EDIT to the info below - What I’ve learned with 10 hours in the Arrow:
The Throttle, prop & mixture are STIFF. The throttle is more forgiving, the prop goes from Dr.Jekyll to Mr. Hyde in about a half-inch.
She DOES NOT FLOAT 6 feet off the ground, like a Cessna, rather I found that it’ll catch a little air when you’re 6 INCHES off the ground. “Round out perfectly, 6” off the ground, puff of float, aaaaaaand CLUNK."
KNOW THE NUMBERS. Can’t really fit a constant speed prop by ear. Throw the prop lever forward Before Landing and it sounds like you should have hit Mach 3, but have barely added a knot. Weird. Find a manifold pressure number that gives the speed you’re after (in whatever phase of flight) and make tiny adjustments from there. Especially in descent/approach.
Fun stuff!
Original post:
I’m a private pilot with about 100 hours IRL (which is NUTHIN’), all in c172’s. While I had a Piper Arrow in for a pre-buy inspection, I reconfigured my VR/Motion sim to replicate the controls in the JustFlight Arrow. From the requisite light and battery switches and throttle quadrant (HEY! there’s a BLUE knob, LOL) to the Johnson-bar flaps and the trim wheel on the floor beside the seat! Thankfully, mine even has a similar GPS unit to the Arrow in the sim.
When I flew her home the other day I FELT right at home. I was able to focus on flying rather than figuring where the heck everything was!!
We had 50+ knot tailwinds & winds 25 gusting 37 on landing, I tell ya, I don’t know that I could have done the Ol’ Tokyo Drift turning downwind to base in a complex airplane without having trained in MSFS.
THANKS MS/Asobo!