Yak-52 froma Alphasim! Coming soon.

[Garry Russell]

Cheers for the HU austerdriver

There is someone on the forum who might be interested......don't remember who though...as he hardly ever mentions it

Garry

[Prop Jockey]

Well how well timed is this !! I was hoping to get my own back from maintenance yesterday - but alas the CAA decided it needed another flight test so its delayed until next week. At least I can amuse myself with Alphasims in the meantime - thanks for the HU !

Cheers

Rich

[Trev Clark]

I am looking forward to your 'review' of the flight modelling Rich, not many folk are better qualified to tell us about that. Good to see there is still a possibilty of bring the real thing to Shoreham on the 3rd October, I will keep my fingers croosed for the CAA to sign her off!!

[Prop Jockey]

I've just had circuit with it at the moment Trev but I'll pop a little review on here just as soon as I've had a bit more time with it. The maintenance guys hopefully flew mine over the weekend (or at least first thing tomorrow). With the flight test complete - there should be nothing stopping the CAA.......................
The same was said last Wednesday however

Cheers

Rich

[Prop Jockey]

(Edited to reflect the fixes in version 1.1)

Ok folks - here's my take ok the Alphasim 52. Just to set the scene - I like it - its a nice little add-on if you like the Yak-52 and you want a nice (noisy) 2-seat aerobat for your hangar. It doesn't faithfully recreate every switch and system on the Yak-52, but that wasn't the aim (it doesn't come with a 2-D panel etc). A certain degree of variety has evolved over the years with the Yak-52, either from original manufacture or through reconditioning - hence when you compare a model like this to an original, it really depends which original your looking at

Firstly, the exterior model. Its very, very accurate albeit one noticeable detail - the prop is too narrow on the Alphasim (Fixed in V1.1). Of course you unless you enjoy the duller things in life you'd probably fire up FS to fly the plane rather than sit and watch the model on the ground, so the prop size shouldn't be an issue for long. They've done a good job modelling all the underside lumps and bumps, the oil breather sticking out of the starboard cowling and the undercarriage uplock hooks.

Here's an illustration of the prop size difference




Secondly, the interior model. The best way to tackle this is left to right. There's only just enough room for the occupants in a 52, let alone checklists and the like, so everything is done from memory, working left to right around the cockpit.

1.> Air Tap. The brakes, gear, flaps and engine start system on a 52 are pneumatic and hence first job is to check the main air system is charged (which it won't be if you left the tap on after the last flight). The air tap isn't modelled on the Alphasim so you can't switch the air on/off.

2.> Main switch panel. Unfortunately these aren't modelled either, although the first switch is used to swap between Nav/GPS.

3.> Flaps. A couple of observations here Firstly the flap lever moves in the opposite sense to the flaps - i.e. with the lever in the down position the flaps are up (Fixed in V1.1). The second observation is the flap settings themselves. On the model we have 3 settings : Up, 20 deg and 50 deg. On the real aircraft they're either up or down, with down being 45 deg. I think thats correctable through the aircraft.cfg easily enough though. (Fixed in V1.1)

4.> Trim wheel - I think it moves in the inverse sense like the flap lever.

5.> Throttle/Prop pitch - Throttle is good but prop pitch lever moves in the inverse sense as well. Full RPM is with the lever fully forward not fully back as animated. (Fixed in V1.1)


6,> Instrument panel. As already stated, the left hand switch panel isn't modelled so you can't switch engine instruments and the AI on individually etc so no real surprises on the panel. Apart from that every looks like it should. The air pressure gauge only reads when the engine is running, but I've not seen a payware or freeware pneumatic gauge that actually behaves as the real system. On the real aircraft the gauge is connected directly to the air system and always reads pressure, regardless of battery and engine. The 'Approach' switch in the top left hand corner of the panel is used for the Nav lights. This switch was actually used to switch between the 2 banks of 4 ADF frequencies originally. Since many Yak-52s have the old Russian radios removed to save weight this switch is free to use for whatever you like - fair play to Alphasim for using it for the Nav lights

On the subject of lights, this model has navs and strobes. Originally the 52 had no lights at all (and indeed mine doesn't have them) - typically you see lights fitted to reconditioned 52s where its an option (including a landing light attached to one of the undercarriage legs). The model also has the original cut-off wings - another option on reconditioned 52s is to fit plastic tapered fairings on the wing tips.

The accelerometer on top of the instrument panel could use some max/min g markers - otherwise how do you ever get to prove you've overstressed the airframe for your mates down the pub ? The warning lights along side are as I've seen them. There's huge variety in these in terms of layout and number of warning lights on Yaks that I've seen. The Russians obviously had supply consistency issues with those warning panels.

7.> Battery, Gen, Ignition and Pitot heat where they should be. Ignition isn't a selectable switch however, so thankfully its always on

8.> Shutter lever (Blue) works as advertised but the oil cooler control (Brown) isn't modelled. The lever is actually modelled in the closed position whilst the oil cooler door (under the starboard wing) is actually in the open position. (Fixed in V1.1 - Oil cooler lever now modelled in the open position to match the door under the wing)

9.> Carb heat works in the inverse sense too (its a bit of a theme - maybe they all work like that down under) (Fixed in V1.1). There's an extra strobes switch behind the Carb heat too. The Gyro Compass controls aren't modelled.

So internally there's one or two inconsistencies - but nothing that detracts from my enjoyment and a lot of it the majority of people wouldn't notice anyway.

In flight it's nice too. At a cruise settings of 70% RPM and 7 manifold it rocks along at about 230/240 kph which is pretty normal. Fuel burn is reassuringly aggressive too (if a Yak has been started, by definition in needs refueling). The model is setup for the original tank size of 120 litres, although the repaints show the additional filler caps of extended range tanks. You could always change the aircraft.cfg to upgrade yourself to the extended tanks if you wanted (and hey - its cheaper than the £6500 it costs to fit extended tanks to a real Yak ). It runs a little cool with cylinder head temperature but I'm sure there would be an enormous amount of gauge programming effort required to properly model the characteristics of a radial engine in FS. I didn't buy it with this expectation anyway.

Controls are nice - but roll rate could be a smidge faster and the rudder does need more authority - I'm struggling with stall turns and it won't spin because you can't get enough yaw.

So thats the purists point of view With a bigger prop (Fixed in V1.1), levers moving in the correct sense (Fixed in V1.1), flap adjustments (Fixed in V1.1) and a couple of tweaks to the flight model it would be 100%.

Cheers

Rich

[Garry Russell]

Hi Rich

Thanks for that

Looks a very fair review I must say

As mentioned there will always be compromises in cockpts..even an operators manual is often like no actual aeroplane given updates and mods

The issues you mention although they are as you say, should not spoil the enjoyment of most who would not even know.

Despite a few details it sounds like fun

Garry

[Michael davies]

A super piece of assesment, concise and carefully put across, especially where the author has taken the time to explain why the model might not be the same as real life and why. I wish we had more unbiased concise reviews like this, especially in the past, then we may not have lost some of the tallent FS had in the past through badly written and ill informed scribblings.

Kindest

Michael

Edited to remove pointless drivel.

[Garry Russell]

Rich is making his comments based on his real life intimate knowledge of the Yak he flies and is just using the pic/ screenshot comparision to illustate his comments

Garry

[Prop Jockey]

Hey Chaps,

Yes as Garry says the pics were posted as similar rather than an exact attempt to match scale etc. I'll leave them for your interpretation but it was the width that looked a bit out through my eyes.

And talking of flight manuals Garry - mine are hilarious - they're literaly translated from the original military manual and merrily instruct the new Yak owner 'that they may only taxi when given the signal from the ground crew' and that 'the pilot must not taxi the aircraft faster than a man can walk' amongst other gems. Never was so entertaining.

Cheers

Rich

[DaveG]

An updated FS9 and new FSX versions are now available. Most, if not all of the issues mentioned above look like they have been addressed.
FSX version look rather good. The bump mapping seems to suit this aircraft well. Nice VC too.