Just Flight Archer III

By Matt Hinchliffe
16 February 2008

The Piper Archer III is the newest incarnation from a long line of Piper Cherokee aircraft constructed and upgraded since 1960.

Over 50 years Piper has refined and re-modelled the design and differences between models are minimal. The Archer is considered the refined personal or small business model, between the retractable gear Arrow and the Warrior trainers. The Archer IIIs differences are subtle. It carries a 180 horsepower engine, re-modelled cowling and completely new cockpit with advanced avionics and no cheap plastic.

Just Flight's Flying Club series has been a very popular add-on in the flight sim world shifting many copies in shops and downloads, but with FSX having been here for a while now the planes are starting to look dated.

Releasing an Archer III as the first upgraded fixed wing aircraft should be a popular choice, Piper Cherokee aircraft are well covered in sim world; especially true considering DreamFleet's recent release of the same aircraft reviewed here.

Just Flight's take on the Archer III costs £15/$29.99 and is available in download form. Once installed through an easy to use browser / software interaction (which does work in Firefox) the 200MB package will install an impressive 25 liveries, the AeroManager software, PDF documentation and a paint kit.

Before touching anything I printed the manual, which required construction. Don't try this at home, Bostik contact adhesive is not for sticking paper together.

After trimming with a scalpel and expertly binding with selotape my masterpiece of paperwork was ready to be viewed.

Documentation

My half hours labor creating my booklet wasn't actually worth the effort as the documentation can easily be read in a few minutes on screen, after which for any seasoned simmer there should be no need to review any information contained being a simple aircraft to operate. There is limited information about procedures and no numbers or graphs in this document. These are only contained in the standard html checklists viewed from the kneeboard, so I had to print them out separately and carefully craft them into the front and rear covers of my handiwork. This is not a complaint, just an irritated ramble after my pointless graft.

There's everything you need to know to operate this aircraft, but I would have liked some history as I enjoy reading that stuff so I feel like I know the aircraft.

Bundled Applications

Just Flight offers their face mapping utility AeroFace alongside AeroLoad, AeroPaint and AeroCustom which allow you to load passengers, cargo and fuel, create liveries without touching a .cfg file or DXTBmp and minimise the mass of repaints when choosing an aircraft depending on nation respectively. They're completely intuitive and actually useful rather than a cheap gimmick. The idea of minimising the amount of liveries (who wants a list of 25 at one time?) is something other developers should take note of.

AeroFace doesn't work with this aircraft but it's bundled in anyway.

Exterior Inspection

At first I was disappointed with the exterior for a higher priced add-on. The included 25 liveries are really 5 liveries with 25 different registrations. I found the quality of the paint work to be on a level with default aircraft and actually has the effect of degrading the modelling quality. The problem is caused by a dirt effect that gives a very sleek aircraft a lumpy appearance. Once I removed this the aircraft looked like a smart Piper Archer III. The wheel fairings, windows and cowling are not particularly smoothly modelled, my guess is that this is to reduce polygon count for better performance, but from a small distance the model looks good as seen in the screen shots. The textures are at high resolution so you can create something much nicer than included. There are some really nice paint jobs on Archer aircraft, and the new house livery is very attractive but the 5 liveries are all based on the original 1994 house livery which is in my opinion bland.

You can create your own liveries easily by setting up a new aircraft with AeroPaint and using the included paint kit. The paint kit itself is OK, it will only work in Photoshop and the layers are minimal - the dirt being on the base - so setting up for a repaint takes a little time. When actually painting however the process is easy as the texture mapping is simple to follow.

Maybe in the future Just Flight will include another application like Text-o-Matic which saves all the hassle of positioning and swapping around files to paint different parts.

There are plenty of little animations and things to open on the outside. The Piper of course only has a single door but you can open the oil cap, the baggage hold and remove the pilot and passengers from their seats, place their possessions on the wings and tie the aircraft down. This state is finished off with some beautifully animated remove before flight tags and no, this mode cannot be activated while in flight. The pilot is also fully animated.

In FSX you'll get bump mapping, but even in FS2004 there is a good depth to the texturing.

2D Panel

I'm not a 2D man, flying a small aircraft from the 2D panel is not for me, but if it's for you the job has been done fairly well. There are 11 sub-panels, a high panel and landing view panel. Just Flight have laid the flat cockpit out well, pop-ups do not annoyingly cover any important instrumentation at a crucial time except when in landing view panel because it insists on being the top layer. This is a simple error easily corrected in the panel.cfg (Position = 1 for instance). The yokes are not animated but can be removed if they obscure an instrument.

The avionics stack looks lovely. It is very clear and appears to have been created from photos. It also functions well and tuning adjustments can be done easily. The GPS is simple and text based. It is not on a level with something like a KLN 90 but it will show you the bearing to the nearest airport and of course is easily replaced with freeware or payware offerings to suit your taste. I found only one issue where the autopilot light does not light up, otherwise I really like the avionics included in the package, they feel solid.

The main flight and engine instruments are all rendered with reflections which are a bit heavy for my taste but they're more attractive than a lot of 2D gauges. In 2D they can look a little crude with rough edges and smaller parts such as the aircraft outline on the direction indicator become badly degraded at my screen resolution. There were also a few graphical anomalies where the left side of the attitude indicator and the right side of the VOR1 indicator flicker and show plain black or another part of the gauge - I'm sure this is an issue with the simulator itself.

The pop-up sub panels are all nicely rendered and as mentioned before, positioned well. Like the avionics stack they appear mostly to be based on photographs and many appear using click spots though the sim icons are also included which interestingly gives access to the 'parking effects' rather than a key combination.

Virtual Cockpit

For most users of this plane I imagine the VC will be the mode of choice for flight and Just Flight have done a nice job inside. While not on a level with some high resolution photo interiors on the market the developer has made all the switches and knobs in nice chunky 3D and the instruments are very clear and move with reasonable fluidity (6RPS). The clarity of the avionics stack is very good - worth noting since many add-ons are unclear. You can swing down visors and open the vent window (not animated) and it's generally just a nice place to fly even if it isn't as clinical and high resolution as other GA aircraft on the market.

The visibility and prop texture in flight are both very good, it generally has a nice feel to it - it feels like a real pilots place to sit. If the model featured something a little extra such as vibrations or head latency it would be really fantastic.

Sounds

Probably my highlight of this package, I really like the sound set. It sounds grunty and a little bit dirty but above all it's not overly smooth and sounds just right to me. It hits the right notes through all levels, but the engine start and the sound at the high RPM are a joy.

Flight

Starting up in the VC feels very satisfactory, the overhead buttons give me a warm feeling inside (and as mentioned above, the sound!). Flicking on the avionics as needed and setting up for flight in this aircraft is smooth and easy with a few glances at a checklist.

As soon as you taxi the aircraft about the ramp or field I think you get a good feel for what this aircraft is going to be like, the Archer taxis and turns with surprising grip, it turns as if on rails and accelerates and brakes very nicely. It's a good solid feel that makes you feel confident.

Flaps down one notch, a little trim and you're good to go. The Piper isn't the fastest aircraft, with three passengers it's far from sporty but with enough space the aircraft will leap up into the air without touching the controls. Pulling the flaps up and adjusting the throttle will settle the aircraft nose back down and you climb steadily at 500 fpm at 90 KIAS with a substantial load.

It's important to note the aircraft portrayed here like many Archer III's flying has no altitude hold, therefore trimming is vital in all stages of flight. Fortunately Just Flight have modelled trim well (an area that many developers need to look at given the limits of FS) and you can settle into cruise settings easily and the trim will even hold the aircraft well in turns.

The views from the cockpit are good, there's plenty of room to view over the 3D panel and out of the side windows as the eye point is not set too high, the aircraft makes a good gentle tourer - ideal for photo scenery.

The aircraft behaves very solidly at all stages of flight and I felt in control and confident at all times. If I was a student pilot I think I'd be very happy in this particular plane!

Landings are uneventful, the low wing will give a pleasant float as you flare into a soft touchdown. As with all other parts of the flight, there's very little drama.

Overall

The Just Flight Archer III is a mixed but mostly good bag, with two other direct rivals out there for FS2004 it's easy to say this is certainly not the worst and it offers something a little different. The aircraft loader with visual passengers and forgiving flight model make it appealing to the casual or student simmer. There is a lack of depth and polish when compared to the DreamFleet product which would suit the more advanced or serious simmer.

If you're using FSX then this is the only game in town and you won't be disappointed.

Summary

Wonderful sounds
Solid feel to avionics and switches
Forgiving and confidence boosting flight model
Useful and intuitive load manager
High resolution, easy to edit exterior textures
Lack of polish on exterior model
Uninspired and repetitive default paintwork

Matt Hinchliffe
hinch@forum-design.co.uk

Learn More Here