DC Designs Stearman out!...

[keithb77 308]

Out of all the MSFS aircraft I've bought, this is already the one I've flown the most.
Despite its budget positioning DC has been very good about fixing most of the minor flaws, I'm not aware of any major ones.

Prop drag is I believe an MSFS issue, as is poor engine mixture handling.

[Chock 17,769]

On 6/15/2021 at 10:20 PM, Ron Attwood said:

I had it in my basket since Chocks review but held back. I have to say the review smacked of 'faint praise'. Anyhow, peer pressure reared it ugly head...again...and I succumbed.

Glad I didn't put you off. I was just trying to be honest on that review, as I always try to be; and I was fairly sure the criticisms I had of it would be addressed quickly, as it seems they have, but it would be disingenuous to do a review and not point such things out, instead blowing neverending sunshine up a developer's jacksie. I do always try to go 'glass half full' rather than 'glass half empty' on the way I talk about stuff on my reviews, but I at least hope people see them as being as honest and comprehensive as I can be without being nasty just for the sake of it.

A good example of that would be the other biplane which was released at the start of this week for MSFS, which I also reviewed - the Dorand AR1 - which was one of the rare occasions where I got a review copy of the thing. It's always a bit difficult to steel yourself to be honest when you've been given a free review copy, but if anyone watches that review they'll see that I do criticise the textures a little bit and the lack of pilot and observer figures on the external model, and that's a good thing because there were also many plus points I pointed out too to give a balanced view of the matter, so the developer actually contacted me and said he liked the review and was going to look at addressing those points I was critical on, which I assume they will because they're not especially difficult fixes to implement.

This is something Avsim founder Tom Allensworth stressed to me back when I was an Avsim reviewer years ago, when I asked him if we were under any sort of obligation at all, to not to be negative of things we got for review, and he said 'absolutely not, if you think there are bad things about something, point them out'. So I'd like to think my youtube reviews carry on that tradition, as it is certainly the way I look at matters; one can be mean in the way one goes about that, or one can try to make it constructive criticism, and I know which one of the two I personally would prefer to hear when it is directed at me, and which I would be more likely to respond to.

Anyway, back with the Stearman, now that the drag and roll rate have been tweaked on it, that's really all my reservations gone as far as this thing is concerned and for the price, especially if you have some Just Flight loyalty points stored up to discount it further below its already low cost, is well worth it as a price of entry. So if anyone has about a tenner in their pocket doing nothing, then what are you waiting for? Send it to me, erm, I mean go and buy that Stearman, and maybe even that Frenchie biplane as well, cos that's fun to fly too. 🤣

Edited June 17, 2021 by Chock

[Target71 115]

56 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

 

I buy very few aircraft, not a question of budget, just the way I use the sim, I fly the same bird for weeks even months. 

@Torsen's cursory (but to the point !) mini-review upthread listed some unsavoury flaws . What about since after the SP ?

I've flown the Spit' in MFS for tens of hours now, she has flaws in the drag dept but she is a good one for sure. Great fun in the good sense, challenging. 

  

Yeah, we all have different styles of simming. I tend to fly two to three planes over a period of time depending on my mood...I try and vary my flying by "class"  of plane, i.e. light/ultra light, single engine GA, twin engine/turbo GA etc. I particularly enjoy vintage and unique planes thus my interest in the Stearman...right now my flying time goes to the Stearman, Widgeon, and Arrow IV because each offers a different flying experience.

[Torsen 495]

2 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

 

I buy very few aircraft, not a question of budget, just the way I use the sim, I fly the same bird for weeks even months. 

@Torsen's cursory (but to the point !) mini-review upthread listed some unsavoury flaws . What about since after the SP ?

I've flown the Spit' in MFS for tens of hours now, she has flaws in the drag dept but she is a good one for sure. Great fun in the good sense, challenging. 

  

Ha I had to check cursory (as not native speaker) but yes that describes it quite good 😉 As Chock said a lot of the smaller issus have been adjusted or partly fixed. What I still don't like is the braking and especially differential braking. First as beeing a taildragger I would expect to lift the tail on heavy braking and do a prop strike, nope. Second It's quite hard to turn the plane around fast on ground when on one toe brake only. Takeoff and landing both still not that hard to manage. I would expect at least some tendency to groundloop but its very stable. So more the novice taildragger version. And the roll rate feels still more like an Extra. Nonetheless in this pricerange its ok especially if you want it to be fun for a wider audience. (I have 200+ hours in the a2a T6 so looks like me not the typical customer for this one 😉 BUT still fun and flying it)

Cheers

T.

[Dominique_K 10,138]

13 minutes ago, Torsen said:

 A Takeoff and landing both still not that hard to manage. I would expect at least some tendency to groundloop but its very stable.  

Well I hope that cursory was the word as English is not my native language either 😁.  

The A2A T6 was my favorite aircraft in the older  sim as well !  I have flown her tens of hours maybe hundreds (when you love you do not count). Flew her from Alaska to San Diego among many other places. A2A does the Comanche first for MFS, I'd rather have the T6 😉

Now back to the Stearman. She is supposed  to ground loop easily in the rollout due to a high CG (height of the fuel tank).  What you say sounds like a deal breaker to me. 

There are three sayings about Stearmans that are the absolute truth.

There are only two types of Stearman pilots, those that have ground looped and those that will.

You are not done flying a Stearman until its in the hangar, the hangar door is closed, and you’ve left the airport.

Even a high time airline pilot (with no taildragger experience) won’t be able to successfully taxi a Stearman the first time.”

Phil Whittemore, RAF  

[Chock 17,769]

With regard to ground looping in a Stearman, the wingtips of the real thing are fairly tough and can easily be replaced even if they do get damaged, so a not very serious ground loop is more of an embarrassment than a costly repair, although obviously if a wing digs in, then there might be trouble.

[Dominique_K 10,138]

24 minutes ago, Chock said:

With regard to ground looping in a Stearman, the wingtips of the real thing are fairly tough and can easily be replaced even if they do get damaged, so a not very serious ground loop is more of an embarrassment than a costly repair, although obviously if a wing digs in, then there might be trouble.

Yeah  the barmaid will laugh at you at the Pilots lounge and THAT is really embarrassing

 

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

6 hours ago, Chock said:

I was just trying to be honest on that review

Which I understood and for that you are applauded. 👍

[Rumbler 0]

How long does it take for updates to make it to the in-game market? Still not seeing v1.0.2.

[Chock 17,769]

7 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

Yeah  the barmaid will laugh at you at the Pilots lounge and THAT is really embarrassing

 

Yeah, in aviation, if you do anything like that in aviation, nobody ever lets you forget it, it's like that at the airport too, if you cock something up, everyone winds you up about it forever after. 🤣

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

30 minutes ago, Chock said:

Yeah, in aviation, if you do anything like that in aviation, nobody ever lets you forget it, it's like that at the airport too, if you cock something up, everyone winds you up about it forever after. 🤣

If it is really bad there will be photo's over the bar at the local aero club 😄  

[Chock 17,769]

1 minute ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

If it is really bad there will be photo's over the bar at the local aero club 😄  

Yup, or you'll get a nickname which you probably won't like.

[Dominique_K 10,138]

Ground looping is as Stearman as apple pie is American. A stable Stearman on the ground is no Stearman.  Even taxiing can be problematic in crosswind. 

The developer should look into it.  The cause is known (fuel tank high in the fuselage raising the center of gravity). I do not know whether that can be easily replicated  but the FI Spit for instance shows that Asobo architecture of flight modeling allows ground loops. Don’t I know it 😄...

 

[wim123 761]

8 hours ago, Rumbler said:

How long does it take for updates to make it to the in-game market? Still not seeing v1.0.2.

too long i say, rest of my addon planes will be bought not via marketplace.  (also no encryption then).

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

36 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

Ground looping is as Stearman as apple pie is American. A stable Stearman on the ground is no Stearman.  Even taxiing can be problematic in crosswind. 

The developer should look into it.  The cause is known (fuel tank high in the fuselage raising the center of gravity). I do not know whether that can be easily replicated  but the FI Spit for instance shows that Asobo architecture of flight modeling allows ground loops. Don’t I know it 😄...

 

If you read the forums the dev has stated he is aiming the Stearman squarely at the majority audience for this price point and whilst he is attempting to make it as historical as possible - if enough people complain about it being difficult to fly he WILL tone it down to be more accessible to the masses.

This also seems to include peoples impressions of how it should fly. he has already reduced the roll rate somewhat, even though the real one is apparently quite responsive in roll even in stock form (never flown one myself but John Mohr's YouTube videos of aerobatics in a totally stock WII vintage Stearman seem to bear this out)  whereas the general anecdotal impression of the Stearman by the average player is it should be quite sluggish in roll, partly because it is labelled a "trainer".

There seems to be some sort of impression that WWII trainers were very easy to fly but quite often the trainers were just cheap to replace and were actually harder to fly then the front line combat aircraft the pilots progressed onto. This was definitely the case with the Gloster Gladiator that pilot's trained in before progressing to a Spitfire. The Gladiator was much harder to fly than a Spit, and hence a "would be Spitfire pilot" often only need a couple of hours practice on type before combat.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick