A2A Simulations’ J-3 Piper Cub with the Accusim Expansion Pack
By Kevin Glover With their new Piper Cub, A2A has, if nothing else, proven their versatility. They have gone from the biggest engines and airliners of World War II to this small yet incredibly important little aircraft. I needn’t describe the Cub’s history or how many aviators earned their wings in the Cub, but from my point of view it provides an opportunity for A2A to show how much can be done in the simulator; they’ve proven what they can do with systems and engines, and now it’s a chance for them to show what can happen with one of the most basic relationships between man, plane, and sky.
Introduction -The A2A Piper Cub with Accusim comes in the form of two separate downloads, totaling around 270MB. These install without any fuss and soon you’ll find two manuals under A2A Piper Cub in the Start menu. These manuals are for the aircraft itself and the Accusim expansion. The first is very nicely written by Mitchell Glicksman, a real-world Cub pilot who is obviously very fond and familiar with the bird, and is something like a mixture of real-world piloting lore and knowledge, mixed with the real procedures of the aircraft. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the read as it was something I didn’t expect, but it certainly set the mood appropriately for the Piper Cub.
At the beginning of the manual, you also find a rather fascinating story about a 747 pilot who thought he’d try his hand in a Cub to see how much he remembered about real flying. To put it shortly, it didn’t go well, but eventually the Cub’s docility and his own patience had him puttering around like a pro again.
The second manual is written by A2A and explains the physics and new concepts behind Accusim. This manual will tell you some of the new features you may not be aware of, and it’s an interesting read if you’d like to know more about how the Continental A65 engine works.
A2A has included a total of four separate models for various types of GA flying. In the FSX menu, we find a total of nine liveries spread over Tundra tire, Ski, Float, and Regular models. There are many more liveries available from various Flight Sim websites.
The Review -For nearly every aircraft that I review I download some additional repaints for my own enjoyment. This became a very large factor in the A2A Cub because, as I’ll describe, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the stock textures. So, much of this review will be split up into what you’re given (stock textures) and what you can get (3rd part downloads); both have benefits and drawbacks.
Interior (Stock) -By default, each aircraft comes with largely the same cockpit. These vary slightly in that the Ski and Float variants don’t have brake pedals (interestingly, these are heel brakes, as opposed to toe brakes). Additionally, some aircraft feature different colour schemes than the basic yellow, such as the bluish-purple variant with the regular wheels and the white-and-red ski variant.
The textures are all very crisp and clean, and I was especially appreciative of A2A’s work on the wood texture on the floor. There are scratches on the metal footrests and dents in the wood floor, and for the most part it looks like a reasonably used cockpit that’s been scrubbed up for its big day. The windows all have reflections, the gauges are 3D, and we have all of the makings of a very nice cockpit except one thing - the dirt.
It strikes me as odd that all of the paints included with this package are mostly clean and new. When I think Cub, I think bushwhacking, and then I think age and dirt and grime. It just seems vaguely alien to see a Cub in such great condition. This is mostly a matter of opinion, but in this review I will pay homage to the freeware texture artists who are good enough to upload their work for public enjoyment.
Interior (Addons) -Urs ‘Maloney’ Burkhardt’s work on the J-3 has provided me with a great deal of pleasure. He released four repaints, each of which cover all of the four variants. These are: ‘Fast Joe’s Air Taxi’, ‘NC487W’, ‘CF-PCW’, and ‘Bushwhacker’. His work is some of the absolute best texturing that I’ve seen, not only throughout the Cub, but just in general painting.
After installing these textures and selecting the aircraft, the clean cockpit is transformed into a bush pilot’s den. There are crushed cigarette butts on the floors, handprints on the windows, fluid leaking out of the tank in the front, etc. Fast Joe’s variant even has ‘NO SMOKING’ crossed out to read ‘YES, KEEP SMOKING’. Additions like these give the little aircraft a lot more character, and I will confess that I didn’t spend much time in the default paints before switching over to some of these beauties.
Exterior (Stock) - I won’t reiterate that the exterior is cleaner than I feel it should be, but I can certainly still appreciate the details which A2A modeled. Cotter keys, the fuel rod, control cables, levers, pulleys, and the engine as a whole have been modeled in fine detail. It’s not terribly common for an aircraft this small to be modeled, and it’s even less common for companies to put this much detail into the exterior. The cotter keys really impressed me, but you can hardly forget the rivets on the windshield, either. On the whole, the exterior is beautifully done, and I have no complaints to make about it. However, the paints could be made better, and that leads us into...
Exterior (Addons) - Tristan ‘VH-WCE’ uploaded perhaps the most extremely dirty aircraft that I have ever seen in his ‘VH-BUC’ package for Tundra tires. Wow. I would begin with the general colour scheme, but I’m not sure just what that is. It’s yellowish on front, whitish on back, and spattered with huge quantities of dirt and grime. I would be fascinated to know just how this much dirt got onto an aircraft that supposedly spends its time in the air, not in pig mires. It could be said that this paint is a wee bit overdone, but it’s certainly fun to fly a plane which doesn’t loose any of its class when a bit dirty.
A more moderate example can be seen in ‘Jigsaw’s’ repaint of ‘Ultima Thule’. This is still a lovely, realistically dirty Cub which, in real life, is a Super Cub that ferries well-heeled passengers to the Ultima Thule Lodge. This aircraft features mud-spatters on the tires, scratched windshields, and a general atmosphere of rough love.
On the whole, I have no real problem with the base textures included with the Cub. However, my own personal preference lies in an aircraft that, to me, looks more realistic with dirt wheels and a slightly rusty engine. I don’t wish to detract from A2A’s own excellent work, but on the other hand the people who make freeware textures really do a great job. I certainly haven’t mentioned them all, but the next time you download a repaint perhaps you’ll check in the Readme for the paint’s author and send them an email with your compliments and thanks. Freeware developers are the salt of the community.
I was also somewhat fascinated to note how important some of these painters are to my flying. For instance, there is an excellent artist who goes by the forum name of ‘Banana Bob’. He doesn’t have the Cub and I was surprised to note how much I missed his paints of her. There are plenty of other wonderful artists, of course, but Bob has mastered the art of photoreal repaints and I, for one, missed his contributions. You can get in touch with him, or make a donation to help his effort
hereAccusim -As with all of the aircraft that I have with Accusim, I never even bothered shutting it off just for fun. You can buy just the base aircraft package and you’ll get the great modeling and texturing, but there is so much more included with Accusim. It’s particularly worthwhile in the Cub because, for one thing, the price is a bit lower, and additionally the systems in the Cub are much less complex, so Accusim adds on to the aspect of actually flying the aircraft. Sure, there’s engine damage modeling and realistic failures and whatnot, but there’s so much more that you can only get with Accusim in this Cub. Read on and find out about some of the most fascinating and creative developments in flight simulation today.
Due to issues displaying long pages in certain browsers, Part 2 may be found here.
