Virtualcol Beech 99 improved with new patch...

[Chock]

Heads up for those who have this bird. The patch sorts out the landing characteristics considerably, tweaking the engine power and flaps, some other tweaks have gone on too, audio and visual. Here it is with me enjoying a much more stable and easily controllable hand-flown approach into FMMI earlier with it holding speed well on the descent with two stages of flap:

 

[stefaandk]

I had a brief crack at the update earlier, my biggest gripe being the readability of the instruments in anything but optimal lighting conditions is hopefully still on a to do list.  The landing did seem somewhat improved (have to fly a bit more).  The sounds issues they claim are solved, not sure what solved means as I didn't particularly consider them broken but rather dysfunctional in that they were not very good or providing much audible feedback on engine activity.    It still has that weird thing when you swap to the external view it always sounds like there is a mini jet engine spooling up, maybe that's correct for a turboprop to happen at times I don't know.  But it's very odd how this sound effect is triggered by swapping to external view every time, and once I noticed this it really stands out as being somewhat artificial in when it happens.   There seems to be a weird thing with vspeed, whatever I set it to it always seems to be 200 fpm lower, I don't think it did that previously, I can live with that but not sure if you noticed that.  The propeller animation seems better now, more transparent compared to the white prop previously?

My comparison is admittedly based on very little first hand experience with the previous version to compare it against to begin with as I didn't get much enjoyment from flying it so it ended up collecting dust in the hangar.

[Treetops45]

Just took the update out for a short flight & she seems better mannered, smoother.

T45

 

[flyforever]

The fact with unreadable instrument panels stems from the fact that MSFS expects very large monitors and very high resolution. Those of us still flying with old cards and monitors are stuck with tiny, unreadable instruments in all aircrafts. The only solution is to zoom the instruments up close.

[Chock]

Actually that's the good thing about steam gauges; you don't need to be able to read the numbers to make use of them, all you need to be aware of, is the relevant clock position of the needles for your desired setting.

I do this all the time when laying off a winch launch on a glider; ideally you want to have no less than 60 knots whilst on the launch, which is enough to give you a safe margin at a high AoA with a bit of bank on for a glider with a stall speed of about 37 knots, so that equated to about 2 o'clock on the airspeed dial of most gliders; all you needed to do was note where that airspeed was clock position-wise for the needle, and this meant you could watch the wings on the horizon to control the lay off, and keep hauling back on the stick to gain a nice high launch with the stick alternating between a rear and forward pull, adjusting to keep the airspeed needle at the desired clock position in your peripheral vision. Then the moment you either back released or pulled the release, you'd use the last bit of airspeed to bunt over with as little neg g as possible, hopefully ending up wings-level at about 45 knots - just shy of the 12 o'clock position on the dial - and from there, go for where you'd briefed to turn. You'd never really be reading the numbers on the gauge.

For the Beech 99 this means the Vref for an approach is about 4-5 o'clock on the ASI and about 8 o'clock for the VSI to have the right approach path angle. I think a lot of people do that with the speedo and rev counters in their cars as well so they can keep their eyes on the road.

[CaptainNick]

Did they improve the overhead panel at all?

[Chock]

Just now, CaptainNick said:

Did they improve the overhead panel at all?

Nope, they might have upped the polygons a bit on the air vents, difficult to say, but basically it's still a bit cack in this regard. I just don't pan the view up and it's not an issue lol.

[flyforever]

You're right about analog guages. This is why I am looking forward to the classics---from the a10 to the b727, dc9,etc. I need to spend a lot of time programming the views, since with this sim it's critical to have good, instant panel views.

[stefaandk]

Some new liveries!

https://flightsim.to/file/6582/beechcraft-model-99-livery-pack

[Chock]

4 hours ago, stefaandk said:

Some new liveries!

https://flightsim.to/file/6582/beechcraft-model-99-livery-pack

These are some good ones, not spectacular but certainly very nice, especially for free; I used the worn cargo version in this set as the basis for a simple livery for my small Pacific-based Air Hauler airline:

[MorrisMinor]

Now available in OnAir too

 

[MorrisMinor]

1 hour ago, MorrisMinor said:

Now available in OnAir too

 

....but (as I've just discovered), it needs a co-pilot

[Chock]

30 minutes ago, MorrisMinor said:

....but (as I've just discovered), it needs a co-pilot

Yeah, the Beech 99 is a bit of an odd one in that regard, it would depend on how it is being operated and how many seats it had as to whether it would require one or two crew members. It only needs one crew member for cargo ops in Air Hauler.

[MorrisMinor]

2 hours ago, Chock said:

Yeah, the Beech 99 is a bit of an odd one in that regard, it would depend on how it is being operated and how many seats it had as to whether it would require one or two crew members. It only needs one crew member for cargo ops in Air Hauler.

Checked the OnAir manual and a co-pilot is needed if aircraft has more than 14 - the B99 has 15

[HighBypass]

..and the cargo variant has how many seats? 🍻