Took her up for a couple of flights.  This version seems to have a bigger personality to me.  When you start the engines they make you worry that they just might not start...similar to a RW airplane.    But they do.  All the switches have good sounds...a nice touch and, especially if you have external hardware like me, so you get a sense of the switch moving (nice if you can't see the switch when you move your hardware switch...like the cowl flaps!).  Flight model landing at Martha's Vineyard was a little less stable, I thought, than the old one...personality...more like planes I've flown in the RW (there was some wind that was messing with it and I had a sense of the air that I get on other great FSX airplanes).  The jittery dials made it more real.  Nice brake sounds.  Also, you can actually taxi this airplane...didn't have the sense of sliding I get from most other FSX airplanes.  Who knows if I'm imagining that improvement.

 

EDIT: I have to add that the gentle rocking of the airplane when it's sitting with the engines running idle is really cool.  Also, the P-factor on takeoff.  Not sure if that's default or not but feels very real.

 

Gregg

 

Thanks for the review. Appreciated.

 

C.

Hi Rob,

 

Question - could there be / is there a discount for Turbine Duke owners as was very reasonably provided for the B60 owners when the Turbine was released?

 

Would love to pick up this variant as I buy as many of the Realair planes as I can because of the quality and cutomer service - very happy to support the great work Realair does. That said, I can't justify to myself the full 30 Euros as the model is so close to the Turbine and inevitably I'll end up splitting flight time. Just a thought, I understand if you see things differently.

 

Thanks,

Simon.

 

I was faced with the same thing. Paid $50 US for each plane separately before they were available as a package. You just gotta pay if you wanna play. At least I did. Sucked but I did it. Now I am paying nother $25 to get V2 of the Piston. I have then $125 US invested in the Dukes now. Ah well.

 

Charles.

I found it convenient that all of my Acufeel and Ezdok cameras and settings transferred from the old Duke without me having to do anything, because the plane is named the same.  One thing that I did notice immediately is that the cowl flaps have changed from a three position switch to switches with multiple positions and the Lua script that I used for them doesn't work anymore.  The manual needs to be revised to reflect this.  They now have multiple positions that can be assigned using default cowl flap increase and decrease commands.  All of my other Lua stuff for the lights appears to operate them fine, so there was no need to revise any scripts so far.  The rudder seems a lot more sensitive than before, and I'm not sure that I like that-but I'm not planning on changing my linear control sensitivities for just this plane.  Just a tiny bit required as the turn is entered into, and then just the weight of the foot to carry thru the turn.  Landing behavior appeared to be a little more 'natural', since I can't think of a better way to describe it.    Despite advice from above, I do have crash detection and collisions enabled (for other planes) and had no trouble belly landing or any problems (yet) with the gear being damaged in flight.  Maybe not the game changer of an upgrade that I had built myself up to expect, and I wasn't sure what to expect since I don't have the Lancair, but my first impressions are positive. 

 

The manual seems to indicate that we should tone our realism settings for torque and p-factor down?  I have all of those sliders full to the right, because that's what most planes require, and I don't want to have to change that every time I fly this plane, and have to reset LOD radius, Texture Max Load and all the rest of the things you have to do when you change a slider.  I wonder how bad we are undermining Real Air's careful flight tuning if we have them all full to the right, as I do?  The only thing I noticed was just a tiny bit of right rudder trim required at high power, and i would assume that is realistic anyway.  Otherwise it feels pretty much just like the old Duke.

 

Interesting, and fair comments. Not wishing to discourage you from running accu feel at the same time but some effects might be clashing. The custom effects are really custom. If you look at the guide you will see how we've implemented them, for every roll, pitch, yaw and other situations apart from the ground stuff. The yaw was tightened in order to stop the previous slightly too much  lateral drift which needed a tad too much rudder and also needed too much rudder for rate one turns. The very slightly more challenging touchdown and final approach handling was also deliberate. P factor is always debatable because it doesn't always translate to everyone's agreement in a sim. I do think every loaded aircraft might need a quick realism menu adjustment because there are so many variables in opinion and approach between developers.

 

I think the guide contains a lot of aspects which you might like to test after reading about them. This upgrade is not a makeover but a lot of additions that become apparent as you fly more. Thanks for your assessment.

How is the Single Engine Handling? VMC Roll is possible in this Duke?

Hi Rob,

 

Question - could there be / is there a discount for Turbine Duke owners as was very reasonably provided for the B60 owners when the Turbine was released?

 

Would love to pick up this variant as I buy as many of the Realair planes as I can because of the quality and cutomer service - very happy to support the great work Realair does. That said, I can't justify to myself the full 30 Euros as the model is so close to the Turbine and inevitably I'll end up splitting flight time. Just a thought, I understand if you see things differently.

 

Thanks,

Simon.

 

We already offered a discount on the combined piston/turbine combination.. Likewise a discount for piston solo purchasers. If we offered a discount on the turbine then piston version users might say why did they not get a further discount still. As I said on another thread, nine months work is costing the price (I would have to pay) for a couple of beers and a very cheap takeaway meal for two for one night if you get a discount. The full price is actually 25-30% cheaper in real terms than the original release five years ago but with twice the detail and three times the care and features! I really don't think that is unreasonable.

Great job, Rob and Sean!

 

The old Duke was beginning to feel a bit dated, after newer releases (Lancair, A2A C172) were setting a new standard,

but with this update, the Duke is right up there with the best!

 

For folks fussing over the $25 investment - where in the world can you get your airplane completely overhauled for 25 bucks??

 

I'm totally delighted to add the Duke back to my favorites list - and to the top of my GA twin list!

 

Thanks again!

Most expensive part of the Real Air Duke is the $200 you end up paying to Reality XP in order to get 430/530/Crossfill, just because resistance if futile! :lol:   Even so, we have to figure that even with the full on thing, we end up spending as much on the Real Air Dukes as it costs to fly the real Beechcraft Dukes for about 30 minutes or less possibly.  And you probably wouldn't get a smile on your face from belly landing or ditching the real one either.

Is this 2.0 version P3D compatible?

I think I saw the answer to this but can't find it again.

 

Can the original B60 be deleted after install of B60 V2?

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

P3D??

 

Worked for me in my P3D and FSX installations

 

Scott

Downloaded and test flown.  It definitely feels more 'alive' than V1.  Great work Rob and Sean!  I really hope this is a good seller and that you guys consider going ahead with T-Duke V2. 

 

Cheers

TJ

A master piece Realair!

 

I just done a very short flight, Aberdeen Scotland, winds 16kts gusting 25kts (a calm day for Scotland!), at night.  I switched Accufeel off as I soon found out that the Realair version is much better.  By this I mean the brakes noise sounds correct and acts in sync with the brakes (Accufeel has a few seconds delay??), the fuselage noise is just more authentic in everyway.  There is something special with the sound effect when flying a cross wind, not too in your face, not too suttle, just enough of a groan from the fuselage to tell you that you are crabbing, and the noises change slightly to let you know that it´s gusting.  The flight model is just perfect, the aircraft feels solid, not twitchy at all and flies perfectly.  I flew a half flap approach at 100kts and love the fact that the flare is modelled very well, too many recent aircraft just want to float with "imo" an overmodelled ground effect, not this one.  With FSGRW, I got a greaser, which for a gusting wind isn´t ideal, so up the left wing popped and thumped back down, not seen that for a while.

The night lighting is great, the cockpit is a peach!  I love the effect of the 1970´s dome light that just does the job, very cool!

 

FPS were a little low in the LA area with all effects on (kind of expected),  but to be honest, I switch off the dust effects etc as living in Switzerland we would never allow such a shoddy cockpit.  But I have constant 30 FPS flying around FTX Scotland, smooth as silk

 

Also the Piston now seems to have a fresh set of running shoes regarding performance, have you tweaked this?  Seems to slip through the air a little better, cruise speeds seem higher and on a circuit, I was suprised at the speed I reached on a mid throttle setting.  Was nice to see the speed bleed of easily on base though, making circuits fairly easy.

 

This aircraft will be my bread and butter over the winter.  UK tour in winter will be fun for sure! 

 

Well done Rob and Sean.

Anybody else getting a bandwidth limit exceeded message when they go to the Realair website?

Yep... That server wasnt expecting this release. Hopefully it will be up on simmarket soon. 

A master piece Realair!

 

I just done a very short flight, Aberdeen Scotland, winds 16kts gusting 25kts (a calm day for Scotland!), at night.  I switched Accufeel off as I soon found out that the Realair version is much better.  By this I mean the brakes noise sounds correct and acts in sync with the brakes (Accufeel has a few seconds delay??), the fuselage noise is just more authentic in everyway.  There is something special with the sound effect when flying a cross wind, not too in your face, not too suttle, just enough of a groan from the fuselage to tell you that you are crabbing, and the noises change slightly to let you know that it´s gusting.  The flight model is just perfect, the aircraft feels solid, not twitchy at all and flies perfectly.  I flew a half flap approach at 100kts and love the fact that the flare is modelled very well, too many recent aircraft just want to float with "imo" an overmodelled ground effect, not this one.  With FSGRW, I got a greaser, which for a gusting wind isn´t ideal, so up the left wing popped and thumped back down, not seen that for a while.

The night lighting is great, the cockpit is a peach!  I love the effect of the 1970´s dome light that just does the job, very cool!

 

FPS were a little low in the LA area with all effects on (kind of expected),  but to be honest, I switch off the dust effects etc as living in Switzerland we would never allow such a shoddy cockpit.  But I have constant 30 FPS flying around FTX Scotland, smooth as silk

 

Also the Piston now seems to have a fresh set of running shoes regarding performance, have you tweaked this?  Seems to slip through the air a little better, cruise speeds seem higher and on a circuit, I was suprised at the speed I reached on a mid throttle setting.  Was nice to see the speed bleed of easily on base though, making circuits fairly easy.

 

This aircraft will be my bread and butter over the winter.  UK tour in winter will be fun for sure! 

 

Well done Rob and Sean.

 

Thanks Ian and very observant. We made a note about the increased perfomance in the flying guide (which I politely suggest quite a lot of users haven't read yet - but we are all guilty of that!). We explain that winglets, better engine technology and better modern versions of the original engine type all combine to make the Duke B60's performance a significant improvement on the default 1600 fpm climb fully loaded. It's more like 1800 fpm plus now in addition to snappier overall performance. All of these subtle gains are built into the upgrade.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Rob - RealAir