While not having autopilot for long haul is a drag. It is very pleasant to fly. I can trim for airspeed and control aircraft only with rudders

OK here some notes after little more testing.

- Landing and take off requires carefully watch pitch attitude as I managed prop strike twice LOL Not sure how many real Long EZ had it!

- Manual states maximum airbrake speed in 90 kts and above 95kts it suppose automatically close; however, I can deploy air brake at any airspeed. Also manual recommend hand prop prior cold start. But I couldn't find any way to "grab" prop and rotate.

- Whiskey compass is missing lobber line. For spartan airplane I thing it should be added.

- Transitioning  from cruise to approach challenging but very rewarding (managing speed)

- Long EZ manifests left turning tendency as traditional none canard aircraft. I can't say if it right or wrong. I'm not familiar with Long EZ IRL

- Sounds definitely need some improvements.

- Fuel selected can be switch from left to right using mouse wheel. But it doesn't work opposite way and must be dragged 

Despite all shortcoming and bugs Long EZ is very pleasant to fly . As many pointed in this thread, even simple two axis autopilot could be a welcome addition to Long EZ as is.

5 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

Despite all shortcoming and bugs Long EZ is very pleasant to fly . As many pointed in this thread, even simple two axis autopilot could be a welcome addition to Long EZ as is.

Does this sim have "faux" autopilot capability?  (for example, as I recall, you could set an autopilot flag in the aircraft.cfg file in FSX, then use key bindings to activate things like altitude hold and heading hold).  I really haven't delved into this yet.

The stock JMB VL-3 has the AP 'flag' turned on, but the G3X display has no AP controls.  If you bind the not-bound-by-default AP controls you can use the AP just fine.  The real world G3X has a touchscreen page to control the AP, which Asobo didn't bother to put in the sim.

Not sure what would happen in an aircraft with a glass display that didn't have an AP in real life though.

If the Long-EZ actually trims properly for airspeed (unlike most of the stock aircraft in the game that have phugoid oscillations) then the lack of an AP might not be so bad.

19 minutes ago, Mace said:

Does this sim have "faux" autopilot capability?  (for example, as I recall, you could set an autopilot flag in the aircraft.cfg file in FSX, then use key bindings to activate things like altitude hold and heading hold).  I really haven't delved into this yet.

It's been stated from developer that there is no autopilot, so I didn't really explore any other options

 

 

11 hours ago, marsman2020 said:

The stock JMB VL-3 has the AP 'flag' turned on, but the G3X display has no AP controls.  If you bind the not-bound-by-default AP controls you can use the AP just fine.  The real world G3X has a touchscreen page to control the AP, which Asobo didn't bother to put in the sim.

Not sure what would happen in an aircraft with a glass display that didn't have an AP in real life though.

If the Long-EZ actually trims properly for airspeed (unlike most of the stock aircraft in the game that have phugoid oscillations) then the lack of an AP might not be so bad.

I would probably buy this one if someone added AP features. I see the Long EZ as a low and slow with great visibility cross country VFR airplane,  but, I want to be able to soak up the views and experience the flight so I desire the simple AP.
 

It would have been simple enough for the dev to have included an Autopilot.

Regards,,

Ray

13 hours ago, marsman2020 said:

The real world G3X has a touchscreen page to control the AP, which Asobo didn't bother to put in the sim.

You mean like this?

(Coming soon.  Very soon.)

Edited October 17, 20205 yr by kaosfere

Aren’t we talking about two different planes here. Long EZ does not have a glass display.

28 minutes ago, raymar said:

Long EZ does not have a glass display.

It looks like it has the Aera in it.  Which does not come with AP functionality in the real world, I'm afraid. 

(NOT that some couldn't be added by an enterprising individual.  Not me, too many other things to work on. 😄 )

I was just taking the opportunity to tease an upcoming release since the topic came up.

16 minutes ago, kaosfere said:

It looks like it has the Aera in it.  Which does not come with AP functionality in the real world, I'm afraid. 

(NOT that some couldn't be added by an enterprising individual.  Not me, too many other things to work on. 😄 )

I was just taking the opportunity to tease an upcoming release since the topic came up.

Ah. OK. Are you interested in possibly adding a yellow Caution Annunciator somewhere on the G1000 MFD for Spoilers Deployed. This is using the assumption that RY adds the Imaginary but functional wing spoilers to the Turbo Bonanza.  We might even have sound effects to go along with the breakdown of smooth lift over the top of the wings but we will not be able to look out and see them in action.  Easy to forget they are deployed wheb coming down from the mid Flight Levels and getting busy blending in with an approach. 🙃

Ray

When you CFI and you say "my controls" LOL

Seems like Dino will add autopilot after all. Meanwhile, practicing landing from the back seat

5 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Seems like Dino will add autopilot after all. Meanwhile, practicing landing from the back seat

 

 

Nothing like side slipping all the way to the threshold just so you can see the runway 😄

Makes you appreciate the old guys and their Tiger Moth's even more.

3 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

 

 

Nothing like side slipping all the way to the threshold just so you can see the runway 😄

Makes you appreciate the old guys and their Tiger Moth's even more.

I flew plenty with instructors in back (Citabria, Decathlon) and they never ever needed to slip airplane to see the runway. Even though in training my landing often were scary! LOL I don't know specific with Tiger Moth, but IRL I can get by by seeing side of runway, which is good enough for me. They only time we side slip for countering cross wind.  And forward slip for loosing excess altitude (nose to the wind).

There was a great seminar several years ago with Rod Machado that I attended. He was stressing to teach students proper landing attitude. Here is his video about it