It’s pretty good despite looking kind of weird.
Is that a real design?
Also (not the appropriate place for this question. But this is a popular room so I’m crashing) I play xbox-only and stock helicopters 95% of the time. One thing really frustrating about fixed-wing is that I run out of aft elevator too early. It’s impossible to 3-point tailwheel planes. I am using a stock xbox controller with no curves and no axis limits. I am using the modern flight model with everything at full real except ATC. Do any of you have this problem? Any guesses?
It sure is.
One of a kind too.
I have no idea, but let’s derail this a little further, shall we…
Would this work on an Xbox?
I am aware of it. One problem is that it sort of forces a left-stick: stick, right-stick:throttle arrangement. The mechanically linked triggers are amazeballs! love the Elite controller. But I am mystified why full deflection on the console does not equal full deflection on the PC, all else being the same.
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That’s just so we, the righteous, PC simmers will have a reason to look down upon you…console…“simmers”
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I had a quick look in the sim today to get the data on my new models for importing to Neofly.
I noticed that a couple of the aircraft have extremely narrow CG windows - I’m hoping they are errors and going to be fixed.
One was the Kitfox Speedster and the other the Searey Elite. I found that with the kitfox, the more fuel you put in moves the CG forwards and the more cargo/pax weight the more it moves to the rear.
Unfortunately this means that even with full tanks the most you can get in the plane is 26lb per loading station - which is useless!
The Searey Elite was not much better
Anybody know of a Airtractor AT-802, for MSFS? Even better if there’s a FireBoss variant with floats…
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Not that particular aircraft but the only crop duster I know for MSFS is this one:
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Yeah, that one pops up in my googling too.
I have a friend who fly the FireBoss for SAAB in Sweden. Would be fun to show him that one in MSFS.
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Weird that you should mention the Fire Boss. I had never heard of it until yesterday when the latest copy of AOPA Pilot arrived in my mailbox…with Fire Boss on the cover and an article about flying it.
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It’s a rather bare bones add on, which is honestly probably accurate to the real world one. But it is fun to fly around all the fields at crop dusting height dodging the scenery.
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I see the Fokker F28 has just been released at Just Flight.
Despite my liking this aircraft and having been keen to see it released, I won’t be biting, at over £52. If it were a model I would use all the time I might consider it, but for how much use it would get, it’s just too much outlay.
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I do also have serious doubts about the performance in VR. Much has been made of the texture detail in 4 and 8k, so it’s going to make an already heavily loaded GPU sweat even more.
Having said about the price - I said the same about the BAe146, but ended up buying that in a sale (at still over £30 - but that’s the sort of price I am willing to pay), but guess what - still haven’t flown it!
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I was considering it, as it looks like you get to have sky-tube fun without having to learn one of those dang fangled Eff Emm Seez you airline people keep prattling on about. It’s rocking a GNS530!
…but then the summer sale hit the MSFS store. Wayyyy too much of my backlog is on sale for me to pass that up!
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A2A Comanche Released!
I know what I’m doing after work today…
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Update with my thoughts after a couple hours:
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The plane won me over right from the start: Before I had to discontinue IRL flight training for medical reasons, I logged a decent chunk of hours in an old school Cherokee. Think hershey bar wing, vernier style engine controls, big old manual flap handle, and ceiling mounted pitch trim crank. The Comanche echos all of those features, save for the wing. It felt in a lot of ways like seeing an old friend…
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It’s an A2A accusim product, through and through! As much simulating the ownership experience as actually flying the aircraft. Lots of options to make her your own (eg. Various aerodynamic add ons to add/remove, choice of nav suite, even choice of metal or wood composite prop!). And the plane feels properly alive once it’s started up; vibrating on the tarmac as though it’s antsy to get on with it and get airborne.
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The External flight model feels good. Real good. Best GA plane for the platform yet.* It really highlights the overly sensitive pitch axis, and ‘leaf caught in an updraft’ flight model that still plagues many of the aircraft in the sim. Even the higher tier models. For example it’s way easier to settle into ground effect on landing, and slowly pull back power to ease onto the runway, holding the nose high for some aero braking. The way the prop interacts with air feels good too; I can set a deep dive angle and not overspeed like a bob sled; the prop adding proper drag as it windmills. And you know it’s windmilling because pulling power in the dive doesn’t reduce prop RPM. Only when you level off, let some energy bleed out of the prop, and get things slowed down, do you hear and feel the prop rpm drop off. Too many prop planes in the sim still act like fighter jets in the dive; even years after release.
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Main EFM and/or just-how-the-plane-is-IRL quirk so far is the plane doesn’t really seem to rotate on takeoff, as much as it just…levitates into the air. Sort of like if you’ve ever watched a B-52 take off. For my round of touch/goes I was using one ‘notch’ of flap though. I need to RTFM to see if this is a flap-less bird on take off.
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Speaking of just-how-it-is quirks…the auto pilot. I highly recommend reading the freely available product manual for an overview of how it works. KAP140 it isn’t… To wit, it can hold your altitude. OR it can hold your heading / course. It can not to both at once. Also, the pitch axis AP doesn’t have any control over trim, and if the plane is too far out of trim the AP can run out of authority and require you to intervene with trim to lighten the load. The autopilot also isn’t the on-rails experience of other GA planes in the sim. In my limited testing, It hunts a bit, especially in high turbulence. Glass half full: It’s a novel experience vs the the sterile, robot-on-rails autopilots that turn your Cessna into a Boeing. Glass half empty: it would be nice if there was the option to equip a more modern AP like a KAP140 as part of the avionics package. I’d be surprised if, for example an IRL owner who sprung for a GTN 750 wouldn’t consider retrofitting a more modern AP system to the plane as well. The good news is the well sorted pitch axis of the EFM means the constant hunting for the right trim setting for level flight is much easier to achieve. So once you get the plane stabilized at cruising altitude, you can set heading hold and be reasonably confident enough things won’t derail if you go to make a sandwich
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The visual model and textures looked very “meh” and flat on my machine. Serviceable, but not “wow plane” levels of visual. I suspect it’s local settings though; as A2As screen caps look amazing. I’ll do some tinkering and report back.
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$50 is pricey, but this is hands down THE general aviation add on to get for the sim. Also notable that A2A has done away with their historic model of selling a base plane and an Accusim add on. $50 buys you the whole package, one and done. I’m a fan; simplifies updates and installs, and who buys an A2A plane but not the accusim package anyway?
Whew, that went longer than I intended! But hopefully I persuaded anyone still on the fence.
*I like to think I’ve got a decent enough GA wing of my hanger to have an authoritative opinion here: Blackbird C310, Flysimware 414, all the JustFlight Pipers, Carenado PA44, SWS Kodiak, Kitfox, Blacksquare Analog Baron, etc. My previous high water mark was the C310. IMO It was the most “accusimish” plane in the sim before the Comanche arrived. If it had an EFM, it would likely be nearly on par with the A2A offering.
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Thanks for those thoughts on the Comanche @aggressorblue. Can you add your own aircraft ID code letters or are they fixed?
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Man, I already love the Just Flight Turbo Arrow (with the quirky turbo and so on) but your review sounds as if A2A blows it right out of the water.
…interested now.
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I hope A2A will bring their B377 Stratocruiser to MSFS.
Just imagine…
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