I was considering the recently released Carenado D18S when I ran across a video on You Tube that offers fixes for the sound & flight dynamics, neither of which the author, David Womacks, found impressive.

Has anyone got the D18S & agree/disagree with his assessments?

T45

 

 

I'm the maker of the video,I'm a real world flight instuctor, but have no Beech 18 time but there is another member here who flew the Beech 18 and he said they were bad,the issue is the plane flies more like a Extra 300 than a heavy twin

It's been years since I flew the D18 but I agree it doesn't have the heavy feel. Don't recall the sounds at all so can't say. Still it's a nice a/c.

 

Vic

22 minutes ago, z06z33 said:

I'm the maker of the video,I'm a real world flight instuctor, but have no Beech 18 time but there is another member here who flew the Beech 18 and he said they were bad,the issue is the plane flies more like a Extra 300 than a heavy twin

I was tossing up whether it was worth paying full boat then needing to make your suggested tweaks to get it 'right'. ie, does it have any redeeming features?😂

T45

Carenado sounds are ok for me, but i agree that they failed to reproduce heavy feeling.

If u have at least one A2A plane it is hard to accept given 'immersion' ...

Does anybody knows how to change aircraft.cfg to set tail wheel from rudder linked to free rotation as it is in original plane ? 

4 hours ago, Beardyman said:

Carenado sounds are ok for me, but i agree that they failed to reproduce heavy feeling.

If u have at least one A2A plane it is hard to accept given 'immersion' ...

I’m using the sounds from Miltons Beech 18 they are a world better

 

5 hours ago, Treetops45 said:

I was tossing up whether it was worth paying full boat then needing to make your suggested tweaks to get it 'right'. ie, does it have any redeeming features?😂

T45

It’s a fun plane after the tweaks. I’d wait till it’s available from pcaviator and it’s a Tuesday so you can get 10% off it’ll be in there in a week or so

This is odd, I've been doing lots of D18S flying lately in Norway Round Robin ... the aircraft felt very good, heavy'ish and taxi'd very well ... it felt so good in my first few flights that's the reason I decide on a long series of stops in a Norway Round Robin.

Sounds seem great to me, nice amount of vibration and prop noise and thumpy piston sound ... I am using ChasePlane.

With that said, I have NO real world experience with the D18S so I honestly couldn't say if it's supposed to feel more or less heavy, but it certainly did NOT feel like an Extra 300, not even close ... I checked my calibrations and all full range and no dead spots (max sensitivity).

I have had a few Carenado/Alebeo that have tended to be too sensitive while doing a takeoff run, but not the D18S (even with HiFi AS4 weather).

I love the aircraft inside and out ... job well done, but again I have ZERO experience in a real D18S.

Cheers, Rob.

I was away for a couple weeks and only now see this bird.

If I pick this one up where does one find the "tweaks"?

Bryan

42 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

I was away for a couple weeks and only now see this bird.

If I pick this one up where does one find the "tweaks"?

Bryan

Check out my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/Q-CE8cYIc6I

42 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

I was away for a couple weeks and only now see this bird.

If I pick this one up where does one find the "tweaks"?

Bryan

You Tube

Search 'Beech 18 David Womacks'

T45

3 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

This is odd, I've been doing lots of D18S flying lately in Norway Round Robin ... the aircraft felt very good, heavy'ish and taxi'd very well ... it felt so good in my first few flights that's the reason I decide on a long series of stops in a Norway Round Robin.

Sounds see great to me, nice amount of vibration and prop noise and thumpy piston sound ... I am using ChasePlane.

With that said, I have NO real world experience with the D18S so I honestly could say if it's supposed to feel more or less heavy, but it certainly did NOT feel like an Extra 300, not even close ... I checked my calibrations and all full range and no dead spots (max sensitivity).

I have had a few Carenado/Alebeo that have tended to be too sensitive while doing a takeoff run, but not the D18S (even with HiFi AS4 weather).

I love the aircraft inside and out ... job well done, but again I ZERO experience in a real D18S.

Cheers, Rob.

It was a bit of exaggeration to say Extra 300 but it's roll rate seems about as high as my Yak-52s and it's pitch was pretty crazy too,the Beech 18 should be somewhere between a Baron and a DC-3 handling wise . The sounds are fine until your in the cockpit at full throttle there it sounds more like a horizontally opposed engine than a radial,not bad just not a deep radial sound.

Edited July 18, 20187 yr by z06z33

6 hours ago, z06z33 said:

It was a bit of exaggeration to say Extra 300 but it's roll rate seems about as high as my Yak-52s.

I don't know what roll rate your Yak-52 has, but there are various RL D18 videos on the net which confirm that the roll rate is even a tad higher than on the Carenado D18, which has a maximum of approx 70deg/sec. Furthermore all the pireps I've read about the D18 mention the light controls. 

As Rob has already mentioned, it also feels and handles nicely, well within the expectations after checking the various videos and reading pilot reports.  

https://youtu.be/_RYZTr9gzuQ?t=41

 

Edited July 18, 20187 yr by J35OE

Two questions to happy owners

1. Found out that mixture leaning is odd. Even with mixture as low as 0.2 engine works fine. Second issue is that when use lean mixture milage per gallon is lower than with rich mixture, and should be opposite.

2. when use autopilot with HDG option only, I have no pitch control - I think that is also odd