FSX-MS Justflight Piper Arrow III and HS748.

[haseen 10]

Dear:

I'm looking at JF Piper Arrow III and HS748. Could someone please tell me: 

1. How accurate those planes are systemwise and how are the flight dynamics? 

2. How are the Autopilots?

I use A2A Piper Cherokee 180 and PMDG Jetstream 41 which are excellent. But JF Fokker F27 (which I have) is not accurate in anyway. Kindly suggest.

Regards,

Haseen Ahmad

Bangladesh.

[sevenflyer 12]

Hello Haseen:

I don't have the Arrow, so I can't comment on that.

I'm using the HS748 in Steam on Windows 10 64 bit, DX10. Nice looking outside. The VC is a little on the cartoonish side, but better than most of their offerings. Systemwise it is fairly good, but Rick Piper's  freeware HS748 is better, especially in regards to the fuel trimmers. As far as the autopilot goes, it leaves a bit to be desired. It is definitely better than those on some of their other offerings. When they originally offered the HS748, the AP worked quite well. Whatever they did in the original service pack affected the AP and it is a bit wonky now, Once you figure out how to work it - it doesn't work as the manual says, it is useable.

Flight dynamics, again, not bad but there are a few items like "pitch" that are off.

My biggest beef with Just Flight - at least the products made by Airplane Heaven, is their continued promise of it will be looked after in the next service pack. Well, it has been years for some of these products and those promised service packs have yet to arrive.

If you haven't tried Rick Piper's freeeware, give it a go before you buy this. If you're having problems with getting that to work right on your system,  and you definitely want an HS748, Just Flight's is not a total waste of money.

 

    - Roger Neves

 

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

3 hours ago, sevenflyer said:

My biggest beef with Just Flight - at least the products made by Airplane Heaven

The new Just Flight PA28R Arrow is made entirely in house.  It's brand new and the developer is actively working on making changes to the FDE that I expect to see in the next week.  The discussion topic is here.

They're also looking at the possibility of making a Turbo T-tail version.

[Chock 17,769]

Their new PA-28 Arrow is pretty good, it is nicely modeled and flies pretty well. There are however a few comments on certain aspects of it which people who have experience of flying the real aircraft have made in the other thread linked to above. Having said that, I think most people agree it's generally pretty okay flight-wise and certainly a very nice 3D model. As you will note on the other thread, the developers are keen to see people's feedback on it and are actively engaged in making tweaks to how it flies based on people's comments, which is a good sign, since not every developer is quite so speedy in their response to such things, and you'll find that to be the case on their own forums too for the most part.

I suppose it is also worth noting that, as with pretty much any aeroplane in real life, you can find that whilst two models of the same aircraft will generally handle and perform the same in most respects, pilots who have flown several of the same model know from experience that you can fly two or three 'identical' aircraft, which on the face of it should fly the same, but they will exhibit some subtle differences. I've certainly found that to be true with a number of aeroplanes I've flown in real life; some have stiffer controls than others (one in particular I recall had a spoiler lever which you really had to pull very hard to get it to unlatch, and since it was the first time I had flown that type, I was thinking: 'damn, the spoiler lever on these things is terrible', then of course I flew a couple of other aircraft of the same type and found that I'd formed the wrong impression, as the lever on the other ones was easy to unlatch, in fact, the first time I did unlatch it on another aeroplane, I gave it a real good yank because I was expecting it to be stiff and nearly broke my arm when it released really easily!). Thus when some people point out that an FS aeroplane doesn't fly exactly like the one they flew in real life, I suspect there is often a bit of that going on.

So one aircraft you know might climb slightly better than another which should be identical or whatever. This is especially true when comparing a newer low hours model with something that has plenty of hours on the airframe and might not have been so gently cared for. Many rental GA aeroplanes can have had a bit of a hard life, whereas one in private ownership might not have had to endure so much clumsiness. Like cars, pretty much every older aircraft ends up with its quirks, dings in the airframe, bent trim tabs etc, all of which makes one with such 'souvenirs' fly a little bit less like the book says it should, and of course an older engine might be a little less inclined to deliver the same power as a newer one. I'm sure Harrison Ford's Aviat Husky flies exactly like a new one should, because he has the kind of money to ensure it gets all the love it needs, whereas you might find other ones aren't quite as pristine. Us mere humans often find ourselves flying not quite so shiny aeroplanes when we tip up to an airfield and hire something!

With regard to JF's Hawker Siddeley HS.748, it's pretty good, although as with most JF airliners, if you are expecting it to look like and have as many 'wow' features as something from say PMDG or FSL, it won't, but then again, it doesn't cost anywhere near as much as some of those other add-ons, i.e. the JF Constellation is half the price of the A2A one and the JF DC-6 is a third of the price of the PMDG DC-6 for X-Plane, so as long as you keep that in mind, you'll be aware of where to place your level of expectation.

Generally speaking though, I don't think you'd be disappointed with their HS.748, which I think it is fair to say is the case with most of JF's airliners, they're not in the very top league of airliner add-ons, but they do have the merit of being fairly inexpensive, usually pretty easy on frame rates and are often little bit more esoteric than other simulated aircraft you can find, for example, you're never going to see PMDG doing a de Havilland Comet or FSL doing a VC-10 or A2A knocking out a BAC 1-11. Even when PMDG did do a DC-6, it wasn't for FSX.

So for the most part, JF's airliners 'do what it says on the tin' in terms of avionics and systems simulation for a reasonable price. I personally quite like most of their airliners and have bought pretty much all of them for these reasons. Keep in mind however, that there are one or two freeware versions of some airliners which are on par with JF's airliners and of course being freeware, they won't cost you any money, so it's worth having a bit of a look around before spending money.

[tttocs 301]

17 hours ago, haseen said:

2. How are the Autopilots?

 

Hello Haseen,

Specific to the new Arrow III and its autopilot, the developer has modeled the original Piper Autocontrol III which is a fairly simple single axis (roll only) unit.  You can track a heading or a radial as well as fly intercepts and based on my limited time with it so far it seems to do all of this just fine.  They have added one additional feature which allows you to cheat (that is, go beyond the capabilities of the real world unit) by clicking the "center" mouse button to capture and hold altitude.

FYI,

Scott

[kiwiflyer45 123]

The 748 had a very basic autopilot so don't have any great expectations as the real world aircraft was typical of British aircraft of that period.  I have not purchased the JF 748 as I LOVE Rick Piper's freeware 748 and it's adaptation to FSX-SE by someone who I cannot remember. (I apologize - the improvements are very significant and he/she deserves recognition...)

WHAT I DO RECOMMEND IS THE NEW JF Hawker Hunter. I consider it one of the best addons I've bought in a really long time - full of features, looks and flies superbly and seems a faithful recreation of one of the most beautiful and effective military aircraft of all time. It leaves the Virtavia Hunter in the dust - there's simply no comparison. JustFlight have exceeded all expectations with this one and I hope you'll all take advantage of the free demo and take a look (and fly) for yourselves.

[scianoir 610]

I don't have the Just Flight Arrow (yet!) but I have their 748 and I have to say it is amongst Just Flight's better airliners. It has quite a nicely modelled VC and, as far as I can see, most of the systems, including a rather different autopilot, function satisfactorily although don't expect PMDG type systems depth. The characteristic sound of the Dart engines, which I love, are replicated well throughout most of the power range although, having flown 748s in the real world (as a passenger) I do feel that the sound at full take off power is not quite right, but that is a personal opinion and others may not feel the same. There is also a minor issue with the flight dynamics involving the angle of attack while in level flight, but I have to admit I had not noticed this myself until it was brought up in the Just Flight forum and it hasn't detracted at all from my enjoyment of the aircraft.

Over the years I have bought a lot of payware aircraft and the less immersive ones tend to linger in my virtual hanger after a few initial flights, rarely reappearing again. However this is not the case with the Just Flight HS748 which I find provides a good level of immersion and I can recommend it if you are looking for a classic turboprop airliner to fly using VOR and ADF for navigation without an FMC in sight!

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

On 25/02/2017 at 11:05 PM, kiwiflyer45 said:

WHAT I DO RECOMMEND IS THE NEW JF Hawker Hunter. I consider it one of the best addons I've bought in a really long time - full of features, looks and flies superbly and seems a faithful recreation of one of the most beautiful and effective military aircraft of all time.

Avsim review of this coming very soon (from me). Although I agree, it is very pretty and good fun to whizz around in.