piper

Dreamfleet 2000 have released the Flight Simulator X version of their Piper Dakota.

As promised, the FSX version is a free upgrade to existing owners of the Flight Simulator 9 version (reviewed here). Here’s a list of the system requirements:

This product is only compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 “A Century of Flight” (FS9), with Service Patch 1 (SP1) installed ( also known as FS9.1) and Microsoft Flight Simulator X with Service Patch 1 or 2 installed (SP1 or SP2 / Acceleration), and Windows XP with Service Patch 2 (SP2) installed and Vista 32. Direct X 9 or Direct X 10 Preview. For your computer, we recommend you have a minimum 1.6 Ghz processor, with a 256 Mb memory video card (more preferred). System memory should be a minimum of 512 Mb (1 Gb or more preferred). Low-end on-board sound chips are NOT recommended. A plug-in sound card, such as a Soundblaster Audigy, is recommended. In some cases, sounds will not work correctly unless you have an adequate sound card.

This is a review of Dreamfleet 2000’s Piper Dakota for Flight Simulator 9.

Dreamfleet don’t release a lot of aircraft, but when they do, you’re almost guaranteed to get something special. Without giving the game away too much before the end of the review, their newly released Piper Dakota is no exception.

A little history

As Piper’s competitor to the Cessna 182 Skylane, the Piper Dakota evolves from the 1964 Cherokee 235, later known as the Charger and Pathfinder in the 1970s. First entering production in 1979, the Dakota features the improved “semi-tapered” wing of the Warrior and Archer II, a more aerodynamic cowling, and an improved Lycoming O-540 J3A5D engine of 235 Hp. The result is a plane that features a 143 Kt cruise speed, and the true ability to top off the fuel tanks, fill the seats with four adults and cruise for some 700 nm.

Purchase and Installation

The Dakota is available from the Dreamfleet 2000 web site for $34.95. Download is via the Flight 1 Software E-Commerce system and weighs in at around 63Mb. Once you’ve downloaded the Flight1 wrapper, execute it, fill in your credit card details and, once accepted, installation proceeds. As usual with the Flight1 system, it’s all pretty straightforward and painless.

Once installed, you’ll find a comprehensive 89 page PDF document on your desktop. The DreamManager aircraft utility is also installed. See the end of the review for more info.

The aircraft

Of course, you also get the Piper Dakota itself. But not just any old Piper Dakota. This is no less than a model of the aircraft part-owned by Lou Betti - the founder of Dreamfleet! This should give you some clue as to how they’ve achieved the amazing level of detail in the model. Also, I’m sure the designers have gone that extra mile to make sure it’s “just right”

The aircraft in question is a 1980 Piper Dakota, registration N8086N, flown out of it’s base in New Jersey.

Lou with his pride and joy

First impressions

I’ll start off with a few external screenshots. I reckon you’ll spend a fair amount of time looking at the aircraft from outside, if for no other reason than it’s utterly gorgeous! I defy anyone to come up with a better produced external model of any aircraft on any simulator.

As you can see, the attention to detail is second to none.

The Dakota defaults to a 2-prop configuration, but the built-in editor can, amongst many other things, instantly change this to a 3-prop variant.

Time to step inside

Not only do you get the beautifully detailed external model, but you also get 2D and 3D panels that are almost without fault. Dreamfleet has had a long association with Reality XP and have used their gauges to tremendous effect in past add-ons. The Dakota is no exception and comes complete with Reality XP versions of the Garmin GNS430 GPS and their Flight Line T gauges, complete with dimmable backlighting in both 2D and 3D cockpits that simply must be seen to be believed.

The inclusion of the Flight Line T gauges ensures a smoothness to the gauges movement that will have you convinced that you’re watching the real thing.

The initial 2D panel view shows the maximum number of instruments and is ideal for IFR flight. The 2D panel comes in no less than 3 different resolutions to suit your monitor resolution and aspect ratio (all the screenshots here are using the maximum resolution widescreen version).

A click on the dashboard changes the panel to one more suited for take-off and landing, or if you just want more of an external view out front.

Switching to the 3D view, you’re left with no less detail than afforded by the 2D panel, so I imagine this is were most owners will spend their time. All of the click-spots are available in the VC, so there really is no great reason to go back to the 2D panel unless you happen to like the view.

There are a plethora of pop-up windows to keep you busy, including:

• Avionics Stack Keyboard: Shift 2, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Reality XP GNS430 Keyboard: Shift 3, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Trim, Flaps & Parking Brake Keyboard: Shift 4, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Switches Keyboard: Shift 5, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Fuel Selector Keyboard: Shift 6, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Configuration Control Panel Keyboard: Shift 7, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Clock – Timer Keyboard: Shift 8, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Reserved For 3rd Party Add-on Keyboard: Shift 9, Click spot, or FS Views Menu
• Airspeed Indicator Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• Attitude Indicator Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• Altimeter Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• Turn Coordinator / Autopilot Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• Vertical Speed Indicator Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• Engine Gauges Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• HSI Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• Reality XP DropStack Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• ADF Indicator Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• VOR 1 Zoom Accessed via click spot or FS Views menu only
• VOR 2 Zoom

One of the popups shows the Configuration Panel:

From here, you can select numerous options, such as which database to use for the GNS430, the gender of the pilot, how many props you want etc.

Flight Time

Time to fire up the engine and you’re greeted with possibly the best sound-set on any FS9 aircraft ever created. That’s quite a claim, I know, but once you hear it, you’ll know what I mean. Thanks to the Configuration Control utility, you can choose between “Realistic” internal sounds (it sounds the way it would if you were wearing headphones) or “Unrealistic” (which is as it would sound without headphones). I’m almost tempted to stick with Unrealistic because it sounds so good

The aircraft handles well on the ground, responding quickly to rudder inputs as you would expect from an aircraft of this size.

Rolling onto the runway and gently applying full throttle gently lifts the aircraft into the air. Once airborne, the aircraft has a feeling of slight heaviness to it, which is again what you would expect. I’ve only ever had 2 real flying lessons, and one of them was in a relation to the Dakota - a PA-28 (G-SUZN to be precise) and the feeling of hand flying the Dakota is very similar.

The autopilot is an interesting one. You’ve got the RealityXP GNS430 GPS, which can be tied to the S-TEC 30, allowing you to fly the aircraft automatically in a number of modes. The first setting (ST) is basically a wing leveller. HD (Heading) mode will track the heading defined on the HSI. TRK LO (Track) is NAV mode and will follow the course set on the GPS and TRK HI is Localiser mode. There’s also an altitude hold switch just under the S-TEC 30 and this is where I can find the only slight problem I came across whilst reviewing the aircraft and it’s only a minor one. When in the VC, the control yoke hides the altitude hold switch. So, to get at it, you need to either switch back to the 2D cockpit, or hide the yoke in the VC, flip the switch, then re-enable the yoke.

As part of the review, I took the Dakota on one of my favourite GA flights from Walney Island to Carlisle, which takes you right across the Lake District. I hand flew the Dakota to and altitude of 4,500 feet, then enabled altitude hold and set NAV mode on the autopilot. This gave me time to admire the magnificent view using the tremendous visibility available from the cockpit.

This also demonstrated the ability of the NAV system to track the GPS course. I felt the autopilot generated turns were a little steep. However, having never flown the aircraft in question in real life, I can’t say this is inaccurate.

After clearing the Lake District, I disengaged the altitude hold and started a gradual decent to 2,500 feet, ready to approach the airfield. The aircraft is stable and predictable in all aspects of flight. Once I’d visually spotted Carlisle, I disengaged the autopilot completely and hand-flew the Dakota on two notches of flaps to a gentle and precise landing, raised the flaps and taxied to the gate.

Dreamfleet Manager

DreamManager is the replacement for the old Text-O-Matic aircraft manager and is installed along with the documentation and aircraft. Effectively, at this stage, it’s a repaint manager. There are already a number of liveries available from the Dreamfleet2000 web site.

By default, the package installs 3 paint schemes for you. The current paint scheme, an “old and dirty” version of the same, and a variant with registration N236PD, which represents a possible future paint scheme for the real aircraft.

Dreamfleet are currently working on a free Piper Turbo upgrade, which wasn’t available at the time of writing this review. Also coming up is a Flight Simulator X version, which again will be free for anyone purchasing the FS9 version reviewed here.

Performance

Despite the inclusion of the RealityXP suite of gauges, the aircraft has no detrimental effect on the performance of the simulator. I have FS9 locked at 30FPS, and it only ever dipped down from the 30 at highly detailed airports, which would’ve been the case even in the default Cessna’s.

I tested the aircraft on a 2.4Ghz MacBook Pro with 2Gb RAM and a 256Mb nVidia 8600 video card.

Conclusion

This is one outstanding aircraft. I thought long and hard before writing this bit, but I have to say it. I believe the Dreamfleet 2000 Piper Dakota is the best aircraft add-on for any simulator so far produced. Now, that’s a grand and bold statement to make, but let’s look at the facts:

• A flawless external model
• A perfect sound set
• Beautifully detailed 2D and 3D cockpits with the most perfect night lighting I’ve ever seen
• Precise handling on the ground and in the air
• Fantastic feature set (RealityXP gauges etc)
• Excellent value (the entire add-on costs less than the RealityXP gauges would cost you)
• Free upgrades - a new Turbo variant and a free FSX upgrade

If that wasn’t enough, they even offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Having said that, I think they’re offering that pretty safe in the knowledge that nobody will take them up on it!

I’ve “flown” hundreds, if not thousands, of add-on aircraft for many simulators over the past 20 years. None has given me the closest feeling to actually being there than the Dakota.

If you’re a GA fan, go buy it now. In fact, even if you’re not a GA fan, go buy it now anyway and see how it should be done.

Many thanks to Lou from Dreamfleet 2000 for the review copy and such a perfect aircraft