After drooling over the visual model for a few minutes I hopped inside to go flying. I looked over the 2D panel for a minute and then went to the Virtual Cockpit. I am sad to say that I was disappointed by the hard to read instruments in the VC. The engine instruments were blurry and the flight instruments were very grainy too. I couldn't make out the markings on some of the gauges. The window post on the front left part of the cockpit blocks out much of the foreword left view, negating the advantages of the added peripheral vision this view usually adds. After checking with PSS on this I found out that they had updated the Virtual Cockpit since I downloaded the plane. I installed the new improved version and WOW! They really made a huge improvement in the clarity in the Virtual Cockpit. As offered now the Virtual Cockpit is clear and if you zoom in to read the gauges it is easy to see and read everything on the panel.
I opted to fly with the 2D panel for this flight. There are actually 2 different 2D panels with this aircraft. One is the standard "abbreviated" front panel with the "six pack" of instruments and the other is the entire panel including the overhead switches and the radios.
Using the full panel leaves little room to see out of the window. It is more suited to IFR flying so I used it only to fire up the plane then went to the standard 2D panel to fly. One more word on the panel in this plane—it looks more like a very good panel upgraded from FS98 than a newly built panel for FS2002. In the manual it stated that this aircraft is for FS2002 only, and not compatible with earlier versions of FS—but there were three or four times that it said something referring to FS98.
With the full panel (with the overhead showing) everything the pilot needs to fly the plane is there, but on my 17" monitor the radios are hard to read. With a 19" or even 21" monitor this panel will look be a lot better. There are however "pop up" sub panels with the radios that are easy to read so it is possible to see and use everything, just not on the main panel view. The pop up panels did not have the usual icon buttons on the dashboard so I used the keyboard commands from within FS2002 to access them. Here is one area that all programmers out there should take note. The standard controls are "Shift+1" through "Shift+9" to display the various panels; please assign them in the same way as are the default planes! For instance to open the radio stack in this aircraft I had to use the command for opening the GPS in the default planes. I ran into this with another add-on aircraft that I have in FS2002 so this is not really a fault of PSS in designing this particular aircraft, but if everyone would standardize these commands in the same way as the default planes it would make flying and accessing the sub panels much easier. As it is now I have to remember which plane I am flying in order to hit the proper key to display the radio stack, or the throttle quadrant or which ever sub panel I choose. Sorry if I got off topic a little, enough on that subject; now back to the flight.
There's two neat little features I noticed that I have not seen on earlier FS aircraft: when in spot plane view if you zoom in and look in the windows the yoke and throttles move with your control inputs, and when you change the tail numbers on the plane the dash plaque above the attitude indicator in the virtual cockpit shows the new assigned tail number. It is a bit hard to see it but it is there.
While running the checklist I ran into a problem attempting to start the engines. I followed the checklist right down to hitting the start button and when I did nothing happened. I shut off the battery and reloaded the plane and tried it again and it started. I don't know what happened the first time but I got both engines to start on the second try. Once I had the plane up and running I ran through the rest of the checks and when I was ready to taxi the engines quit. I attempted a restart and nothing happened. I ended up using the <Control>+<E> auto start command, and the engines started right up again. I contacted PSS through their web site and asked for technical assistance on this. Their site says you should have an answer within 48 hours for questions that are E-mailed to them. I had an answer within 24 hours. Mr. John Helsby from PSS provided the fix for the engine troubles I was having. Using Peter Dowson's FSUIPC if you go to the "Technical" tab and check mark the "provide power with flat battery" and also the "and even if avionics are off" the engines will run all day long at idle. He also advised me to hit the start button a few times in rapid succession and the engines start using the checklist procedures.
I contacted ground and began to taxi out. I was pleased when the ground controller announced to another aircraft to "Hold position for the Seneca on the taxiway" The simple fact of being recognized by the actual type of aircraft instead of "Experimental" was nice to hear. I took the runway and advanced the throttles for takeoff. Wow! I really like the high pitched whine from the twin 220HP Continentals. Releasing the brakes I had to apply an awful lot of right rudder to maintain control down the runway but she accelerated very quickly and I was airborne in a flash.
Once airborne she seemed to have a tendency to roll to the left and it took a concerted effort to keep her straight on the climb out. At 1000ft I pulled the throttle back to midrange and leveled off for the trip around the pattern. Once the power was retarded the left roll tendency was gone. Leveling off and trimming for a steady altitude in this aircraft is pretty simple; the trim response is very good. The pitch stability is very well done and taking her around the pattern was uneventful. Once abeam the touchdown point the old "GUMP" checks popped into my head so I looked at the "G" gas (fuel balance)… then "U" for under carriage… "M" mixture (full foreword)… and "P" prop (full foreword). The trouble with the landing gear is that there is noise for retraction but extension is completely silent. I thought I had a gear malfunction until I went to the spot plane view and checked the gear was going down on command but it was a silent operation. To add to the confusion the "Abbreviated" 2D panel I was flying with has no gear indicator on it. I am sure this is a small oversight but it is something that I think needs to be addressed. With the gear confirmed down and the flaps extended I applied power to slow the descent, once again the left roll tendency came back with the higher power setting. This I would expected from a small single engine aircraft at slow speeds and high angle of attack but it felt a bit out of place in a high performance twin. Setting the descent rate with power is easy as long as you take into account the roll tendency with power adjustments and I made a picture perfect landing holding the left wing up and a little right rudder.
Once on deck for the Touch&Go I cleaned the flaps up to takeoff position and advanced the throttles. This is one of the sweetest sounding planes as the engines wind up to their high pitch whine at full power, but with added power the aircraft started yawing left and it took full right rudder to keep her straight down the runway. After a few trips around the pattern I did a full stop and taxied clear of the runway.
I went back to the gate and decided to try a flight of a few hundred miles and see how the navigation gear in this plane works. I reread the manual and found where it said to set the realism settings to mid range for this aircraft. I did that and it reduced the left torque roll a bit but it seems like to me, the torque effect was too much for a twin, but it was manageable. I loaded up a VFR flight to Grand Cayman approximately 200 miles to the west and once again ran through the preflight and takeoff checks. After take off I climbed at full power to cruise altitude of 6500ft and leaned out the mixtures as I climbed.
It is nice to hear a change in pitch while leaning as well as movement of the temp and fuel flow gauges. Once leveled out I set the autopilot at 6500ft and kept the power up to accelerate. It is easy to overspeed this plane in level flight so you have to watch the power setting.
There is a great little digital multi function readout for fuel, electrical system monitoring, and power settings in this plane. It has a function that shows % of power setting. This is a great addition to any aircraft for setting cruise power and I had an easy time setting 75% power for the trip. At 75% power I achieved a cruise of almost 200kias! This little plane is a rocket. It is nice to have an abundance of power instead of having to try and stretch what you do have to get somewhere.
Using the Nav and Com radios was straight foreword and following the VOR needle on the HSI was a piece of cake. The one thing I didn't like was that due to the left roll tendency I got tired of holding in a bit of right aileron to keep the plane level (I guess I could have adjusted the aileron trim but I sometimes have a hard time getting it centered again) so I put the autopilot on heading select and used the heading bug to steer. There seemed to be a "bug" in the heading bug. There was a sort of "ghost bug" that popped up and disappeared—sometimes you had two bugs showing on the HSI and sometimes only one, and that one was a bit skewed to one side from time to time. This also appeared in the Virtual cockpit view as well. This may be a problem with my video card but I don't have it with any other aircraft and it happens in this plane every time I fly it. Very strange but not really a problem just an annoyance. The GPS that comes with this plane looks to be a great unit that is capable of all kinds of things. I didn't take the time to become intimate with it, but I did play with it a bit, and for those that want something to play with and don't like the default GPS this one shows promise. (I personally don't use GPS very often, instead relying on VORs and NDBs for most of my navigation.)
When I approached Grand Cayman I descended and decided to fly the NDB approach to RW 08. The ADF – like all the avionics in this package – is a solid unit with active and backup frequencies, but for some reason when using my scrolling mouse to adjust the freq I could only dial in one direction. While on the subject of the avionics, the transponder is a nice unit that has you pushing numeric buttons instead of scrolling through the numbers, I like that. The NAV radios are easy to use with backup and active frequencies plus you can make the backup window display the CDI setting as well. This is a nice feature for getting the needle set exactly to the desired course. The only thing I saw lacking in the avionics was that the COM 2 radio is not active, but with the preset freq for Com 1 it was not a problem.
Anyway back to the flight… I dialed up the ADF to the proper freq and when I was 6 miles out I contacted the tower and requested landing clearance. This was a mistake since they cleared me to enter a right base for RW 08 but I instead flew over the NDB and took up the outbound heading. As I flew outbound ATC cleared me to land. I had to use the "Full" panel view to get the ADF needle but since I was flying an instrument approach the lack of visibility out the window was not a problem. When I started my procedure turn outbound I heard an Orbit 737 ask for clearance to take off. The tower told them to "Hold short…for a Seneca on final." Oops! I was still going outbound on the approach and those poor passengers were waiting for me! After the procedure turn I intercepted the inbound course following the NDB needle and I heard a Lear Jet holding short for back taxi to the approach end of the runway. Once again the tower said "Hold short for the Seneca on final" Boy I really put a monkey wrench in the traffic here!
After about 7 minutes had elapsed since I was cleared to enter a right base; I was on short final with the gear and flaps, and there were two planes waiting for me to get out of their way. The NDB needle was smooth and not jerky like in some of the planes I have flown in the past. Landing was much easier this time as I had grown accustom to the handling of this plane. I touched down right on the numbers and exited the active and taxied to parking. I could feel all eyes on me as I passed the 737. I went to the spot plane view and admired the beautiful paint job as I taxied to the GA parking area.
Personal Observations and Conclusion
I took a few more flights over the next few days in the Seneca and here are my conclusions. The more I flew the plane the easier it became and the more I liked it. There is definitely a learning curve to become smooth with this aircraft. It is challenging to fly and once you become proficient with it, there is a great sense of accomplishment. Flying the touch and go pattern you get comfortable with the easy power and trim adjustments. The torque and left roll tendency at high power settings is a bit more than I would expect in a twin. With PSS's reputation for support I think it is only a matter of time before this is fixed. Covering distance in a short amount of time is something this little "Sports Car" is very good at. The sounds are top notch except for the lack of sound for the landing gear down, and it would be nice to have the traditional autopilot disconnect warning. Listening to the engines spool up and down on my digital sound system, with subwoofer, never fails to bring a smile to my face. The radio/avionics package is a good set with some nice little features that I have not seen elsewhere.
Flying this plane on a 17" monitor I felt like it was hard to see and read a lot of the gauges. The Virtual Cockpit was a disappointment at first; but once I got the upgrade (which is now included with the aircraft) it was as good as I had hoped it would be. After spending an hour flying in the VC and playing with all the zoom settings and eye point positions I found that at 90% zoom it is possible to get a decent view for doing pattern work, but I had to move the eye point close to the dash and pan down quite a bit to see the panel—in this position it looked remarkably real as I made my final approach.
The visual model is one of the better ones I have seen and I spent a lot of time jumping into the spot plane and panning around to enjoy the awesome views. With the addition of the new Virtual Cockpit this aircraft met my expectations for a good add-on for the short time that FS2002 has been released.
To order visit the Phoenix Simulation Software website.
