Local Legend III: Dornier Do J Wal

Local Legend III: Dornier Do J Wal is now available for purchase in the Marketplace. Click here to learn more about this plane.

Please use this thread for feedback only. If you encounter a bug, please create a thread in the Bugs and Issues section.

Edit: the PDF manual for this plane can be found at the link below:

3 Likes

Anyone actually liking the Xbox and Aviators club liveries?
Iā€™d rather have normal liveries instead.

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Excellent. I am heading over to purchase. Will have a review posted on my YouTube Channel (Zentropy Aviation) in a little bit.

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So, if I were to buy this, where would I take off from? I just had a look, and there are something like four water runways in the entirety of Europe. Thereā€™s a bunch in North America, but thatā€™s not really where this plane has its roots, now, is it?

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I have problems to start it dark & cold, but hey itā€™s great to have a classic flying boat in the sim, which I was awaiting for quite a while.

I think I heard some phasing with the props at one time, not sure. Need to test further.

It looks gorgeous and seems easy to fly.

Could not get it to takeoff with maximum loading weight, needed to lower that a bit.

Well, whatever quirks it may have or not have, I am certain MS/Asobo and Oliver Moser will sort it those out eventually.

It steers really well on the water, like the Ju52 as well from the same developer.

3 Likes

I have a new concerns.

  1. There arenā€™t a lot of water airports and the ones that are there are hard to see unless you zoom far into the map.
  2. Since the plane starts in the water, there is no cold and dark start. The plane is fully on and moving at a good speed. This makes the check list pointless.
  3. There is no anchor, so the even when the engines are cut the plane is drifting away from the lander area.
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My WHH scenery has a couple of DOCK starting spots in the water and a huge lake, if you look for that. From the top of my hat, at least Monkey Bay, Metangula and Club Makokola have dock starting spots.

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FSX/P3D allowed you to start from anywhere on the planet. If you spawned at sea/ground level, you could make a normal start. MSFS confines you to airport parking spots, or air starts.
I am a big fan of flying boats but they are no fun in this sim.
The inability to start from anywhere is a major failing in this sim.

6 Likes

Do you remember that water ā€œairportā€ please? I didnā€™t found any. Thanks.

No, but if you set the filters on the world map to only show water runways, youā€™ll find them. If you zoom in. And squint.

2 Likes

Oh, I forgot that there are filters on World map. Thanks for hint

You can also use LittleNav Map to filter only water runways and itā€™s a lot easier to spot them. Thereā€™s hundreds in the US and Canada and a handful elsewhere. They added most of these a few updates back, forget which, and I swear there actually were more outside of the US and Canada at one point as I distinctly remember finding a few in Sri Lanka that seem to have been removed in a later update. Wish you could just pick any spot on land or water to take off from though and also a cold and dark option anywhere.

Anyway pretty much all of the default water runways have no parking spots so you canā€™t start cold and dark annoyingly. For PC users thereā€™s a fair few mods out there that add water runways with parking spots. A few on the .to including a pack of Norwegian ones and also the website Return to Misty Moorings adds a whole bunch in the Pacific North West along with cabins and other sceneries and itā€™s pretty neat.

Onto the plane itself: havenā€™t bought it as Iā€™m waiting for reviews and the like after the Fokker release was kinda borked. Also this is the third ā€˜Local Legendā€™ in a row thatā€™s a German plane. Wonder when weā€™ll be getting something from another country :thinking: I know the Spanish military flew this bird but still, 3 German planes in a rowā€¦

edit: actually the Fokker FVII was Dutch I suppose, although a German did design it!

It will be great start flight cold and dark ā€œdockedā€.
Also little bit better engines overstress behaviour will be nice. Engines should stop. But currently I see only standard crash dialog and it is all. But you can definitely survive when engines are overstressed.

Ok letā€™s get on with this. I do not recommend this aircraft - itā€™s another Fokker situation.

  1. The modeling is low poly and some of the textures are uncomfortably low res. The overall feel is far too fsx and not enough msfs
  2. The cockpit camera is too limited: it bumps into everything and you canā€™t move into the cabin although the cabin is modelled on one of the three variants (You get one static camera view from inside it)
  3. Wake effects have ugly graphical glitches which makes zimming (sic, technical term) about on the water ugly happened the first time I tried it but canā€™t reproduce. I was getting crazy flickering wake textures at 90 degrees to direction of travel.
  4. Co pilot is untextured on drone camera view appears to be sim wide problem on xbox at least
  5. Having to start in the air instead of a runway is tedious and the kiss of death for cold and darkers
  6. Aircraft overstresses like it was built to self destruct
  7. Thereā€™s no alternative liveries unless you want the xbox club ones.
  8. It will not start from cold and dark by following the checklist exactly.
  9. If you start with engines running then stop them you can restart the engines. EVEN WITH THE BATTERY OFF. The radios also fully work with the battery off

The main thing that annoys me is the combination of starting in the air plus the overstress. You will immediately start pitching down into a dive when you start and your speed will redline. You will honestly be dead in seconds unless you immediately pull back and decrease throttle hard the instant you spawn.

10 Likes

Thanks for the Heads up. After that Fokker debacle Iā€™m a little shy to buy.

2 Likes

I have an ENTIRELY different opinion than the one above. There IS an issue - cold and dark start doesnā€™t work. But overall, I found this to be an enjoyable $15 package. My review/first impressions of ALL THREE variants are finishing uploading/checking on YouTube and I will post a link as soon as all three are available and ready to go!

6 Likes

After reading these posts. Not for me. This is supposed to be a simulator and with releases like this it becomes more like an arcade game.

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Return to Misty Moorings has a lot of water airports. There are small hamlets on the water, seaplane bases, entire cabin districts near the water. The water starting spots and end points are near cabins and lighthouses, small villages, etc. Thereā€™s a lot on the water to discover at RTMM. The focus area is in Southern Alaska and British Columbia. Theyā€™ve been doing this for FSX/P3D since 2010 and are now making scenery for MSFS2020. Check them out at: www.return.mistymoorings.com or specifically at this link for MSFS 2020 scenery.

https://return.mistymoorings.com/z20_scenery/index.php

1 Like

Iā€™m sure PMDG saw this release and just wentā€¦ screw it lets throw in the towel right?
Less silly histrionics please, this sim isnā€™t being ā€˜taintedā€™ by less complex releases, let people have their fun.

Plane looks very good to be honest, sounds nice and probably well worth it for $15.

7 Likes