We are currently developing a high quality simulation of the Czech Sport Aircraft SportCruiser for FSX, and our development team is especially pleased to be working with CSA’s UK agent who is providing technical assistance and detailed information on this amazing aircraft.

The SportCruiser has been making waves in the light aircraft world thanks to its outstanding performance, great range and excellent value for money - Flyer magazine’s review says it all: “...it has lots of room, great visibility, good short-field performance and a decent turn of speed in the cruise.”

Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor from UK agent Onega Aviation has commented: “We’re very pleased to be assisting Just Flight with this project. We’re extremely proud of the SportCruiser and we’re looking forward to seeing it become as big a success in the virtual skies as it is in the real ones."

First before I start this review, I would just like to say that it I fly with FSX because I love the realism of flying with this flight simulator. I have many add-ins to increase that realism and purchase high-end aftermarket aircraft to also contribute to the realistic feel. I currently have A2A Simulations Piper J3, B377, and B-17, FeelTheres ERJ V2, PMDGs MD-11, etc… also, various versions of Carenado GA aircraft.  In my opinion, these are some of the best pay-ware aircraft I can find and the bottom line is I like realistic aircraft and although I don’t really like it, I am not too upset to pay a little extra for higher end aircraft.

I posted earlier that I am flying the real Piper PiperSport which is the same aircraft as the Sport cruiser. I really like this airplane, it's a ton of fun to fly and I have been looking for the aircraft for FSX for some time now. I was very excited to see it offered by JustFlight and purchased it as soon as it was available. I am generally happy with this purchase. I would love to see some designer get a-hold of this aircraft and design a high resolution, high definition version of the cockpit and exterior. This aircraft includes the newer Dynon avionics and they operate very well. The specs actually indicate that there is a Dynon D100 EFIS and a Dynon D120 EMS, let's just say it has Dynon panels and leave it that. I am just personally very very happy to see that someone has modeled the Dynon panels.

The Sport cruiser has an extremely realistic Apollo SL30 transceiver and a Garmin GTX328, again very realistic. The Apollo SL30 transceiver works just like the real one, allowing the user to intercept radials and if you are out of range of a VOR, it also displays the word “flagged” just like the real unit. The Garmin GTX328 also works very well and has some of the features of the actual unit.  

(Note: On the real unit there is an option of entering the tail number of the aircraft into the GTX328 and on boot up it will display the tail number.  This has to be recognized and the CRSR key must be pressed before fully becoming operational.  I would love to see this implemented using the tail number of the airplane in the simulation.)

The sound of this Sport cruiser is very very good and the Rotax 912 sounds very real. The airplane flies very well and simulates the flight of the actual aircraft in a very realistic way. When the actual aircraft cruises and makes turns, if the terms are not too steep, hardly any rudder is needed to keep the ball centered. This aircraft mimics the same flight characteristics. One of the issues with the airplane that I noticed was with the steering when the airplane was on the ground. The steering was too linear and doesn't accurately reflect the way the aircraft steers. It should feel more like a castering nose wheel instead of a steerable front wheel.  This airplane steers very easy like it has a steerable front nose wheel, a little push on the pedal and there it goes.  This is not realistic for the Sportcruiser at all… it takes a little work to get it going in the right direction.  (There might be a place in the configuration file to adjust the movement.  If there is, someone please let me know.)

Couple this Sportcruiser with a TrackIR, pedals, force feedback joystick, and EZDok Camera and it almost feels like flying the real thing.  Almost like the real thing… There are some things that could be done better and I hope we see a subsequent release to correct these issues. First, there are some issues that just flat-out bug me. I don't know why they weren't included.

As I said earlier I really enjoy realism. I usually always start a flight from the cold and dark state of the aircraft. Typically using the real checklist for the aircraft that I'm flying, with the EZDok Camera I perform a virtual walk through around the outside of the aircraft. Once the outside checks are completed I start the inside checks again using the checklist. Now I don't know if the aircraft I am flying is wired differently than others, but when you turn on the master or battery, the Dynon D120 or the right screen, comes on. None of the other avionics come on until the avionics switch is switched on. In this simulation none of the avionics come on until the avionics switch is activated, just a little different than the real thing.

Following the startup checklist, I switched the ignition switch to start and the engine roared to life. If I shut my eyes I could hardly tell it wasn't the real Rotax. Changing the screens of the Dynon to check the oil pressure, I waited until it was up to 120° then started the run up. Accelerating the throttle to 4000 RPM, I reached up to pull out the carburetor heat lever and to my surprise there was no carburetor heat lever. It should have been there right next to the flaps actuating switch. I checked all the documentation and never found a carburetor heat switch.

I originally thought that the Pipersport might be different than the sport cruiser so I took a good look at the pilot operating handbooks for both airplanes and I saw that both actually had the same position of the carburetor heat pull out. Now for the aspect of realism what would happen if the aircraft flew into an icing situation, I guess in this particular aircraft that wouldn’t make a difference. It's actually part of the run-up procedures for the airplane, the pilot is supposed to pull out the carburetor heat and see a resulting drop in RPM.

Okay, so no carburetor heat, let's go on with the run up. Next, place the ignition switch into “L” to test the left magneto, and nothing. The “L” and “R” indicators on the ignition switch don't work. Now this kind of bothered me because every aircraft that I have flown in FSX has had a way to check each magneto, in fact most of the better aftermarket aircraft put quite a bit of emphasis on this.

Also if you start the simulation in a “cold and dark state” the switch will be “Off”, once you turn in on, it will never go “Off” again.  Once on, it will only work in the “Both” and “Start” positions.  It will not go into the “Off”, “L”, or “R” position. Because the switch will not go in the “L” or “R” position's no way to check the magnetos and see a drop in the RPMs. Now I understand for a simulation you might not necessarily need this but it sure would be nice to have, especially if you're using the checklist for the sport cruiser. That's part of the run-up procedures for the airplane.

Oh well, onward and upward. I mentioned earlier that the airplane steers very easily, a bit unlike the actual aircraft. Take off was fairly easy, rotation speed came quickly, and soon climb out speed was at 65 KPH.  At the climb out angle, it feels very much like the actual airplane, you are unable to see where you're going and you are looking right into the Dynon panel.  It’s fun to fly and although not certified for IFR it works great with ILS.  You have to fly it down but it is really fun and just like the real thing.

One last thought... The flaps don’t work like they do in the real airplane.  On all airplanes in FSX, you press the button and they move down to the first step, press it again and it goes to the next step, one more time and you are down all the way.  On this real aircraft, are no set positions, you hold the switch down until you are around 10, then a little longer until you are around 20, and just hold it down all the way until it stops.  You know then you are all the way down at 30.  On touch and goes, it is real tricky to pull up the flaps to 10 because if you don’t look at the gauge, you will bring them all the way up.  Same when you go down to 10, 20, or 30.  You need to look at the gauge.  It works, if you haven’t really tried to fly the airplane, I’m sure you would know not know any difference.  (I was actually hoping this worked as in the real airplane so I can practice those landings checking on the position of the lights but oh well…)

 All in all it is a nice airplane and does fly very much like the real Sport cruiser. It is much better than anything we had in this class and I can see many new airplanes being developed just because of the of the Dynon panels. My flight school also uses a REMOS G3 with the exact same type of avionics in it.

I would like to leave with one last comment. The day after I purchased this aircraft (and I purchased it the day it was released) I contacted tech support with several questions, some that I have listed here. I am very disappointed that I was never contacted back on these issues. Even if they had e-mailed me back and said nothing can be done that would've been better than not contacting me all, that is not the way to treat your customers.

If anyone would like to contact me and discuss these issues in detail please just drop me a note.

Sincerely and thanks very much to the developer, Buddy