BARGAIN JustFlight Pick 'n' Mix

[Bjoern 1,157]

Only till monday afternoon (in my timezone).

 

https://www.justflight.com/bundle

 

The 1-11, F27 and HS.748 are as tempting as always, but I fear lots of necessity for aftermarket modifications (load/save, bugfixing) and bad framerates.

[SpiritFlyer 987]

How reliable and realistic are they? 

I always though of Just Flight at the low end. Have things changed?

If so, what looks and behaves well?

Kind regards,

[bhorsoft 0]

I have most of them and they aren't bad.  They aren't PMDG quality, but I would rate them as mid range.  Fun and fairly easy to fly with little effort.  I have flown the L-1011 a lot.  They just upgraded to P3Dv4 (free upgrades) so I've only flown them once or twice recently.

[jeansy 339]

theyre all aeroplane heaven built and sold through justflight, most are buggy and still have several shortfalls, the texturing are very cartoonish

frame rates arent bad, they actuality pretty good, however again aeroplane heaven arent what they were like in the early days, they are just above virtavia/alphasim in the ladder

sadly the developer is about quantity not quality, the modelling is pretty good however thats about it

I have all 3 which i purchased individually, i do have some regrets and on the other hand with the 748 after some addition tweaks and work im reasonably happy with what i have

you have to remember at the end of the day justflight are the shop front face for these models, there are lots of post for fixes and additional items for these aircraft

the L1011 lasted a week, the f27 a day and the 748 is still going after some work

[ThomasAH 61]

The L-1011 is an old in-house development of JustFlight, though Bjoern talked about the One-Eleven, which is created by Aeroplane Heaven.

However, there are some other in-house developments in the bundle sale: The Hawk T1/A Trainer and the TB-10/TB-20 package.

I would consider the newer in-house developed JustFlight aircraft as very good (in some aspects almost A2A, in others even a little better), but they are a bit CPU hungry, so I would recommend trying the demo versions first.

From the aircraft you listed above, I would consider the F27 the most interesting, because instead of the 1-11 I would prefer the 1011 (or even a Boeing) and instead of the 748 I would prefer one of the two A2A prop-liners. The F27 has some limitations, and I wouldn't recommend buying it at full price, but at sale prices it is definitively worth a try.

[GHarrall 494]

Any of the in house developed stuff is good. The aeroplane haeaven stuff isn't. 

I have heard good things about the hawk. Very tempted. Too bad none of the new pipers are included. 

[flyforever 267]

I have most of JF planes, and as others have stated, my interest in them dropped quickly. While I like their choice of models( I like the vintage aircrafts), the poor flight modeling and attention to system details quickly make me lose interest in them. The most recent purchase, the DC8, has great sounds and a lot of potential.

Yet their autopilot system is crazy. When one least expects it, the plane goes into uncontrolled flight.

To make matters worse, their choice to not include basic 2d panels makes the planes unflyable. For obvious reasons, a 2d panel allows for easier and more predictable control of an aircraft, especially those of us who fly IFR. Without 2D panels ,I find that by the time I am changing frequencies or something else in the VC view, the plane is out of control. Some folks swear that camera views address this, but I disagree.

The timeline for updates is beyond one's patience. It's not in a few  months, but almost in years.

I am generalizing a bit, knowing that we're talking about JF the distributor, and not Airplane Heaven, the developer.

I think JF is finally realizing that selling products under their name can be deadly. To this end, I am happy to see them embarking in a new direction by developing their own aircrafts, which , so far, have received wide acclaim.

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

29 minutes ago, flyforever said:

I think JF is finally realizing that selling products under their name can be deadly. To this end, I am happy to see them embarking in a new direction by developing their own aircrafts, which , so far, have received wide acclaim.

This.  The new pipers are really good.  The systems are very good, the texturing is excellent, the flight modelling is very good.

[Bjoern 1,157]

Thanks for your opinions, guys.

I dug around the JF forums a bit and each of my aircraft of interest still seems to have problems to some degree or another (worst offenders being the APs and FDEs). They're probably fixable with enough time and patience, but nope, not enough time in my budget for that. So it's a pass yet again.

[Chock 17,769]

As others have noted, some of the stuff made for them by Aeroplane Heaven can be a bit ropey, but there are on or two good ones in amongst them, notably their B17F Flying Fortress, which is really good and is one I would recommend if you like old prop aeroplanes. But by the same token, some of them are pretty lacklustre, the recent Curtis C46 Commando is one which is very sloppy and needs patching. But, having said that, if it wasn't for JF and AH, we would not have a Mosquito, Comet, Dove, 1-11, VC-10, DC-8, HS748 etc, and most of those are okay, although one or two could do with a patch to sort them out a bit.

In stark contrast to the hit and miss nature of that AH stuff however, JF's recent in house GA developments:TB10/20 and PA28 variants, are excellent, up there with the best and almost rivalling A2A's GA stuff. So it is apparent that JF are upping their game a bit.

[flyforever 267]

Bjoern,

Assuming that your are correct in being able to "fix" them, I think there's a big demand for "fixes", and I think some would happily donate to help support your efforts. I say this because vintage aircrafts are very popular among many simmers, and JF is the only one who brought them to us, albeit in less than a perfect state. As I've already said, I enjoy my DC8, but cannot get a good IFR without the plane becoming unstable during some part of the flight. By the way, Captain Sim's b727 has similar issues, too.

I wish a utility with which one could create 2d panels for these planes were available. FSPanel cannot extract much from these new planes and how they have been designed. Old gauges from other planes sometimes do not work either. The trend to not provide 2d panel is bad. 2d panel should always be made optional. It's the nature of the beast with a simulator.

tony

[scianoir 610]

18 hours ago, SpiritFlyer said:

How reliable and realistic are they? 

I always though of Just Flight at the low end. Have things changed?

If so, what looks and behaves well?

Kind regards,

Bought the PA-28R Arrow III before the sale and I confirm that it is excellent as is their Trinidad/Tobago. Both of these were developed in-house by Just Flight, as I understand have some of their military aircraft although I don't have these. Clearly their in-house development team is very talented but it is a shame that the same cannot be said for the talents of the Aeroplane Heaven  development team whose products are also marketed under the Just Flight label and whose quality could only be defined as variable, some being good and some not so good.

Aeroplane Heaven seem to perform inadequate beta testing and many of their products on initial release have some obvious deficiencies which one would have thought even basic beta testing should have identified. As an example the BAC One-Eleven came with what was essentially a non-functioning autopilot although it was otherwise a great product and it took the best part of a year for an update to address this. Indeed Just Flight seems to spend much of their time very patiently fielding complaints  about AH products and although AH usually provide updates eventually, the problems with their products on release can tend to taint the Just Flight brand label somewhat. This is a pity as many of the aircraft AH produce are not available elsewhere and are very welcome additions to the flight sim world. The good news however is that many of the issues evident on release have by now been addressed and, if you are not looking for PMDG type study level aircraft some of these products, particularly the 748, 1-11 and DC-6 are great bargains and a nice addition to your fleet. 

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

Okay, for anyone considering these, here's my opinion on them...

One-Eleven 300/400/500 - Needs a patch, it is flyable and works, but occasionally it exhibits strange handling, I'd hold off on this one to be honest until they've patched it, although it is mostly usable if you are prepared to put up with a few oddities.

L-1011 TriStar Professional - Graphically it's not the best, but in its 'pro' upgraded form it's not a bad simulation of the L-1011. The FMC equipped versions included in the sim need a bit of patching, they work, but the display font is a bit screwed up although it will still fly a route anyway, the INS versions work fine, so whilst it does need a bit of a tweak, it is usable.

DH.104 Dove & Devon - This one is great.

Hawk T1/A Advanced Trainer - This one is really great.

C-46 Commando - This one is in need of a patch, which is supposedly on the way next week. In its present form it is flyable, but there are issues with the radios. The flight model is basically a DC-3 flight model, you can even see references to the DC-3 in its config file, which might not be a million miles away from how the real C46 flies, but it's indicative of some lazy developing. It's a nice model though, and you can fly it okay, but it will be better after that patch shows up. Bit tough on frames for what it is.

DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI - This one is great, as indeed are all the JF Mosquito add-ons, and there are a lot of them.

Meteor F.8/FR.9 - This one is great.

HS 748 Propliner - This one is great.

TB-10 Tobago & TB-20 Trinidad - This is one is great. One of the best GA add-ons you can get actually, but it's a bit of a frame rate hog for a GA aeroplane, however, if your system does not struggle for FPS, then it is well worth having, especially since you actually get two aeroplanes, the fixed gear TB10 and the retractable gear TB20.

Fokker F27 Friendship 100/200/300 - This one is great.

DC-10 Collection HD 10-40 - Hardly a study sim, but it is good fun, however, if you want a detailed sim of a wide body tri-jet, the JF L-1011 is better in terms of system simulation.

Hunter F.6/FGA.9 - This one is great.

[Bjoern 1,157]

4 hours ago, flyforever said:

Bjoern,

Assuming that your are correct in being able to "fix" them, I think there's a big demand for "fixes", and I think some would happily donate to help support your efforts. I say this because vintage aircrafts are very popular among many simmers, and JF is the only one who brought them to us, albeit in less than a perfect state. As I've already said, I enjoy my DC8, but cannot get a good IFR without the plane becoming unstable during some part of the flight. By the way, Captain Sim's b727 has similar issues, too.

I wish a utility with which one could create 2d panels for these planes were available. FSPanel cannot extract much from these new planes and how they have been designed. Old gauges from other planes sometimes do not work either. The trend to not provide 2d panel is bad. 2d panel should always be made optional. It's the nature of the beast with a simulator.

tony

No, sorry. Donations would definitely cross a line and it's a slippery slope to a hand-in-mouth payware developer existence. If I do this, it's on my own account and, in light of freeware alternatives as backups (some of which I've invested time into), the interest to invest hundreds of work hours in the payware birds just isn't really there, not even at sale price.

 

By the way: If a payware plane uses XML gauges, anyone can fix anything with some experience in XML and FSX' panel and aircraft systems. So if there's a demand for fixes to payware products, the only option is to dig around the web for info and get crackin'.