FSX-MS Alabeo DA-40

[ryanbatc 12,836]

But a Diamond star isn't a complicated piece of machinery .... Hehe

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

You feel like your flying someones art project and not a complicated piece of machinery. 

 

Weird, I've heard good things about Alabeo aircraft until the Cardinal came out. I'm worried they're becoming more like Carenado, especially with their upcoming C207.

[styckx 1,871]

Weird, I've heard good things about Alabeo aircraft until the Cardinal came out. I'm worried they're becoming more like Carenado, especially with their upcoming C207.

 

I grabbed their c172 because I'm a sucker for high wing Cessnas with retractable gear. It looks fantastic..  But you immediately see the drastic jump from A2A to Alabeo.. Alabeo c172 while flies nice just doesn't "feel alive" and feels like I've flown it before as it feels similar to past Carenado FDE's..  I understand also they are both asking for drastically different prices for their products but man, that extra money you're paying to A2A or the likes of RealAir etc makes a difference. 

 

Again.. The planes are fine. Great even because they are low priced, but they lack "it's living, breathing machine" feeling some of the other developers are so well versed at.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Look at the current prices of the RealAir aircraft.. not much extra money there..

[Guest]

 

 

Or maybe I've just been spoilt by A2A!

 

I think you need to keep this in perspective, the A2A aircraft cost me $80 for P3D version, the Alabeo cost me $27 for P3D version.  As such, my expectations are adjusted accordingly.

 

Also, the Alabeo aircraft just work in P3D.  The A2A has some growing pains and it's still not 100% P3D compatible even though I paid to get that.  Don't get me wrong, A2A is exceptional, but there is some "cashing in" going on ... fair enough, keeps them developing more aircraft.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[styckx 1,871]

Look at the current prices of the RealAir aircraft.. not much extra money there..

 

Holy heck... $15 for the Lancair is practically giving it away. I paid $47.05 at release

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Also, the Alabeo aircraft just work in P3D.  The A2A has some growing pains and it's still not 100% P3D compatible even though I paid to get that.  Don't get me wrong, A2A is exceptional, but there is some "cashing in" going on ... fair enough, keeps them developing more aircraft.

 

Except for the strobe light problem, what other issues does it have? When they said "Native P3D Aircraft", I thought that this meant it was rebuilt for Prepar3D and fully compliant.

 

Holy heck... $15 for the Lancair is practically giving it away. I paid $47.05 at release

15€ actually, but I agree, a killer price.

[Guest]

I thought that this meant it was rebuilt for Prepar3D and fully compliant.

 

I think they just recompile with the P3D SDK ... I don't think they make any adjustments specifically for P3D.  Keep in mine Alabeo's beacon and all their lights work just fine in P3D.

 

The other issues are input device calibrations, parking brake stuck on, toe brake issues, startup procedures that make it much more difficult to start the aircraft than it really is (my FBO ground school has both the C172 and the Cherokee and they are not that difficult to start).  These are all minor issues and I've been able to work around them, but for $80 they really shouldn't exist.  I give a blind eye to them because the aircraft is so good in many other ways that it far out weighs the minor issues.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[PDX Flyer 111]

I just posted some pictures of the DA40 in the Screen Shots Forum.

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

I think they just recompile with the P3D SDK ... I don't think they make any adjustments specifically for P3D.  Keep in mine Alabeo's beacon and all their lights work just fine in P3D.

 

The other issues are input device calibrations, parking brake stuck on, toe brake issues, startup procedures that make it much more difficult to start the aircraft than it really is (my FBO ground school has both the C172 and the Cherokee and they are not that difficult to start).  These are all minor issues and I've been able to work around them, but for $80 they really shouldn't exist.  I give a blind eye to them because the aircraft is so good in many other ways that it far out weighs the minor issues.

 

A2A said the strobe light will be fixed in 2.3, so I guess we can forget about that. But, are they even aware of those issues you described? If they make the startup procedure that hard (which is critical to the aircraft's performance), then they really need to be fixed.

[Guest]

A2A said the strobe light will be fixed in 2.3

 

Understand that, but a proactive process would be to address it for 2.2 (Alabeo seems to know how to make it work) and not push the work over to LM.  But don't blow this out of proportion, these are just very minor issues ... it was just my expectation that they would be addressed by A2A for an $80 product "designed for P3D".

 

Cheers, Rob.

[SirStiggie 63]

Bernt has been doing all the Alabeo and Carenado FDE's and I think they are pretty good. I was tempted to buy this - good value.

Did he do the TBM and Phenom as well?

[haskell 298]

I bought it. I like it.

 

Agree with all that's been said here. I own the RA Lancair and don't fly it much. It's AWESOME but I would never fly it IRL so I pull it out when I wanna go somewhere fast.

 

I own A2A 172 and Cherokee and they are, by far, my favorite planes. They are planes I could rent at Aspen Flying Club and take out on a Sunday. So is the DA-40. So I am happy to have it in the sim.

 

After a couple of flights: it's good.

 

Beautiful model.

Flies nicely. No time in the real one (yet) so nothing to compare it to. But I have watched a ton on YouTube and flying it by those numbers works.

RXP works. It has a 430 and I have a 530. Works fine. Squished in the display but the pop-up works great and it drives the nav functions well.

 

It's not A2A. But no other DA-40 is. And it's half the price. It does have a few minor "Carendo-ish" annoyances - in particular, the AP when HDG mode is activated flies AWAY from the bug initially, then turns toward it. I've had that in numerous Carenado planes but no other manufacturer. Not sure what the problem is. But, for $26 and the ability to get 140+ knots on a plane I plane on flying IRL, I'm happy.

 

Thanks all for chiming in! Now, off to a Rockies game and enjoy some sunshine!

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

You feel like your flying someones art project and not a complicated piece of machinery. 

It's times like this I miss the 'Agree' button.

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Understand that, but a proactive process would be to address it for 2.2 (Alabeo seems to know how to make it work) and not push the work over to LM.  But don't blow this out of proportion, these are just very minor issues ... it was just my expectation that they would be addressed by A2A for an $80 product "designed for P3D".

 

They said that this is a general problem with Prepar3D being unable to load effects in one go. If this affected other instances as well, I guess a fix is not bad.

 

As for the other issues, the point of my question was, are they aware of them and just refuse to fix them or do they think there aren't any more problems? If it's the latter, it wouldn't hurt to file a bug report.

 

I bought it. I like it.

 

Agree with all that's been said here. I own the RA Lancair and don't fly it much. It's AWESOME but I would never fly it IRL so I pull it out when I wanna go somewhere fast.

 

I own A2A 172 and Cherokee and they are, by far, my favorite planes. They are planes I could rent at Aspen Flying Club and take out on a Sunday. So is the DA-40. So I am happy to have it in the sim.

 

After a couple of flights: it's good.

 

Beautiful model.

Flies nicely. No time in the real one (yet) so nothing to compare it to. But I have watched a ton on YouTube and flying it by those numbers works.

RXP works. It has a 430 and I have a 530. Works fine. Squished in the display but the pop-up works great and it drives the nav functions well.

 

It's not A2A. But no other DA-40 is. And it's half the price. It does have a few minor "Carendo-ish" annoyances - in particular, the AP when HDG mode is activated flies AWAY from the bug initially, then turns toward it. I've had that in numerous Carenado planes but no other manufacturer. Not sure what the problem is. But, for $26 and the ability to get 140+ knots on a plane I plane on flying IRL, I'm happy.

 

Thanks all for chiming in! Now, off to a Rockies game and enjoy some sunshine!

 

Enjoy the aircraft! If you get to fly the DA40, it would be great if you made a comparison between the Alabeo model and its real-life counterpart. As for that AP issue, it wouldn't hurt to contact Alabeo for it. Since SP1 is not released yet, a fix might be added.