I just want to say thank you. This is one awesome plane. An intense amount of work, and several versions of this aircraft. Three (THREE) different instrument panels with totally different gauges. A single engine version AND… and… a tri-motor version. Love the details and brilliant textures. Thank you Team Asobo and Orbx.
Hoping to see repaints of these. Would be cool to start a vintage 1930’s era virtual airlines that went up through Europe and down into Africa, and perhaps a Canada / USA vintage airlines as well.
Love that wood work on the wing. That is brilliant. The Germans and Dutch were/are so famous for this form of aircraft construction. Even the Gotha Go-229 wing had this construction.
First attempt:
10x 80 kg (crew + passengers)
50% fuel
Grass strip (1045 m)
I got to almost 70 knots but the runway was too short.
The second try (heavy), i choose Schiphol with more than 3000 m runway, i tried to get as high as possible. I reached above 4200 feet. But that took 20 minutes. The plane can get higher but very slow height gain.
Third attempt:
Back to the grass strip.
Now i tried with an empty plane.
1x 77 kg (pilot)
Again almost 70 knots but after 900 m, the plane got airborne.
Anybody else also seeing issues with the fuel pump light in the retro version? The lights will start to burn only after you switch on the fuel pump for engine number 1. Hope they will fix it in an update.
Haven’t tried it but maybe the default autopilot key/button assignments work like they do on some other planes without an autopilot modelled in the cockpit.
You know, this thing IRL is basically just a big Piper Cub (not Super-Cub) in terms of simplicity of Construction and Operation.
There isn’t much simulating to do on it in the first Place. And they somehow managed to much up even that.
I wouldn’t trust them to get an SG-38 right on first release.
The original F.VIIa/3m that went to the states had a steerable skid and wheel brakes! See NACA circular 76, available for free online! Oh, and it had 2 x 95 gal fuel tanks! The longer wing got 2 more tanks, probably the standard 95 gal as well. The replica has 4 x 90 gal tanks. Friendship was modified to have 870 gals, while Southern Cross had 1267 gals!
I don’t know why they modelled 21 gal fuel tanks, except that the total oil capacity was 21 gals for the 3 engines. The CG range they say is from 400-600mm aft of datum, which is 23.2 to 29.0% MAC, not 0 to 100.
In the handling dept, too much rudder authority and dihedral effect. The replica during flight tests only managed about 15 deg sideslip with full rudder input, requiring only a little aileron to compensate, 20-25 deg of wheel rotation out of a total of 160 deg of possible movement, so maybe 15% of the total travel. Bank angle to maintain heading was about equal to the sideslip angle, so about 15 deg.
In the sim, I’m getting about 30 deg of sideslip and running out of aileron with only about 1/2 rudder input. The roll rate seems accurate though, about 5 seconds to 45 deg of bank.
Only the replica should have constant speed props. The originals had ground adjustable only propellers, so fixed pitch.
Too bad we can’t edit the “configuration” files ( They’re text files, for crying out loud )
The States at that Point were pretty much the only Nation to use Concrete or Asphalt Airfields/Runways and Taxiways
Most of the World used Aerodrome type Grass Airfields without fixed Runways, more like directional Suggestions, but basically you could take off into the Wind pretty much always.
Grass Airfields have more drag and the Skid is enough of an additional Brake and Directional Guide.
On Asphalt a Skid is basically useless. It doesn’t add braking and gives no stability, especially not in a Crosswind.
That’s why they fitted Brakes (which were equivalent to a modern day 50cc Scooter, and that is generous of me) for Taxiing, which were there to aid taxiing, in conjunction with Rudder, Asymmetrical Thrust and Elevators.
None of these old Planes were meant for any sort of Precise Manouver into a marked parking Position, but they were good enough to get you to the terminal. And because Planes couldn’t be left outside, they would quickly be hangarized after diesmbarking anyways.
Nah. He’s right. Not everyone has the time or desire. Orbx have tried almost too hard with this release and it’s backfired. The audience is much more relaxed and not wanting to spend hours at a time sat at a computer in a virtual aircraft. Many of us have lives outside of simming.
Well, that strikes me as a somewhat unjustified generalization. It is only true for some people, so how can anybody decide, who to target a product for?
I’d consider an A/P in that aircraft rather ludicrous.
Yes, this Life includes IRL Flying.
And we like to use Sims to sharpen our Skills and have fun while Winter makes it unpleasant and dangerous to fly.
And for that we like to take out interesting Planes that aren’t your average Cessna or Piper.
And we like to prepare a Flight in our favourite Economy Simulation, start up Vatsim or IVAO, prepare a Plan in Skyvector and then go for a 45 Minute Flight.
And in an Economy Simulation we want to take a realistic Fuel Load, realistic Payload (the Sims actually force that sometimes) and want to go to a place, do the Job and see how well we did.
If none of that works even remotely, it’s immersion breaking and no fun.
I wanted the Fokker 1m for some fun VFR flying in NZ and Australia, but that simply doesn’t work at the Moment because you can’t taxi, the Plane barely flies with any load and the Simulation kicks you for cheating on the Fuel Burn.
So currently this means that I am not going to buy the next Legends Plane.
I’m not gonna refund in the hope that someone creates a realism mod for it or that it actually gets fixed in an Update.
But I’m not hopeful.
Are here developers or project manager that can provide us information when updates or fixes will be available for these aircrafts please?
Maybe @Jummivana can help us get this kind of information?
I’m hesitant to give up on it either, because I love the Plane as a Plane IRL, I just generally love 20’s to 40s’ Propliners.
And optically it’s pretty decent.
They have a good working base and it really only needs some serious tweaking to be right.
