SWS T-37B

[AxeBoy 0]

Hello guys,

I just saw that SWS released their T-37 and I wonder if anyone's got it.

I'm interested in buying it, but is it any good? 

[Nighthwk 566]

Same here, looks pretty intriguing. 

[Jeffg817 25]

just waiting for the 1st reviews

 

JeffG

[Mace 1,902]

They go to all that effort to put in PBR, advanced lighting, etc., and yet, no mention of a rain effect.  Let's hope it has that, too.

[vgbaron 3,510]

22 minutes ago, Mace said:

They go to all that effort to put in PBR, advanced lighting, etc., and yet, no mention of a rain effect.  Let's hope it has that, too.

The video shows A2A rain effects. My problem is that it states that there is some possibility of conflict with FSUIPC. Since I have all my controls mapped through FSUIPC that would be a no go for me.

Vic

[flyerkg 62]

Hey what do you know? I dug up my old logbook from JSUPT at Vance AFB and discovered that I flew a couple of flights in the 67-4749 tail number included with this product. 
I am still checking everything out so my first impression will be light in details. Even after 20 years since last flying the Tweet it's amazing how much of it sticks with you. 

I don't have a high performance computer so I live in the 20 and below FPS when I turn up settings. 

Overall graphical details are fantastically done. 

The only setback I have is blurry gauges and instruments. Specifically the Airspeed indicator ribbon is hard to distinguish the small increments in indicated airspeed. This is not an issue if you just want to zoom around and not too concerned with aircraft performance.   

I don't know if I missed settings adjustment recommendations, but my Tweet seemed to have extremely clear canopy texture, almost non-existent texture. A little tinting of yellow, nicks and scratches, scuffs and bird feathers about the canopy would enhance the appearance of being as aged as these jets were. 

Pre-flight checks and cockpit procedures match the Dash 1 manual. 

I expected to start cold/dark with the canopy open and no lights illuminated on the main panel.Yet with battery turned off I am getting fuel boost pump light and trim light. 

Start-up and switch functionality - 

All switches called out in the checklist seem to have functionality for my initial set up. However, the next couple of times starting the aircraft I started encountering sound errors associated with the toggle switches in the cockpit. 

Engine start and sounds - 

Here's where I hold my breath. I anticipated the tick tick tick and unmistakable spool-up sound followed by the ever increasingly aggravating whine of the engines. SWS did a great job with sound effects, but managed to keep the engine noise tolerable without needing to wear hearing protection sitting in your home. The pitch and shrill does not seem to be as piercing as what was modeled in the old FS9 version of the Tweet by Microsimulator. 

The center console throttles must be used. The cutoff detent function is accurately simulated. In the event of a hot start or other on ground emergency the pilot's hand is already on these throttles and near the shutoff T-handles. I even tried to advance the student throttle on start up to see if this was modeled. Not only did this cutoff functionality work I also induced a hot start with indicator light properly simulated.

Comm and Nav radios -

I enjoy having the option of using preset channels and requirement to tune DME separately as was required in the Tweet. 

Nose wheel Steering - 

I couldn't find any documentation on settings for this, but discovered from a video tutorial that a button on your control stick must be mapped to the default passenger no smoking switch for passenger aircraft in order to simulate this function in the real Tweet. Otherwise you cannot steer at taxi speeds on the ground.

Flight performance - 

I have yet to take the jet through aerobatics. I did attempt to spin. I think there are still limitations in P3D not allowing the aerodynamics of a spin. I might be wrong though. It seems to pull itself out of what sort of looks like a spin and does not lose a great deal of altitude in the process. The first time I demonstrated a spin in the Tweet I was having so much fun that I almost forgot that I was supposed to do something about it. 

Fuel burn rate seems to be well simulated in my short flights. Ponder the fact that we would depart with a bit less than 2300 pounds of fuel and with 1.3 hrs come back into the pattern with a little more than 400 to 500 pounds of fuel and bounce a few times before declaring minimum fuel. 

I attempted both Rwy 35R and Rwy 17L departures from KEND to Keggleman "Dogface" Aux to the best of my recollection. In my opinion it is difficult with desktop and motion simulator to feel and anticipate what the Tweet is doing and even harder to try to fly known VFR references in default scenery when objects and land features are not where they are supposed to be. I attempted an overhead pattern at Keggleman. My pattern-work was disgusting! But the sim seemed to be somewhat forgiving. 

 

2 hours ago, vgbaron said:

The video shows A2A rain effects. My problem is that it states that there is some possibility of conflict with FSUIPC. Since I have all my controls mapped through FSUIPC that would be a no go for me.

Vic

The panel has a file  A2A_Windshield.dll and calls the A2A rain texture.  Maybe this does the trick. I have not setup rainy weather yet. 

Now if there was a way to smell JP8 and feel the weight of invisible elephants sitting on you when you maneuver this jet it would be perfect. 

Overall I commend SWS and its contributors for putting this product together. It was a long wait, but evermore worth it.

Keith

[lownslo 592]

1 hour ago, flyerkg said:

...my first impression will be light in details.

Just one minor correction, Keith.  Yesterday I wrote a review about the new A2A Cub that was two (small) paragraphs.  That is "light in detail".  What you just offered us is concise, well thought out, and well presented! 👍

Thanks for taking the time to inform us!

Greg

Edited January 5, 2020 by lownslo
typo

[flyerkg 62]

I did notice scratches in the canopy when contrasted by clouds. My comments about lack of scratches was unsubstantiated the first time. 

[Mace 1,902]

3 hours ago, flyerkg said:

Nose wheel Steering - 

I couldn't find any documentation on settings for this, but discovered from a video tutorial that a button on your control stick must be mapped to the default passenger no smoking switch for passenger aircraft in order to simulate this function in the real Tweet. Otherwise you cannot steer at taxi speeds on the ground.

About nose wheel steering...I am very unfamiliar with this aircraft....in a real Tweet is there a tiller of some sort used for this?

[Bob Scott 7,716]

1 hour ago, Mace said:

About nose wheel steering...I am very unfamiliar with this aircraft....in a real Tweet is there a tiller of some sort used for this?

No, there's a button on the lower-forward stick handle that engages hydraulic nosewheel steering, which is controlled with the rudder pedals when engaged.

[A320_SX ALX 137]

14 hours ago, flyerkg said:

Overall graphical details are fantastically done. 

The only setback I have is blurry gauges and instruments. Specifically the Airspeed indicator ribbon is hard to distinguish the small increments in indicated airspeed. This is not an issue if you just want to zoom around and not too concerned with aircraft performance. 

 

Hello Keith,

 

First of all, I should introduce myself as one of the Tweet's developers, Alex Vletsas.

Thank you for the short but concise review of the Tweet as well as pointing out some issues. Fixing these will help us improve the B and port the improvements over to the C model.

I want to comment particularly on the texture issue you mentioned: the Tweet is designed for texture resolutions of 4096 or 2048 in order to have a good balance of detail & performance. Therefore the VC textures will adapt to your P3D texture settings, adjusted through Prepar3D's "Graphics" settings. 4k is sharp, 2k is OK, anything below that will be unreadable.

Glad you like it so far!

[flyerkg 62]

Alex, 
I am very pleased with the release of this project. It brings back a lot of memories.

I was almost about to go up to 4096 before making comment on the gauge clarity and will continue making any adjustments necessary. 

Keith

[jon b 2,041]

I've just had a quick hour messing about with this fine little jet.

It's quite a unique experience, it seems to be an aircraft full of contradictions , it's slow yet fast, it's stable yet aerobatic.

It certainly flies nicely and is great in VR with it's large canopy offering great visibility. Circuits and landings are nice with the model being very stable on approach, but the authentically modeled slow spool up time of the vintage turbojets is something to be careful of.

My experience with stalls and spins , interestingly seems to be the opposite of Keith's, setting up for a clean 1G stall I find the aircraft starts side slipping approaching the stall and requires a large boot of rudder and a firm pitch down to recover before the actual stall, otherwise the aircraft quickly enters a spin. 

Allowing the aircraft to enter a full stall I've found all hell breaks loose, on one occasion an inverted spin, which took about 6,000ft to escape from.

In summary if you're looking to buy, it's a lovely  vintage jet, great to fly, well modeled, and fantastic in VR. It's well worth the entry price in my opinion.

 

Jon

 

[Delta558 50]

28 minutes ago, jon b said:

the authentically modeled slow spool up time of the vintage turbojets is something to be careful of.

My experience with stalls and spins

 

1st point - 18 seconds from idle to max I think was the frighteningly long spool-up time!

 

2nd point - we found a fairly problematic anomally when using the rudder in the stalled flight regime (very close to release), so it is known about and will be fixed soon. Hopefully it will have a nice stable and predictable stall / spin as per the documentation when finished.

 

Cheers,

Paul.

[jon b 2,041]

1 hour ago, Delta558 said:

 

 

2nd point - we found a fairly problematic anomally when using the rudder in the stalled flight regime (very close to release), so it is known about and will be fixed soon. Hopefully it will have a nice stable and predictable stall / spin as per the documentation when finished.

 

Cheers,

Paul.

Thanks Paul, that's great to know, with it being a trainer I felt obliged to throw it about a bit and explore the envelope somewhat. I'll stick to more sensible maneuvers for the time being until you've worked your magic.

Congratulations on the jet, it's great to fly and really nice in VR, the textures strangely enough look even better in VR than on my monitor.

Jon