly you are not disappointed here. In the design aspect the aircraft is extremely the best yet from Thranda, the quality is overwhelming to the point of ridiculous... the DHC has full hi-res PBR realistic effects, featuring true-to-life plate deformation and to-the-rivet precision, not to mention the high quality materials internally and externally. Detailing and the modeling is absolutely first rate, this is an outstanding Beaver.
Not only is the instrument Panel one of the best yet in X-Plane, it is also fully customised via the "Dynamic Generation Series" in not only giving you your own control over the way the instruments are laid out, but to swap and change other instruments as well including; Aspen EFD 1000, S-Tec 55x autopilot, RealityXP GTN 750 (these are optional addons) and a Collins 614-12 ADF. Eleven liveries are provided, but also again you can create and design your own liveries with the DGS system. Options include, Skis, mud flaps, Old and New quadrants and bubble windows, and the Amphibious/Float version is now part of the X-Plane 12 package.
Sounds are outstanding, with High fidelity, multi-track sounds with smooth transitions and amazing atmospheric effects, 3D audio effects, including "blade slapping" sound when view is perpendicular to propeller, start up and engine mixture variance is also highly realistic.
Menus are also extensive, with sound adjustments, weight and balance manager with visual chart, lighting, doors, views, reflections and an amazing radial engine visualisation in a pop-up window, which showcases the inner workings of the engine.
Yes a lot in this review is very much like the X-Plane 11 original version, as most in the design features and menus are the same, but a lot of the hidden areas, including the flight dynamics and performance related to X-Plane 12 have all been revised. Also the textures all now 8K, up from two 4K textures for better fidelity, the Skunkcrafts Updater is also now used for direct updates. All earlier purchasers of the Thranda X-Plane 11 DHC-2 can upgrade for 30% off with the new XP12 model. This aircraft is X-Plane 12 only, but the XP11 version is available.
But a few things have been affected in the transition with the Beaver. Debatable is the "Shiny, shiny feel" of XP12, although overall the aircraft looks extremely better than XP11. Lighting has lost a lot of it's shine (pun intended) Instruments are hard to read and external lighting is virtually not visible, but to note a lot of X-Plane 12 aircraft are like this, we feel that lighting needs a lot more adjustment from Laminar Research. Thranda Aircraft also extremely dark, hard to see inside and use, but that also may improve over the X-Plane 12 changes.
This is the iconic de Havilland Canada Beaver as in depth simulation, with as much quality and it comes with the sheer force of ideas available here, and in reality isn't that is what simulation is really all about, brilliant aircraft with exceptional quality and flying dynamics and a huge feature list. So really want the very best then here it is....
Highly, Hugely Recommended.
_______________________________
Yes! the DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design is NOW! available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
DHC-2 Beaver DGS Series XP12
Price is US$34.95
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Minimum. Download Size: 1.2 GB Current version 1.0.1 (October 16th 2023) The plane comes with the Skunkcraft auto-updater Owners of the Thranda DHC-2 XP11 can get this new XP12 model for 30% off. Please find the coupon code in your original DHC-2 XP11 Invoice. ________________
Installation and documents: Download is 1.66Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder.
Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file.
Full installation is 3.27GB
Documents supplied are:
Changelog.txt Thranda Beaver Documentation XP12 v1.0.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf
Checklists and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the extensive manual.
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.07r1 (This is a release candidate review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Skunkcrafts Updater
Scenery or Aircraft
- CZST - Stewart - XPORG (formally Beti-x) (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$25.00
- PAWG - Wrangell Airport, Alaska by NorthernSky Studios (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.95
___________________________
News by Stephen Dutton
20th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
-
Stephen got a reaction from Lance Boyd in Aircraft Update Review : Gulfstream 550 by v2.05 by AKD Studio
Aircraft Update Review : Gulfstream 550 by v2.05 by AKD Studio
It's been less than a year since the release of the AKD Studio's GulfStream 550, and it feels like it has already been around a fair while. Most of that reason has been with the rapid and regular updates for the aircraft, 11 updates to date, so almost one a month, and throw in a v2 model version update as well. So this G550 is classified as a X-Plane 12 aircraft, and yes even an X-Plane 11 version is also supplied, but without the XP12 features and effects.
With the huge amount of improvements over the last twelve months, the aircraft has come a long way, certainly systems wise, but also feature wise, but their are weaknesses in the modeling are still very visually present and not yet attended to, which we will get to.
The latest update is v2.05 (Sept 29th), but we will also look at a few of the changes and note a few of the features of the earlier version v2 updates as well, outwardly it is now an impressive aircraft.
We will start with a look at the latest changes in v2.05
First is another change to the 3D vehicle, the third since release? Originally we had a Telsla Model 3, but it was not to scale, and the vehicle was far too large in comparison to the G550, odd it was... in v1.10 you got another Tesla 3, to scale this time, but it was still odd, because you can't deliver 16 passengers and a flight crew to a jet in a five seater car?
This time around in v2.05 we finally arrived at a better transport solution, a Mercedes Benz Sprinter bus. The new Sprinter is extremely well modeled, visually excellent, and the door opens when it arrives at the aircraft.
The bus is activated via the "Boarding" hotspot on the "Fuel" page. Note the feature to input Simbrief Data from your generated Flight Brief, this will also note the amount of passengers to be boarded (up to 16). On using SimBrief you have to add in your SimBrief ID via the "Settings" page. There are also three speeds to load the aircraft with the (Fuel) and Passengers, Instant - Short - Real.
On the centre console 60hz audio panel, a MASTER SWitch has been added to the panel (arrowed). All the switch covers have also been redone to make them easier to see (slightly cloudy) and to use.
Last new v2.05 feature are the nice lights on the stairs.
With the v2.0 update, the G550 came with a new custom MCDU (Multipurpose Control and Display Unit). You still have the choice of both the original Laminar Research FMS system or the newer custom version, and it is based on the Honeywell (MCDU-R) Multi-Function Control and Display Unit. The Laminar FMS is on the left, and the Honeywell is on the right.
The major difference is the amount of depth between the two systems, and the use here is a bit different from the usual set up in procedures, so a bit of a guide (tutorial) is required.
One annoyance is that the two MCDU panels don't pop-out? they are awkward to use with the MAP display for and inputting the data, as the key input buttons are not totally aligned with the input data lines. (so you have to count each time)
First input is to set the aircraft's "POSITION INIT" or GPS reference. You click on KR2 (Key Right 2) to insert your current aircraft Coordinates, mine is LFML or Marseille Airport, the position is then shown on the MAP (MFD).
MAP has to be set on the "A/C CENTRE" or PLAN in most MAP settings, this is done through the Gulfstream specific glareshield "Display Controller".
That will insert your departure airport, so you will next need to insert your ARRIVAL airport (RK3) LEMH (Menorca Airport) on the opposite side RK3.
My flightplan today is... LFML/31L N0502F280 VATI6N VATIR UN852 VERSO UL16 SARGO SARG5F LEMH/19
Then you select your DEPARTURE, with your Runway, Standard Instrument Departure Route (SID) and Via if required, this departure sequence is shown in a full list, if correct then press ACTIVATE and it is then inserted as the start of your Flightplan (FPL).
If you have a 5 letter or 3 Waypoint as the next insert, then just input directly into the "VIA-TO"... but if it is an AIRWAY then the input is unusual from the normal procedure. The AIRWAY is inputted in the "VIA TO" as UN852.VERSO or in the AIRWAY number (UN852) . then the EXIT Waypoint (VERSO).
And then the AIRWAY is inserted in the flightplan. Then you can continue to build your flightplan until you reach the STAR input... at this point the system goes a bit off script, as there is no ARRIVAL selection?
You are diverted to the "PERFORMANCE INIT" or five pages of performance data to be filled in... including "Type" Aircraft, Climb - Cruise-Descent, STEP/Fuel, Altitude, Weight... once the PERF pages are filled in you can then CONFIRM INIT to activate all the performance data...
Then the ARRIVAL option is now available... and you can now fill in your Runway (Approach) and STAR/TRANS options. Press ACTIVATE to insert the Arrival data.
Another oddity, is that you have to insert in your arrival airport (LEMH) at the end of the flightplan, this then activates the PERF data and fills in the rest of the flightplan data, with all the correct Flight Levels (Altitude)
It is a tricky system to learn and navigate, yes there are also a few (annoying) bugs in there, and it takes a little practise to be confident in using this style of custom MCDU, it is also slightly complex and unforgiving, compared to the usual Boeing or Airbus systems...
Another quirk is if you want to see the whole or parts of your flightplan. There is no STEP option, but you can check your flightplan by going to the "Display Controller" (IN A/C CENTRE mode) and selecting NEXT (the PREV doesn't yet work), and that allows you then to move through the flightplan in a PLAN mode, you can also adjust the range as well to scale the flightplan to your liking.
Other MCDU PERF modes include TAKEOFF, CLIMB, CRUISE, DESCENT and LANDING data, or input. (only Takeoff/Landing is shown)
DIR (Direct), HOLD and PATTERN are all available, as is PROG (Progress), which we will see in flight.
Looking at the v2.05 bug list, you can see the attention given to the MCDU, it's better obviously, but as noted it is also still a little buggy in use, mostly in selecting DEPARTURE when inputting "VIA TO"?
Other bug fixes cover a lot of the lighting in the cockpit, bad SASL crashes, weight calculations, and cross-referencing between the EFB and MCDU, plus a few minor changes in the detail around the cockpit.
v2.05 Bugs fixes: -Fixed SpeedBrake manipulator(XP11/XP12) -Fixed Cockpit lights in Cockpit(XP12) -Fixed MCDU sometimes not updating route(XP11/XP12) -Fixed MCDU not adding all VOR's from FMS file(XP11/XP12) -Fixed DU1 FULL HSI 360 indicator with IRS OFF(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: the values I enter do not match what the FMS says(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: “Pull Up” sounds warning bell remains even in cold and dark(XP11/XP12) -Fixed "Marching ants" on knobs 3D model(XP11/XP12) -Fixed gross weight calculations in MCDU(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: "When I have to change the arrival It does not delete all of the old fixes"(XP11/XP12) -Fixed SASL crash Fail to get parameter #2 (value)(XP11/XP12) -Fixed SASL crash "bad argument #1 to 'match' (string expected, got nil)"(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: STAR/APP insert function(XP12/XP11) -Fixed Minor MCDU bugs(XP12/XP11) -Fixed Minor bugs(XP12/XP11) So why do you want a Gulfstream 550? PERFORMANCE. When you have set up your MCDU, you can then import the data into the EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) or Tablet. Under the PERF CALculator, you can insert the "Takeoff Data" and the "Landing Data", you can also do it the other way around... set up the Takeoff parameters, or Landing parameters, and then send the data directly to the FMS. Private Jets are unique to Simulators, unique to fly as well... it's the power available to you under the throttles as it is simply phenomenal. Power up those two Rolls-Royce BR710 C4-11 engines that come with a 15,400 lbf (68.4 kN) takeoff rating... and you just GO, FAST. It's like trying to reign in a very fast racehorse, as you are mostly just along for the ride. On rotate you have to control the nose, as you have available an enormous climb rate of 3,650 feet per minute, and you can go almost straight up... So setting the trim correctly for Takeoff is essential, but also is the re-adjustment once you are in the air, the nose just wants to go up... and up. Handling wise the G550 is a big aircraft, it feels like a small regional jet, of which it is in many ways. But behind the controls it is very nice to fly, and the operation in here is all very Gulfstream with the well done authentic layout. I really do like the custon MCDU, tricky to programme, but easy to use once in the air... TIP... the Auto/Throttle ARM is on the throttle arms, and the autothrottle won't work if you don't arm it first. The Cockpit lighting has about 12 adjustment knobs, and on the release the lighting was a bit hit or miss. AKD has done a lot of work on the lighting in the three updates, and now it is very good, a few areas are obviously still in need some adjustment (Co-Pilot side), but otherwise it is now becoming very good. The under panel lighting is very nice at night, and can be dialed down for takeoff and landing. This generation of Gulfstream jets gives you a lot of space inside as they are 43.11 feet long by 7 feet wide by 6 feet tall giving it a total cabin volume of 1669 cubic feet, they are the crème de la crème of cabins in size and fitouts. They can carry a crew of four, 2 pilots, 0–2 attendants plus 14–19 passengers plus a payload 6,200 lb (2,812 kg). This cabin is HUGE, and the layout here is two sets of club seating (eight chairs) and two large rear sofas. Well done is the in-flight screen, showing the aircraft's position, altitude, speed and time. Well you can stay up high for a very long time with 6,750 nmi (7,770 mi, 12,500 km) range, with a High Speed Cruise: M0.85 at 41,000 ft (12,497 m) or the standard Long Range Cruise: M0.80 at 41,000 ft (12,497 m), the total Service ceiling is 51,000 ft (16,000 m), God that is almost as high as Concorde... impressive isn't it. Notable are still the visual modeling imperfections. The rear engine exhaust outlets are very basic, worse in being very noticeable on the expensive jet from the rear, I really don't like the cabin windows either, poorly done, with very poor tint modeling, you sit close to them when viewing from the cabin, and they are a maddening distraction. Lastly the no glass in the nosegear lights, modeled, but not finished... all should have been attended to by this on one year date. Does the G550 need a door between the cockpit and elite passengers in the back? I think so, certainly for this price. Going up, then descending, I used (tested) the Level Change or FLCH, Flight Level Change mode. It's quite violent, climbing at an easy 3,500 fpm, the G550 climbs upwards like no tomorrow, to the stated 28,000 ft, you are there within minutes... going down was worse at a minus 4100 fpm as you simply dropped out of the sky, and then recovered at around the set 6000 ft. It does work brilliantly well, but like a theme-park ride. I'm at Menorca in no time, under an hour's flying time, high express ride down the Mediterranean... the aircraft following the SARG5F STAR to Runway 19. I like the low-speed capabilities of the G550, with the barn door flaps right down, your approach speeds are around 140 knts. Such a low speed approach gives you time to set up the aircraft correctly... Hands and feet on, and you can position the aircraft exactly were you want to, the size is perfect, this is no GA to be blown around in, or not with the lumbering feel of a big heavy jet, is this the perfect size and weight? It's very gusty on approach, but the manual flying of this aircraft is easy, getting close to the runway and you let the efficient wings do a great upward ground effect, they support you, and also give you time to get the best flare position for landing... ... I have done a fair few flights now with the Gulfstream G550 to be now very comfortable with the aircraft, but to note have still not done a trans-continental or an ocean crossing, and in so using the full capabilities of what this aircraft can do. But it does always leave a smile on my face, and in wanting more. Finally there is a really excellent and long livery list, and some extras you can download for the AKD Design Gulfstream G550, you can find them here.... GLF550 by AKD - IMPORTANT LINKS AND INFORMATION - AKD Studio - G550 ___________ Summary Since being released a year ago in October 2023. The Gulfstream G550 by AKD Studios has had some significant updates in the meantime, including a complete v2.0 release. The v2.0 release included a custom Honeywell (MCDU-R) Multi-Function Control and Display Unit as part of the update, but also in the latest update v2.05, there were other new additions, including another new Car 3D Model? but this time a lovely Mercedes Sprinter bus, as they finally got it right. Also added is new Audio Panel and added new switches covers, also Lights have been added to the stairs of main cabin door, more significant is the long list of attention to bugs and fixes including lighting in the cockpit, bad SASL crashes, weight calculations, and cross-referencing between the EFB and MCDU, plus a few minor changes in the detail around the cockpit. In lots of ways the G550 aircraft has had an substantial amount of changes and features added in the past year, my only beef is some very visual modeling areas have not had attention in the same time period, rear exhaust outlets are very basic, poor cabin windows and visible non-glass on the front wheel strut are very glaring in their inattention. One of the best super long-distance trans-continental or ocean crossing private jets available for the X-Plane 12 Simulator (An X-Plane 11 version is also included) is this Gulfstream 550. Brilliant to fly and very authentic to the Gulfstream brand, and it comes with a very long feature list, it is available now to live out your perfect one-percenter ultra wealthy elite rich dreams, plus you also get to fly a very nice aircraft. _______________________________
The Gulfstream 550 v2.05 by AKD Studio is NOW available here at the X-Plane.OrgStore
GLF550 - Ultimate Business Jet by AKD Studio
Price is US$41.95
This aircraft is now both X-Plane12 and X-Plane 11 supported
Requirements
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11
Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.1 GB
Current version : 1.10 (February 7th 2023) Download for the Gulfstream 550 by AKD Studio is 1.03GB
And the final install in X-Plane Aircraft folder with the above loaded liveries is; 2.53gb. Authorisation is required.
The AviTab plugin is also required to use this aircraft, and it is deposited in your X-Plane Plugins folder.
Simbrief proflie is;
https://www.simbrief.com/system/dispatch.php?sharefleet=256234_1658264083720
The ADK Gulfstream G550 v2.05 update can be downloaded via the X-plane.OrgStore, or via the Skunkcrafts updater
Documents
AKD GLF550 Introduction.pdf FMS_Manual.pdf GLF550 Normal Checklist.pdf GLF550_air_conditioning_system.pdf GLF550_auxiliary_power_unit_(apu)_system.pdf GLF550_electrical_system.pdf GLF550_fire_protection_system.pdf GLF550_flight_control_system.pdf GLF550_fuel_system.pdf GLF550_hydraulic_system.pdf GLF550_ice_and_rain_protection_system.pdf GLF550_landing_gear_and_brakes_system.pdf GLF550_oxygen_system.pdf GLF550_pneumatic_system.pdf GLF550_powerplant_system.pdf GLF550_pressurization_system.pdf
Changelog
Included here are all the v2.0 changlogs... v2.0 - v2.02 - v2.03 and v2.05
Changelog v2.0 - v2.02 - v2.03 and v2.05.txt
Designed by AKD Studios
Support forum for the Gulfstream G550 _____________________
Aircraft Update Review by Stephen Dutton
11th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.01r3 (This is a beta review).
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99
Scenery or Aircraft
- LFML - Airport Marseille XP by Aerosoft - (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.99
- LEMH - Airport Menorca XP by Aerosoft - (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$23.99
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
-
Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Update Review : Gulfstream 550 by v2.05 by AKD Studio
Aircraft Update Review : Gulfstream 550 by v2.05 by AKD Studio
It's been less than a year since the release of the AKD Studio's GulfStream 550, and it feels like it has already been around a fair while. Most of that reason has been with the rapid and regular updates for the aircraft, 11 updates to date, so almost one a month, and throw in a v2 model version update as well. So this G550 is classified as a X-Plane 12 aircraft, and yes even an X-Plane 11 version is also supplied, but without the XP12 features and effects.
With the huge amount of improvements over the last twelve months, the aircraft has come a long way, certainly systems wise, but also feature wise, but their are weaknesses in the modeling are still very visually present and not yet attended to, which we will get to.
The latest update is v2.05 (Sept 29th), but we will also look at a few of the changes and note a few of the features of the earlier version v2 updates as well, outwardly it is now an impressive aircraft.
We will start with a look at the latest changes in v2.05
First is another change to the 3D vehicle, the third since release? Originally we had a Telsla Model 3, but it was not to scale, and the vehicle was far too large in comparison to the G550, odd it was... in v1.10 you got another Tesla 3, to scale this time, but it was still odd, because you can't deliver 16 passengers and a flight crew to a jet in a five seater car?
This time around in v2.05 we finally arrived at a better transport solution, a Mercedes Benz Sprinter bus. The new Sprinter is extremely well modeled, visually excellent, and the door opens when it arrives at the aircraft.
The bus is activated via the "Boarding" hotspot on the "Fuel" page. Note the feature to input Simbrief Data from your generated Flight Brief, this will also note the amount of passengers to be boarded (up to 16). On using SimBrief you have to add in your SimBrief ID via the "Settings" page. There are also three speeds to load the aircraft with the (Fuel) and Passengers, Instant - Short - Real.
On the centre console 60hz audio panel, a MASTER SWitch has been added to the panel (arrowed). All the switch covers have also been redone to make them easier to see (slightly cloudy) and to use.
Last new v2.05 feature are the nice lights on the stairs.
With the v2.0 update, the G550 came with a new custom MCDU (Multipurpose Control and Display Unit). You still have the choice of both the original Laminar Research FMS system or the newer custom version, and it is based on the Honeywell (MCDU-R) Multi-Function Control and Display Unit. The Laminar FMS is on the left, and the Honeywell is on the right.
The major difference is the amount of depth between the two systems, and the use here is a bit different from the usual set up in procedures, so a bit of a guide (tutorial) is required.
One annoyance is that the two MCDU panels don't pop-out? they are awkward to use with the MAP display for and inputting the data, as the key input buttons are not totally aligned with the input data lines. (so you have to count each time)
First input is to set the aircraft's "POSITION INIT" or GPS reference. You click on KR2 (Key Right 2) to insert your current aircraft Coordinates, mine is LFML or Marseille Airport, the position is then shown on the MAP (MFD).
MAP has to be set on the "A/C CENTRE" or PLAN in most MAP settings, this is done through the Gulfstream specific glareshield "Display Controller".
That will insert your departure airport, so you will next need to insert your ARRIVAL airport (RK3) LEMH (Menorca Airport) on the opposite side RK3.
My flightplan today is... LFML/31L N0502F280 VATI6N VATIR UN852 VERSO UL16 SARGO SARG5F LEMH/19
Then you select your DEPARTURE, with your Runway, Standard Instrument Departure Route (SID) and Via if required, this departure sequence is shown in a full list, if correct then press ACTIVATE and it is then inserted as the start of your Flightplan (FPL).
If you have a 5 letter or 3 Waypoint as the next insert, then just input directly into the "VIA-TO"... but if it is an AIRWAY then the input is unusual from the normal procedure. The AIRWAY is inputted in the "VIA TO" as UN852.VERSO or in the AIRWAY number (UN852) . then the EXIT Waypoint (VERSO).
And then the AIRWAY is inserted in the flightplan. Then you can continue to build your flightplan until you reach the STAR input... at this point the system goes a bit off script, as there is no ARRIVAL selection?
You are diverted to the "PERFORMANCE INIT" or five pages of performance data to be filled in... including "Type" Aircraft, Climb - Cruise-Descent, STEP/Fuel, Altitude, Weight... once the PERF pages are filled in you can then CONFIRM INIT to activate all the performance data...
Then the ARRIVAL option is now available... and you can now fill in your Runway (Approach) and STAR/TRANS options. Press ACTIVATE to insert the Arrival data.
Another oddity, is that you have to insert in your arrival airport (LEMH) at the end of the flightplan, this then activates the PERF data and fills in the rest of the flightplan data, with all the correct Flight Levels (Altitude)
It is a tricky system to learn and navigate, yes there are also a few (annoying) bugs in there, and it takes a little practise to be confident in using this style of custom MCDU, it is also slightly complex and unforgiving, compared to the usual Boeing or Airbus systems...
Another quirk is if you want to see the whole or parts of your flightplan. There is no STEP option, but you can check your flightplan by going to the "Display Controller" (IN A/C CENTRE mode) and selecting NEXT (the PREV doesn't yet work), and that allows you then to move through the flightplan in a PLAN mode, you can also adjust the range as well to scale the flightplan to your liking.
Other MCDU PERF modes include TAKEOFF, CLIMB, CRUISE, DESCENT and LANDING data, or input. (only Takeoff/Landing is shown)
DIR (Direct), HOLD and PATTERN are all available, as is PROG (Progress), which we will see in flight.
Looking at the v2.05 bug list, you can see the attention given to the MCDU, it's better obviously, but as noted it is also still a little buggy in use, mostly in selecting DEPARTURE when inputting "VIA TO"?
Other bug fixes cover a lot of the lighting in the cockpit, bad SASL crashes, weight calculations, and cross-referencing between the EFB and MCDU, plus a few minor changes in the detail around the cockpit.
v2.05 Bugs fixes: -Fixed SpeedBrake manipulator(XP11/XP12) -Fixed Cockpit lights in Cockpit(XP12) -Fixed MCDU sometimes not updating route(XP11/XP12) -Fixed MCDU not adding all VOR's from FMS file(XP11/XP12) -Fixed DU1 FULL HSI 360 indicator with IRS OFF(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: the values I enter do not match what the FMS says(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: “Pull Up” sounds warning bell remains even in cold and dark(XP11/XP12) -Fixed "Marching ants" on knobs 3D model(XP11/XP12) -Fixed gross weight calculations in MCDU(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: "When I have to change the arrival It does not delete all of the old fixes"(XP11/XP12) -Fixed SASL crash Fail to get parameter #2 (value)(XP11/XP12) -Fixed SASL crash "bad argument #1 to 'match' (string expected, got nil)"(XP11/XP12) -Fixed: STAR/APP insert function(XP12/XP11) -Fixed Minor MCDU bugs(XP12/XP11) -Fixed Minor bugs(XP12/XP11) So why do you want a Gulfstream 550? PERFORMANCE. When you have set up your MCDU, you can then import the data into the EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) or Tablet. Under the PERF CALculator, you can insert the "Takeoff Data" and the "Landing Data", you can also do it the other way around... set up the Takeoff parameters, or Landing parameters, and then send the data directly to the FMS. Private Jets are unique to Simulators, unique to fly as well... it's the power available to you under the throttles as it is simply phenomenal. Power up those two Rolls-Royce BR710 C4-11 engines that come with a 15,400 lbf (68.4 kN) takeoff rating... and you just GO, FAST. It's like trying to reign in a very fast racehorse, as you are mostly just along for the ride. On rotate you have to control the nose, as you have available an enormous climb rate of 3,650 feet per minute, and you can go almost straight up... So setting the trim correctly for Takeoff is essential, but also is the re-adjustment once you are in the air, the nose just wants to go up... and up. Handling wise the G550 is a big aircraft, it feels like a small regional jet, of which it is in many ways. But behind the controls it is very nice to fly, and the operation in here is all very Gulfstream with the well done authentic layout. I really do like the custon MCDU, tricky to programme, but easy to use once in the air... TIP... the Auto/Throttle ARM is on the throttle arms, and the autothrottle won't work if you don't arm it first. The Cockpit lighting has about 12 adjustment knobs, and on the release the lighting was a bit hit or miss. AKD has done a lot of work on the lighting in the three updates, and now it is very good, a few areas are obviously still in need some adjustment (Co-Pilot side), but otherwise it is now becoming very good. The under panel lighting is very nice at night, and can be dialed down for takeoff and landing. This generation of Gulfstream jets gives you a lot of space inside as they are 43.11 feet long by 7 feet wide by 6 feet tall giving it a total cabin volume of 1669 cubic feet, they are the crème de la crème of cabins in size and fitouts. They can carry a crew of four, 2 pilots, 0–2 attendants plus 14–19 passengers plus a payload 6,200 lb (2,812 kg). This cabin is HUGE, and the layout here is two sets of club seating (eight chairs) and two large rear sofas. Well done is the in-flight screen, showing the aircraft's position, altitude, speed and time. Well you can stay up high for a very long time with 6,750 nmi (7,770 mi, 12,500 km) range, with a High Speed Cruise: M0.85 at 41,000 ft (12,497 m) or the standard Long Range Cruise: M0.80 at 41,000 ft (12,497 m), the total Service ceiling is 51,000 ft (16,000 m), God that is almost as high as Concorde... impressive isn't it. Notable are still the visual modeling imperfections. The rear engine exhaust outlets are very basic, worse in being very noticeable on the expensive jet from the rear, I really don't like the cabin windows either, poorly done, with very poor tint modeling, you sit close to them when viewing from the cabin, and they are a maddening distraction. Lastly the no glass in the nosegear lights, modeled, but not finished... all should have been attended to by this on one year date. Does the G550 need a door between the cockpit and elite passengers in the back? I think so, certainly for this price. Going up, then descending, I used (tested) the Level Change or FLCH, Flight Level Change mode. It's quite violent, climbing at an easy 3,500 fpm, the G550 climbs upwards like no tomorrow, to the stated 28,000 ft, you are there within minutes... going down was worse at a minus 4100 fpm as you simply dropped out of the sky, and then recovered at around the set 6000 ft. It does work brilliantly well, but like a theme-park ride. I'm at Menorca in no time, under an hour's flying time, high express ride down the Mediterranean... the aircraft following the SARG5F STAR to Runway 19. I like the low-speed capabilities of the G550, with the barn door flaps right down, your approach speeds are around 140 knts. Such a low speed approach gives you time to set up the aircraft correctly... Hands and feet on, and you can position the aircraft exactly were you want to, the size is perfect, this is no GA to be blown around in, or not with the lumbering feel of a big heavy jet, is this the perfect size and weight? It's very gusty on approach, but the manual flying of this aircraft is easy, getting close to the runway and you let the efficient wings do a great upward ground effect, they support you, and also give you time to get the best flare position for landing... ... I have done a fair few flights now with the Gulfstream G550 to be now very comfortable with the aircraft, but to note have still not done a trans-continental or an ocean crossing, and in so using the full capabilities of what this aircraft can do. But it does always leave a smile on my face, and in wanting more. Finally there is a really excellent and long livery list, and some extras you can download for the AKD Design Gulfstream G550, you can find them here.... GLF550 by AKD - IMPORTANT LINKS AND INFORMATION - AKD Studio - G550 ___________ Summary Since being released a year ago in October 2023. The Gulfstream G550 by AKD Studios has had some significant updates in the meantime, including a complete v2.0 release. The v2.0 release included a custom Honeywell (MCDU-R) Multi-Function Control and Display Unit as part of the update, but also in the latest update v2.05, there were other new additions, including another new Car 3D Model? but this time a lovely Mercedes Sprinter bus, as they finally got it right. Also added is new Audio Panel and added new switches covers, also Lights have been added to the stairs of main cabin door, more significant is the long list of attention to bugs and fixes including lighting in the cockpit, bad SASL crashes, weight calculations, and cross-referencing between the EFB and MCDU, plus a few minor changes in the detail around the cockpit. In lots of ways the G550 aircraft has had an substantial amount of changes and features added in the past year, my only beef is some very visual modeling areas have not had attention in the same time period, rear exhaust outlets are very basic, poor cabin windows and visible non-glass on the front wheel strut are very glaring in their inattention. One of the best super long-distance trans-continental or ocean crossing private jets available for the X-Plane 12 Simulator (An X-Plane 11 version is also included) is this Gulfstream 550. Brilliant to fly and very authentic to the Gulfstream brand, and it comes with a very long feature list, it is available now to live out your perfect one-percenter ultra wealthy elite rich dreams, plus you also get to fly a very nice aircraft. _______________________________
The Gulfstream 550 v2.05 by AKD Studio is NOW available here at the X-Plane.OrgStore
GLF550 - Ultimate Business Jet by AKD Studio
Price is US$41.95
This aircraft is now both X-Plane12 and X-Plane 11 supported
Requirements
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11
Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.1 GB
Current version : 1.10 (February 7th 2023) Download for the Gulfstream 550 by AKD Studio is 1.03GB
And the final install in X-Plane Aircraft folder with the above loaded liveries is; 2.53gb. Authorisation is required.
The AviTab plugin is also required to use this aircraft, and it is deposited in your X-Plane Plugins folder.
Simbrief proflie is;
https://www.simbrief.com/system/dispatch.php?sharefleet=256234_1658264083720
The ADK Gulfstream G550 v2.05 update can be downloaded via the X-plane.OrgStore, or via the Skunkcrafts updater
Documents
AKD GLF550 Introduction.pdf FMS_Manual.pdf GLF550 Normal Checklist.pdf GLF550_air_conditioning_system.pdf GLF550_auxiliary_power_unit_(apu)_system.pdf GLF550_electrical_system.pdf GLF550_fire_protection_system.pdf GLF550_flight_control_system.pdf GLF550_fuel_system.pdf GLF550_hydraulic_system.pdf GLF550_ice_and_rain_protection_system.pdf GLF550_landing_gear_and_brakes_system.pdf GLF550_oxygen_system.pdf GLF550_pneumatic_system.pdf GLF550_powerplant_system.pdf GLF550_pressurization_system.pdf
Changelog
Included here are all the v2.0 changlogs... v2.0 - v2.02 - v2.03 and v2.05
Changelog v2.0 - v2.02 - v2.03 and v2.05.txt
Designed by AKD Studios
Support forum for the Gulfstream G550 _____________________
Aircraft Update Review by Stephen Dutton
11th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.01r3 (This is a beta review).
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99
Scenery or Aircraft
- LFML - Airport Marseille XP by Aerosoft - (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.99
- LEMH - Airport Menorca XP by Aerosoft - (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$23.99
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Review : Hungarocopter HC-02 by vSkyLabs
Aircraft Review : Hungarocopter HC-02 by vSkyLabs
The project was born in 2007, and as the experimental stage progressed with more continuous and sophisticated solutions, the main and innovative component constructions were further developed into the first ultralight helicopter designed and manufactured totally in Hungary by Hungaro Copter Limited of Verpelét, an affiliate of the Hungarian SteelRiders company.
The result was the HC-01, basically a single pilot airframe with a four-cylinder, four stroke 135 hp (101 kW) Subaru EJ22 engine. The HC-01 is very much like the VS-300, the first ever practical flying rig helicopter built by Ogor Sikorski in 1939.
The experimental HC-01 by the lead engineer Zoltán Juhász has now been developed into the more commercial HC-02, a twin-seater machine with now being powered by a Rotax 915 IS four-stroke air cooled engine, with 141 hp (105 kW) for take-off, 135 hp (101 kW) in continuous flight. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction, but still incorporates all the clever innovations of the first HC-01 design. These innovations include an Electrical Rescue System, Automatic anti-tip device, a Center of gravity offset, compensation with movable fuel tank system and Self-developed, high-efficiency and quiet-running rotors (Silent Type). The HS-02 also comes with an enclosed cabin... this aircraft reminds me in design of the Schweizer S300CBi, more so the Dynali H3, in being another ultralight helicopter design, spaceframe based with a long circular tail-boom.
This being a vSkyLabs aircraft, Then the vSkylab philosophy is that you are purchasing an ongoing project, so any aircraft you purchase is not fully completed or is usually not completed to 100%, that is the deal you sign up for to get access to the aircraft, and all the development is free and ongoing throughout the X-Plane 12 version. These projects are under constant development: the development road-map is including flight model refinements, enhanced systems depth, additional liveries and other improvements. So this aircraft is noted as an "Early Access" project.
The HC-02 design is modern and clean. vSkyLabs have done a remarkable job in translating the Hungarocopter to the X-Plane 12 Simulator (to note the HC-02 is only available in X-plane 12). The composite feel is very evident, but in a finished well made production model sheen. The development here is based on 1st hand, actual materials, with real-world HC-02 pilots input. Note the door latches, with hotspot clicks to open the doors. Glass is excellent (nicely tinted), deep and well reflective.
Under the smooth exterior however is a 25CrMo4 welded steel tubing spaceframe, supporting the Rotax 915 IS which is sticking out of the back, and the forward HC-02 cabin. Note the well modeled skids and supports attached to the spaceframe.
The design is very clean, but this is not a working aircraft, but a demonstration machine directly out of the factory sort of way. Detailing is excellent, anyone that has supported in vSkyLabs philosophy knows what they will get, with all this great detailing, but no frills, and that same philosophy is again very evident here.
The HC-02 is a single main rotor and tail rotor configuration, and the tall rotor tower and hub is very well modeled, as all the fittings and bolts are very well represented. It all feels modern and fresh in design, in a forward moving approach to an old idea. The collective twist movement is animated, but not the pitch or sideways cyclic movements.
Note the innovative blade design at 7.0 m (23.0 ft), all carbon-composite for strength, reliability and low noise.
The boom-tail stabilizer wings are quite pronounced for a ultralight machine, and they adapt (move) in flight for better stability.
Rear rotor assembly is detail is excellent, with the full construction visible and authentic. The Yaw blade movement is well animated as well.
The vSkyLabs aircraft all use only "Hotspots" and comes with no menus as their feature control. Both doors can be opened by their latches, but press the upper part of the outer windscreen (both sides) and you can also hide the Swan styled doors off the aircraft.
Internally there are two lay seats, set in a bright red with black inserts, and the (nice) seatbelts are HC (HungaroCopter) branded. This is a full dual control machine, with both dual cyclics and collectives. So either pilot can fly the machine. Central is a large instrument panel/console.
The cyclic is simple with no features except for a PTT (Push To Talk) button, the collective has a working rotating throttle and end button governor. The fuel tank valve is on the floor between the seats. Rudder pedals are just basic aluminium.
The main instrument panel is dominated by a state-of-the-art EFIS NESIS III, a navigation, flight and engine system for ultralight aircraft and helicopters. Noted here it is only showing the "Engine Screen", as there is also a "Classic" (flight instruments) and "Navigation" (MAP) screen pages also available on the NESIS lll, but not reproduced here. Top of the instrument panel are a row of Warning/Caution lights.
Flying instruments include, far left a Heading/Compass, Altitude/Speed/Baro (top), EMSIS Engine/Rotor Tachometer (bottom). Engine readouts (NESIS) consist of; Fuel Level/Pressure/Flow, Engine/Rotor Percentage %, Amp/Volt, Oil Temperature/Pressure, Gearbox Temperature/Pressure and Cylinder EGT - Exhaust Gas Temperature (per cylinder). If you press on the Amp/Volt gauge, it will change to an Artificial Horizon...
Lower right is an instrument/light test button that works, lower console is a Upper/Lower (rotor) bearings Temperature readout, and ERS System Status Display (The ERS is a UAVOS’ Drone Parachute System, but currently non-operable, but maybe added in later as a future feature)
Lower is a Radio/Communications panel... Centre Console has a switch panel for External lights (Land/Nav), Fans and Power/Standby/Clutch switches. Bottom is a clever Transponder, turn the outer manipulator for the first two digits, then the inner manipulator for the last two digits... easy. far, far bottom is the FAN switches.
On the roof are two panels... left is the circuit breaker/fuse panel (non-working), right the MASTER start switch, Strobe (tail) light and A/B Busses, Start relay cover switch is up here as well.
Top Instrument panel is a AviTab (plugin required) tablet, you press the area on the top of the glareshield to make it appear. It's quite large, good for reading, but helicopters are all about visual references, so it can be a bit of a distraction being so big if in restricted areas.
External lighting is all very basic. A single white strobe light tail, and side Red/Green Navigation lights, there are two LED landing lights in the nose.
Finally there is a really well dressed young pilot, with trendy torn jeans flying the HC-02. He has great arm and leg movements to the control changes, but no head movements, but he does look great.
_________________
Flying the Hungarocopter HC-02
First recommended with the HC-02 is to adjust the "Flight models per frame rate", usually to three or four models per frame. This will help out with fluctuations of the flight dynamics model, usually resulting in 'jumps' of the aircraft. The settings can be found on the X-Plane/Menu/General page. It generally makes the HC-02 easier to fly.
As the HC-02 is not a gas-turbine sort of machine, but basically just a normal Four-stroke piston engine. It is as easy to start as a car engine... Power on, fuel pumps on... adjust the throttle to mid-turn, then turn the overhead switch to START.
The whine comes from below, then the rotors take, wait until you are at 100%. And your ready to fly! You will hold the 100% unless you go back into a "Low Idle", then it drops down into 70% yellow zone. Basically the output is automatically governed at the high output, usually 105%, no matter what mixture setting you have, or be set within the green zone. Full throttle is of course required to takeoff.
This is an "UltraLight", so it is very ULTRALIGHT. This means with the full power setting the aircraft will jiggle, feel nervous, so control inputs are minuscule small. You will have a nervous tail as well, so a lot of left foot is needed to correct the yaw thrust.
The drive system incorporates a clutch system that allows the engine to start without load, as well as a freewheel that allows autorotation (free rotation of the main rotor) regardless of the operation of the engine or transmission system.
First slightly airborne, I went first drifting right sideways, but the tail under control. With a slight counter on the cyclic, and I was nicely hovering in one spot, and I could easily hold it there. It is not recommended to put the nose down and increase the collective and to do a usual move away from the low hover position. Basically here you will need a bit more height to do that.
I increased the collective and held the hover, but a bit too much as I climbed straight up high to 300 ft. Now I can do the standard 5º nose down to move forward.
Finding the correct pitch to move forward is important, too little and you will simply climb (and climb), too much and you lose nose down altitude very quickly, the line between them is extremely fine. You need to find it, and quickly, in finding a balance of a forward cyclic and collective position, then you will gather speed in a forward motion without gaining (or losing) height.
You can see why you can't do this forward manoeuvre close to ground until you are more skilled with the HC-02, as you will mostly crash, or simply lose control. As you have to feed in your skills as you get more confident in the way the machine behaves, with plenty of space (mostly to the ground) to find the centre of the machine. This aspect is also explained in the well conceived POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook)
"A pushover (forward cyclic maneuver) performed from level flight or following a pull-up causes a low-G (near weightless) condition which can result in catastrophic loss of lateral control. To eliminate a low-G condition, immediately apply gentle aft cyclic. Should a right roll commence during a low-G condition, apply gentle aft cyclic to reload rotor before applying lateral cyclic to stop the roll."
Once you get there it is then a simple fingertip touch to go forward, or sideways. With both doors installed, a solo pilot weight of 70 kg
or greater will ensure the CG is within limits, or that the aircraft (in being so light) can be balanced.
In the air there is a lot of movement around the aircraft. The spinning Rotax is highly visible, as are lovely twin-red cooling fans under fuselage, underside detail is simply excellent.
There are no helpers obviously, no SAS (Stability Augmentation System)... just the right trim and balance to fly the aircraft.
But then the HC-02 is sweet to fly...
Up to 3000 feet density altitude speed (vne) is 100 KIAS, doors off you are restricted to only 70 KIAS. I found that the average speed was around 60-70 KIAS, that is if you can get to that speed, as it take ages to build up momentum depending on the right nose pitch.
View reminds me a little of an underwater sub, the forward windows look like portholes, but the sides are not, and the view to your side is excellent.
You fly sort of head down. As you want to have the top of the instrument panel with the Altitude/Speed/Baro instrument and the Artificial Horizon visible, and in this position it does restrict your forward view, but you will fly mostly by these two instruments.
Lighting and sound are standard, even basic. Internally there is only the instrument lighting, externally the Landing lights, nav and tail strobe lights. An annoyance is that the strobe flashes in the cabin, on the window frame.
Sounds are very good, but nothing special in spatial awareness, it sounds and flies like a Rotax, and you can feel and hear the four-stroke working hard, the blades are very refined, and there is no blade-slap, no matter how hard you try to make it appear.
What works against you in taking off, works for you in landing. Lift the nose and the speed drops off very quickly, but to go lower, you need to push the nose down low. Get the two actions right with collective (power) control and you can drop and slow down at the same time.
Effective Translational Lift (ETL) is almost non-existent, you feel the transition, but the dropping of the speed goes smoothly into the lower forward speed, yes the collective is very fine here and it needs a little skill, but otherwise it is very easy in the approach and hover phases.
You can't get too complacent, this is still a very, very lite spidery machine. Getting closer to the ground and you have to be so smoooth, with fine touches on the controls, and the rudder yaw. But as you are now more in tune with the aircraft's dynamics, you can feel it better and control the HC-02 with more experience, no doubt the pro's will throw this one around the sky, but for the rest of us it is still a bit of a learning curve.
I'm down and back at base... and to do the full circuit was an achievement, but fun as well in the Hungarocopter!
Anything I want to add. Yes I would like more EFIS NESIS III pages in "Classic" (flight instruments) and "Navigation" (MAP) screen, I think it would add in a lot more to the aircraft instrumentation, and even maybe a spotlight on the skids. There are no extras or even liveries with the vSkyLabs HC-02.
Summary
Created and built by Zoltán Juhász in Hungary, the commercial HC-02 Hungarocopter, is a twin-seater Ultra light machine powered by a Rotax 915 IS Four-stroke piston, air cooled engine. Evolutionary from the earlier experimental HC-01, it incorporates many of the earlier machines innovative features. And all relevant technical and other information of the Hungarocopter HC-02 from the actual company was used in designing the HC-02.
Most users are well aware of the vSkyLabs philosophy, in that you are purchasing an ongoing project, so any aircraft you purchase is not fully completed or is usually not completed to 100%. There are also no menus, or external features on the aircraft, and any changes are usually via hopspots.
Design and modeling is always one of vSkyLab's most strongest attributes, plus add in an almost perfect set of flying dynamics, makes any aircraft highly realistic to the real aircraft from this highly experienced developer. Systems are excellent with a lot of realistic detail of the state-of-the-art EFIS NESIS III, a navigation, flight and engine system for ultralight aircraft and helicopters. Sadly it does not have the Classic" (flight instruments) and "Navigation" (MAP) screen options. But all the systems and aircraft specifications are very well covered in the supplied POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook), that also comes with checklists.
These very lightweight machines can be very tricky to fly. But the HC-02 has a lot of interesting attributes that will keep both the Professional and novice pilot's happy. As once mastered it is a fun machine to learn and use without too many of the usual distractions. It is totally VR - Virtual Reality certified as well, always a good thing with Helicopters.
The aircraft is X-Plane 12 only, so no X-Plane 11 will be available. But this is another great and interesting helicopter that has a lot of interesting innovations to fly... It's a lot of fun as well, as well as in being an ongoing project.
Designed by VSKYLABS
Support forum for the HC-02
___________________________
Yes! - the Hungarocopter HC-02 by vSkyLabs is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Hungarocopter HC-02
Price is US$29.95
On sale: $29.95 US$14.97... You Save:$15.00(50%)
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for X-Plane 11) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.0 (October 6th 2023) _____________ Installation and documents: download for the HC-02 is 209Mb and the aircraft is deposited in the "Helicopter" X-Plane folder.
Full Installation is 372MB
AviTab Plugin is required for this aircraft
Documents supplied are:
How to INSTALL your VSKYLABS aircraft.pdf How to UPDATE your VSKYLABS aircraft.pdf VSKYLABS HC-02 POH.pdf VSL HC-02 Essentials.pdf
Four documents cover setup, configurations and the general options on the aircraft available, excellent supplied POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook), that also comes with checklists.
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.07r1 (This is a release candidate review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- Airport Marseille XP by Aerosoft - (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.99
___________________________
News by Stephen Dutton
10th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Busair in X-Plane 12 Roadmap v12.1.0
X-Plane 12 Roadmap v12.1.0
Laminar Research have issued a Roadmap on the immediate future of the X-Plane Simulator. And a very interesting Roadmap it is.
First is the price increase of X-Plane. The price of the Simulator will change from US$59.99 to US$79.99 with the introduction of a new numbering system starting with version v12.1.0... yes there is an extra digit in there, but in reality it is also a start of a new era in X-Plane version numbering, with more incremental releases for quicker (smaller) and more frequent changes to the simulator.
I have over the last few years asserted that X-Plane is simply too cheap, and it needed more resources to counter the growing size and complexity of the simulator. Now it looks like Laminar Research has come to the same conclusion. As the requirements of running a modern simulator have grown exponentially, increasing every year... three guys with laptops can't cover the requirements of modern systems and the software required to create a modern Simulator like it did a decade ago, and the development and run-out of X-Plane 12 has showed that the pressure was on and the old style system was now detrimental to the workings of the business. Unfortunately Microsoft's re-emergence back into Simulation with Flight Simulator, left Laminar sitting on it's laurels, the game changed, so you have to adapt and change with it, it is a welcome forward looking change.
v12.08
But first there is the last version release of the old current version... v12.08. X-Plane 12.0.8 is already in beta testing, and is expected to be released in the next week or two.
Flight Model
Top of the list is focusing on improving the flight model, and improvements to the way that X-Plane simulates engine performance. Jets, turboprops and reciprocating engines will now follow real-world test data more closely, and used data from Pratt & Whitney will bring the numbers closer to reality.
Landing Gear Physics
Yeah! Finally... I have found over the last few years that landing aircraft in X-Plane is like landing and taking off on ice, it is not at all realistic, to a point it is even putting me off enjoying the simulator to it's fullest extent, plus it's not at all realistic for reviews. In v12.08 there will be changes to the ground Inertia.
Wheel Inertia – which means smoother landings, winning! The wheels on the aircraft’s main gear will now reach the speed of the aircraft sooner after touchdown, resulting in less forward pitch/slam on the nose gear during rollout. Weld Modeling – this code controls each wheel’s transition between rolling and not-rolling. That sounds trivial but when you consider that it effects every transition from an aircraft being parked vs. not parked and low-speed taxi, it’s important to get it right! ABS Revisions – tweaks to the logic that the anti-lock breaking system in X-Plane uses to slow down the aircraft after landing without too much skrrt skrrtt skrrrtt.
Hallelujah for all that, and finally.
New Fuel Temperature Model
Did you know that jet airplanes actually use their fuel to cool their oil? That’s why they don’t have any visible oil coolers like your ol’ Cessna 172! The oil heats the fuel and the fuel dissipates its heat through the skin of the wing! So, in effect, jet airplanes use their wings as their radiators. This is now fully simulated in X-Plane 12. Check out the details in the fuel temperature in data output screen to see the effects in your favorite jet aircraft.
This has been debated in the forums? Fuel Oil Heat Exchangers (FOHE), are usually used where the oil is cooled while the fuel is heated? More details on this aspect is probably needed.
Projector Warping/Blending
The use of multiple projectors to display the world around you is the gold standard of display in flight simulation. There’s a catch though – when you point multiple projectors at a curved screen, the image from each projector looks wonky and distorted. We solve this by rearranging the pixels that X-Plane sends to the projector itself – yielding a visually correct image. Behind the scenes, this is powered by all sorts of trigonometry and calculations but the end user simply needs to align a grid pattern to their display and they’re good to go! This feature will be available with our X-Plane Professional licenses.
Networking and Ex-Visual Sync
…have both received a bunch of bug fixes to improve the experience when using X-Plane in setups that include multiple computers driving multiple monitors.
But also a good update and welcome news for those trying to blend together three or more displays in home-build systems, of which there has been a lot of noise or complaining since the introduction of X-Plane 12.
Graphics quality-of-life Bug Fixes
12.0.8 is firmly focused on the physics side of X-Plane, but the graphics team has also included two quick fixes to address pressing concerns:
- The most common is the “totally out of VRAM” crashes have been resolved
- Users should no longer experience a long pause when popping out windows
v12.1.0
A new version numbering system will probably bring in a reset of X-Plane 12... and the focus is all on graphics. My guess the release will be around the late November and early December, to have the Simulator better packaged for Christmas 23
Real Weather Improvement
No more square “Minecraft” cloud formations when Real Weather is enabled. A definite yes to that. Weather has improved enormously since the release of v12.06/7, but a lot of weird cloud formations are still visible, certainly at high altitudes.
Water opacity and Cloud Shadows on Water
I love the X-Plane water effects, but to be honest it's not at all totally realistic in it all being so very clear, great for tropical reflections, but not for the North Sea. So here will be a fix for that, plus real cloud shadows on the water to make the water even more visually appealing.
Better Bloom Lighting Effects
One area that needed more attention is "Bloom" lighting effects. Bloom is based on a real-world phenomenon that is causing bright lights to bleed over into darker areas when seen through a lens, causing fringes (or feathers) of light extending from the borders of bright areas in an image. Yes very nice and it make lighting more realistic.
RCAS (Robust Contrast Adaptative Sharpening)
Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) will help increase visual quality by enabling sharpening with optional upscaling to restore detail lost after TAA is applied, the result is softer, less aliased ground shadows.
MSAA Improvements
There has been a lot of noise around Multisample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA). In fact it is the one most complained about area of X-Plane 12. The dreaded "Jaggies", and yes they are really bad, worse are when combined with reflective water effects, and needs serious attention. Work arounds just don't work, many have turned MSAA off completely to try to get a better rendering. It works, but only from certain angles, then you get very bad large jaggies all over the objects. So fixes include..
- MSAA resolution so that is photometrically correct
- MSAA of alpha-cut textures
- Improved CPU Performance
And a new “modern collector” – the code that the sim uses to find all the scenery necessary to draw. We know that many users are now only CPU-bound in X-Plane and this is step one to improve their experience in the sim.
Looking further down the road (no pun intended) 2024
G1000 Avonics
In a few areas here X-Plane has been a bit lax and is need of some updates. One area is the default G1000 Avionics system, which is feeling it's age lately. All avionics in X-Plane will always be quite generic, that is a given considering the wide variety of aircraft they have to cover. But there are many areas that could be improved, and they are.
- New G1000 pages
- G1000 Synthetic Vision
Are what is required to bring the universal G1000 up to date, as it needs more depth and features.
Airliner-style weather radar
With better weather and forecasts in X-Plane 12, then you also need better (or more realistic) weather displays in the cockpit, this is coming, and not before time.
Plugin-created glass avionics
To allow more 3rd party avionics into the Simulator, so a plug and fly system would make your instrument panel more realistic and better avionics accessible.
Graphics
Graphics are still going to get a lot of attention ongoing down the road
- Depth of Field effects (for pretty pictures)
- CACAO (Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion) fixes (small SSAO update)
- New Particle Effects, like sparks from engines/fuselages touching the ground at speed
- (better) Ground spray from wheels/engines
- Helicopter Brown-Outs/White-Outs (if helicopter flying wasn't hard enough), but this is a returning feature, not used for a few years.
- Virtualized VRAM – using the virtual memory capabilities of modern graphics cards, we can pack VRAM more tightly, waste less VRAM and not have to move things around like a number puzzle. This should result in sharper textures and less likelihood of out-of-VRAM crashes.
Lighting Model
Lighting has slowly being getting better, but it still has a long way to go. I made my thoughts quite clear on the problems of the lighting in X-Plane 12 in my Sept 2023 Behind the Screen Edition. Lighting changes or adjustments coming next year will include...
- Light Level Tuning
- Sky Exposure Recalibration
- Clouds Affect Haze and Sky
- Local Rain and Fog Affects Visibility
- Foggy Lights
- Fix Dark Cockpits
Networking
Networking is one of the huge growth areas of X-Plane, so you will see far more attention and features in this specialised area as the Simulator proceeds though the X-Plane 12 version. Focus on intergration and online gaming will see you immersed in a more 3d world.
- Multiplayer Bug Fixes
- Improved synchronization between external visuals monitors – ground trucks, etc.
Missing?
VR... a lot of users want VR or Virtual Reality to have more attention from Laminar Research. My guess is there will be attention on VR during this Roadmap.
The last published Roadmap from Laminar came out in May 2023. It covered versions 12.05, 12.06, and 12.07, and that development road has now been completed. This new Roadmap with the new version numbering change will take you to about Easter 2024, if successful it will deliver significant and finally the required fine-tuning aspect the X-Plane 12 version the Simulator requires. For once it covers a lot of areas I have fussed over and covers complaints in the forums, if Laminar delivers, then it will be a very good advancement of the Simulator. But it is also a big list to cover, far bigger than the earlier May 2023 Roadmap. Laminar did do it... but only just.
X-Plane 12 Minimum Requirements
CPU: Intel Core i3, i5, i7, or i9 CPU with 4 or more cores, or AMD Ryzen 3, 5, 7 or 9. (Those with other CPUs should try the demo before purchasing.) Memory: 8 GB RAM Video Card: a Vulkan 1.3-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 2 GB VRAM If your system is borderline, we encourage you to try the demo first. The full version of the simulator will perform exactly the same as the demo—neither better nor worse. X-Plane 12 Recommended Requirements
CPU: Intel Core i5 8600k or Ryzen 5 3500 or better, or Apple Silicon Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better, or similar from AMD) Supported Video Cards:
NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce 900 or newer, driver version 510 or newer AMD: AMD Radeon RX 500 or newer, driver version Adrenaline 22.2.1or newer Supported Operating Systems:
OS X: OS X 10.15 or newer (e.g. Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey) Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit Linux: Varies If you want to run on Linux, you will need to try X-Plane on your distribution to see if it is compatible. We have developers using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and newer successfully, however we don’t provide support for specific distributions. We require the proprietary driver from NVIDIA to run X-Plane. We require the Mesa drivers, version 22.0 or newer, for AMD to run X-Plane.
Roadmap announcement is here: Coming in X-Plane 12.0.8 and beyond – Roadmap Update
Download the free demo of X-Plane 12 and experience all of these improvements for yourself.
_____________________
X-Plane 12 is purchased directly from Laminar Research for currently US$59.95 and the download file size is 82 GB
X-Plane 12
Price is US$59.95, soon to be US$79.99
_____________________
X-Plane 12 Roadmap overview by Stephen Dutton
4th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
-
Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in X-Plane 12 Roadmap v12.1.0
X-Plane 12 Roadmap v12.1.0
Laminar Research have issued a Roadmap on the immediate future of the X-Plane Simulator. And a very interesting Roadmap it is.
First is the price increase of X-Plane. The price of the Simulator will change from US$59.99 to US$79.99 with the introduction of a new numbering system starting with version v12.1.0... yes there is an extra digit in there, but in reality it is also a start of a new era in X-Plane version numbering, with more incremental releases for quicker (smaller) and more frequent changes to the simulator.
I have over the last few years asserted that X-Plane is simply too cheap, and it needed more resources to counter the growing size and complexity of the simulator. Now it looks like Laminar Research has come to the same conclusion. As the requirements of running a modern simulator have grown exponentially, increasing every year... three guys with laptops can't cover the requirements of modern systems and the software required to create a modern Simulator like it did a decade ago, and the development and run-out of X-Plane 12 has showed that the pressure was on and the old style system was now detrimental to the workings of the business. Unfortunately Microsoft's re-emergence back into Simulation with Flight Simulator, left Laminar sitting on it's laurels, the game changed, so you have to adapt and change with it, it is a welcome forward looking change.
v12.08
But first there is the last version release of the old current version... v12.08. X-Plane 12.0.8 is already in beta testing, and is expected to be released in the next week or two.
Flight Model
Top of the list is focusing on improving the flight model, and improvements to the way that X-Plane simulates engine performance. Jets, turboprops and reciprocating engines will now follow real-world test data more closely, and used data from Pratt & Whitney will bring the numbers closer to reality.
Landing Gear Physics
Yeah! Finally... I have found over the last few years that landing aircraft in X-Plane is like landing and taking off on ice, it is not at all realistic, to a point it is even putting me off enjoying the simulator to it's fullest extent, plus it's not at all realistic for reviews. In v12.08 there will be changes to the ground Inertia.
Wheel Inertia – which means smoother landings, winning! The wheels on the aircraft’s main gear will now reach the speed of the aircraft sooner after touchdown, resulting in less forward pitch/slam on the nose gear during rollout. Weld Modeling – this code controls each wheel’s transition between rolling and not-rolling. That sounds trivial but when you consider that it effects every transition from an aircraft being parked vs. not parked and low-speed taxi, it’s important to get it right! ABS Revisions – tweaks to the logic that the anti-lock breaking system in X-Plane uses to slow down the aircraft after landing without too much skrrt skrrtt skrrrtt.
Hallelujah for all that, and finally.
New Fuel Temperature Model
Did you know that jet airplanes actually use their fuel to cool their oil? That’s why they don’t have any visible oil coolers like your ol’ Cessna 172! The oil heats the fuel and the fuel dissipates its heat through the skin of the wing! So, in effect, jet airplanes use their wings as their radiators. This is now fully simulated in X-Plane 12. Check out the details in the fuel temperature in data output screen to see the effects in your favorite jet aircraft.
This has been debated in the forums? Fuel Oil Heat Exchangers (FOHE), are usually used where the oil is cooled while the fuel is heated? More details on this aspect is probably needed.
Projector Warping/Blending
The use of multiple projectors to display the world around you is the gold standard of display in flight simulation. There’s a catch though – when you point multiple projectors at a curved screen, the image from each projector looks wonky and distorted. We solve this by rearranging the pixels that X-Plane sends to the projector itself – yielding a visually correct image. Behind the scenes, this is powered by all sorts of trigonometry and calculations but the end user simply needs to align a grid pattern to their display and they’re good to go! This feature will be available with our X-Plane Professional licenses.
Networking and Ex-Visual Sync
…have both received a bunch of bug fixes to improve the experience when using X-Plane in setups that include multiple computers driving multiple monitors.
But also a good update and welcome news for those trying to blend together three or more displays in home-build systems, of which there has been a lot of noise or complaining since the introduction of X-Plane 12.
Graphics quality-of-life Bug Fixes
12.0.8 is firmly focused on the physics side of X-Plane, but the graphics team has also included two quick fixes to address pressing concerns:
- The most common is the “totally out of VRAM” crashes have been resolved
- Users should no longer experience a long pause when popping out windows
v12.1.0
A new version numbering system will probably bring in a reset of X-Plane 12... and the focus is all on graphics. My guess the release will be around the late November and early December, to have the Simulator better packaged for Christmas 23
Real Weather Improvement
No more square “Minecraft” cloud formations when Real Weather is enabled. A definite yes to that. Weather has improved enormously since the release of v12.06/7, but a lot of weird cloud formations are still visible, certainly at high altitudes.
Water opacity and Cloud Shadows on Water
I love the X-Plane water effects, but to be honest it's not at all totally realistic in it all being so very clear, great for tropical reflections, but not for the North Sea. So here will be a fix for that, plus real cloud shadows on the water to make the water even more visually appealing.
Better Bloom Lighting Effects
One area that needed more attention is "Bloom" lighting effects. Bloom is based on a real-world phenomenon that is causing bright lights to bleed over into darker areas when seen through a lens, causing fringes (or feathers) of light extending from the borders of bright areas in an image. Yes very nice and it make lighting more realistic.
RCAS (Robust Contrast Adaptative Sharpening)
Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) will help increase visual quality by enabling sharpening with optional upscaling to restore detail lost after TAA is applied, the result is softer, less aliased ground shadows.
MSAA Improvements
There has been a lot of noise around Multisample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA). In fact it is the one most complained about area of X-Plane 12. The dreaded "Jaggies", and yes they are really bad, worse are when combined with reflective water effects, and needs serious attention. Work arounds just don't work, many have turned MSAA off completely to try to get a better rendering. It works, but only from certain angles, then you get very bad large jaggies all over the objects. So fixes include..
- MSAA resolution so that is photometrically correct
- MSAA of alpha-cut textures
- Improved CPU Performance
And a new “modern collector” – the code that the sim uses to find all the scenery necessary to draw. We know that many users are now only CPU-bound in X-Plane and this is step one to improve their experience in the sim.
Looking further down the road (no pun intended) 2024
G1000 Avonics
In a few areas here X-Plane has been a bit lax and is need of some updates. One area is the default G1000 Avionics system, which is feeling it's age lately. All avionics in X-Plane will always be quite generic, that is a given considering the wide variety of aircraft they have to cover. But there are many areas that could be improved, and they are.
- New G1000 pages
- G1000 Synthetic Vision
Are what is required to bring the universal G1000 up to date, as it needs more depth and features.
Airliner-style weather radar
With better weather and forecasts in X-Plane 12, then you also need better (or more realistic) weather displays in the cockpit, this is coming, and not before time.
Plugin-created glass avionics
To allow more 3rd party avionics into the Simulator, so a plug and fly system would make your instrument panel more realistic and better avionics accessible.
Graphics
Graphics are still going to get a lot of attention ongoing down the road
- Depth of Field effects (for pretty pictures)
- CACAO (Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion) fixes (small SSAO update)
- New Particle Effects, like sparks from engines/fuselages touching the ground at speed
- (better) Ground spray from wheels/engines
- Helicopter Brown-Outs/White-Outs (if helicopter flying wasn't hard enough), but this is a returning feature, not used for a few years.
- Virtualized VRAM – using the virtual memory capabilities of modern graphics cards, we can pack VRAM more tightly, waste less VRAM and not have to move things around like a number puzzle. This should result in sharper textures and less likelihood of out-of-VRAM crashes.
Lighting Model
Lighting has slowly being getting better, but it still has a long way to go. I made my thoughts quite clear on the problems of the lighting in X-Plane 12 in my Sept 2023 Behind the Screen Edition. Lighting changes or adjustments coming next year will include...
- Light Level Tuning
- Sky Exposure Recalibration
- Clouds Affect Haze and Sky
- Local Rain and Fog Affects Visibility
- Foggy Lights
- Fix Dark Cockpits
Networking
Networking is one of the huge growth areas of X-Plane, so you will see far more attention and features in this specialised area as the Simulator proceeds though the X-Plane 12 version. Focus on intergration and online gaming will see you immersed in a more 3d world.
- Multiplayer Bug Fixes
- Improved synchronization between external visuals monitors – ground trucks, etc.
Missing?
VR... a lot of users want VR or Virtual Reality to have more attention from Laminar Research. My guess is there will be attention on VR during this Roadmap.
The last published Roadmap from Laminar came out in May 2023. It covered versions 12.05, 12.06, and 12.07, and that development road has now been completed. This new Roadmap with the new version numbering change will take you to about Easter 2024, if successful it will deliver significant and finally the required fine-tuning aspect the X-Plane 12 version the Simulator requires. For once it covers a lot of areas I have fussed over and covers complaints in the forums, if Laminar delivers, then it will be a very good advancement of the Simulator. But it is also a big list to cover, far bigger than the earlier May 2023 Roadmap. Laminar did do it... but only just.
X-Plane 12 Minimum Requirements
CPU: Intel Core i3, i5, i7, or i9 CPU with 4 or more cores, or AMD Ryzen 3, 5, 7 or 9. (Those with other CPUs should try the demo before purchasing.) Memory: 8 GB RAM Video Card: a Vulkan 1.3-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 2 GB VRAM If your system is borderline, we encourage you to try the demo first. The full version of the simulator will perform exactly the same as the demo—neither better nor worse. X-Plane 12 Recommended Requirements
CPU: Intel Core i5 8600k or Ryzen 5 3500 or better, or Apple Silicon Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better, or similar from AMD) Supported Video Cards:
NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce 900 or newer, driver version 510 or newer AMD: AMD Radeon RX 500 or newer, driver version Adrenaline 22.2.1or newer Supported Operating Systems:
OS X: OS X 10.15 or newer (e.g. Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey) Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit Linux: Varies If you want to run on Linux, you will need to try X-Plane on your distribution to see if it is compatible. We have developers using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and newer successfully, however we don’t provide support for specific distributions. We require the proprietary driver from NVIDIA to run X-Plane. We require the Mesa drivers, version 22.0 or newer, for AMD to run X-Plane.
Roadmap announcement is here: Coming in X-Plane 12.0.8 and beyond – Roadmap Update
Download the free demo of X-Plane 12 and experience all of these improvements for yourself.
_____________________
X-Plane 12 is purchased directly from Laminar Research for currently US$59.95 and the download file size is 82 GB
X-Plane 12
Price is US$59.95, soon to be US$79.99
_____________________
X-Plane 12 Roadmap overview by Stephen Dutton
4th October 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
-
Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Behind the Screen : September 2023
Behind the Screen : September 2023
The one thing I'm not is in being a negative person. I always see the light, even beyond the darkness. But I understand and accept that for the first half of 2023, my outlook has been continually dismal towards X-Plane and Laminar Research.
I expected a lot of 2023, I had cleared my system totally out and ready for the 2023 year, but the first two weeks of January, it set a precedent for the year. A major hardware restriction, as my extremely good and loyal graphic card was suddenly now not being powerful enough to run X-Plane 12, in causing "Vulkan device loss" errors, and it was an expensive upgrade to fix. I'm not going to go on about this, but in reality the impact highlighted Laminar's non-communication of what X-Plane 12's requirements really were. Yes they put out as they usually do the minimum requirements for the new version's specifications. But looking back from this point of the now current relative stable running conditions, in reality the specs were way out.
Lets not get too excited on that X-Plane 12 could or should of stayed the same performance wise. Every simulator update has classically required upgrades to your hardware to run the more feature loaded new version, certainly were weather or effects are concerned or to the more processor power that is always required, it is a given.
I knew in early 2022 that X-Plane 12 would need or require a more powerful computer, or better hardware performance and invested as such into the system, with a new Asus motherboard and expensive (for then) new Intel 2th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K chips. These choices were in context with information that Laminar at the time were noting that a lot of the processing currently being done on the graphic card would be moved or shifted over to the processors to take the pressure loading off the graphic cards, and to put more power into the more modern and efficient multi-threaded processing chips, in other words, to even out the overall processing to be more balanced than just weighted heavily on graphic cards, plus the faster processing on the chips meant more systems were accessible to X-Plane 12. In X-Plane 11's later years you almost needed a separate computer with a mega graphic card and a factory sized cooling system installed just to run the simulator in full settings mode. The idea that X-Plane 12 could be a more efficient simulator by taking and using the newer Vulkan/Metal API capabilities, and then using them to their full potential was very encouraging, if even a help on the wallet costs.
In July last year just weeks away from release, the Laminar conversation mood then suddenly changed (or flipped back), as powerful Graphic cards were noted as being still needed for the heavy processing with the new simulator version. More oddly with the beta "Early Access", I had absolutely no issues or restrictions of computer power in running the early beta versions of X-Plane 12 on my old card, as everything ran like an effortless bird in flight.
But with the X-Plane 12 formal release in mid-December on 17th December 2022, which I missed with the Christmas/New Year break, when I had returned in early January the updated X-Plane 12 release it just didn't feel right, the computer was sluggish, weather was horrible, winds were off the scale. My theory (mine alone) was in trying to get more framerate to satisfy the complainers, Laminar had pushed the boundaries too far. I went from framerates (with my old graphic card) of 35 fr, suddenly they were down to a lineball 20 fr, with no menu graphic changes, the computer started slurring, then the inevitable "Vulkan device loss" errors started popping up, in that I had never had them even once before the X-Plane 12 official release. Did I burn my graphic card out? a good question, but X-Plane 11 at the time still ran perfectly and well under the limits and exactly like it had before the X-Plane 12 release on the same card and settings.
To run a review site, I had no choice but to upgrade my graphic card to meet the higher requirements of X-plane 12, in other words I had to do a complete system upgrade to cater for the new Simulator version, my point is I was always middle field before on system requirements, but suddenly I was at minimum requirements with no headroom. The hardware changes were worth certainly worth the effort, but my unexpected bank balance was also seriously feeling the pain.
Another element in the weather was also then causing pain. High winds proved you couldn't fly normally at altitude. Aircraft compensated via flickering aerodynamic surfaces, so in flights you were bounced around for two or so hours at a time, and it all looked very unrealistic. Worse was that you couldn't dial it out, and reviewing aircraft like in this state was absolutely useless.
Switching to a manual weather mode caused the high irregular winds to still stick around at ground level, so you were faced sometimes with offset 35 knot winds on side when in trying to land. If you could lock in a calm day, you took it, then used it for many a review until it failed again, but that was unrealistic as well... then you lost the weather altogether when the "GRIB_get_field failed", in other words the NOAA or "NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution System", shutdown, mostly on public holidays where simulations loads were at their highest usage. Lately in the Development blog, Ben Supnic has finally noted that NOAA is a unreliable source and a secondary backup source is being created to cover the breaks in the service, which should have been noted and implemented well before X-Plane 12 was released.
But overall my biggest struggle in X-Plane 12 has been the lighting, or the complete lack of it? X-Plane 12 is dark, very dark to work with. We are and I have noted often here the issues with "Dark Cockpits", and the later fix of lighting up the view lower instrument panel to compensate. But it goes far deeper than that.
My problem are the images coming out of X-Plane 12 to create reviews. All X-Plane images from time immortal are darker coming out of the simulator via the screenshot function, usually an 10% brightness is required to adjust them back to normal. But X-Plane 12 is requiring 30% and + more brightness to make them look even credible, that sort of brightness obviously blows out the other light, say the windscreen light when looking at a dark cockpit. It doesn't look natural, and a lot of the adjusted images get a washed out black and white look, even normal flying creates a whited out windscreen, to which I have been using the Sunglasses feature lately to tone it down a little.
Worse darkness was created by the light in not shining between the clouds, in other words everything was dull, except for using an absolute clear sky, which is again unrealistic, and the aircraft and even scenery were all very dull in view, and you couldn't get any life into the modeling or show off the detail.
Thranda Aircraft react the worse to this effect. Their excellent industrial process creates an effect that reacts to the look of the object in the simulator, “Diffuse Light”, “Diffusion”, “Subsurface Scattering” are all aspects of Physically-based rendering or PBR, but here it totally works against you. Creating black holes of nothing with no detail, and you can't dial it out either. I know I have tried.
Most users would note to change the settings (in my case) Nvida graphic settings... but that is not the way it works. Yes you can adjust the graphic settings to create the perfect image on your monitor, but those graphic settings don't actually affect the simulator, it still takes the same (darker) images no matter what it looks like on your monitor, and the internal simulator lighting is only affected by your weather, season and time settings, except for a totally clear sky.
In the old days in X-Plane you could actually adjust the simulator brightness via the graphic sliders (gamma), but that option was taken away years ago, adjusting the Ambient Occlusion Quality to zero will reduce shadows, but will still not give you light into the simulator, so basically you hands are tied because the images screenshot is taken at the basic level of the simulator. There are visual tricks you can use to create light on an object (or aircraft model), a lot work, but doing all these adjustments per image for doing a review is time-consuming and not very work-flow friendly, so I have seriously struggled for the first six months of the year with all these complications... in other words, I wasn't a "Happy Bunny".
Which brings us to the v12.06 release. First of all, don't think I don't like the X-Plane 12 lighting engine, because it is really good, excellent in fact. Images coming out of X-Plane 12 have a realism we only dreamed of only a few years ago, it looks and it is sensationally gorgeous. The lighting engine creates a reality of real presence in the aircraft and it's place in the world, this is a simulator, but the changes to your artificial environment here is quite spectacular, in other words, when it works it really does "blow you away", and big time. It makes X-Plane 12 a real serious contender as a great realistic simulator.
It dragged on, but the (very) late v12.06/7 release has fixed a lot of the woes. Mostly the fix to the top level (Cirrus) clouds were a godsend, because they finally let the light flow (filter?) down to the lower levels, plus the light also flows on now between the clouds and thankfully lighting up the aircraft (model) below... it's not perfect yet, as you can still be greyed out even with a clear sky, but overall the lighting model does finally work. With the better reflective light, it now gives you more options in the cockpit to get the images you want, again it is not perfect, but the lighting is far, far better than we had six months ago, even two months ago.
My initial reaction that the gains of X-Plane v12.06/7 would not last long (which shows my faith in Laminar), but to be told, six weeks after it is still shining nicely, and the test flights taken in between have been excellent, now I'm finally a "Happy Bunny", even a smooth simulation from "block to block" is now actually available in the Simulator, and with no damaging inbetween CTD's (Crash to Desktops).
But it's been a very long road to get here, almost twelve months after the initial release of X-Plane 12beta and eight months after even the official release of X-Plane 12. So is that aspect still too long to get to a reliable running simulation. Yes you expect changes and "bumps in the road" with any beta process, and yes as noted any Simulator is a consistent work in progress, I get that, lived that aspect for a decade or so. But nine months after an official release to get a relatively stable flying platform is just simply too long, not fixed, and only now are Laminar Research looking at the refining stage and fixing things that should have been done months ago.
It's great to have a stable simulator running up to Christmas, the promise now completed. ADD-ons in Aircraft and Scenery can now be completed and released in time for the holiday season, all can be enjoyed without another massive change coming along, although the Dev Blog notes... "flight-model and systems, plus external-visual networking and some ATC features"... flight-model changes? again? what to do if your a developer, sit it out or release and react, dumb... these areas, like the lighting, weather and everything else, should have been stable from the version release point, or nine months ago? Good news is that Ben Supnic is making pirate jokes again, always a good sign, as he has been missing lately for long periods of time, so has his humour, and that aspect shows everything was not all "Hunky Dory" behind the scenes either.
I'm not saying perfection, but you do require a stable base to build up on, the X-Plane simulator in X-Plane 12 form deserves that at least, everyone from users, to developers, and to everyone that supports the Simulator deserves that as well...
See you all next month
Stephen Dutton
2nd October 2023
Copyright©2023 X-Plane Reviews
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Scenery Review - Airport Marseille XP by Aerosoft
Scenery Review - Airport Marseille XP by Aerosoft
I've always had a strange relationship with Aerosoft Scenery. For one, on first glance they are in many ways quite basic sceneries, as you don't usually get a lot of frills with them... the really odd thing is on how much they have been used consistently over the years, even many from over a decade ago are still not to be beaten in quality and as a representation of the area. Notably a few are now showing the strain of only a few updates from Aerosoft, and so are struggling to be current in X-Plane 12. But don't take away the value here of an investment that has delivered for over a long period of time. That aspect is important, as you are getting a lot of value for your money.
So here is one of the very few releases lately from Aerosoft in Marseille XP for X-Plane 12, an airport that is positioned in Southern France. As usual with a lot of Aerosoft releases. It is that in reality Aerosoft is only the host for the developers that create the scenery. In this case it is the Swiss developers of FSS or FlightSim Studios, in collaboration with ShortFinal Design.
Marseille Provence Airport is an international airport located 27 km (17 miles) northwest of Marseille, on the territory of Marignane, both communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The airport's hinterland goes from Gap to Arles and from Toulon to Avignon.
Scenery Installation
Installation is via the "Aerosoft One" application. You get a serial number when you purchase the scenery, and then you register the product in the app, which then adds it to your collection to download and install the scenery directly into X-Plane 11 or X-Plane 12. Note here the position of the Serial/Product Key Number box (lower left), X-Plane version (11/12, top left) and the product to install.
The scenery is installed, not in your usual Custom Scenery Folder, but in a dedicated folder "Aerosoft One Library" on your system, under a file (gameDirectory) via a shortcut, Install size is 2.72Gb.
Marseille Provence Airport
Aéroport Marseille-Provence
Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) Y-14
IATA: MRS - ICAO: LFML
13L/31R - 3,500m (11,483ft) Asphalt
13R/31L 2,370m (7,776ft) Asphalt
Elevation AMSL70 ft / 21 m
The airport's position is not set on a harbour, but on a lake, Étang de Berre. This was because in the early days of the 1920s and 1930s, Marseille-Marignane was one of France's main points of operation for flying boats. It even briefly served as a terminal for Pan American World Airways Clipper flying boats. Other flying boat operators were Aéropostale and Air Union, the latter moving over from Antibes in 1931.
I really love French and Italian airports because they build their terminals like monuments, you know you are either in France or Italy, just by the architecture sitting outside the aircraft's windows, and so it is at Marseille-Provence.
The original administration control tower complex has been added to with a new control taller tower built in front of the old. Sensational is the work here. I love the older elements of a legacy airport, blended in with the new, and you certainly get that here. The Terminal itself is an extension of the administration complex. The hosted added section behind the control tower is a visual focal point, its very well done and very realistic.
The interesting part, and certainly well conceived here by FSS, is the old terminal has had extensions built not only in the front, but also behind the old earlier terminal, and in so sandwiching the original building in the middle.
The main Terminal 1 is split between "Hall 1A" and Hall 1B"...
The design and detail of the main infrastructure is simply excellent, HUGE detail and all very well executed, glass is highly realistic as well.
Great as well are the Turrets design of the gates/airbridge, intricate front terminal modeling is also sensational... you can spend a lot of time exploring around these airside areas and feel like you are really there.
There has to be a trade-off, and so there is. Clutter airside is excellent, every bay is full of service vehicles, and there is a lot of animated vehicles running around as well.
Landside and carparks are also full of vehicles, but there are areas like in front of the terminals, and with the storied carparks that are empty of vehicles and landside clutter (i.e. bustop objects, signage, even the buses themselves).
SAM3 is used as the interaction between the aircraft and the animated airbridges, and the design of the animated airbridges is again excellent and authentic, with lovely SIXT car rental (french) branding. SAM vehicles/SAM follow is also available in the scenery.
With the expansion of LCC or Low Cost budget carriers, then Marseille-Provence opened in September 2006 a dedicated LCC terminal in MP2, or Terminal 2. Positioned northwest of the Tower/Terminal 1 complex, it is a simple walk-on/walk-off terminal with 8 stands. Nicely done and excellent for regional services.
Landside is dominated with long and short term carparks, which are nicely filled in and come with branded rental car areas, but there are still small open areas of just the underlying ortho-photo images, overall it works fine. A small note are the trees, they are the new X-Plane 12 3d trees, that move around in the wind, and in so adding quality to the scenery.
Cargo here is small with two heavy stands 60N -61N/62N and the rest small regional stands, dominated by DHL, Conair and UPS also have receiving warehouses. Along the lake and FedEx and TNT are also represented by their own facilites.
Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus, and they have to the southeast a massive Manufacturing and training complex at Marseille–Marignane (they still use the old name). It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries.
The complex is huge in size, even bigger in size than the commercial airport. All the building and plants are very well produced, but there isn't a lot of smaller clutter detail, even a few nice static helicopters of the huge but impressive flightline would be nice.
There has been an airport on this site since 1922 (they celebrated the 100 year anniversary last year). There are the few older elements to be found. But like the huge double hangars in the southwest, most of the older facilities have been upgraded, and are still used for helicopter training or testing.
Other infrastructure is well done to fill-in the far landside areas, but a lot is a slight delusion in using ortho-photo images to create a realistic scene og hotels and airport infrastructure, it works very effectively, but go low and the non-3d buildings show... overall it is not an issue.
Ground Textures
First a note.... On my earliest flight into LFML Marseille, I flew the ToLiSS Airbus A319. As you know you can create a route in Simbrief, then load it directly in the Airbus's MCDU. Problem was the loaded route was missing the LFML runway data, and you couldn't insert it either via the MCDU radio? My AIRAC data for both aircraft and airports are both up to the current date. The A319's system worked at other airports (routes) but not to Marseille. So it's an odd business. I was able however to land using the Runway 13L (110.30 ML) ILS by inputting the frequency directly into the main radio's on the console and I landed fine, in other aircraft it also worked fine on the same approaches? X-Plane is just plain weird sometimes.
The ground textures at LFML are bit bland, not bad, but not brilliant either with a slight flat sheen, tarmac (asphalt) edges are however very good, but there is no grass, which is odd for Aerosoft as it is their speciality
So all the areas in ramps and aprons come across as a bit flat and dull, very little, if any grunge or noticeable oil and rubber dirt isn't present either. Signage feels too large in scale, but it is correct to Google Earth, maybe it is because again it is too clean and not at all worn in or degraded.
The rocky seawall around the 13L threshold is very good, if you don't get in to close. Made up of photo images it looks the part, but odd when inspecting very intimately, overall the idea works. The X-Plane 12 water effect and the lake side feel is excellent here.
PBR reflective (wet) active textures and burnt-in ambient occlusion is excellent here, and actually transforms the bland textures in something of depth and realism, it brings out the surfaces far better than the dry feel and look, snow is possible here, but this is the south of France, and the cold and dry strong Mistral winds would usually keep the snow away.
Lighting
Aerosoft is not known for its excellent lighting in X-Plane, as mostly it is usually a Flight Simulator look and feel, it is the same here at Marseille. Approach lighting has to conform to ICAO standards, which it does here, as does the taxiway lights.
You have to be at full darkness before the lighting really kicks in, then the ramps are very workable. But Landside is very poor, the 1B Hall carparks are in full darkness with no lighting at all with the lights placed, in leading to the question if the area is not actually finished...
Terminals use an old idea of images behind the windows, it does look dated, but also effective, problem also it's not consistent, so there are many dark areas.
Cross field hangars are very FlightSim, meaning boring, and the Airbus Helicopter complex is building lighting only, and no fills. Other buildings have some lighting including down lights, but overall I would rate the lighting about a poor four, as it is just passable and all quite dull.
Navigation signage is good, bright but with no reflections... except if it is raining and the reflections then look brilliant.
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Summary
Even though most Aerosoft scenery is branded under the house name, in fact the product is usually created by a wide and varied developer studio, sometimes several in cooperation together. This release is Airport Marseille XP, for LFLM Marseille-Provence in the south of France by FSS or FlightSim Studios, is in collaboration with ShortFinal Design.
Generally all Aerosoft product has a familiar look and feel, modeling is usually highly detailed, but the smaller tighter detail is usually ignored, a lot of FlightSim elements in X-Plane are also used.
In short that sums up this Marseille Airport scenery from Aerosoft. The main Tower(s) complex and twin terminals are brilliantly conceived and designed, and it has great airside clutter and animated traffic, also added here is the massive Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter Group) the helicopter manufacturing division of the Airbus complex. Like said airside has loads, even tons of detail, but landside is not as complex or as finely detailed, granted it is still visually a filling viewpoint, with excellent carkparks, rental areas and buildings, but it also relies heavily on the underlay ortho-photo images to fill out the areas, creating blank areas Landside. SAM3 is well done and airbridges are SIXT branded with SAM vehicles/SAM follow also active. The scenery is well inserted into the X-Plane mesh environment and has a very good realistic element and feel.
Ground textures and lighting however are here all very average, but oddly the ground textures come really alive with the PBR and burnt-in ambient occlusion effects of X-Plane 12, the lighting however is old-fashioned and dull, even with most being classically aged FlightSim windows.
If you have invested a lot in Aerosoft sceneries, then you will know they deliver mostly were it counts. As a great representation of Marseille-Provence Airport is very good here, even excellent, as the scenery feels and looks very authentic, it will be a scenery that will be around and used for a longtime into the future (MRS has already seen and done a lot of services on my own network since it's release, which is a very good omen). So importantly the airport will fill in your collection very nicely if you like and use quality custom scenery, so that evaluates the excellent value here, and the LFML airport comes also with all the X-Plane 12 features and effects... sounds like a real winner to me.
__________________________
Yes! Airport Marseille XP by Aerosoft is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Airport Marseille XP
Price Is US$24.99
Requirements:
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11
Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 2.6 Gb (Using Aerosoft One) Current Version: 12 (June 23rd 2023) Installation
Installation of Menorca/Marseille XP is done through Aerosoft one installer:
Aerosoft One Universal After you have installed Aerosoft One, click on
ENTER PRODUCT KEY (under the Library Tab)
enter the Serial Number provided in this order. This will give you the option to download the airport. Note the different X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12 installations.
The Marseille scenery is downloaded into a dedicated folder "Aerosoft One Library" on your system, under a file (gameDirectory) via a shortcut, Install size is 2.72Gb.
Documents
There are no documents
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.07r1 (This is a Release Candidate review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
-No additions_
____________________________
Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton
28th September 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from FWIW in Aircraft Update : vSkylabs C-47 Skytrain v6.0b2 and DC-3 Airliner v2.0b2
Aircraft Update : vSkylabs C-47 Skytrain v6.0b2 and DC-3 Airliner v2.0b2
Midway though 2017. Established developer vSkylabs released a classic aircraft for the X-Plane Simulator in the form of the Douglas Commercial 3, or DC-3 as it affectionately became known. The earlier release was of the C-47 variant, or the military "Skytrain" version that won World War ll. Well the aircraft had a big part in winning the logistics side of the war. But in reality the main success of the C-47 was post-war with the huge surplus of these ex-military aircraft becoming an aviation legacy that will never be repeated.
The earlier vskylabs C-47/DC-3 aircraft was an analog design, but that all changed around Christmas 2022, when the aircraft was then divided into three separate variants... The original C-47 Skytrain, a new DC-3 Airliner and the forthcoming Tri-Turbo-Three, In context;
VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot': C-47B Skytrain: Highly defined C-47B simulation of the 30's-50's era; authentic WWII era cockpit, powered by PW1830-90C two speed supercharged engines, Astrodome, cargo loading, operational weights of the C-47's and more. Includes two variants - C-47B and XC-47C (float plane).
VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot': DC-3 Airliner: (this model) Highly defined DC-3 simulation, a modernized C-47A restoration, with modernized cockpit; 3-display G1000 cockpit, powered by PW1830-92 engines, passengers cabin configuration and loading system.
VSKYLABS 'Test-Pilot': Tri-Turbo-Three: (Available soon) Highly defined DC-3 turbo-conversion based and inspired by the Conroy Tri-Turbo-Three conversion.
The "DC-3 Airliner" split included a move to a glass Laminar Research default G1000 three display panel installation, which in my opinion is going away from the original philosophy of a pre-war designed aircraft. It is very good in this guise, but what if you still wanted the original "DAK". Well that is the original C-47B Skytrain variant, as the C-47B is a simulation of the 30's-50's era with an authentic WWII era cockpit, powered by PW1830-90C two speed supercharged engines, and the aircraft (unlike the DC-3 Airliner) is available for both X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12.
Both variants have now received updates a week apart, v6.0b2 for the C-47, and v2.0b2 for the DC-3 Airliner. There is a good 95% compatibility of the changes between the two aircraft, the other 5% is noted in separate changes to the Airliner variant in this update review.
The vSkylab philosophy is that you are purchasing an ongoing project, so any aircraft you purchase is not fully completed or is completed to 100%, that is the deal you sign up for to get access to the aircraft, and all the development is free and ongoing throughout the X-Plane 12 version. These projects are under constant development: the development road-map is including flight model refinements, enhanced systems depth, additional liveries and other improvements.
But first let us have a quick look at the two aircraft.
C-47 Skytrain
Over the years, the vSkylabs C-47 has evolved quite considerably since it's debut back in 2017, in fact not much of the internal design has survived. Some aspects I miss, like the very worn window surrounds, but overall the original design and great modeling has survived very much intact, that Dakota aspect is also still very strong. Bonuses currently is the much higher quality of the design with the changes and PBS effects, certainly now with X-Plane 12, were as the aircraft has a far more realistic feel to the eye. There are no menus with vSkylabs aircraft, so everything is accessed via "Hotspots", but they are cleverly done.
The cockpit is the antique look of the post-war era, but if you have checked out the earlier C-47, it is a huge and significant difference in detail and change. The X-Plane 12 infused lighting is also a huge bonus on the overall feel and look of the iconic cockpit.
The Sperry Type A-3A autopilot is thankfully still installed here, but added in is also a few mod-cons, like the S-Tec Fifty Five X autopilot, and the two Garmin GNS530 GPS units (they drop down mid-window)... another thankful retention from the original aircraft, which is the huge middle windscreen "bouncy wouncy" authentic whisky compass.
Although a significant improvement over the original release, the cabin is still pretty basic in design, it could do (or is due) with another overhaul to make it more authentic like what was done to the "Airliner" variant, or a cargo aspect would be nice.
DC-3 Airliner
Put side by side and there are some quite considerable differences between the two aircraft variants. Externally it is the same "Dak", but in the cockpit it feels and looks very different with the Laminar G1000 Avionics in place, the panels eyebrows are different as well. It's also a greeny-blue in here, more than the older darker green diamond blanket look of the post-war aircraft.
It is a taste thing, some will like the modern approach, a lot would probably like the earlier darker feel... the Laminar G1000 displays pop-out as well, but only one of each panel, for the PFD (Primary Flight Display) and the centre single MFD (Multi-Functional Display).
In other changes the two GNS 530 GPS units are gone and so is the large whiskey compass, to be replaced by a smaller (non-floating) version on the top of the instrument panel, another item is the massive window de-mist piping, once on the C-47 (as an option) but removed to the DC-3 variant, personally I didn't like it? as it significantly blocked a lot of the view out of the front windows.
Cabin has the different diamond padding and colour, and very realistic 3d passengers, very good they are as well. But the seats are actually the same as in the C-47. There is full review of the DC-3 Airliner release here; Aircraft Release : DC-3 Airliner by vSkyLabs
Updates v6.0b2 C-47, and v2.0b2 DC-3 Airliner
Common changes to both aircraft in these companion updates is with the New "Mixture and Carburetor" systems, here now replicating the C-47/DC-3 mixtures operation with better authenticity.
Mixture levers are now set in 'steps' with; (Idle-)Cutoff, Auto-Lean, Auto-Rich and Emergency positions. So the text is still there, but now not just for show... they actually work with the mixture lever setting.
Auto-lean and auto-rich are fully automatic modes, with separate control for each engine. To take advantage of the mixture lever settings, you have to set them to different axis modes... the Left-Engine mixture lever is set to the "Wing Sweep" axis, and the Right-Engine axis is set to the "Thrust Vector" axis... I set those settings here with the Saitek X-56 Throttle, I don't have extra levers on the add-on throttle, but only knobs, but it worked fine.
You do have another option, that is to lock both mixture levers together. Press the area side-plate, and the right mixture lever knob turns yellow to signify that the levers are now locked, to unlock just press the side-plate again. In this locked guise, the left lever controls both. So the "Thrust Vector" action will now move both levers together.
The lock set up however does also allow you to use both Saitek throttle levers, with the left "Throttle" setting, and the right "Mixture" setting, but you can't adjust both of the Throttles separately (you can't anyway) or the Mixture levers separately... of course any lever can be set manually, or to be used hands on. Personally I like my Throttles separate... the reason I found was the Dakota has a habit of drifting to the right over a longer distance, so a slight reduction of power on the right engine (or more power to the left engine) would keep you more on the heading.
The new fuel system in these updates now allows you full control of all four tanks, feeding into each engine in separately...
This is done by the cocks/valves each side of the pedestal, with each noting the L Main, R Main, L AUX, R AUX and OFF.
Shown here in the OFF and MAINs running, with L-R cocks opposite, all four tanks all are accessible, here with accessing the only the L-Tank, and R-AUX.
Reading any tank capacity is via a switch lower right Instrument Panel, which is totally authentic. Fixes in the update relate to the Fuel level indicator, which is now equipped with a shifting-plate, showing the designated tank in each mode, and the Fuel level indicator needle 3-d and animation has been changed to provide better a reading, and to be more accurate.
But currently when feeding each engine from the Aux tanks (from the same side or opposite sides), the Aux tank with the higher remaining fuel quantity will feed both engines, until both Aux tanks are equal. Then, both tanks will feed both engines. This is an (X-Plane) limitation and changes are coming (from Laminar Research) to rectify this restriction. Fuel capacity is - Main tank (front) each - 202 U.S. galls. Auxiliary tank (rear) each 200 U.S. galls. Total each side: 402 U.S. galls, with total 804 U.S. galls fuel capacity.
Carburetor air-intake heat controls now also work... Two levers top right pedestal controls the carburetor heating, for the left and right engines. The third (lock) lever is a dummy. Oddly it works back to front, forward is COLD, rearwards is HOT, or the rear selection brings the heated air from around the cylinder heads into the induction system to clear the ice, or for running in very cold temperatures.
Carb heat is shown far right centre Instrument Panel C-47, and lower dead centre Panel DC-3 Airliner.
What we are talking about here are authentic or realism in these operations. Yes a lot of aircraft have the same options, but these systems are created to be very authentic to the operation of the DC-3.
The huge pitch trim wheel has been totally redone, or re-modeled to be more authentic to the real one. I personally would like more dirt, wear and tear on the wheel, it is supposed to be over 80 years old, but it looks like it came out the spares store yesterday.
The cockpit PBR (Physically based rendering) and tone has been updated in both aircraft, bringing it up to X-Plane 12 specifications. We are now in X-Plane 12.06 and that comes with the better lighting adjustments, it shows in here as the detail now just jumps out at you... a far cry from the past vSkylabs cockpit environments. (note we are now actually in XP12.07r1, but it was in X-Plane 12.06 that the lighting adjustments were made).
It's a quirky machine to fly is the DC-3/C-47... It is always a good idea to do a quick look through the (very explainable manual) in what is what, and how all the quirks work.
Like the gear... as it is a two-operation, operation. You have to unlock (or lock) the gear up or down. This is done by the lever on the floor, before you can raise or lower the undercarriage.
You also have to check (via the large Hydraulic Pressure gauges) if the pressure is working for gear operation. If all fails there is a manual gear pump to do the action, it is set behind the cockpit.
There is also the two engine-driven pumps to operate the vacuum system. They provide air suction for the operation of the artificial horizon, directional gyros and turn indicator. Check suction indicator on automatic pilot instrument panel for vacuum indication of 3375" ti 4.25". Again very authentic to the post-war aircraft.
It's a tricky aircraft to fly as well. You use a lot of rudder movement on takeoff to keep control, mostly far worse are the exaggerated movements required once the tail lifts. In the air it is a lot to handle as well, but you will soon get the feel of this very big taildragger design.
Once you settle the "Dak", then it comes into it's own... but flights are usually long, because they are low and slow by modern, even regional propeller aircraft standards.
You get a Maximum speed of 200 kn (230 mph, 370 km/h) at 8,500 ft (2,590 m), a cruise speed around 180 kn (207 mph, 333 km/h). But the range is excellent at 1,370 nmi (1,580 mi, 2,540 km) (maximum fuel, 3500 lb payload), but you get there very slowly, the Service ceiling is 23,200 ft (7,100 m), or regional propeller driven aircraft altitude... climbing is with a Rate of climb: 1,130 ft/min (5.7 m/s), but usually around 1,000 ft/min.
The odd thing is I have had some really brilliant epic Journeys in this aircraft (maybe because they took so long), but thoroughly enjoyable. Maybe this is why I'm a little bit defensive on in there being too many changes away from the original concept of the DC-3.
The Sperry Type A-3A autopilot is something I love. So adding in the S-Tec is going against my grain. Saying that it works very well, the Sperry is also very tricky to use... If connected to the S-Tec then the heading is adjusted by the RUD (Rudder) knob and the upper compass drum, but tricky is the alignment of the heading as the lower compass drum is adjustable...
... so the lower compass drum needs to be aligned with the main whisky compass. You do this by pressing the centre of the lower adjustment knob, known as "Cageing" or Cage, and that will align the two compasses together. If the lower drum is out of alignment, it gets seriously confusing on where your heading actually is, or set.
If you want fly on the Sperry alone you still can. And the heading is adjusted manually by moving the AIL (Aileron) knob to bank the aircraft to the new heading and then adjusting it back again to keep the heading. In both adjustments the heading can still be very vague, but as noted... adjusting the throttles or power outputs on the engines can keep you on the heading a bit tighter.
Odds in the updates includes a better (or brighter) tail beacon, the landing/taxi lights also now have that X-Plane 12 flare look as well...
... DC-3 Airliner only changes include Fuel pumps sounds tuneups, which now have reduced intensity (sounds overall are excellent). Also the DG sync, and a manual sync is now possible with the use of the sync-knob.
Back at Keflavík BIKF, and I'm on approach. I'm not going to say the DC3 is an easy aircraft fly, because it isn't, even demanding. It takes skill to get it all right, and is a big challenge to your perspective. But that is also the attraction, the wanting to fly the aircraft again and again...
.... my advice is to get in there, stay in there and learn it thoroughly. The systems, the odd handing traits, and yes... even do a lot of practise. But when the aircraft comes to you, you'll be glad you did all the time and effort... it is an authentic all round experience.
Summary
vSkyLabs have updated their C-47 and DC-3 Airliner to versions v6.0b2 for the C-47, and v2.0b2 for the DC-3 Airliner. This is after the earlier three way split of the original 2017 release of the C47/DC3 into three different variants; C-47 Skytrain, DC-3 Airliner and the coming Tri-Turbo-Three.
The update covers about a good 95% compatibility of the changes between the two aircraft, the other 5% is noted in a separate change to the Airliner variant in this update review, these include different FMOD pump sounds and DG - Sync.
The main changes are with new mixtures, carburetor system algorithm and mixture control is now also fully differential. Fully automatic. Mixture levers have now working detents (steps) for 'cutoff', 'auto-lean', 'auto-rich', emergency, and all auto-modes are fully automatic. New fuel system now allows to feed each engine from any of the four tanks, and the Carburetor heat system and levers are now also operable. Both aircraft have a lot of attention on the PBR (Physically based rendering) and tone of the internal areas to make them ultra realistic.
It's sweet set of updates to an iconic aircraft. There is as noted a very authentic feel to these pre-war designed aircraft, with a few modern twists in the systems. My preference is still the analog C-47, it recreates the era, and has that Type A-3A autopilot as an added attraction. In X-plane 12, with it's more advances lighting, effects and features.... the original release C-47/DC-3 feels very far away now and the aircraft with it's current updates reflect that aspect.
Go low and slow for a long flight, and you will love the "Dak" in all it's post war glory... it's an excellent simulation of the most iconic aircraft in the world. Currently both the vSkylab's C-47/DC3 Airliners are 50% off in a sale...
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The C-47 Skytrain v6.0b2/DC-3 Airliner v2.0b2 by VSkyLabs Flying Lab Project is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
VSKYLABS C-47 Skytrain
Your Price: US$34.95
Currently on sale for $17.45 or 50% OFF.
Requirements
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 6.02 (September 14th 2023) VSKYLABS DC-3 Airliner
Your Price: US$34.95
Currently on sale for $17.45 or 50% OFF.
Requirements
X-Plane 12 Only (not compatible with X-Plane 11) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 2.0b2 (September 19th 2023) ___________________________
Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.07b1 (This is a beta review).
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- BIKF - Airport Keflavik by Aerosoft- (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$19.20
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Update Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
23rd September 2023
Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved