Aerofly FS 2019 - Feedback and credit!

  • Okay, so I have been critical regarding previous updates and a lack of transparency (only because I care for such a great sim on mobile) but I did purchase 2019 out of curiosity and have been suitably impressed so credit where it's due.

    Firstly, I have been keen to get Clouds and the implementation here is first class. They add a real sense of immersion and contribute greatly to the feel of the app - it is almost hypnotic to fly through them!

    The Dash is finally on mobile and is a great addition to the aircraft roster. It is just nice to have another airliner that looks, sounds and acts differently from the others and is one of my favourites.

    Co Pilot. This has really progressed since the previous version and I love the flexibility offered being able to switch between automating the current aircraft characteristics to following a defined navigation route as well as take off and landing. Excellent work Jan! I had to figure this out on my own so curious if there is documentation on this feature to ensure I am getting the best out of it. Also curious if the Helicopter will get automated take off and landing support?

    Some things that really bugged me from the previous version that have been addressed:

    Aircraft textures. Now when viewed from an angle, they remain crisp and do not lose fidelity - this is a big thing for me so great to see this resolved.

    Night lighting. Again, this is big for me because we can now get things truly dark and not a lighter grey appearance - great to have this. City lighting is also improved in this version and looks much more realistic when flying above at night!

    Great job by the team - this is now a permanent addition to my new iPad Pro! Performance is very smooth!

    Some issues:

    F18 ground shadows badly pixelated.

    Ground shadows not showing when using an internal view such as the over wing windows.

    Shadows showing the windows on the ground - may be as a result of how the aircraft are modelled and unable to resolve?

    Unable to complete a navigation route for the Helicopter - can select the starting Helipad but when selecting the landing pad, it is not recorded and unable to finalise the route.

    I'm new to the Helicopter so can't offer too much here just now although it does seem relatively easy to fly. Will this be added to the flight school though? We could also use some additional helipads, especially in SF. Are there plans to improve the helipad selection screen as there are no labels or identifiers when selecting from the few on offer in LA?

  • After flying quite extensivly during the festive season, I collected some more feedback items from my side. It's not really sorted, made these notes whenever they occured to me or I remembered them. Although not always reproducable, I hope they provide some help for improvement nevertheless:

    • Some in-game hints need to be updated. Once, there was a hint displayed stating I should use the + and - buttons to change auto/co-pilot settings. These aren't there in FS2019.
    • Co-Pilot / Autopilot >> see my other post in the FS2019 co-pilot thread
    • Autotrim failed three times / trim runaway >> see my other post in the FS2019 co-pilot thread
    • PAPI-lights: Although now seemingly the same as in the desktop version (played that as well in the last weeks), they are not usable for me anymore, at least in daylight. In FS2, they have a nice halo so that you can recognize them very well in the final approach, but now I can hardly see whether they are red or white even when reaching the runway threshhold.
    • KingAir Flap setting 50 is not turning green when selected
    • VOR only works with glass cockpits. Cessna, Baron58 etc. show the same behaviour as in FS2: frequencies are fixed, and so instruments only work when close to these navaids. They don't take any input from setting a route in the navigation display.
    • There are some pixels / spots with completely different colours than the surrounding at various locations. Only a minor issue, though. Can easily be seen on the upper enging cowlings of the KingAir when looking at them from the pilots seat.
    • HUD view is quite useless now, because the compass with the route is now only visible when zooming out completely, and due to the fisheye-view is then quite distorted. Funnily enough, this also the same in the PC version, was much better in FS2.
    • HUD settings in the settings menu only works with the HUD view - where it makes no sense at all to me, because there is already a horizontal course displayed.
    • In the LearJet, there is no pilot when sitting on the co-pilots seat - scary =O. It is there when looking from the outside or passenger seats.
    • Same as in F2: Sometimes when I want to pan around, I am zooming. As if a second finger is on the screen, which is not. Maybe I need to clean my surface more often? ;)
    • R22 helicopter: when on the ground, pulling the collective / thrust lever full down will make it turn green - and not responding any more. I learned that in planes this act as some kind of parking brake? Only after catapulting yourself in the air again with that Lift-Me-Up button it works again.
    • Sometimes textures become missing. The most obvious part is south of the Mexican border, which you can already see in the maps. But even in flights, terrain became transparent in larger spots, either then white or one time I was even able to see the moon through it 8)
    • Same as in FS2: Sometimes I am "loosing" the rudder from below my thumb. Or it tries to sneak away from me, although keeping the thumb in the same position on the screen. Usually I am using it in manual mode.
    • F18 shadows/texture broken on runway.

    Guess that's it for now. Neverthless, I enjoy FS2019 A LOT :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

    Still amazed what you get nowadays for only 7.99 € (I'm coming from the ages when games cost real money in stores) and then on mobile - awesome!

    Patrick

  • The rudder is a pain. If you add a small amount of brake when slowing down a landed tail dragger, the rudder moves to the centre. There has been a rudder OR brake annoyance for years. The rudder seems reluctant to accept inputs unless a crude big amplitude cycle is applied, not ideal with the tail draggers. This is with fully manual rudder. It seems to lock onto brake/throttle inputs.

    Rudder has been like this since the compulsory nose wheel steering assistance crept in.

  • Yip, A380 not showing reverse thrust for me either, copilot or manually. Other aircraft seem fine. I did notice though that copilot utilising reverse thrust seemed a bit hit or miss e,g. 737 uses it at San Fran but the 747 didn’t on the same runway. Tried on a really short runway too and the A320 used it but the 747 again didn’t and ran out of runway. It can manually be invoked though.

  • Just an update on shadows and texture corruption. The F18 pixelated shadows are also bad over the aircraft inflight but it also has texture corruption on most liveries - Blue Angels, NASA and Century of Flight are the worst. The Dash has texture corruption on most liveries but Skyworks seems the worst. This is on the new 11 iPad Pro.

    Images below...

  • Okay, after a closer look it appears that all aircraft are suffering from some form of texture corruption, both old and newer liveries. Never seen this issue in the previous version. All other game textures appear okay but will take a closer look to be sure. Some more examples...