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| Piper Cub FSX By: Tom Hall |
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| Piper Cub Manufactured: Flight Replicas Published: Sim Market Click on image's to enlarge. The Piper Super Cub was first designed and manufactured in 1949 and became a very popular aircraft, with over 9000 being built in just short of 40 years. The Cub is an extremely versatile aircraft and is commonly used for bush flying, banner and gliding towing. The Super Cub is a tail dragger aircraft which makes flying more difficult during taxi, takeoff and landing. The average Cub engine pushes out approximately 160hp of thrust, more than enough for an aircraft like the Piper. The Piper Cub from Flight Replicas comes as a 165mb download and is available from their website and also from many other vendors. Instillation could not have been easier and took only a matter of minutes. Once installed, I loaded FSX to find 3 different flight models of the Piper Super Cub, including Ski, water and land versions and 27 different liveries, covering from their first production model and paint schemes to the present day model. There is even a paint kit for each version, allowing users to custom create their very own liveries. A different selection of engine power settings is also available with the least powered cub being 150 hp to a newer model being powered at a whopping 210hp. After hitting the “fly now” button I was sat in the cockpit of the Cub.   Looking around, first impressions were good with the cockpit and instrument modelling accurately reflected the real world counter part and virtually all the switches in the cockpit are clickable! One of the great things about this package is that depending on which model of Cub you selected the instruments are laid out accordingly. For example a 1950s version will have just the basic instruments, whereas one built in the 1990’s will have more sophistication. However, at this point I think it would have been nice if Flight Replicas included a little ‘wear and tear’ effect in the cockpit which would have added extra realism. Moving outside, the Bump and mapping were brilliant, and it was possible to see all the nuts and bolts which really added realism to the package. There are also animated pilots in the cockpit. It was clear at this stage that the manufactures of this add-on had really gone the extra mile to deliver and excellent visual model if the Cub. The sound set was very good, and I when I started the engine the sound was just like the real aircraft. Taxiing a tail dragger is always a difficult affair, and the model from Flight Replicas has replicated the taxiing of a tail dragger excellently. I then done a quick break and flight control check and found the aircraft to be very responsive. Lining the aircraft up on the runway was always my favourite part and as I pushed the throttle forward I could sense the aircraft accelerating to the rotate speed. After take off I climbed to 3000 feet to practice some basic manoeuvres to put this aircraft through its paces. Firstly I practiced some basic climbing and descending where I practiced idle descents and cruise descents they both performed well. In the idle descent, I noticed that the Cub did not require much nose down attitude to maintain speed, thus being an excellent glider. The climb was very accurate too and true to life, depending on the weight of the aircraft the climb rate would vary.   The next phase of flight was the Stall. Initially I practiced a power off stall, where I remained the aircraft’s nose on the horizon and cut the power, the airspeed started to bleed off and the aircrafts stall warning had sounded, I let the aircraft go into the secondary stall phase where the nose dropped and the airspeed started to gain. I applied full power and let the nose come up. After that, I tried a stall with flaps extended. When I set the flaps one notch, I was suppressed to see the aircrafts nose aggressively bank up almost to around 20 degrees! I have never flown the Cub in real life, but I think this is one thing the Flight Replicas had got wrong. However as I retimed the aircraft to fly straight and cut the power again, the stall was an accurate representation of the real aircraft. I wanted to see how realistic the Cub was at spinning so I put her into a turning stall and when the aircraft was in the stall I used some aileron, flipping the Cub into a spin, this was one of my favourite things about this add-on package as the representation of the spin was excellent and the aircraft performed exactly how it should have in real life. Then I just had to get out of it...   I started to bring the Cub down into a cruise descent, I slowed down to about 80 knots while adding a notch of flap (my earlier comment regarding the flaps still applies) then I lined up for an approach into Dundee Airport, this phase of flight was modelled well too, with the pilot having to add a bit a power to arrest the sink in some configurations, the rudders are also crucial for remaining on the approach. The sound effects of the engines and flaps were excellent and added to the sense of ‘being there’. I idled the engine and put the aircraft into a flare, and settled her nicely on the runway. All in all a successful flight with a brilliant aircraft. Conclusion: The Cub is an easy aircraft to fly and is great for the novice simmer wishing to learn to fly a light aircraft, I think a bit of ‘wear and tear’ in the cockpit would add more realism to the add-on but this is certainly not major. I feel that when deploying the flaps, the characteristics do not match the real aircraft, but as a whole the flight model is excellent and there is a wide selection of liveries available. For approximately £26 you can grab yourself an excellent little aircraft that will fit in nicely anyone’s hanger. |
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