
INTRODUCTION:
This is the sleek, high performance French 4 seater 'Trinidad' by Socata Aerospace in France. This 250HP Turbocharged Edition of the Trinidad line, the TB-21 GT, was a fast cruiser, hitting cruise speeds of 200 MPH or 180+ Knots. Some were fitted with oxygen systems for high altitude cruising, up to 25,000 feet ASL. She was designed with a very advanced interior with automotive style instrument panel featuring 'instrument pods' similar to the Lotus Esprit and Lamborghini Countach of that era. Even today, her instrument panel design is more advanced in appearence to other manufacturers.
* 22 (TWENTY TWO) Different Paint Schemes!
* 3 Different Interior Themes: Gray, Tan, Neon Euro Blue
* Extreme Detail Virtual Cockpit with updated and modified Mesh, Mapping, and Graphics
* Disappearing control yoke for visibility
* Extreme high-resolution textures in PBR format complete with bump mapping.
* Asobo high end Avionics including their GNS530 and GNS430 GPS systems.
* Soundpack is also an Asobo creation with some incredible sound effects that only MSFS sound systems feature which include bumping sounds, performance maneuver 'groans' from the airframe, and other cool effects.
* Fold up arm rests
NOTE 1:This product is for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator MSFS 2020 ONLY. NOTE 2: This should only be used on high performance computers.
NOTE 3: The Installer will require MANUAL targeting of your MSFS Community Folder. You must locate its destination folder.
Build 3.5, released Feb 20th, 2021
[FIXES AND REPAIRS]
* Camera Settings for interior and exterior improved, revamped
* Weight and CG reset and revamped with rear passengers added
* Interior lighting modes redone and revamped and improved moderately
* Two far distance LOD models added for those that use the Trinidad in multi player mode and as AI aircraft
* Prop blades still texture decolored of odd tint
* Touchups to the new fuselage high resolution bump map (Normal map)
* Edits to Manual to show new camera systems and lighting functionalities
[EXISTING BUGS]
* Asobo mishap; flaps are now extremely good with lift, making landings slightly challenging. Fix should be out soon by Team Asobo. System wide issue with all planes that have flaps.
* Avionics Switch Not Animating
* Heading Knob Not Rotating, I broke the animation..... :(
Overall quality of the model & textures is ok but not great. Definitely a lot of room for improvement.
Flight dynamics feel questionable at best especially compared to other similar size and layout aircraft. This plane feels like an old car, doesn't look too bad is fiddly and handles like crap.
I would love to get a refund but on the flip side it wasn't expensive and maybe they will update it to the point it actually is good. Once can only hope.
The plane itself is beautiful, but the texture needs to be refined. It looks rough when you zoom in,especially the Air Speed Indicator.
In addition to the problems others have found, there are a few bugs that need to be fixed.I have encountered and can confirm that:
The alternator doesn't work even though it's on(someone in the Msfs forum told this too), the battery will continue to drain and then blackout. Navigation, radio, autopilot, fuel indicator will fail, and even the landing gear will not lay down.
In addition, the rudder trim and fuel tank switching reversed while using middle mouse wheel.
The rudder-trim does not really
work(but the number changes), while it can take effect with the binding key.
Over all, I like this plane, fly fast and smooth. And the dev seems work hard on the patch. So, It will be 4 stars after some improvements.
-------------------------------------------------------
After a few rounds of patches, the plane is fully functional and looking good.
I wish it would be perfect to optimized a little more on FPS in the Cockpit.
Really beautiful cockpit and texture craftmanship.
Overall the aircraft performs well and is a real climber. Once at cruise, you have no problem getting to the yellow arch and slows nicely when you get the wheels and flaps down for approach. Outside model looks fine and overall textures are okay. Animation of the exterior gear and flaps look good along with the gull wing doors.
Interior could use some help. Since I am a VR pilot, that's where I have the strongest opinions for an aircraft. Texture of the cockpit panel and door panels seen a little "course" for me. Also the yoke seems huge. I looked at some real pictures of the Trinidad, and it looks large in the reference photos, but it seems to big in the model. I usually turn them off because they are a little distracting. The one thing that I wish would get fixed is the gauges. They are 2D, be nice if they were 3D, and I know this would be a lot of work to make them 3D. The GPS units displays look great. Color of the displays are spot on.
Systems are okay, but this is also just a single engine aircraft, so there are not that many systems to model. Auto pilot works okay, once your figure out how it works. The GPS/NAV mode floats off course and after a few miles it will bank back on course.
It is a nice aircraft for the price, and I have had it since its release. There were a lot of problems with the release but the aircraft is mush better now. Still with the few problems there are still there, and if the developer doesn't update it anymore, I would continue flying as is. However, I have heard the developer is still planning more updates and I can't wait to see what improvements he does.
Maybe after a couple more updates, I would give it a 4 stars, and if the gauges were 3D then I would say it is a 5 star aircraft. For me, the price was right for this aircraft, but to everyone, price is subjective.
Hope this review helps anyone looking into this aircraft!
Look, everyone's discretionary spending and expectations are different. That's absolutely, ok. If you're primarily graphics focused, than yes, you should take this into consideration with your purchase decision. If you feel like I do, supporting and encouraging Developers in the new MSFS to generate new and unique aircraft benefits the entire community, then selection of this aircraft is a no-brainer. This is an absolutely beautiful flying machine and I have no reservations they will continue to update and continue improvements with the graphics and performance.
Personally, I look forward to LHC taking their maturing experience to deliver us remarkable versions of their Kodiak and Fairchild 24 series. But I'm a GA and big radial kind of guy, so there's that:)
Cheers to you all, fly safe and happy.
The flight model is really good, the plane flies very nice - one should not to be forget, besides the big known manufacturers it is the first mature complex aircraft.And the manufacturer takes really much effort to take its users seriously and to continuously develop the machine. thumbs up ... it would be desirable to optimize the FPS and the functionality of the Avionic Master--but i think, for the price it is a nice GA Plane whichs grows much more to the future :)
My only gripe with the aircraft (and it's a game-breaking one right now) is the poor performance in-cockpit. I think there's some weirdness going on with the way the gauges are being rendered, or with the internal 3D model having too many unneeded polys. I'm not sure what the issue is but it's the only thing really keeping me from flying an otherwise great aircraft. If the developer is able to solve the performance issue, I will happily amend my review to five stars.
My biggest issue is the installer which is especially annoying to use.
It is to note that this plane is the first 3rd party plane with genuinly good camera difinitions I've bought, usually the work is made by clueless devs or isn't even done, even from talented devs.
Frankly the fact that this add-on plane has lower review scores than the Bredok Eurofighter really tells a lot about flight simmer's broken priorities.
It's also to note that a lot of the bad early reviews really seem to me to come from people who don't understand what it's like to learn to make planes for this new sim, documentation is horrible, mostly empty, a lot changed between this sim and older platforms and it's a lot about trial and error and devs helping each others out.
Also some absurd accusation like one guy sayiing there's no PBR where there obviously is. I'd usually give this product 4 stars until some of the issues are fixed but I'm giving it 5 to compensate for the many, imo, absurly harsh reviews this product gets.
The plane itself is beautiful, but the texture needs to be refined. It looks rough when you zoom in,especially the Air Speed Indicator.
In addition to the problems others have found, there are a few bugs that need to be fixed.I have encountered and can confirm that:
The alternator doesn't work even though it's on(someone in the Msfs forum told this too), the battery will continue to drain and then blackout. Navigation, radio, autopilot, fuel indicator will fail, and even the landing gear will not lay down.
In addition, the rudder trim and fuel tank switching reversed while using middle mouse wheel.
The rudder-trim does not really
work(but the number changes), while it can take effect with the binding key.
Over all, I like this plane, fly fast and smooth. And the dev seems work hard on the patch. So, It will be 4 stars after some improvements.
Let me just say for the record for the cost this is a perfectly fine value. Tons of liveries, a few different interiors and the dev has addressed all complaints with almost daily updates.
Flight model is great and that is the most important thing, to the developer I ask you to prioritize these items to bring this B plane to an A+.
- Better textures on internal cockpit - the current textures are good but there's room for improvement - please start with the gauges ;)
- The airframe body looks good, but I would like to see physical bolts instead of the texture maps. The flaps are the worst offender here in my opinion.
- Lighting, look up the Uwa lighting mod, maybe you can get this implemented?
That's it for me, the plane flies so well that I'm going to keep using it, but I would love to show it off in more screenshots so let's make it a litte bit more pretty ;
-Steve
YouTube.com/MediaHypeTrain
The modeling is superb and the flight model is better than any default aircraft in the sim. The sounds are very well done, which is a major plus.
As if these issues weren't bad enough, even installing this plane hits a road block if you don't do a workaround. The installer asks if you have the Steam version or not. If you choose the Steam version, you will not be able to advance past the registration key. The solution here is to choose the non-Steam version regardless of which version you have installed. Everything about this release is sloppy.
Tried it today - model looks nice enough.
Interior instrument lighting not working as advised when purchased.
VOR's don't work. No glideslope on VOR or HSI.
Overspeed in level flight even with the throttle pulled way back.
Needs finessing.
A High End computer that can run MSFS smoothly is most recommended because this package consists of a high amount of 4K resolution textures. A Strong graphics card with at least 2Gb VRAM, but preferably 4Gb of VRAM and at least 6Gbs of RAM are required. You might need to 'relax' settings in the simulator to run this plane in low end computers.
You will need to know where your 'Community' folder is in MSFS on your computer. You will need to direct the installer to your that folder when installing this package.