err....WOW!!

[Hunhunter]

Haven't actually tried this yet, but having just watched the video and seen the screenshots, WOW was the only word I could think off

Bucker Jungmann Biplane and a Ju52 German transport, FREEWARE.....looks totally awesome....bah...just go and see for yourself.....

http://www.junkers-52.de/Images/Imag...024-b131-2.jpg

http://www.junkers-52.de/gallery.html

http://www.junkers-52.de/downloads.html

[Vigilante]

Those are unbelievable! That's it - I'm hooked. I'm going to reload FS9 and fly this puppy from Munich to RAF_Loke's house!

[RAF_Loke]

Hehe, you are most welcome Vig, but to see the island right you need a lot of downloads.

[Hunhunter]

Ok, mini review time

First up, the Jungmann. As expected it looks stunning. Comes in two versions with various paint schemes. The 2D panel is nice and very detailed but the view over the panel isn't great. The VC is much more user friendly and VERY detailed. Every available function is clickable in the VC from the mags to the trim levers and you really get the feeling of being 'inside' the plane rather than just looking at it. Overall, this is extreme eye candy for FS connoisseurs!

The flight model was a sort of bitter/sweet experience. On initial roll on the runway there was hardly any rudder required to keep the plane in line. With the stick in a neutral position the tail came up quite quickly and the plane lifted gentley off the runway and settled into a smooth climb. The ailerons are beautifully tuned and give a realistic feel and a positive roll rate.

Now the elevators, these were the only disapointment with this plane. They didn't seem to be effective enough. The Jungmann was one of the best aerobatic planes of the 30's & 40's so I started my usual aerobatic routine with great expectation. First thing I found was that if you exceed 230kph the plane starts to shudder and the controlls stiffen up making smooth aero's very difficult. With that in mind I set the entry speed to around 210-220kph and attempted a loop. The elevators felt ineffective and the plane pulled up quite slowly. It really struggled to go over the top and the speed fell away so much that it fell off the top of the loop I tried again, same result. Entering the loop at 270kph got me over the top....just!! This was not what I expected for one of the worlds greatest aerobatic planes. I tried adjusting the elevator value of the flight model from 1.000 to 1.700 and it did make a difference but it was getting late so I called it a day.

This is a superb looking little plane and the flight model is great for normal flight, the only problems being vertical maneuvers but this might be easily sorted with a bit of tweeking.

Now the Ju52. I only gave this a quick test but it seems to fly as it should. If anything it is a touch overpowered but its still a lumbering old beast! Detailing is amazing including a fully detailed passenger cabin and again the VC is the one to use when flying. I got quite a drop in frame rate with this plane but I was using a fairly basic machine to run it on. The only thing I really noticed was it seemed reluctant to slow down which caused a fast approach and a few little bumps on landing

Will give these a more thorough testing later

[1.JaVA_Platypus]

Cool!!! some companies let you pay 30 or 40 euro's for each aircraft....

That's why I quit trying to keep up with the FS200X community.

[Osram]

How's the Ju52 3D model and textures?

[1.JaVA_Platypus]

I took them both for a spin from Berlin Tempelhoff (turned off real world weather, it was snowing and stormy in Berlin this evening) Both aircraft's externals and VC are absolutly gorgeous. You see the pilot move his stick and rudder. VC is up to Il-2 PF standards I would say.

Ju-52: The textures on the Ju-52 look great from a distance but the way the textures run up close is a bit dissapointing. But you'll be busy figuring out all the alien nav equipment inside the VC anyways. BTW, VC is completly clickable. Once you've found the flap indicator, the dial on your left, you can set take-off flaps. Full throttle and off you go. Take off, retract flaps and climb out. A minute or so in the climb I get an overspeed warning. WTF? overspeed in a Ju-52 in a climb with 100% fuel? Seems the modellers took the time to model overspeed historically but made the engines too powerfull. Or it is the third engine of course. It is a bit more powerfull then realistic and it handles quite good. A bit too well for what I expected from a Ju-52. Landings are okay. The handling is okay but take your time for the approach tough but not any surprises. I did not bother with trimming, wich is important for long flights. I think it should be allright like the way the whole aircraft behaves. Some tiny shortcommings in the flight model. But the gorgeous VC and the nice paint jobs makes this aircraft a keeper.

Bucker Jungman: Well, this aircraft was clearly made by the same people. Wich means beautifull cockpit, pilot moves his controls visually and the textures are not as complicated as on the Ju-52 so they look okay now. Not really exciting or beautifull but adequate. (spelling?) It hasn't got any flaps so, you can push the throttle right away. No overspeed warnings this time. This was an aerobatic aircraft in its time so I turn on the smoke. You get red and white smoke pouring (spelling?) out of the wing tips. Nice! The aircraft is a bit nose-heavy so I give it a trim-up. It really handles like the grandfather of the default extra 300s. quite nice actually. watch out in turns, it loses alt pretty quickly. Altough it handles pretty predictable, I think it has not enough elevator authority. Because of that, you can bearly pull a loop. I tried doing a loop starting at an airspeed of over 200km/h 120kts, wich should be enough for a biplane and pulled the stick all the way back. But because the low elevator authority, the speed at the top of the loop is very low and I end up with something looking like a tail slide... And the aircraft also makes rather large turns. They should defenitly increase elevator authority and maybe lift too on this aircraft. But anyways, the absolutly perfect VC makes you feel very nostalgic.

If you are flying either aircraft, especially from the VC, the skyscrapers of Chicago look a bit odd. The dev's of both aircraft have succeeded in making two very nice and historical aircraft from the golden age of aviation. They are both "keepers". Both VC's are about Il-2 PF quality, surpassing it sometimes.

[Ebo]

Actually both planes have seen an upgrade to version 2. They are much better, both from the visual model to the VC, panel and flight dynamics. They are both worth the download, if you like flying those oldies.

I have actually done some repaints for both versions

Here they are:

Version 2
Ju-Air Junkers Ju 52 IWC HB-HOS World tour AVSIM Library

Version 1
Junkers Ju-52 IWC HB-HOS
AVSIM Library

Junkers Ju-52 IWC HB-HOS - Around the World
AVSIM Library

Ebo

[BLOWHARD]

One thing that bugs me, and not just because I paint gauges myself, what goes on with the copy/pasted photos for the cockpit instruments? Seems a little cheesy considering the rest of what's there looks so good.
I guess you can get away with it if they're free

(Ebo, I have to ask, what is Weather Maker RX? )

[Ebo]

Hi Blowhard

That is an add-on for FS9 / FSX that downloads real weather and changes your wether within flight simulator.

This programme determines your departure airport, gets the METARS for that area and then converts the data and changes your FS default weather to the real time weather. Am I clear?

Here is the Weather Maker blog
Weather Maker

The official website
Welcome to Weather-Maker.com

I hope this answers your question.

Ebo