Why do you love the DCS Albatros?

Hey guys! I'm trying to decide which aircraft to buy during this Easter sale and remembered reading some folks saying that the Albatros is their favorite plane to just fly around in.

Based entirely on this statement I'm considering purchasing the L-39 for my 90 y/o father to fly as he isn't really interested in combat but purely the joy of flight (he hasn't flown a real plane in over 20 years).

So what is it that makes the DCS Albatros a joy to fly? How are the stall behaviors etc.? He may not be interested in combat but he is interested in performing various aerobatic maneuvers that believe it or not were REQUIRED to get a pilots license when he earned his in the early 1940's!

He likes the Warbirds but finds the P-51 difficult to takeoff/land/fly mostly due to the torque. I'm anxious to see if he gets along better with the Spitfire which I'm pretty sure I'm getting during this sale. In the meantime I plan to have him fly the A-10C as it's pretty easy to handle.

Thanks for any input.

Trip

The L-39 is a great airplane. Good forward visibility in the cockpit (as long as you dismount the site ... which you can do in the mission editor)

It's also good for gentlemen's aerobatics. And the ZA version has some more hardpoints and an internal gun if you want to blow up a few things. Obviously the plane doesn't have the thrust as the other jets in the sim do, but that's just fine. If he's a pilot, he'll know how to manage that. Ground handling is simple. It's the Russian type where you need to first press the rudder in the direction you want to go AND THEN press on the brakes. Takes a little getting used to, so maybe start him on the runway.

Couple things to know. Flaps bring themselves up at ~300kmh. and when landing flaps and gear won't come down if over ~300kmh. The airplane is also VERY sensitive on the elevator. You can tune that down in the settings if you'd like though.

- Apache600

If he finds the P-51 hard to fly, keep away from the German planes.

The L-39 flies really nicely. It's not good for any serious combat, but it's great for recon, navigation, and general flight fun.

Sent from my SC-04E using Tapatalk

Land the MiG-21... now that's a challenge!!!

On topic, gonna grab the L-39. :-)

Its cool, well made, fun to fly and you got two planes at the price of one. Go for it!

many people said that the l-39 improves your flying skills and they are right. Brought the l39 a while ago and now th F5. It felt much easier flying the f5 and i credit it to the hours in the L39 :)

also somtimes when i am with friends on TS and just talking, we fly 2 seater to relax :-D

i allways looked down on Trainer - Aircrafts, thinking they have no place in DCS combat, but the L39 proves me wrong, its just a fun plane to fly and it "Feels" real

many people said that the l-39 improves your flying skills and they are right. Brought the l39 a while ago and now th F5. It felt much easier flying the f5 and i credit it to the hours in the L39 :)

 

also somtimes when i am with friends on TS and just talking, we fly 2 seater to relax :-D

 

i allways looked down on Trainer - Aircrafts, thinking they have no place in DCS combat, but the L39 proves me wrong, its just a fun plane to fly and it "Feels" real

Actually, they can be useful even in combat, however you have to be extra careful just wait for the right moment.... Or you can use them in a COIN sort of mission, light targets and else.... Or even as combat units between third world countries, you just need to play a bit with mission editors

It's my podcast plane as i call it. Good aircraft to fly a XC on and just enjoy the scenery, or practice a bit with IFR navigation while listening to whatever. And the ZA packs a bit of a punch and getting accurate rounds on target is quite a challenge, im still working on mastering that.

The L39's flight model is just "perfect". I don't know how else to put it. It's great with a force feedback joystick too, as it has a conventional elevator, which means that you can really "feel" the plane when you fly it at the edge of its flight envelope.

My favourite, it's simple but well done from a module standpoint.

My favorite plane, I use it exclusively for aerobatic and it's a great pleasure to fly with it, often I just take off for fun :thumbup:

Imo ED really outdid themselves with this module, in terms how the plane feels and handles. Whenever I need something to cheer me up, I fire some L39 flight mission and it helps a lot ... like some sort of therapy! :prop:

I grew up among L39s...it's just a pity that my grandfather who was an Albatros (among others) system instructor didn't live long enough to see how flight sims developed in the last 10-15 years. I imagine how cool it would have been to let him fly Albie in DCS if he only was still around, just like your pops is!

In any case, you simply can't go wrong with this module. Although the plane is indeed sensitive in pitch as was mentioned already, unless you have stick extension or would use input curvature.

P.S. Every plane can be dangerous with a little awacs love and planning. I've seen a couple of F5s that ended up with R60m up in their pipes fired from L39 on cold war server... :music_whistling:

Nice! I think I will have to cough up the money for the L-39 this sale. This much positive feeling for a module can't be ignored!

@Spectrum Legacy My dad was a mechanic just after WWII and worked largely on P-47's, so even though he never flew one* I look forward to the Jug making it into the sim for him to check it out!

*This is TECHNICALLY not true! =P

As I said he was a mechanic, and as part of his duties he often had to taxi aircraft from one place to another on the field which he of course loved. Dad was a licensed pilot, but he was enlisted so not allowed to fly military aircraft.

These were taildraggers, so taxiing normally is a pain. For convenience (and I'm sure also for fun) the guys would get up enough speed to "fly the tail" so they could taxi straight instead of zig-zagging all the way across the field. Well one day, to his own horror for reasons I'll explain in a minute, Dad got a little carried away and suddenly the wheels stopped rumbling LOL.

He said he damned near had a heart attack at 20 something years old and got it back on the ground as fast as he could. If any of the brass had seen an enlisted man leave the ground he'd never touch a military aircraft again.

The man has stories aplenty, in his teens he was one of only two survivors who bailed out of a burning B-17 stateside, got flipped upside down on a fence in a C-47, nearly got stranded on a small lake as flight engineer on a PBY Catalina (where the engineer operates the engines from a seat in the middle of the wing, titanic style), and the highlight of his Military career got to be flight engineer in a B-25 for a good stretch. Since it was peacetime and stateside he actually served as co-pilot and though he wasn't allowed to take off or land except in an extreme emergency because he was enlisted (which never happened) he got plenty of hours flying it.

Hi there i love L-39 because it cn be used by some one that s fkying for the first time and by an experimented pilot too :)

If I get the Albatross for both my accounts I could also take people for passenger rides in 6DOF Motion VR like I do with the Gazelle. It wouldn't be ideal since the cockpit is side by side but it would work.

Money is super tight though, I'm trying to squeeze every penny I can out of the budget this month to get a few aircraft during the sale and a second L-39 isn't going to get priority over the others I want. I'm going to sell my TrackIR5 on ebay so I can buy DCS modules during this sale!

I want to get:

Spitfire, because apparently it's going to be required for the first WWII campaign which I'm super excited about.

L-39, mostly because it sounds like a great plane for me to have dad fly around in but also sounds like I'll enjoy too.

F-86, because apparently the "Museum Relics" campaign is excellent and I've loved the look of the F-86 for as long as I can remember.

Mi-8MTV2, because it's the only DCS helicopter I don't have yet and there are two campaigns for it.

I really want the Viggen too, but since it's not on sale there's no temptation to buy it right now. I'll probably get it at the end of year holiday sale.

I love the challenge it takes on multiplayer servers

I really like it because it allowed me to get personalized flight lessons (by the FAA manual) from a talented pilot and teacher. We used the L-39 as a jet trainer, which is what it was designed and used many years for. With the instructor in the "back seat" it allowed great teaching and learning opportunities. But when Im done, its the F-5E for me :)

Please dont wait with anything if your father is 90. Immediately buy the plane. It works great is easy to fly and has a nice cockpit layout. You both love it.

And the P51 is also a fantastic aircraft to fly around with and as the Albatros gives a good free look because of the bubble canopies. By the way, torque is easy to counter with trim.

Cheers

:thumbup:

He will love the huey more

He has flown the Huey, he finds the helicopter a little frustrating but an interesting challenge. I wound up not getting the L-39 this sale past as money was really tight, but hopefully next big sale I'll get it. His next fixed wing flight will be in the A-10C, I find it is very easy to get along with and we know it's got one of (likely "the") most accurate flight model.

... Although the plane is indeed sensitive in pitch as was mentioned already, unless you have stick extension or would use input curvature.... /QUOTE]

 

The real L-39 has a bungy-assisted elevator. When at rest, the joystick is back against the seat and elevator is up. The pilot has to hold the stick forward until airspeed equalizes the elevator bungy-assist at 380 or 400 km/hr. To go any faster, you must trim the aircraft. I see many L-39 newbies that struggle with this. They simply don't take the time to learn straight-and-level flight, the first basic of learning to fly. This is what the L-39 is all about.

 

I'm not a fan of large axis tuning curves, but the DCS L-39 needs a good curve to be able to fly smoothly.

 

To go back OT:

 

I just love the feel of a proper approach, going through the airspeed ranges and making adjustments. It is like a dance and a real plane is the same way. :)