Took the Warrior and Arrow out for a spin during last nights stream.
I have to hand it to Just Flight - all the things I found wrong with them in the previous FS2020 versions have been corrected. They now feel an awful lot like the real deal. I’ve got lots of rw hours in Warriors (and Arrows, Archers), even old-school ones like these, so hopefully something here helps. Some of this might come off as critical, but overall I was very happy with this. The critical stuff is just things I noticed in a stream-of-consciousness.
When test flying a new GA plane, I do a “standard checkout” out of Auburn, CA (KAUN), like you might do when becoming a renter at an FBO. During exterior preflight, I noticed that several textures were low-res (the EPU plug being very noticeably so), however, that’s not priority one for me. None of the aircraft was interactable during exterior preflight (I believe that’s planned for the future) so don’t go in expecting to be able to remove chocks, wiggle ailerons, sump fuel, etc.
During interior preflight, I found that several of my SPAD switch presets for the 2020 JF Warrior did not work in the updated model. Not a huge deal and easily fixed, but just so folks are aware. I also noticed that the default was that mags were on both and the parking brake was off. I have not since tried to see if going back into an aircraft in a new sim session leaves the aircraft in the same state as I left it, but I hope it does. The avionics switch seems to be guarded only in the off position. That seemed weird to me. I’ve never flown a plane where that was the case, but I can imagine a rationale for it, as if the guard was like a “crash bar.”
The EFB is upgraded and pretty useful. The panel configurations are great, but I have one ask: can we get an additional option with either a GTN750 or GTN650 and not both (instead having a mixed layout in place of the other with old-school nav2 and com2 radios)?
Startup was clean and it behaved a lot like a real warrior. Taxi out was easy, ground handling is much improved. Runup went well - I feel like every plane in the sim needs to run a little rougher during the mag check.
Departed Auburn on runway 25 to the west, normal takeoff (no flaps). It rotated about where it should. The winds were calm so there was no noticeable issue with ground handling/weathervaning. Plenty of right rudder needed. During climbout I noticed how much of a rock this thing is - very stable in all axes. Only a bunch of right rudder needed. Much more stable in pitch and speed than many other aircraft.
Task 1 was to do some steep turns. After some clearing turns, I did a right 720 followed by a left 720 at 50° bank. These went very smoothly, within commercial standards. The airplane didn’t really want to overbank (quite a bit of opposite aileron is needed in real life), but it was close enough. Needed to add a bit of power once established in the turn, and needed to remove it when I rolled out.
Task 2 was slow flight. I configured and slowed the plane to about 55 knots. I was able to maintain that at 4,500’ MSL (13°C) at full throttle minus maybe 100 rpm. The only strange thing here, and it might have been a control setup issue, was I needed so much nose up trim to be trimmed hands-off that I literally could not push the elevator forward from the yoke neutral position in that state. The yoke neutral point in that state should be pretty far back and have plenty of forward travel available. I may need to test this more.
Did some maneuvering during slow flight. The controls were appropriately “mushy” (ineffective). The stall horn wanted to activate any time I increased angle of attack. Level and more than 10° bank really pressed into increasing the load factor just enough tickle the stall horn. The amount of right rudder needed during level flight was a lot - I definitely didn’t skip leg day. Again, I could tweak the control sensitivities a bit to match real world pressures. Full throttle, level flight resulted in about 100 fpm of climb, which isn’t really unrealistic given the warm and heavy conditions.
After slow flight, I did a power-off stall. Wow, JF nailed it here - no ridiculous wing drop like the Asobo 172s, and a slight, but noticeable break. Recovery was right on.
My stream redeemed some points to divert me to a nearby airport, and it was time to do some pattern work, anyway. So I flew over to Lincoln (KLHM), left traffic for runway 33. Once again, this thing is a stable rock. It does exactly what you expect it to do if you have experience in type. The best thing, as I stated in a different response, is that the first notch or two of flaps imparts a nose-down moment, like a real Warrior II/III does. Surprising and welcomed.
First landing was normal. A little fast, but went fine. Followed this with a soft-field takeoff. The nose wanted to lift off with just the right amount of back pressure - it felt very natural and easy to control without overcontrolling like the 172. This takeoff had about a 5-knot crosswind component from the right. Because the sim isn’t perfect at ground dynamics, it wanted to weathervane to the right, requiring left rudder, followed by a swing to right rudder as the mains left the ground. Not super realistic in a trike like a Warrior. Other than that, it lifted off very much like a Warrior doing a soft-field and accelerated in ground effect.
The next landing was a power-off 180 and I blew it. It’s a Piper and they don’t glide as well as Cessnas. I should have done what I normally do and start turning toward the runway as soon as the power went to idle, but I waited a bit too long and paid for it by coming up unstable and short.
Did another PO180 again following more of a real-world turn point and it wentmuch better, landing about 100’ beyond my target.
After that, another short field takeoff (did better), and headed back to Auburn. Back at Auburn I did a normal landing, which went very smoothly. Braking felt natural. For parking, it had a visual towbar, accessible in the EFB, but missing s feature to back in tail-first, as is often done at small airports. I swear I felt a slight cool breeze as I opened the door.
After that I jumped in the Turbo Arrow IV and did a cross country from KAUN to KMMH. That went very well - the only additional issues being the backlight of the GTN750 being tied to the panel lights (not something I’m used to) and the GTN650 being seemingly inop until I clicked on the CDI button of the GTN750.
Also, I had to lean back to maybe 5% of the depicted physical travel of the mixture knob at 13,500’ to retain the correct power and EGT, which is way too much, especially for a turbocharged aircraft.
But overall, both aircraft are very well-done! Definitely worth the money, definitely “keepers.” I’d much rather fly these than the 172 for light cargo, flightseeing, or first flight missions in career mode.
