Had similar for x-plane
Can’t wait to explore Alaska with this beauty
Just bought it, taking it for a spin and will report back!
Excited to hear impressions. The other planes I own from A1R are really, really nicely done from both visual and flight model perspectives, so likely going to grab this after work!
This is an addon that does just enough to delight the user to make up for the inherent simplicity of the aircraft. The panel is relatively spartan. It has no flaps, no lighting of any kind that I could see (daytime VFR only with this one) and not much in the way of interactive elements such as doors, tablets, etc., but that goes with the territory. Liveries are also scarce with only 3, two of which are fairly similar. You do have retractable gear which is a perk. This is truly amphibious and will drive out into the water very well.
For GPS lovers, you have… nothing.
Where it primarily stands out is the engine sound. I’m not sure what engine the recording is of or how accurate it is, but it’s a genuinely beautiful sound, perfectly balanced to my ear, with no notable popping, looping or other defects. It might be one of the best engine recordings I’ve heard in MSFS to this day, both inside and out. I flew it for over an hour and enjoyed every second of the sound. I would have liked some heavier wind sounds given the open cockpit, but FSRealistic helps a bit with that. Miscellaneous sounds are too weak, unfortunately. The gear sound is negligible. I’m sure there’d at least be an audible clunk at the extremes, but I didn’t hear much of anything beyond the engine.
The flight model feels nice. The rudder’s range of motion is substantial and allows for some really deep rudder turns and makes pretty aggressive forward and side slips a breeze. The engine feels powerful and makes short takeoffs from both land and water possible and climb outs feel aggressive for a single engine, though stalls are definitely a threat when pushing the limit.
Overall, I think it’s worth the money, but I would have liked more liveries (fictional would be fine) and some touch ups on sounds other than the engine. I won’t comment on improvements to the flight model as I have zero idea how this should fly. It might be spot on, for all I know.
I agree with @Stardrifter2232 the engine sound is fantastic. I’m not sure if the Sh-2 uses the same engine as a Po-2, but they sound similar. (With the sound of a five cylinder radial already recorded, I would love to see a Ryan PT-22 by A1R )
The model quality is just as good as the Ryan and Chilton and is among the best models in MSFS. The flight model also feels convincing. A very nice feature are the replaceable instruments. If you don’t want to use metric instruments, you can replace them with imperial ones. It doesn’t just change the face of the instrument but replaces them with real world imperial gauges.
It would be great to see a few authentic liveries for the SH-2, all three textures are a bit simplified. With the ingame custom registration, you can however recreate the red cross version.
One area that could use some improvement in my opinion is the water behavior. It has similar issues to the Boeing Clipper on its initial release or the Norseman. It tends to jump on the water.
But other than that, it’s a great aircraft and it was a great surprise to see a new aircraft from A1R so shortly after the release of the Chilton. I really hope that means we’ll see a lot more from them =)
I’m currently uploading a video to Youtube of a short flight around Fantasy of Flight with it, if anybody is interested, I can link it here when it’s ready.
Okay, sold. I mean, I was sold anyway because A1R – I had zero interest in the Chilton as a plane before it was released, but like their Ryan it’s just sublime. The attention to detail is top-notch, and (too often ignore in rivet-counting posts 'round here), the flight modeling on both of those feel right on. (And weirdly, the Ryan still feels great despite no updates over numerous sim updates.)
So, off to SimMarket! Thanks for the impressions, @Stearman948713 and @Stardrifter2232!
Kinda surprised this was released so soon after the Chilton. The Chilton was released quite a while after the Ryan so was expecting another long wait for their next plane so I’m pleasantly surprised. I guess they were developing both the Chilton and Shavrov concurrently. Haven’t bought it yet as hopefully it’ll turn up on Just Flight within the next few days just like the Ryan and Chilton did but I’m very much looking forward to trying it out as it looks great.
Here is my short flight around Fantasy of Flight without talking. Hopefully it can serve as a first impression on the sound, visual model and give an idea of the flight model.
Defs gonna pick this up tonight; i was hoping they’d start bringing over some of their Soviet aircraft. I wasn’t super interested in the Chilton, but this is right up my alley \o/
On an aside, i would love someone to make a quality Po-2 for MSFS, since it’s a ton of fun to fly in IL-2. The real dream would be to have the IL-2 team collab with MSFS and bring over their entire catalogue, but that’s probably never gonna happen haha
I bought this one just a few hours after being available on SimMarket. I really appreciate the Chilton but I beg to differ on this one.
The flight model seems right, the model itself is nicely done and the engine sound, although I have no idea of the original one sound, is really great. This is certainly the best part of this addon. On the other hand, there are very few other sounds, notably when lowering the landing gear, one would expect a moderatly “loud” noise at this moment. The switch to imperial units, the chocks and the little wind flag are nice features.
The behavior on water is not really good at landing and take off. It needs improvement. I would not mind having a GNS 530 or 430 unit as an option neither. Clicking on a screw to make it appear, or better, hidden in a “glove box” or something else as Big Radials did on the Goose. And I don’t see any fuel gauge, it is usually useful to have one.
I don’t understand the 230 LBS of luggage, it’s clearly ballast and needs to be active all the time or you will heavily nose down in the water. Why just not incorporate this weight in the configurations files instead of having this (useless) option in the weight management? I don’t see any cargo/luggage compartment, or I missed it. Not a big deal, just wondering.
The last, and obvious, is the lack of liveries. The green/blue and red cross are well done and that’s all you get. The white one cannot be counted since it is a blank to be used with the file provided to create liveries, or can be if you like a totally white plane and add a reg. number in the aircraft.cfg.
I like the plane, the way it flies (less on water), the very good engine sound but I kind of regret my blind purchase based on the good experience I had with the Chilton. Not to mention it is a little bit more expensive than the Chilton while giving less. I would only recommend it to people looking for this specific plane. For this kind of money you will be better served with other addons like the Sea Rey, Widgeon (when on sale) or the Norseman. At least in the current state of the addon. If the weaknesses are corrected, mainly the behavior on water, the lack of liveries and maybe some navigation tools (even a vor/dme would do), it would stand the comparison with the three planes I mentioned or other addons in the same price bracket. Let’s hope this happen.
I agree whole-heartedly. It’s a neat addon that I suspect no one else would have ever made, but it really isn’t up to the standard I felt that A1R had set with their prior addons. I sadly haven’t felt compelled to fly it at all since the first week of owning it.
Same here… And I don’t think we will get any kind of update, unfortunately. I will definitely hold on a future purchase.
The Shavrov just got an update, v1.0.5, glad I’m proved wrong on my last post.
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enhanced aircraft handling and suspension simulation
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various liveries
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optional ADF unit (see documentation)
11 liveries from various countries available now all with dynamic reg. Nice to see the effort made here as well as the added ADF (waiting for a GNS) and work on the handling.
Thanks for the heads up.
The behavior on water is now 1000x better. The issue with the nose dipping under seems to be resolved.
Overall, it’s a very nice and easy flying machine. I just wish the tailskid would produce more drag. As it is now (also before the update), it won’t stop, even with the engine at idle and the mixture pulled halfway back. Is there any way to increase the drag in the files?
It might not be authentic to the SH-2, but I really like the new French Navy livery:
This is one of my favorite livery too. To stop, on land at least, you can use left and right rudder and pulling the stick. It works pretty well.
I just had time to test v1.0.5. Much better handling and behavior, especially on water. FM seems the same, which was already good. I’m happy with this version, especially with the behavior on water since I’m fond of amphibians. I would have prefered a GNS430 instead of an ADF, not many of those left nowadays. I hope the dev. keep up to this standard for his next addons.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll try that the next time I’m taking the Sh-2 up =)