Rollus - CARGO 400M

[flaviossa]

New plane available:
CARGO 400M for FSX/P3DV2 from Rollus
http://www.fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/images/2014/03/25/3IVzE.jpg

It appears to be a good model, but when i listened the engines i declined the purchase. If someone buy it, please let us know what´s your opinion.
Link: http://secure.simmarket.com/rlaborie..._8307%29.phtml (http://secure.simmarket.com/rlaborie-cargo-400m-fsxp3dv2-%28pt_8307%29.phtml)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-bzkCATJaA

[Daube]

Very good remark about the sounds!
When I first watched that videol, I stopped before the end (I was just interested at how complex the starting procedure was, how clickable the overhead panel was, etc....).
After your comment, I watched it again until the end, and I agree with you: the sounds are not as nice as I expected...

[Scandinavian]

The sound, it sounds like the default King Air really.

The instrumentation looks pretty basic also in some parts. Looks like it heavily relies on the default gps system. = big no/no for me.

[Desert Rat]

Just Flight has the boxed Wilco Atlas for £5, not sure if it is native, says the dreaded 'compatible' word.

http://www.justflight.com/product/a400m-airlifter

Jamie

[StormILM]

I lot of the instrumentation used seems similar to the Rafale he made which is actually quite excellent. Yes, it uses the default GPS but the moving map overlays/multiple mode are actually very nicely done. Systems wise, again, the Rafale model he did was well done and from what I see on the A400M it is quite in depth overall. The sounds do seem a bit off as the real A400M is a very quiet aircraft(not totally unlike the C-130J) but one could probably switch this out to something more suitable. My curiosity is about the flight modeling. I'm sure Roland did his homework in getting this as close as possible. The FDE and FBW simulation on the Rafale model is IMO the absolute best FBW simulation ever done in FSX. The VC and exterior modeling looks great and the texturing & night lighting looks very good. The A400M model costs about $26US which to me is a very good price for what you're getting. Be advised, from my experience with the Rafale, you'll need to have a fairly hefty system to run this model smoothly.

[Ferry_vO]

Sounds can be changed, and for that price it looks like a good deal to me. Especially if it is anything as complex as his once available Mirage 2000.

[StormILM]

Just did a side by side comparison on the VC instrumentation and the actual RW A400M. Very close indeed, and the procedures are pretty much spot on. I'm going to go ahead and get it as I trust Roland's skills and general accuracy. BTW, I'm going to use my C-27J engine sounds(somewhat close).

Edited: I am downloading the model now and will run a good bit of testing and give my opinion later. I am going to run it fully stock at first before making nay sound changes or any other changes(as to my "tendency" to tweak all my FSX models).

[StormILM]

Well, I got all the systems started and soon after, the engines running. It is an incredibly nice model that flies very well! With only a very short amount of time getting used to the start procedure(which is on Youtube), you will be up and flying in no time. The autopilot is simple and very stable but hand flying it is super easy and fun. There is plenty of sophistication to keep any level of user quite busy and interested in this model a long time. One thing of note that I got a brief test of, the terrain following feature which at first glance, is a really neat feature to have. Anyhow, am going to update the sounds and see how that works and continue learning this nice iteration of FSX modeling. Two words: Buy it!

[StormILM]

Ran more tests, the Iris C-27J sounds work perfectly and from what I can tell from watching A400M demo videos, it's fairly close to the actual sound. As always, Rolland has made another masterpiece! :applause: I'm hooked!

[flibinite]

Storm, can you explain how to replace the stock sounds with the Iris sounds?

[StormILM]

Storm, can you explain how to replace the stock sounds with the Iris sounds?

I simply copied(backed up) the original file and replaced it with the entire Iris C-27J sound folder. As to the A400M specific sounds(the ini file and gauge sounds, they are unaffected as those sounds are control from the panel cfg. I disabled the latter due to having an CTD issue with the the dsd_xml_sound3! gauge file but eventually I am going to rework the entire sound system to suit my needs.

[StormILM]

Bump

Can we get this on a new release sticky?

[CG_1976]

Ah a must buy A400 with a RCAF Paint:biggrin-new:. Will buy as soon as I get to the Key West NAS for 5 day liberty and sun.

[StormILM]

Made a lot more tests and found a couple of significant issues. The Approach Hold function on the Autopilot doesn't work properly, it displays erratic behavior in not holding altitude on intercepting the localizer(until reaching the Glideslope descent) and it also abruptly pitches up and begins climbing before reaching the G/S point in the approach. I have seen this kind of behavior on some other FS9 & FSX models when shooting an ILS. Also, I have had serious issues with my model suffering pausing/freezing. I tried to troubleshoot the issue and I seem to think with the complexity of the MFD's and Moving Maps that some CPU's and GPU's may have issues handling all of it. I have two settings on my Radeon HD7770 Pro to handle different FSX aircraft models, one setting that is maximized for excellent visuals and the other at "lite" settings to get better performance from other aircraft models that have issues running at peak graphic settings. When I switched over to the Lite settings preset, my A400M seemed to run a lot better and there was only 1 significant pause/stutter. So, with the pausing issue and the Approach Hold A/P issue, I am going to submit a support request to Roland(never had to do this before) and hopefully, they can update the model to address the known issues as I am sure others may be having issues as well.

I want to point out a few things about this model. As I noted before, it is very nice and you get a lot for $26 dollars but it isn't a perfect model nor is it PMDG/Aerosoft Airbus X Extended level in systems complexity and FBW Protection Systems. The Throttle/FADEC system does not function like Airbus Throttle/FADEC architecture seen on the A400M or other Airbus aircraft(the Aerosoft Airbus X Extended covers this aspect pretty well overall). The Throttle/FADEC does however respond to speed and altitude changes very well. There is a lot of functionality in the VC but a lot missing too. Again, price is right and users both advanced and novice can get a lot out of this model. So, hopefully, any issues that exist will be fixed in the near future.

[flibinite]

I am unable to change any radio freqs at all. Have also noticed the VC pushbottons are sometimes unresponsive, takes 2 or 3 clicks to make a change

[Hanimichal]

I'm waiting a long time to have good model of this for FSX, but for now so much negative comments :frown-new:!

[Daube]

The comments on the French forum Pilote Virtuel are quite positive in fact.
Roland Laborie replied there, and is already looking into potential problems regarding the autopilot.
Basically, as written above it's no PMDG for sure, but it's still "very nice for the price".

[StormILM]

I wrote to Roland and he replied regarding the issues I found. Regarding the stutters/freezing, I did a number of tests to see if I could figure out the cause of the stutters/freezing and in general the only thing I could come up with was that there seemed to be a correlation between having dual moving maps on the ND/MFD screens and my AMD Catalyst settings(having high quality and lite settings for both sharp visuals or higher performance) but in the end, the stutters/freezing persisted. I ended up (reluctantly) updating my AMD drivers to the latest version. The last drivers I had installed were nearly a year old and subsequent updates had caused havoc with FSX running properly if not crashing. The latest drivers ended up working fine and did significantly improve the visual performance of FSX. I also decided to go ahead and perform routine maintenance by running my HD cleanup and also a defrag(which I do either weekly or bi-weekly. After all of this, the stutters/freezing with the A400M seems to have disappeared(other than what is typical with FSX). I came to the realization that I had made a lot of updates/installs, uninstalls on my HD over the last couple of weeks and without performing a cleanup/defrag. But so far as I am concerned, that issue is mitigated. The only big issue remaining is the unstable behavior of the Approach Hold/ILS with the Autopilot as previously mentioned. The test of the A/P function works perfectly but I am going to see if the issue can be tweaked from making adjustments within the config file.
Otherwise, it is a very nice model that is a lot of fun to fly.

[StormILM]

Update: Good news, I managed to mitigate my issues with the Autopilot Approach Hold not holding altitude on Localizer/Glideslope intercept(it now works perfectly!). I edited the A/P entry in the aircraft config file using known stable parameters but also, on the A400M's vast A/P and Display Function brow, it is very important to make sure that the NAV/GPS button is off(not illuminated) prior to activating the Approach Hold function! The ILS frequencies can be adjusted/switched in the upper display on the brow above the primary ND/MFD(left of the A/P control unit).
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Here is the Autopilot entry I am using:

[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 1
default_vertical_speed= 500.00
autothrottle_available= 1
autothrottle_arming_required= 1
autothrottle_takeoff_ga= 1
autothrottle_max_rpm= 100.00
pitch_takeoff_ga= 15.00
use_no_default_pitch = 1
use_no_default_bank = 1
default_pitch_mode=0
default_bank_mode=0
max_pitch= 15.00
max_pitch_acceleration= 1.00
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt= 0.75
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt= 0.35
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint= 7000.00
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint= 25000.00
max_bank=30,25,20,15,10
max_bank_acceleration= 3.50
max_bank_velocity= 6.00
max_throttle_rate= 0.30
nav_proportional_control= 9.80
nav_integrator_control= 0.20
nav_derivative_control= 0.00
nav_integrator_boundary= 0.20
nav_derivative_boundary= 0.00
gs_proportional_control= 30.00
gs_integrator_control= 0.75
gs_derivative_control= 5.00
gs_integrator_boundary= 0.50
gs_derivative_boundary= 10.00
yaw_damper_gain= 1.00

Off to perform a final cross-country check flight to see if everything works(NAV/GPS/ILS)

[flibinite]

I discovered that the buttons to adjust radio freqs respond to mouse wheel scrolling, not button pushes. Some other notes:

I had to adjust my contact points a bit to get the wing wheels to touch the ground - I noticed they weren't turning while taxiing, while the nose wheel was. The autobrake funtion seems a bit finicky - sometimes not wanting to accept your choice of braking level for a few clicks. There are no independent taxi lights.

The FADEC seems to have TOGA and CLB ranges (not set detents like the Aerosoft Airbus), but I constantly have a "LVR CLB" indicator in flashing white on the PFD, once autopilot speed is set, even when i'm sure the levers are in the CLB range. It also appears that one should be careful to match the throttles before engaging speed hold, as engaging won't match the engines' power settings for you.

She hand flies quite nicely, and addition of some vibration effects really adds to the model. It also has an interesting integration with the RealityXP weather radar - it automatically detected mine,and you then have the option to bring up the radar display on a nav display next to the PFD - slick. There's also a checklist feature which appears to activate automatically as certain conditions are met, such as when the aircraft is properly configured for takeoff

The nav system though is the standard FSX GPS, but graphically converted into a hard-to-use system that it will take a bit of time to master. The VC is a bit 'plastic-y'; less so the overhead panel. Many of the switches are non functional, but then there are dozens of switches.

It's worth $25 as a change of pace from similar products like the Virtavia C17 or the CS C130 - but I do think those are better aircraft

[StormILM]

Anyone who buys this model, please advise if you are having any issues with the sim pausing/freezing or any other minor stutters when flying it. I thought my defrag operation helped with that problem but what I found out was that the issue still occurs but towards the end of a cross-country flight of 100 NM or more. I also noticed that after ending a flight with the A400M, FSX takes far more time to return to home screen than normal and an abnormal amount of time to shut down and un-cache when exiting the sim. It makes me think there is a memory issue or perhaps the model is using excessive VAS. If you have such issues, email Roland in his support email and please advise here so I can keep track of anyone else having the same issue.

[CG_1976]

No stuttering for me in P3DV1.4 with the AMD A6 Quad W8.1 64.

[strikehawk]

I picked this up after I got home today. I managed to figure everything out in about an hour switching from the PDF to the pit and back. After hearing firsthand how bad the sounds were, even my wife agreed, I took the advice of others and used the C-27's sounds and they were soooo much better. Since it was daytime on my VA's server in Japan that's where I did my test flight, Gifu to Fukushima and it flew the flight plan with no problem. I may repurchase the Reality XP weather radar for this bird but I'll see what others post about that, my only hope is that someone does a config for the Shockwave Lights as the ones it comes with were nice I like the Shockwave ones a little better.

[CG_1976]

NOTAM: I just went to check my simmarket account and found a update. The update is small and is a new gauge cab file. I am enjoying the heck out of this A400M more then the Wilco offering. Thank you Rollus for including a RCAF paint also as I don't fly USAF markings. I hope a painter comes along and christens this A400M in USCG scheme, then the Wilco offering is history from my hanger.

[CG_1976]

A major update notice from Simmarket. Just downloaded it and it's a biggie over 1G.

[StormILM]

Me too, didn't notice a change log?

[CG_1976]

I'm loving the update, sounds are better and performance. Now I only wish I could speak Frech to try to req a USCG paint. The USCG on the Wilco brought me many hours of joy. I dumped the Wilco because I am just enjoying the Rollus a400M and love it more as it is a triple option exe.

[dougal]

Guess I'll just have to get this. Bought the Wilco version ages ago, and hangared it after just ONE flight. I thought the VC was just horrible in the Wilco version. Waaaaaaay too colourful for starters, making the 'cartoonish' appearance we all love to hate;-)

Looking forward to trying another version...

[dougal]

Oh errr... have to post again just to get rid of number 666 ;-)

[CC-130J_AVN]

Can't believe I just discovered this beaut!
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[CG_1976]

Now If only I had a USCG Paint and a RCAF Yellow/Red Paint Wing 18 lol.