The Fox Moth has released on the Marketplace, where it will likely be exclusive for a while if not permanently. Flight Replicas has only released one addon outside of the Marketplace, and that was their debut.
I’ve only done a couple of flights, but they were both lovely. The flight model feels good. With a full load, getting it to climb takes some patience and ground effect. There are some tiny gaps here and there in the seat/canopy area but generally, the model is quite nice inside and out, at least up to FR’s usual standards if not a bit higher fidelity. There are a couple of animations for the doors and canopy.
Some concerns (some of which are very minor for the price point):
Uses the C152 soundset
As a result, has no sound attenuation. I’m almost positive there’s attenuation on the WP/JPL 152, so I think it’s possible using the default soundset. I hope Flight Replicas could look into that.
The “modified” variant is missing all sounds. This is likely a bug in its reference to the Asobo soundset. I’ll submit a bug to the developer. I haven’t tried the float variant yet.
The P8 compass is backwards and points south instead of north
The P8 compass does not have a heading indicator like you might find in a Spitefire
The P8 compass does not have a rotating outer ring a locking pin (though I doubt vibration is simulated to get it out of sync anyway)
Thanks so much for the review. I saw it and was about to hit the trigger so I guess you saved me a few bucks.
Sounds of the C152 are just unacceptable, and the images really don’t look very attractive at all.
If you were blindfolded could you really tell the difference between a Fox Moth and a C152 just by the sound? By tell the difference, I guess I really mean, would you know which was which? I’m going to guess most of us wouldn’t.
No of course I can’t. But for these vintage planes I think a nice soundset is a good percentage of the package so without it, it is just not that interesting to me.
I’ve never heard of a Fox Moth of any sort (biplane, lepidopteran, or otherwise), but after taking one look at this thing I have to have it. A cabin-class tiger moth on floats? I’ll have one (more) impulse buy, please!
For an inline engine developed in the mid 20s, a de Havilland Gipsy III or Gipsy Major engine, I think the engine note is quite distinctive and the C-152s Lycoming doesn’t really hit the mark.
Everything with Flight Replica’s seems a bit half baked, normally great visual, (though the P-40 has quite bad shadow flickering) an ok flight model and then sounds closest from any available default aircraft.
I can confirm that this plane is truly a joy to fly. I do NOT regrett my purchase. As already mentioned, I can also confirm that I had the “no sound” issue with the modified version. I am sure whis will be fixed in a update soon. For everyone loving the bygone era of early aviation, THIS is a plane for you!
Apparently the developer could not locate sounds as it doesnt seem there are any airworthy Fox moths outside of new Zealand , though i’m sure tiger moth sounds would have been better
Congratulations…. but that would put you in a small minority.
Anyway, this is a $16 airplane. If it was $30+ I would have expected more effort in the sound set. For $16, I’m not going to complain too much. It’s nicely modeled, and flies nicely.
I see both perspectives regarding the sounds. Up until recently, the use of default sounds was a dealbreaker for me, but for a sub $20 addon I’m a bit less picky. It’s not ideal, but I don’t feel it massively detracts from the experience. A custom soundset would be great, but it doesn’t seem to be in the cards for one man show developers like Flight Replicas and Lionheart, and I can forgive them for not being masters of everything. I do think it’d be great if they could work out some arrangement with one of the third-party sound developers out there.
Visually Flight Replicas is no Carenado, but my overall feeling about the look of this plane inside and out is positive. The price point again helps there.
What wins me over with Flight Replicas addons is generally the flight model. They may not be scientifically 100% accurate, but they give me a great immersive feeling of flying. Same goes for Black Box addons. That’s a developer who solved their sound problem and now has some of the best sounds in the sim, but their addons still look rough around the edges. But their flight models, particularly on the Bird Dog, keep me coming back.
Anyway, not trying to win anyone over here as I have no skin in the game. If vintage aircraft are your thing, this one’s a great little addon for $16. If you’re more discerning about the aspects where this one may disappoint, that’s certainly worth a consideration before opening your wallet.
I loved the flight model on the L-4 but the textures and sounds were not good. This one is interesting but doesn’t quite strike my fancy. Now if Ants had made it using the same level of fidelity as their Tiger Moth, I might be all over it…
When I saw it appear in the marketplace my first thought was “oh, makes sense they made the DH82 and now the DH83”, then I realized it was from a different developer, then I was going to try it anyway because I like the DH82 a lot and then I read Stardrifter2232 report and came back on my own tracks.
Ants did a wonderful job with the DH82, the same level of dedication for the DH83 would be an instant buy for me, at this level and with the DH82 as a comparison point I just can’t. Hope it helps devs try to raise the bar.
Well i took a punt and while i dont regret it and will fly it there are several huge cringe moments
from 1 flight so first impressions really
Engine sound , well i did cringe when i heard it but weirdly after i landed and had to rev up a lot to taxi it sounded good i certainly wouldn’t slate it on that alone .
pilot avatar another white male only ( this is a real bug bear with me , Asobo created male and female pilots of different races yet we get lumbered with custom white men in a lot of planes why not just use the asobo avatar OR have it as an option at least)
3)turn to fast on the ground plane tips over which is great…except the wing goes into the ground right up until almost the fuselage
turn cordinator and turning in the air generally is squiffy. Ok… when turning in the air using bank only it feerls very spongy ( this could be how it should be however) the turn coordinator bubble acts like a spirit level and heads off in the opposite direction which looks like its an un cordinated turn so i added some rudder this made the actual turn worse, the bubble did nothing and i actually got into a spin on one occasion so no idea if the turn was co ordinated or what the bubble was doing ( left turn bubble goes right, added left pedal turn went mental spin ensued)
I dont often fly the 152 and last time it felt very twitchy this feels more docile it pitch and roll though it will bite you as i found out, i think some tweaks this could be good IMHO it looks fab.
Also tail comes up very quick if you dont hold it down (that could be how its supposed to be i did have a 20knot headwind)
