Ford 4AT Trimotor - Free @ MSFS Marketplace Until June 30th

[kronovan]

The Ford 4AT Trimotor is free to download from the in-game Marketplace until this Friday. For those not familiar with it, it's was one of the early, passenger aircraft that stopped being produced in 1933. Consequently it lacks a lot of the things we'd consider on post-WWII civil aircarft, like flaps and propeller pitch control. To me it sort of feels at home with RTMM, as Microsoft has included a float and ski variant for it. I mean if you only do flight between those USFS cabins and don't encounter modern aircraft or boats enroute, you wouldn't know you weren't flying in the between-wars-era.   

A few words of caution about it; its engine sounds are very poor, sounding in cockpit more like 3 sewing machines running than 3 engines. With the caveat that I haven't flown a lot of vintage aircraft in MSFS, the flight modelling doesn't feel that accurate with it being far more floaty on takeoff than it should be. I've been recently getting a lot of stick time in Big Radial's Gruman JRF-6B Goose and Noorduyn Norseman and the fidelity of realism for those is night & day in comparison to the Trimotor.

I've also yet to successfully start the 3 engines from a cold start. It involves an odd process in which there's a 3 setting (1 for each engine) fuel pump that must be pumped enough times and then locked. And each engine has a starter on the floor that you must press down, then flip a solinoid followed by turning the magneto to the both position. It could be that I'm just not activating them fast enough, because I fly with TrackIR and flipping switches or turning selectors quickly in sequence on different parts of the dash can be problematic. I haven't bothered to map a TrackIR pause key to an extra mouse button (haven't felt the need to yet), so maybe after doing that I'll be succesfful. Still, I've read posts on the Internet of others having problems with cold start, with some reporting that the engines sometime don't even start on a [CTRL]+[E].

But hey, it's free! I've attached a few screenshots I took while flying at Misty's Place....

[kaha]

Wing span is too wide for the taxi way at PF20. But it comes also with floats (and skis).
Karl

[kronovan]

Actually, I was able to taxi at Mistys without much problem; just had to be mindul of the wings. Same for taking off. Now landing on the airstrip - that's a whole other issue. I was actually doing the airstrip take off as a sort of joke and was going to comment my images with text like "you probably don't want to do this."    That said, I think the Trimotor looks a bit bigger than it actually is. I agree though, that water takes off with the float variant is the way to go. I haven't flown at Mistys in the dead of winter, but if that airstrip is covered with snow, the ski variant could also work if you're careful with taxing and line up. It's a shame you can't free-walk into the passenger compartment, because it's very attractive with lots of qualtiy hardword and a sort of 1920s art deco look. Alas as pilot you're completely sealed into the cockpit.

NOTE: I've figured out now how to reliably cold start it. The in-game checklist is not detailed enough and following it you're almost certain to be unsuccessful. Microsoft has now uploaded a Trimotor manual PDF to their download site and it has the correct procedures; you must ONLY pump the primer for each engine 4 times. Then you have to wait 10 seconds after you press an engine's starter before you engage its solinoid - timing is delicate because soon after 10 seconds the starter disengages on its own. Then turn its magneto to "both" as soon as that engine is cranking. Now starts every time for me.

[kaha]

I really cannot taxi without clipping my wing tips.

https://youtu.be/o-5bL4BuMeI

Karl

[kronovan]

Oh man, you meant taxing to the NW runway - heck no I didn't do that!  I was referring to the brief taxing from parking to the SE runway. I wouldn't attempt a NW takeoff - you're braver than me.     I did try to land on the NW runway, which I found challenging. The SE touchdown you did looks like a better choice, but then you have to taxi all the way back - yikes!

[kaha]

Landing on the NW runway is definitely challenging in the Trimotor.

[nbrich1]

Interesting bird... a bit harder to maneuver and large wingspan but not bad!

[av8erjm]

Maybe try back taxing on the NW runway

[kaha]

You are right, that would probably be the way to handle it.

Karl

[kronovan]

Don't know if anyone noticed, but there's a new update available for the Trimotor via the content manager. The update brings it up to version 0.1.12; I haven't had a chance yet to check into what it updates.

[kaha]

Here's the changelog:

The nose and cockpit of the aircraft has been redone to better reflect the time period of the model.

The floats have been remodeled / repositioned to better reflect the time period of the model.

Smoke / exhaust effects from the engines have been repositioned to eject rearward.

The aircraft is no longer an option for towing gliders.

Depending on where you are in the world, the VFR squawk code will default to 1200 or 7000.

The color arcs on the HUD’s airspeed indicator have been revised to better match the v-speeds.

Issues with the icing effects have been fixed.

Karl