De Havilland Tiger Moth DH-82A freeware add-on aircraft – a superb model, with excellent and highly realistic flight modelling. I am taking-off here from Hawker Airport, in the southern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. I am fortunate to have seen Tiger Moths flying for real, occasionally around Adelaide. They are a very graceful biplane that look quite stable even when flying at a relatively slow speed. They were successfully used as flying trainers for many years. The open cockpits mean that you better be dressed for being in lots of cold air and you need to avoid flying in the rain.

A2A Simulation’s Piper J-3 Cub add-on aircraft – another superb model, also with excellent and highly realistic flight modelling. The aircraft here is flying over rural hills near Goolwa and Victor Harbor, in South Australia. There are just two seats in this aircraft, aligned one behind the other. When flying solo, the pilot needs to sit in the rear seat, to provide the best flight balance. The flight simulator’s flight modelling does respond to how weight is distributed throughout the aircraft models. Typically, before you fly in any aircraft in the simulator, you should enter the weights of the pilot, any passengers, any baggage, any cargo, and enter the amount of fuel that is wanted in the aircraft for the trip. The amount of fuel is converted to a weight which is positioned according to the location of the aircraft’s fuel tanks. Fuel is consumed during the trip, so the weight and position of the fuel weight changes during the trip. All of the weights and their positions affect the overall weight and the centre of gravity of the aircraft, which in turn affects the flight modelling calculations.

This aircraft is a tail-dragger, which means that it rests and taxis using a tail wheel. This also means that when taxiing and rolling down the runway until it gets close to take-off speed, the visibility out the front of the aircraft is largely blocked by the nose of the aircraft sticking up high. However, because of its general flight stability and its ease of flight control, the J-3 was the primary training aircraft of choice at many US flight schools well into the 1960s, until it was replaced by tricycle-geared (nose wheel) aircraft of similar stability.

Almost fully functional cockpit view of A2A Simulation’s Piper J3 Cub in the air (at an altitude of about 1,500 feet). Note that the instruments here are viewed from the back seat. Both seats have access to linked aircraft controls, such as the throttles, joysticks and pedal bars.

Apparently, the real aircraft gave pilots an excellent feeling of flying and connection with the air around them. There is no autopilot, and systems on this aircraft are fairly basic. There are no lights on this aircraft, as it has no electrical system, apart from the spark plugs in the engine. This modelled aircraft also gives me an excellent sense of flying within the simulator. The aircraft, when it is flying, generally has a tendency towards stability and flying in a straight path. When flying, it feels authentic to give a very gentle sideways ‘nudge’ of the joystick to gently change the bank angle of the aircraft, and subtly change the direction that the aircraft is flying along. Relaxing the joystick back to its central position sees the aircraft trying to return to flying in a straight path, but now along a different line to the one the aircraft was flying along before changing the banking angle. All of these small changes happen fluidly and smoothly. It is these subtleties that give the strongest sense of flight from the simulation.

Sometimes, when flying along in the clear air, the aircraft starts gently rolling and jumping, as if it is in some turbulent air. Watching changes that occur in the altimeter shows that this is usually because the aircraft has flown through air that is either rising inside a thermal, or air that is descending just outside the thermal column. That is excellent flight modelling realism!

Plenty of power, in this high-tech fighter. The flight model is good, and things can happen very quickly. It is important to have well-planned flights when going up in this aircraft.

Cockpit view, showing Heads-Up display and other electronic displays. Plenty of things to learn about here.

De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver float plane, just after take off. This is one of the several excellent default-package aircraft. You can land this aircraft on any appropriately-sized body of water in the simulation. The aircraft shows realistic bobbing and floating on the undulating water surface. The float rudders can be lowered and used to manoeuvre the aircraft when on water.

Almost fully functional cockpit view. Note the rudder pedals, the two steering yokes connected on a common stick, and the throttle quadrant in the top central location of the panel. The main flight instruments are in front of the pilot’s chair, and the radio controls are in front of the navigator’s chair. The engine gauges are situated under the throttle quadrant.

This is another aircraft model that comes with the default-package simulation. It is a two-seater ultra-light aircraft based around the type of wing used in hang-gliding. A small engine drives a propeller that provides the thrust for the aircraft. The pilot uses a bar to swing the wing in relation to his cockpit-cradle to manoeuvre the aircraft, in much the same way as a hang-glider pilot does. It is an intuitive control system, but it does require considerable concentration and fitness, because you need to keep a good grip on the control bar, and it usually only needs small changes to adjust your flight path.

Another superb aircraft model that comes with the default-package simulation. This aircraft comes with water ballast controls, retractable main landing wheel, and wing spoilers, as with the real aircraft. Gliding in this aircraft is a real treat. The aircraft includes a special lift gauge with an audible signal that tells the pilot whether the glider is sinking or rising, and by how quickly this is all happening. The simulation can provide thermal lift columns, windward-side mountain-slope lift, and even some other forms of realistic lift situations. You can even have a tug plane tow the glider to a set altitude, before you need to release the tug cable. Brilliant!