On closer inspection (having watched the video back), it looks as though the gauge discussed in reference to the autopilot, is actually some sort of primitive HSI. As for the autopilot itself; I'm afraid I'm none the wiser as to if / how it works haha. All the best everyone!
The two gauges with the bank needles with red tips are related to the VOR. Once you tune a VOR they kick to life and give you guidance towards station. The left one even has a vertical bar which gives you distance to the VOR station, but only works within 10nm from what I experienced. I read up on it and there should be a red light on the same distance gauge that turns on when you are over the VOR stations but seems inop in sim. There is also a radio needle on copilot side showing VOR station direction. However that gauge looks like an ADF one for NDB navigation. Maybe they decided to make it VOR instead of ADF given how few NDB are still active in the real world.
After turning on the autopilot master behind the yoke, the gyrocompass to the right of the artificial horizon has a heading hold switch and a crank to adjust the heading bug. The autopilot on this aircraft uses yaw to maintain heading, so the pilot must still control pitch and roll.
Yes, thanks Vograx! Figured that one out when re-watching the video and watching the gauges behaviour (couldn’t make much sense of it during the flight haha). Interesting little bit of kit then, probably quite advanced for its time. I’d imagine the radio beacons available back then were essentially NDBs, but as you say, maybe Asobo chose to change the functionality there, given the relative lack of NDBs these days. Personally I think that was probably a good call; makes the aircraft more useable in the sim. Cheers : )
Thanks Sithira. I think I’ve gotten the hang of it now (after a bit of trial and error haha). It still would have been great to have had some documentation, would have made life easier. I still think Asobo should consider adding a proper autopilot to the retrofitted version as well. Thanks for the info : )
the IL2-Sturmovik wiki has some performance figures for the real-world Ju-52. Stall speed in flight configuration: 105 to 117 km/h, stall speed in takeoff/landing configuration: 92 to 109 km/h (so absolutely no taking off with a full load of passengers at 75 km/h as per Asobo...), Takeoff speed: 100 to 120 km/h, Glideslope speed: 140 to 155 km/h, Landing speed: 95 to 110 km/h. Engine would overheat and fail after 5 minutes at takeoff thrust.
Thanks for the info Bernard. Pretty much what I figured, something isn’t right with the Ju 52 then. Someone made the point though and it’s a potentially valid one, perhaps the gauge is simply not calibrated correctly (showing knots instead of kph for example). Not the first Asobo aircraft this would have been an issue with I believe. I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to test, but haven’t found the time to do it myself yet. Either way, something isn’t right and could do with being addressed. Thanks again, all the best! : )
According to the documentation of the X-Plane version of the Ju-52 by Olixsim the speeds are as follows: Tail lift: 60kph V1: 90kph VR: 110kph V2 120-130kph Best rate of climb: 140kph at flaps 10 Flap retract: above 150kph
Absolutely L O V E D the retro flashbacks you integrated into this vid. Stunning work, and it really made me want to fly this. 10/10 for inspiration and nostalgia.
Thanks very much Pierre! Great to hear that you enjoyed the little trip back in time ; ) If you did head for Lake Como, I hope you had a pleasant flight! Happy flying and all the best : )
Great review as ever. Your reviews to me are my gauge to what I should part money for as they are always on the money in terms of honesty, depth and accuracy. As for the JU 52 I think it is a no brainer for me to purchase as it is a very low price but a good fun aircraft to use. Thank you again.
Thanks Dave! Glad you enjoyed the review and indeed that you’re finding the content useful in general : ) I agree that the Ju 52, whilst not perfect, is a bit of a no-brainer for a lot of people. The flight model could still use some work, but overall it’s a nice aircraft in most respects and importantly, it’s also great fun! Thanks very much once again and all the best!
Haha! Well let’s hope he was happy with the end result of the video then Curtis, lest he try and sabotage my efforts on the next flight! : P All the best!
My goodness what a difference in reviewer quality as well. Your video was so much more pleasant to watch than the other person I came across. Probably going to get this as well despite owning the Il-2 one. Flight model vs clickable cockpit I guess.
Well thank you very much Jules, very kind of you to say! I try my best to make my reviews interesting flights in their own right, so I’m really glad you enjoyed it : ) The Ju52 isn’t a bad pickup overall. It’s the best of the “Local Legends” aircraft to date and quite nice for the odd vintage outing. If you do pick it up; happy flying and all the best!
Haha, well thank you very much! Always great to hear when someone is enjoying the content and finding it useful. I certainly try my best to make the videos / reviews as engaging and informative as I can - make the flight interesting in its own right. Here’s to hoping your prediction has some legs to it ; ) Thanks very much once again, all the best! : )
Cheers Adam! I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I enjoyed making it and I was quite happy with the end result. Sorry I couldn't provide you with a glass of red wine for the journey! ; ) Ciao! : )
I very much enjoy my JU-52. I've completed a couple of flights in the 1939 version here in New Zealand. I didn't really notice the lack of an autopilot because the conditions were quite calm. So I powered up the newer version for a longer flight from Sydney (YSSY) to Brisbane (YBBN) and was flying at 9,000 feet. There were strong winds from the west and quite a lot of turbulence and I have to admit that I really wanted an autopilot. It was hard work keeping her on course and at the correct altitude. So if Asobo decide to go with a working autopilot, I'm in. I had a model of a DC-2 in FSX which is an aeroplane of roughly the same vintage (and capacity) and it had a working autopilot. Loved the review and the nostalgic video and music were really impressive. Greetings as always.
Hi Squirel, I certainly think Asobo should reconsider the lack of autopilot on the retrofitted version. I gather the cockpit is based on a real-world airframe, but I think an autopilot is a very reasonable concession to make for the sim (and not unrealistic either). Even if the autopilot only gives wings-level and alt-hold, that would be something. For people who want to make longer trips (like the one you described) it’s a lot of hands on work otherwise - too much for many to find enjoyable. Glad you enjoyed the review / the little trip back in time. Thanks and all the best! : )
Thank you very much! Very kind of you to say and really great to hear of course. I certainly try my best to make the videos as good as I am able to. Glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time ; ) Thanks again and all the best! : )
GREAT video, this is the longest intro I have EVER watched and loved every second. What a wonderful video to watch. I would also like to see some wear on the plane both interior and exterior. The models look like they just came off the assembly line. As you mentioned, there needs to be some corrections to the flight characteristics but as you say, this is a good "bang for the buck". Thanks for all the editing time you put into this video, made me a subscriber! !! !!!
Thank you very much once again! Happy to hear you enjoyed it. I started the channel purely with the intention of making some half-decent / accurate flight simulation content, but I’ve been enjoying the “artistic” aspect of things more and more as I’ve gone along haha. Don’t think I’ll be winning an Oscar any time soon, but I enjoy setting the scene etc. I agree that some more wear and tear would be good - then again, it was 1937 in the video ; ) It’s not a perfect plane, but it is certainly a fun one (which of course is also important)! At $15, I can forgive a lot. . . Thanks very much for the sub - welcome aboard! : )
Nice video.My real life airport LSZL Locarno is nearly , just a couple of valley to the north west. The idroscalo of Como, for what I know, is the only Seaplane flying school in Europe. I have been there many times as it is really near the city center.
Ah lovely Antonio, what an amazing home airport to have! I am indeed familiar with Locarno, if only from the sim and it appears to be a beautiful area. I love this part of the world in general, it’s stunning. Happy flying and all the best! : )
yes it is a lovely airport, just at the north end of lake Maggiore. Sun, the lake, palms tree everywere and huge mountains behind, three runways. I have earned my SPL licence here, wonderful place for flying with gliders ( we have a runway only for gliders). There is the swiss military flying school with PC7 and the second swiss military acro team, GA helicopters and gliders.
Brilliant, thank you, I've watched umpteen review videos by others, but your is always the fairest, she may not be the prettiest but she is the loveliest and a steal for the price, I hope life is treating you well and look forward seeing the next review👏👏👍👍
Thanks very much Mark, very kind of you to say! Haha, it’s definitely one of those aircraft that falls into the “ beautiful yet ugly” category. As you say though, excellent value for money (not to mention, good fun)! All very good here on my end thanks; got rather busy with work, hence the review being a bit slow to go up. Hope you’re well, thanks again and all the best! : )
Wow, this is a very professional production of an aircraft review. I have watched some of your earlier videos and they were good, but this video takes the biscuit. It contains a reasoned review of all aspects of the aircraft and I thought the inclusion of some period music really set me in the right time frame. I hope that Asobo do fix a few of the bugs just to make a good product, a very good product, and of course the price is just fantastic. Many thanks.
Thank you very much Graham! Very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video and the little trip back in time. As you say, the product is already very good, but a few minor tweaks (that I hope it receives) and it could be rather excellent (especially for the price). Thanks again and all the best! : )
I came across a pdf manual in one of the forums but it is completely in German. From what I understand, is that during takeoff you push the yoke forward slightly until reaching 110/120 km/h and release pressure and if needed pull back on the yoke gently. Apparently if you start on the runway the flaps and trim are in the incorrect position for a real world take off
Ah ok, thanks for the info Lt. Bran! A few people have mentioned the manual, but my German skills certainly aren’t up to that haha. If that’s the real-world technique, not applying it would perhaps account for some of the aircrafts slightly odd behaviour on the takeoff; I think the flight model still needs some work though. . . Cheers again! All the best : )
Sir: You outdid yourself on this video! While I appreciated the details on the airplane, the BEST PART was the flight back looking out the passenger window with the music from the 20's or early 20's in the background. It was like really being there. Thanks so much! Now, if you do a review on the Milviz Electra, you HAVE to do a flight from Casablanca to Lisbon with the same vintage treatment. Be sure Elsa is onboard. That would be PERFECT!
Thank you Dennis! I’m glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time, I must admit I was quite happy with how the video came out. I enjoyed the window view, something so simple - but I think it’s the music that makes it. I’m really torn on the Electra. Certainly looks like my kind of aircraft, but perhaps not in the best state yet. The supposed twitchy flight model is really what’s been putting me off (I very nearly bought the aircraft yesterday haha). I very much like your idea for the flight though and will certainly take if into consideration (I was amazed / saddened to see the appropriate livery is not included with the aircraft)! Thanks for the kind words! All the best : )
Yeah, overall the Ju 52 isn’t a bad offering from Asobo. I feel like the flight model could use some tweaks, but in most other respects it’s a very decent aircraft for the price. I need to get out and fly it myself again at some point actually (it’s been a while)! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Happy flying! : )
Somehow missed this video when you first posted it. Only noticed when I saw it in the related videos section when watching one of yours others. Oh well, finally got here! Nice flight! Was hoping you'd shout clear prop for the left and centre after your 'first officer' shouted for the right though! Plane ain't too bad. Bought it when it came out and have flew it around a bit, mostly in South America. Fun flying it over the Andes! That prop annoyed me as well but there's a mod for that on flightsim.to. It is annoying they didn't give us any documentation but there's a thread on the official forum which contains a lot of info that people managed to figure out including various settings for take-off, climbing, cruise etc and figuring out the autopilot thingy although I forget the specifics now. There's also an error with either the retro or modernised plane with the engines, one of them is supposed to have supercharged engines but that's not modelled. She does look and sound lovely and flies nicely even if, as you said, the climb speed in the retro version is a bit overdone. Modernised one is a bit underpowered on the other hand, but I mostly fly the old one so don't mind. But overall she's a nice plane and at is a bargain at the price. A final note: Asobo didn't actually do this plane! Microsoft hired an outside party to develop it. Well I guess Microsobo did the 3d scanning and audio recording for the 3d model but the meat and bones, flight modelling and systems were done by a dude who did a Ju52 for X-Plane I believe. I think they're also doing the same with the An-2 coming out as another local legends in a few months. I hope that one comes with a bit of documentation, I think one of the top honchos who does the monthly videos said something about improving in that area but I'm not sure. Probably another thing on the list of many things they want to do and might get around to one day if we're lucky. Anyhoo, cheers for the vid!
Haha, UA-cam doing the dirty on me one again eh?! : P Well I'm glad you got the chance to watch it, if only for the intro; I was quite pleased with that one, if I do say so myself haha! Yeah, overall it's a nice offering from "Asobo". As with most of their works, a few small tweaks and it could have been something pretty fantastic, but nonetheless it is very nice and a very reasonable price as you say. It's funny that you mention about the 3rd party programmer. I noticed that myself only the other day. When I was updating the aircraft, I noticed it was credited to both Asobo and some other chap. It's good that they are slowly brining in more help from the outside - should lead to a more rounded sim. I'm going through another round of catching up on correspondence, so I apologies for the slow reply! Cheers, Megadyptes! Thanks for watching : )
Some engine / flight characteristics data: 2050rpm for take off, 1 minute max below 900m Liftoff speed around 110kph, flaps at 25° 1950rpm allowed for 30 minutes, 2050 above 900m Takes 330m to lift off at 10 tons weight, 580m until reaching 20m altitude For climb, set flaps to 10°, speed 140kph Max. continuous is 1925rpm, cruise power is at 1850rpm Cruise speed is 240kph at 500 and 1000m, 220 at 2500 and 175kph at 5000m :) I suspect the retrofitted version having the speed gauge off, displaying knots on the kph scale. Wouldn't be the first aircraft from Asobo to do this in MSFS ;)
Thank you very much for the info Rainbow Dash! Very helpful. Used it on my flight yesterday, seemed to work rather nicely. I just wish Asobo had included such data themselves. . . The aircraft isn’t as far off the numbers as I had originally imagined by the looks of it then; but going off the online data I could find + filing in the gaps, originally it was difficult to tell (and seemed overpowered). That’s a very good point re the ASI. I do recall another aircraft having the same issues (I can’t remember which, off the top of my head). That would explain quite a bit. I still think flight model isn’t quite right though, given how quickly I was able to get airborne - even on the water. Thanks once again. Very much appreciated! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations It was at least the case with the Shock Ultra (don't even know if it's still). I guess you have a point with the takeoff from water. My first experience with a floatplane in sims was the DHC-2 in Flight Unlimited 2, and that was brilliant. Really felt like the thing being on water, just give it a short notch of thrust and see how it keeps going, slowing down very slowly. Really gave you the feel you had to tie the thing down in a port so it won't crash into something by itself. Same for the takeoffs and landings. It was very hard to gett off the surface, you really had to gradually lift it out of the water. If you pulled too little, it wouldn't accelerate enough, if you pulled to much the induced drag of the floats would make it go slower as well, it was mandatory to ride the sweet spot. On the landings you had to be extremely smooth so it won't tilt over, but as soon as you're slow enough, you could push the thing down to increase water drag for slowing it down quicker. I've never seen such a level of hydrodynamics anymore in a flight sim, sadly. It literally feels like just a runway that's a bit slippery everywhere else I was able to try floatplanes. That being FSX, FS20 and Rise of Flight.
Yes, I think it might have been the Shock Ultra that I was thinking of. Haha, sounds rather impressive for a sim of that vintage! MSFS is incredibly basic in the water physics department (I think FSX was better even), seems like there’s almost no drag at the moment (amongst other things). The Ju 52 was almost airborne by the time I had the throttles up at 50% haha. Still, it’s “early days” so hopefully they’ll continue to improve things. All the best! : )
Good review - I love flying this aircraft - and I prefer the old vintage over the retrofit. Agree with you - feel like its overpowered (or whatever you call it) for take-off. Also, props are not well animated (not as bothered by the light). I had to google everything to translate the cockpit - but it was worth it. I don't think I could have started this plane up 12 months ago when I started my MSFS re-entry. I am hoping for some nice liveries - even if they are not realistic, would like to see some old BEA or similair. Thanks for the review - seems fair and for the price - definitely worth the price. Look forward to a fix for it, I think i might go to Italy now.,.... thanks! Love the cinematics.
Haha, well I neeearly went retrofit for the video, just to avoid the crash-course in German; but like you, I much prefer the vintage version overall (naturally). That’s a nice effort to go from zero to hero in a year (and learn basic German on top of that haha)! I see there are some nice liveries up now. There’s on okay-ish BA one (a bit of misplaced texturing on one of the panels), but like you I’m hoping for a BEA scheme at some point (I believe they did operate the aircraft). Overall a very nice aircraft, with just a couple of tweaks still needed. Hope you enjoyed cruising around Lake Como! ; ) Cheers Mark. All the best : )
It did indeed Mughug. I would have preferred a Tri-Motor in MSFS personally, but maybe that’s just me. FS2004 is my all-time favourite sim in terms of aircraft line-up. It had so many interesting / classic aircraft to fly; I also really enjoyed the adventures / missions etc. All the best : )
Great video as always, thank you :-). Will hold off on this until the autopilt is resolved - I am not a 5-hour hands on pilot lol. Thanks again - loved the nostalgic feeling of the video :-)
Thanks James! : ) On further inspection, it seems maybe the autopilot works as it should (again, it’s just been trial and error without some documentation to work with). It seems to basically offer a *very* loose heading-hold function and that’s about it. I still haven’t got it fully worked out, but either way, flying the aircraft is still a lot of hands-on work haha. I really wish they’d given the more modern version a proper autopilot, seems like an obvious thing to do. I believe it’s based on a real-world airframe, but still. . . Glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time ; ) All the best!
Excellent content again , really enjoyable !! 👍 . I'm really enjoying the Ju52 myself and think its fantastic value for money . Yes , it has some issues , but the positives , for me ,completely out-way the negatives . Also , something about these old birds and MSFS , that fits so well together ( you really captured this in the vid 👍) . ( P.s The Mach1 fighter jocks can have their DCS world , vintage and slow for me !! 😂 ) .
Thank you sir, glad you enjoyed it! Completely agree that MSFS and this sort of flying fit perfectly together. I think I said as much in the review, but then cut the comment out. MSFS is somewhat finding its own niche at this point - obviously the jets will arrive eventually, but it’s quite nice having a sim that’s perfect for low and slow, with a multitude of interesting aircraft to fly (which aren’t generally found in other sims). The Ju 52 certainly being one of them! I do hope it gets just a little tweak to its flight model though haha. Thanks and all the best! : )
Mmmh for the price I think it's a really nice module; the lift is pretty high on IL-2 as well but somehow the speed feels more manageable there. This one almost feels like an AN-2 at times. Some of the quirks from IL-2 seem to be missing though; they were implemented in a weird way to make controls manageable but somehow it doesn't seem like there are any "quirks" to the FS version; I mean for example flaps and trim are linked in IL-2; and the brake system is supposed to be managed using the throttle - below 20% brakes would engage. I would probably need to review a "tutorial" on a real life Ju52 to actually know which one is more accurate now :P
Agreed; I think for the price it’s a very nice effort indeed! I’m not all that familiar with the Ju 52 myself, but I get the impression this aircraft is more of a Ju 52 “experience”, than a Ju 52 sim (if that makes sense). I don’t think it’s a perfect addon, but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless. I’ll have to give the IL2 version a go at some point, just to compare. Cheers, all the best! : )
Thanks very much Vograx, glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, the whole period seemingly had a bit more “soul” in terms of aircraft design (and indeed many other aspects). I think style was still a consideration, as much as efficiency or functionality. Sadly in today’s world, the endless drive for efficiency has left most aircraft looking a bit generic. A lot of aircraft from the era are interesting to look at and indeed operate it seems - the Ju 52 being no exception : ) All the best!
I don't why they didn't add the autopilot to the retrofitted version. I've seen one or two version of these planes looking up a few things (like the PoH), and they have a Garmin or some such GPS/Autopilot sitting on top of the dash, bellow the compass.
I agree Melon. I’ve seen examples of real Ju 52s with more complex avionics. I believe the retrofit version is based on a real world airframe (so credit to Asobo for trying to recreate it faithfully) but I still think they should have added an autopilot, even if it’s not native to that particular aircraft. It’s a very small concession to make and would have made the aircraft eminently more useable for a lot of people. Hopefully they’ll reconsider in the future. . . Cheers!
I'm still somewhat sad my parents didn't allow me to take a flight on one of these when I was younger... Well I guess now I can in the virtual world. Overall I have to agree with your review. For me especially the lack of documentation is a big thing. I never thought I'd say that, however having it with the Turbo Porter is very enjoyable. Especially the information about the engine. On the other this is - as you've mentioned - only around 15€. Basically half of any of the other good add ons for the game (excluding the two biplanes and the Husky). Bang for the buck is basically Asobo's biggest strength currently. And if they keep improving on quality and keep the price in the same area, then they are going to be tough competition. Anyways thanks for the review, even though you're currently quite busy. Cheers!
Haha, I know what you mean - I’m not too happy that my parents never sent me off on Concorde! : P At least flying on a Ju 52 is still a realistic option at some point in the future . In the mean time you have the virtual version as you say ; ) The value for money of the aircraft is excellent, but even a 2 page “manual” with basic operating numbers would have been a huge help. Otherwise the quality to price ratio is definitely there though. My pleasure on the review! Glad you’re enjoying the aircraft. It’s always nice to fly something that was homemade I guess : ) All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Well I am definitely too young for the concorde! Although once airshows are starting again I'm going to go for a lot of flights. Hopefully I can get one on a Ju as well. All the best to you as well!
Thanks very much David, glad you enjoyed it : ) I’m not using any mod for the water; the sim was stock in this video, bar the aircraft and the Lake Como scenery (which possibly changes the water colours somewhat, now that I think about it - I’m not sure how that works in the sim?). Thanks again, all the best!
I stumbled upon this video right after watching a montage of the Late Queen Elizabeth II. To think she was just a teenager during this time and to see how much the world has changed within her lifetime is mindblowing to say the least.
It is incredible to think of the changes the Queen witnessed throughout her life. As I mentioned elsewhere, her Majesty was actually one of the few constants throughout modern times! All the best : )
@22:32 The music! I had visions of 'Flapper Girls' dancing the Charlston and sipping on Coca-Cola, the Real Coke with cocaine, inside of a flying 'speak-easy'.
Haha, thanks Stewie! Those were certainly the sort of vibes I was trying to elicit (well perhaps ever so slightly more subdued haha) - no Coca-Cola for the pilots then! XD All the best! : )
Under the right side of the pilot seat is the trim/flaps wheel, between it and the seat is a knob that engages the clutch to change the function of the wheel between trim and flaps
I’ve yet to try it myself I’m VR, but looking forward to giving it a go at some point. Did you figure out the flaps in the end (I see someone else very helpfully posted some pointers)? All the best : )
@@ThatDrunkenHobo Thank you very much for your guidance, I've seen the flaps lever finally :-) so far I've been using the flaps switch on my logitech panel.
Amazing video. As for the lift issue I know these where famous for their ability to take off quickly but it is a bit daft especially when fully laden and in water.
Thanks 8obbles! Glad you enjoyed it. Haha, yeah. The Ju 52 has a big chunky old wing, so I figured it’s built for high lift. But I was almost airborne by the time I had the throttles up at 50%. Unlikely on the ground, let alone the water haha. Cheers : )
Interesting. Maybe that was the intent and they skipped it due to the release deadline. Maybe we’ll get them later. . . Still, a bit naughty to say that, given that the doors don’t seem to work. Cheers!
Really well realised video as always. I agree with the flight model but a pleasant aircraft overall. I have recently purchased the Electra from Aeroplane Heaven and really like it so far.
Thanks Cyril! Much appreciated. Yes, hopefully the flight model gets tweaked, but a very nice effort otherwise (especially for the price). Interesting, I’ve been on the fence with the Electra (I very nearly bought it yesterday haha). Looks very much like my kind of aircraft, but perhaps a bit “unfinished”? The main thing that’s been putting me off, is the supposed twitchy flight model in pitch; how have you been finding that? Cheers, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations it seemed very stable “pitchwise” to me. No issue there but I am as refined a pilot as you are. I really like the small touches like the pin-up photo on the cockpit roof and other little thing full of humour in this plane
Ah ok, well thanks very much for the info Cyril. That wasn’t really what I wanted to hear, as I’m now running out of excuses not to buy it haha ; ) It’s very tempting I must say and I have a few ideas of trips I want to take it on. Watch this space I suppose haha. . . Thanks again!
Great stuff. Always taking msfs vids to the next level. Lake Como is one of my favourite areas (usually flying to/from Samedan). Brilliant music choice too! Re take-off, I've flown the Ju-52 in IL2 Great Battles and she's surprisingly sprightly. Asobo may have overdone it, but Iron Annie is all about lift over speed, which becomes painfully obvious when Russian fighters are around. Cruising around Lago di Como looks much less stressful.
Cheers Roland! Yeah, a really stunning part of the world. You can never go too far wrong with the food either haha! I’ll have to check out Samedan; I keep seeing it on the map and thinking that it looks like a nice location. I figured the Ju 52 probably has quite high lift, with that chunky old wing. I’d imagine Asobo have overcooked it a bit though; 15 knots is the lowest takeoff speed I’ve heard of so far haha. Yeah, a bit more relaxing just puttering up and down an Italian lake - I feel I’m perhaps getting too old for the stress of getting shot at XD All the best! : )
i think most "deficiencies" with the MSFS flight modeling can be summed up as "making sure casual gamers can press CTRL-E, floor the throttles, go to third person view so they can admire the 4k PBR textures, yank back on their xbox controller but still get airborn without issue, ignoring inconvient but to the casual gamer irrelevant things like flaps not being set, plane being above takeoff weight, engine overheat, because if they were enforced they'd uninstall and ask for a refund."
@bernard langham - LOL you beat me to it! While gorgeous, it certainly does seem like an oversimplified Xbox "casual gamers" version. The intentional MIA documentation/flight manual seems to confirm this. Oh well, it's still a beautiful aircraft, though. 😁
Haha, well I hope you’re wrong Bernard, but sadly I haven’t seen a lot of evidence to suggest otherwise of late. It’s been well over a year now, with very few improvements to the flight model (the default jets are a little better - but then they were almost un-flyable on release), default auto-flight, systems etc. . . I guess this next year will really show which direction Asobo intends to take the sim. It has VR, is available on the Xbox etc, so they could / should start to focus on the core sim now. From what I’ve seen of their development timeline, their priorities are not ones I would chose for the sim though. For GA / VFR it’s still my favourite sim, but it has a long way to go before it could truly be described as a “serious” flight simulator. All the best!
It is a beautiful aircraft Jim and the lack of documentation is indeed a shame. The silly thing is, Asobo were actually really close to producing a very solid addon (for the price). At $15, I wasn’t expecting an A2A aircraft, but the wonky flight model rather lets down what is otherwise a very nice effort (even a basic 2 page manual with operating data would have been of huge benefit also). All this being said, I am enjoying the aircraft for what it is, it is still a good bit of fun. I hope it receives some updates going forward. Hope you’re well, all the best! : )
It looks amazing but that rediculous lift at slow speed is a no go for me, it actually kind of pisses me off that they make a beautifull plane and mess up the handling that way. Imagine a half loaded plane, it would get airborne and climb quite crazy rappid. Thanks for the review and thanks for putting in the effort to showcase that issue. Going to hold off for now.
I agree that it’s a shame Asobo went to all of the trouble of creating a vey pretty and actually quite comprehensive aircraft, only to then give it a somewhat wonky flight model. I’m still enjoying it and I wasn’t expecting exacting fidelity given the price, but they actually came pretty close to (for 15$) knocking it out of the park, but stumbled at the last hurdle it seems. My pleasure on the review! Glad it helped you make an informed decision, that it the ultimate point after all. Hopefully Asobo take another look at the flight model in the weeks / months ahead. Cheers and all the best : )
Hopefully. Someone did make the point that perhaps the gauge is calibrated incorrectly (for knots instead of kmh); that’s certainly possible, since I seem to recall there was another Asobo aircraft that had the same issues. Wouldn’t be too difficult to test / verify I suppose, but I haven’t had a chance to do that myself. Ultimately the aircraft still managed to get airborne suspiciously quickly from the water though. . Cheers!
Great video! A real pleasure to watch. That airplane is so wrong it’s Right! It’s not always about full fidelity, it’s just the beauty of it and how the cockpit looks and feels. I love that airplane. Yes the flight model is wrong and there’s not enough drag generated when the flaps are extended but quite frankly, I don’t care. What really is disappointing to me is the typical lack of documentation from Asobo aircrafts in general. If they can design it then they must have access to documents so why not create a small basic guide on how to operate it? Another one of my pet peeves is the lack of autopilot option of vintage aircraft. I understand that the original aircraft doesn’t have a proper autopilot but why not follow FlyingIron’s lead on producing a tablet based autopilot has they did on the P-38? JustFlight has implemented the same basic tablet autopilot in the upcoming Hawk. Not realistic of course but how handy on those long cross-country trips, (bathroom breaks). More time for enjoying the beautiful scenery and getting nice screenshots! Thanks for the great review, I broke my rule this time and bought it before seeing your review 😉 but I figured for that price I couldn’t possibly go wrong. For approach and landing what seems to work best is to configure with flaps full on downwind and slow to 100 km/h. Then fly a low and flat approach. You’ll run out of elevator trim a little bit but it’s not bad. Keep the power at 1200rpm or so on final and she’ll maintain 100 very nicely and reward you with a butterfly landing!
Thank you once again good sir! I’d agree with all of that: An addon can still be of high quality, not to mention (very importantly) good fun, without ticking all of the boxes. I would still like to see some tweaking of the flight model though and an autopilot really does seem like an obvious thing to add. Even if it’s just a basic wings-level / alt-hold type of affair. When an aircraft is fairly basic and / or common, I can live without a manual, as chances are I won’t need one, or can find one online. For something like this though, it really is a bit of a hindrance to enjoying the product. Even a 2 page “manual” of operating data would have sufficed. I gather there is a real world manual kicking around somewhere online, so I will have to hunt that down at some point. . . Thanks for the advice on the approach, I’ll give it a go! Still, a very nice effort at an excellent price. Round of applause to Asobo overall. I can almost understand why you’d want to purchase before watching my review. . . I suppose as you did watch the video thereafter, I can forgive such a transgression ; ) Thanks again and all the best! : )
HI FF, The scenery for the Lake Como floatplane base is also a mod; it can be found easily enough on Flightsim.to. Other than that, everything was stock. Cheers and all the best : )
Hi RM, I didn’t notice any flickering last time I flew the Ju52, but it’s been a while to be fair (and I know the aircraft has been updated a couple of times since). Usually you see flickering glass in the sim when you have one transparent texture overlaying another, but I’m not sure what might be causing your issue with the glare I’m afraid. . . Sorry I can’t be of more help on that one. All the best! : )
I'd like to see an A2A version of this? MP thats connected to the engine..etc...It would/may keep me awake during the flight! ;) Regarding lift, I believe they are adjusting the lift coefficient with flaps in the next sim update?
Would certainly make for an interesting aircraft David, although there are others I would rather see A2A take up the development of (then again, I’d take anything from them at the moment haha!). Not sure whether it’s an engine issue, or possibly a gauge issue re the manifold pressure (I wonder if the gauge is calibrated correctly in hindsight). As for staying awake, I suppose that would rather depend on how pretty the flight attendant is ; ) They’re adjusting the flaps *again*? That should be good fun haha. I wonder if they’ll make it better or worse this time. Caused a whole host of issues last time they tried that. . . Well, I suppose Asobo are to be commended for continuing to try, hopefully they’ll get it right one of these days (I wish they’d fiddle around with the rudder as opposed to the flaps though!). All the best! : )
Good review, though I am a Garda guy. Keep on the good work wrt fm and systems. If possible also flying by the numbers and how they compare to the historical numbers or the numbers in the doc, if existent.
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it! Apologies, but the only Garda I know of is the Irish police force. Were you referring to that, or something else? Yes, no docs here to go off unfortunately. I did have a bit of a look online to find some basic operating numbers, but I think that lead me slightly astray (I was under the impression that the cruising speed was lower than it actually is). Even a 2 page “manual” of basic operating data would have been nice form Asobo. Ah well. . . Thanks again! All the best : )
Ahhh, I see haha. As I say, the Irish police force is also known as “the Garda”, but I couldn’t quite figure out the connection there haha. Well lucky you, I’m sure that’s a beautiful part of the world to live in! : ) Distinti saluti!
Hi RM, The "airport" is Lake Como, but the scenery is actually a piece of freeware I downloaded from Flightsim.to. If you head over to the website and search for Lake Como, I'm sure you'll find it no problems. It's well worth downloading - a really nice area to fly in! I hope that helps, all the best! : )
Something I haven’t heard mentioned by others (so maybe it’s just on my end) but for me, the attitude indicator seems a bit off. It seems to significantly underestimate the actual attitude of the aircraft, which is a real issue when flying in non-VFR conditions. But thanks for this review - another cracking video!
I must admit that I hadn’t noticed that myself - but I’ve only flown the aircraft day-VFR so far haha. I shall have to investigate! The aircraft definitely needs a few things touching up, so hopefully the attitude indicator will see some attention if it has issues. Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks very much once again and all the best : )
Hi Hans, For sure. If I said otherwise, it was just through force of habit. I’m so used to flying in feet / knots, my brain generally reverts to that by default haha. Cheers, all the best!
so finally finished the homework here. :) and it worthed it, it was a brilliant review, my new favorite. I think I will fly the same route myself as well, as I bought it without any thinking as it was the ultimate favorite plane of my father. He even wrote to Junkers and he got some documentation back from them, I will ask him about the details. :) btw I found the swith of the lights in the retrofit version, there are two options: a bright and a more dimmed one.
Haha, well you can have an A+ for your efforts Péter! ; ) Glad you enjoyed the video, I was quite happy with how it came out. Hope you’re enjoying the Ju 52 yourself. Thanks very much for posting the Ju 52 documents on the Discord! Haven’t had a chance to look at them yet myself, but very much looking forward to doing so. Take care, all the best! : )
Just curious. Are you, or were you a pilot at some point? You seem to have an extraordinary amount of knowledge. How many hours? What did you fly? Great video by th way!
Hi Jason, Thanks very much, I'm really glad you enjoyed the video! I do indeed fly for a living; I'm currently on the Airbus, been flying various members of the Airbus family for about 10 years now (and flying in various capacities for many years before that). I've also been a flight simmer for probably around 25 years at this point (yikes). I wanted to combine two of my passions and try to inject a little of my real-world experience into my videos / the hobby. I still very much enjoy simming, it's a great way to experience vintage aircraft such as this, that I'll probably otherwise never have the chance to fly. Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulationsfirst off, thank you for the great reply. Second, how flipping awesome! I had a feeling you were pretty avid ;) My father was a private instructor back in the day (mid 70's) but stopped flying around the time I was born (trust me, I give him tons of crap for it even to this very day - I never got to fly with him). I'm now 45 years of age and still aspire to obtain a private. Problem is, I can't prioritize it at this point in my life and that can be extremely unsafe as you know. I too, as well as my father are both big time "simmers". Been simming since the very first version of Microsoft Flight Simulator! So much fun, and rather mind blowing with the computer power of today. Again, thank you for the reply. I look forward to seeing more of your videos! I'll subscribe! By the way, you convinced me to purchase the Junkers. What a price for such an awesome asset!
Hi Cloves, I don’t use any mod for the water, no. A few knots of wind can make a big difference though, turning everything from a millpond, into the more textured depiction that you see here (of course, whether or not you’re able to customise windspeed, will depend on whether you’re using Live Weather ; ) I hope that helps. All the best!
Your comment on the prop discs triggered me. I hate the prop animations with wagon wheel effect that we've had for about two decades now. The wagon wheel effect (the turning "blurry" prop blades) is an artefact of capturing a spinning propeller with a camera. My eyes are not cameras. Very much like lens flares, the "cinematic" prop animations are saying "you're not really there, you're watching camera footage". You might not have noticed, but your brain did. And don't get me started complaining about the effects of these prop animations in VR, like how they can make the whole world ahead of you wobble because of how the Asobo graphics engine treats transparent objects, or how they mess with Motion Smoothing or Asynchronous Time Warp.
in a similar fashion, tracer bullets in computer games are always depicted as glowing lines (an artifact of camera shutter speed and exposure time) quite unlike the the glowing balls which a human observer percieves.
Haha, well sorry to bring it up then Mark - but yes, I rather tend to agree. Some devs do it better than others, but I find the Ju 52s particularly bad - especially externally, with the sun shining on them (they almost look like solid disks, very FS98). As for how they affect VR - I can’t even stand to turn motion reprojection on, because of all the artifacting etc. Without it though, MSFS in VR is a bit of a no-go for me. I don’t pretend to know any better alternatives for producing the prop disk effect etc, but as I say, other devs (and indeed Asobo themselves) seem to have managed much better efforts on other aircraft. All the best! : )
I just wanted to ask you if you have seen a noticeable difference after you upgraded your i7 6700K to what you currently have. I have the I7 7700K and the RTX 2080, and 32 meg memory and still feel MFS is still giving me a good 45 to 70 FPS, mostly flying the Mooney and the Pipers.. Good review as ever👍👍
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the review! If you’re getting 45-70fps, I don’t think you’ll notice a huge difference necessarily. I did notice a difference for sure, but not a drastic one. Things are definitely smoother now (that was the most noticeable change, but my top-end fps hasn’t gone up drastically, rather my low-end fps is now higher on average. I’ve gone from being CPU limited to GPU limited generally now. I lock my framerate at 60fps and generally the sim will maintain that under most conditions now, whereas previously it wouldn’t. VR is still a bit of no-go for me in the sim. Where I’ve really noticed a huge difference though was actually outside of the sim. Processing videos is probably about 4x quicker than it used to be. I’m hoping that having more cores and a more modern CPU will be of some benefit when DX12 eventually arrives in the sim, but we’ll see. . . I hope that helps a little? Feel free to ask any questions, if you want to know anything more specific. Thanks again and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks for that good answer, i understand about you being able to do more with your extra power and so on that i will be upgrading my cpu for at least 8 cores or properly more. What i have a problem with is multi tasking on my second monitor. With MFS running on my 35" and that is fine, but say listing to music while flying i am seeing much needed grunt being taken away from the sim to other tasks. As said, on its own MFS runs nice on its own. Your answer has made that even clearer for me now. Thanks my friend
You’re most welcome! Glad the answer was of some use. If you’re specifically interested in multi-tasking, then I don’t think you’ll regret it. I was honestly shocked at just how much quicker the new CPU was vs the older one, despite the clock speed being only slightly higher. Good luck, hope the upgrade does the job : )
Hi Jress, In my sim, the Lake Como seaplane base has the code LILY. I’m using some freeware scenery for the area though, so I’m not sure whether the default code is any different (there is still a seaplane base there by default). Either way, the lake is just out to the northwest of LILB airport, so you can find it that way also. Hope that helps! All the best : )
Hi AOSIM, I departed out of the Lake Como seaplane base. I believe there is a default water runway there in the sim, but I was using a 3rd party freeware scenery, which I downloaded from Flightsim.to. I hope that helps. All the best! : )
Agreed, a very pretty aircraft! The float version doesn’t look quite as nice, but I wanted to do some water flying - and it’s nice that we have the option at least : ) All the best!
Yep, understandable Sandhill. It’s a shame Asobo created such a pretty aircraft and then gave it a bit of a wonky flight model. I wouldn’t expect full fidelity for $15, but somewhat more representative / realistic behaviour certainly would have been nice. All the best!
Hello Blue, been watching your videos for a second but can't help but notice a performance degradation in your videos. The frames seem to be WAYYY slower especially in comparison to some of the other flight sim youtubers i watch. I see you're using track IR. Could that be whats happening here?
MSFS has had some performance issues too since SU5. I had smooth frames forever then in SU4 or 5 I started getting frame drops whenever I turn view from side to side. Known issue that Asobo have mentioned will improve in SU6.
Hi Larry, Thanks very much for the feedback. Im always really bad at noticing these sorts of things myself (oddly). I’m sure TrackIR does tend to exacerbate things - I don’t have a low framerate in the sim (I lock it at 60fps and it maintains that quite happily) but that doesn’t always seem to translate into smooth simming. I think my main issues have been recording / editing related though (and then exacerbated by UA-cams video compression). I tweaked some of my settings after your comments - perhaps if you wouldn’t mind watching a little of my P-38 video and letting me know if you think that’s better (the general consensus seems to be that it is): ua-cam.com/video/7hOE1AuPEck/v-deo.html Cheers, all the best! : )
Hi Python, I didn’t experience any such behaviour myself, but I only had the one hardware axis bound to all three throttles in fairness. Also, the review was recorded some time ago of course, so it’s possible that a subsequent sim update is now causing some issues with the aircraft. Are you sure you don’t have any control binding conflicts etc? I hope you manage to get things sorted! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Looks like I probably should've got a HOTAS set haha. Eng 3 throttle control seems to only work above 50% input, so you can operate the aircraft by jiggling it around until the engine RPMs are roughly the same. I rebound engines 1, 2 and 3 to different axis each time, so it must be something to do with the game. Otherwise the 52 is a pleasure to fly, I've always wanted to be a Ju-Air pilot haha!
Hi Ivan, It’s Lake Como in Northern Italy. I believe there is a default water runway there, but I was using a freeware scenery (available from Flightsim.to) for this video. If you head to Lugano or Locarno airports, they are in the same region and the scenery is also rather stunning. I hope that helps. All the best! : )
For me, the Ju 52 falls into that category of managing to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time haha. It’s definitely an evocative design either way : ) All the best!
Haha, same here Greebo! For me it’s pretty much bang on, in terms of FPS, to the C152. Unfortunately I think I was having an issue with video recording / processing; but I believe I’ve nailed down the cause of that now, so hopefully that’s been remedied going forward. Cheers! : )
That’s no fault of the aircraft Petter; I find the Ju 52 to be very much on a par with the default C152 in terms of FPS. Unfortunately I think I was having some recording / video processing issues on this one (I don’t have much of an eye for framerates myself apparently). I think I’ve figured out what was causing the issue though, so hopefully it will be remedied going forward. Thanks for the info though. All the best! : )
Hi DCC, Overall I didn't find the aircraft too bad to fly myself (asides from the "quirky" flight model). There are a couple of things I could think of that might be causing your issue; 1) Weight and balance: Make sure the aircraft is loaded reasonably and that the CofG is within limits (by default this shouldn't be an issue, if I remember correctly). 2) The JU 52 actually uses the same control wheel to adjust both the flaps and the trim. You will need to pull the lever (located just inside of the control wheel I seem to recall) to select which control surface you're looking to operate. Perhaps you have been operating the flaps, as opposed to the trim? Otherwise, I'm not really sure what might be causing the aircraft to nose-dive I'm afraid. The flight model certainly has its issues, but I found the aircraft very flyable overall. I hope maybe some of that helps. Cheers, all the best! : )
On closer inspection (having watched the video back), it looks as though the gauge discussed in reference to the autopilot, is actually some sort of primitive HSI. As for the autopilot itself; I'm afraid I'm none the wiser as to if / how it works haha.
All the best everyone!
The two gauges with the bank needles with red tips are related to the VOR. Once you tune a VOR they kick to life and give you guidance towards station. The left one even has a vertical bar which gives you distance to the VOR station, but only works within 10nm from what I experienced.
I read up on it and there should be a red light on the same distance gauge that turns on when you are over the VOR stations but seems inop in sim.
There is also a radio needle on copilot side showing VOR station direction. However that gauge looks like an ADF one for NDB navigation. Maybe they decided to make it VOR instead of ADF given how few NDB are still active in the real world.
After turning on the autopilot master behind the yoke, the gyrocompass to the right of the artificial horizon has a heading hold switch and a crank to adjust the heading bug. The autopilot on this aircraft uses yaw to maintain heading, so the pilot must still control pitch and roll.
Yes, thanks Vograx! Figured that one out when re-watching the video and watching the gauges behaviour (couldn’t make much sense of it during the flight haha). Interesting little bit of kit then, probably quite advanced for its time.
I’d imagine the radio beacons available back then were essentially NDBs, but as you say, maybe Asobo chose to change the functionality there, given the relative lack of NDBs these days. Personally I think that was probably a good call; makes the aircraft more useable in the sim.
Cheers : )
It is more like a heading hold than a autopilot
Thanks Sithira. I think I’ve gotten the hang of it now (after a bit of trial and error haha). It still would have been great to have had some documentation, would have made life easier. I still think Asobo should consider adding a proper autopilot to the retrofitted version as well.
Thanks for the info : )
the IL2-Sturmovik wiki has some performance figures for the real-world Ju-52. Stall speed in flight configuration: 105 to 117 km/h, stall speed in takeoff/landing configuration: 92 to 109 km/h (so absolutely no taking off with a full load of passengers at 75 km/h as per Asobo...), Takeoff speed: 100 to 120 km/h, Glideslope speed: 140 to 155 km/h, Landing speed: 95 to 110 km/h. Engine would overheat and fail after 5 minutes at takeoff thrust.
Thanks for the info Bernard. Pretty much what I figured, something isn’t right with the Ju 52 then. Someone made the point though and it’s a potentially valid one, perhaps the gauge is simply not calibrated correctly (showing knots instead of kph for example). Not the first Asobo aircraft this would have been an issue with I believe. I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to test, but haven’t found the time to do it myself yet.
Either way, something isn’t right and could do with being addressed.
Thanks again, all the best! : )
Unfortunately it flies so unrealistic. It looks good but flies like shit… maybe there will be an update for it to fix this…
I hope there is an update. I had thought there might have been one by now actually. . .
All the best : )
According to the documentation of the X-Plane version of the Ju-52 by Olixsim the speeds are as follows:
Tail lift: 60kph
V1: 90kph
VR: 110kph
V2 120-130kph
Best rate of climb: 140kph at flaps 10
Flap retract: above 150kph
Absolutely L O V E D the retro flashbacks you integrated into this vid. Stunning work, and it really made me want to fly this. 10/10 for inspiration and nostalgia.
I agree. (And I wanted to comment to make the algorithm happy.)
Haha, thank you very much Marc. Hopefully that will keep the algorithm satiated, for a small while at least XD
All the best!
Thanks very much Pierre! Great to hear that you enjoyed the little trip back in time ; )
If you did head for Lake Como, I hope you had a pleasant flight!
Happy flying and all the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Yay - you knew it was me, even tho I changed my avatar !! ...phew... !
; )
Great review as ever. Your reviews to me are my gauge to what I should part money for as they are always on the money in terms of honesty, depth and accuracy. As for the JU 52 I think it is a no brainer for me to purchase as it is a very low price but a good fun aircraft to use. Thank you again.
Thanks Dave!
Glad you enjoyed the review and indeed that you’re finding the content useful in general : )
I agree that the Ju 52, whilst not perfect, is a bit of a no-brainer for a lot of people. The flight model could still use some work, but overall it’s a nice aircraft in most respects and importantly, it’s also great fun!
Thanks very much once again and all the best!
As usual you made this review both immersive and nostalgic. Cheers!
Thank you very much, happy you thought so! All the best : )
42:14 The co-pilot just staring at you making sure you're giving this plane a good review lol
Haha! Well let’s hope he was happy with the end result of the video then Curtis, lest he try and sabotage my efforts on the next flight! : P
All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations all the best my friend ! Keep making these awesome videos :)
My goodness what a difference in reviewer quality as well. Your video was so much more pleasant to watch than the other person I came across. Probably going to get this as well despite owning the Il-2 one. Flight model vs clickable cockpit I guess.
Well thank you very much Jules, very kind of you to say! I try my best to make my reviews interesting flights in their own right, so I’m really glad you enjoyed it : )
The Ju52 isn’t a bad pickup overall. It’s the best of the “Local Legends” aircraft to date and quite nice for the odd vintage outing.
If you do pick it up; happy flying and all the best!
keep making top tier vids like this and youre gonna be over 100k in no time. love your style, my go to msfs reviewer.
Haha, well thank you very much! Always great to hear when someone is enjoying the content and finding it useful. I certainly try my best to make the videos / reviews as engaging and informative as I can - make the flight interesting in its own right. Here’s to hoping your prediction has some legs to it ; )
Thanks very much once again, all the best! : )
Mine too!
Thanks very much Svante! Very kind of you to say : )
All the best!
Great video as always. Loved sitting back an just admiring the scenery, listening to the vintage tunes. Great stuff, thank you 😀🛩
Cheers Adam!
I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I enjoyed making it and I was quite happy with the end result. Sorry I couldn't provide you with a glass of red wine for the journey! ; )
Ciao! : )
I very much enjoy my JU-52. I've completed a couple of flights in the 1939 version here in New Zealand. I didn't really notice the lack of an autopilot because the conditions were quite calm. So I powered up the newer version for a longer flight from Sydney (YSSY) to Brisbane (YBBN) and was flying at 9,000 feet. There were strong winds from the west and quite a lot of turbulence and I have to admit that I really wanted an autopilot. It was hard work keeping her on course and at the correct altitude. So if Asobo decide to go with a working autopilot, I'm in. I had a model of a DC-2 in FSX which is an aeroplane of roughly the same vintage (and capacity) and it had a working autopilot. Loved the review and the nostalgic video and music were really impressive. Greetings as always.
Hi Squirel,
I certainly think Asobo should reconsider the lack of autopilot on the retrofitted version. I gather the cockpit is based on a real-world airframe, but I think an autopilot is a very reasonable concession to make for the sim (and not unrealistic either). Even if the autopilot only gives wings-level and alt-hold, that would be something. For people who want to make longer trips (like the one you described) it’s a lot of hands on work otherwise - too much for many to find enjoyable.
Glad you enjoyed the review / the little trip back in time. Thanks and all the best! : )
Awesome video your videos really seem to stand out amongst the others. Fabulous intro.
Thank you very much! Very kind of you to say and really great to hear of course. I certainly try my best to make the videos as good as I am able to. Glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time ; )
Thanks again and all the best! : )
Excellent done review and video.
Thank you very much and take care 👍
Thank you as always sir! Glad you enjoyed they little trip back in time ; )
All the best!
GREAT video, this is the longest intro I have EVER watched and loved every second. What a wonderful video to watch. I would also like to see some wear on the plane both interior and exterior. The models look like they just came off the assembly line. As you mentioned, there needs to be some corrections to the flight characteristics but as you say, this is a good "bang for the buck". Thanks for all the editing time you put into this video, made me a subscriber! !! !!!
Thank you very much once again! Happy to hear you enjoyed it.
I started the channel purely with the intention of making some half-decent / accurate flight simulation content, but I’ve been enjoying the “artistic” aspect of things more and more as I’ve gone along haha. Don’t think I’ll be winning an Oscar any time soon, but I enjoy setting the scene etc.
I agree that some more wear and tear would be good - then again, it was 1937 in the video ; )
It’s not a perfect plane, but it is certainly a fun one (which of course is also important)! At $15, I can forgive a lot. . .
Thanks very much for the sub - welcome aboard! : )
Beautifuly done!! The nostagic scenes are absolutely nice😍
Tank you!😊
Thanks very much Andreas! I like trying to create cinematic scenes in the sim, so I’m very happy you enjoyed watching : )
Cheers and all the best!
Nice video.My real life airport LSZL Locarno is nearly , just a couple of valley to the north west. The idroscalo of Como, for what I know, is the only Seaplane flying school in Europe. I have been there many times as it is really near the city center.
Ah lovely Antonio, what an amazing home airport to have! I am indeed familiar with Locarno, if only from the sim and it appears to be a beautiful area. I love this part of the world in general, it’s stunning.
Happy flying and all the best! : )
yes it is a lovely airport, just at the north end of lake Maggiore. Sun, the lake, palms tree everywere and huge mountains behind, three runways. I have earned my SPL licence here, wonderful place for flying with gliders ( we have a runway only for gliders). There is the swiss military flying school with PC7 and the second swiss military acro team, GA helicopters and gliders.
Brilliant, thank you, I've watched umpteen review videos by others, but your is always the fairest, she may not be the prettiest but she is the loveliest and a steal for the price, I hope life is treating you well and look forward seeing the next review👏👏👍👍
Thanks very much Mark, very kind of you to say!
Haha, it’s definitely one of those aircraft that falls into the “ beautiful yet ugly” category. As you say though, excellent value for money (not to mention, good fun)!
All very good here on my end thanks; got rather busy with work, hence the review being a bit slow to go up. Hope you’re well, thanks again and all the best! : )
What a grat video, I love every second of it, nice work dude!
Thanks very much Roberto! Glad you enjoyed it : )
All the best!
Wow, this is a very professional production of an aircraft review. I have watched some of your earlier videos and they were good, but this video takes the biscuit. It contains a reasoned review of all aspects of the aircraft and I thought the inclusion of some period music really set me in the right time frame. I hope that Asobo do fix a few of the bugs just to make a good product, a very good product, and of course the price is just fantastic.
Many thanks.
Thank you very much Graham! Very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video and the little trip back in time.
As you say, the product is already very good, but a few minor tweaks (that I hope it receives) and it could be rather excellent (especially for the price).
Thanks again and all the best! : )
Breathtaking
Thanks very much! Glad you enjoyed it : )
All the best!
Fantastic video - that intro is just lovely. Well done!
Thanks very much Rene! Really happy you enjoyed a little bit of Italian nostalgia ; )
All the best!
I came across a pdf manual in one of the forums but it is completely in German. From what I understand, is that during takeoff you push the yoke forward slightly until reaching 110/120 km/h and release pressure and if needed pull back on the yoke gently. Apparently if you start on the runway the flaps and trim are in the incorrect position for a real world take off
Ah ok, thanks for the info Lt. Bran!
A few people have mentioned the manual, but my German skills certainly aren’t up to that haha. If that’s the real-world technique, not applying it would perhaps account for some of the aircrafts slightly odd behaviour on the takeoff; I think the flight model still needs some work though. . .
Cheers again! All the best : )
Very well done yet again - bravo!
Thanks very much John, glad you enjoyed the little step back in time : )
All the best!
Outstanding intro! 😀
Thanks very much John! Glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time! ; )
All the best!
This made me take out piper cun from hanger ...... Beautiful flight
Lovely! A very nice area for cruising in the Cub for sure. Hope you enjoyed your flight : )
Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks and all the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations *I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS*
Sir: You outdid yourself on this video! While I appreciated the details on the airplane, the BEST PART was the flight back looking out the passenger window with the music from the 20's or early 20's in the background. It was like really being there. Thanks so much!
Now, if you do a review on the Milviz Electra, you HAVE to do a flight from Casablanca to Lisbon with the same vintage treatment. Be sure Elsa is onboard. That would be PERFECT!
Thank you Dennis!
I’m glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time, I must admit I was quite happy with how the video came out. I enjoyed the window view, something so simple - but I think it’s the music that makes it.
I’m really torn on the Electra. Certainly looks like my kind of aircraft, but perhaps not in the best state yet. The supposed twitchy flight model is really what’s been putting me off (I very nearly bought the aircraft yesterday haha). I very much like your idea for the flight though and will certainly take if into consideration (I was amazed / saddened to see the appropriate livery is not included with the aircraft)!
Thanks for the kind words! All the best : )
Beautiful !!!
I have the junkers 52 too and I like the plane
Yeah, overall the Ju 52 isn’t a bad offering from Asobo. I feel like the flight model could use some tweaks, but in most other respects it’s a very decent aircraft for the price. I need to get out and fly it myself again at some point actually (it’s been a while)!
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Happy flying! : )
Somehow missed this video when you first posted it. Only noticed when I saw it in the related videos section when watching one of yours others. Oh well, finally got here! Nice flight! Was hoping you'd shout clear prop for the left and centre after your 'first officer' shouted for the right though!
Plane ain't too bad. Bought it when it came out and have flew it around a bit, mostly in South America. Fun flying it over the Andes! That prop annoyed me as well but there's a mod for that on flightsim.to. It is annoying they didn't give us any documentation but there's a thread on the official forum which contains a lot of info that people managed to figure out including various settings for take-off, climbing, cruise etc and figuring out the autopilot thingy although I forget the specifics now. There's also an error with either the retro or modernised plane with the engines, one of them is supposed to have supercharged engines but that's not modelled. She does look and sound lovely and flies nicely even if, as you said, the climb speed in the retro version is a bit overdone. Modernised one is a bit underpowered on the other hand, but I mostly fly the old one so don't mind. But overall she's a nice plane and at is a bargain at the price.
A final note: Asobo didn't actually do this plane! Microsoft hired an outside party to develop it. Well I guess Microsobo did the 3d scanning and audio recording for the 3d model but the meat and bones, flight modelling and systems were done by a dude who did a Ju52 for X-Plane I believe. I think they're also doing the same with the An-2 coming out as another local legends in a few months. I hope that one comes with a bit of documentation, I think one of the top honchos who does the monthly videos said something about improving in that area but I'm not sure. Probably another thing on the list of many things they want to do and might get around to one day if we're lucky.
Anyhoo, cheers for the vid!
Haha, UA-cam doing the dirty on me one again eh?! : P
Well I'm glad you got the chance to watch it, if only for the intro; I was quite pleased with that one, if I do say so myself haha!
Yeah, overall it's a nice offering from "Asobo". As with most of their works, a few small tweaks and it could have been something pretty fantastic, but nonetheless it is very nice and a very reasonable price as you say.
It's funny that you mention about the 3rd party programmer. I noticed that myself only the other day. When I was updating the aircraft, I noticed it was credited to both Asobo and some other chap. It's good that they are slowly brining in more help from the outside - should lead to a more rounded sim.
I'm going through another round of catching up on correspondence, so I apologies for the slow reply!
Cheers, Megadyptes! Thanks for watching : )
Some engine / flight characteristics data:
2050rpm for take off, 1 minute max below 900m
Liftoff speed around 110kph, flaps at 25°
1950rpm allowed for 30 minutes, 2050 above 900m
Takes 330m to lift off at 10 tons weight, 580m until reaching 20m altitude
For climb, set flaps to 10°, speed 140kph
Max. continuous is 1925rpm, cruise power is at 1850rpm
Cruise speed is 240kph at 500 and 1000m, 220 at 2500 and 175kph at 5000m
:)
I suspect the retrofitted version having the speed gauge off, displaying knots on the kph scale. Wouldn't be the first aircraft from Asobo to do this in MSFS ;)
Screenshot your comment and will use for future reference - thank you!
Haha, likewise!
Thank you very much for the info Rainbow Dash! Very helpful. Used it on my flight yesterday, seemed to work rather nicely. I just wish Asobo had included such data themselves. . . The aircraft isn’t as far off the numbers as I had originally imagined by the looks of it then; but going off the online data I could find + filing in the gaps, originally it was difficult to tell (and seemed overpowered).
That’s a very good point re the ASI. I do recall another aircraft having the same issues (I can’t remember which, off the top of my head). That would explain quite a bit. I still think flight model isn’t quite right though, given how quickly I was able to get airborne - even on the water.
Thanks once again. Very much appreciated! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations It was at least the case with the Shock Ultra (don't even know if it's still).
I guess you have a point with the takeoff from water. My first experience with a floatplane in sims was the DHC-2 in Flight Unlimited 2, and that was brilliant. Really felt like the thing being on water, just give it a short notch of thrust and see how it keeps going, slowing down very slowly. Really gave you the feel you had to tie the thing down in a port so it won't crash into something by itself. Same for the takeoffs and landings. It was very hard to gett off the surface, you really had to gradually lift it out of the water. If you pulled too little, it wouldn't accelerate enough, if you pulled to much the induced drag of the floats would make it go slower as well, it was mandatory to ride the sweet spot. On the landings you had to be extremely smooth so it won't tilt over, but as soon as you're slow enough, you could push the thing down to increase water drag for slowing it down quicker. I've never seen such a level of hydrodynamics anymore in a flight sim, sadly. It literally feels like just a runway that's a bit slippery everywhere else I was able to try floatplanes. That being FSX, FS20 and Rise of Flight.
Yes, I think it might have been the Shock Ultra that I was thinking of.
Haha, sounds rather impressive for a sim of that vintage! MSFS is incredibly basic in the water physics department (I think FSX was better even), seems like there’s almost no drag at the moment (amongst other things). The Ju 52 was almost airborne by the time I had the throttles up at 50% haha. Still, it’s “early days” so hopefully they’ll continue to improve things.
All the best! : )
Good review - I love flying this aircraft - and I prefer the old vintage over the retrofit. Agree with you - feel like its overpowered (or whatever you call it) for take-off. Also, props are not well animated (not as bothered by the light). I had to google everything to translate the cockpit - but it was worth it. I don't think I could have started this plane up 12 months ago when I started my MSFS re-entry. I am hoping for some nice liveries - even if they are not realistic, would like to see some old BEA or similair. Thanks for the review - seems fair and for the price - definitely worth the price. Look forward to a fix for it, I think i might go to Italy now.,.... thanks! Love the cinematics.
Haha, well I neeearly went retrofit for the video, just to avoid the crash-course in German; but like you, I much prefer the vintage version overall (naturally). That’s a nice effort to go from zero to hero in a year (and learn basic German on top of that haha)!
I see there are some nice liveries up now. There’s on okay-ish BA one (a bit of misplaced texturing on one of the panels), but like you I’m hoping for a BEA scheme at some point (I believe they did operate the aircraft). Overall a very nice aircraft, with just a couple of tweaks still needed.
Hope you enjoyed cruising around Lake Como! ; )
Cheers Mark. All the best : )
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 came with the Ford Tri-Motor aircraft.
It did indeed Mughug. I would have preferred a Tri-Motor in MSFS personally, but maybe that’s just me.
FS2004 is my all-time favourite sim in terms of aircraft line-up. It had so many interesting / classic aircraft to fly; I also really enjoyed the adventures / missions etc.
All the best : )
Great video as always, thank you :-). Will hold off on this until the autopilt is resolved - I am not a 5-hour hands on pilot lol. Thanks again - loved the nostalgic feeling of the video :-)
Thanks James! : )
On further inspection, it seems maybe the autopilot works as it should (again, it’s just been trial and error without some documentation to work with). It seems to basically offer a *very* loose heading-hold function and that’s about it. I still haven’t got it fully worked out, but either way, flying the aircraft is still a lot of hands-on work haha. I really wish they’d given the more modern version a proper autopilot, seems like an obvious thing to do. I believe it’s based on a real-world airframe, but still. . .
Glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time ; )
All the best!
Getting some strong Porco Rosso vibes ☺️☺️ very relaxing 🏖
Haha! Not something I was familiar with Davide, but I just had a look on google; looks like rather an entertaining show haha!
Cheers! All the best : )
Excellent content again , really enjoyable !! 👍 . I'm really enjoying the Ju52 myself and think its fantastic value for money . Yes , it has some issues , but the positives , for me ,completely out-way the negatives . Also , something about these old birds and MSFS , that fits so well together ( you really captured this in the vid 👍) .
( P.s The Mach1 fighter jocks can have their DCS world , vintage and slow for me !! 😂 ) .
Thank you sir, glad you enjoyed it!
Completely agree that MSFS and this sort of flying fit perfectly together. I think I said as much in the review, but then cut the comment out. MSFS is somewhat finding its own niche at this point - obviously the jets will arrive eventually, but it’s quite nice having a sim that’s perfect for low and slow, with a multitude of interesting aircraft to fly (which aren’t generally found in other sims). The Ju 52 certainly being one of them! I do hope it gets just a little tweak to its flight model though haha.
Thanks and all the best! : )
Mmmh for the price I think it's a really nice module; the lift is pretty high on IL-2 as well but somehow the speed feels more manageable there. This one almost feels like an AN-2 at times. Some of the quirks from IL-2 seem to be missing though; they were implemented in a weird way to make controls manageable but somehow it doesn't seem like there are any "quirks" to the FS version; I mean for example flaps and trim are linked in IL-2; and the brake system is supposed to be managed using the throttle - below 20% brakes would engage. I would probably need to review a "tutorial" on a real life Ju52 to actually know which one is more accurate now :P
Agreed; I think for the price it’s a very nice effort indeed! I’m not all that familiar with the Ju 52 myself, but I get the impression this aircraft is more of a Ju 52 “experience”, than a Ju 52 sim (if that makes sense). I don’t think it’s a perfect addon, but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless. I’ll have to give the IL2 version a go at some point, just to compare.
Cheers, all the best! : )
Really cool intro! Enjoyed that a lot. Always loved aircraft from the 1930 to late 50’s era. So many great planes and bold designs back then :)
Thanks very much Vograx, glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, the whole period seemingly had a bit more “soul” in terms of aircraft design (and indeed many other aspects). I think style was still a consideration, as much as efficiency or functionality. Sadly in today’s world, the endless drive for efficiency has left most aircraft looking a bit generic. A lot of aircraft from the era are interesting to look at and indeed operate it seems - the Ju 52 being no exception : )
All the best!
CLEAR PROP, PROP, PROP love the great intro - insta click
Hahaha, indeed! Thanks very much once again, really glad you enjoyed the little trip back in time : )
All the best!
I don't why they didn't add the autopilot to the retrofitted version. I've seen one or two version of these planes looking up a few things (like the PoH), and they have a Garmin or some such GPS/Autopilot sitting on top of the dash, bellow the compass.
I agree Melon. I’ve seen examples of real Ju 52s with more complex avionics. I believe the retrofit version is based on a real world airframe (so credit to Asobo for trying to recreate it faithfully) but I still think they should have added an autopilot, even if it’s not native to that particular aircraft. It’s a very small concession to make and would have made the aircraft eminently more useable for a lot of people. Hopefully they’ll reconsider in the future. . .
Cheers!
I'm still somewhat sad my parents didn't allow me to take a flight on one of these when I was younger...
Well I guess now I can in the virtual world.
Overall I have to agree with your review.
For me especially the lack of documentation is a big thing. I never thought I'd say that, however having it with the Turbo Porter is very enjoyable.
Especially the information about the engine.
On the other this is - as you've mentioned - only around 15€. Basically half of any of the other good add ons for the game (excluding the two biplanes and the Husky).
Bang for the buck is basically Asobo's biggest strength currently.
And if they keep improving on quality and keep the price in the same area, then they are going to be tough competition.
Anyways thanks for the review, even though you're currently quite busy.
Cheers!
Haha, I know what you mean - I’m not too happy that my parents never sent me off on Concorde! : P
At least flying on a Ju 52 is still a realistic option at some point in the future . In the mean time you have the virtual version as you say ; )
The value for money of the aircraft is excellent, but even a 2 page “manual” with basic operating numbers would have been a huge help. Otherwise the quality to price ratio is definitely there though.
My pleasure on the review! Glad you’re enjoying the aircraft. It’s always nice to fly something that was homemade I guess : )
All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Well I am definitely too young for the concorde!
Although once airshows are starting again I'm going to go for a lot of flights.
Hopefully I can get one on a Ju as well.
All the best to you as well!
Wow! really nice demo of this new AC! And beautiful graphics! do you have som add-on for that great looking water? Thanks David, Sweden.
Thanks very much David, glad you enjoyed it : )
I’m not using any mod for the water; the sim was stock in this video, bar the aircraft and the Lake Como scenery (which possibly changes the water colours somewhat, now that I think about it - I’m not sure how that works in the sim?).
Thanks again, all the best!
I stumbled upon this video right after watching a montage of the Late Queen Elizabeth II. To think she was just a teenager during this time and to see how much the world has changed within her lifetime is mindblowing to say the least.
It is incredible to think of the changes the Queen witnessed throughout her life. As I mentioned elsewhere, her Majesty was actually one of the few constants throughout modern times!
All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations 👌That is so true! She was the symbol of Peace and Stability in the World!
@22:32 The music! I had visions of 'Flapper Girls' dancing the Charlston and sipping on Coca-Cola, the Real Coke with cocaine, inside of a flying 'speak-easy'.
Haha, thanks Stewie! Those were certainly the sort of vibes I was trying to elicit (well perhaps ever so slightly more subdued haha) - no Coca-Cola for the pilots then! XD
All the best! : )
In VR this plane is SO much fun to fly! I still haven't found the flaps lever inside the cockpit though, only the flaps level indicator...
Under the right side of the pilot seat is the trim/flaps wheel, between it and the seat is a knob that engages the clutch to change the function of the wheel between trim and flaps
Bingo! Exactly. Thanks very much for offering up the help : )
I’ve yet to try it myself I’m VR, but looking forward to giving it a go at some point. Did you figure out the flaps in the end (I see someone else very helpfully posted some pointers)?
All the best : )
@@ThatDrunkenHobo Thank you very much for your guidance, I've seen the flaps lever finally :-) so far I've been using the flaps switch on my logitech panel.
Amazing video.
As for the lift issue I know these where famous for their ability to take off quickly but it is a bit daft especially when fully laden and in water.
Thanks 8obbles! Glad you enjoyed it.
Haha, yeah. The Ju 52 has a big chunky old wing, so I figured it’s built for high lift. But I was almost airborne by the time I had the throttles up at 50%. Unlikely on the ground, let alone the water haha.
Cheers : )
Would love to see operational doors in these aircraft.
On marketplace they write it has.
@@TomaszDurlej They are not operational. The windows (cockpit) are, but not the doors.
@@sithiradulanjithgalhenaged6974 I know. It’s just a little frustration from my side. Probably not very well readable because of body language lack.
Interesting. Maybe that was the intent and they skipped it due to the release deadline. Maybe we’ll get them later. . . Still, a bit naughty to say that, given that the doors don’t seem to work.
Cheers!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations could be
Really well realised video as always. I agree with the flight model but a pleasant aircraft overall. I have recently purchased the Electra from Aeroplane Heaven and really like it so far.
Thanks Cyril! Much appreciated.
Yes, hopefully the flight model gets tweaked, but a very nice effort otherwise (especially for the price).
Interesting, I’ve been on the fence with the Electra (I very nearly bought it yesterday haha). Looks very much like my kind of aircraft, but perhaps a bit “unfinished”? The main thing that’s been putting me off, is the supposed twitchy flight model in pitch; how have you been finding that?
Cheers, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations it seemed very stable “pitchwise” to me. No issue there but I am as refined a pilot as you are. I really like the small touches like the pin-up photo on the cockpit roof and other little thing full of humour in this plane
Ah ok, well thanks very much for the info Cyril. That wasn’t really what I wanted to hear, as I’m now running out of excuses not to buy it haha ; )
It’s very tempting I must say and I have a few ideas of trips I want to take it on. Watch this space I suppose haha. . .
Thanks again!
Great stuff. Always taking msfs vids to the next level. Lake Como is one of my favourite areas (usually flying to/from Samedan). Brilliant music choice too!
Re take-off, I've flown the Ju-52 in IL2 Great Battles and she's surprisingly sprightly. Asobo may have overdone it, but Iron Annie is all about lift over speed, which becomes painfully obvious when Russian fighters are around. Cruising around Lago di Como looks much less stressful.
Cheers Roland!
Yeah, a really stunning part of the world. You can never go too far wrong with the food either haha! I’ll have to check out Samedan; I keep seeing it on the map and thinking that it looks like a nice location.
I figured the Ju 52 probably has quite high lift, with that chunky old wing. I’d imagine Asobo have overcooked it a bit though; 15 knots is the lowest takeoff speed I’ve heard of so far haha.
Yeah, a bit more relaxing just puttering up and down an Italian lake - I feel I’m perhaps getting too old for the stress of getting shot at XD
All the best! : )
Great video and now I have to buy this plane in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. xD
Haha, thank you very much Michael, glad you enjoyed it! Happy flying and all the best : )
Ya know, your vids and info is very good
Thanks very much Gary! I'm glad you think so and very kind of you to say : )
Much appreciated and all the best to you!
i think most "deficiencies" with the MSFS flight modeling can be summed up as "making sure casual gamers can press CTRL-E, floor the throttles, go to third person view so they can admire the 4k PBR textures, yank back on their xbox controller but still get airborn without issue, ignoring inconvient but to the casual gamer irrelevant things like flaps not being set, plane being above takeoff weight, engine overheat, because if they were enforced they'd uninstall and ask for a refund."
@bernard langham - LOL you beat me to it! While gorgeous, it certainly does seem like an oversimplified Xbox "casual gamers" version. The intentional MIA documentation/flight manual seems to confirm this. Oh well, it's still a beautiful aircraft, though. 😁
Haha, well I hope you’re wrong Bernard, but sadly I haven’t seen a lot of evidence to suggest otherwise of late. It’s been well over a year now, with very few improvements to the flight model (the default jets are a little better - but then they were almost un-flyable on release), default auto-flight, systems etc. . .
I guess this next year will really show which direction Asobo intends to take the sim. It has VR, is available on the Xbox etc, so they could / should start to focus on the core sim now. From what I’ve seen of their development timeline, their priorities are not ones I would chose for the sim though.
For GA / VFR it’s still my favourite sim, but it has a long way to go before it could truly be described as a “serious” flight simulator.
All the best!
It is a beautiful aircraft Jim and the lack of documentation is indeed a shame. The silly thing is, Asobo were actually really close to producing a very solid addon (for the price). At $15, I wasn’t expecting an A2A aircraft, but the wonky flight model rather lets down what is otherwise a very nice effort (even a basic 2 page manual with operating data would have been of huge benefit also).
All this being said, I am enjoying the aircraft for what it is, it is still a good bit of fun. I hope it receives some updates going forward.
Hope you’re well, all the best! : )
You can get one or the other. Looks or works. So MSFS and X Plane etc versus FGFS lol
It looks amazing but that rediculous lift at slow speed is a no go for me, it actually kind of pisses me off that they make a beautifull plane and mess up the handling that way. Imagine a half loaded plane, it would get airborne and climb quite crazy rappid.
Thanks for the review and thanks for putting in the effort to showcase that issue. Going to hold off for now.
I agree that it’s a shame Asobo went to all of the trouble of creating a vey pretty and actually quite comprehensive aircraft, only to then give it a somewhat wonky flight model. I’m still enjoying it and I wasn’t expecting exacting fidelity given the price, but they actually came pretty close to (for 15$) knocking it out of the park, but stumbled at the last hurdle it seems.
My pleasure on the review! Glad it helped you make an informed decision, that it the ultimate point after all. Hopefully Asobo take another look at the flight model in the weeks / months ahead.
Cheers and all the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks. Yeah i expect they will fix it at some point, when they di it will be a sure buy. Such an iconic plane.
Hopefully. Someone did make the point that perhaps the gauge is calibrated incorrectly (for knots instead of kmh); that’s certainly possible, since I seem to recall there was another Asobo aircraft that had the same issues. Wouldn’t be too difficult to test / verify I suppose, but I haven’t had a chance to do that myself. Ultimately the aircraft still managed to get airborne suspiciously quickly from the water though. .
Cheers!
Great video! A real pleasure to watch. That airplane is so wrong it’s Right! It’s not always about full fidelity, it’s just the beauty of it and how the cockpit looks and feels. I love that airplane. Yes the flight model is wrong and there’s not enough drag generated when the flaps are extended but quite frankly, I don’t care. What really is disappointing to me is the typical lack of documentation from Asobo aircrafts in general. If they can design it then they must have access to documents so why not create a small basic guide on how to operate it? Another one of my pet peeves is the lack of autopilot option of vintage aircraft. I understand that the original aircraft doesn’t have a proper autopilot but why not follow FlyingIron’s lead on producing a tablet based autopilot has they did on the P-38? JustFlight has implemented the same basic tablet autopilot in the upcoming Hawk. Not realistic of course but how handy on those long cross-country trips, (bathroom breaks). More time for enjoying the beautiful scenery and getting nice screenshots!
Thanks for the great review, I broke my rule this time and bought it before seeing your review 😉 but I figured for that price I couldn’t possibly go wrong.
For approach and landing what seems to work best is to configure with flaps full on downwind and slow to 100 km/h. Then fly a low and flat approach. You’ll run out of elevator trim a little bit but it’s not bad. Keep the power at 1200rpm or so on final and she’ll maintain 100 very nicely and reward you with a butterfly landing!
Thank you once again good sir! I’d agree with all of that: An addon can still be of high quality, not to mention (very importantly) good fun, without ticking all of the boxes. I would still like to see some tweaking of the flight model though and an autopilot really does seem like an obvious thing to add. Even if it’s just a basic wings-level / alt-hold type of affair.
When an aircraft is fairly basic and / or common, I can live without a manual, as chances are I won’t need one, or can find one online. For something like this though, it really is a bit of a hindrance to enjoying the product. Even a 2 page “manual” of operating data would have sufficed. I gather there is a real world manual kicking around somewhere online, so I will have to hunt that down at some point. . . Thanks for the advice on the approach, I’ll give it a go!
Still, a very nice effort at an excellent price. Round of applause to Asobo overall. I can almost understand why you’d want to purchase before watching my review. . . I suppose as you did watch the video thereafter, I can forgive such a transgression ; )
Thanks again and all the best! : )
Other than the plain is the all stock MSFS? Or where there mods.
HI FF,
The scenery for the Lake Como floatplane base is also a mod; it can be found easily enough on Flightsim.to. Other than that, everything was stock.
Cheers and all the best : )
Do you get flickers on your window glare on the Junker model? I do and can't figure out what it is.
Hi RM,
I didn’t notice any flickering last time I flew the Ju52, but it’s been a while to be fair (and I know the aircraft has been updated a couple of times since). Usually you see flickering glass in the sim when you have one transparent texture overlaying another, but I’m not sure what might be causing your issue with the glare I’m afraid. . .
Sorry I can’t be of more help on that one. All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks!
I'd like to see an A2A version of this? MP thats connected to the engine..etc...It would/may keep me awake during the flight! ;) Regarding lift, I believe they are adjusting the lift coefficient with flaps in the next sim update?
Would certainly make for an interesting aircraft David, although there are others I would rather see A2A take up the development of (then again, I’d take anything from them at the moment haha!). Not sure whether it’s an engine issue, or possibly a gauge issue re the manifold pressure (I wonder if the gauge is calibrated correctly in hindsight). As for staying awake, I suppose that would rather depend on how pretty the flight attendant is ; )
They’re adjusting the flaps *again*? That should be good fun haha. I wonder if they’ll make it better or worse this time. Caused a whole host of issues last time they tried that. . . Well, I suppose Asobo are to be commended for continuing to try, hopefully they’ll get it right one of these days (I wish they’d fiddle around with the rudder as opposed to the flaps though!).
All the best! : )
Good review, though I am a Garda guy. Keep on the good work wrt fm and systems. If possible also flying by the numbers and how they compare to the historical numbers or the numbers in the doc, if existent.
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it!
Apologies, but the only Garda I know of is the Irish police force. Were you referring to that, or something else?
Yes, no docs here to go off unfortunately. I did have a bit of a look online to find some basic operating numbers, but I think that lead me slightly astray (I was under the impression that the cruising speed was lower than it actually is). Even a 2 page “manual” of basic operating data would have been nice form Asobo. Ah well. . .
Thanks again! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Lake Garda. Not far from Lake Como.
Ahhh, I see haha. As I say, the Irish police force is also known as “the Garda”, but I couldn’t quite figure out the connection there haha. Well lucky you, I’m sure that’s a beautiful part of the world to live in! : )
Distinti saluti!
Where can I find this airport, by the way? Looks like a great place to take water aircraft off from.
Hi RM,
The "airport" is Lake Como, but the scenery is actually a piece of freeware I downloaded from Flightsim.to. If you head over to the website and search for Lake Como, I'm sure you'll find it no problems. It's well worth downloading - a really nice area to fly in!
I hope that helps, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks so much!
Something I haven’t heard mentioned by others (so maybe it’s just on my end) but for me, the attitude indicator seems a bit off. It seems to significantly underestimate the actual attitude of the aircraft, which is a real issue when flying in non-VFR conditions. But thanks for this review - another cracking video!
I must admit that I hadn’t noticed that myself - but I’ve only flown the aircraft day-VFR so far haha. I shall have to investigate! The aircraft definitely needs a few things touching up, so hopefully the attitude indicator will see some attention if it has issues.
Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks very much once again and all the best : )
Hi Hans,
For sure. If I said otherwise, it was just through force of habit. I’m so used to flying in feet / knots, my brain generally reverts to that by default haha.
Cheers, all the best!
I was waiting for this. I just don’t have the time to watch it right now. 🙈
so finally finished the homework here. :) and it worthed it, it was a brilliant review, my new favorite. I think I will fly the same route myself as well, as I bought it without any thinking as it was the ultimate favorite plane of my father. He even wrote to Junkers and he got some documentation back from them, I will ask him about the details. :) btw I found the swith of the lights in the retrofit version, there are two options: a bright and a more dimmed one.
Haha, well you can have an A+ for your efforts Péter! ; )
Glad you enjoyed the video, I was quite happy with how it came out. Hope you’re enjoying the Ju 52 yourself. Thanks very much for posting the Ju 52 documents on the Discord! Haven’t had a chance to look at them yet myself, but very much looking forward to doing so.
Take care, all the best! : )
Haha, well I’m glad it was worth the wait by the sounds of it Péter! ; )
Cheers!
Just curious. Are you, or were you a pilot at some point? You seem to have an extraordinary amount of knowledge. How many hours? What did you fly? Great video by th way!
Hi Jason,
Thanks very much, I'm really glad you enjoyed the video!
I do indeed fly for a living; I'm currently on the Airbus, been flying various members of the Airbus family for about 10 years now (and flying in various capacities for many years before that). I've also been a flight simmer for probably around 25 years at this point (yikes). I wanted to combine two of my passions and try to inject a little of my real-world experience into my videos / the hobby.
I still very much enjoy simming, it's a great way to experience vintage aircraft such as this, that I'll probably otherwise never have the chance to fly.
Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulationsfirst off, thank you for the great reply. Second, how flipping awesome! I had a feeling you were pretty avid ;) My father was a private instructor back in the day (mid 70's) but stopped flying around the time I was born (trust me, I give him tons of crap for it even to this very day - I never got to fly with him). I'm now 45 years of age and still aspire to obtain a private. Problem is, I can't prioritize it at this point in my life and that can be extremely unsafe as you know. I too, as well as my father are both big time "simmers". Been simming since the very first version of Microsoft Flight Simulator! So much fun, and rather mind blowing with the computer power of today. Again, thank you for the reply. I look forward to seeing more of your videos! I'll subscribe! By the way, you convinced me to purchase the Junkers. What a price for such an awesome asset!
Dude, do you use any mod for water?
Hi Cloves,
I don’t use any mod for the water, no. A few knots of wind can make a big difference though, turning everything from a millpond, into the more textured depiction that you see here (of course, whether or not you’re able to customise windspeed, will depend on whether you’re using Live Weather ; )
I hope that helps. All the best!
Your comment on the prop discs triggered me. I hate the prop animations with wagon wheel effect that we've had for about two decades now.
The wagon wheel effect (the turning "blurry" prop blades) is an artefact of capturing a spinning propeller with a camera. My eyes are not cameras. Very much like lens flares, the "cinematic" prop animations are saying "you're not really there, you're watching camera footage".
You might not have noticed, but your brain did.
And don't get me started complaining about the effects of these prop animations in VR, like how they can make the whole world ahead of you wobble because of how the Asobo graphics engine treats transparent objects, or how they mess with Motion Smoothing or Asynchronous Time Warp.
in a similar fashion, tracer bullets in computer games are always depicted as glowing lines (an artifact of camera shutter speed and exposure time) quite unlike the the glowing balls which a human observer percieves.
Huh, interesting Bernard. Wasn’t aware of that one myself.
Cheers! : )
Haha, well sorry to bring it up then Mark - but yes, I rather tend to agree. Some devs do it better than others, but I find the Ju 52s particularly bad - especially externally, with the sun shining on them (they almost look like solid disks, very FS98).
As for how they affect VR - I can’t even stand to turn motion reprojection on, because of all the artifacting etc. Without it though, MSFS in VR is a bit of a no-go for me.
I don’t pretend to know any better alternatives for producing the prop disk effect etc, but as I say, other devs (and indeed Asobo themselves) seem to have managed much better efforts on other aircraft.
All the best! : )
I just wanted to ask you if you have seen a noticeable difference after you upgraded your i7 6700K to what you currently have. I have the I7 7700K and the RTX 2080, and 32 meg memory and still feel MFS is still giving me a good 45 to 70 FPS, mostly flying the Mooney and the Pipers.. Good review as ever👍👍
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the review!
If you’re getting 45-70fps, I don’t think you’ll notice a huge difference necessarily. I did notice a difference for sure, but not a drastic one. Things are definitely smoother now (that was the most noticeable change, but my top-end fps hasn’t gone up drastically, rather my low-end fps is now higher on average. I’ve gone from being CPU limited to GPU limited generally now. I lock my framerate at 60fps and generally the sim will maintain that under most conditions now, whereas previously it wouldn’t. VR is still a bit of no-go for me in the sim.
Where I’ve really noticed a huge difference though was actually outside of the sim. Processing videos is probably about 4x quicker than it used to be. I’m hoping that having more cores and a more modern CPU will be of some benefit when DX12 eventually arrives in the sim, but we’ll see. . .
I hope that helps a little? Feel free to ask any questions, if you want to know anything more specific.
Thanks again and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks for that good answer, i understand about you being able to do more with your extra power and so on that i will be upgrading my cpu for at least 8 cores or properly more. What i have a problem with is multi tasking on my second monitor. With MFS running on my 35" and that is fine, but say listing to music while flying i am seeing much needed grunt being taken away from the sim to other tasks. As said, on its own MFS runs nice on its own. Your answer has made that even clearer for me now. Thanks my friend
You’re most welcome! Glad the answer was of some use.
If you’re specifically interested in multi-tasking, then I don’t think you’ll regret it. I was honestly shocked at just how much quicker the new CPU was vs the older one, despite the clock speed being only slightly higher.
Good luck, hope the upgrade does the job : )
From where do i get the download?
Hi Werner,
The aircraft is available to purchase through the in-sim Marketplace : )
Cheers!
What is the water departure airport used?
Hi Jress,
In my sim, the Lake Como seaplane base has the code LILY. I’m using some freeware scenery for the area though, so I’m not sure whether the default code is any different (there is still a seaplane base there by default). Either way, the lake is just out to the northwest of LILB airport, so you can find it that way also.
Hope that helps! All the best : )
from what airport did yoy start?
Hi AOSIM,
I departed out of the Lake Como seaplane base. I believe there is a default water runway there in the sim, but I was using a 3rd party freeware scenery, which I downloaded from Flightsim.to.
I hope that helps. All the best! : )
Absolutely lovely aircraft, I just think the floats don't really match the rest of the aircrafts detail. Other than that it's great!
Agreed, a very pretty aircraft! The float version doesn’t look quite as nice, but I wanted to do some water flying - and it’s nice that we have the option at least : )
All the best!
Still, until they fix the bizarre arcade flight model, I'm leaving it on the shelf. Takeoffs at 17 kts with no headwind is enough to turn me off...
Yep, understandable Sandhill. It’s a shame Asobo created such a pretty aircraft and then gave it a bit of a wonky flight model. I wouldn’t expect full fidelity for $15, but somewhat more representative / realistic behaviour certainly would have been nice.
All the best!
G.VIDEO.
Thank you very much Eddy! Really glad you enjoyed it : )
All the best!
Hello Blue, been watching your videos for a second but can't help but notice a performance degradation in your videos. The frames seem to be WAYYY slower especially in comparison to some of the other flight sim youtubers i watch. I see you're using track IR. Could that be whats happening here?
MSFS has had some performance issues too since SU5. I had smooth frames forever then in SU4 or 5 I started getting frame drops whenever I turn view from side to side. Known issue that Asobo have mentioned will improve in SU6.
@@Vograx ahhh good info. Hope it gets fixed right.
Hi Larry,
Thanks very much for the feedback. Im always really bad at noticing these sorts of things myself (oddly). I’m sure TrackIR does tend to exacerbate things - I don’t have a low framerate in the sim (I lock it at 60fps and it maintains that quite happily) but that doesn’t always seem to translate into smooth simming. I think my main issues have been recording / editing related though (and then exacerbated by UA-cams video compression). I tweaked some of my settings after your comments - perhaps if you wouldn’t mind watching a little of my P-38 video and letting me know if you think that’s better (the general consensus seems to be that it is):
ua-cam.com/video/7hOE1AuPEck/v-deo.html
Cheers, all the best! : )
Anyone else get strange throttle behaviour for eng 3?
Hi Python,
I didn’t experience any such behaviour myself, but I only had the one hardware axis bound to all three throttles in fairness. Also, the review was recorded some time ago of course, so it’s possible that a subsequent sim update is now causing some issues with the aircraft. Are you sure you don’t have any control binding conflicts etc?
I hope you manage to get things sorted! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Looks like I probably should've got a HOTAS set haha. Eng 3 throttle control seems to only work above 50% input, so you can operate the aircraft by jiggling it around until the engine RPMs are roughly the same. I rebound engines 1, 2 and 3 to different axis each time, so it must be something to do with the game. Otherwise the 52 is a pleasure to fly, I've always wanted to be a Ju-Air pilot haha!
Can someone tell me wow can I find this location in mfs
Hi Ivan,
It’s Lake Como in Northern Italy. I believe there is a default water runway there, but I was using a freeware scenery (available from Flightsim.to) for this video. If you head to Lugano or Locarno airports, they are in the same region and the scenery is also rather stunning.
I hope that helps. All the best! : )
What a beautiful aircraft and it was Hitler's mode of transport I believe during WW2.
For me, the Ju 52 falls into that category of managing to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time haha. It’s definitely an evocative design either way : )
All the best!
wow that aircraft is very very very very laggy
Guess it depends on your hardware but in my experience it has virtually no impact on framerate.
Same here ..great aircraft with no effect on my fps
No hit on framerate whatsoever for me in any of the Junkers variants.
Haha, same here Greebo! For me it’s pretty much bang on, in terms of FPS, to the C152. Unfortunately I think I was having an issue with video recording / processing; but I believe I’ve nailed down the cause of that now, so hopefully that’s been remedied going forward.
Cheers! : )
That’s no fault of the aircraft Petter; I find the Ju 52 to be very much on a par with the default C152 in terms of FPS. Unfortunately I think I was having some recording / video processing issues on this one (I don’t have much of an eye for framerates myself apparently). I think I’ve figured out what was causing the issue though, so hopefully it will be remedied going forward.
Thanks for the info though. All the best! : )
Do you know why the plane can’t trim out (level flight) mine nose dives with max trim, I could see you had to keep pulling back to keep it level too?
Hi DCC,
Overall I didn't find the aircraft too bad to fly myself (asides from the "quirky" flight model). There are a couple of things I could think of that might be causing your issue;
1) Weight and balance: Make sure the aircraft is loaded reasonably and that the CofG is within limits (by default this shouldn't be an issue, if I remember correctly).
2) The JU 52 actually uses the same control wheel to adjust both the flaps and the trim. You will need to pull the lever (located just inside of the control wheel I seem to recall) to select which control surface you're looking to operate. Perhaps you have been operating the flaps, as opposed to the trim?
Otherwise, I'm not really sure what might be causing the aircraft to nose-dive I'm afraid. The flight model certainly has its issues, but I found the aircraft very flyable overall.
I hope maybe some of that helps. Cheers, all the best! : )