Eaglesoft Piper Twin Comanche for FSX review

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This is a review of Eaglesoft’s Piper Twin Comanche for Flight Simulator X by our regular contributor, Paul Webster.

A potted history of the Piper Twin Comanche

The PA-30 Twin Comanche was first introduced as Piper’s premier four seater light twin aircraft in 1963 (alongside the 6 seater Aztec). It’s two 160hp 4-cylinder Lycoming engines gave it a top cruise speed of 168kts a ceiling of 18,600ft and a range of 970nm. In 1965 Piper released the ‘B’ model of the aircraft with a stretched fuselage and 3rd side window which allowed seating for up to 6. The total production run of the PA30 was 2001 aircraft with production being cut short in 1972, when Piper’s Pennsylvania factory was flooded out.

Eaglesoft’s Piper Twin Comanche

Having only 2 side windows and 4 seats, Eaglesoft’s model of the Twin Comanche is based on the early A model aircraft. It comes with 6 liveries and each livery is installed with a WS version, which has a version of the 2D cockpit especially for widescreen monitor support. The model is retro-fitted with a modern avionics suite including a Garmin 480 navigation system with MX20 GPS display.

Purchase, Installation & Documentation

The purchase procedure begins with the download from Eaglesoft’s web site. Purchase and licensing are dealt with through the Flight1 Wrapper, which is kicked off when you install the aircraft for the first time. The procedure is straightforward and completes with the aircraft being installed and a shortcut to the documentation being placed on your desktop.The documentation is placed on your C:\drive, regardless of which drive your FSX installation is on and is divided into 2 folders. The first folder (Sim Manuals) contains details of the cockpit layout and individual documents for each of the updated navigational and operational systems in both .doc and .pdf format (with the exception of the Garmin 480/MX20 suite which is in .pdf only). The second folder (Real World Manuals) contains a collection of .doc, .pdf and .xls files containing technical and performance data and what looks like scanned sections of the Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH). All the information you need is available, however presentation is a bit scrappy and it would be nice to have at least one documented tutorial flight to bring all the required operational information together.

The Model

The first thing that strikes you when ‘walking’ around the aircraft for the first time is how incredibly clean and shiny it is. Eaglesoft’s product page does mention the Dynamic Exterior Self Shadowing, Reflective DDS, Specular shine and Chrome Illusion Textures. It’s brilliant to see a developer releasing a totally reworked model for FSX using all the new goodies available, but to me it detracts from reality when you have a 40 year old aircraft looking like it’s just flown in from the factory.

The interior is equally as clean and fresh and has been retrofitted with modern avionics and passenger DVD screens, so you could conceive that after an extensive re-fit and re-spray the aircraft has indeed just flown in from the factory, though whether it is realistic for someone to spend all that money on a 40 year old aircraft is again questionable. Apart from cleanliness, the only other “fault” I can pick up on is the absence of a pilot in the cockpit, although the web site assures me he is supposed to be there and animated. Other than that the model is good looking and stands up well to scrutiny.

The interior has some nice bits of detailing, such as the passengers DVD screens, some luggage thrown on the back seat, documents in the side pouch etc. Everything is well rendered even the pilots warnings / instructions written on the door sill are legible, the instruments are all crisp and the instrument labels are all easily read. Compared to the default FSX piston engined twin (Baron 58), the Eaglesoft Comanche’s cockpit is a definite improvement, especially when you take into account the modern avionics included.

The Cockpit(s)

I’m not going to be using the 2D cockpit on the Twin Comanche, as there really isn’t any point. The excellent 3D Virtual Cockpit allows access to all of the controls. When you need to get at the switches behind the Yokes you can remove them from view. There is no difference in quality between the VC and the 2D panels, but obviously using the VC is a lot more realistic. I don’t quite know why the 2D cockpit is included, as I can’t see anyone wanting or needing to use it. There are some nice illumination lighting effects for the instruments when flying at night.

Most of the controls present are working. A couple of minor flick switches don’t work on the pilots side. More controls on the co-pilots side are non-functional, such as cabin heating etc. It would be nice to be able to switch the switches and slide the sliders even if they did nothing, but that’s just a niggle. The last minor niggle concerns the clickspots for the rotating knobs on the Avionics. The hotspots around the knobs where the mouse pointer has to be to make adjustments could be bigger, as it can be quite fiddly to find the spot and too easy to lose it if you happen to move your mouse a fraction.

That being said, the inclusion of the updated avionics suite is a bonus and certainly makes this model a good proposition for learning the ropes on a small piston twin whilst getting to grips with modern technology. The upgrades (all of which are documented) consist of:

• Apollo SL30 Navigation and Communications Radio.
• Bendix King KI825 Directional Gyro with VOR/LOC course deviation, Glide Scope deviation, Bearing indication, GPS flightpath and waypoint indication.
• EDM 760 displays engine temperatures, voltages and assists with the adjustment of fuel/ air mixture.
• Garmin GTX 330 Transponder.
• Meggitt Stec 55X Autopilot.
• Garmin MX20/480 Navigation System

Flying The Twin Comanche

As already stated, the documentation does not include a tutorial flight, so if you want to start your flight from cold & dark you will need to refer to the Real World Manuals and the relevant sections of the POH for the correct procedures. With the new avionics suite fitted, I’d hazard a guess that a Real World Pilot would not start both engines simultaneously as suggested in the POH, but would start up one engine to power the avionics via a generator thus relieving the battery and would not start the second engine until the avionics had been programmed with the flight plan details.

Once you’ve got the engines fired up, it’s well worth leaving the aircraft and throttling up and down to experience the positional engine sounds. From the front you can hear the air intakes sucking in the air, from the rear the exhausts rasp magnificently and from the sides you get a mixture of both, very impressive.

On the ground, the aircraft handles nicely, responding smoothly to inputs from the controls. I did notice that the lever operating the flaps did not animate when I used my flight controller to extend or retract them. Once in the air, again, the aircraft is nicely responsive to the controls and to commands from the avionics. Climbing up to cruising altitude, the engines respond to manual adjustments to the mixture and the cylinder head temperatures to adjustments of the cowl flaps.

Whilst using the Garmin Navigation system, I experienced a delay in bringing up the display via the clickspot. A solid white window appeared and it took a few seconds for it to be filled with the Garmin’s details. This also happened when cycling through the options and bizarrely the final time it happened I ended up in a graphical anomaly with the missing pilot headless on my wing. I’ve not been able to replicate these problems, so it might be parts of the system registering within FSX and once it’s done it doesn’t happen again.Cruising, descent and landing were all straightforward (well they would be with the weather set to fine).

In Conclusion

Eaglesoft’s Piper Twin Comanche has a number of things that make it stand out. The fact that it truly has been fully reworked for FSX using the latest enhancements and is not just another patched up FS9 model. The 3D interior of the cockpit and cabin is a great place to ‘be in’ thanks to the clarity of the instruments and nice little touches such as the DVD screens in the headrests. The generous suite of Avionics adds value. You don’t just get to learn how to operate the basic aircraft. You can also learn to operate some useful and current tools that will help you transition to more complex aircraft. Lastly, the excellent positional sounds. I just love hearing the rasp of the exhausts from the rear of the aircraft.

The model could be improved by making it look less ‘factory fresh’. It is, after all, 40 years old. I think this could be achieved whilst still retaining the updated systems. A tutorial flight starting from cold & dark and including instructions of making full use of the avionics suite would be a very worthwhile addition to the products documentation. There are a couple of bugs/niggles that I will be forwarding on to Eaglesoft for their consideration, but these are not serious enough to prevent enjoying operating this aircraft.

I actually purchased this aircraft rather than having been sent it as a review copy, so I guess the best conclusion would be to answer the following questions - am I happy to have spent the money and would I recommend other people purchase this product? The answer to both is yes.

Addendum

As suggested, I joined the Eaglesoft forums in order to put forward my findings and ask for their comments. I happened to mention that I was reviewing their product and had some findings and suggestions to report back to them, this appears to have made the moderator both defensive and discourteous ending in the comment;

“I must ask who authorized your review because we certainly haven’t. Is this your first review? You seem to have little experience at this so we are wondering”.

Personal remarks aside, the first piece of relevant information to come to light was in conjunction with my suggesting that a tutorial flight would be a useful addition to the products documentation, especially given it’s appeal to relatively new simmers with it’s basic twin engined piston driven layout and the ability to gain knowledge of some modern avionics into the mix. Eaglesoft’s reply to my suggestion was;

“While you are welcome to your opinion you may want to reread our response carefully. To repeat, none of our products are aimed at beginners or novice flight sim enthusiasts. It is assumed that if folks can’t handle complex or realistic aircraft then they should spend time with default aircraft and base simulation tutorials to prepare themselves for more complex aircraft such as ours.”

So, any comments I made earlier about this model being a good replacement for the default Baron 58 are overturned. As their response was specifically regarding the learning of the avionics suite it should be noted that if you are not efficient with the included hardware, Eaglesoft recommend that you look elsewhere in order to learn its use. My sole reason for making a purchase of a payware aircraft is so that I can experience new avionics and engine types / configurations in order to add to my knowledge, but I and simmers like me are evidently not Eaglesoft’s target audience.

Next up, the missing pilot. There is a ‘pre-flight’ configuration utility that includes the option to display the pilot along with other miscellaneous items. The documentation shows that this is available through a clickspot on the cockpit or by pressing Shift + 9. Neither of these are functional in the virtual cockpit, only through the 2D cockpit. This fact is not mentioned in the documentation. Eaglesoft’s comment;

“To ignore the 2D panel and the included Documentation seems a bit unprofessional to us …”

I don’t know why Eaglesoft couldn’t have made these features accessible from the VC or document the fact that they are only accessible from the 2D cockpit. The fact that they aren’t and the fact that Eaglesoft have gone to the trouble of making a widescreen version of the 2D cockpit for each of the repaints suggest that the model is designed more for flying in 2D view, something to consider if like me your preference is for the added reality of the VC.

Next up the graphical anomalies experienced when initially using the Garmin Navigation System. These seem very much equivalent to problems I have experienced with another payware model released pre SP2. The developer of the product I have in mind openly admits that SP2 has introduced additional graphical glitches and that some work will have to be undertaken to resolve these. Eaglesoft’s comment;

“You obviously have something amiss with your display system….it is not related to the Twin Comanche”

and

“the unorthodox display issue is clearly a matter of your machine capabilities”

and finally

“we have not scheduled any rebuilds of this aircraft”

Without any knowledge of my hardware, or knowing that the review was conducted on a fresh installation of FSX & SP2 on the same machine with which I reviewed a number of aircraft, sceneries and utilities, Eaglesoft have diagnosed a problem with my PC. If perchance the problem is not with my machine then there appears no possibility it will be rectified as they have no plans to work on the model any further.

Finally, Eaglesoft take exception to my calling this a re-worked model stating that it “was built from the ground up and is a complete FSX/SP2/DX10 Compliant model”. I explained that in my opinion, if the FSX model shared any coding with the FS9 model, then it was, in fact, a re-working and that if they cared to confirm that this was not the case I would happily re-phrase my wording.

In fairness to the product I have left my original review intact. In hindsight and given Eaglesoft’s views of the products target audience and proper usage I will have to change my conclusion. This product is not suitable for me and unless you are fully conversant with the included avionics suite and prefer to fly using the 2D cockpit, you may want to consider whether it’s suitable for you.

Should Eaglesoft wish to comment on this review, I’m sure readers would welcome their input. Unlike their forum moderator, we will not remove any constructive criticism to prevent it being read by others.