Aeroplane Heaven Chipmunk on its way (And now released)

You gotta use the stick and rudder to keep it straight down the runway…

I’ve purchased and downloaded in the knowledge that people have had problems with the Mustang Sounds. I really enjoyed flying the Chipmunk and the cockpit modelling and textures seem really good to me. In VR the external Model seems a bit low resolution with a pronounced bump map. The sound seems to have the right pitch, but I can clearly hear the loop in the sound recording which makes it sound a bit FSX like and at some times 8bit (I’m exaggerating, but it can give that electronic vibe while in the air).
I enjoy flying it, but the sound loop thing lets it down a bit.
Take off and landing are pretty straight forward even in a cross wind considering my limited skills with tail draggers!

It’s been a long time since occupying the back seat on my 2 weeks Air Cadet Pilot Navigation Training Scheme at RAF Benson and even longer since Air Experience flights at Cambridge and RAF Coltishall, but it brought back the feeling of being in a Chipmunk.

I am going to strap on a backpack full of bricks and stagger to my desk chair half doubled over for the authentic Chipmunk experience :wink:

2 Likes

Check if you are using ‘live weather’ and if so check the wind speed and direction - or be sure to check the windsock before takeoff. Chances are good that you are experiencing a crosswind takeoff

1 Like

The audio and texturing do not 100% reflect reality. Other areas I found highly disappointing compared to my real-life flight experience and extensive YouTube airplane and cat video watching:

  • There is no replication of the sense of motion I get in a real aircraft.
  • My 20-year-old office chair is hard and uncomfortable, but in certain seating positions does not recreate the feeling of being in an actual Chipmunk cockpit.
  • Aeroplane Heaven made no attempt to replicate the smells of an actual aircraft cockpit. It’s very disruptive to expect the smell of metal and oil and instead only detect air freshener, whatever that was my son cooked for lunch, and a slight scent of cat box.
  • I stalled at low altitude and slammed into the ground. In a real Chipmunk, I would either be dead, or at least have broken most of the bones in my body. Yet I remain alive and healthy.

With these disappointing omissions, I remain convinced MSFS is an arcade game and AH needs to step up its act if it wants to remain competitive with my foggy idealized memories of what I experienced spending hundreds of hours flying the same FSX-based engine for 15 years.

In all seriousness, I’m quite happy with what I got for my $28. The visuals are great, there’s a lot of variety in both internal and external models, and nobody is mentioning what should be the most important aspect of a sim plane IMHO, the flight model, which feels spot on and great. This will definitely be my touring plane of choice for the UK and Canada for the next while!

12 Likes

Seems to fly like a charm. For extra immersion, I recommend keeping a rag soaked in gasoline around, for that authentic aroma.

1 Like

Just to clarify, the post above wasn’t directed at any specific poster. I was making a parody response to the general tone of posts for numerous recent releases across this forum by a variety of regular posters, which is to ignore the hundreds of things a new release gets right, the wonder of a replication of a real classic aircraft we’ll likely never get a chance to sit in in real life for less than the cost of lunch for two in today’s economy, and focus on a things they can find that don’t meet their standards or expectations. It’s disheartening to see all the hard work reduced to a focus on finding the small percentage of what’s wrong instead of celebrating what’s right.

I’m not saying folks shouldn’t post what’s wrong with a product. I was a professional game reviewer throughout the 90’s; I wrote the flight simulation columns for Computer Gaming World magazine and dozens of features on simulations. I know the value of pointing out what’s right and what’s wrong so that people can make informed buying decisions based on what’s important to them. But when I reviewed products, I tried to be fair (and was mostly successful, though I think I owe Novalogic an apology). I never did a review that was a laundry list or focus on only what was wrong, I celebrated the good and warned about the bad.

So much of what’s posted here can be harmful to small developers because it makes what the vast majority of potential purchases seem like they’re horribly flawed, when in fact there might be many aspects that would make potential fliers very happy. There’s an enormous gap between not worth buying at all (some of the 3D model portovers like the A-10 and A-4) and a plane which might fall down in a couple of areas but otherwise has much to enjoy.

In this terrible world we’re living in outside of flight sims, humor is the last refuge of sanity. My intent was meant to be Jonathan Swift-esque, not to be mean.

14 Likes

We do focus on the flaws in these aircraft and posts don’t reflect on the work that’s gone in, but the MSFS community are by default beta testers due to the constant development of the sim. This shapes our mindset and response to third party developers somewhat. Most of us want to be constructive and help to make everyone’s experience better, knowing that version 1.0 is usually quite early in the development of most MSFS aircraft.

The Chipmunk is worth the reasonable price tag and think it’ll be one of my go to aircraft in the UK.

I feel that I have to remind you that Jonathan Swift is far too high brough for these forums as most of us are probably somewhere on the spectrum (including myself)! :face_with_monocle:

Looks good. Needs the Irish Air Corps textures fixed, however as they are not correct. I’ve included a few shots of the real aircraft and it’s sister ships





1 Like

This must have been the case since

  1. I did NOT check those things and;
  2. It hasn’t happened since
    Thank you for this bit of advice!
1 Like

Well, with some good advice I’m over the takeoff issue, but now there is another concern: The compass locked up (would not allow me to rotate).
I at first thought the actual lock on the compass itself had become engaged but, locked or unlocked, she would no longer rotate. Anyone care to try to duplicate?
Smashing little ship otherwise-

You need this then:

2 Likes
1 Like

This thing is a delight to fly. I am going to make custom Air Manager instruments for it.

2 Likes

Absolutely loving this. Can’t say I’d immediately pick any fault with the modelling or the sounds, but I’ve only flown it once. Though I can’t seem to get both pilots to disappear for on the ground screenshots. The cockpit seems particularly well modelled. You can almost smell the old engine oil. Its quite a handful on take off and landing, which I think is accurate from what I’ve heard from brother, who as I mentioned earlier in the thread has a part share in a real life one.

Anyway, just enjoyed a great flight from Farnborough to Shoreham across the South Downs. Its got so much character and history. I can see myself spending a lot of time with this plane and trying to get to grips with it properly.





7 Likes

Is this coming to Xbox?

I had never known of the Chipmunk prior to seeing it here. It is a delight and this is one of the reasons I find flight simming so delightful. I think also that AH, whose street cred has taken some flak lately, may have burnished their image a bit with this little cutie…

1 Like

I wish to apologize to this community for my initial negativity regarding the AH Chipmunk. Also to Editer for being acerbic earlier. I ended up deleting all of the posts, and saying I’d not comment again. Well, I cannot bring the old posts back, but I can start again on better footing.

The truth… I am totally in love with the de Havilland Chipmunk. It is the most important aircraft in history to me as it introduced me to flight. Chippie is the aviation equivalent of your first girlfriend. You never forget her, she will always have a place in your heart, and you lose your objectivity when you think of her.

And so, for me, when it comes to this machine, I was heavily emotionally invested in it from the start, looking for perfection in every way, and hyper aware of any flaws. Furthermore, my quest for perfection and subsequent criticism has bordered upon evangelistic proportions. That is not serving any of us, myself included.

And so, with around three hours of flight time in it so far, here is a more balanced run down, albeit still my personal take, with all the proclivity to emotion still resident therein.

What I like about the Aeroplane Heaven Chipmunk…

  1. It’s a Chipmunk. AH did it, and at last we have one in MSFS.
  2. AH did both the birdcage and bubble variants.
  3. The cockpit is stunning. I wish I had VR to see it in that technology, but even in 2d, it is gorgeous.
  4. There’s a good selection of liveries, and a paint kit so we shall see more coming from the community.
  5. The price is reasonable.
  6. The front seat pilot can be seen when you are in the back seat.
  7. There are versions with the Asobo pilots in them.
  8. The canopy opens.
  9. The external sounds are excellent.
  10. It flies like a dream. Well-balanced and smooth on the controls. Reminds me of a real-life Fleet Canuck I piloted decades ago. And the flight model seems to reflect comments by real Chipmunk pilots in real-life aircraft reviews.
  11. The fact that AH did listen when I pointed out they had forgotten to take off the oleo leg fairings in the Bubble version initially pre-release.

I will fly the heck out of this aircraft, in fact I am learning scenery design as I restore the now-disused RAF Newton to an active station (that’s where I first flew from in 1971). Chippie will be my first choice for flying there, followed closely by the BlackBox Simulation Bulldog (which also flew from Newton later).

Now…

What I do not fully like about the Aeroplane Heaven Chipmunk…

  1. The internal sounds are high pitched almost across the RPM range. At idle the engine note outside and inside is very similar. But, as you increase RPM, the scale of pitch change is different between outside and inside. If the outer scale of change is thought of as linear to create a baseline for comparison, then the inner scale of change is geometric. As a result, the higher up the RPM you go, the greater the note differential between outside and inside. To my ear, get up to full RPM and you are about 1.5 to 2 notes on the scale different. Many people will not notice this, but to my ear it is jarring. Personal interpretation I know, but that’s me…
  2. The RAF roundels on the fuselage are too big when compared to most references I see.
  3. There is a slight shading difference in textures on the empennage when compared with textures under the canopy. Might be how light hits them, or might be a genuine shade difference. Not sure on that one, but I see it.
  4. At first I was bugged by the apparent size of the oleo legs and wheels. I thought they looked too big. However, I am reserving judgement here because it might be the way in which MSFS handles change in viewpoint as you circle round an aircraft in the sim. From some views they look spot on, from others they look exaggerated. This may not be in any way an issue in the AH design.

So, on a balance sheet, there’s a LOT more that I like about this than there is that I do not like (or question). If I am objective I can admit to that (As a retired journalist and author I should know better). But emotional subjectivity got the better of me earlier.

Conclusion? Just gonna’ fly it and fall fully in love with it… And thanks AH for bringing this one to us. Now let the re-painters get busy and bring us a ton of liveries please.

11 Likes

Unfortunately resetting the default view (ctrl+f10) places the pilot model in your field of view. I need to move the view back because at default it feels like I’m eating the panel

There are definitely some issues I have with this addon, but they are MINOR with one exception: It’s only drawing fuel from the left tank for some reason. Otherwise, all of my complaints are visual and relatively minor. Clipping into the fuselage when the bubble canopy is open (not a problem with the birdcage), a seat belt hook(?) clipping through the hole it goes into at an angle. The wing textures are bad, the angle of the texture drives me a bit crazy when I look at it. Minor stuff. As a long-time AH detractor, this one gets a thumbs up from me.