Just Flight Flying Club

[deltaalpha 0]

Hello,I was just wondering if anyone has bought an of the airplanes from the Just Flight Flying Club that Avsim advertses on the front page. The pictures of the aircraft look pretty nice but I would like to hear what other people say about them since each plane is about $18. I tried the Tomahawk demo they offer and it is a pretty nice plane but I am interested to know about the others.Thanks,Dan

[JimmiG 244]

I agree $18 seems a bit steep. The Tomahawk is really the only one that interests me. The others (or closely related models of them) have already been done to the highest standards by highly reputable developers.

[Guest davidvoogd]

I just got the Justflight Showcase DVD - it has a Tomahawk Demo on it, and I think you can get a demo of it on their website. These planes look ok, the VC's are nice but they do use default gauges. There already is a Cessna 152, Piper Warrior and Seneca, payware addons - and those are much more detailed than this one - Piper Tomahawks are hard to find. It does supposedly have a full load editor and airport scenery included. It looks like a nice all in one package, but individually the planes probably don't stack up to a Dreamfleet / Aerosoft or Flight1 plane.

[JimmiG 244]

Default gauges just makes the whole plane boring IMO. For payware, and especially for a $18 plane, you'd expect custom gauges IMO.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

The Tomahawk is awfully nice to fly around the circuit, however, and especially so in the VC which has pretty good gauge update rates...Try the demo for a while! I find it quite difficult to say good-bye to at the end of the 30 days... so that must mean something.. :-)

[Rottenlungs 0]

Yeah, the demo Pa-38 does fly nicely in the pattern. I felt that the RPM was a bit low though. I recall about 2350 static and about 2450 in the climb. The startup and shutdown sounds are nice. I flew one (IRL) which had about 10700 hours on it (the airframe life is 11k hours) and it clattered on shutdown especially. This was well reflected by the Just Flight Tomy.$18 is steep, however, though compared to NZ$125 an hour solo for the real deal its not too bad.CheersLungs

[Guest Ashleigh Davidson]

Caranado did a Tomahawk ? It was free I think, not sure if updated for 2004 ect.As regards the others, there are a raft of quality developers producing outstanding GA stuff, my fav is mentioned above but I'm sure others will point you in various directions.AD

[JimmiG 244]

Just took the demo Tomahawk for a spin. The flight model is indeed better than I expected, as are the sounds. It's great fun to bash the circuit with. Texturing is also quite good but the use of default gauges really brings down overall experience and "personality" of the VC. It also comes with this quite poorly modelled instructor/passenger who sits absolutely still at all times and truly freaked me out. Especially when I noticed the yoke moves right through the hands and legs if you pull back far enough :-eek It's quite scary to realize that you have an undead instructor :-lolStill not sure I'll purchase it. $18 *is* a bit steep. For $10 or $12 I'd purchase right away. I suppose I'll just keep the demo for now and if, when the demo expires, I find I really miss the plane, I'll purchase it :) I'm also curious to see *how* it expires as I don't think anyone has done a time-limited aircraft before.For those looking for a trainer in the same class, I'd recommend the $17.95 Flight1 C152 instead, unless you're especially attached to the Tomahawk (ie. those who learnt to fly in one).Looks like the boxed version will cost $45 which means $11.25 per aircraft, plus it comes with some airport scenery as well. Still not sure about that one - it's a pretty good deal, but I've already got several PA28's, the Flight1 C152 and FSD Seneca V etc. and while all addons are different, the Tomahawk would still be the only "new" aircraft. On the other hand these aircraft would be absolutely perfect for the England and Wales VFR+UK2000 sceneries as they are all "G-" registered and very common aircraft in the British skies.Finally, for the casual simmer/newbie, or members of the heavy metal crowd looking to get into GA, this should make for a great "my first addon" type of package.edit: Just checked the manual (I know...). The aircraft seem well researched and the flight models are actually done by Rob Young (RealAir Simulations) so it's not surprising that it flies so smoothly, though I wasn't able to make it spin.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/116317.jpgTHIS is why I don't like it when developers try to model people.

[otterspotter 8]

Anybody notice anything unusual about Tomahawk's climb? Seemed very vigorous to me (I flew Tomahawks in my PPL training over a year ago), but now my demo is disabled, so I can't check it again. Maybe my memory serves me wrong...Michal

[JimmiG 244]

I was getting around 850 ftpm at 72 kts. This was with 40% fuel and default loading. I added some weight to myself (in the sim, that is :) ) and the instructor and increased fuel to 75%. This gave me just over 700 fpm. However I noticed that it was quite easy to climb in steps and get closer to 1,000 fpm for extended periods.I'm usually more interested in the general feel than that the programmer got everything exactly on the numbers - this varies from aircraft to aircraft of the same model anyway. With the same loading I was indicating about 93 kts in the cruise at 2,000'.

[otterspotter 8]

Thanks Jimmi for the numbers. They are actually very respectable. I don't know why my original impression was so significantly different than what I had experienced in real life. I definitely don't expect FS planes to be always on the money. The real Tomahawk I flew felt more sluggish, but as you rightly point out, no two planes are ever the same. Does the full package include an American paint or do you know if somebody made one?Michal

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Try moving the date back on your computer and the demo may come to life again...

[ckukmale 30]

Hi All.Regarding the Shoreham Airport scenery that will come with the boxed product, I do know that its being created by Online Simulation Solutions who created the London Gatwick and London City airport scenery. The quality of the scenery from shots I have seen are very good.I tried the demo out of the tomahawk and it was quite fun to fly. I do believe though that the flight dynamics have been improved lately by Rob and I think that an update for that was posted on the Just Flight website, whether or not its only for the registered version I am not sure.Im waiting for the full package to come out as obviously what with the airport scenery which I think might be sold seperately by Online Simulation solutions also and with the 4 aircraft will make it alot cheaper than buying the aircraft as seperate downloads.Anyway thats just to let you know about who is making the Airport scenery.Craig

[robert young 2,897]

The Tomahawk specs were taken directly from the instructors who fly one every day at Shoreham. They gave me surprisingly optimistic climb specs which I duly put into the flight model.Actually the Tomahawk WILL spin perfectly well, but you have to put the general realism slider to max (fully right).Do try the Warrier and and Seneca too. They are easy to fly and reasonably close to the specs I was given.Kind Regards,Rob Young (FDE...Flying Club aircraft)

[JimmiG 244]

Well FDE's by Rob Young, that does increase the value for money of these aircraft :) I just recently purchased your RealAir Decathlon as well - can't believe I waited this long :DI didn't try that hard to spin the Tomahawk as I didn't expect it to be spinnable. I'll go through my realism settings, check the trim and give it another try tonight.