Zenith 701 (Sky Jeep) from SimWorks Studios released

There’s a new patch for the Zenith, quite an overhaul of the plane.

No sound on any of the switches or fuel selector.
To get the CG correct, you put the passenger weight in the luggage area. I.e. set passenger to 0 and 170lbs of baggage. :wink:
I haven’t seen any release notes on what was updated.
In real life the 701 is one of my favorite planes (although I’d rather have a CH650), but this model is still a little lacking in refinement.


                    Changelog of SWS Zenith CH701 STOL v1.10 || January 14, 2021

—Zenith CH701 STOL

Flaps: reduced drag, increased lift
Flaps: changed to mechanical and now respond almost instantly to changes
Engine: Reduced aircraft top speed
Engine: Improved engine response across entire envelope
Aircraft will now decelerate at low RPM
Electrical system: Modified electrical system to account for new engine behaviour
Added Parking Brake for convenience

—SCENERY—

44N: Modified snow property on some items to make them seem "fresh"
Added some more clutter objects around airport

—BUSH TRIP—

Changed fuel tank selector setting from "ALL" to "BOTH" to reflect correct setting.
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I had the pleasure of trying out v1.10 of the SWS Zenith CH701 STOL. Gosh, the CH701 really puts a smile on my face, so much fun! My only nitpick, I did notice that the CH701 doesn’t make any noises associated with the wheels touching down or rolling over the ground, no rattles, etc. I wonder if this is an issue on my end, if the sound design for the CH701 is still a work in progress or if this is by design?

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Does anybody know what’s up with the alternator in this plane? There doesn’t seem to be a physical alternator button, at least not that I can find. If you know of one, please share. However, if you don’t turn on the alternator, you will lose all of your electronics after about a half hour or so.

Overall, I’m enjoying the plane, but it really leaves a lot to be desired in the audio. Turning on the battery makes no sound. Turning on the fuel pump makes no sound. The switches themselves have no sound. Turning the key makes no sound. The engine sound is muted.

As a STOL plane, I feel like I can take this one anywhere and land anywhere. It’s got a lot of power and with that nosewheel, it can stop on a dime. If they put a little more work into this one, it has the potential to be my favorite STOL aircraft. Unfortunately, right now, it’s getting beat out by some freeware mods, which brings me to it’s other issue, price. This thing is expensive, given the issues that I’ve described here. Compare this to the Waco that Carenado just released, for example. That Carenado plane looks amazing, and sounds amazing. It has a few bugs as well, but it’s only been out less than a day. I’m just not sure the price is justified on the Zenith as it stands today.

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Alt-A starts the alternator. It should start when you start the engine, but the devs found a bug concerning this, and promised in their Discord that it will be hotfixed tomorrow.

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I think the audio is just poorly done, it uses the old legacy sound engine and not the new Wwise engine. The legacy sound engine is just not as good as the new one.

As a layman I didn’t have much issue installing Wwise via the Audiokinetic launcher and using the sample and documentation in the SDK to create a sound package, so I don’t really understand why more developers are not using the new audio engine. The documentation and samples have been in the SDK for months now.

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This is also not a particularly cheap aircraft. I don’t understand why it’s not a little bit more refined.

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There is a new update! Gonna see what it entails. Just downloaded.

Changelog of SWS Zenith CH701 STOL v1.10 Hotfix || January 27, 2021

—Zenith CH701 STOL

  • Programmatically forced alternator to the on position to fix battery drain issue reported by some users

  • Programmatically auto-calibrated altimeter pressure upon aircraft initialisation, to alleviate the issue reported by some customers that the altimeter reads 28.00inHg on startup. IMPORTANT: auto-calibration only happens once, when the aircraft first loads. It is the virtual pilot’s responsibility to maintain a properly calibrated instrument from that point on.

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How do you update this beast?

Re-log in to their site and re-download.

Purchased from Sim Market.

Then just go under your Downloads and the new version should be there. (That is, if it’s published already, but SimMarket is usually quick to update once the dev submits it)

Created mod: ZENITH CH701 STOL Lighting mod • Flight Simulator 2020

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I just received an email from SimWorks Studios regarding an update to the Zenith CH701 STOL:

Log in to your account to download the update.

I can’t seem to find a page with a change log, so perhaps this will be included with the download. I’ll post it here when I get home.

I expect this will hit the Marketplace shortly.

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I bought mine through ORBX. I’ll check there later.

Did a short flight from Locher to Bolzano earlier. It flies amazing, I love it. Can’t wait for their Kodiak!

I’ll second that!

I may have to pick up the Zenith… it looks like a blast to fly. :slight_smile:

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What seems somewhat strange to me is that when you drop flaps, the VS gauge dumps. It is like the flaps produce much more drag than lift.