AA5 pack is available now and it's actually a bit cheaper than expected at £22.99

https://www.justflight.com/product/bluesky-hangar-grumman-aa5

Manual is available to download from here
https://downloads.justflight.com/products/JFF004215/AA5_POH.pdf

Unfortunately I’m busy preparing for a sim check tomorrow so probably won’t have time to buy+fly today but I look forward to reading the feedback here.

Nice manual though,it reminds me of the Sublogic FSII handbook with its drawn cockpit diagrams.

Edited Friday at 10:36 AM1 day by jon b

I will look out for feedback/videos but I think I will probably pass.

Just flying the Grumman Tiger now and if this is like the real thing I regret not flying one in real life.

It feels a bit like the A2A Comanche , very smooth and weighted. Stalls both power on and off seem fine with the expected wing drop.

Not tried a spin yet but I've no reason to doubt that it's possible. Gets a thumbs up from me.

I've picked it up and first impressions are pretty positive. It looks decent and systems seem decently modelled with working CBs.

As expected with a new dev, there's a few issues though I've spotted in '24. Most obvious are that engine noises are incredibly quiet even with the canopy open (and yes you can open the canopy without going into walkaround mode or exploding the plane in flight).
Additionally the ADF Needle seems to be reversed and the tuning knobs on the adf radio change the active frequency not the Standby.
Also the Comm radios are locked to 8.33Khz mode despite having buttons to swap to 25Khz.
Finally of what I've spotted the Quick Preflight Command doesn't work so you must remove the Covers and Chocks manually (though that's a very minor issue)

In flight the handling seems a little livelier and a bit trickier than I was expecting but that could well be a combination of inexperience and winds and the drag with full flaps seemed very high meaning I was happier doing approach at 2/3 thought again that may just be inexperience.

So I have been picky here but overall and especially considering the price I like it.
If the dev can fix the issues and I don't find anything else (this is just my thoughts after flying a pattern cos I'm meant to be working) I think I'd recommend this as as a decently priced option for someone looking for a slightly different 4 seater from the normal Cessna and Pipers.

(Though obviously the BS Commander is on the horizon and that looks to be in a totally different class)

Oh one other thing I totally could not get the engine to start from cold and dark - fuel pressure was reading zero even with the pump on. However after restarting '24 then beginning a flight on the runway with the engine already running C&D starts worked fine. No idea if anyone else will ever encounter this problem but if they do maybe this will help.

Edited Friday at 11:41 AM1 day by Matchstick

I only watched two videos, but the twitchy flight is scaring me away for now. Not sure if that's how that really handles, but I wouldn't think so for a light GA. I know for me if it isn't fun to hand fly, it will mostly sit idle in my hanger.

I hadn't seen the video when I went for my first flight in this model.... Tiger only so far.

Perhaps the video was made using a beta copy but on my modest system there is nothing twitchy about the handling or trim effectiveness.

I'm sure there are some bugs as with all new products. Here the ADF seems problematic in that I can't get a signal ( but that could be me )

Lets see what others make of the handling or if it differs between the various AA5s

No twitchiness here either - it flies beautifully. I'm very impressed for an apparantly new dev. Really good quality and a new piston single is always welcome in my hangar.

To be picky :- I won't be flying the G1000 version because I have time in the real aircraft and it's not at all realistic to have a NXi G1000 and the integrated GFC700 autopilot. These were early G1000 adoptions. A little like the early C182 and DA40 G1000s - non WAAS, non-NXi, no FD and no integrated AP; usually instead a KAP140 autopilot (controlled by a redundant analogue turn coordinator, that sits hidden behind the G1000 PFD - seriously! 😄).

The 'hidden' turn coordinator, behind the G1000 in an early G1000 aircraft. It's there solely to feed the KAP140 autopilot

The KAP140 had no interface with the G1000. Eg. setting the altitude on the G1000 would have no effect on the KAP140, where it would also need to be set. Baro would need to be set on the G1000, the KAP140 (which has it's own baro setting) and the back up!

So, to depict the Tiger G1000 model accurately, we'd need :-

• Some functions to be removed from the WT G1000 NXi (to attempt to depict a non-WAAS, non-NXi unit)

• No integrated GFC700 autopilot

• A Bendix King KAP140 AP

Edited Friday at 04:34 PM1 day by JYW

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Edited Friday at 04:31 PM1 day by Matchstick

In VR I'm stuck on thr floor behind the front seats! Just can't get it to centre both in 2024 and 2020. No problem in 2D. Anyone else getting this?

Hello everyone, I’m the developer for the Grumman AA5 family. I’m really glad you guys are excited and have been enjoying flying in the aircraft so far! Over the next days I’ll be scouring the forum posts and videos so I can compile a list with all the bugs and adjustments to make, so I can hopefully deliver a patch as soon as possible. Any reviews, bug reports or nitpicks are very welcome! And thank you for your general positivety!

14 hours ago, jon b said:

Nice manual though,it reminds me of the Sublogic FSII handbook with its drawn cockpit diagrams.

Haha thank you, that was not a compliment I was expecting to get! I tried to get it to look a like an older manual, so it sort of matches the AA-5's POH with my own spin. It "should" also be printer friendly.

13 hours ago, nippa said:

-snip-

Thank you for your kind words!

13 hours ago, Matchstick said:

-snip-

Thank you very much for your detailed review! The flight model is meant to be a bit on the sportier side since this aircraft had a reputation for it's lively handling - infact, on another forum, an AA-5 Traveler pilot said that the real one had even more roll authority. The flight model will require some tweaking after feedback since it's quite hard to get the "feel" right, especially with so many different sim rig configurations and people flying with Xbox controllers. Again, regarding the flight model, all feedback is appreciated!

Also, I'll be taking a look at the ADF's and the 25kHz mode for the radios and I'll fix them in the next patch. The volume of the engine sounds also seems to be a somewhat common gripe, so I'll be boosting it up a bit.

11 hours ago, nippa said:

-snip-

Thank you! I'll look at the problems with the ADF.

8 hours ago, JYW said:

-snip-

Again, thank you for the kind words! And nice trivia about the G1000/KAP140 autopilot, I had no idea about that. Honestly, integrating a KAP140 autopilot shouldn't be very difficult, but the coding for the G1000 sort of exceeds the area of my knowledge regarding coding, so I'm not very sure I'd be able to implement it properly.

3 hours ago, magdrop said:

In VR I'm stuck on thr floor behind the front seats! Just can't get it to centre both in 2024 and 2020. No problem in 2D. Anyone else getting this?

Thank you for the report, I will attempt to fix this for the next update.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread and noting down any bugs or general improvements you guys suggest. Thank you once again for the general positivety and helpfulness, and I hope you enjoy your flights!

6 hours ago, BlueSky - Pedro said:

Hello everyone, I’m the developer for the Grumman AA5 family. I’m really glad you guys are excited and have been enjoying flying in the aircraft so far! Over the next days I’ll be scouring the forum posts and videos so I can compile a list with all the bugs and adjustments to make, so I can hopefully deliver a patch as soon as possible. Any reviews, bug reports or nitpicks are very welcome! And thank you for your general positivity!...

Excellent! Thanks for this.

8 hours ago, BlueSky - Pedro said:

Again, thank you for the kind words! And nice trivia about the G1000/KAP140 autopilot, I had no idea about that. Honestly, integrating a KAP140 autopilot shouldn't be very difficult, but the coding for the G1000 sort of exceeds the area of my knowledge regarding coding, so I'm not very sure I'd be able to implement it properly.

Welcome Pedro!

It's a fantastic first aircraft release. Feels very immersive.

To bring the G1000 version towards realism, I'd say the focus could be on :-

• Removing the AP buttons from the G1000 PFD and MFD

• Integrating the stock Asobo KAP140 into the cockpit (it normally sits under the PFD and MFD, in the middle, in early G1000 aircraft).

There are other things that could be explored, like disabling the Flight Director (may work by setting the Flight Director = 0 flag in the [autopilot] section of the systems.cfg (I'll have a check at my end!). But just the above two changes would go a long way and make it realistic 😎 As a reference, the Carenado C182T G1000 addon from early MSFS2020 uses this correct approach; G1000 (with no FD) and KAP140. Of course, being Carenado, there are many bugs but the general panel layout is correct.

One last thing, not related to the G1000 version. In a AA5 with the Century 1 and a GNS430 (as with your addon), the Century should be able to track the GPS course - which should show on the HSI - if the GNS is set to 'GPS' mode. This currently doesn't work on the addon. When the GNS430 is set to 'GPS', the course deviation is not shown on the HSI and so the 'VOR tracker' mode of the Century 1 currently can't lock to an established GPS course on the HSI.

You've done a good job in simulating the Century 1 but, as it's such a limited device, I wonder if it would be good to have a further option in the POH popup, to have the KAP140 in the cockpit (in all of the variants; Traveler, Cheetah & Tiger). Many AA5s have been upgraded beyond the Century 1, usually to a KAP140, STEC 30 or Century 2000.

Look forward to seeing how the pack develops!