Alpha Sim releases Long EZ

[bkeske 0]

Never been a big fan of the simplistic aircraft 'operations/cockpits' in the Alpha Sim's 'hanger'(have only purchased one, but all the others seem to be similar), but I'm definitely going to get this rather interesting 'bird'.This looks like their most refined effort to date....if anyone beats me to it today, and gets to take a peek, please include your initial thoughts.I remember there was a Long EZ available back in FS95 or 98, but I think this would be the first serious effort with this aircraft since those days.This looks really nice. And a very interesting alternative to my collection.

[Guest akashic flying]

I would also be interested to hear about this plane. Looks nice in the screenshots and has DX10 shadows in the VC. Would this be a cool plane to fly around Aussie with FTX installed ? Anyone?

[Ramasurinen 0]

Picked this up yesterday, it's great fun to fly, and the fps is better than the default 172. It has quite a few nice features actually, including a flip-out garmin, and a polygon based gauge system similar to what you find in the RealAir SF260 (ie: smooth clear and fast).It is however a *handful* to fly, no joke. That plane has a fair bit of torque for its weight, so be sure to have aileron trim mapped to some joystick buttons, you'll be using it a lot. 'Quirky' doesn't quite do the flight model justice. Also being a canard aircraft it doesn't stall or handle traditionally. It can also be overly responsive in pitch when in ground effect so landings and takeoffs take some extra care, and a fair bit of runway (no flaps, again due to the canard configuration). It's one of those planes you really have to stay several steps ahead of, or it'll bite you, and that's the kind of plane I love most. The avionics look good and work well also.All in all it's great, and it has one of the best pits Alphasim's done in quite awhile. Between this and Iris's absolutely excellent Pilatus PC-9 (killer flight model) I'll be letting my jet fighters chill in the hangar for a bit hehe.Edit: Actually, one thing I find kinda creepy about the Long-EZ is that its pilot looks a lot like me, but he has cooler sunglasses than I do. :( Off to the shops! haha.Cheers,-mike

[Guest akashic flying]

Thanks for your insights Mike! Appreciated.

[bkeske 0]

Downloading now, thanks for your input.

[pbearsailor 7]

I built a Long EZ many years ago and that airplane's paint is included in Alphasim's release. I'm not part of their team, but did get an opportunity to fly it before release.Alphasim did a great job here. It's a full FSX model, great frame rates, and the VC, unlike some of their releases, is just super. You never need to leave the VC.I'm really pleased with the flght model. As a real life pilot, I'm so disappointed when a model looks great but flies nothing like the real one. This one IS a Long EZ, quirks and all. The canard makes for some different handling, not bad just different. The Alphasim flight model is very good and I've been impressed.cheers,steve :)

[bkeske 0]

Good input Steve.Just took it up for it's maiden flight, really unusual aircraft, but fun because of that. Got the hand of showing her down on approach, and actually made a really nice landing given I'm used to flaps on approach, and not only a speed brake.I haven't dug into the manual a bunch yet though....can you run this aircraft into the yellow arc consistently? I really had to back off the throttle to keep it in the green.I don't know about anyone else, but my AP display was really messed up, and was bleeding into other radio gauges, especially the DME radio. I modified the panel.cfg and got everything sorted, but was a bit surprised it was so far out of alignment. I'm going to head over to the Alpha Sim forum and see if this is an issue anyone else was having.Nice addition to my hanger....to many aircraft...too little time :D

[pbearsailor 7]

>Good input Steve.>>I haven't dug into the manual a bunch yet though....can you>run this aircraft into the yellow arc consistently? I really>had to back off the throttle to keep it in the green.>Since it's a homebuilt, you're sorta on your own as far as yellow arcs and even redlines go. Rutan had recommended speeds, but it was really up to the builder to test speeds and develop limits. Personally, I'd have no problem flying up in the yellow arc area unless it's rough.Check out the "speed brakes" on the rudders too. They were independent and you just pushed until you got brakes at the end of the travel. Because of that, you can actually push both rudders in flight (brakes) and get a little speed brake effect as they each deflect outward at the same time.cheers,steve :)

[bkeske 0]

Fantastic Steve, thanks for the cruising info. This babies quite fast, so its good to know I can push it into the yellow and still be within real world tolerances.Very interesting on the rudder 'brakes'....I'm going to have to check this out when I take her back up. Is this actually modeled in the sim?

[pbearsailor 7]

Yes it is, pretty cool. :D

[bkeske 0]

yessir, just read the manual where this was pointed out.Very interesting.Thanks for your helpful insights Steve, really appreciate it.

[Guest GabeThePilot]

I too am having issues with the AP. I cannot arm the APR/REV on the actual AP - so have to use shortcuts or my excellent backup GA Radio Stack (by Peix).Also, the AP buttons are a little hard to read even at 1680x1050 at 0.4 zoom.....and the writing is a little flickery....probably as they don't allow them to be anti-aliased and so have better framerates.Otherwise an interesting bird to tame.....nightmare to land...it just doesn't seem to "want" to land....I have to use the airbrake all the way down or she's off again !I bet if you master the handling of this, other trainers will be a doddle.

[bkeske 0]

Gabe I fixed my issue with the AP display by editing the panel.cfg. Not sure why I am having (had) this issue quite frankly.In terms of your issue, you might want to register on the Alpha Sim support forum, there may be answers for you there. If not, post your issue.

[kiwikat 506]

>I too am having issues with the AP. I cannot arm the>APR/REV on the actual AP - so have to use shortcuts or my>excellent backup GA Radio Stack (by Peix).If you read the manual you would have seen that VERY FEW real life Long-EZ's have approach and backcourse holds. This is due to the pitch instability of the canard-type aircraft. So there's nothing wrong with the AP ;-) Glad to hear you guys are enjoying her. It is a blast to fly, more fun than any other GA plane I've got. It takes a while to learn how to land though. Gotta make sure you put your gear down :+ It's easy to forget because only the front gear retracts.

[Guest GabeThePilot]

>>I too am having issues with the AP. I cannot arm the>>APR/REV on the actual AP - so have to use shortcuts or my>>excellent backup GA Radio Stack (by Peix).>>If you read the manual you would have seen that VERY FEW real>life Long-EZ's have approach and backcourse holds. This is>due to the pitch instability of the canard-type aircraft. So>there's nothing wrong with the AP ;-) >>Glad to hear you guys are enjoying her. It is a blast to fly,>more fun than any other GA plane I've got. It takes a while>to learn how to land though. Gotta make sure you put your>gear down :+ It's easy to forget because only the front gear>retracts.Well that makes sense as she was bobbing around all over the place trying to hold the localiser....basically I think you just have to "wrestle" her to the ground - in a nice way of course...:-jumpy PS.. you can "cheat" and use shortcuts for the APR etc.....but to be honest I think it's easier flying the GS by hand - using the APR doesn't really allow any manual adjustement - and boy you will need them before this b:tch agrees to land her a#s!