So don't bother checking the oil and you'll see just how exciting the aircraft can become.

 

Hook

LOL, so very LOL

So don't bother checking the oil and you'll see just how exciting the aircraft can become.

 

Hook

I bet. Not the kind of excitement I'm after though. ;-)

Not the kind of excitement I'm after though. ;-)

 

Seriously, if you're a real world pilot, and you think checking the oil is a chore, then you really need to fly a sim like the Katana to give you a good lesson on what will happen. Afterwards you'll WANT to check that oil every time.

 

There's an amusing anecdote in the A2A Cub's docs where the author didn't bother checking if the controls were free and correct, and one day they weren't. Now he checks every time, without fail.

 

Hook

I never knew all of that about the Katana.

 

From this thread I decided to buy it (when I return home from travel).

 

I look forward to all of the realist features.

Real Air Lancair is amazing, and works extremely well with Accu-Feel v2.0. I really want someone to do a Icon A5 that's quality payware, that would be an awesome light sport aircraft to fly in FSX. The MS Flight one looked pretty but does not fly at all like the real thing (it didn't even have flaps or comm radio's just ident). I have been talking to Scott from A2A on teamspeak a little and he seemed somewhat interested in doing an Accu-Sim Icon A5. This is by far NOT a guarantee that they will make one, but at least he has given it a thought.

Seriously, if you're a real world pilot, and you think checking the oil is a chore, then you really need to fly a sim like the Katana to give you a good lesson on what will happen. Afterwards you'll WANT to check that oil every time.

In real life I always do my pre-flight checks of course. My life, and others, may depend on it. That still doesn't mean I think it's fun though. The fun starts when you turn the keys so that's where I like to begin my sessions in FSX, and skip the boring stuff.

Yeh its not so much the walkaround and other chores that excite me about the Katana, it is indeed the consequences. I like any sim when cause and consequence exist, and modelling is done to the finest degree of accuracy. For example, if in the VC i see a circuit breaker, i want to be able to pull it and see what happens. Thats the appeal for me!

 

And to be able to do all this with reference to the real world manual (which is available for the Katana - another appeal of the model for me), even better!

Oh, Katana. That plane is for us poor men who don´t have the buck to fly bigger planes in real life. Thank God we have sim where we can be rich and fly with enough horsepower!

 

It is an anti-climax of an aeroplane.

In real life I always do my pre-flight checks of course. My life, and others, may depend on it. That still doesn't mean I think it's fun though. The fun starts when you turn the keys so that's where I like to begin my sessions in FSX, and skip the boring stuff.

 

I still get a bit sweaty when I do the pre-flight checks and wonder did I really really check the oil level properly, the ignition cables or all the other cables for that matter. I fly an airplane with the same Rotax engine as the Katana so it's quite fun to do the checks. I wonder if the Katana can simulate my RL world experience with oil levels rising with use!

Since the Carenado Beechcraft Baron B58 is my everyday favorite for GA flying,

i wonder how the the RealAir Beechcraft Duke B60 is ?

 

http://realairsimula...ge=duke09_intro

After reading this thread am now interested in the RV-7 and / or Katana, is it a one or the other question or both?

I wish all GA AC had walk arounds and checks like the Katana.

After reading this thread am now interested in the RV-7 and / or Katana, is it a one or the other question or both?

I'm sure they can happily co-exist on your harddrive.

In real life I always do my pre-flight checks of course. My life, and others, may depend on it. That still doesn't mean I think it's fun though. The fun starts when you turn the keys

 

You're scaring me.

 

Any other real life pilots out there think that the pre-flight is a chore? Something to get over with so you can get to the fun parts?

 

Richard Bach's blog (currently offline) mentioned the pre-flight on his new SeaRey. The SeaRey is a light sport amphibian, with a pusher prop. He was watching another SeaRey pilot pre-flighting his plane and commented on the care he was taking on the engine. The other pilot pointed out that in a tractor arrangement, a nut or screw that falls off the engine will basically fall harmlessly away from the aircraft. But in a pusher arrangement, it has to pass through the propeller disk first. After that, Richard took much greater care in examining the engine. Not just because he had to, but because he wanted to. You'll be able to read all about it when they publish "Travels with Puff."

 

Sometimes in FSX I just want to jump in and fly from the active runway, especially when it's more of a utility "flight test" thing. More often I prefer to go through the entire start-up procedure and even do a full run-up, even if there's no possibility of failures. This is all a part of the flight experience, just like the long taxi and the boring parts of the flight when there's nothing to do. For me, those are fun parts too.

 

Hook

I'll add my $0.02 if you don't mind... I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Katana for more than a year. While I've always found its flight modeling absolutely superb (not to mention the entire damage/maintenance component), I've often caught myself thinking that the actual airplane is far less exciting. It's slow, day VFR only, and has a limited suite of avionics (no ADF, no DME). As a result, it spent a lot of time in the hangar until very recently.

 

For quite some time, I focused almost entirely on the RA Legacy, which I believe to be the best FSX add-on I've ever purchased, but (and that's a big BUT) is not really the plane to take for a short hop between your favorite local fields, etc. Besides, it made me understand my weaknesses as a virtual "pilot", so I decided to go back to basics and learn how to do things properly.

 

And now I have rediscovered the Katana. It's as slow as it was before, but it requires constant focus, subtle control input, and paying proper attention to engine temperature and carb icing (it really works, and can take you off guard). It's also quite slippery, and flap damage is modeled, so you can't just make a hot sloppy approach and drop flaps to slow down. All in all, I find it an excellent learning tool, plus a fine plane for short hops in decent weather. For going distant places, not so much :wink:

 

BTW, I'd also love to try the corrected flight model for the Centurion... While I adore the actual plane, the flight model is a huge disappointment...