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25 June 2011

Carenado Piper Seneca II (PA34-200T) FSX Review

Welcome to another of the Flight Simulator Reviews, review.  This time I am going to take you into the whole new section of the aviation market, the twin engined trainer/cruiser. This was the first time that Carenado released a twin engined aircraft, and this is why I am going to review it for you.


Background Information
Responding to complaints about the aircraft's handling qualities, Piper introduced the PA-34-200T Seneca II. The aircraft was certified on July 18, 1974 and introduced as a 1975 model.
The new model incorporated changes to the aircraft's control surfaces, including enlarged and balanced ailerons, the addition of a rudder anti-servo tab, and a stabilator bobweight.
The "T" in the new model designation reflected a change to turbocharged, six cylinder Continental TSIO-360E or EB engines for improved performance, particularly at higher altitudes. The Seneca II retained the counter-rotating engine arrangement of the earlier Seneca I.
The Seneca II also introduced optional "club seating" whereby the two center-row seats face rearwards and the two back seats face forward allowing more legroom in the passenger cabin. A total of 2,588 Seneca IIs were built.
Gross weights are 4,570 lb (2,070 kg) for takeoff and 4,342 lb (1,969 kg) for landing, with all weight in excess of 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) required to be fuel.


InstallationThis purchase was made over the Carenado website with my card as the form of payment. The Carenado website is extremely easy to use and is well laid out. When payment had cleared I received a link over email for my download. I was made aware that the link would expire after 3 downloads.
    After a rather quick download the Carenado installer appeared and ran me through the setup like normal with Carenado the installer is very quick at installing the product. I was amazed at this one that it didn't have a product key, not sure if they have implemented one know but it made installation a breeze. Also with the install I found that I had an array of checklists to use as well as a quick reference chart for printing.



First Impressions

It that time again. Loading the aircraft up at the stand at Coventry Airport for the first time. The aircraft loaded up quickly only the scenery and textures took a while but that's just my computer. As usual you are sat in the left hand seat of the virtual cockpit (please note that this only has a virtual cockpit and no 2D model included - a first for Carenado). After shutting down the engines I take a look outside - the textures and model are well detailed even down the the static wicks on the leading edge of the wing. The engine model looks real life. Hopping back inside greats you with a very warming brown interior with a very nice looking instrument panel which is very clear. 
This is just one of 4 liveries included!



Exterior Model


As mentioned earlier in this review the exterior model of this aeroplane has been created in great detail at the Carenado factory. With her just loaded up with engines off, the model is very elegant like the real aircraft, the main thing that caught my eye was the static wicks instead of being dead straight like on the previous models where actually dropping (later to find out that they actually move in the wind when flying!). Also included in this package you get the option to use the 2 blade prop (shown above), or the 3 blade prop (included on all the other liveries). This allows you to use this aircraft like the real thing although the flight dynamics are the same for both the 2 blade and the 3 blade prop.  When in flight, the prop model is great like on all Carenado aircraft the propeller is very realistic even when the prop is feathered the prop actually moves not like on other models where the flight dynamics change but not the exterior model. Coming back to the static wicks, it might only be a small thing in comparison to the actual aircraft but it goes to show the depth of detail that has gone into the modelling of Carenado's first twin aircraft. Moving off from static wicks and moving onto more important animations every flight control moves with corresponding yoke movement no massive leaps from no rudder to massive rudder, everything on the outside is modeled perfectly.







The Interior Model

This model has a great virtual cockpit, however for the first time the 2D cockpit has been taken out of the Carenado lineup. So for you pilots that have to fly by 2D cockpit not to worry Carenado have made this one a very FPS friendly VC with yet the same realistic detail available in normal releases. So looking at the instrument panel, you get the feeling of looking at not a brand spanking new cockpit but something that has been well looked after in its years of flying (although the engine tachos are at 0.0 - not to be pedantic) but the aircraft comes with the Piper brown cockpit which was used in the 70's and 80's when the aircraft was released. So now for the instruments, the instruments are all analogue configuration and blend in the with used look of the cockpit. They all work extremely well in the air and on the ground and reflect the actual instruments that you could find in a real Seneca. The radio panel on the Seneca is all electronic and has an LCD display showing you all the COM's and NAV radios, and thank god they have incorporated the default GPS inside the cockpit just right of the radio panel. This feature makes flying IFR really easy to do rather than having another panel open blocking some of the other instruments. As you may be aware the Seneca is not key operated it is the first in the Piper Family that use electronic starter located on the pilots left hand side. This is also modeled in this release, all buttons are click able and have an function on the simulation. For example you can turn the magnetos off with the click able buttons on the top row of buttons. The Seneca also is configured to carry 1 Crew and 5 Passengers, so if you pan around the cockpit instead of seeing 2 seats like you would in a 4 seater you see 4 seats 2 rear facing and 2 forward facing, these are all really realistic features that make the VC a high detailed add-on for both the experienced and the novice users.

Test Flight

The biggest user of the Seneca's in the UK is OAA (Oxford Aviation Acadamy) based in London Oxford airport where they do the mass majority of their IFR training down there. So, to make this flight as realistic as possible I am going to do a IFR circuit around Oxford testing the circuit capabilities of this aeroplane. After loading up at a random stand at Oxford. I load up the GPS to show me the track that I have to follow for the IFR circuit which includes the standard missed approach procedure after takeoff. Starting up the engine is a doddle to do - just press the button down and make sure you have your mixture set to fully rich. The engine splutters into life with a very realistic roar. For the 2nd engine just do the same and you have 2 engines working. So for the taxi out advance the throttles forward only a slight bit makes for a fast taxi due to the fact that the Seneca on a training flight is not allot heavier that the Piper Warrior series. Lining up on for takeoff I turn the landing lights on and decide that I am going to do a single engined climb out. So I advance the throttles to full and rotate through 80knots after getting above 200ft I pull the throttle back for the number 2 engine, this is where the true art of Carenado's flight modelling is shown the aircraft yaws and starts to slow down. To which the pilot has to push with rudder and lower the nose for a safe climb speed is achieved. Which it did very well indeed I managed to get a climb speed of 90 knots and about 500ft per minute. After I was satisfied with this I advance the throttle forward and climbed out at 100knots.

After flying the missed approach procedure, I end up on downwind. What I wanted to achieve from this was to fly slow as most Seneca's would out perform the single engines in real life in the circuit so I pull the throttles back and fly at a cruise speed of 100knots which is quite slow for the Seneca as it can achieve about 140knots normally. As normal the Carenado design team has implemented the fact that more input is needed to manoeuvre the aircraft around the sky so turning onto long finals for the ILS needed allot more aileron to make the turn. I slowed the aircraft down the 90knots and dropped 2 stages of flap. And continued to intercept the ILS which isn't like you Boeing 737 ILS it is all done on one instrument in the cockpit.

Final approach speed was about 80knots after the last stage of flap, which I believe is correct for this aircraft. The landing was great when I replayed the landing from the outside you can even see the suspension on the wheels compress as the plane touches down.

Final ThoughtsNot a single detail has been missed from this airplane and Carenado continue to impress me with there flight modelling.

What I liked?

The increased amount of animations ( this has continued to their new aircraft with exhaust pipes vibrated on start up)

What could be improved?

I don't think that anything could be improved to this aircraft as is very realistic and flight characteristcs and similar to the real thing. Maybe what would of been nice is a 2D cockpit like the Just Flight version, for those who's computer struggle to show VC very well

Overall again another 5/5 for this aircraft!

Coming up next the T34B by Carenado

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