OK,Robert,Thanks very much for the info.

Hi Badaboom,We don't have any plans for a dedicated forum but we do often monitor sites like this one to answer general questions. Our output is small and we tend to specialise in projects that avoid, if possible, treading on anyone else's toes too much, and Corporate Jets seem to already be very well done by other developers (some of whom I have freelanced with as co-author). We do want to produce a jet aircraft for a change and that might be on the cards for an upcoming project but I doubt if it would be a Biz Jet.Regards,Rob - RealAir

It would be cool to see you guys do some thing like a complex version of the 717 or 737-300 that no one else has so far touched for FSX, if your going to avoid the biz jets.

I finally got around to installing the RealAir Duke. I just wanted to give a big thumbs up to RealAir for this outstanding product.

... and I finally got around to buying it yesterday, after reading yet another post from a happy customer.I was expecting a really good-looking VC and a realistic flight model, and I have not been disappointed. But the Duke also comes with a very, very good set of sounds, some of the best I've heard in an addon aircraft. This really is one of the best FSX aircraft around.

It seems with each new release they improve on all aspects of the product over prior releases, and I've got all the FSX products they offer. I remember some threads on several flight sim forums a year or so ago commenting / wondering why (after it was announced) RealAir was bothering to implement the Duke. LOL. I'm more than a little curious about what RA's next plane will be! (an F-86 would make a nice hangar mate for the Spitfire).

RobI know that you want to do a jet, but please consider staying in the General Aviation / sport plane arena; maybe a military trainer. I love the duke, but I am not much into flying airliners and heavy transports. Oh yea.... Duke is the plane I fly the most. I am so happy to hear raindrops my be in my future. Icing would be perfection.Thanks againChuck

hi,The duke reviews are impressive. Everybody seems to enjoy it. Has it system damage or failure modelisation like with A2A aircraft? I mean, when you make a system management error, will it fail accordingly, of if you lower the flaps above their max speed, willl they fail, things like that, etc...?thanks

hi,The duke reviews are impressive. Everybody seems to enjoy it. Has it system damage or failure modelisation like with A2A aircraft? I mean, when you make a system management error, will it fail accordingly, of if you lower the flaps above their max speed, willl they fail, things like that, etc...?thanks

It doesn't have the maintenance related failure modeling that the A2A planes do, and personally, I'm glad it doesn't. That would drive me crazy. The Duke is very good under the hood. I recently took the Duke up to 20,000 ft and after a little while I began to lose power. At first I turned on the whole de-icing system but that didn't help. Then I noticed that the fuel vents were closed. I opened them and the engines roared back to life. Engine compression responds to OAT, and many other small details like that are constantly revealing themselves to me. On a recent flight, a friend forgot to put the gear down and landed on his belly. The plane left a skid mark down the length of the runway. I had never seen that before. It is one of the best planes ever built for Flight Simulator.

On a recent flight, a friend forgot to put the gear down and landed on his belly. The plane left a skid mark down the length of the runway. I had never seen that before. It is one of the best planes ever built for Flight Simulator.

It's ok, you can tell us the truth :(

Something that could be looked at during the update is brake strength. It is a common practice for piston twins (especially when single pilot) to position, set takeoff power then release brakes. My Saitek Pro pedals are set at max sensitivity and zero null. I had to bump up the brake strength in the aircraft.cfg to et it to stay put while I adjusted power. Not everyone knows how to do that though...Donald

I had to bump up the brake strength in the aircraft.cfg to et it to stay put while I adjusted power. Not everyone knows how to do that though...

I think there is a tradeoff involved - if you bump it up so it will hold the aircraft at takeoff power, you get unrealistically effective brakes on landing.

I think there is a tradeoff involved - if you bump it up so it will hold the aircraft at takeoff power, you get unrealistically effective brakes on landing.

Well observed! Unfortunately there is an imbalance in both FS9 and FSX between holding power and braking power. Ideally we would have liked the ability to hold the Duke from creeping at all with brake applied but that would have meant far too much braking power on the move. FSX only provides one channel for brake strength, and ideally there should have been two.Cheers!Rob - RealAir

The wheels are an issue. as is skiiding sideways down the runway with crosswinds , but it seems it can be overcome, it would be nice if developers could share little things like this so weall get a better product. But could you not use something to detect the plane was stationary and on ground and use software to set the breaks at one level, then once the brakes are released an the plane starts to move the breaks are set at a lower level and remain there til breaks are again set on the stationary plane.Only a thought.

The wheels are an issue. as is skiiding sideways down the runway with crosswinds , but it seems it can be overcome, it would be nice if developers could share little things like this so weall get a better product. But could you not use something to detect the plane was stationary and on ground and use software to set the breaks at one level, then once the brakes are released an the plane starts to move the breaks are set at a lower level and remain there til breaks are again set on the stationary plane.Only a thought.

All FSX aircraft drift a little sideways with cross-wind on runways, and this is because there is no distinction between ground aerodynamics and in-the-air aerodynamics. The last version of flight simulator to model separate ground friction behaviour was FS4 and that was a long time ago! I believe there is a freeware library file/module (dll) that attempts to overcome this, but that module is a global control and is not aircraft specific, and I believe it was applicable only to FS9....though I might be wrong.Because brake strength responds on one channel I don't think it is possible to separate them in the way you suggest, though possibly some kind of very specialised C+ programming might overcome it, but that is beyond the scope of what we can do I'm afraid. It boils down to which is the most realistic: over-strong brakes on the move, or brakes that feel realistic when parked or during power run-ups.Cheers,Rob - RealAir

Well observed! Unfortunately there is an imbalance in both FS9 and FSX between holding power and braking power. Ideally we would have liked the ability to hold the Duke from creeping at all with brake applied but that would have meant far too much braking power on the move. FSX only provides one channel for brake strength, and ideally there should have been two.Cheers!Rob - RealAir

Just been flying the wonderful Duke for a couple of days now. For the Takeoff Power run up, I programed a button on the Yoke for the Parking Brake and it seems to hold. That way just a thumb tap and off you go. Not perfect.....but works!

Just been flying the wonderful Duke for a couple of days now. For the Takeoff Power run up, I programed a button on the Yoke for the Parking Brake and it seems to hold. That way just a thumb tap and off you go. Not perfect.....but works!

The element that changed between sims is the ground coefficient of friction. Thanks to simplicities made in the interaction between fore/aft and lateral forces FSX can make no distinction between `braking` and `slide` strength = or for simplicities sake the difference between linear and lateral accelaration. There is no longer a separate force vector for parking brake (resistance to movement) and braking (retardation force in summary). So FSX can no longer differentiate between resistance to movement and removal of movement - .air files and .cfg files no longer respond in the same way.Sorry but ACES dropped the ball on this one. And they ain't gonna fix it, as they never owned the rights to the .air file to start with, therefore the compromises remain fixed without a module modification.