Thoughts on flying the Carbon Cub

[LHookins 3,103]

Don't forget to deploy flaps on landing. The aircraft will float over the runway a surprising distance if you don't use flaps.

 

The plane rolls to the left. Aileron trim is totally useless. Leave the torque effect option on for takeoff and landing, turn them off for cruise.

 

Before you get into a crosswind condition on a job, spend some time doing high speed taxis at an airport with a long runway that's good and wide. Aileron into the wind can help counteract the weathervane forces that turn your plane into the wind.

 

Raising the eyepoint with Control-W so you can see the horizon when you're on the ground helps a lot with takeoff and landing.

 

Be very careful when braking after touchdown. The aircraft will nose over with full brakes even with full up elevator.

 

As always, the top down view (F12) is a good poor man's GPS.

 

When flying in a crosswind, expect some dramatic course corrections. Flying at 80 knots with a 20 knot wind directly from the side requires the nose to be turned 14 degrees into the wind.

 

More to follow.

 

Hook

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Don't forget to deploy flaps on landing. The aircraft will float over the runway a surprising distance if you don't use flaps.

 

The plane rolls to the left. Aileron trim is totally useless. Leave the torque effect option on for takeoff and landing, turn them off for cruise.

 

Before you get into a crosswind condition on a job, spend some time doing high speed taxis at an airport with a long runway that's good and wide. Aileron into the wind can help counteract the weathervane forces that turn your plane into the wind.

 

Raising the eyepoint with Control-W so you can see the horizon when you're on the ground helps a lot with takeoff and landing.

 

Be very careful when braking after touchdown. The aircraft will nose over with full brakes even with full up elevator.

 

As always, the top down view (F12) is a good poor man's GPS.

 

When flying in a crosswind, expect some dramatic course corrections. Flying at 80 knots with a 20 knot wind directly from the side requires the nose to be turned 14 degrees into the wind.

 

More to follow.

 

Hook

 

Yup. I said in the "Big Cub Topic" that the Cockpit-Cub is much more of a handful than the one that came with Alaska. I consider them to be two separate planes with a strong family resemblance, as far as flying.

[jcomm 5,929]

It looks to me that it does not lose that much RPM when going into a steep climb at max throttle, but maybe that's realistic(?)

 

Go to 2000', level and max RPM, then start a steep climb avoiding stall to the limit... Your Tachometer shows practically no variation. If the throttle is retarded from full, and RPM drops, then there are noticeable RPM variations on steep climbs.

 

Aileron trim is very effective. I only don't know if the real CCub has it instead of rudder trim - maybe an option (?)

[LHookins 3,103]

The plane rolls to the left. Aileron trim is totally useless. Leave the torque effect option on for takeoff and landing, turn them off for cruise.

 

UPDATE!

 

At 1950 RPM and 80 MPH, the roll is neutral. Interesting.

 

Small adjustments may be made to the RPM with the mixture control. :) Normally you'd set this to max RPM, but in this case you might want finer control than the throttle gives you.

 

Don't get too slow while "waterskiing". Your plane will sink. Oddly enough, it seems that the tail wheel will waterski too, but if it does you're almost certainly going too slow. Oh... and do this into the wind. Strong crosswinds will mess you up big time.

 

It looks to me that it does not lose that much RPM when going into a steep climb at max throttle, but maybe that's realistic(?)

 

That's probably what happens when the plane has 4 times as much power as it needs. Or whatever the factor is. :D

 

Aileron trim is very effective. I only don't know if the real CCub has it instead of rudder trim - maybe an option (?)

 

I've got my keyboard command set up for "RollTrimRightIncrement" etc. I guess that's aileron trim.

 

When I had a similar problem with rudder trim being too effective in the FSX Goose, I set the config file rudder trim effetiveness down from 1.0 to 0.2. I wish we could do that in Flight.

 

Yup. I said in the "Big Cub Topic" that the Cockpit-Cub is much more of a handful than the one that came with Alaska. I consider them to be two separate planes with a strong family resemblance, as far as flying.

 

Agreed! And the external sound does seem different.

 

Hook

[Gibbage 199]

It makes sense that the Deluxe would also include a deeper FM. Glad to read that part! The important part though, is she more fun to fly from the inside? ;)

[HiFlyer 9,359]

It makes sense that the Deluxe would also include a deeper FM. Glad to read that part! The important part though, is she more fun to fly from the inside? ;)

 

Well..... yes!

 

The cockpit-less version now seems a bit more arcade-like than I thought it was in comparison to this one, and that odd sense of frustration when you are flicking the viewpoint buttons and no cockpit appears is gone. Finally, there is some welcome visual/direction-of-flight grounding within the cockpit itself for when you are turning your head from side to side while flying.

 

Its easy to lose orientation when your viewpoint is just floating out there in space with no referents.

 

You finally feel like you are inside a real plane.

[RoboRay 126]

It makes sense that the Deluxe would also include a deeper FM. Glad to read that part! The important part though, is she more fun to fly from the inside? ;)

 

After a 20-minute spin, it's a heck of a lot of fun to fly. It's got a very "floaty" feeling, definitely not on rails. Nimble, very responsive to power changes (which you would expect packing double the horsepower justified by it's weight) and feels very fast down at tree-top level! At these speeds, it's very comfortable to fly nap of the earth. This is going to be the way to go for those short-range Clandestine jobs that aren't pushing the bounds of realism on weight. Take off and landing distances are laughably short. Got my "liquid airstrip" easily on the first attempt. You can tell when the tires are skimming the surface and when you hit the shoreline. I wish there was a "replay" feature though, to see what it looked like from outside.

 

I'm going to have to do some tweaking on my TrackIR profile though, as I'm getting to the stops when I sit up and look up and to the side to check the fuel sight-gauges.

 

Definitely worth the $11 on Steam. Worth the $15 on GFWL, but the Steam price is more appropriate for an upgrade to a partial-plane I've already bought.

[Knottypine1979 0]

It seems for me that the brakes acknowledgement doesn't work during the check list start up and shut down procedures. The brakes technically work as intended, just no brake pedal animation and the check list thing. I rechecked my controls and tested the Maule and it's fine.

[Torg Smith 31]

I like the Carbon Cub. It does make the small strips easy to land on. It is kind of tough to control it below 60MPH even with full flaps. A slight shift on the stick and you think you just made a heavy yank on it. :Nail Biting:

[HiFlyer 9,359]

I like the Carbon Cub. It does make the small strips easy to land on. It is kind of tough to control it below 60MPH even with full flaps. A slight shift on the stick and you think you just made a heavy yank on it. :Nail Biting:

 

Then you go into a correct/over-correct/re-correct cycle that can send you way off the center-line. Even worse in windy conditions, where you can feel like you need extra hands.

 

Makes you wonder about those videos where pilots drift these things down to a stop at nearly walking speeds, cause with the flight cockpit version, that would be borderline miraculous for me.

 

Whereas with the no-cockpit, version, I could actually do it.

 

That long stick must give a lot of very fine control to the pilot.

[Torg Smith 31]

Then you go into a correct/over-correct/re-correct cycle that can send you way off the center-line. Even worse in windy conditions, where you can feel like you need extra hands.

 

Makes you wonder about those videos where pilots drift these things down to a stop at nearly walking speeds, cause with the flight cockpit version, that would be borderline miraculous for me.

 

Whereas with the no-cockpit, version, I could actually do it.

 

That long stick must give a lot of very fine control to the pilot.

 

I made about 5 landings today and did improve. Although I still look like that drunken plane jack stunt video somebody linked about a month ago.

[Dillon 2,197]

I must say after flying this bird the flight model is outstanding. Very realistic power on/off stall characteristics. I can't get this bird to spin but outside of that this is one fantastic flying machine. One really doesn't notice the slower airspeed this bird has as it is such a great bird to fly and you can land/takeoff just about anywhere. As long as there's a slight clearing you'll make it in and out. I'm very impressed...

[LHookins 3,103]

Ok, another update on the roll problem.

 

I set the throttle to 2200 RPM (the placard says you need to be above 4000 feet go that high; I, um, wasn't), was flying about 87 MPH indicated, and burned fuel out of the left tank to compensate. At about 1.4 gallons difference, the plane was stable in roll. Keep in mind that the amount of fuel you need to burn off is specific to a power setting. Less power, less fuel burned off; more power, more fuel.

 

The ability to balance the plane by burning fuel out of the left tank is a good reason to upgrade to the deluxe version, if you're flying the basic one at all. It makes the plane a joy to fly.

 

I just flew Marrill Pass going east in the Cub at 1.5 zoom. Except for getting lost and flying up the wrong lake at first, it was absolutely great.

 

With a strong crosswind on landing, expect to have to shift your viewpoint in the direction the plane is moving. At that point the instruments don't really matter; you're flying by the seat of your pants anyway. This plane is a lot more forgiving than the Maule on landings.

 

A slight shift on the stick and you think you just made a heavy yank on it.

 

The controls do seem a bit responsive, don't they? :D After a while you learn to use a light hand on the joystick.

 

It seems for me that the brakes acknowledgement doesn't work during the check list start up and shut down procedures

 

It works if you use Shift-X to set the parking brake. Too bad there's not a control in the cockpit to do that. If anyone's found one, let me know. Also, if there's a trim control in the aircraft so I can see where my elevator trim is set, it would be useful.

 

The important part though, is she more fun to fly from the inside?

 

Oh man, is she ever!

 

After a 20-minute spin, it's a heck of a lot of fun to fly.

 

Yeah, what he said! I figured it was fun from the basic version, but the deluxe version is worlds ahead.

 

Hook

[EastCoastGuy 0]

Interesting to see that turning on carb heat lowers the RPM. Nice detail.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Last night, I was flying in the Cub near Kodiak in a blinding storm, making very slow headway against the wind. Visability was variable and there were mountains looming on every side as I looked round and round and mostly at the ground. I remember thinking "Oh crap that's a long drop!" and then right after that: "If I crash and survive, I wont last a minute down there!"

 

A second later I blinked, and snapped out of it; laughing that it was just a silly game, but I was also sobered a bit by the fact that after years of FSX I had never, ever felt so immersed in the actual sheer experience of flying (without being distracted by frame-rate flutters and other things) as I had been at that very moment when those thoughts occurred.

 

It was an experience utterly unique to Flight for me, and I was just coming to post about it here when I saw the news of the shutdown. Bummer, indeed......