AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Review SAAB Safir X

Introduction

The SAAB 91 Safir was designed at the end of World War II by A. J. Andersson, the same engineer who designed the Buecker Bestmann for the German Luftwaffe. After the war, when the Safir went into production, it was used as a trainer and liaison aircraft by the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, and Ethiopian air forces, and by Lufthansa and Air France. Many of these craft were later resold to private clubs and some are still airworthy.

In fall of 2006, SibWings Lab released a model of the Safir for FS2004 that received wide notice and several awards, including the AVSIM Gold Star. It took two years, but a version for FSX is now available.

Installation and Documentation

The worst thing about this product is the installation procedure. The procedure is complicated; and if you want to reinstall the product at a later date, you have to make contact with the SibWings server again. I sympathize with the desire not to be pirated, and I have no complaints about the SibWings customer service. But if I pay for something, I want the installation process to be straightforward; and if I have to reinstall it later on, either because I am moving to a new computer or because of a hardware failure on my old computer, I don't want to ask permission.

That being said, the documentation for this product is superb. The PDF manual is 45 pages long in English and gives a detailed history of the Safir, labeled cockpit diagrams for each of four different models, complete checklists, flight notes for getting in the air quickly, and clear instructions for swings, loops, and hammer-heads. These last two sections were written by Stefan Frisk, who owns one of the real Safirs modeled in this package.

Visual Model

When FSX came out a little more than two years ago, we saw a lot of products that were described as FSX-compatible. That is, they worked in FSX, mostly. Some of them stopped working in SP2, and others functioned only sluggishly. This product, even though it's based on one for FS2004, does not fit into that category. The visual model is FSX-native, not just FSX-compatible, and uses bump mapping, reflection and specula mapping, and dynamic self-shadowing. The propeller does not disappear in front of cumulus clouds and the windows do not fog up in Acceleration/SP2.

Four models are included, and each is based on a specific, real-world aircraft. The differences are subtle: for example, one model has two ventral exhaust pipes, another has two. But both types vibrate when the engine is running! This is typical of the package in general. I've been flying these models for about three weeks, and I'm still discovering fresh details.

For example, when you shut down the engine and set the parking brake, your wheels get chocked and your pitot tubes get stuffed with “Remove before flight” streamers. Open the engine cowling and you can see the motor. Ok, I've seen that before and maybe so have you. But have you seen red stop tabs to keep the elevators from moving in the wind and getting damaged? That's a first, so far as I can tell.

Virtual Cockpit

There's similar detail, and similar variation, in the virtual cockpit. Because each of the four models is based on a different real-world airplane, and because airplanes this old are rarely identical, each of the four cockpits is slightly different. For example, some of the altimeters show meters, others show feet; some of the airspeed indicators register km/h, others register knots. In military versions, but not civilian, you'll see the reflection of a helmeted copilot in the opposite window.

Varying cabins

There are differences in the cabins as well. For example, some have passenger seats, other have cargo. All of the models have animated windows, intake vents, and a panel light that swings down from the cabin ceiling. In addition to the swing-down light, there are also four intensity-levels of cockpit lighting.

Virtual cockpit

Instrument panel close-ups

Camera views are well placed, and make it easy to change seats or zoom in on the instrument panel. Gauges are smooth and the effect of clouds reflected on the instrument glass is well rendered. The manual says the gauges are “based on 3D parts animation,” but if so, it's not the same technology that you see in RealAir cockpits and some recent planes from Alphasim. To me, the gauges look average for payware. If there's a difference, it's that not caging the attitude indicator before aerobatic maneuvers will result in a gauge malfunction afterward (just as it would in a real airplane). That's a welcome touch of realism that we don't often see.

There is no autopilot; and although one of the models is equipped with ADF equipment, the Safir was  not intended for IFR. Instead of nav radios, it has lots of windows: so much so that some models have cloth shades to keep the sun out! These can be retracted with a few mouse clicks. 

Sound

It's rare anymore to get payware with poor engine sounds; as I would expect, then, the ones that come with this model are rich and full. What struck me more than the engine was the attention to smaller sounds in the cockpit. For example, there's a clickspot that will bring up the standard FSX kneeboard (which does, by the way, contain custom checklists and reference speeds); what's unusual here is not the clickspot but the sound of ruffling papers that accompanies the action. Another subtlety is the toggle switches: flip them up and they make one sound; flip them down and they make a different one.

I did have one problem with the sounds: namely, I couldn't hear some of them when the cockpit was cold and dark. It may be that the problem is my default flight, which is not the standard one for FSX.  I described the problem on the forum, but never got a solution. Like other users, I also had a problem with program crashes when switching between different airplanes, but one of the developers emailed me with a new DLL to try. That one didn't work, but the next one did; I assume this is the one that is being distributed now to new customers.

Flight Model

I don't have a pilot's license, so my comments on the Safir's flight model will be impressionistic. It's forgiving, as you'd expect a trainer to be, and slow: about the same speed as a Cessna 152. In a stall, one wing will drop first, and if you're close to the ground when this happens then the effect is similar to a wing-low landing in a crosswind. My only complaint is about something that really can't be fixed. Some of the Safirs in this package – not all – have left and right fuel tanks that need to be switched every so often, or else the plane will start to list on the side that has more fuel. That's realistic, but the effect is overdone in Flight Simulator; and in my view, it would be more realistic not to model it: i.e., to pretend that all Safirs have their fuel tanks in the center of the fuselage, or that their owners have retrofitted them with fuel lines that draw on both tanks at one time. But this is a shortcoming in Flight Simulator, not a defect in the model per se.

Performance

Framerates are excellent: probably lower than the default Cessna 172, but not so much that I ever noticed. That is surprising in a package with this much detail, and shows how well the developers have adapted to the FSX modeling tools.

Conclusion

For new customers, the Safir is priced at 25 Euros; however, if you already own the FS2004 version, the upgrade is free. That's more than a nice gesture. When the FS2004 version came out two years ago, the Safir turned a lot of heads and established SibWings as a serious player in the market for flight sim payware. The FSX version is more of a faithful translation than a great leap forward, but for most customers that will be enough: high detail, high fidelity, high frame rates.

What's next? According to website, another military liaison aircraft, the Cessna L-19/0-1 Bird Dog. If the Safir is anything to go on, expect another winner.

Printing

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SAAB Safir

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