stankar
06-30-2008, 11:50 PM
I have installed the Archer III to replace my old and trusty Archer II warhorse. Just thought that I'd share my opinions with you, experimenting by flying a short leg over Vancouver from Pitt Meadows to Vancouver International and back. My first few flights were disastrous, and I couldn't get the "feel" of the plane, and also experience some CTD's. I haven't solved that one yet, but its seems that when I really fiddle around with the controls and switch views often, this confuses my graphics card and it eventually just gives up. My computer is also running VERY hot in this weather, in spite of my external fan keeping the air circulating.
Yes it is a great package, but vastly different from the PAII. Don't think that you're going to get anything like the "feel" of the AII. Its an entirely different plane.
The first ignificant thing that was obvious was that it is a REAL frame-rate hogger. Even my beautiful Dreamfleet Baron, which is also a frame-hogger, doesn't come near the PAIII. I found that whereas I had been flying comfortably at about 15-20 fps in my PAII over Nigel Grant's stupendous but frame-grabbing CYVR scenery, with most of my sliders at nearly max, (and only slightly less than that in the Baron) I was getting a stuttering 7 or 8 with the same settings and the PAIII. This improved to about 9 to 10 when I reluctantly turned the sliders and traffic down. This is of course only over the dense areas. Over the mountains away from CYVR and Vancouver, it went up to max, 20.
I found the plane less responsive than the PAII. This could be the result of my low FPS, taking off from Pitt, which is quite a busy airport in terms of scenery. For instance, on take-off, rotate at about 50 and you immediately have to correct with a strong forward rudder to achieve climb of about 76 IAS, otherwise it drops directly to below 50 and you're in for a stall. This takes a little getting used to. Turning is also more sluggish and requires much more controlled aerilon/rudder coordination.
Landing was fine, as long as you watch the numbers really carefully, and I didn't have much trouble achieving a good, greased landing back at Pitt after getting used to the plane.
Switching to 3D virtual cockpit mode, I found that the I had to jiggle through the various view options a few times to get my proper cockpit view. It invariably came up with a silhouette type of image, until, after a few tries it came right. This would be a video card problem, but again, I don't have it with the PAII or Baron.
Otherwise the design is up to the usual, great Dreamfleet standard, with all the nice-to-have click spots which add to the realism, and its nice having the Garmin 430 GPS, although I'll probably be flying more VOR than GPS, and also the HSI to replace the old PAII OBS is a great improvement. I really did expect better performance, but I think I could get to like the beast.
I'd love to hear some opinions.
Stan
Yes it is a great package, but vastly different from the PAII. Don't think that you're going to get anything like the "feel" of the AII. Its an entirely different plane.
The first ignificant thing that was obvious was that it is a REAL frame-rate hogger. Even my beautiful Dreamfleet Baron, which is also a frame-hogger, doesn't come near the PAIII. I found that whereas I had been flying comfortably at about 15-20 fps in my PAII over Nigel Grant's stupendous but frame-grabbing CYVR scenery, with most of my sliders at nearly max, (and only slightly less than that in the Baron) I was getting a stuttering 7 or 8 with the same settings and the PAIII. This improved to about 9 to 10 when I reluctantly turned the sliders and traffic down. This is of course only over the dense areas. Over the mountains away from CYVR and Vancouver, it went up to max, 20.
I found the plane less responsive than the PAII. This could be the result of my low FPS, taking off from Pitt, which is quite a busy airport in terms of scenery. For instance, on take-off, rotate at about 50 and you immediately have to correct with a strong forward rudder to achieve climb of about 76 IAS, otherwise it drops directly to below 50 and you're in for a stall. This takes a little getting used to. Turning is also more sluggish and requires much more controlled aerilon/rudder coordination.
Landing was fine, as long as you watch the numbers really carefully, and I didn't have much trouble achieving a good, greased landing back at Pitt after getting used to the plane.
Switching to 3D virtual cockpit mode, I found that the I had to jiggle through the various view options a few times to get my proper cockpit view. It invariably came up with a silhouette type of image, until, after a few tries it came right. This would be a video card problem, but again, I don't have it with the PAII or Baron.
Otherwise the design is up to the usual, great Dreamfleet standard, with all the nice-to-have click spots which add to the realism, and its nice having the Garmin 430 GPS, although I'll probably be flying more VOR than GPS, and also the HSI to replace the old PAII OBS is a great improvement. I really did expect better performance, but I think I could get to like the beast.
I'd love to hear some opinions.
Stan