Captain Sim Yak-3 For FS2004

By Andrew Herd (25 February 2004)

he development of the Yak-3, like that of the de Havilland Mosquito, was a rare circumstance where an act of genius driven by dire necessity produced an aircraft which could never have been designed in peacetime. Like the Mosquito, there is little doubt that the appearance of the Yak fighter changed the course of the Second World War, but its genesis was infinitely more complicated than that of the 'wooden wonder'.

In 1935, when it became clear that the Soviet Union's ageing fighter stock would be outclassed in any future war, Aleksandr S. Yakovlev, a glider designer, turned his mind to the problem. It was fortunate that he did, because when the government issued an urgent request for aircraft capable of engaging the Me-109 on level terms, Yakolev was able to demonstrate the Ya-26 Krasavec prototype, which flew in March 1939. The Ya-26 was typical of Soviet fighters of the day in that the largest possible engine engine was shoehorned into the smallest possible wood and tubular steel airframe, an approach which unfortunately left little room for armament. Despite the fact that the performance of the Yak-1 was beyond the capabilities of many of the pilots who flew it, production was well underway by the time the Germans invaded in June 1941; continuing throughout the year even though the factory had to be relocated to the far side of the Urals at short notice.

Yakolev began considering how the performance of his design might be improved almost from the moment it went into mass production. His task was made infinitely more difficult by the lack of a suitably powerful engine (it wasn't until late in the war that Soviet aero engines began to produce the horsepower that other countries' designers took for granted) and since reducing the already light armament was hardly an option, he cast his critical eye on the airframe. The result was the Yak-1M, which had a smaller wing area, smaller oil coolers built into the wing roots, a redesigned radiator duct, a cut down rear fuselage and a new armored glass canopy which gave all round visibility and was a huge advance in its own right. This plane was faster than the original Yak-1, but at the penalty of a higher approach speed, which made it even more difficult to fly.

The Yak-1M was no more than a stop-gap, intended to improve performance without disrupting production and Yakolev was already working on the next stage of the evolution of his fighter. The Yak-3 was developed at the same time as the Yak-9, which it superficially resembled, though there were many differences since the type was originally intended to work in close cooperation with the military at low level. With a new, even smaller wing, it was widely regarded as having very similar flying characteristics to the Spitfire but completely outclassed the latter where initial climb was concerned; and it went into service in the summer of '44. Its debut came as a shock to the Luftwaffe, because the new fighter was superior to not only the BF109G, but also to the much vaunted FW 190, and in a famous communique, German pilots were advised not to attempt to engage it below 13000 feet.

Inevitably, there were teething problems, among them a startling tendency of the undercarriage to unlock and drop without any warning whatsoever, and the fact that the seat harness restricted pilot movement so much that it was virtually unusable; but once these were overcome, the Yak-3 went on to dominate the skies. In late August of 1944, a variant with a 1700 hp engine entered production and these planes saw a limited amount of combat in 1945, though by then the Luftwaffe was a spent force. Some measure of how effective the Yak was may be gathered from the events of 14th July 1944, when 18 Yak-3s bounced 30 German fighters and shot down half of them for the loss of only one aircraft. With this reputation, it probably isn't surprising that given the choice of virtually any available allied fighter, the famed Normandie-Niemen Group (a Soviet-based Free French unit) chose the Yak-3 and scored nearly a hundred kills flying them.

The driving philosophy behind the Yak design has been described as one of 'robust simplicity', which recognised the fact that the plane would have to remain operational in the most inhospitable environments, where spares might be hard to come by and skilled mechanics impossible to find. The instruments were reduced to the absolute minimum; to begin with the only gyroscope was in the turn and bank indicator and many aircraft lacked radios. On the other hand, the airframe incorporated many innovative ideas, such as as system which filtered the exhaust gases and fed them back into the emptying fuel tanks, reducing the danger of fire in the event of combat damage. Like the Spitfire, the Yak-3 was a pilot's airplane and those who mastered it would fly nothing else, revelling in its rapid rate of roll and remarkably small turn radius.

The Yak-3 benefited from somewhat heavier armament than its predecessor, with a 20mm ShVAK cannon installed to fire through the propellor boss, with a couple of heavy calibre BS machine guns mounted on the cowling. Though it is nothing to do with this review, some Yak-9s went a stage further and had 37 mm anti-tank cannon installed, which were used during the Battle of Kursk. These guns were devastatingly effective, but the recoil chopped thirty knots off the airspeed, so a certain amount of care was needed to operate them - though some unusual uses are recorded, for example a pilot who fired the gun because it was the only way he could think of slowing his plane down as it careered towards the boundary hedge of an iced up strip.

The Yak story did not end with the war and Yak-3s continued to be flown by many air forces. The Normandie-Niemen Group kept their Yaks and took them back to France after VE day: you can see one in the Musee de l'Air at Le Bourget airport. Incredibly, in 1991, after a visit by Sergei Yakovlev, the son of the plane's designer, the Museum of Flying, in Santa Monica, commissioned a small run of new Yak-3s to be built at the Strela plant in Orenburg, Russia using the original plans, tools and dies which had somehow survived against all the odds. The original Klimov VK- 105PF-2 no longer being available, these planes are powered by Allison V-1710 engines, and have been designated as Yak-3UAs. It makes a fitting tailpiece to the already extraordinary story of this classic fighter.

Given the above, it is surprising that we haven't seen a payware Yak-3 for Flight Simulator before now, though I guess Captain Sim must always have been in the running, given the background many of their team have back in the USSR. The most recent of a string of distinguished releases from this developer does full justice to a plane that can truly be claimed to be a milestone of flight.

The Captain Sim Yak-3 is marketed under the title 'High Performance Pro' and $24.94 brings you two different variants of the plane in no less than twelve different paint schemes. Most of the liveries relate to a 1944 hull, but for simmers who want more, there is a modern 'super high performance' variant. In all, you get 2 USSR AF variants, 2 "Normandia-Neman" variants; a Luftwaffe test scheme; a USAF flight test scheme; and paints for the Polish AF, French AF, Yugoslavian AF, Soviet Victory Day parade as well as a private livery. It need not end there, because the Texture and Configuration Editor (TCE) that installs with the package not only allows you to install more liveries as they become available, but allows you to 'upgrade' the engine of any plane you choose up to as much as 1800 horsepower.

The download is 29 Mb and Captain Sim's server delivered it at full speed over broadband. After negotiating the inevitable copy protection routine, the installation went faultlessly - I can't remember the last time I had a problem with one, come to think of it. A quick check of the start menu revealed a new program group containing an update checking application (neat idea, works well for the F-104) and links to the TCE, user's manual and to download the repaint kit. The manual is a 19 page pdf and is worth reading as not only does it explain all the custom key assignments, it has some valuable detail on how to fly the plane, and no, Captain Sim still haven't gone out and bought a spell checker (-:

The visual models are, as you can see, well up to the developer's usual extremely high standard and a joy to look at. Since this is a Gmax model, it has all the bells and whistles, ranging from reflective textures through dynamic shine and if it moved on the real thing, you can move it in the sim. One snag is that a couple of items - notably the oil cooler flap and the water cooler flap - have to be opened and closed using the cowl flap and tail hook key combinations, there being no way of controlling the position of either from the cockpit.

Most of the liveries are well weathered and show exhaust and oil streaking on the fuselage, as you would expect on planes which operated under the conditions that these ones did. As you can see from the screenshot, the developer has included detail like ribs which become visible when the split flaps are lowered and even the coolant grill has been modelled. The gear is convincingly done and the animations are fine.

An unexpected extra is that you get a 'maintenance mode' if you hit the wing fold key combination (note that neither wing fold or tail hook operation are likely to be assigned on many FS systems, so you may have to set them up yourself), which lets you take a look under the engine panels when the Yak is stationary. Being me, I immediately wondered what would happen if I took off like that; but Captain Sim were way ahead of me and the moment I cracked the throttle, the cowlings snapped back on. Wish our plane did that; it takes about an hour to get the mouldings back in place and another thirty minutes to find the screws I have dropped in the grass. This exercise turned up a bug, which is that if you reset a flight, the maintenance mode triggers and tends to cycle a few times before it finally gives up, at least on my system. In the scheme of things, it is hardly a serious problem, but the developers know about the cycling and are working on it.

The sound set may well have been recorded from a Klimov, or then again it may not, but since I have never heard one, all I can say is it sounds right for a Soviet fighter. Various animations have their own noises, the gear comes up with a particularly satisfying clunk and there is a particularly nice start up sequence.

Captain Sim can be relied upon to produce believable flight models and within the limits of what FS2004 allows, the Yak is a good 'un. Before I say any more, Flight Simulator is not kind to high performance piston engined fighters, because they are so often flown in the part of the flight envelope that the game does not model so well. FS is fine until a plane suffers a departure from controlled flight at which point the sim simply quits trying - with the result that few FS planes can be made to stall or spin convincingly and aerobatic maneuvers often feel unreal. As far as I can establish, this was a deliberate decision Microsoft took because a great deal of coding would have been involved and since few real pilots ever stall or spin an aircraft it was felt that there was little point including it in the sim. The flip side is that when you load a powerful aircraft with a high wing loading, Flight Simulator draws its teeth before you get the wheels off the ground and the plane is always easier to fly than a real one.

Allowing for the above, Captain Sim have done a good job and the Yak will be quite a surprise to someone 'trading up' from the 172. For a start, it is a tail dragger, so the forward view is limited until you get the tail up; it has a fairly brisk swing, which is even more exciting in a good crosswind; and ground looping it is no problem at all. Once in the air, however, it is a pussycat and a pleasure to fly, thanks to its generally sensitive controls and high rate of roll - but I couldn't make it do a convincing spin and the stall was gentle. The sim is remarkably trim sensitive in steep turns.

Flying the Yak isn't the problem - your troubles will begin on approach. The developer has done a really good job of simulating the perennial problem of landing a high performance taildragger, which is that glide approaches aren't an option and you end up having to fly a curved approach. Getting the sim to three point is just as hard as it must have been to get the real thing to land like a lady and I settled for a lot of wheel landings, but get used to bounces until you get a feel for it!

The 2D panel can be dealt with quickly because there isn't one - there isn't even a warning that there isn't one, and when you load the plane, you are presented with an unobstructed view of the runway ahead until you load the virtual cockpit. But while VC is all you have to fly the plane, it is one of the best I have seen in a while. In fact, you get two VCs - the 'classic' shown above and a modern one fitted with an ADI and an HSI, of which the less said the better, though I guess some misguided folk will take to it (-:

Though I like the VC, which is functional and bright, it has one drawback, which is that less than half its components are clickable. The reason for this is that at the time the package was released, there was still no FS2004 makeMDL and SDK for the VC, which means that the only way to do animations in this area is to hard code them, with all the attendant risks of introducing bugs. As it happens, the only place I really missed a fully functional VC was where the oil and water coolers were concerned. So while there are animated prop pitch and landing gear levers in the cockpit, neither are usable and you must either use the keyboard or assign the controls to your joystick; which most serious users will have already done. It seems that Captain Sim are working on an in-line upgrade to add this functionality, but it may not appear for a while yet.

A point worth noting is that Russian planes are different. All the instruments in the classic VC are metric, with cyrillic lettering; and the mixture lever is called the 'altitude correction lever' and you push it forward to lean above 4000 meters, which is the reverse of the way most spam cans work; but beyond that there isn't too much to remember, as long as you can cope with airspeeds measured in kilometres per hour.

To add some interest, the manual includes instructions for completing various aerobatic maneuvers, taken from the 1945 USSR Air Force Yak-3 POH. Though I doubt that the terms Chandelle and Split-S were used by the Soviets (maybe I am wrong here, someone correct me), this is a useful part of the package and it is one of the few places where I have ever seen a Split-S illustrated. Reading this section reminds me that I forgot to add that you can side-slip the Yak really well, which distinguishes it from the majority of FS flight models, so once you get in practice you will be able to slip all the way down the approach, kick it straight at the last moment, h-o-o-o-o-l-d off the nose and let it float down until all the wheels kiss the ground as one.

Or something like that.

Liked it.