Hi all. I’ve been contemplating adding the C152 mod and I was hoping I could get some recent feedback on the differences between the mod and stock Asobo flight models in their current states.
I’m not overly interested in what a mod brings as far as visuals or features (opening doors, lighting…etc). I’m asking the question purely from flight model, handling, and behavioural characteristics.
I’ve read the JP logistics thread in the forum and have gone through the mod features and update history. The challenge I have is discerning how that translates to the current versions of the mod vs stock. I’ve never flown a real 152 but I have a bit of time in a 172 therefore I may be able to have a sense of whether it “feels right”. That said, I’d rather hear from someone that has experience in the real thing.
Many thanks
Considering that the mod is free, why not just give it a try? It’s easy enough to uninstall if you decide you don’t like it.
Thanks for the response. Yes I agree but I suppose I wasn’t clear in what I was asking. I meant I was curious to hear from those that have flown a real 152 for comparison. I was curious which one felt more accurate.
You’ll never pilot a real 152 in game. 
That being said, it is a nice mod that enhances (certain) aspects of the default 152, however the flight characteristics from my past experience with it falls rather short of enhancing or replicating it properly. For instance, you can fly the mod AC down the runway at 20 knots and even less. I could never get it to stall out onto the pavement. That’s what turned me off from having it installed. I’d say, keep in mind that the mod is still in beta. It does leave me hoping to one day see a 152 in the quality we saw from A2ASimulations/JustFlight back in the days, the one with their Accu-sim enhancement. That was/is a beautiful little add-on. The other day I had thought to give the JPLogistics C152 another go to see how the mod works since these past few sim updates. Perhaps we both should just give it a go? 
It’s definitely much closer to the real thing than Asobo! Apart from taxiing which feels a bit off, it feels pretty close to the real plane’s characteristics as far as I can tell.
It is about as close to real as i think you will get in the game ( especially for a free mod). Until the flight dynamics are realistic it will be hard to get anything that flies realistically in the sim. The main issue is that even with all assistance off all turns are fully coordinated without even touching the rudder pedals. I have only about 450 hours in C152 (mostly instructing) and use this mod as the main aircraft i fly in the game ( and yes until the flight fidelity improves i am consciously calling it a game).
I just tested it out again and it seems as if the issues I noticed are still present, sadly. I’ll have to hop in Asobo’s 152, it might lack certain features but I’m sure it probably flies closer to a 152 than this JPL one does. Don’t get me wrong, what JPL has done with it so far is great and I remember a few versions back there wasn’t any issue like this until it began to be noted in their changelogs about flight model changes.
Engine off it won’t stall until about 15 knots and at 20 knots with landing flap you can climb. I’m not sure you can do that in the default 152. Flap drag is minimally present but seems like it doesn’t scale at all. You can fly level at 30 knots with landing flap, push the rpm up to 2200 and gain airspeed, as well climb! There has been students crash doing touch and goes because they couldn’t gather enough airspeed for the fact they forgot to raise their flaps up.
The issue started at version V1.0.0-B7. In that changelog it was mentioned “VS Reaction speed”. From there on up each version it was mentioned simply “Flight model changes”, though there is no real mention in detail what those changes are.
I’m not sure exactly how anyone can state that this mod brings the default 152 closer to the real aircraft. I mean, I guess one can if they ignore these characteristics all together and only see the ‘enhancements’ per se. Has kind of got me wondering if I can just replace the JPL’s flight_model.cfg with the default 152’s flight_model.cfg. I might try that because the work from JPL would be a lot more enjoyable if they hadn’t messed up the flight model. I’ll try that tomorrow and see what happens.
A little hard to hit Start plus PrtScn and keep it going straight but you get the picture.
I think the “stock” C152 is closer to real life. The JPL mod is great, but as far as realism is concerned… not so much. The C150 I flew for years and years was pure joy to fly, even though it was quite old and tired and didn’t climb well past about 5000 feet. Dirty stall with 40 degrees flaps was about 45 knots or so, give or take. Climb with 40 degrees hanging out? Not a chance.