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Jim Young

PA23 AZTEC F 250 Released!

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It looks really nice, however everytime I buy something from them I'm disappointed and wish I hadn't purchased it. These guys really know how to make things look pretty though. I think I'll wait for reviews.

If that's the case you'll be disappointed with this one too. As someone else pointed out they are advertising an F model but used turbocharged engines. I'm disappointed about this. There are no prop feathering animations, which to me are pretty important in a twin. I tried shutting down an engine in flight and feathering the prop and it just kept spinning. During approach the gear warning was going off but the gear were down and locked, and the nose wheel steering stopped working after touchdown. The sounds are mediocre and the documentation is a few scanned pages from the POH.

 

I've only taken one flight so maybe it will grow on me but this particular aircraft is exactly what you'd expect from Alabeo and nothing more. I desperately want a proper light piston twin for FSX/P3D and I had high hopes for this one, but other than the pretty visuals it's a disappointment for me. I had heard that A2A was doing a Piper Seminole and was ecstatic about this, but it appears they are instead doing an Aerostar. I really wish A2A would do for piston twins what they did for piston singles.

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Bought and have been flying the Aztec and have been pleased for the most part.  I seem to be having problems with the autopilot in that the pitch trim wheel won't always engage with the pitch button which also won't always turn on.  Also, the coding on some of the autopilot controls seems iffy as the selector knob turns in the opposite direction occasionally.  I also had to go into the aircraft config. file to up the maximum manifold pressure limits to something more realistic.

 

I too don't have much time in the real airplane but always felt it was the easiest airplane to fly either single or multi-engine and also gave good performance for what it was.  The FSX version replicates that in almost all respects.  Very happy to see this one come out.

 

rf

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I'm not impressed with the prop sounds.  This is really a fundamental part of making an aircraft like this immersive.  I flew on an Aztec a number of times as a passenger  and these sounds are not particularly amazing. (only okayish). 

 

As for the rest.  Excellent

Eric,

 

I can't agree with you more.  As a matter of fact, I commented on that very thing in another thread regarding this very plane.  If you'll notice, Alabeo has started to make "custom" sounds for most of their models. Customs is just that.  The sounds are pretty much made up to match the models fit.  Their sister company Carenado does at times say "recorded from actual aircraft" but that's been more of a thing of the past as opposed to here lately.  This "custom" sounds thing really caught my attention when Alabeo released their Piper Brave model.  Anyone that's ever heard a Piper Brave in real life will immediately know this sound.  Growing up as a kid in rural Louisiana, an Ag Pilot had several of them and I'd watch them fly all the time.  They have a distinct putt, putt, putt sound. I always said to myself what a really weird sounding airplane.  I never forget it.  The same goes for this airplane.  It would really be nice if Alabeo either reduced the price of their planes, or charged a bit more to get realistic sounds.  I'm pretty sure someone will be developing a sound set for this plane and once you add the cost of the plane to whatever cost the sound set will be, you're up to the a nearly $50 price tag.  It's unfortunate, but I usually always end up paying the extra for the sounds to get the total immersive factor like you talked about.

 

Gary

 

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As someone else pointed out they are advertising an F model but used turbocharged engines. I'm disappointed about this..

 

Why?  The F variant was available in both turbocharged (using Lycoming TIO-540-C1A engines with automatic wastegates) and non-turbocharged (Lycoming IO-540-C4B5) versions.  Frankly the fact that they decided to produce the turbocharged option makes it more desirable to me, not less.

 

I'm not surprised about the sound complaints, that's for sure.. As Carenado's visuals continue to improve, their sound quality continues to underwhelm.  Hopefully aftermarket sounds become available.

 

Scott

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As it was pointed out in a previous post, I also simulated an "engine out" (right engine mixture lever in full cutoff position) and with right prop lever in full feathered position, the prop continued to windmill. Unless I missed something, this is not good!! Has anyone else tried this with the same result?? If this is a bug, I sure don't know how the beta testers missed this one. I am using FSX

 

Thanks

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I'm having no problem whatsoever feathering the props. Very realistic behavior.

 

Very impressed with this aircraft. A great simulation!

 

P.S. Sounds and lighting are good on my setup. Autopilot behaves perfectly as it should.

 

An Alabeo Home run for me.


Jesse Cochran
"... eyes ever turned skyward"

P3D v5.3 Professional, Windows 10 Professional, Jetline GTX, Gigabyte Aorus X299 Gaming 7 mobo, i7 7740X @ 4.9 GHz, Corsair H115i Liquid Cooling, 32Gb SDRAM @ 3200MHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX1080Ti @ 11 GB

ORBX Global + NALC, ASP3D, ASCA, ENVTEX, TrackIR, Virtual-Fly Yoko Yoke, TQ6+, Ruddo+ Rudder Pedals

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Why?  The F variant was available in both turbocharged (using Lycoming TIO-540-C1A engines with automatic wastegates) and non-turbocharged (Lycoming IO-540-C4B5) versions.  Frankly the fact that they decided to produce the turbocharged option makes it more desirable to me, not less.

If engine management were even a little bit important with an Alabeo aircraft then I could see some added value in having the turbo in the form of additional challenge and immersion. Since it doesn't matter at all how you treat the engines, the turbo "feature" is like a magic superpower which to me is silly. I would also personally rather have normally aspirated engines because that's what I would be more likely to encounter and fly in real life. If you want the turbo then congratulations on getting what you wanted.

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This is the aircraft (well, the C-model anyway) I cut my teeth in as a young lad flying charters in outback Australia, 300 or so hours. It's been a while, but the handling feels familiar. The Hershey bar wings deliver a roll response similar to a 747 but they enabled us to take full loads into some pretty tight spots. My boss called her endearingly the "Ashtruck"!

 

There seem to be a few bugs with this one though. As others have found, I can't get the props to feather either (P3D3). Runup at 2,000 rpm the governor barely responds to pulling the prop lever fully back. In flight I tried fully shutting down the engine and simply by bringing mixture forward got it going again, even with mags off!

 

The sound is really, really bad! Especially from the cabin. Nothing like any small twin I've ever flown.

 

Ah well, I bought it more or less for sentimental reasons only. Don't think I'll be spending much time in it unless there's a major revision. The go-to small twin as far as I'm concerned is still the Milviz B/E-55, although it's far from perfect (I have about RL 300 hours in them too). On that note, I don't consider the Duke (Realair) a small twin, so you can't compare them.

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I'm having no problem whatsoever feathering the props. Very realistic behavior.

 

Very impressed with this aircraft. A great simulation!

 

P.S. Sounds and lighting are good on my setup. Autopilot behaves perfectly as it should.

 

An Alabeo Home run for me.

+1.

 

It's not perfect, but a great value at $35.


A pilot is always learning and I LOVE to learn.

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Did a shutdown and restart in flight using a joystick and slider for throttle, mouse in VC for prop control. Could not bind a button or key in P3D setup for feather action. using a mouse I could not get to the feather stop and of course the prop is windmilling. Reduced operating engine to idle and performed a power off stall, the dead engine prop then stopped and visually appeared in the low rpm, high pitch blade position.Trimmed it up and flew for a while, all the time the failed engine prop remained stationary.

 

Setup for a restart, fuel selector on, mixture rich, quick fuel pump prime, mags on and engaged the starter and it starts up.Just like I have done many times as an instructor with real world twin engined aircraft.

I am going to hook up my throttle quadrant setup and try a shutdown, I am wondering if the feather function needs to be bound to an axis as that is an option in P3D settings axis menu.

 

JesC can you comment on your controller setup that allowed getting a feathered prop?  I agree the prop sounds and lever motion could use a modification but single engine operation was nice, trimmed it up a bit and reminded me of the real thing. I did charter flying for a Piper dealer back in the day and the turbo Aztec was a nice ride, no bad habits.


Gary Stewart

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JesC can you comment on your controller setup that allowed getting a feathered prop?

 

FSX. Dual Saitek Throttle Quadrants.

 

Lowering the prop controls below the detent activates a switch which I have mapped through FSUIPC to the "Propeller (decrease RPM rapidly)" command and it is set to repeat. I use FSUIPC so that each prop control is mapped separately. By default the FSX  "Propeller (decrease RPM rapidly)" control is mapped to CTRL+F2; however that only controls the left (Number 1) engine. FSX also has a control command for feather prop but I don't believe it is mapped to any key by default and I don't recall ever trying it.

 

Have never used P3D but perhaps this will help you find a similar technique.

 

Jesse

 

P.S. A similar technique is used for Reverse Thrust on the Throttles.

  • Upvote 1

Jesse Cochran
"... eyes ever turned skyward"

P3D v5.3 Professional, Windows 10 Professional, Jetline GTX, Gigabyte Aorus X299 Gaming 7 mobo, i7 7740X @ 4.9 GHz, Corsair H115i Liquid Cooling, 32Gb SDRAM @ 3200MHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX1080Ti @ 11 GB

ORBX Global + NALC, ASP3D, ASCA, ENVTEX, TrackIR, Virtual-Fly Yoko Yoke, TQ6+, Ruddo+ Rudder Pedals

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For all of us having a problem feathering a prop on this aircraft--here is what the support guy at Alabeo stated:

 

"You must pull down the prop lever and then press CTRL + F2".

 

Apparently the command stated gets the prop lever into the detent necessary to activate the feathering process. I am using FSX. I have not had time to try this yet, will do so later.

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"You must pull down the prop lever and then press CTRL + F2".

 

Thanks Raymie. That's what I meant to say but actually said Shift+F2. Have now corrected my post.

 

Jesse


Jesse Cochran
"... eyes ever turned skyward"

P3D v5.3 Professional, Windows 10 Professional, Jetline GTX, Gigabyte Aorus X299 Gaming 7 mobo, i7 7740X @ 4.9 GHz, Corsair H115i Liquid Cooling, 32Gb SDRAM @ 3200MHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX1080Ti @ 11 GB

ORBX Global + NALC, ASP3D, ASCA, ENVTEX, TrackIR, Virtual-Fly Yoko Yoke, TQ6+, Ruddo+ Rudder Pedals

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   My Aztec was working just fine, but now it will not move on the ground on its own, regardless of power.   It's as though there is no connection between the power applied and the A/C.

   All other functions seem normal

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