Just “flew” this for the first time. It’s an OBVIOUS labour of love and REALLY well-done. The sounds, the visuals, are all superb. Please keep in mind that military aircraft, and ESPECIALLY old military aircraft is not really “my thing”, but if anyone out there is into this type of aircraft, I highly recommend it. There are two issues I encountered (one of which is COMPLETELY on me)…
I can’t get ATC to work. The box says all electrical systems need to be on, but no matter if I press A,B,C,D on the radio panel, nothing seems to work… So that’s one thing - if I am doing something wrong, please tell me, but if anyone got the radio to work, I’d appreciate the insight.
I can’t find the battery switch. I powered it on by moving the throttle forward as the manual describes. Where is it???
I am TERRIBLE at flying this. It took 2 attempts to just get myself in the air. I nosed over on taxi while breaking, but that’s on me. I was too fast and I didn’t keep my nose up, which I remedied the second time around. This thing is TOUCHY on the ground.
I set my trim to nose down one bar as it says in the manual and applied full power. Once my tail left the ground as it normally does whenever I fly taildraggers, I almost immediately nosed over from what I THINK is excessive power…
Second time around I applied pressure on the stick during take-off to keep my tail down (a little counter-intuitive, cause isn’t it SUPPOSED to come up???), and BARELY got off the ground in that “tail down” orientation. The aircraft wanted to drop the wing and I barely straightened it out…
Once it’s flying, it’s a DREAM to fly… It’s ALL trim at that point. If you trim it right, you are good.
Landing was a disaster for me - I can’t see a ■■■■ thing cause I am trying a fairly shallow approach, but I can’t see the runway to save my life (another reason I hate taildraggers)… I somehow managed to line it up and slowed down enough, but at about 80 knots or so, I was still too fast. I was zig-zagging on and off the runway like a drunk Ozzy Osbourne on Ambien. Wings wanted to tip over too, rudder action only destabilized me. Once I THOUGHT I was slow enough, I applied pressure to keep the tail down, applied brakes, and… immediately nosed over.
So, with all that in mind, all my issues are pilot errors and lots of them. But as a word of caution, this is NOT easy to fly if you are used to the X-Cub, airliners, and GA aircraft. This will take LOTS of practice and reading about techniques.
One more technical “little” thing - the Pitot Heat click spot isn’t very good - it’s located by the trim wheel and I have to bring the camera WAY down to be able to click it. Maybe refining that would be nice.
I have to say, despite me struggling so much with this, I applaud the developers for making this - it is incredibly well-done. It is no reflection on the developers that I can’t fly it properly - I am just awful with taildraggers. The way that cockpit is also makes navigation challenging. For some reason, the compass wasn’t mounted as a gauge on the front panel and it’s WAY down by the stick AND its angled. Basically, impossible to see or use. This aircraft is a gorgeous pain in the ■■■. That’s the best way I can think of it right now. It will take a lot to learn this thing to fly it with any finesse, but that’s not a bad thing, again - it’s all on me.
I will probably end up buying this soon, but if I spawn into an airport and don’t have the mod installed, and someone else is at the same airport with the Spitfire, will I see them as a Spitfire or some random Generic?
Battery switch is under the throttle and turned on by advancing the throttle. When the throttle is advanced you can see the toggle switch on the track of the throttle.
My left and right views look down towards the wing rather then 90 degrees left or right. Anyone else?
Oh boy is this one incredible. You can easily tell this was meticulously created - when this thing starts, I jumped a bit at the roar of the merlin engines. I can tell landing this thing properly is going to come with time and practice… it’s certainly not your average taildragger! You really feel immersed when going through the start up procedure and getting in the a ir. Grabbed a few pics over Dover and Biggin Hill: [OFFICIAL] Screenshot Website Feature Thread (Please read post for rules) - #1424 by Angernerve
Would recommend to all enthusiasts of WW2 era aircraft.
First one - left elevator trim neutral… Was able to take off smoothly. Key was to not have full power when the tail wheel goes up. Then all went well… Noticed that radios work when starting on runway. Not so on cold-and-dark.
Landing was tough again. Didn’t nose over, but at about 70 knots touchdown, the wings wanted to drop left or right. It’s REALLY unstable once it touches down and I am not sure why.
Second takeoff was a disaster again. Tried setting the trim 1 bar nose down and it nosed over again.
This thing is gonna take patience. I am off to fly the Arrow now.
I can already tell that somehow I am gonna become obsessed with getting this right and learning to fly this thing. It’s SO immersive! I just went to fly the Arrow and at the last minute changed it to Spitfire so I can do another circuit. I’d feel a sort of sense of accomplishment once I can confidently take off and land it.
Loving it! Very detailed and flies just about as the A2A Spitfire, which is great!
A couple of minor gripes: the flickering canopy glass (known issue in the manual), the fact that you can see the scenery through the gaps between the prop blades and the spinner when the engine is off, and the fact that the default cockpit viewpoint isn’t exactly centered but ever so slightly right off the center axis, which triggers my “Inner Monk”.
It’s something that will come with time. The wings want to drop because they’re so large and long for the aircraft, gotta use as little rudder as possible - at least very gently.
That’s not true. If you have a Generic setting for airport parked aircraft, you will only see generic AC, unless the developer of the 3rd party AC has not enabled the thing that filters them out… I own all 23 aircraft so far, and the only ones I see ALL OVER THE PLACE are Jabirus and Bird Dogs.
Couple of notes: the pop up checklist is misleading, ranges not specific enough, and it’s incomplete.
After a few tries with mixed results, I learned from video below. Basically keep some back pressure on take off, but less than half the range of your control, feed the throttle in slowly but steadily, aim to stabilize around 4 boost and take off around 7, and 90ish mph, not 120mph and not too much boost or the wings will tip easily (for me I kept having trouble with left wing). Don’t use much rudder, but seems necessary when tail comes up.
When landing it’s impossible not to tip or spin if you’re going too fast. Aim for 100mph across threshold and use a good amount of back pressure, bleed as much speed off as possible, flare perhaps longer than usual and at least for me a three-point was not too bad, easier than take off. If you lined up correctly, you don’t need much rudder, for me more so at the end when I applied toebreaks imperfectly.
edit: also I found correcting small wing dips with opposite aileron to work well, and full back pressure after touchdown.
