Released today. I quite liked their various cubs they released for FSX/P3D so I’m getting this.
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Curious for your thoughts once you get some time with it. One of their Facebook posts indicated they were using stock Asobo sounds in testing and I was curious if that’s still the case.
Flying it around now and it does use the default Savage Cub sounds which is not ideal. Not a fan of these Rotax engine sounds and doesn’t really sound anything like a Continental. Also it seems to be legacy sounds as there’s no change in noise when you open up the window.
Textures and modelling are ok but not great. I don’t really mind that apart from some ugly texturing on the left forward strut as that’s right in your normal field of view. Some ugly radiator texturing on the front as well if you zoom in. External textures are mostly ok but a but low res but not too bad.
There’s some weirdness with mixture being modelled despite there being no mixture lever so you can shut the engine down if you cut the mix on your controller. A bit odd. Speaking of odd the magneto switch is your basic off/left/right/both type deal but if you’re on both and click to the right again it acts as a starter switch which I don’t think is intentional as the intended method is to click on the prop to get it started up. Also the carb and cabin heat knobs are pretty tricky to click on.
On the plus side I like it’s handling. It’s quite sedate and takes a brief moment for it to actually turn. Kinda mushy in a way like I’d imagine a light 30s plane with a 65hp engine to handle. (not that I have any experience with that!) The ground handling is good and taking off and landing has none of the usual weird over the top swinging motions you get with some tail draggers in the sim, but then again it is really quite slow and low powered so that probably helps!
It is really quite slow which I imagine some people will find frustrating but I like it. I mean it’s basically an old school cub with a military paint on it and plain old basic cubs ain’t exactly known for their speed! Nice views from the cockpit as well so good for sight seeing or for directing an artillery barrage 
So my early first impressions are a bit of a mixed bag really. Not a fan of the sounds, textures ain’t great but I can manage with that but it’s a Cub and I love Cubs and am enjoying this so far. If you’re a Cub fan and aren’t too offended by the Rotax sounds then I’d give it a a soft recommendation but with the caveats I mentioned.
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Those pics were the liaison version of the plane. There’s an observer variant too which is basically the same but you get a stonking big aerial sticking out the roof and an old school (inoperative) radio in the back. It’s also where the US Army Air Force liveries live. Should also mention no radios or GPS, what you see on the dash is basically what you get.
This bird can go quite slow but don’t go too slow or you’ll end up upside down like me.
And we have a floatplane variant too!
Water rudder comes up and down although it seems to steer on the water just fine with it up or down but at least it’s animated and you get a control for it. Doesn’t handle too bad on the water. Still some janky Asoboness here and it gets rocked about on the waves quite a bit but water physics in this game are kinda meh anyway. There’s no wake effects either.
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looks like a mixed bag - not unusual for a first foray into MSFS from the established FSX / P3D developers.
I believe FR will come with some fixes when they can though - and of course MSFS is still being built up so…I dunno if I’ll spend on it now. Lets see if there’s some feedback to the customer feedback from FR
Sounds may be disappointingly repurposed, but also should point out that this is only $15.99. I loved FR’s stuff for FSX/P3D, and this looks fantastic. Since it sounds like it flies right, I’ll pick it up this weekend when I have some sim time!
Given the other Cub in the marketplace is just $6 cheaper and sounds like it has some pretty significant flight model issues, this one looks really attractive to me. To BT’s credit, they did a huge Kitfox update a couple of years after release, but it still won’t slow down on approach, and from what I’ve read their Cub has similar issues.
Couldn’t wait so I picked it up and did a couple of short flights!
Really nicely modeled, and that flight model feels aces. I’m okay to forgive an occasional texture that doesn’t look like it’s from an Nvidia ad if the plane flies convincingly, and this one most definitely does! And the detail inside is really nice – love the animated control cable above your head.
Really, for the price, it’s awesome for someone who wants a retro Cub instead of a 21st Century redesign!
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Nah, there’s no reason to revert to legacy sounds. It’s not Asobo’s fault some third party devs don’t want to spend time on creating a good soundscape. There are plenty of planes at this exact price point that have great Wwise sounds, so there’s really no excuse
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You can try to use the CAP10 (or C152) sound file.
As the engine don’t reach high RPMs it should sound better, at least as a flat four engine, anyway better than the Rotax sound…
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How does one go about changing out the sounds? 'm guessing it’s just a case of swapping out the .PCK sound file and sound.xml from the donor plane and then regenerating the layout.json file using the layout generator tool? Guess I’ll give it a go.
Got some other payware planes with older 4 cylinder engines as well. Aeroplane Heaven’s Cessna 140 has a Continental C85 with similar power but they use a legacy sound set there, not ideal but better than nothing I guess. There’s also the Ryan ST-A by A1R that has a Menasco C4 and the Caudron Rafale by Bluemesh with a Renault 4P.
from Bomber_12th on sim-outhouse:
"Out of personal preference, I have chosen to alias the sound to the Asobo Cessna 152 soundset, which to my ear is quite a close match to the Piper L-4/J-3 Cub. To do that, simply open each of the Aircraft.cfg files and edit the entries where it says Sound="" by changing it to Sound="…\Asobo_C152\sound" (if the cockpit sound of the Cessna 152 battery/electrics bugs you, just press Shift+M, which will turn off the battery power - of course if you manual start it, there will be no battery/electrics sound).
Additionally, if you want to simulate flying the aircraft solo and therefore be sitting in the rear seat when flying, just press Ctrl+2 and it will move you there in an instant."
and a first attempt at a repaint from me:
jk4432 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
jk4425 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
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I tried it with the Cap10 sounds and it sounds a lot better than before. The dev using the Savage Cub sound pack with the Rotax was an odd choice by the devs. Anyhoo got in a couple more flights and am quite enjoying it.
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jk4470 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
jk4467 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
jk4458 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
jk4451 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
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A lot of devs struggle with Wwise sounds - to the extent that some of them spend significant money getting third party media specialists in just to do the sounds. Aside from anything else getting recordings of an original Continental O-170-3 flat four would not be at all easy.
That said, using a Rotax sound pack is an odd decision.
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I’ve uploaded the two paints pictured earlier, and I’ve aliased the sound to the C152
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L4 does not really sound like a c172, if anything more like a Stinson. just saying.
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Your paints are going to seal the deal for me.
I will buy this and alias sounds to the 152 for now.
Thanks for all the great liveries you give us.
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Great work, as all you make!
Thank you so much Jan Kees 
The L-4 was in fact designed to be flown from the front seat at the request of the US Military, unlike other Piper Cub models.
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This has shown up on Just Flight not for £11.29 which is about 3-4 quid cheaper than I got it from Flight Replica’s site as their price didn’t include VAT 
Ah well, more money in the devs pocket ain’t a bad thing I guess. Anyway can’t really argue much for under 12 quid and is worth it.
Ain’t the L-4 basically just a J-3 Cub with a military paint job? There’s a sign in the front of the cockpit in that says rear seat when flying solo. I guess the military probably intended it to be flown with 2 people at all times and then the pilot is up front which is why it has a full suite of instruments up there. But for solo flying you park your butt in the rear.
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