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vFlyteAir Tiger versus Traveler or ….

Introduction

This introduction reveals a review about the vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger AA-5, model version 4.1. But before moving on, what’s this for aircraft type? Let us check this at Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia “The US Grumman American AA-5 series is a family of all-metal, four-seat, light aircraft used for touring and training. The line includes the original American Aviation AA-5 Traveler, the Grumman American AA-5 Traveler, AA-5A Cheetah, and AA-5B Tiger, the Gulfstream American AA-5A Cheetah, and AA-5B Tiger, the American General AG-5B Tiger, and the Tiger Aircraft AG-5B Tiger.

The final variant of the AA-5 line was the AA-5B Tiger. The Tiger was designed by Grumman engineers and was first produced in late 1974 as the 1975 model.

The Tiger was the outcome of the same redesign work on the AA-5 Traveler that resulted in the 150HP (110kW) Cheetah and it was originally little more than the same aircraft with a Lycoming O-360-A4K 180HP (130kW) engine, resulting in a 139-knot (257km/h) cruise speed. Gross weight was increased from the AA-5/AA-5A’s 2,200lbs (1,000kg) to 2,400lbs (1,100kg) on the Tiger. Externally the Tiger looked much like the AA-5 Traveler and AA-5A Cheetah so once again Grumman’s marketing department came up with a distinctive decal package to differentiate the design – this time a “galloping tiger”.

Still with me?
Let me highlight once more the difference between the Traveler and Tiger, in case you’re lost.
AA-5 Traveler:
1971 four-seat version of the AA-1 with a 150hp (110kW) Lycoming O-320-E2G engine, 821 built.

AA-5B Tiger:
1974 variant with a 180hp (130kW) Lycoming O-360-A4K engine and increased takeoff weight, 1323 built.”

More information about the Grumman AA-5 Series and thus also the Tiger and Traveler, can be found via this Wikipedia link.

But what are the differences?
What’s that for question …. what or which differences are there between the vFlyteAir Grumman Traveler and Grumman Tiger. Time to ask Walker Guthrie from vFlyteAir “The Tiger is of course very similar to the Grumman Traveler, however, it comes with the following differences:
– The Tiger’s empennage is re-designed with a wider horizontal stabilizer,
– Tiger has wheel fairings for improved speed,
– Full autopilot capabilities,
– Dual Course Deviation Indicators,
– GPS Integrated with autopilot,
– 180hp (vs. Traveler’s 150hp),
– Eight new liveries, including two special tiger-stripe schemes.”

These differences are not only applicable for the real aircraft, but also for the modeled Tiger. That said, I think it’s time to see and check with my own eyes how this Grumman Tiger looks like and how it flies.

Ho ho, hold on … any documentation?

Although I’m eager to fly the vFlyteAir Tiger AA-5, it would help me and you when there’s some documentation. And we shouldn’t be disappointed. The Tiger comes with the following Acrobat manuals:
– GrummanTiger_AA-5B_POH
– vflyteAir_GrummanTiger_manual_4.1

The POH (Pilot’s Operating Handbook) is a real copy of that from the AA-5B 1977/1978. It’s in total 125 pages thick and covers everything that a real Tiger pilot needed to know about the aircraft. It also tells me that when a developer offers this, that many systems are integrated and modeled in the aircraft and that’s very good news.

The vFlyteAir manual is 41 pages thick and covers, as far as I’ve seen, everything that you need to know about the modeled vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger. Many chapters are included like “about”, “overview”, “model description”, “operational notes” and “charts and procedures”.

Although I mentioned the name Walker Guthrie, it’s a good moment to highlight that not only Walker is responsible for the Tiger. The other person involved in this project is Igor Kirilove from the Ukraine, who’s responsible for the modeling and textures while Walker Guthrie, an US citizen, is responsible for the programming and animations.

Anything else that’s important to know before heading to the Tiger? Ok, which liveries are included?

The Tiger comes standard with 8 liveries namely:
– A/C registration G-BFXX (blue/white)
– A/C registration N28462 (red/white/blue stripe)
– A/C registration N81376 (red/orange/white as default livery)
– A/C registration N74668 (black/orange/white)
– A/C registration N81089 (grey/red/white)
– A/C registration ZS-JAD (black/blue stripes with white)
– A/C registration N1502R (Orange Tiger striping)

Livery number 8 as identified in the liveries folder, is a white painting and therefore the package for painters.

While checking the liveries and Objects folder, I noticed in the Objects folder that all 2K texture files are used and although more and more 4K texture files are used, the vFlyteAir Tiger aircraft is split into several texture files each of them 2K. In other words, the overall sharpness and details of this Tiger model will be good. The same applies for the instruments and instrument panel. I can’t wait to see the end results!

Further on, the model comes with NML (Normal Mapping Layer) files that gives the aircraft a, under the correct lighting conditions, 3D look. The 3D look is then clearly visible for panels, fuel caps, skin plates, rivets and/or screws and more of these things.

Some last words about the installation.
Quite simple and straight forward I would say. Just unzip the downloaded package and copy and paste the complete contents in XP folder “Aircraft/General Aviation”, but if you own more vFlyteAir aircraft, you could also decide to create a new sub folder “vFlyteAir” and paste in here. Up to you!

Dutch vFlyteAir Tiger sightseeing

Introduction
Since I’m in a hurry, I don’t have the time to check out the external Tiger model nor that I can check, in detail, the modeled 3D cockpit. On the other hand, during my flight I can check the cockpit and rear seats. In other words, that shouldn’t be a problem. Remember, my virtual co-pilot is helping me out during these flights. After my first stop at EHTX (Texel), I must refuel and then I can then check the external modeling. And of course, my virtual co-pilot did already for me the walk around check for our first flight.

Flight Preparation
Good, what’s the plan?
To test the Grumman Tiger, I decided to stay close to my hometown thus sightseeing in the Netherlands. Not flying over default XP10 Netherlands, no, using for this SimHeaven ZL17 (Zoom Level) ortho photo real material. I do own this when SimHeaven offered these files, but else you can check for ZL16 files from ZonePhoto or perhaps, but I’m not familiar with how to create them myself, with the help of Ortho4XP. Back to the flight plan.

My Grumman Tiger flight will look like this:
EHGG (Eelde Airport) – EHTX (Texel Airport) – EHRD (Rotterdam The Hague Airport) – EHMZ.
The flight plan can look like this, but I have to be honest that flying over the Netherlands means keeping in mind a lot of restricted areas. Having restricted areas are not strange since you find them everywhere in every country, but since the Netherlands is quite small, it sometimes looks like you’ve got more restricted areas then free areas to fly. That said, I have two stops at EHTX and EHRD and during those stops, I should have enough time to do my own walk around check on the Tiger.

That said, the first stretch from EHGG to EHTX seems weird, but this is partly due to some area restrictions. On the other hand, this review covers the vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger and not a flight adventure which follows VFR rules and therefore, I’ve build-in some flexibility. Stretch EHGG-EHTX follows the waypoints EHGG-EH528-NOVEN-ENKOS-BETUS-HDR05-BUROG-EHTX. If I can use all these waypoints, I don’t know yet, but on the other hand, I know I’m flying above a photo real scenery, so I should be able to use landmarks as well to coordinate my flight with the help of cities, roads, coastlines etc.

On the following maps, you can see the intended first stretch to the Wadden Island Texel.

The second stretch goes from EHTX to EHRD. This means I pass, in one way or the other, Schiphol Amsterdam International Airport (EHAM). Since I don’t want that, way to complex and ATC prefers that GA aircraft stay far away from EHAM.

Therefore, I fly along the coastline in a southern direction to Rotterdam and The Hague. Somewhere south, I turn into an eastern direction for landing at EHRD. The flight plan will, no, can use therefore the following waypoints: EHTX-HDR05-HDR (Den Helder VOR-DME 115.55) -PETTI-POBAN-LISDA-GISIM-RTM09-RTM50-EHRD.

The third and last stretch goes from EHRD to EHMZ. Compared to the previous stretches, this stretch is the shortest one, but since I want to add some sightseeing of the southern islands of Zealand, it’s worth to make a D-tour. The planned stretch could follow these waypoints: EHRD-EH165-HSD (Haamstede VOR 114.15)-DIBRU-EHMZ, but as you can see on the following screen shots, due to the absence of waypoints, planning is not easy. Therefore, I see this third stretch as a guide as long as I’m able to find EHMZ from the air. But the aerodrome is near the city of Middelburg, and I should be able to find that.

Stretch I | EHGG to EHTX

What said before, I’m in a hurry and don’t have the time to check myself externally the vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger, but the daily check was already done and signed off by a ground engineer and my fellow virtual co-pilot. That said, I’m safe as we say. I do the walk-around check at Texel, that’s a promise. I think I’ve chosen a perfect day for these three stretches; the weather is great, some cumulus scattered clouds and, very important for VFR flights, I have a good visibility of approximately 25 S.M.

Anyway, when you’re familiar with the vFlyteAir Grumman Traveler, you’ll find a lot of similarities. Not strange since the Grumman Tiger is the bigger brother of the Traveler. For example, the Tiger radio and navigation instruments are different. The Tiger is equipped with the updated default X-Plane Garmin GNS430, while the Traveler doesn’t have this Garmin unit. But there’s more to find in the remodeled, updated and improved Tiger instrument panel.

The Tiger comes with a different and more complex Auto Pilot. Ok, don’t expect an Auto Pilot like in the MCP (Mode control Panel) of the B757, B777 or an Airbus A320 FCU (Flight Control Unit). No no, it stays as we call it, a very basic Auto Pilot, but with more features then the Traveler has. You’ll also find, additionally to the traditionally old-fashioned engine instruments, the EDM 700, an electronic engine instrument. Another interesting improvement is the modified and realistic looking turn-coordinator with no pitch information. It was already in the Traveler, and now the Tiger is equipped with a much nicer and sharper modeled instrument.

By the way, you’ll find above the EDM 700 the Terra TRI NAV C Course Deviation Indicator. What does this instrument do for the virtual pilot? Let’s check that out …. “The Terra Tri Nav C course Deviation Indicator offers “the TRI NAV C is an Electronic Course Deviation Indicator (EDCI) that presents VOR and ILS navigation information in a dynamic display. The EDCI is unique and very easy to use. It gives vivid and dynamic presentation of deviation from VOR, GPS, LORAN C (most likely not modeled/simulated), localizer and glide slope course centerline. The display clearly shows the deviation from the desired flight path. You will find the Terra by Trimble TRI NAV C reads easily and appears readily in your peripheral vision.”

For those who want to know everything about it, please follow this Terra by Trimble link.

During my cockpit preparations, I’ve got the idea that everything below the instruments thus the switching panel, engine control panel, circuit breaker section and other controls, is the same as the Traveler or perhaps remodeled. To me they look quite similar.

Ok, this was a small introduction of the Tiger instrument. First, we need to be airborne and after that it’s time, with the AP connected, to do a second cockpit scan. To make it myself a little easier, I take off from runway 23 EHGG which is in the right direction for Texel. I enter NOVEN into the Garmin GNS430 and keep the paper map next with me. What said, it’s VFR so everything is possible!

Taking off and climbing to 3000 feet is easy and without any problems. The Tiger is powerful enough to give me a speedy vertical speed and once I’ve reached my cruising level, I level off the Tiger, connect the AP for the correct heading as indicated by the GNS 430. After this, I have some time to check the 3D cockpit once more. As I can remember – yeah, that’s a long time ago – from the vFlyteAir Traveler, it comes with sharp instruments, and they stay sharp, even when you zoom in.

This is for the Tiger not different. The panel, sidewalls, center console, control wheel, are all, as far as I can judge, made with the help of photo-real material. This could be a good sign or a bad. In the case of the vFlyteAir Tiger, it’s very good news since it gives the cockpit a realistic look. It simple looks gorgeous.

A couple of words about how to use the Auto Pilot and how to deal with the HDG bug. Ok, the HDG bug is more a practical aspect. When you use the AP to follow a flight plan, then always try to keep the HDG in-line with the actual heading you’re flying thus what the Garmin is commanding. Although selecting the AP goes via the AP panel on the instrument panel, situated left of the Garmin GNS430, indications and ROLL controls are done via the NO PITCH INFORMATION section of the turn coordinator. When in ALT HLD mode, and want to change your altitude, you can always use the UP/DOWN white buttons on the AP panel.

Assuming you’ve leveled the aircraft, engaged the AP, you’ll notice that in the upper part of the turn coordinator LEDs illuminate, indication which or what is active. When you use GPS or the NAV mode thus you’re using a Garmin GNS430 flight plan, then this indicator should show you a green LED for ALT HLD (if selected), a yellow LED for TRACK or LOC and a blue LED for UP or DOWN TRIM.

Suppose you don’t use the Garmin GNS430 for lateral navigation, but instead HDG mode, then the yellow HDG LED is illuminated.

Ok, let me try to clear this a bit more.
The first screenshot below shows you when the NAV (flying via the Garmin GNS 430) mode is used. Additionally, ALT HLD mode active (blue LED), AP active (green LED), PITCH TRIM active by the AP (blue LED).

On the second screenshot, I’m flying in HDG mode, but I haven’t selected the ALT HLD mode and further on, PITCH TRIM is active by the AP (blue LED).

When you want the Garmin GNS430 to take care for the lateral navigation, please don’t forget to select on the Garmin the CDI (Course Deviation Indicator) button to GPS and of course as in the previous paragraph explained, check that by pressing the AP ROLL button, the yellow LO/TRK LED illuminates.

What else can be found in the 3D cockpit?

Hold on, first some words about the 2D cockpit. You could, depending on your Mac or PC decide to fly the Tiger with the 2D cockpit, but I can assure you, there’s no need for it in my humble opinion. On my iMac, the 3D cockpit gives approximately the same amount of frame rates as with the 2D cockpit. Perhaps it is lower, but not noticeable. Keeping that in mind, why should you fly with the 2D cockpit active? No way, just go for 3D cockpit!

Ok, the cockpit modelling.

On the left-hand side near the sliding canopy, you have the movable reading light which can be moved towards the instrument panel and offers you, when outside lighting conditions are dark and the lamp is being switched ON (logically), a very nice panel lighting.

Further on, there’s also on the lighting panel a rheostat for the red cockpit lighting, and a separate rheostat for the instrument integral lighting. The moment you’re able to have HDR ON, you can enjoy these XP10 features, but that’s not new anymore. Applicable for the pilot area and passenger area, is the very nice modeling of the sidewalls and ceiling.

I’m not sure if the seats are covered with “leather” photo-real material since they look a little dull and don’t offer the sprinkling leather look. On the passenger seats, you can find the belts and passenger headsets, so nothing is forgotten. Although sitting in the front gives you the best external view, sitting in the back isn’t bad to be honest. You have enough glass from the canopy and the rear windows to look outside.

vFlyteAir Gear Icon
What’s that … the gear icon?
A quick thought … watch for the “gear” on the lower left-hand corner of the X-Plane screen. Via this gear you’re able to change certain aircraft conditions of which some are to increase your frame rates in case there’s a need for. Check for example the option “Hide Glass”. When you slide this option from ON to OFF, the cockpit windows seems to have disappeared, at least, they don’t have the semitransparent green look.

When you want to fly the Arrow III as real as it gets, you can slide ON-OFF the “On-Screen Warnings”, but on the other hand, it’s also a nice feature to learn the aircraft what you do wrong or what you forget. Sliding option are all situated on the left while the internal and external previews can be found on the right-hand side of the semi-transparent popup window. When no preview is selected, you’re sitting in the cockpit. For clarity, I’ve enlarged in the first screenshot the gear icon.

 

For clarity, I’ve enlarged the Gear icon in the upper screenshot

While you’re enjoying the 3D cockpit, I’ll make some additional screenshots on this stretch. It’s great to see that the Netherlands are completely transformed due to photo real ground textures. Since I’m not familiar with Ortho4XP, I can’t say anything about that and/or if this is a perfect alternative.

With having photo real ground textures below you, it’s fun flying here in the Netherlands, but that’s also applicable for other countries whenever photo real ground textures are available. Anyway, I’m in the position, different then during a real flight, to check the external model from left to right, and from the front to the rear. How that was? Perhaps unrealistic but oh oh, so beautiful!

We’re approaching Texel. We’ve just passed the corridor between the main land and Texel. I fly now at an altitude of approximately 2000 feet along the south coast of the island, turn left at the end of Texel before landing at EHTX.

Texel is a small airfield with a grass runway and a paved apron. I park the aircraft somewhere at the apron and while my virtual co-pilot is doing the paperwork, I do my walk-around check. As of this writing, this could become my first SketchUp airport. I made hundreds of photos of every building, every object, so I could start with creating Texel, but till now, no time. I know, bad excuse!

Walk-Around Check

Perhaps all currently flying Grumman Tiger’s are privately owned. That said, the modeled vFlyteAir G-BFXX registered aircraft looks quite new with not too many scratches and/or dents nor having a weathered look. Is that a problem or perhaps the reality?

I haven’t seen a real Tiger, but I can imagine that when you own a Tiger yourself, you try to keep it as long as possible new. That said, I start my inspection at the fuselage nose, nose gear and propeller. Although it all looks new, it seems to me that the aircraft is well modeled and even the painting looks gorgeous.

This means that not only the fuselage skin looks nice, but it’s also interesting to see how much work is put into the creation of the rivets, screws and quick fasteners of the engine cowling. It’s also worth to check the way the screws on the external of the canopy are made. From a distance the canopy looks great, but even when you zoom in, it stays beautiful and more and more other tiny details pop up. Well-done guys!

From the nose section I walk along the left-hand wing to the wing tip. I just said something about the brand new looking aircraft, but this is not applicable for the wing leading edge. And when I say not applicable, it means that it is realistic. Oops, still with me?

In real, wing leading edges and horizontal/vertical stabilizer leading edge are never kept new. They are mostly full of scratches, dents, bubbling paint spots and more of that. This is exactly the way these leading edges, the wing leading edges to be exactly, are modeled. Near the end of the wing leading edge, you find the STALL indicator and, mounted in the tip itself, the navigation and strobe lights.

The plastic cover is clearly visible and has a slight dark tint else the Plexiglas isn’t visible. With the FLAPS FULLY DOWN, it’s difficult to check the main landing gears, but that’s what I’ve seen already during my virtual external check from EHGG to EHTX. With the flaps down, I can spot some slight weathered look on the flap skin and very clearly visible are the rivets. As mentioned earlier, under the optimal external lighting conditions, you can spot the NML (Normal Mapping) effect thus the 3D effect.

Walking to the tail section, I stay impressed about the tiny details of which this Tiger is modeled with. Let me give you a few examples; the elevator trim tab hinge. Awesome! But there’s more. For example; the elevator control linkage, the AFT fuselage cone with the white navigation light, the “NO PUSH” rudder trim tab and much more.

Near the top of the vertical fin, I can spot two antennas Overall, I’m very happy with this bigger vFlyteAir Grumman brother.

Stretch II | EHTX to EHRD

During this second stretch to Rotterdam-The Hague Airport, I offer you some external shots of the Dutch coastline. Further on, I will try to perform on this stretch steep turns, slow flights and pre-stall conditions.

Flying out from Texel to the province North Holland must go via the corridor. It’s a small “tube” for VFR aircraft to go from and to Texel. The moment I’ve reached the mainland, I make a slight right hand turn to the Dutch coastline and once reached the famous beaches, I fly along the coastline in a southern direction. This is a good moment to perform the previous mentioned practices.

 

Some of the included Tiger liveries

I liked during my real FAA PPL Cessna 152 lessons, steep turns and so do I like them with the Grumman Tiger. Big difference is of course the low wing versus the high wing location of the C152. Besides that, steep turns are nice and it’s always a challenge to control the steep turn while keeping your altitude the same. And then, after almost completing a 360 turn, it’s time to roll back at the right moment at the same altitude to being back at the same heading.

Oh oh, that’s not easy. It was never easy, and even flying it in the Tiger, isn’t easy either. Or you altitude changes, or your intended bank angle is too less or too high and so on. Anyway, it is and stays fun and it won’t work with one 360 turn, but mostly you need to do many of these steep turns to get the right feeling.

Overall can be said that the Tiger behaves great and due to its higher own weight. For those who are familiar with the Cessna 152 and its larger brother, the C172; here’s the same issue too. The C172 is larger and heavier and therefore under certain flight conditions also more stable in flight.

Another nice flight practice is the slow flight with and without flaps. Hardly believing that you can fly with a forward speed with flaps extended at around 40-50 knots. Anyway, the modeled Tiger allows you to control the aircraft without hicks or other unexpected flight behaviors.

 

Making screenshots during a steep turn aren’t easy!

Before preparing the aircraft for STALL practices, it’s better that I (you) climb to a safer altitude in case something goes wrong. At an altitude of 4000 feet, I start my POWER OFF STALL. The pre-stall works and although I could stop, but I’m curious how the actual stall behaves. And yes, at a slightly lower speed, the Tiger falls to the left and drops down. If this “behavior” is as real as it gets, is something I’m not sure about since I never flew the Grumman Tiger.

But practicing is nice, but it’s even nicer to have a look outside and enjoy the ortho photo ground textures of the Dutch coastline. Some simmers like photo-real ground textures, while others don’t like it and prefer the default XP10 ground textures. That’s a personal matter, but since the default ground textures have nothing to do with how the Netherlands look like, I personally prefer the ortho material.

I’ll continue my VFR flight and while passing, along the coastline, I pass the cities Wassenaar, Scheveningen and The Hague. After passed these, I make, when approaching the “Nieuwe Waterweg”, a sharp turn to the west and try to figure out if I can see Rotterdam-The Hague airport. On the other hand, I could also tune for VOR/DME station RTM (110.40) which helps me in the right direction to EHRD. It turns out to be a very easy approach and landing. This is made possible due to the sunny day with nearly perfect environmental conditions.

I park my Tiger at the GA apron, do my walk-around check and before flying out for our end destination, we take a short break at the local restaurant for a drink.

Stretch III | EHRD EHMZ

Flying out from Rotterdam-The Hague Airport is easy, and although I can’t spot many restricted areas on the map, I decide first to fly in a southern direction and once I’ve passed Schiedam and Spijkernisse at an altitude of 3000 feet which is officially not allowed according to the aviation maps, I turn in a southwest direction. This should bring me to the northwest part of island Goeree-Overflakkee.

No idea about these islands?
Just check it out at Google Earth. When I’ve reached the end of Goeree-Overflakkee, I move again in a southern direction. The next island I see on my left is Schouwen-Duiveland, followed by Noord-Beveland where I’ve passed the famous Delta works. Not that it’s really 3D modeled, the photo material shows you that it should be here.

That’s the advantage of using a simulator, you can change the time at your command! Some evening screenshots as you can see.

While flying around, I reserve some time for sightseeing Zealand and then it’s time to prepare my landing at EHMZ. During these flights, I noticed high frame rates, but I wonder, with my iMac specifications, if this is fair for others? The modeled Tiger doesn’t come with complex aircraft systems, but there’s still a lot that has to be calculated and the overall number of polygons being used, could also influence the amount of frame rates. Interesting to see and to hear is the realistic sound that belongs to this Grumman Tiger.

And yes, that the vFlyteAir model produces so many real recorded sounds isn’t strange. Have a look in the vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger “Sounds” folder and you immediately know why this is as real as it sounds. It’s full of sound files and that makes me very happy.

And what about X-Plane 11.00?

As of this writing, February 22nd 2017, it’s perhaps it’s worth a try, but it turns out that the current model version 4.1 isn’t yet ready for X-Plane 11.00pb11 and up. I made several attempts, but for example the Garmin GNS 430 won’t come alive, and no, I haven’t forgotten the AVIONCS switch to set to ON. Other instruments that won’t respond are the EDM 700, Terra TRI NAV C Course Deviation Indicator, the Terra TN-200D (NAV receiver with glideslope) and the Terra TX-760 D (Communications radio).

Of course, you can fly the tiger also without the Garmin, but I’m not sure what else isn’t working. For the moment, we need to wait till we can use it with X-Plane 11. As you’ve probably read on our site, the vFlyteAir Cherokee models are all compatible with X-plane 11.00pb11. But nobody knowns when Laminar Research brings out an update, if that’s still the case.

Summary

What else can I say?
I loved the vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger although I’m aware that this is a bigger brother of their Grumman Traveler. You could ask yourself the question if it’s fair to ask money for the vFlyteAir Tiger when you own the vFlyteAir Traveler. When you don’t own the Traveler, then it’s worth every penny else I leave it up to you. I tried to find something on the vFlyteAir website, but as far as I can see, there’s no special price when you want to buy the Traveler and the Tiger together.

Did I cover everything?
For sure I’ve forgotten something. Although the Tiger is a small GA aircraft, it comes with so many features, that reading the owner’s manual is a must in my humble opinion. Reading the included POH is a good one when you have some time left.

Overall, a great add-on worth to be in your GA hangar.

More information about the vFlyteAir Grumman Tiger can be found at the dedicated vFlyteAir Tiger web page. Buying can be at the vFlyteAir dedicated Tiger web shop page or at X-Plane.Org.

Feel free to contact me if you’ve got additional questions related to this impression. You can reach me via email Angelique.van.Campen@gmail.com or to Angelique@X-Plained.com.

With Greetings,
Angelique van Campen

 

 

Add-on:Payware vFlyteAir Tiger AA-5 Version 4.1
Publisher | Developer:X-Plane.Org | Aerosoft | vFlyteAir
Description:Realistic rendition of Grumman Tiger AA-5
Software Source / Size:Download / Approximately 620MB (unzipped)
Reviewed by:Angelique van Campen
Published:February 23rd 2017
Hardware specifications:- iMac 27″ 3.5Ghz Late 2013
- Intel i7 3.5Ghz / 3.9Ghz during Boost Mode
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB
- 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- 1 internal 1TB SSD (Sierra 10.12.3)
- 3 external 1TB SSDs
- Saitek Pro Flight System
Software specifications:- Sierra (10.12.3) | El Capitan (10.11.4)
- Windows 10 Professional
- X-Plane 10.51c | X-Plane 10.51m | X-Plane 11 pb11

3 Comments

  1. dean robinson

    smashing review thanks. i really like the flight plan map & details. nice attention to detail in the cockpit. mmmm good job you had Duracell batteries, ..from the negative Amps … did someone forget ‘alternator on’ ? 😉

    • Angelique van Campen

      Hi Dean,

      Let me start right away with the ALTNR light. It seems that this is illuminated, but it isn’t. When you pull the C/B, the ALTNR light will illuminates “yellow” and with a running engine, you will see directly the Amp meter pointing to -50A. In other words, as you see the ALTNR lamp unit in the screenshots, this isn’t illuminated. And theres’ also no switch for this, or I missed it completely. I do agree with you that the needle should be in the “+” area with a running engine. Small issue and not really noticed to be honest.

    • Angelique van Campen

      Dean,

      Informed vFlyteAir and got the following reply as well as that it will be solved with the next update. Answer from Walker Guthrie “Yes, there is a problem with the battery discharging in the Tiger. It seems that I made an error in the Planemaker configuration, resulting in too much base electrical load placed on the system (about 40 amps too much!). The generator will produce up to 60 Amps to recharge the battery in flight (and while the engine is running), but the electrical load exceeds that, so the battery is in a dis-charging state all the time. This is fixed, and the fix will be included in the next minor release.”

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