Well with the bulk of the external model work done I'll soon be digging into the real meat of building what I hope will be a fantastic airplane for FSX. I'm making the kind of airplane that I really want to fly myself, but I also recognize that my views and opinions are a little, shall we say, 'extreme' when it comes to flight simming. :) So I'm asking for a little help from you from a user's perspective. If you have the time I'd appreciate your input!
Below are a few of the basic questions and decisions I'm facing as I start working on the flight dynamics and avionics etc, and I'm curious for your opinions.
1. Ground handling: The L-39 has a very untraditional steering/braking system. Unlike normal tricycle gear aircraft it has a castoring nose wheel with no direct steering control. Steering is handled through differential braking much like a taildragger but even that is odd as the aircraft does not have dedicated brake pedals. The brakes are actuated through a stick mounted trigger and differential pressure is controlled through the rudder pedals. This makes the L-39 extremely tricky to handle on the ground for the inexperienced. So...
2. Performance: I'm building the L-39 to be as performant as I can but I don't intend to sacrifice quality along the way which means I will have to make some compromises between the two here and there. Ultimately though I'm considering doing a very stripped down extra low polygon external model specifically for formation teams or for those who have mid or low range systems. It won't have a lot of the fun stuff like bump and specular mapping but it should be *extremely* easy on the cpu, hopefully allowing up to 10 Albatroses on screen without murdering the fps. It is however a lot of extra work to create, so...
3. Avionics: I intend to recreate the L-39C's cockpit (front and rear) as accurately as possible but when it comes to the gauges I do have to balance functionality with the prospect of actually getting the airplane finished in this lifetime. :) So...
4. Flight model realism: The L-39 is a relatively vice free airplane by all accounts, except for one little thing: the engine. The standard engine fitted to these aircraft is extremely slow to react to throttle setting changes. The engine takes roughly nine to twelve seconds to reach full power from idle after a throttle slam. As such these planes are largely flown using the 'boards' (airbrakes) for speed control. So once again it's realism vs usability...
And that's it for now, thanks for your time! If my options didn't cover your opinion on something or there's some facet of addon aircraft you think is missing or whatever please let me know in the comments.
Cheers,
-lotus
