58 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Oh boy. Not sure how this airplane flies IRL, but in MSFS I call it Stalltica - superundepowered aircraft with longitudinal stability problems! 🙂

If you think that the production variant is underpowered, spare a thought for the pilot of the prototypes, which had a 160 hp Lycoming 320 instead of the 260 hp 540 which was used on the production models. There's a decent display of the thing on a video below, or if you want a bit more of a fun demo of it, check out the 1989 dystopian sci-fi movie Slipstream (Mark Hamill, Bob Peck, Bill Paxton etc and with a score by Elmer Bernstein), which features an Optica in a funky camouflage scheme a lot in the story. The real thing has to be flown a bit like a WW1 fighter plane, i.e. you can do things such as chandelles and stand it on its wingtips, but you'll need to wind up the energy a bit to pull that sort of thing off and watch the AoA:

 

I thought this was suppose to be a free ware addon? What happened?

10 minutes ago, captain420 said:

I thought this was suppose to be a free ware addon? What happened?

The creator posted that he was no longer going to update his version and encouraged folks to pick up the ORBX version. See link

EA-7 Edgley Optica » Microsoft Flight Simulator

 

My review of the thing with a test flight etc:

 

Payware or freeware...Ah...no thanks!  But by all means, have fun guys and enjoy!

2 hours ago, Chock said:

My review of the thing with a test flight etc:

 

Thanks for that Alan, very informative & instructive in such a short space of time. 

Since today I've got the following problem:

RPM does not exceed 2200. It feels like the prop would be feathered. Also, the mixture axis is overridden by something, always going back to full rich when I try to lean it. I checked all assignments for mixture. Anyway, this only happens in the Optica.

The ignition key moves back and forth in intervals.

 

Other airplanes work correctly. Reloading the aircraft or even restarting the sim does not cure the problem. I'm really at a loss now. Here's a short video

https://youtu.be/4CdgvVz_ZiY

Karl

20 minutes ago, kaha said:

Here's a short video

https://youtu.be/4CdgvVz_ZiY

Karl

Tried to view it, got the following message "Video unavailable - This video is private."

Sorry, works now.

Karl

 

1 hour ago, kaha said:

Sorry, works now.

Jolly good, don't forget to add a passenger weight (not co pilot) to stop it constantly veering to the left in flight!

 

 

I meant the video works now for being viewed. Not the issue.

Karl

5 hours ago, kaha said:

I meant the video works now for being viewed. Not the issue.

Karl

I have tried to replicate your problem and I cannot, if nobody else here has any bright ideas you might be best advised to post it in the ORBX forum.

Edited June 6, 20215 yr by Espana Pete

19 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

Oh boy. Not sure how this airplane flies IRL, but in MSFS I call it Stalltica - superundepowered aircraft with longitudinal stability problems! 🙂

I had the exact same impression - severely underpowered. My test flight was in the Rockies at 7000 ft, and it climbed with full throttle at barely 500 ft/min. So for mountain flying you need a lot of circling to gain altitude (if you have enough space for shallow turns!).

Moreover, as the loitering speed of 70 kn is quite near the stall speed, you have to be careful to prevent tight curves as it WILL go into a spiral dive then. The controls feel a bit sluggish then, too.

Another strange observation was that it doesn't want to descent when idle and with full flaps - instead the speed nears stall speed and it goes into a shallow descent. To go into a dive of -1500 ft/min you need LOTs of forward stick.

Landing feels also a bit strange - for my feeling it has a too small tendency to slow down in ground effect with full flaps - instead you must fly it into the ground if you don't want to land long.

EDIT: After reading through this thread https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/new-release-ea-7-edgley-optica-orbx/407493/100 it may be my bad: I came in with some 65 kn and nearing ground instinctively may have pulled up a bit due to the unfamiliar near ground in front of me.

Given the fact that only a handfull of people have RL flying experience with this strange bird, and it's the first pusher in MSFS, it's no wonder that the flight dynamics might feel strange. Funny enough, the freeware version was overpowered and stalled at much too high speeds, so the ORBX version seems to be closer to the real thing.

So, to sum it up, it's a nicely modeled sightseeing aircraft that can challenge you a bit.

 

Edited June 6, 20215 yr by meerkat

4 hours ago, meerkat said:

and it's the first pusher in MSFS

Although often described as such, principally because the cockpit is in front of the engine, strictly speaking the Optica is not a pusher, it's a tractor, albeit an unusual one. This is because the pusher configuration refers to where the propeller is located in relation to the engine, so with its ducted fan ahead of the engine, this would make the Optica a tractor. 

I love the Optica but it is definitely an aircraft you have to adapt to, and for personal preference you might also need to play with the sensitivities either in the Controls section or FSUIPC.  FSUIPC has the advantage of not needing to switch profiles.

I believe the flight model is accurate, as there have been Optica pilots helping with the development.  Definitely it feels underpowered on takeoff, but we've been told it's pretty well by the numbers.  I think most Optica flights were from long runways, and it feels better if you unstick at 60 but let it build up to 70 in ground effect, then it will climb away nicely.  There are a couple of videos on Youtube from inside the cockpit but neither show the actual climb out.

With my CH yoke, I have set the aileron sensitivity to around 20%+, and I've been playing with the elevator sensitivity between 35% - 50% +, which feels more like how I would expect it to feel in real life, given that it has joysticks rather than yokes for controls..  However others who are used to flying yoke aircraft like C172s and Pipers, find the need to use trim not a problem and love the stability.  So, without having ever flown one for real, who can say?  

Finally it does need to be managed carefully to land it accurately.  Possibly because it employs an efficient NASA (NACAR?) airfoil to allow a safe loiter, it may be that approaches need to be flown much closer to the red mark on the airspeed indicator than you'd think.  If you can stabilise at 60 kts on final and don't flare too much it will settle quite nicely.  Even at that, if you pull back in ground effect and really want to land slowly, it will settle down at between 45 and 50kts after floating for a while.  But I think the 60kts and a little flare so it settles firmly is probably the correct way to land it.

I have not encountered any tendency to swing left, nor any of the other behaviours I've seen in the forums.  It can get a bit skittish in crosswinds or if the stick is pulled back before it's ready to fly, once again, you have to learn to fly this plane to suit its quirks.  And I don't think it behaves at all in the Legacy flight modelling, so make sure it is set to Modern!