I did a search on 'lionheart' and see there are no recent comments about their aircraft. Am considering either the Piper Pacer, Robin DR400 or Diamond DA40.

 

Anyone flying these aircraft please comment what you think about them.

 

Thanks in advance.

I only have the Pacer package, but I like it a lot. Good FDE and graphics. Very realistic model of a classic airplane, very similar to that bright yellow bird over on the left and so quite welcome for me. There's a long thread about it over on SOH:

 

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?73616-Piper-Pacer-Super-Pack-releasing!

Being completely honest, I find their releases very very 'cartoon-like' in the texturing, and just not convincing or immersive. In the case of the Epic the FDE can also be a little chaotic and unrealistic.

 

I bought the Epic, the Kodiak and a small ultralite one that's name escapes me and I was disappointed with them all. They feel like FS8 or FS9 quality levels / era to me.

 

sorry. :(

I agree that Lionheart quality varies, and I've heard a lot of complaints about the Epic LT, I don't have the Epic. I have the Kodiak, and although not my favorite plane, it's pretty good quality in terms of graphics, I'd argue. I have their Pasped Skylark and really like it for the fun quirky plane that it is. I don't have any others, so can't comment.

 

But, again I'll say that the new Pacer package is very good quality for a very good price. If you like that kind of plane -- a classic taildragger (or tri-gear with the Tri-Pacer model) with basic avionics, but able to scoot along a lot faster than the Cub (120-140 kts cruise!), both the graphics and the flight modeling are very good. You can slip her realistically. She has realistic taildragger ground handling, including some pretty good P-factor and torque modeling. She has good and realistic stall behavior (for FSX) and will even spin (although weirdly) without kicking her into it with rudder. Hold back pressure through the stall and unbalance her with aileron input and she'll do a strange kind of flop over the top and then enter a fairly decent spin, and we all know how poorly FSX does spins. The VC is very good although some have complained because of the lack of clarity of the plexi and glass on the instruments. Looks very realistic to me.

 

My one complaint is that there is no dedicated sound package. She is aliased to the Maule. You can change that (as I did) to something like the C172 or the Mooney (which is better), or buy a nice C172 sound pack (the Pacer has the 180 hp Lycoming IO-360 in it). Otherwise, I can recommend it as one of the best classic airplane payware packages out there.

I have this beautiful set of Pacers and am really enjoying them. I think the modeling and textures are first class, but then, I admit that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have a hard time understanding how they could be percieved as bering "cartoony." Well, each to his own.

 

I have a couple comments on the flight model. Years ago I was given an opportunity to fly a friend's tripacer. Two things about it remain vididly in my memory: it had a really great climb rate and a high sink rate when on final with power off. These aspects have been faithfully modeled here.

 

All in all this package is a great bargain. For about $25 you get several versions, different landing gear configurations, three different instrument panels, and some really nice scenery addons. I haven't explored all the scenery yet, but there are about five towns centered around Hope Alaska, south of Anchorage. In addition there are different remote cabins, docks, etc., which will put your navigation skills to a test. In an aid to help find them the developer has provided weak NDB stations at each. The frequencies and coordinates are provided in the documentation. I have only landed at about three of the airports, but I can say that they are quite good, and they are also populated with nice looking static aircraft and vehicles.

 

There are several purchase options, and I elected to go with Flight 1. There was a problem with my installer, though, which turned out to be that the fonts used by the radios didn't get copied over. I emailed Bill Ortis (Mr. Lionheart Creations) and got an immediate answer and solution, which took care of the problem.

 

Definitely recommend this package!

 

Tom

Thanks for your comments so far. Will look forward to hearing from someone who owns the Robin DR400.

I have been very pleased with the Kodiak and all its variants.

Thanks for your comments so far. Will look forward to hearing from someone who owns the Robin DR400.

I did buy the Robin. I wasn't keen on the VC unfortunately. I usually go by a gut feeling of "Do I feel like I'm sitting in a real plane?" and I didn't. So I'm now waiting for the Aerosoft Robin which looks to be excellent and should be released in the not too distant future hopefully.

 

I own most of Lionheart's other stuff and they are all fun aircraft in the Bill Lyons vein but obviously not in the RA, Carenado, A2A etc league which I do feel are realistic to look at and fly. The Piper Pacers are the best package he has done though - I counted 35 variants, very nicely done inside and out.

 

Dave

I love the Pacer, great plane! Can't comment on the others because the Pacer is the only one I have but very glad I added it to my hanger. I would recommend it without reservations especially for the price :rolleyes:

 

Cheers

Martin

A few problems with the Pacer. First several knobs advertised as functional are in fact only functional in Prepar3D and not FSX. Second there is a bug in the front wind screen texure rendering a line or seam straight down the center of the glass, and third, not really a bug, the modern ADI is very cartoony looking, in fact the whole modern version of the VC looks cartoony to me. Also not a bug, but there is no RXP intergration, only a 3D bezel for the stock 430 which is kinda a bummer.

 

On the plus side the two older style VC's are very photorealistic and quite excellent. The exteriors are great, and the flight model is very good. I bought mine via the Flight1 wrapper, and if the knobs and windshield get fixed soon (the developer is aware of these) I will keep it and stack it up as one of my favorite all time classic GA FSX aircraft. If those probs arent fixed I'll probably take advantage of the Flight1 return policy.

 

Chris

 

Edited December 6, 201213 yr by cloudswimmer