Aerosoft Katana
By David Swindle (27 May 2004)
he Diamond Katana is
one of the newest entrants into the trainer/light plane market. The
Katana is a 2-seat trainer with a composite structure and bubble
canopy. The Katana is built in Germany for European customers and in
London, Ontario for North Americans. The Katana is powered by a 135
HP Lycoming, (US models after 1998) an 80 HP Rotax (all European
models/pre-1998 US planes) or a 100 HP Rotax that is fitted at the
factory onto a used Katana. The Katana is known for being simple and
fun to fly and most importantly, easy and inexpensive to own and
operate. It is very popular in European schools due it its very low
fuel use and low maintenance requirements and costs. In the US, the
Katana has enjoyed modest success as an entry-level aircraft, but the
surplus of older Cessnas and Pipers has limited its training market.
The US Air Force Academy uses a specially built Katana as their
primary trainer.
Purchase And Installation
Buying the Katana is not a terribly complex operation. After going to the Aerosoft site you go through the generic credit card operations and pay either €17.30 (about $21 US) or €19.95 (the 17.30
figure is for buyers outside the EU and removes the VAT, a good thing
given the US dollar's poor value). You then get an E-mail with a
download link and your serial number. The download is about 50 MB and
took me only 5 minutes to download on my satellite connection. After
downloading, you simply run the installer and put your serial code
in. As an anti-piracy measure, the installer MUST connect to the
Internet to confirm with Aerosoft that the product is not stolen. If
your flightsim PC does not have the 'net, Aerosoft can register it
another way upon request. The only minor gripe that may arise is that
the product can only be installed a set number of times before
Areosoft will contact you to make sure YOU are the one reinstalling
it, and not someone who stole your code, but most users will never
have this problem.
Documentation/Load Manager
Unlike many aircraft that only contain a sparse manual, the Katana comes with a whopping 90 page PDF that tells you everything you need to know about the real Katana and the FS version. The manual contains many pictures, charts and graphs taken from the actual Katana manual,
all of which work perfectly with the FS version. Reading this
document is essential to figure out the basics of the aircraft
although some of the performance calculation graphs can be skipped
until needed.Checklists are as good as the manual and consist of shortened sections of it. They allow performance calculations and also include a very useful converter for various units of measure. All of the checklist and notes are very clear and concise; giving what information is needed without going into nauseating detail about things that are impossible in FS.
The Katana includes a very handy load manager that allows the user to
alter the weights of passengers and baggage and also to toggle the
GPS on or off in the VC and also to add/remove the passenger from the
visual model (fuel is changed in the stock FS menu). The only thing I
don't like about the load manager is that changing the GPS or
adding/removing the passenger necessitates restarting FS instead of
just reloading the aircraft. The only problem I found with the load
manager concerns an MS issue. If you set the passenger weight to zero
and leave the pilot weight at the default value of 170 lbs (it also
works in metric for the rest of the world), the aircraft has a severe
left roll in FS that is nearly impossible to counter. This issue is
caused by FS exaggerating the effects of loads offset to the side. To
stop this, I found that setting the pilot and passenger each to 1/2
of the desired total works nicely. One of the more interesting
options on the load manager is to alter the nose wheel steering from
realistic, to simpler, but more on that later.
Visual Model And Textures
In short, the FS Katana has one of the best external models out there today. Aerosoft has perfectly captured the aircraft's oddly graceful tadpole-like fuselage/empennage and its unique wings that reflect its glider heritage. All the lines are smooth and show no misaligned edges or disappearing parts. From the outside, it is easy to see into the big bubble canopy and thus Aerosoft made the interior look very nice. The pilot and female passenger (if you load her) move around in a lifelike way and the pilot moves with control inputs. As a nice extra, the pilot/passenger clothes change color depending on what
paint job one uses. The only flaw I found was that the pilot's shins
go through the panel when the rudder is deflected fully either way,
but this is not a big deal. All the model animations look very nice
and nothing was missed. All the generic moving bits are present plus
a few extras. The prop pitch is animated along with the little vent
windows on the canopy, both of which are a great touch. By using
controls like the tail hook and wing fold, you can remove the cowling
and gaze upon the beautifully rendered engine beneath; also tie
downs, a toolbox and even an animated pitot cover appear! The
Katanas have different combinations of wheel pant configurations,
adding another touch of realism.
Textures are an essential part of an aircraft pack and Aerosoft
doesn't disappoint here. Several paint jobs are included for a
variety of countries all around Europe, and a US and Canadian texture
is also there. The 80 and 100 HP models have nine different schemes
apiece and none are shared. All the paints use the same base white
that all Katanas have and mostly they consist of striping, registration
numbers and flags on the tail, but some are very complex with
multicolor bands running the entire length of the aircraft and
wrapping around the fuselage. Even little items got textured,
including the brakes and screws on the wingtip lights that are only
visible on high zoom settings; you can even see the heads of the
fasteners on the cowling! All textures are razor sharp and look
superb with a near-perfect amount of shine and reflectivity (they
tend to bleach in some lighting though). Weathering is also
incorporated in the textures and mostly consists of an oil/grime
coating on the belly, which looks very nice and removes that "factory
fresh" look very well.
All this detail comes at a price though, that price being a drop on the FPS. On my system I went from about 25 to 15-22 FPS.
Panel/Virtual Cockpit
The panel and VC are one of the biggest parts of FS aircraft nowadays and the Katana's show a level of detail that is expected for payware. The 2D panel is very nice and all the gauges look authentic and work exactly like they should. The gauges are those seen in any GA aircraft and full ILS/NDB equipment is included despite the fact that
the Katana isn't IFR certified, since IFR training ability helps sell
airplanes. Pop-up windows include larger views of instruments,
working circuit breakers (a first as far as I know) and a very nice
audio panel that can do practically anything short of making dinner
for the pilot. The background bitmap is the same gray-blue seen on
almost every Katana, and small decals on the panel change depending
on the paint job. Frame rates were not affected that I could notice.
The best part of the Katana is without a doubt the virtual cockpit. All the
gauges, controls, and other doodads are clickable, so the 2D panel
won't be used a lot. All the textures in the VC are top notch and
look photorealistic. The gauges are very easy to read and even when
the quality slider is reduced, they still look great. About
everything that might be found in a modern GA cockpit is included,
like a fire extinguisher, pen on the panel, maps and assorted
reading material. All of these objects are very well modeled and add
another layer of realism to the package. The VC animations are what
make this package stand out from the gaggle of GA aircraft already on
the market. The pilot's body is visible and the legs and arms move
with control inputs, while the ignition key dangling onto his leg
moves with it. If you click the vent on the canopy, it opens and if
the canopy is opened (hopefully on the ground), the book atop the
glare shield opens and closes with the "wind". The passenger is
animated as well as the pilot and moves her head, legs and arms (her
hair moves, too) while conveniently holding your map. Lighting
effects in the VC are very well done and Aerosoft has made the dome
light very bright to counter the overly dark effect that FS produces
in shadow.
Again, all the detail means a big hit in the FPS department. I went
from 25 to about 10 FPS with the VC and after turning down autogen and
tweaking some other settings I get about 17 now. The bitmaps are to
blame here. Consequently, there will be times when you switch to the
VC and see gauges surrounded by Gmax gray; the textures will load
after a second or two but this is still slightly irritating. Setting the
zoom to .75 and turning the VC gauge quality to low results in a nice
boost in FPS and (what I think) is a more realistic view without
considerable loss of quality on the gauges (the bitmap load time
seems better too). As of this writing, Aerosoft has said they are
looking into a patch with smaller VC bitmaps to be easier on older
systems.
Flight Dynamics
The Katana is primarily a trainer that can also be used as a light GA aircraft. As such the Katana is renowned for its responsiveness and ease of control for students. Aerosoft put a great deal of work into the flight model and it shows spectacularly. Taxiing the Katana is interesting, as it has no nose wheel steering. Instead the nose gear is free to pivot and directional control is maintained through prop blast on the rudder and differential braking. From what I have read, differential brakes are rarely used, but as FS doesn't model propwash well, brakes are the primary method of low speed steering in the sim (there is an option to have a "normal" steering setup in the load manager).
Takeoff is simple as long as you remember to set the flaps down one
notch and the aircraft will rotate easily at about 50-55 KIAS. Climb
is not terribly fast and Vy is between 57/60 KIAS giving between
500-900 FPM (the 80 HP model is in the lower end of this, the 100 HP
model in the higher). Katanas are not the fastest thing in the sky
but after setting the throttle and prop (no mixture, remember) cruise
comes at a respectable 104-120 KIAS between sea level and about 9000
feet. Fuel use is between 4.5 and 7 GPH for the 100 HP model and
lower with 80 HP (to compare, a 1976 Cessna 172 uses about 8 for
about the same speeds). As a testament to whomever did the flight
model, the aircraft was always within about 5% of the book figures
(speeds for given power settings, climb rates, fuel use etc.),
which is very impressive. The developers also added in the effect of
wheel fairings and in FS the differences with/without them are
slight, but consistent with what is in the manual. Worth noting is
that performance is VERY dependant on weight, and I highly advise
"kicking out" your passenger to get the best out of your Katana.
The Katana is quite forgiving at low speeds although somewhat
sluggish, and as speeds increase the handling gets very precise and
the Katana feels very agile and responsive. Descent is simple as all
you have to do is set power and prop with no worries about shock
cooling (liquid cooled engines are great, aren't they?) and the
automatic carb means no mixture to deal with. Really the only
concern is that the plane is so clean that it doesn't want to
descend, so plan your descents in advance since last minute
"crowbars" are not a good idea. Landing is a straightforward, and with
a very low stall speed (under 50 KIAS) you can get into short strips
easily.
Sounds
After flying the Katana for a while, I realized that the sounds were so well done that I was unaware of the fact that this was a sim. The sound pack comes from altered recordings of a real Katana and they are very well done. There is no clipping, static, or looping and the volumes are perfectly balanced. The engine sounds like a Rotax should (something like a big lawnmower) and the pitch of the sound changes correctly with prop pitch. Moving the throttle results in less of a change due to the prop maintaining a constant RPM. In the cockpit or VC, the sounds are suitably muffled and there is a quiet wind rush over the canopy. Sounds for the fuel pump, starter, flaps, stall horn, canopy, etc. are all very well done and add a nice touch to the sound package.
Conclusion
Overall, the Aerosoft Katana is a great package for those who enjoy low and slow VFR flights with a chance to look at the scenery or those who just like a fun airplane in which to take a quick flight. All aspects of the package are top-notch and will probably set new standards for GA payware. The only issue is that this airplane is hard on frame rates and will not play well with ultra dense sceneries on mid/lower end machines. The support for this aircraft is superb and the folks on the forum are all very friendly, knowledgeable and are in many time zones (responses never take more than an hour or so and many times appear in minutes). The price is better than many comparable aircraft and the ability to get a better price if you aren't in the EU is a huge plus and frankly, is something other companies need to implement.
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