Some report after a few testings
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Hey!
I came back to the beautiful and amazing Fokker 28 addon, and what a blast! I'm now flying for the TAT Virtual Airline, and it's been such a great experience.
While flying it a lot recently, I noticed a few things that could be improved to make this addon even more perfect:
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When using individual axes for nosewheel steering and rudder, like on the real aircraft, everything behaves correctly until I press both axes simultaneously. When I do, the steering becomes almost uncontrollable, as if both axes are fighting each other.
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The autopilot is much better than when the addon was first released. However, the pitch inputs when changing modes can still be quite brutal at times. This is especially noticeable with the ALT preselect controller when using VS mode, but it also happens with the classic version when switching between PITCH/IAS and HT mode. The aircraft suddenly pitches up/down to capture the new mode, almost as if it had received a very aggressive command. If there were passengers in the back, it would probably feel like a brief zero-G moment!
Sometimes the aircraft even oscillates up and down before finally stabilizing. A less aggressive version of this can also happen when selecting IAS during descent with idle thrust getting suddendly set, or when switching from PITCH to IAS during climb. -
According to the manual, during a visual approach the recommended configuration on downwind is 200 kts, Flaps 11 and approximately 85% HP RPM. However, this doesn't seem achievable. When descending with the gear up, the aircraft spends almost the entire approach at idle. If I apply much more than about 50% HP RPM, it accelerates very quickly. Once the gear is down, the performance matches the manual much better, but with the gear up the aircraft seems to have very little drag. Flaps do add some drag, but not enough to allow the thrust settings described in the manual, as the power has to remain below roughly 50% HP RPM to maintain the profile.
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The new FMS is really cool and feels very accurate. However, I think the DTO function could be improved. When I insert a direct-to, the FMS seems to draw a straight line from the point where the DTO was activated directly to the selected waypoint. This results in a rather unrealistic manoeuvre, with a long turn back onto the overshooted desired course. I think it would be much more realistic if the FMS computed a smooth intercept with a single anticipatory turn, taking the aircraft's speed into account. I've attached a picture below to better illustrate what I mean. Right now the only thing I found to counter this is to spam click my direct until the end of the turn, to make sure the radial is align with the aircraft and not with the first FMS insertion.
Hope it helps !
Cheers,Alex
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I agree with the above mentioned points. I must say, i usually just excused the erratic AP behavior to it being so old and therefore less accurate but i believe thats something only a real world F28 pilot could comment on.
With that being said, i have also noticed that in some occasions (maybe 40% of the time) the G/S of the ILS also oscillates and the AP has difficulty following it especially the closer you get to the runway. Again, i just excused this as the AP being old and less accurate since the margin of error gets smaller the closer you get to the runway it would make sense that a old AP would have difficulty following the GS. Maybe its intentional by JF or a bug.
Regarding the speed, i set the power to HP RPM to 80% and let it descend at a speed of 280-300 and pull it idle around 12000 feet to let it slow to 250kts or less. I usually descend at 2000fpm. After 250kts its a bit more tricky to get the aircraft within the 200kts range to drop the flaps. Either i reduce the V/S to 1200-1500fpm or just extend the Speed brakes. But then again, who knows if thats accurate behavior or not.
I do feel that the UNS-1 could get a little more love considering the F28 costs 70$ and is in the same price range as the Fenix, PMDG, TFDI, etc... So many features are missing which would be included in the real counterpart. I would say its probably modelled around 60% of the real one. Just the DTO page alone looks so plain compared to the real one.
Ive been told the F28 should be getting a update later this year but i have my doubts that any major features will be added considering this is the state of the aircraft after almost 3 years. I guess we can only hope.
Kind Regards, Leon
