New Release: A1R’s Ryan ST-A Special

Looks like the perfect VR aircraft.

yes I flew it in VR and it was great

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Has anyone been able to get this to go faster than ~130mph in level flight? From everything I’ve read, the ST-A had a top speed of 150 and cruised around 127mph, but even at full throttle I can never break 130 unless I dive.

How are you getting your velocity information? What altitude were you flying at?

Typically, the top speed that can be reached by any given aircraft occurs at a specific altitude and temperature, due to the changing effects and efficiencies due to mixture and lower drag at higher altitudes, and is typically recorded as True airspeed, as opposed to Indicated which is what you see on the airspeed indicator. But perhaps you left all of that out of your description?

At 5000 ft standard temperature, 130 mph indicated is 113 knots indicated which is 124 knots true which is 143 mph True airspeed… at 10,000 that same speed of 130 mph indicated would be 156 mph True airspeed.

I haven’t yet found a downloadable ST-A POH to find the performance charts (assuming they have any in a 1930’s era airplane flight manual).

The max speed performance the documentation they gave with the plane says 140 mph at sea level, 135 mph at 10,000 ft, and 130 mph at 16,000 ft, but they don’t say if that’s true or indicated airspeed. Technically, those should be true airspeeds, but, who knows?

Just a thought, confirm that you’re reading in MPH, 130 kts is 150 mph

I was doing the tests at sea level with the clear skies preset and practically no wind and using LIttleNavmap ground speed and checking against what was displayed. I do know the LNM displays ground speeds in kts and the gauge in the cockpit is mph but still the calculated ground speeds and the indicated airspeeds were a good 15mph less than what the advertised top speed is.

Again, you weren’t quite clear here, I assume you mean you converted the ground speed from LNM to mph?

And you saw that the reported top speed at sea level in perfect conditions with everything perfect from the developer is 140 mph? Did you try changing the mixture? You might get a couple knots out of it by reducing the mixture a bit, even at sea level.

It also doesn’t report what amount of fuel is in the plane to attain that speed or what the load was in general. Perhaps try 10% or 15% fuel?

The real point I’m getting at is, it’s not super easy to actually attain top speed in any plane under any conditions.

This plane looks fantastic, and it’s amazing in VR!

Flying it in flat mode, though, the views are a bit messed up on the hat switch. Before I figure out how to fix them, has anyone else already done the work for me? :slight_smile:

Yes, I’m aware of how conversions of different units work, as for the reported top speed, the emphasis of “perfect conditions” is yours, not theirs, and yes I played with the weight and balance and mixture. No worries though I tweaked the drag values in the flight model and now achieve the correct speeds.

If your just trying to slow something down there is also that “wear” slider in the livery section that adds parasitic drag.

The opposite actually. I wasn’t getting anywhere trying to tweak the power to reach anywhere near the published speeds, so I dropped the drag just a bit and now I can reach the published speeds.

If you read my question, I said your answer wasn’t clear to me and I was asking for clarification.
I’m sorry you took it personally.

Hi Jeremy, do you have experience with this developer (VirtualCol)? Could we expect VATSIM ready level airliner that looks good as well in your opinion?

Edit: after doing a quick search for VirtualCol I should keep the expectations low I guess…

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The only experience with them I have is their MSFS Beech 99. It’s horrible, VATSIM or otherwise. Nothing works as it should, AP is awful, avionics are garbage, and the plane is uglier than sin. I am not looking forward at all to anything they do.

After a few hours of flying this thing I’ve discovered a major problem: I can’t stop going into drone view to look at the beautiful 3d model! I’m not usually one for taking loads of screenshots but I can’t help myself with the ST-A, it looks so bloody good from every angle.

Also there seems to be a bit of a meetup of replica Caudron Rafales at Old Warden lol.


Old Warden Scenery, nice collection of static 3d models of vintage planes and some old cars etc: EGTH - Old Warden Shuttleworth » Microsoft Flight Simulator

I’m really enjoying this plane.

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Interesting to see the Caudron line up.
I tossed up between that & the Ryan & went with the Caudron 1st but will also get the Ryan.
The Caudron is a bit of a handful & I was having trouble getting off the deck until I remembered the Spitfire method - no flaps.
That works. It has a longish take off run with a decided left hook near tail skid lift, but controllable. Huge flaps & good sound.
Another 'vintage 'character aircraft worth considering.
(& currently on sale for USD10.37)
TG

I’m really quite enjoying both this plane and the Caudron. DC Designs are releasing a Stearman pretty soon which I hope will also be great. I love this era of flight!

About to pull the trigger…it looks fantastic,just hope it flies as well as it looks

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Normal flight is great, very enjoyable, trims out and hand-flies very nicely.

Stall characteristics are a mixed bag if that’s important to you. The real thing was supposed to be fairly tame in stalls and power-on stalls are but for some reason for me power-off stalls are very drastic. It tends to try to go straight into a spin even from coordinated flight.

Not that big of a deal though, I’d still very much recommend it, it feels like the next step up from the Top Rudder 103 for low and slow sightseeing fun.

Yeah, I’ve decided a visit to rehab might be required…