First introduced in 1986, the STOL CH 701 aircraft was developed as an off-airport, short take-off and landing kit aircraft to fulfill the demanding requirements of both sport pilots and first-time builders. With the STOL CH 701, designer Chris Heintz combined the features and advantages of a “real” airplane with the short-field capabilities of an “ultralight” aircraft. The aircraft features fixed leading-edge slats for high lift, full-span flaperons (both ailerons and flaps), an all-flying rudder, and durable all-metal construction.
PERFORMANCE
The STOL CH 701 was not designed to be just another ‘pretty’ light aircraft, but was
engineered to offer outstanding short take-off and landing performance, all-metal durability,
and unparalleled ease of construction. With form following function, the STOL CH701 looks
like a ‘Sky Jeep’, as it is often called by its owners.
Popular since 1986, there are hundreds of STOL CH 701 aircraft flying around the world! Not
many of the more than 500 STOL CH 701’s flying today can be found at airports – most are
operated from short off-airport grass fields, in backyard fields and in remote areas. The
aircraft’s all-metal construction makes it suitable for continuous outdoor storage – providing
their owners with continuous cost savings (no hanger or tie-down fees).
FEATURES
Created in meticulous detail, the SWS 701 features:
Detailed visual model made from factory drawings
Realistic flight model with accurate STOL performance
Sounds recorded from the real aircraft
Detailed cockpit featuring custom instruments
Door and no-door variants in four liveries
A bush trip through New York state
Three airports improved with custom objects and ground textures
Lufker (49N)/Spadaro (1N2)
Sky Acres (44N)
Roxbury Runway (1NK0)
Note: The aircraft makes use of the default GNS530 and GTX330 systems
Very fun and versatile little aircraft. Very fun to use with //42's scenery as well as gravel bars and short farm strips. The included scenery is also to a spectacular level in terms of both texturing and modelling. Great work overall SWS :-)
The CH701 is a great addon. Textures, sound and flight model are all superb and the included airstrips and bush flight are a nice treat which help justify the cost.
This is a beautiful plane with a great flight model. As a bush plane, it'll go anywhere and the nosewheel allows for some really short stops. I had a lot of fun taking this plane through the ArkanSTOL course over and over again in different weather conditions. It comes with some pretty neat features that no other plane has at the moment, where you can change the passenger weight to remove or add a passenger, or adjust weight to add different gear in the cabin (ie add max weight and a big dufflebag shows up behind the pilot). It also comes with some updated airports that look really nice, and a pretty fun little bush trip.
If I had to nitpick, there are a couple of areas for improvement. There are a variety of skins, but none of them are weathered. Nothing in the cabin has audio attached to it, so when you're turning things on and off and flipping switches, you can't hear them. As a bush plane with no autopilot, this plane does take a lot of manual input to remain trimmed and on course. I have to keep one hand on the stick and the other on the trim wheel at all times. If you let go of the stick, even for a second, she will start to turn hard left on you, so you have to remain focused the entire flight. This may indeed be realistic, so I'm not knocking the review score for it, but just be aware of it if you intend to take this one for long bush flights. It's because of this issue that I prefer to take it on shorter bush flights, and take a different plane with a more stable platform for longer ones.
Visibility is amazing with the bubble doors and even better with the doors off version. Low and slow is the way to go in MSFS 2020 to enjoy the scenery and this bird will get you in and out of any airstrip or gravel bar. Beautiful and works just perfect. Another reviewer said the nosewheel doesn't turn while taxiing, it does when moving.
So cool. So beautiful. A work of art. The flight dynamics are crazy good. Some details should be improved (the sound of the engine shutdown is not coordinated with the propeller, the nose wheel doesn't turn when you taxi...) but it's definitely a WIN.