Rotax doesn’t have a mixture. From what’s painted on the side of the aircraft they have the Rotax 915iS installed on this one. That’s the newest version of the Rotax, fuel injected with a turbo charger. It’s massively overpowering this light frame, so it should have incredible performance.
Kitfox uses Junker Flaperons. But they don’t appear to move with the flap lever as they should. They should move opposite each other as ailerons, and move together with the flap lever. From watching videos of real Kitfoxes, both Flaperons should move down with the flap lever.
This in game version is also missing a fuel gauge - most who build a Kitfox will put one in, often just a clear tube to view fuel levels in the wing tanks, or a fuel totalizator system (Fuel flow/fuel used I believe the Kit Manufacturer offers one as a option but since your building it you could put in whatever you wanted) to track fuel burn. This in game Kitfox is using the default Garmin displays like in the CubCrafters XCub, so there is a fuel flow gauge, but no Fuel used display to track your fuel.
Also two Garmins? That’s a lot of extra weight and expense. One display would be what most would install, the second one has no purpose. I’d lose it and add a fuel totalizator!
Also the RPM gauge can’t be right, again I’ve never flown a Rotax, but it’s a geared engine. It should be turning about twice the RPM that’s shown on the gauge. Basically the same motor that’s on the Savage Cub, just more power.
There is no way to shutdown the motor (run out of gas will do it) as there are no ignition switches. I would hope that these things will be fixed, but it’s sad that it was released like this. I really love Kitfox Aircraft and have always wanted to build one/buy one/fly one, so was looking forward to trying one out in the game, but this one needs work.
As Deepfield3078 suggested this aircraft uses flaperons to do the job of ailerons and flaps.
The aileron features seem to work but it is crazy that we cannot use the flaperons as flaps, on a KitFox!!!
And it would have been nice to be aware of this omission prior to purchase. It was also noticed the engine sound, externally is the same wherever one locates to listen to it… no sense of position, etc. And no manual of any sort can be found.
Cannot recommend this very basic aircraft even for $9. Does not really offer any more over the two existing bush planes.
As time goes on, I cannot help but feel that MSFS is moving more in the direction of ‘Flight’ instead of FSX/PrePar3D/X-Plane.
They’re much more expensive than this release, I assume the company is assuming they will sell much more. MSFS 2020 should do a trial so people can try out planes before committing to buying.
Flaps are now modeled and animated. There is a parking brake and a flaps lever. Windshields don’t have that pixelated texture effect anymore and look normal. Unfortunately, the roll after landing still takes forever and there is no way to shut off the engine once it is running. So to me, it went from 1 star to 3… If they fix the aircraft going forever after landing and find a way to shut down the engine, it will become 4 star. Some texture work needs to improve for 5 stars - namely the tires.
Those are the changes I noticed. Wish there was a changelog.
Look… I will tell you this. For scenic bush flying? There is no better plane. It’s amazing to see places and it flies nicely. If I could get it to stop after landing, I’d be using that as my go-to bush plane. But as long as you don’t mind what happens AFTER you land, it’s absolutely worth it. Maybe this will be addressed in a future patch too?
It’s cool I bought it and it is a lot of fun. I managed to get it to stop pretty quickly on landing by pulling right back on the stick so the force on the back wheel acted like a brake. Made me bounce a bit but stopped pretty quickly after one bounce. I guess the knack is getting that stall alarm going just as you’re pulling right back.
Gonna give it the 3 stars too due to there only being one level of flaps and the engine starting and stopping only working with Ctrl-E.
First thing - you CAN start it cold and dark without Ctrl-E. It’s the only way I fly. It’s the stopping that’s an issue. You can cut off Master Battery and it still runs. There is no mixture control, so you can’t lean it all the way.
Second - the flight model is pretty good - it feels really light and gets tossed around by the wind. I was just flying it low altitude over some mountains/hills near Akita, Japan and it gets fun! It’s pretty hard to stall it - really low stall airspeed - something like 35 knots. I did pitch it up a bunch after getting below 35 knots to get it to slow down, then endlessly pumped brakes to try and not nose it over - it’s exhausting. Like I said, if it shut down properly and didn’t roll forever, I’d give it 4 stars. Also, make sure to set parking brake before starting the engine (it’s off by default in cold and dark) because the thing rolls on zero throttle.
Buy now any plane to MSFS is step to real problem that after some Patch/Update you can leave your aircrafts at hangar On other side hope you test default birds with Community to put this product to better state, correct? If not, nothing to that but then we all can be at end…
I can set anytime only one star to product to joy that it will not be purchased, you agree with me? Pls don’t believe to any infos and especially star ratings. Ok, you can say that then you need buy that product to see but I recommend be careful twice to hurry with garbage. It’s your choice…
I was courious about this, so I finally bought it !!!
And OMG, it’s so amazing !!! I’m excited of how this will be in VR !!!
100% agree, I like the way it flyes, and I like the way it stalls. I don’t know it it’s realistic, but feels very good.
Trying short landing has been a nice challenge, but as you say, I’m exhausted now !!
This needs to be fixed !!!
Landing is very nice too, the way the shocks absorvers are modeled feels very good !!!
I have been trying takeoff performance at different altitudes with different payloads, and it feels very good.
You must take care on slow aproachs not to bank too much, feels very very good.
Anyone is able to start if from the ramp cold & Dark.
I start it, but it stops some seconds after …
I works quite well for short runaways.
But for wild landing where you need a step aproach, i feel the kitfox can do much better …
On other side hope you test default birds with Community to put this product to better state, correct? If not, nothing to that but then we all can be at end…
Pls don’t believe to any infos and especially star ratings. Ok, you can say that then you need buy that product to see but I recommend be careful twice to hurry with garbage. It’s your choice…