After the second Patch #2 release, with no change in the planes flight characteristics by ASOBO, I decided to make a small series of my own flight testing based on my knowledge on some airplanes I have decent real flight time to provide feedback and discussion as to how the flight characteristics can be improved.
In the “FLIGHT TEST” series i would take 4 airplanes for a small flight tests to see if the performance and characteristics are “Close enough” to the real plane so we can enjoy as realistic models as possible.
the 4 planes I want to test are the Cessna 172, Cessna 152, DA62, and A320.
I did not flew on the real DA62 but on it’s smaller brother DA42NG (that’s the only exception).
If there is more real world pilots here that flew on those or other planes provided in FS2020 share your experience and comparison. We need to fix these default models, they are not too bad, but need some adjustment.
I’ll start with general issues I found / known :
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Autopilot issue - It seems that the flight director is too sensitive to the turbulence and oscillate very quickly causing the plane AP to chase it aggressively. This cause unrealistic drastic pitch chases / corrections by the autopilot. The C172 use a servo on the trim that is pretty lazy, so pitch correction done very smooth on this plane. The fix can be pretty simple by delaying and slowing the pitch trim response.
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G1000 many functions are missing to include : Ability to turn the synthetic vision off, “Direct to” and activate it as a flight plan, Additional engine page, and the the PFD FPL page is so small that it’s unreadable.
Flight characteristics :
I attached this chart, from the CESSNA 172 POH. I replicate the perfect conditions with standard atmosphere, temp and pressure. And took off at MTOW with full payload and fuel.
The results shows that the plane is about -100 feet per minute slower on the climb performance, (just a bit under powered but almost there. The initial climb was a bit slow at 600fpm (VY 74) while the published performance close to 730fpm.
Mid point climb is also off, also want to make ante that i had to start lean very early, around 2000 feet and not 3000 feet as recommended by Cessna.
Notice the deviation in performance at 8000 feet :
and 12,000 feet !
Just be advised : Cessna states that 14,000 feet is “Service Ceiling” NOT “Absolute Ceiling”, if my memory is still good, service ceiling defined as “the plane capable of climb at a rate of 100 feet per minute” that mean reaching 14,000 feet you still have 100 fpm climb performance.
Based on my flight test, the plane barely could reach 13,300 feet with 50 feet per minute climb.
Conclusion :
The C172 performance are very close to the real deal however it just need a small tweak to be perfect. I hope ASOBO can fix these little issues to call it Great !
Please share your experience and results !