Captainsim C130?

[Lord Farringdon 504]

2 hours ago, andy1252 said:

I did buy this, and posted a few pix here -

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/644220-cs-c-130-to-kpbi/

I'm not in any way qualified to comment on most of the points raised here, as I'm only really interested in the visuals, but I like it even if it is a bit overpriced for what it is.

Hi Andy,

Does it have any cargo hold to speak about? CS talk about it but there doesn't seem to be any images of it?

I'm also intrigued to know if the para doors and cargo ramp and door can be operated by the flight deck switches rather than the EFB. These systems are of operated by the Air Loadmaster down the rear but just wondering if CS has modelled any switches for these functions?   

Cheers

Terry 

 

Edited April 21 by Lord Farringdon
further clarification

[andy1252 3,935]

@Lord Farringdon, Hi Terry, I'll check it out this afternoon and let you know, cheers, Andy

[Lord Farringdon 504]

Thanks mate. Just to clarify, the C130 para doors and ramp and door were manually opened and the ramp and door was hydraulically selected by the Air Loadmaster, not from the flight deck. I'm just wondering what CS has modelled for the operation of these doors other than the EFB?

  Cheers

 

Terry

 

[andy1252 3,935]

2 hours ago, Lord Farringdon said:

Thanks mate. Just to clarify, the C130 para doors and ramp and door were manually opened and the ramp and door was hydraulically selected by the Air Loadmaster, not from the flight deck. I'm just wondering what CS has modelled for the operation of these doors other than the EFB?

Hi Terry,

just posted some pix and my results here -

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/644236-c-130-for-terry-lord-farringdon/

Also, somebody posted to my original set of pix to say that the old TSS soundpack for the FSX version can be made to work with this, so I'll try that next. That would be nice.

cheers

[Wise87 1,286]

I can't believe I'm saying this but I may have to check this plane out. I'm a retired USAF Crew Chief who worked on the C-130E, MC-130E, HC-130N/P for 20+ years. Time to perform a preflight and engine run on this bird to make sure its ready for flight, hahahaha  

Edited April 21 by Wise87

[Lord Farringdon 504]

5 hours ago, Wise87 said:

I can't believe I'm saying this but I may have to check this plane out. I'm a retired USAF Crew Chief who worked on the C-130E, MC-130E, HC-130N/P for 20+ years. Time to perform a preflight and engine run on this bird to make sure its ready for flight, hahahaha  

Would love that you do that! I saw a picture on another forum showing the blades feathered and I'm kind of hoping that means each can be individually feathered on the ground and inflight. I wonder if they have modelled an in-flight restart and if we can we do a windmill start on the ground? Although I doubt they have modelled start valves, let alone a stuck one haha. 

You would certainly know Chief! 

[Lord Farringdon 504]

7 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Hi Terry,

just posted some pix and my results here -

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/644236-c-130-for-terry-lord-farringdon/

Also, somebody posted to my original set of pix to say that the old TSS soundpack for the FSX version can be made to work with this, so I'll try that next. That would be nice.

cheers

Thanks Andy for giving us all a bit of insight into this. Quite understand your approach and I read your whiskey analogy to my Scottish wife and she agreed wholeheartedly 😁.

From those great shots it seems pretty clear they have modelled the cargo bay quite well too. I even saw the step lowered for the honeypot just behind the left para door LOL! 

Your assessment of a 50/50 working switches is very helpful and generally what most of us would expect that from a non study level model like this one but perhaps would have expected a somewhat lower price tag to match.

I'm still not sure about the flight model though which is probably based on a King Air, so that will destroy the immersion of the aircraft somewhat. Coupled with liveries being held in the Market Place by CS, it will feel somewhat strangled in terms of what we want the airplane to actually look and feel like. 

However, with the addition of the FSX sounds that has been suggested, and crossed fingers that painters can find a solution and some smart guys can work rework the flight model, this may just but worth it in the interim. I mean until something of study level nature comes along. I do hope the paint kit is made available for painters since there are so many worldwide liveries for the C-130 including civilian options.

Thanks again Andy

 

Cheers

 

Terry
 

[Wise87 1,286]

8 minutes ago, Lord Farringdon said:

Would love that you do that! I saw a picture on another forum showing the blades feathered and I'm kind of hoping that means each can be individually feathered on the ground and inflight. I wonder if they have modelled an in-flight restart and if we can we do a windmill start on the ground? Although I doubt they have modelled start valves, let alone a stuck one haha. 

You would certainly know Chief! 

I'm leaning towards getting it and if and when I do, I will be sure to perform some of the checks you mentioned. Right now I'm trying to get up the courage to purchase it, hahaha. CaptainSim has put me off on their products over the years and I've been disappointed too many times to depart with my money. You can't blame the public from being cautious.  

[andy1252 3,935]

26 minutes ago, Lord Farringdon said:

with the addition of the FSX sounds that has been suggested,

Terry, I dug out my old FSX version of this and loaded up the sounds and it does indeed work ok with them. See -

https://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/135009-Hercules-fans-you-ain-t-gonna-believe-this?p=1334064&viewfull=1

cheers,

Andy

[regis9 4,031]

Someone posted on the official forums that they are a third party working on a sound pack for this on behalf of Captainsim…if that pans out, and free repaints are possible, it might just be my first Captainsim purchase in probably 7 years or so.

[Lord Farringdon 504]

3 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Terry, I dug out my old FSX version of this and loaded up the sounds and it does indeed work ok with them. See -

https://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/135009-Hercules-fans-you-ain-t-gonna-believe-this?p=1334064&viewfull=1

cheers,

Andy

Excellent Andy. I wonder if that brings to life the classic C-130 reverse sounds? I used to live on the base we flew from and while you would never usually hear a Herc approaching, as soon as they landed and applied reverse thrust there was an unmistakably Herky sound announcing their arrival. 

You can imagine with constant speed props any increase in fuel in the engine was simply turned into blade angle on the props so they would take a bigger bite of air. As such the engines were always at 100% rpm and the tone would not change for hours on end regardless of climb or decent.

With limited portholes to see out of and any occasion of a greasy smooth landing, dozing passengers lulled by 10 hours of monotonous droning generally had no idea the aircraft had landed until that reverse sound shattered the monotony and the associated de-acceleration came on. You could see the startle factor in passengers eyes as they quickly grabbed at seat webbing to hold themselves up. 

Thanks for your updates Andy. While the model is falling short in some areas like information on the flight model and the price tag for a non-study level aircraft (which is the equivalent of 3 weeks of morning coffee hits!.. not to be sneezed at!) I am certainly leaning into this.

 

Cheers

Terry  

 

Cheers

Terry  

  

Edited April 22 by Lord Farringdon

[apollon01 28]

7 hours ago, regis9 said:

Someone posted on the official forums that they are a third party working on a sound pack for this on behalf of Captainsim…if that pans out, and free repaints are possible, it might just be my first Captainsim purchase in probably 7 years or so.

Unless CS releases the soundpack as a $19.99 standalone product 😬

[andy1252 3,935]

4 hours ago, Lord Farringdon said:

I wonder if that brings to life the classic C-130 reverse sounds?

Hi Terry, if I can figure out how to apply reverse thrust I'll try it out. That's another one of those "piloty" things I've never bothered with but have occasionally thought I ought to find out about. That and sorting out my pedals - I tend to wander all over the place on the rare occasions I taxi anywhere and I suspect I need to adjust the sensitivity of the d*mn things. Somebody else will quite probably try this out and report back (maybe on that SOH thread) before I figure it all out though <grin>

And coffee sounds pretty cheap where you are! Not that I ever drink coffee apart from at home, but even ten years ago a fancy take-away was a few pounds (and rubbish, which is why I only drink my own). This C-130 is pricey for what it is, for sure, but it is a Herc and one of my favourite planes, so .   .   .

cheers

Andy

[Lord Farringdon 504]

COMPARISON:  Captian Sims C130 Hercules and Azure Poly's C-160 Transall

For anybody who is still leaning into this Captain Sim product I've put together what I think of the aircraft FWIW, and compared it to the Azure Poly Transall C-160. 

Firstly here is a link to a YT live stream. The guys fumbles around alot and admits as much but in the process unknowingly reveals a couple of nasties about this product: 

 

Based on the specs on the CS website the aircraft comes with the King Air flight model and the King air sounds. There is a sound patch from FSX/P3D which by all accounts is pretty good and this apparently works with the CS model.  So that's good. But the flight model is certainly suspect. In the YT video the streamer couldn't slow the airplane down despite the power being pulled right back and those big old props acting like massive air brakes. Then again he also didn't consider flap and gear. But the reality is the airplane was flying like a clean King Air, not a dirtied up Herc.   

While he fumbled about the streamer did eventually find a VOR and ILS freq and managed an approach on that basis, but he couldn't get the radar to work even if it was just an animation. 

Engine start was modelled fairly closely but frankly it didn't matter what position a lot of the 'working' switches were in, the engines started and continued anyway, which kind of suggested there were no underlying systems modelled.

If you bought the CS C-130, would you like to open the cargo door inflight and throw some cargo or some paratroops out? Maybe stand on the ramp and take pic or two looking outside perhaps with another formation Herc following you?  Well forget it. Neither paradoors nor the ramp and door open in flight and in fact the ramp only can only be fully closed or fully open ie lowered to the ground with toe ramps connected, the configuration used for loading vehicles.  The ramp can't be placed in the level position known as the aerial delivery position, on the ground so you cant taxi with the ramp open which is absolutely necessary for reversing, and for removing restrains from cargo before a rapid offload. Neither can you load pallets on the aircraft from a platform or K loader unless the ramp is level. But lets go a bit further, if in flight you can't even enter the cargo compartment unless you fly in there with the drone!!   The paratroop red (5 minute ) and green (jump) lights on the flight deck are non-functional as is the paratroop warning bell.  Although the streamer didn't' know where he had seen it, he thought maybe this was all because CS were putting out a mission pack to go with the aircraft and this would add all these features. So not an update but another product to purchase potentially!  

The CS C-130 comes with one livery and there is no paint kit and so we can expect CS to start selling multiple  livery products at something like $5.00 US per livery set and probably only about 25 liveries in total if we use the CS 767 livery packs as an example. This is of course ridiculous since there must be hundreds of C130 liveries out there and not allowing a paint kit denies our communities painters the opportunity to showcase their work while satisfying the livery needs of many. This is obviously another dollar grab by CS. Oh, and apparently some have tried to set up repaint kits and have found the dreaded black textures have over ridden their work. Some suggest this might be an Nvideo issue but it really just looks like CS are up to their old tricks and attempting to exploit a captured market. 

Lets compare CS's C1-30 to the Azure Poly C-160 Transall. IRL, the C160 is just a mini Herc and has the same roles as the C-130 albeit the aircraft can carry less over short distances but has a real STOL capability, so it works more forward in the battle field. 
 

Documentation: 

CS- has none

 Azure- comprehensive 100 page manual

 

Textures and Interior Renditions:

CS- excellent with some good wear and tear artwork

Azure -also excellent with 8k textures, while perhaps looking newer than it should. 

Features: 

CS: Good number of panel animations, except the GTC intake doors don't work and in keeping with its no inflight paratrooping capability, the Air Deflector doors don't work either. the interior cargo compartment is reasonably well modelled but it can't be accessed in flight and there is no animated cargo.     

Azure: A fully modelled cargo bay.  Ramp and para doors open in flight and cargo compartment can be entered in flight. A number of panels are animated and the kneeling capability of the aircraft is also modelled. Various cargo loads (wheeled, bulk and palletised) are animated. Air drop of vehicles and troops is not shown in the YT video but is an impressive feature. Custom effects including decoy flares, propeller vortices, propeller dust, fuel dumping, etc. Importantly these features can be viewed externally or internally from the paradoor and ramp. 

Sounds:

CS - as purchased, King Air

Azure - comes with a definitive Transall soundset utilising the Wwise ecosystem ie third party audio sound system providers.

Flight Model and Systems: 

CS- King Air flight model and and standard MSFS systems

Azure - Transall includes a big amount of bespoke systems and does not re-use existing generic avionics from the simulator.  

Liveries:

CS - 1 liver . No paint kit and probably locked to community painters.

Azure - 11 liveries including military and civil operators with purchased aircraft. 108 on Flightsim.to.  Paint kit downloadable from Azure's website for free.

EFB:

CS -yes but very rudimentary and associated only with opening and closing doors, panels etc

Azure - yes, custom EFB to manage numerous aircraft settings, including cargo and payload management with several available objects (vehicles, pallets, etc) and importantly, a moving map. 

 

Cost: (where the rubber meets the road).

CS C130 - Normally $US50.00. On sale for $US40.00 (rounded up one cent). Will most likely need to buy liveries on top of this and potentially (unconfirmed) a mission pack to unlock some basic features. 

Azure Poly C-160 Transall -  On the MS Market Place for about $US30.00 and SimMarket for about $US35.00 (at current NZD and Euro exchange rates.)

 

Conclusion.

CS have produced a model with an attractive flight deck and external looks. However, just a few scratches and the paint comes off very quickly. The depth of this model is my view, very light with a lot of missing features, locked paint kits, generic flight model, no  documentation and no systems depth. When compared to the Azure Poly C-160, which is also not study level but still has some complexity to it and 100 page manual, the price of the CS product even before adding extra for liveries and possible mission packs, is astronomical for what is offered. 

For those who clearly dont want a study level or even moderately complex model, the 'good looks' but simplicity of the CS-product is potentially worth the money particular in the absence of any other C-130 example for MSFS. But for anyone expecting something better than the Azure Poly C-160 for all that extra money (which could be as high as 40% more than C-160 when the CS products comes off sale) then CS's C-130 will come as a very big disappointment.

I love the C-130, it was a big part of my life,  and if it was at Azure Poly's standard I would buy it in a heartbeat. But, I won't be buying this one from CS.  

IMHO

Cheers

Terry

 

 

     

 

 

 

Edited April 22 by Lord Farringdon

[qqwertz 790]

1 hour ago, Lord Farringdon said:

The depth of this model is my view, very light with a lot of missing features, locked paint kits, generic flight model, no  documentation and no systems depth.

Thanks for this post, Terry. I was considering to buy my first CS model for MSFS, but not with a KingAir flight model. That's really a bummer.

Peter