Amongst the flurry of posts around MSFS 2024, I don't think there's been any mention here of the excellent freeware Fokker F-27 that was recently released:

https://flightsim.to/file/84997/fokker-f27-mk500

Officially 2020-only for the time being, but reportedly it works in 2024 with a few cosmetic issues.

Here's a video that gives a good first impression:

The engine sounds are excellent -- they really capture the unique character of the Rolls-Royce Dart engines. These engines are interesting in their own right -- unlike most modern turboprop engines, they don't have a free power turbine. Instead, the same turbine powers the compressor and the prop. By necessity, this means that as engine power is changed, prop rpm changes too.

The Darts have more quirks. They use water/methanol injection to boost takeoff power, and they have a "fuel trim" that needs to be set correctly to avoid cooking the engines on startup and takeoff.

Despite the unusual engines, this is not a particularly complex airplane to understand or operate -- not a Concorde by any means. The overhead is unusual by modern standards, but logically laid out and quickly becomes familiar. I would recommend devoting 20 minutes to the manual, though, to avoid being frustrated by the airplane's idiosyncrasies.

Certainly, one thing to point out is that this is a VOR-only airplane -- it doesn't even support cramming a GNS 530 somewhere in a corner. I know this turns a lot of people off -- it has done for me, in the past, even though I used to love flying VOR-to-VOR back in "Flight Assignment: ATP". But hear me out.

I planned a route from Berne LSZB to Nuremburg EDDN, and it was easier than I thought. I used the low-altitude enroute chart in Navigraph to pick appropriate VORs, of which there are still plenty around, even in RNAV-happy Europe -- and with the increasing threat of GPS jamming, I don't think that will be changing anytime soon. Here's what I came up with:

LSZB WIL TGO DKB NUB EDDN

LSZB has no non-RNAV SIDs, so I cheated and used the missed approach for the ILS 14 to get to WIL. No issues at EDDN -- NUB is an IAF, so I simply flew the full procedure, which does not require RNAV.

It was a very pleasant experience. Less button-pushing on the ground than in a modern airliner, more to do in the air, but still with a very manageable workload. The autopilot is just capable enough. It did catch me out on the approach though -- the unusual but well-designed autopilot mode symbology told me it was tracking the glideslope, but it got more than a dot low while I was distracted, so I disconnected the autopilot and hand-flew the rest of the approach. And the F-27 is a pleasure to hand-fly -- stable in pitch, speed-stable on the approach, very predictable in its flight characteristics.

I definitely plan to do some more short hops between regional airports in the F-27 -- that was its bread-and-butter in its heyday, and it's still very satisfying. Norway should be excellent in the F-27.

Could you fly it on VATSIM? I haven't tried, but from what I read, most VATSIM controllers are happy to make accommodations for non-RNAV aircraft, so I might give it a try.

Definitely recommended.

Edited November 28, 20241 yr by martinboehme

He's right, amazing for freeware, very detailed and a detailed manual/checklists to go with it in English & French, one of the best freeware aircraft for MSFS 2020, hope one day a US Fairchild version F-27 or FH-227B.

Interesting.  Have flown on the F27 many times and will have to give this one a go.  Engine sounds in real life are quite distintive but they can't recreate the smell of fuel whenever you get on or get off - that's quite distinctive too 🙂

On 11/28/2024 at 12:18 PM, martinboehme said:

one thing to point out is that this is a VOR-only airplane -- it doesn't even support cramming a GNS 530 somewhere in a corner. I know this turns a lot of people off

Turns ME on big time.. In a strictly technical way lol. I have the JF f28 but the vor nav lockon weaving is awful (imo) for a supposed cat II aircraft. Apparently due to code being changed from pre release optimum to... Cram a gns in there.....

I only saw this today on fs.to so came here for 2nd opinion. 

I am still looking for a dedicated vintage jet or turbo prop with vor /ndb only and no modern electronic devices needed for any stage of flight. I saw a smartphone in a 717 addon cockpit recently and booked it as fast as I could. Might try this today as I continue my tour of Mexico which btw still has vor everywhere. All my stops so far have had good approaches. 

Thanks for the post! 

31 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

I am still looking for a dedicated vintage jet or turbo prop with vor /ndb only and no modern electronic devices needed for any stage of flight.

Try the F-27 -- I don't think you'll be disappointed. VOR tracking has been rock solid in my experience, flies really nicely, sounds are a treat.

The one thing that has to be said is that she's not a rocketship. Climb is at a stately 138 knots indicated, cruise is maybe 250 knots true. Around 200 nautical miles is a good leg length.

If you do try the addon, let me know what you think!

2 minutes ago, martinboehme said:

Try the F-27 -- I don't think you'll be disappointed. VOR tracking has been rock solid in my experience, flies really nicely, sounds are a treat.

The one thing that has to be said is that she's not a rocketship. Climb is at a stately 138 knots indicated, cruise is maybe 250 knots true. Around 200 nautical miles is a good leg length.

If you do try the addon, let me know what you think!

Hey I'm on it today! Most of my Mexican tour is 100 mile hops over the mountains using excellent free addons from 

https://flightsim.to/profile/HSSsimulations

So it looks perfect for that. Also.. New airports, tricky vor dme approaches.. I got no problem with a little extra time for dial spinning! 

44 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Hey I'm on it today! Most of my Mexican tour is 100 mile hops over the mountains using excellent free addons from 

https://flightsim.to/profile/HSSsimulations

So it looks perfect for that. Also.. New airports, tricky vor dme approaches.. I got no problem with a little extra time for dial spinning! 

Agree -- the F-27 sounds perfect for that! Those legs would be almost too short for a jet -- you'd already need to prep the approach on the ground, or you'd be behind the aircraft the whole time.

I've noticed, by the way, that there are already two texture improvement mods up on flightsim.to:

https://flightsim.to/add-ons/fokker-f27-mk-500/improvement-mods

Haven't tried them yet, so I can't say which is better.

There's also a Simbrief profile here:

https://flightsim.to/file/85509/fokker-f27mk-500-simbrief-profile

For those who like using paper checklists, I've uploaded one here:

https://flightsim.to/file/85741/fokker-f-27-500-checklist

Edited December 6, 20241 yr by martinboehme

On 12/6/2024 at 11:39 AM, martinboehme said:

Try the F-27 -- I don't think you'll be disappointed. VOR tracking has been rock solid in my experience, flies really nicely, sounds are a treat.

The one thing that has to be said is that she's not a rocketship. Climb is at a stately 138 knots indicated, cruise is maybe 250 knots true. Around 200 nautical miles is a good leg length.

If you do try the addon, let me know what you think!

Hey Martin, I'm learning the cockpit sat at Biggin Hill EGKB right now (NOT good flying weather!).

Setting up controls but I cannot find axis or button/keys to change the HP/cock levers. I'd love a list of lvars so I can use fsuipc, I've tried prop/mix axis but no joy. Using the mouse is not an option as I have issues with mouse control personally (see my issues over at pmdg!) and also the levers only move about 1 degree a second with the mouse!

I appreciate these don't get used much but when you DO need them you need to be quick :D

Any help appreciated I'm currently sat in a very nice cockpit and reading the manual revealed the following quote which reminded me I was not alone in knowing the JF F28 VOR nav is 'terrible' due to shoehorning in the GPS.

No GPS is available on this panel (MSFS GPS interacts too much with autopilot to give good result in this cookpit). Navigation VOR to VOR is recommended (or NDB and waypoints position which can be confirmed by VOR / NDB radials or DME).

I read on fs.to that the NDB needle is currently not working? There goes my IFR flight from EGKB to to EGLC lol! (LCY 322)

Edited December 7, 20241 yr by sloppysmusic
paste fail

8 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

I read on fs.to that the NDB needle is currently not working? There goes my IFR flight from EGKB to to EGLC lol! (LCY 322)

ADF works for me -- just tested it with the LCY NDB.

Two things to be aware of that commenters on flightsim.to may have missed (both are explained in the manual):

• The frequency needs to be tuned precisely to the tenth of a kHz. To aid with this, the white line over the last digit turns white when the digit after the decimal point is ".0" or ".5" (page 41 of the manual).
• The ADF bearing is not displayed on the RMI (as one might expect) but on the HSI. The red needle is ADF 1, the green needle is ADF 2 (page 40 of the manual).

8 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

Setting up controls but I cannot find axis or button/keys to change the HP/cock levers. I'd love a list of lvars so I can use fsuipc, I've tried prop/mix axis but no joy.

I suspect none of the standard controls for mixture or prop works because the HP levers are sort of a combination of the two -- and they need to control the mixture and prop axes behind the scenes to achieve the desired effect. I'll see if I can find an LVAR that works.

Edited December 7, 20241 yr by martinboehme

8 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

Setting up controls but I cannot find axis or button/keys to change the HP/cock levers. I'd love a list of lvars so I can use fsuipc, I've tried prop/mix axis but no joy.

I've found LVARs for these now:

f275_CondLev01_Pos

f275_CondLev02_Pos

Experimentally, the following values seem to correspond to the various lever positions:

FEATHER: 0

H.P.C. SHUT: 22

OPEN: 75

LOCK OUT: 100

Thanks for prompting me to research this -- I've been getting by with the mouse, but being able to put these on dedicated controls is much nicer!

So the HP Levers cannot be mapped to a control device using the MSFS controls facility  ?

12 minutes ago, solito said:

So the HP Levers cannot be mapped to a control device using the MSFS controls facility  ?

I don't believe so, because they don't correspond to any of the standard axes or commands.

Thanks for highlighting this aircraft, I’ll download tomorrow and see if 2024 will accept it.

I’ve always liked the F27, I’ve got over 2000 hours flying with  RR darts on the HS748.

On start up we used to “milk” (retard slightly )the HP levers to reduce the fuel flow if the TGT looked like it was going to exceed the start limit, no EECs and autostart on those things !

I remember we used to fly along side the F27 in the 748 on various routes and the F27 could always burn us off having a better cruise speed. The 748 did do something better than the F27 though, but I can’t remember what that was, but there was something 🤔

1 hour ago, martinboehme said:

I've found LVARs for these now:

f275_CondLev01_Pos

f275_CondLev02_Pos

Experimentally, the following values seem to correspond to the various lever positions:

FEATHER: 0

H.P.C. SHUT: 22

OPEN: 75

LOCK OUT: 100

Thanks for prompting me to research this -- I've been getting by with the mouse, but being able to put these on dedicated controls is much nicer!

that's brilliant. we could used fsuipc to map the axis to those 4 detents then? just had a test flight in Mexico. pretty rough start as my planned f28 flight failed twice first with no apu or engine start then all flight controls failed so crashed,.,,turned dev mode on just before crash and loaded the f27 over the f28 and got my flight controls fine so took off on that instead...screen shots in a sec. took me over a minute to get the mouse to shut the hp levers off at the end so will be working on this thx Martin!

https://imgur.com/gallery/fokker-f27-mk500-freeware-map-replacement-mod-8GVJs3L

Route:

MMTC.31 302/138 TRC 335/98 ELQ DCT MMCU.I36RZ
TRC    116.4
ELQ    114.1
CUU    114.2

Edited December 7, 20241 yr by sloppysmusic