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The American Champion Citabria 7GCBC is the baby in this group of aircraft. The Citabria is based largely on the Aeronca 7 Champ, of which over 10,000 were built between 1946-1951. Champion Aircraft Corporation purchased the rights to the Aeronca 7 in 1951, from which it developed the 7EC Traveller and 7GCB Challenger, followed in 1964 by the Citabria. Bellanca took over production of the Citabria in 1970, building the Citabria from then until 1982. Finally, in 1990 American Champion Aircraft started building the Citabria and its sister aircraft, and they're producing these aircraft in small quantities to this day.
Like all the aircraft in this package, the Citabria has an airframe constructed from steel-tube and covered in fabric. Its powered by a 160hp IO-320 Lycoming attached to a fixed pitch propeller. Its high lift wings are fitted with flaps, giving it good short-field capabilities. The Citabria airframe is stressed for basic aerobatics (+5g,-2g), but in reality its aerobatic ability is quite limited due to high stick forces, a highly cambered aerofoil section and no inverted fuel delivery system.
The Citabria is most at home as a rugged, basic, back-country aircraft. Its also commonly used as a training aircraft, being used for such training duties as ab-initio training, tail-wheel endorsements and basic aerobatic training. Unless you want to carry more than one passenger, the Citabria very closely matches the Cessna 172 as a tourer, plus it can do a few loops and rolls on the way and get you into and out of tighter back-country airstrips.
The American Champion Decathlon 8KCAB was developed from the basic Citabria design by Bellanca in 1970. While at first glance it looks quite similar to the Citabira, it is actually a much more capable aerobatic aircraft.
The Decathlon's wing is a completely new design with an aerofoil section much more suited to aerobatic flight. Its stick forces are much lighter and better harmonised, and it is stressed for +6g,-5g. Its engine is a more powerful 180hp Lycoming IO-360 with an inverted fuel and oil system, attached to a constant-speed prop.
These uprated specs make the Decathlon's performance superior to the Citabria in almost every way, including better climb-rate, higher cruise speed, faster roll rate, and the ability to fly inverted manoeuvres. The downside to this improved aerobatic performance is slightly inferior short-field capability (the wings do not have flaps) and a slightly lower payload when compared to the Citabria.
The American Champion Scout 8GCBC is a development of the Citabria. All of the changes made to the original Citabria design to make the Scout were aimed at making the Scout a much more capable back country utility aircraft.
Arguably the most obvious difference between the Scout and Citabria is the Scout's lengthened undercarriage and larger tyres. This change is aimed at making the Scout able to fly into the roughest of bush airstrips. It also features a more powerful 180hp IO-360 with a constant-speed propeller, giving it improved takeoff acceleration and a higher climb rate. The Scout wings are lengthened versions of the Citabria wings. These longer wings combine with larger flaps to give the Scout short field take off and landing (STOL) performance over-and- above the already good STOL performance of the Citabria.
Included in this package are three variations of the Scout. There is the original, standard Scout with taildragger undercarriage and standard-size tyres, there is a version with taildragger undercarriage and massive 31" tundra-tyres (pictured), and finally there's a version with amphibious floats.
The 31" tundra-tyres look almost comic at first, but they give the Scout the ability to take off and land on almost any unprepared surface, such as creek beds, unprepared grass and beaches.
The amphibious Scout has the ability to take off and land on both water and normal runways. The floats on this version of the Scout have retractable wheels, that are set down for landing on the ground and up for landing on water and during normal flight.
Five aircraft variants: Included in this package are three aircraft — the Citabria, Decathlon, and Scout. The Scout comes with three different undercarriage configurations — amphibian, taildragger with tundra tyres and taildragger with standard tyres. Each aircraft variant has its own distinctive flight model. Each aircraft variant also has from 8-11 liveries (there is a total of 28 unique liveries, and 50 unique variations included in this package)!
Virtual Cockpit: The aircraft in this package feature silky smooth 3D virtual cockpit gauges — this makes the gauges visually clearer and smoother in movement than even the best FSX 2D gauges. Almost all gauges and levers are controllable with the mouse. All 28 liveries included in this package have their own individually textured VCs and for the first time there are three cockpit trim colour schemes.
Configurable VC panels: For the first time in an FSX aircraft package, each aircraft's VC panel can have its instrument layout altered to suit the user's preference. This is done simply and easily using the Config Panel included in this package.
Sounds: The aircraft in this package include high-quality custom stereo sounds delivering a dynamic acoustic experience. In addition to vibrant engine, startup and shutdown sounds there are other sound effects including stall buffet, dynamic wind noise and canopy sounds.
Config Panel: A stand-alone application for setting various RealAir Citabria, Decathlon and Scout 2006 preferences, for example you can also use the Config Panel to set whether you want the aircraft in this package to load ‘ready for take off’ (engine running, all switches on), or ‘cold and dark’ (engine off and all switches turned off).
Flight modeling: All the usual RealAir capabilities are featured in these flight models including spinning and side slipping, realistic aerobatics capablity plus stable cruising for touring or IFR flight. The flight models in this package have been refined over previous releases, and each aircraft type has distinctly different flying characteristics.
Stall Buffet Effect: A feature that simulates the buffet experienced by a pilot during a stall. It works by causing the cockpit to visually shudder when a stall is reached. You can set the strength (or turn off) this feature using the Config Panel.
Documents: Included is a a detailed 'Flying Guide' that includes flying and setup help, and three 'Pilot's Handbooks' featuring operating procedures for each aircraft type.
Bear Gulch scenery: Bear Gulch Aviation scenery, created for us by Bill Womack of Antelope Simworks. More information on this custom scenery is available on our Bear Gulch Scenery page.
Upgrade price available: This package is available at a reduced price for owners of any or our FS2004 Decathlon or Scout products.
Included Scenery: Bear Gulch Aviation is a private bush strip and ranch located at the western end of Lake Cushman, in the mountains forty nautical miles east of Seattle in Washington, USA.
Surrounded by towering mountain ranges this scenery includes a short grass strip, a rustic, atmospheric hangar for storing your new Scout, a grand homestead and a private jetty for mooring your Scout amphibian. The terrain surrounding Bear Gulch Aviation is some of the most spectacular available in FSX and is ideal for flying the Scout. Landing on the strip at Bear Gulch is always a challenge as the approach at either end is surrounded by steep mountains, tall trees or power lines.
The Citabria, Decathlon and Scout 2007 package includes an updated version of Bear Gulch designed specifically for FSX. New to this version is a fearsome, bumpy landing strip flanked by towering trees on all sides. Getting into and out of this strip is quite a challenge, especially in a taildragger!
This scenery was created for us by Bill Womack, of Antelope Simworks. Bill is known for in the simming world for his quality scenery packages such as the scenery of Reading International Airport that was included with the highly- regarded MAAM-SIM B-25. |
