When the Dash Q400 came out from FlyJSim it divided users squarely into two groups, Those who loved it, those who loved flying it and treasured the aircraft, and then there is those that didn’t like it at all and probably still don’t. They found it hard to fly, Then to land and then they found it just to plainly difficult to use.

I am firmly into the first “I love it” group, and the aircraft was noted as my “best of aircraft for 2011″.

I think I understand why the aircraft firmly divided the community, It took a lot (I mean a real lot) of practise to become really proficient on the aircraft, you have to work really hard in there, with always using constant throttle adjustments, then adjusting your technique to find the right set of skills to fly the Dash really smooth and then sweat yourself silly to get a really good touch landing at the right speed.

On a lost weekend last year I flew six Flybe routes in one day and I was so exhausted I was flat on the floor by my computer just trying to recover after it was all over…  But rewarding, holy batmobile, yes Batman.

And so here now is the next product from FlyJSim in the The Boeing 727 Series. And I feel it will also garner the same reaction as the Q400, but also for closely the same reasons as with the Dash the B727 creates a real schism of emotions – but there is however a slight a difference this time around though as I feel we are more in tune with these sort of complex aircraft now than when the Dash was released.

Very early on in the Boeing 727 cockpit I felt the same contradictions as when I first flew the Dash, but I quickly adopted to the reasoning that I was going to have to adjust my flying to the aircraft. Unlike the Dash the differences here are in the age of the aircraft, Because it is heavy, dirty, slow and with the power available to only just pull the skin off the top of a rice pudding (by today’s standards). But that is not to say you wouldn’t love the Boeing 727 – As it is our youth here that brings these aircraft back to our hearts with the look of past times and the noise on takeoff, These 60′s dinosaurs are still out there flying today, Only now wrapped in their Hushkits they still ply the backwaters delivering Christmas presents between Memphis and Alaska and all the points in between.

Boeing with the 727 took the barrel of the Boeing 707 fuselage and created an aircraft that was perfect for short – medium-range international routes. The distinctive third engine was required for over water operations. It was however mostly popular on domestic routes and with the built-in air-stairs the B727 didn’t require much in facilities to turn it around at far reaching and remote airports. It is the only Boeing Aircraft not to have the engines mounted on the wings. The 727-100 first flew in February 1963 and entered service with Eastern Air Lines in February 1964; the stretched version 727-200 flew in July 1967 and the last 727 was built-in 1984.

There was 1,832 Boeing 727′s built overall with to date (2012), 23 727-100s and 227 727-200s are still in active airline/cargo service.

FlyJSim Boeing 727 Series.

The first thing to note is that the Boeing 727 series is running in 64Bit. As Laminar Research has not yet made 64Bit official then of course there could be still be changes yet to be completed, But I have encountered no issues on my system in running the 64Bit version, The review was done in 10.10Final.

Created by Jack Skieczius and Joe Vermeulen. It is challenge to not only to release an excellent product but to also take on the challenge to recreate a past icon, In both cases I think FlyJSim have succeeded beyond expectations.

The FlyJSim Boeing 727 comes in three versions:

The Original Boeing 727-100

This version comes with three liveries… United (60′s)

Eastern

And American

________________

Second package is the:

Boeing 727-200 Adv

Liveries included with the -200Adv are Pan Am (default)

Alaska Airlines 1993

And the PSA N533PS (smile)

________________

The final version is the:

Boeing 727-200F Freighter.

Freighter liveries include:

Federal Express (FedEx) default.

DHL

and Kelowna Flightcraft

________________

You can purchase either one of the above packages for US$32.00

Or you can purchase the whole series for US62.00

Livery packs also available for US$10.00 per set of which include:

American Classics Packs for 727-200Adv

Europe Pack for 727-200Adv

Global Pack for 727-100

USA Pack for 727 series

Americas Pack for 727 series

Europe Pack for 727 series

Global Pack for 727 Series

Global Pack for 727-200Adv

Or purchase the whole “Complete” set for US19.95

• 727-100
• 19 Paints

• 727-200adv
• 31 Paints

• 727-F
• 4 Paints

A total of 54 liveries and 37 designs by Will Davies (aka Amerrir).

The livery quality throughout is outstanding by Will, and the “Complete” set is great (brilliant) value

________________

Aircraft

The Boeing 727 is a traditional Boeing Aircraft from the late 50′s and early 60′s, and FlyjSim’s version does get the feel and the look of the aircraft of the period.

The engines feel small by today’s standards, but the everything was recessed back then, the JT8D fans look stationary but they are working hard deep in within their cowls.

All the engine detail is first-rate, a close up of the engine outlet mesh (below) and the thrust-reverse clam doors of which are well hidden within the pods, but all three work as advertised and are worth a mention.

Main gear detail and animation is excellent, but I don’t like the overshiny tyres, from certain angles they look more like more lights on landing, A fix is coming.

Nose-wheel animation is also first-rate.

In detail on any aircraft I have seen to date nothing comes close to the complexity and shear clever Swiss knife animation of the B727 wings.

The main rear flaps are seriously complex enough.

The leading edge flaps and slats are a clockwork effort of amazing animation, and god knows how long it took to make this all work correctly – and then you have perfect moving wing flex on top of everything else!

If animation work was art then this is a Picasso.

________________

Cockpit

It is quite bright and open in here thanks to those eyebrow windows, The main panel and the overhead panel look empty compared to modern jets but you are forgetting the engineer’s station sited behind the Co-Pilot.

The Period detail produced in the cockpit is sublime.

At first you don’t feel comfortable because everything thing is set out in a more compartmentalized fashion than with today’s workflow ergonomics, In time it does all work out fine but you seem to reaching around to do things that should be usually under your fingertips.

Main panel is as authentic to every scratch mark on the screws.

Pilots instruments are all glass but this is not a modern glass cockpit, period charm is more like it. A WX radar is in there but it only shows the standard X-Plane weather and the FMS route .

There is a small period of adjustment if you haven’t flown heavy pre-glass cockpits, but it soon becomes quite natural, however the missing map panel is glaringly obvious

The center engine panel detail is a power up clockwork heaven.

The Throttle Quadrant looks like it has been milled from real metal…    real perfection is at work here…. works really well too.

The full Radio panel has a rudimentary and ancient Auto-Pilot sitting at the top.

The Autopilot works but it feels and works more like it should be in a G.A aircraft than in an airliner.

Here I had a slight mixed messages period, you make the adjustments by this main panel, but there is another A/P control called the “Flight Director” (below) at the top of forward center-console panel above the levers.

The switch does work but doesn’t go to where you want it to select to, move the same switches on the lower panel and they select the same on the Flight Director versions? The annoyance is that if you want to select the A/P heading which is on the top switch then it won’t go to that position, press the button (HDG SEL) on the lower A/P panel and it does?

What makes it harder is that you have to move a very long way back to do so, and the other switch is sitting right there and very handy…  You do quickly adapt to the situation but it is confusing at first.

FlyJSim noted that the issue is in separating the Flight Director from the lower A/P panel and may have found a workable solution…

Side window reflections are excellent and so is the half-circle taxi turning wheel.

The overhead panel is stark compared to a modern two-man crew layout as most of the fuel, hydraulics and electrical systems are instead laid out on the….

…. Engineers station of which in the B727 is comprehensive with the noted references also laid out.

Each section here is related to their area of operation.

Fuel.

Electrical and Aircraft Pressurization.

so in the B727 most of the overhead panel is related mostly to engine start and the very adjustable and comprehensive aircraft lighting.

The lighting panel is very variable and fully adjustable for the cockpit lighting in a large combination of ways.

Standard lighting

instruments brightness on high.

Red spot.

Storm (or Cabin)

I thought there would have been more backlighting on the instruments, the only really effective one here is the “standby artificial horizon”, the reflections on the glass are perfect, but you don’t get in the B727 that instrument glow that is in Leading Edge’s DC-3 or any of the Carenado aircraft because all the main dials in the B727 are flat and don’t have that convex glass front that creates that effect.

Overhead panel lighting is very good.

And so is the engineer’s station with the APU panel sited on the rear wall.

On the left side of your computer screen is a menu system, now becoming quite commonplace.

The first item is the “V Card” panel.

This shows you (in real-time) the current weights and Vref’s… and very handy it is for setting up the aircraft correctly for takeoff and landing.

Item two is the”Weight and Balance” manager…  If you are familiar with this from the Q400, then you will know how invaluable it is.

Next Item is the “Op” or operations panel.

Here are selectable boxes for:

Cold & Dark start… or

Engines running.

Change the field of view.

Adjust the exterior sound volume.

Time is Zulu (clock)

View FMS in 2d view.

Really a cheat sheet on a 1960′s aircraft, but it make your X-Plane flying easier if you just want to just load and fly.

The last Menu option is the Xciva from Philipp.

Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), airliners were navigated in the early days of Jet aviation mostly by means of radio navigation (VOR, DME, NDB) and connected to the aircraft’s inertial navigation systems.

The most famous of these systems was the Delco Carousel IV-A, which was nicknamed “CIVA”.

Here Philipp has recreated this famous piece of hardware and it can be purchased separately to be included on the flightdeck of the B727 Series, Its purchase can also be used on other products if they are set up for the Xciva Plug-In.

As with most of Philipp’s amazing work and this one included, It is simplistic it its operation, but also quite complex to work through the operations, there is just not enough information in the Xciva manual other than how to use the controls, Philipp is going to do a video to explain how to use it effectively.

The cost of the add-On plugin is US$10.00, and installation is very easy.

________________

Nightlighting

The aircraft’s outside lighting is very good.

With taxi (nosewheel), taxi turning, two sets of landing lights (one set of outer landing lights peak through the leading edge slats) and also wheel bay inspection lights.

There is wing inspection lighting, strobe and standard Beacon/Nav lighting. A note the Boeing 727 does not have any tail logo lighting.

Visual outside cockpit detail is very impressive.

________________

Sounds

The noise level is impressive, certainly on takeoff, and the familiar whine while taxiing will certainly bring back a few tears.

The cockpit is relatively quiet, but you are situated a long way out from the engines, Start-up and shut down is also very realistic and APU sounds are excellent.

The 3d rotation effect is not as good as some others and comes in quite sharply, but at full throttle powering down the runway it easily makes you want to call out high above the roar “fly baby fly!”.

________________

Framerate

Framerate caused me no issues, flying at a highlevel of over 12,000ft i found the framerate running at 66-70fr, with the weather turned on it dropped to 27fr to 33fr which is perfectly acceptable in 10.10 Final

________________

Flying The Boeing 727.

Now the JT8D-17R produces about 17,400 lbf (77 kN) thrust each engine (on the advanced, The -100 only has 14.000lbf)  and x that by three which is 52,200ibf and the CFM56-7B27 that powers the B737-800 has two 27,300 lbf (121 kN) x 2 and so it has 54.600lbf of thrust available.

The B727-200Adv is 209,500 lb (95,000 kg) at MTW and the B737-800 is 174,200 lb  (79,010 kg) at MTW so you can see that the Boeing 737-800 is going to go far quicker off the runway than the B727, and that is what it feels like.

The power is there but you don’t get that sprint off the brakes like you do in a modern airliner, the speed builds steadily and at Vr  you rotate 15° and then steady to 10° till you level off at 1500ft, On the first flight I then did my usual 250knts and 1800fpm climb up towards 12,000ft…  only I didn’t get there.

With the throttle at full power and I am climbing hard until two of the engines start to blow out black smoke on top of the usual black smoke means I was soon in trouble, with only one engine to keep the 200,000lb aircraft aloft I was going nowhere fast, The A/P then said enough is enough and I am soon spiraling down towards the ground very fast and I hit quite hard.

You can laugh at my naivety but the lesson was learnt, most commentators of the 60′s note the early Boeing’s were built like Iron ships and the engines at that time were notably powerful, but they can’t do what modern FADEC engines can do today.

Like the flying the Dash on the throttle you are now the FADEC. your hand on the throttle levers is the monitor between how much the engines can do and how much they can take, At first I was “lets see what this baby can do”, but after a few fights I was keeping them very much within their limits, finding that zone of using the power but not over working the engines in that they may break a seal.

Climbing is a tradeoff, the aircraft is heavy and if you get the climb rate wrong then the speed drops and once it starts to drop it is very hard to get it back, you then soon find yourself into a stall as the speed goes (and keeps on and on lowering) away, then the A/P pops and you are going down in a spiral (again!) – (I called it the “death spiral”) and you end up like another episode of “Aircraft  Investigations”.

I learnt very quickly on how to recover well from these stalls!… or be aware of when they are about to happen.

If you have managed the climb speed zone well then as you level off the speed soon builds up and then you are soon at overspeed and 350kts+ at 12,000ft….

So you do soon learn to fly the B727 on the throttle, find that smooth spot, watching the speed so it does not runaway from you or stall, keeping it within 300kts and .78 mach on the final climb to cruise, then pleasure becomes immense when you get it right and suddenly you find that it all sounds like flying?… the Dash!

Settle the aircraft and B727 will fly smoothly anywhere all day. In any turns the speed drops slightly and then recovers.

On landing you are again working the throttle, coming down from a high flight level you have to really careful not to let the nose go too high and as you can go into a deep stall and where the stalled air from the wings can interrupt the function of the T-tail elevator, I used the air-brakes a lot to contain the speed of which is something I rarely do.

Dropping the flaps and it is like throwing an anchor out of the back, the drag is high and you need the power to stop the speed falling well below what your next setting is, so you are dancing usually between the throttle, flaps and speed to get the flow right and watching the stall…   In many ways it is like flying a really big and very heavy G.A. aircraft in the landing phase.

On landing the thrust-reversers go into full power reverse but the speed comes down slowly, the bulk and weight shows, just as it did on takeoff…..  Taxiing is a breeze at around 10knts on the turns.  A trick with the real aircraft is that the B727 can reverse on the reverse thrust (that remote airport turnaround without a pushtruck trick) , but don’t hit the brakes to stop because it will send the nose off the ground!   Just slowly come off the reverse-thrust.

Every flight is different, In modern aircraft you keep to the profile pretty closely in every sector, but with the Boeing 727 it is always different in speed or climb depending on the wind or how are the engines feeling today and if can you push or coax them to do what you want them to do.

So the feedback from the aircraft is significant in the speed, power and weight – and you have to manage them all.

You are going to have to get into the B727 and feel its systems and that will take time to get the very best out of it, You lick your lips at the thought of a long haul – but the workload is going to be high without all your gee-wizz gadgets.

________________

Conclusion.

If you loved the FlyJSim Dash Q400 then you will love the Boeing 727 Series and for all the same reasons.

It is the constant activity that you dig deep here for, mostly for the speed control with the throttle that gives you the impression that you and not the aircraft systems are flying this bird.

To say that flying the B727 is pure is a bit dumb as the systems are old-fashioned, but you are more connected in the air more in this 1960′s style of flying than with the Airbus fly-by-wire push button approach philosophy.

It would be hard for a novice to get the best out of this aircraft, I am not saying the B727 series is inaccessible to some users as anything can be mastered with practise.   But they must be prepared to put in the time to master the flow and challenge of a product on this level.

The more you fly the B727 then the more you understand the dynamics behind it…. like all FlyJSim products they open up to you only after a fair period of time.

I was slightly disappointed I couldn’t run the freighter like I wanted to with no opening doors or sitting cargo, because in today’s world that is how many of the B727′s still flying cut their daily crust, but the cabins and other features will come over a short period of time and with full of the quality we expect from FlyJSim and will be a free add-on-addition.

The amount of work and skill in creating this sort of product is mindbending, At first it feels quite blank till you spend some real-time with it and then the detail creeps out of every pore of its hull and equipment, the wings are a masterpiece of construction and the cockpit detailing on the panels is astounding.

The shear quality and the volume of liveries also covers absolutely every angle you may need, yes some are in the smaller packs but the “complete” set is certainly great value and quality.

You don’t fly the Boeing 727, you live with it and once it is in your hangar it begs to be used and flown like the old trooper it is….   and it leaves you always at the end of the day in a “Retro Funk”.

Flightime56

The FlyJsim Boeing 727 series is available here: www.flyjsim.com or here at the .orgStore Boeing Aircraft 727 Series

The sets of livery packs are available here: Livery Packs 727

Xciva is available here : CIVA Navigation System

Manuals and documentation is:

FJS-727 SeriesSystemsManual (55 Pages)

FJS-727 SeriesManouversManual (9 pages)

FJS-727 SeriesChecklistandProceduresManual (67 pages)

Download: 776.4mb Full version – 967.9mb expanaded

Xciva : download 4.1mb

________________

FT56©2012

There are no boundaries to flying in X-Plane, I can say with considerable confidence that I can fly an Airbus A380 almost like a true-pro (well without the years of training, health checks, check rating and hours on the actual airframe. But I am pretty good-by X-Plane standards)

So if I did buy an A380, and used it as I would in general day-to-day flying, I gather it would not be a very practical thing to do, in fact all my life savings would give me only enough fuel to go about 100NM (but hey what a great 100NM it would be!)

In a more realistic bound world we are mostly connected to either General Aviation Aircraft or for most of us it is usually on a level of a light Sport Aircraft or an Ultralight.
vFlyteAir specializes in ultra light-weight aircraft in X-Plane, and so to get a dose of reality I decided to check out the sort of aircraft that if you really bought an aircraft and really wanted to fly one cheaply then this is what you would use.

The images (above) also really highlight another factor….  Scale.

We hop into the A380 and usually fly it halfway around the world, but the scale is quite big and huge compared to the little ultra light, it shows how well X-Plane does scale in relation to the real world and the developer’s craft required to do both aircraft.

Walker from vFlyteAir dropped in to KLAL (Lakeland) two of the light weight products that they sell, the Remos GX (built-in Germany) and the CSA SportCruiser (Czech) with is also licenced by PiperSport in the USA.

One is a low wing and another is a high, but in both cases the wings are very similar in design and function.

We will give the SportCruiser a circuit first.

It has a one piece lift up canopy to allow access.

You get the right feel of an entry-level aircraft that is built to a price.

But today even on entry-level aircraft they have modern systems that even a few years ago you would die for. Considering their huge differences between the A380 and then down at this low light category they both still have something in common.

There are very few dials in here and it a glass cockpits for the masses.

The panel Dynon D 120 has three functions, on the left is the PFD (Primary Flight Display) and on the right engine management….  or.

VOR/Nav display, It must be noted the Dynon D100 is not the representative version in this aircraft and may be replaced in the future with another more up to date panel.

The lowers buttons are the basic Omni-bearing selector up/down and Barometer setting up/down (not applied here) and the Engine/Nav page switches.

Centre stack is :

Audio Selector

Garmin GPS430

Garmin GTX 327 Transponder

Garmin SL30 COM/NAV Radio

Right dial is a Speed indicator (knts)

and a basic but very easy to use 2 axis DigiFlight II VS HDG and ALT autopilot…

I found the Dynon displays a little less sharper (blurry) than the Remos version, but an upgrade to those textures is due about now and will be the same as the newer changes completed on the Remos from vFlyteAir, otherwise everything was well laid out and readable.

The first thing you notice is the wing, It has a very large area of 132.30 sq ft and with a very light aircraft these little machines have a lot of lift, a short hop and your quickly flying.

Propeller torque is quite strong as well so you need to use the rudder, best rate of climb (Vy) with the BRP-Rotax 98.6 hp (73.5 kW) engine is about 62 kts to a maximum speed of 119 knts, I found that cruising just under 100kts was the best at around 1000-2000ft (ceiling 3000ft)…   Range is about 516 NM which is a fair distance for a small aircraft.

So you are not going to go very high or very fast. But you are going to get up there.

There is a blind to cover over the sun, But it feels empty in there, It almost like a drone aircraft with the pilot sitting on the ground and the controls all moving by remote-control.

The modelling is very good for this style.

And the lighting is X-Plane10 ready, In fact I had no issues flying in X-Plane10 and 64BIT with either aircraft.

Two liveries in Blue (default)

Red.

All in all it is a great sports aircraft, it is very lightweight, feels and flies like a very light but tight machine – next up is the…

Remos GX

The Remos GX has just had an update and it shows, certainly in the quality of the textures.

You feel more enclosed than in the SportCruiser and also more like a small GA than the home-built sort of aircraft.

Wing area is a a lot less at 118 sq ft but it feels about the same size as the SC. But it is far faster though at 134kts (Vne), I tried to let the SportCruiser try to catch me up but it failed every time even if I was sitting around in the Remos on Idle. So the Remos is the “Sports” of the two…

The engine is a Bombardier-Rotax with 73.6 kW / 100 HP.

But that speed is in a straight line, if you want to turn then you have to drop to well under 100kts. (95knts) (Va), ceiling is 15,000ft so in every area the Remos simply out flies the SC except in the range which is around 480NM.

It is certainly that great step up aircraft between a lightweight Ultralight and a G.A. Aircraft and the Remos GX is leaning more towards the larger G.A. category.

The layout is similar to the SC but is more comprehensive in switches and dials, The centre stack is almost identical to the SC but with an extra Garmin SL30 COM/NAV Radio installed.

The Dynon in the Remos is smaller in the PFD but all instruments including the NAV/DME and the engine information are displayed.   A note on both Dynons is that they can display approach ILS/DME details (height/range/centralise) but won’t capture the instrument, but still are a very good guide for the approach and landing (training).

The display is switchable from GPS (above) to NAV (below)…

The DigiFlight II VS 2-Axis Autopilot is here as well.

Switches for lights are rocker and very well done, only the Carb heat slider knob works but the others are in the works.

Interior detail is well done, It feels like a modern construction.

Curves and modelling are well done.

Lovely wing and detail.

Two liveries are included…  Blue (default)

Green-Blue

Nightlighting is excellent but basic for this sort of machine.

Panel (above) and the external (below)…

Side cockpit view is realistic.

Doors open wide for access.

And the interior is well detailed, Again no pilot like the SC and you notice that empty space.

Both the Remos GX and the SportCruiser are priced at US$16.95 each from…   vFlyteAir

Both come with a manual and a Pilot Operating Handbook (POH)

If you want a taste of the designs from vFlyteAir then they have released in freeware the Tecnam Bravo P2004  ->  Tecnam Bravo

But I will stress that the quality is last generation and was not upgraded to the standard of both of these reviewed aircraft.

Again a great little trainer to cut your first steps on.

The panel is quite good as well, and it comes in the standard default Blue/White/Red livery and another in Red/White/Yellow (below).

The point of this article was that we will never sit in the left seat of an Airbus A380, but there is always the good chance we may have a go and even own and fly one of these aircraft or something similar.

To train or learn to fly in one of these machines is no flight of fancy, but they are a realistic dream that we all share. they are also extremely capable and have very modern instrumentation and have a genuine range of around 500NM (900kms).

A few dollars here can set you up and train you ready if you are in the market or if you want to keep up your flying and navigation skills while on the ground in this light-sport category.

And above all they give off a quite free attitude to flying and are immense fun to travel in at a speed well below the takeoff roll of your larger jet.

Flightime56

Credits: Thanks to Peter Hager for the A380, And Qantas Airlines for allowing the comparison photo-shoot!

FT56©2012

As an eleven year old I would jump most weekends on to my (bright yellow) Chopper bike and head straight  down to Squires Gate Lane. Blackpool Airport, UK,  which is not exactly the centre of the aviation universe, but at least you could get really close to the aircraft, The sounds of a H.P. Herald (Twin Dart Engines) of British United Island Airways would excite me to death as held on to my huge brown radio to listen into the ATC…

In between these thrills (every one hour and thirty minutes) I would take stock of the other less than thrilling machines spread around the grass parking areas. Most aircraft parked up where Cessna 172′s and rows of Piper PA-28 Cherokee’s, and then there was one other type that was quite odd (to an eleven year old) and that was because it had a spare engine situated on the back… “handy is a spare engine?”.

It was of course the C337H Skymaster and there was just two of them, It stood out as well because of its long twin boom tails that looked exotic and experimental of a sort of Skunk Works for G.A. aircraft (I lived a very sheltered life back then). But the really exciting thing of this machine was on the few occasions that I was there when it flew out of the airport was the amazing sound (or very noisy sound) it made and back then I thought they had made a major engineering mistake of that in the fact that the propellers both went in totally wrong different directions. But flew it did and in its own little world it was an exciting aircraft that never really left my early consciousness and when Daniel Klaue mentioned that the next Carenado aircraft was special to him and it was an odd engined machine then the hairs went straight up on the back off my neck and I was suddenly again an eleven year old boy clutching a huge radio with a broken aerial looking at this “Skymaster” type of aircraft.

I was suddenly very excited and extremely happy at the thought of finally getting into this odd strange noisy aircraft and finding out all its secrets.

I was nervous on this aircraft because what if it didn’t live up to my wildly exaggerated early memories…

It still looked as exotic as ever..

The very first thing you note is how really, really small it is inside…

And it is odd in that it feels higher than wider because of the engine is mounted high at the rear.

Those twin tails are there and still look wonderful.

The C337H still gives off the air of something more experimental than just your average standard G.A. aircraft…

The first Skymaster first flew on February 28th, 1961, and it went into production in May 1963. In 1965 Cessna introduced the model 337 Super Skymaster.This model was larger, and had more powerful engines, retractable landing gear, and a dorsal air scoop for the rear engine and then “Super” name was subsequently dropped.

Cessna built altogether 2993 Skymasters of all variants, including the famous 513 military O-2 versions. Production in America was finally stopped in 1982. If you want to by one today the average price is around US$70,000.

Sit inside the C337H and it feels very tight, lets say that you should be really, really good friends with your co-pilot or your second seat passenger as it feels that small.

The rear is also odd as the passengers sit low and that high roof line is high.

Carenado have with the C337H for the first time created a v10 version as well as its usual v9 standard, they are reluctant to endorse it as wholly completed product because still in some areas they feel that X-Plane10 and mostly in the aircraft functionality that there are still some very grey areas that have not been addressed yet by Laminar Research, They do however with feedback from this release want to do an update fairly quickly to address a few of these areas like the trim indicator, brake handle, some sounds and a few other bugs.

Certainly our feedback is important on these issues, but for now you can stick with ver9 aircraft and know it is correct.

However you do get the advantages of the X-Plane 10 features if you do change the other version which is included in the download (You physically have to change to which version (v10 or v9) that you want to use and it is noted under the “REPLACEMENT ACF FOR V10″ folder).

So what are the benefits?….. on the same “high” texture settings this panel is from Version9.  (I will note that all panel images here have been left at their full size for you to see the details)

It looks good until you look closely, and most of the writing is slightly blurry and the same as most of the current Carenado aircraft releases so far…

Change to the Hi-Def but more importantly V10 engine and the differences are striking.

overwhelmingly so…

The detail now is like when you tried to read the cockpit with bad old glasses and then you went and bought some newer adjusted focals and suddenly the world now is totally different…. it is a real “I can see!” moment.

You can now read everything and at the same texture (“high”) setting…

The detailing just simply outstanding, everything is readable and more importantly it is useable because you are now not guessing what that switch is or what button is what.

The panel textures are so real, even my own real world car’s dashboard textures are not even that good…

Now right down to the smallest writing on the windows you can read everything perfectly…

Panel reflections are simply real world stuff. As you can see the rear of your yoke perfectly in the instruments.

It took awhile to take in how good this really was, then….  then as night falls!

It is stunning stuff….

And the panel lighting so adjustable to your likeness.

The (four) blue glare shield lights (and some more down around the main instruments) contrast with the normal 3-d instrument lighting and it is all so sharp and clearly readable.

Outside looking in it still looks like you standing next to the aircraft.

And from the rear seats.

To look at the panel’s details I feel it is best to see them in operation.

Start those two engines and it is a strange sensation, The C337H is noted as a Twin- Engined aircraft and you must have a multi-engined license to fly it, Its configuration is noted as centreline or Push-Pull and in a few instances as In-Line.

Turn the starter for the rear engine and It chugs into life, Do the same to the front engine and your rocking, in fact the different propeller directions give the aircraft a strange feel and a very distinctive sound.

Cluedos to Carenado for their sounds, they are amazingly good… how good.

Pull those two mixture levers to the very lowest you can without cutting the engine and it is a chugga, chugga, tock, tock chugga sound of an engine barely trying to function, then adjust the levers up so one engine is out of sync with the other and you can tell which engine is doing the work.

You can almost smell the oil, the heat… I would love anything more on this aircraft as to just to be able to remove a panel and see the Continental IO-360-G engines running (Certainly the rear one)…

It is nice to taxi and direct, and sounds really great in the 3-d surround. Carenado notes all sounds come from the real aircraft.

Down the centreline of the runway and you are ready for that common 208C Caravan torque pull, but here nothing happens and you go straight down the centre like a bullet, be aware of the large amount of twin tail area as the rudders don’t need much movement, ditto that large elevator and remember the rear engine thrust flow is right on it.

You would think it would be over-powered, but it is not and your top speed is around 199 mph (173 kn, 320 km/h) at sea level, ceiling is 19.500ft and a normal cruise speed is around 125 knots, (232 km/h) at around 10,000ft.

I found it very agile and easy to settle in the air. Turns and balance are so good that the C447H is soon a very easy and relaxing place to find a flow and not in having to do the usual fighting to look for the autopilot to take your work load away.

There was a tendency on the very early models of the Skymaster of that the rear engine would overheat, and mostly if you had to taxi a long way to the runway. Most of the Skymaster accidents were caused by the rear engine failing and pilots not having enough power to climb into the air with only using the front one.

On the later models a rooftop scoop was added to help with the airflow.

This overheating may be a feature for this model in the future if Laminar can do such adjustments in the simulator, but for now you can try another trick…

Both engines have adjustable cooling cowlings, on the rear engine they are on the side of the fuselage.

power away for a while and it shows on the gauges.

The front cooling cowlings are situated around the exhausts.

shut them and you get a better view of the exhausts themselves.

magnificent beasts they are, watch them closely as they significantly vibrate to the engine, the rear engine exhausts move as well but not as much as the front.

in the cockpit the panel is very different from past Carenado aircraft.

Digital engine readout display and a really great push button Autopilot system. you just want push those lovely green buttons.

switches click-clack, knobs twirl with precision, well as good as any in X-Plane10.

Throttle, feather and mixture levers can be operated singular or together. The trim wheel is easy to the feel (the yaw wheel is situated low down)

An odd switch is that there another AP (autopilot) switch way down on this same centre column?

Radio stack includes a Garmin GNS430, Collins Nav/Com (x2) and King’s ADF (x2) and Transponder.

The LeanAssist is also semi-functional.  The peak indicators simply cycle around on a timer… and there’s a randomizer to simulate the hottest cylinder temperatures at a +/- 5%

Detailing on the roof gives you both engine fuel selection switches, vents and a cabin light further to the rear.

The speaker mesh shows the detail…

The two pilots take home average work pay, so they won’t ruin your bank account dry.

There is one white default livery and five trim liveries.

Blue…

Red…

Grey…

Australian Westpac “COASTGUARD”

RHODESIAN_AF

It is a shame there is no O-2 livery or a firefighting livery. But the C337H does look really good in the dark green.

The C337H took a little practice to get the nose to go down, the adjustment is right down low with that AP switch (and yaw wheel), pulling back on the mixture/power you had to be really careful as not to shutoff either engine.

The AP approach works perfectly and will align you up with the runway with a set of easy turns, NAV1/NAV2/DME is a digital display which is switchable to the right freq.

The flaps don’t pull you down too much if your speed in on the correct money…

You really wonder where they could store an undercarriage in a fuselage this small, but they do and wonders of wonders it all curls out.

Detail is again first-rate.

Even if you got an engine out at this point it wouldn’t cause you any dramas, the heavy yaw of an engine out wouldn’t just happen unlike on a normal twin.

At this point I am finding myself landing a little too fast, so it tends to hop a couple of bounces and the brakes feel a little weak pulling the speed down and i don’t want to pull up too hard in case they burst and seize – I really hate that then in having to drag the plane around under full power?

But I do like the taxi as it has no sharp surprises.

The version9 lighting (above) is in contrast to the sharp v10 lighting (below).

There is a menu C & O on the left of your screen that gives you two items.

C is Cameras with 10 views to choose from and with an adjustable Field of View.

O is the “Options” (option?) which gives you five.

Baggage Door with a parcel and a bag, window reflections, Static Elements like chocks, tags and cones, easy opening of the main side door and tinted blue windows (Very nice).

Conclusions:

It would be hard even a few months ago to accept that Careando could still step up higher in every area, but somehow they have and to the point that even the 208C Caravan needs that Version10 magic to come up to and finding itself now matching the Skymaster.

You easily accept the small niggles so early in the change to V10 because the texture benefits and lighting is so very good and with so little impact on framerate…

It is a complex and highly detailed aircraft, but being able to keep your texture setting in only the “high” position and receive such excellent Hi-Def quality in all of the aircraft and the shear readability of the panel sets this Carenado levels higher than anything Carenado have delivered in the past. That main panel alone is simply awe-inspiring in detail and texturing.

You feel that slight framerate push here and there, but it never intrudes into the flying or ruins the experience.

Carenado have mentioned they intend to upgrade their products with better Garmins and other add-on items in the future. Of which would be a very nice to have in this aircraft – but no promises yet.

But for that eleven year old boy he has now flown his dream aircraft thanks to Carenado – so what is it like?

Perfect!… A little on the tight side and still a little noisy…   but a master of an aircraft….  A Skymaster!

You can purchase the Carenado C337H Skymaster here : Carenado C337H Skymaster

Price : US$29.95

Included Documents:

C337H Skymaster General Information.

C337H Skymaster Normal & Emergency Procedures – Performance tables

C337H Skymaster Reference

Carenado Joystick settings

Recommended Settings X-Plane

(I recommend you read the setup details provided)

Download size : 247.20mb

File size : 319.30mb

Flightime56

FT56©2012

Carenado Beechcraft 58B Baron

Why would I want another twin?

I already have a great twin-engined aircraft from Carenado with my Piper Seneca II, and if that is too small then I have my Cessna Caravan 208B sitting in my hangar as well.

If I have one Twin Engined aircraft then another one would just sound and be very much about the same as the one I have now anyway – wouldn’t it.

That did fly through my head when Carenado announced the Beechcraft 58B Baron. In one part of me I debated that this was another Carenado product, the same company that has had my jaw dropping more than most with their incredible and minute detailing.

More so is the shear usability of the products, joyride, quick flights across any state or a small country, flying packages with the Caravan to small outflung outposts, VIP transfers and god knows what else.

I have done all and more over the last few months.

Doesn’t end there either…

Carenado is also causing me another headache. On what to choose?

It used to take only a very few moments to pick my flight for the day, but now I debate with myself on this or that of which this indecision can go on for ages till I hover my mouser over my final or second choice.

But, but , but….

The main overriding feeling though was that this new Beechcraft would be the same as all the rest…

Wrong!…   Wrong again.

The first feeling in jumping into the 58B Baron is that it felt different, the sound and feel is very different from any other X-Plane Carenado product.

It felt quieter and gentler and makes the Caravan seem brutal by comparison, as that huge propeller in the Caravan pulls you and your aircraft sideways when you turn up the power to full strength and so you have to push hard on the rudder pedals to go in the right direction as you squirm it hard down the runway until you crab yourself into the air.

The 58B Baron is nothing like that, It is smooth and powerful and you just glide into the air with a little grace.

That is not to say that the Baron is boring is because it isn’t, you enjoy it immensely.

In fact you are reveling in the sweet turns and the lightness of the touch to move it through the air. It is a lovely plane to fly.

The tight cockpit is a nice place to be as well and you will feel very much at home very quickly.

Panel lighting and detail is up to the usually high standards.

But your passenger pilot only has a few instruments (Artificial horizon & Heading) to fly with instead of the usual full instrument pack on the pilots side.

The panel is also dominated by the double Garmin Stack, one for VOR1 (top) and one for VOR2 (bottom). On top is a digital Autopilot that is also excellent to use and so is the lower Garmin transponder, I mean the quality of this equipment just blows you away…

You can move around the panel by a menu located on the side of your screen.

I am going to be brutally honest here and say I don’t like these things. Yes they are extremely handy and the Carenado version here is very well done – but I hate anything on the screen that takes me away from the experience, The discreet menus on the Caravan’s glare shield was a better way for me.

One Menu is Cameras…

(you can also set this menu up on your keyboard and full instructions on how to do so are in the documents)

And it includes.

Main (pilot) view

Throttles

Fuel Select

Wing Cam L(eft)

Tail Cam

CoPilot View

Radios

View from rear

Wing Cam R(ight)

Bellycam

And the “Field of View” slider that can give you a tight or wide view of the cockpit.

The other pop-up menu is for the Options panel…

There is an opening front baggage door (Hatch?). With a lovely briefcase and all sorts of bags.

the usual Carenado window reflections are here of which you can turn off, but why would you want to?

The standard static elements, of engine covers, “Remove Before Flight” tags and bollards.

The cabin doors open wide and show the inside cabin’s incredible detail.

It is rear 4 person club seating arrangement with a pop-up table.

And every small item is covered including the warning on the windows.

luggage net (and luggage) and nothing is missing.

You can also choose from the menu the option of tinted windows or clear, I liked the tinted option as it made it more private in the cabin.

Around the aircraft you notice the excellent textures.

The modelling is first-rate.

The B58 Baron sprouts aerials like a Russian Spy Trawler and the numerous leading edge Static antennae are animated to vibrate in the airflow.

Undercarriage detail is perfectly realistic.

All animations are all first-rate, wing and engines are sublime with excellent lighting built into the wing-tips. And also not forgetting Peter and David the two pilots who were very experienced, but still showed a few annoyances at my constant picture-taking.

The aircraft is perfectly modeled with attention to detail with High Resolution, polygon-optimized modelling to the smaller details like the insides of the landing lights, the wiring inside the engine cowlings and the pitot tube.

Night lighting is excellent as well.

With great landing lights and nose-wheel lighting.

Flashing tail beacon gives just the right amount of red for realism.

One of the main features is the use of HD (High-Definition)  large (2048×2048) textures for supreme and crisp detail, which have 9 night-time textures and
5 normal map textures for extremely detailed appearance of exterior components, such as rivets, panelling, air-intakes.

And the results are simply stunning, but it is in the reflections that this aircraft is so extremely good, as you turn or catch the light the shiny reflections move with such quality, here there is a rainbow effect on the upper part of the windows.

Any reflections that you try to capture in flight are very good.

The aircraft panels highlight the light and again the incredible window reflections.

Sounds:

Sounds are also excellent, The 3d doppler effect is even better applied here than the earlier products as the low RPM sounds have their distinct sound, while the higher-RPM sounds then take over when the power is applied. This plane
also has two in-between sounds for low-mid and high-mid engine RPMs. all is recorded with high quality 44.1 KHz stereo sounds from the real plane.

Start-up splutter and turbine whine is also effective and any switch, button-lever movement is also well documented, all doors snap shut and the only thing missing here really is the pilot sneezing!

The sounds bring us to a feature that is interesting. Flying Twins successfully means managing the engines. The issue is propeller synchronisation, It isn’t noticeable on takeoff because your usually at full power, but level off and the engines are now running at different speeds.

There is a spinner or Sync-gauge that tells you that your out of engine sync, no spinning and your running correctly, but if the spinner is spinning around then you’re not in propeller sync.

The sounds are so good here that you won’t need the visual reference because as the propellers change to their different speeds it causes thrumming in the cabin, pull down on any of the mixture levers and make one engine cranky and it can give you a headache, so the feature is very well represented.

To align the engines the usual practise is to reduce the manifold pressure with the throttle levers to a better RPM using the left tachometer as a guide, when happy with the RPM, then adjust the right throttle to find the correct sync, the spinner can be help of course but your ears are a better guide, the one thing that doesn’t work is trying to sync by using the left and right tachometers as a guide as not all engines are created equally.

I also found the mixture levers very sensitive and as in my usual practise I usually pull them back for taxiing or if I require a slow landing speed (not advisable if you need a go-around), but on my first ride, I pulled the levers back as I usually do and the engines simply spluttered to a halt… Which is not the best thing to happen on a landing phase.

Another feature is the trim switch on the control column, It works in the best Carenado fashion, but you have to be careful of other actuators around it that adjust items on the panel, of which one is the start/stop switch.

Everyone thinks of the Beechcraft Baron as the Bonanza Twin, It is not as that aircraft is the model 95 Travel Air. The Baron is more of a distant cousin that an outright larger version of the popular single prop.

The original Baron (55 Short Body) first flew on the 29th February 1960, the  larger, more powerful Baron 58 (long body) was developed from the Baron 55 and introducing club seating, double aft baggage doors, and has a gross weight of 5,400lbs, in 1976, the turbocharged Baron 58TC and the pressurized Baron 58P were introduced – other versions are the G58 that was introduced in 2005 to the current day and the T-42A Cochise military version.

VNO – Max Operating Speed 195 KIAS comes from two Continental IO-550 300-hp engines for a range of 942 nmi (1,746 km, 1,085 miles) 65% power at 10,500 ft (3,200 m), 45 min reserves with a service ceiling of 19,700 ft (6,000 m).

Liveries:

The Beechcraft 58B Baron comes in five liveries:

White (default)

GoldGreen

KLM

Metal Blue

And Red Classic.

Documentation is:

Frame-rate:

I flew into my Orlando (executive) KORL airport and I have some heavy scenery running around here, most aircraft falter down to 14-16 frames but the 58B Baron still held on to a very usable 18-20 frames, in clear air 40-50 frames was normal with HDR off and no weather, with weather it averaged about 26frames.

All in all it is a very good performer with those very high HD textures.

Conclusions:

I thought it would be very hard to improve on any Carenado product, but here with the Beechcraft 58B Baron they have.

Better features, better texture quality, still even more clever detail (reflections are a stand-out), but overwhelmingly it is a very nice aircraft to fly.

It is easier to fly in some respects all throughout the taxi/Take-off/cruise/Landing phases. But with such detail you are now working on your finer points of flying in navigation, throttle (mixture) control and ATC (Air Traffic Control) that this is certainly an excellent GA Aviation simulation.

It was hard to choose a flight before the 58B Baron. But if I needed to quickly cover a hopping distance of say 200 to 500 NM then I would power up the Baron’s engines almost every time, I know it would always be a nice smooth clean ride and the Baron give you a wide smile on your face at the same time.

So I’ll just have accept the Beechcraft just so good and will push this another really great aircraft into the hanger… and with that it will cause me now even more (Carenado) decisions!

Flightime56

FT56©2012

Available From Carenado -> Carenado Beechcraft 58B Baron

Price: US$27.95

Computer System:        

- 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27”

- 6 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3

- ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb

Software:   

- Mac OS MountainLion 10.8

- X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.10rc3

- ExtremeSceneryMAXX

SSG (Supercritical Simulations Group) are one of the new kids on the block, It is a brave team to start-up today and start putting out products because the quality is now getting very good for payware aircraft. but here with this E-jet many people have decided that there is a market for their talents and so the SSG team have gone from strength to strength.

The Team consists of:

Ricardo Bolognini Project leader and primary 3D modeling, flight dynamics
and system programming

Stefan Keller Reference guide development and technical advisor
Carlos Garcia Director of testing and marketing
George Garrido Textures and repaints
Baber Sikander Additional 3D modeling and textures
Tim Gleason Technical advisor and product testing

Their first product was a freeware Boeing 748i and Freighter, It was that the modelling was excellent but lacked a really decent 3d cockpit, but it was freeware.

The thing that stood out on the B748i/F was the great reflections of the aircraft, and in any good light it looked supreme and simply gorgeous.

But the real objective of the team was this Embraer 170LR or E-jet, which is a great regional jet that competes with the bombardier CRJ-200 and the faster turbo-props like the Dash8 and the ATR 72-600.

It seats 80 passengers and has a range of just over 2000NM (2100NM)

First flown on February 19, 2002, the E-170 series is a relatively new modern era aircraft and is built by Embraer S.A. in Brazil.

Continue reading →