Is it worth buy FSLabs a320

[pegruder 65]

9 hours ago, DrumsArt said:

To answer to your question, not really at this time. There are many requests for this from users on the FsLabs forum. I think and hope it should happen one of these days.

Richard

Gotcha.  Hopefully they do it.  That will complete total immersion when at any moment a real world failure can happen.  Its nice to practice failures when you know theyll happen, but the unexpected is a diff story.

[pete_auau 1,158]

8 hours ago, tooting said:

the best aircraft addon I ever bought.. the fsl 320

fsl 319 is  even better  still

[anden145 2,285]

It's the little things, which makes the FSLabs Airbus great! 

It's the 1% (or as someone claimed, the 0.1%) which makes all the difference.

I read somewhere that there's 90+ computers in the Airbus A320. All of them - all of them - are simulated in the FSLabs A320-X... 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Anders Bermann

[Chock 17,769]

Beyond all the praise for what system is and is not simulated on the FSL A320, and how it compares to other A320 simulations and even other jetliner simulations, one thing which certainly does make it worthwhile which nobody has mentioned too much, is the accuracy of how it flies and the difference this makes to how you can fly it and in particular, how you can land it, even if you have no clue about how a real A320 flies.

If you've never actually piloted an aeroplane, you might think the accuracy of a flight model doesn't matter too much. After all, so long as your simulated aeroplane goes through the air in a reasonably convincing manner, how would you know the difference between it flying like a 737 or a B-29 for example?

Unfortunately, if you try and fly a lot of FSX and P3D aeroplanes, some of which are not that great in terms of flight modeling, you will know that with many of them, this can and does make a difference; you can fly a perfect manual approach and flare, but the sim will still give you a simulation of crappy bounced/heavy landing when in reality you know it would have been a good landing because you did everything right. This is one of the huge differences with the FSL A320, and it's a difference which definitely sets it apart from other simulated jetliners; if you plant it properly on the runway, it will simulate you having done that every time, and more importantly, since it flies entirely as you would expect it to because it is so well simulated and its systems are so well harmonised with one another, you will find that you can easily plant it properly, exactly where you want it on the runway, because it behaves like a real aeroplane and thus rewards being flown well.

If ever there was a simulated jet for FSX/P3D with which you can use the 'TLAR method' to land the thing, the FSL A320 is the one, so beyond all the simulated systems and such being cool to play with, it's really the way those systems all react with one another which is the good thing about it, in that these make it fly the way it does and behave like a real aeroplane. That's what you're paying for and it is why it is almost certainly the best aeroplane you can get for P3D/FSX.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Chock

[FDEdev 955]

34 minutes ago, Chock said:

Unfortunately, if you try and fly a lot of FSX and P3D aeroplanes, some of which are not that great in terms of flight modeling, you will know that with many of them, this can and does make a difference; you can fly a perfect manual approach and flare, but the sim will still give you a simulation of crappy bounced/heavy landing when in reality you know it would have been a good landing because you did everything right. This is one of the huge differences with the FSL A320, and it's a difference which definitely sets it apart from other simulated jetliners; if you plant it properly on the runway, it will simulate you having done that every time, and more importantly, since it flies entirely as you would expect it to because it is so well simulated and its systems are so well harmonised with one another, you will find that you can easily plant it properly, exactly where you want it on the runway, because it behaves like a real aeroplane and thus rewards being flown well.

That's an interesting observation because that's exactly the problem IRL. Even if you have thousands of hours in an A320, 767, CRJ etc. and you know you did everything right, it's not uncommon that both of us up in front are surprised after a, lets say 'solid arrival' and it leaves us scratching our heads why on earth this has just happened.

Even more so in the A320 where the flare mode, the 50ft reference attitude, the automatically commanded pitch down etc. etc. leads to more unpredictable touchdowns than with conventional airplanes.

Furthermore the lack of feel/feedback in e.g. the A320 makes life definitely more difficult, especially during landing.  

Edited October 14, 2018 by J35OE

[Chock 17,769]

Yup, it's true that you can get a fairly positive touchdown sometimes, but what I mean about the FSL A320 and its flight model, is that it flies so well, you can even do it 'seat of the pants' and know where it's going to end up. Perhaps a video will demonstrate what I mean better, so I've just made one. For this, I literally did not set anything up, just loaded the FSL A320 up on the runway at Liverpool, put a fairly light fuel load on it, took off and flew a rough, tight circuit, then flew a stick and rudder approach with purely what's out of the window and the speed tape on the PFD as reference. I didn't set the altimeters, radios or anything and I still ended up with a passable landing.

The video starts with me swinging around to see the airport coming into sight. I'm too high and too fast, which is what I intended to be position-wise in order to demonstrate that you can still get the thing down even in these circumstances, owing to it flying so well and so predictably thanks to its fantastic behaviour which allows you to do things such as what I did in this video, i.e. hold off high to get slow and dirty, then come in steep to get down fast, dip under the glideslope, then come up back into the slope to bleed off speed from a high angle of attack just before touchdown, giving me a main wheel touchdown, right alongside the PAPI lights, at 134 knots from an approach which started off too high and close in and too fast. The fact that you can do this in the FSL A320 if you know how to fly properly, is what I'm talking about when I say that its flight model is great. Not that you really should fly it like that, but this does demonstrate how fab its flight model, drag simulation, engine spool times, ground effect etc are.

Note that the video is a bit choppy because of the FRAPS recording, so anyone considering the FSL A320 should not infer anything from the apparent frame rate here, it actually runs pretty smooth when not recording video...

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Chock

[Peter Webber 339]

As I posted earlier I'm a Boeing guy but I'm interested in this addon and will purchase soon! To Chock and other users, what hardware are you using for sidestick and throttles? I have the regular Saitek yoke which I know can be used, but would like to purchase a suitable joystick controller..

Edited October 14, 2018 by Peter Webber

[BrianW 124]

1 hour ago, Peter Webber said:

As I posted earlier I'm a Boeing guy but I'm interested in this addon and will purchase soon! To Chock and other users, what hardware are you using for sidestick and throttles? I have the regular Saitek yoke which I know can be used, but would like to purchase a suitable joystick controller..

I'm using the Thrustmaster T.16000M.  It can be configured for left handed operation so I just keep it on the left side of my computer desk.  As a bonus I keep it connected all the time and use it for the steering tiller in aircraft that support it like the Majestic Q400. I'm still using 2 Saitek throttle quadrants for thrust levers, spoilers, flaps, etc. until the Honeycomb quadrant is available.

Edited October 14, 2018 by BrianW

[Peter Webber 339]

3 hours ago, BrianW said:

I'm using the Thrustmaster T.16000M.  It can be configured for left handed operation so I just keep it on the left side of my computer desk.  As a bonus I keep it connected all the time and use it for the steering tiller in aircraft that support it like the Majestic Q400. I'm still using 2 Saitek throttle quadrants for thrust levers, spoilers, flaps, etc. until the Honeycomb quadrant is available.

Thanks. Will check it out.

[Nyxx 6,993]

6 hours ago, Peter Webber said:

As I posted earlier I'm a Boeing guy but I'm interested in this addon and will purchase soon! To Chock and other users, what hardware are you using for sidestick and throttles? I have the regular Saitek yoke which I know can be used, but would like to purchase a suitable joystick controller..

TM HOTAS Warthog

 

[DrumsArt 270]

6 hours ago, Peter Webber said:

As I posted earlier I'm a Boeing guy but I'm interested in this addon and will purchase soon! To Chock and other users, what hardware are you using for sidestick and throttles? I have the regular Saitek yoke which I know can be used, but would like to purchase a suitable joystick controller..

I use the Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog. Very efficient, accurate, heavy and solid for the Airbus and some military aircraft on which I also fly.

Regards,

[Chock 17,769]

I use a Speedlink Black Widow XE, which is actually a very cheap flight stick. I only bought it as a stopgap when another flight stick broke, but I found it was actually pretty good.

What I will say about controls and Airbus sims is that the throttle is pretty important since as you know, like the real thing, the Airbus throttle is not motorised like on a Boeing, so since you place the throttle in various detent positions for various auto throttle functions, it helps to have a precise throttle which does not spike or send spurious signals.

[Peter Webber 339]

Thanks. Will do some research on those flight sticks.

[FDEdev 955]

The T16000M is a very nice and very precise piece of equipment. I have mine configured for left hand use as well. Throttle range is small but sufficient

[Raging Bull 23]

Interesting how it’s perfectly acceptable to mention and praise the superior  FSL A320 as opposed to the Aerosoft version. 

But it’s suddenly offensive to do the same ithe certain payware 737 add-ons. Either way it’s always good to have competition.