Airfoil Labs

[Mireille Duhon]

Iam fairly new to xplane 11. There is a checkbox in general settings of xplane 11 which says "use experimental flight model". For the above airfoil labs aircraft to work correctly, should I have this checked or unchecked? Any official response from airfoil labs staff would be really appreciated! Thank you. Also I am pretty sure there used to be a manual for this plane on the airfoil labs website. But this is no longer available. Would appreciate if airfoil labs could provide access to this manual for customers who bought this module. Thank you

Well in this post, I want to review the Airfoillabs Cessna 172 in X-Plane 11, as I believe this plane really fills in a needed area of flight sim. Before I begin, I would like to tell you that I have no affiliation with Airfoillabs. I just really like the plane.

This is a highly responsive plane that reminds me of flying in a real plane. When I fly this plane, I get sucked into the sim. It really gives you that immersion that you need. This is especially true in VR.

Stalling was another area that I found was realistic in this plane. I found it very difficult to keep it from wanting to roll. Now, maybe this was the year of plane I was flying, but when I was flying the Cessna 172 in real life, I found that you had to stay on top of the rudder pedals during a stall, or the plane wanted to put a wing down for a roll. Now, this was the same with Airfoillabs. When I did the same with the default Cessna, it was much more stable. Now, some of these differences could be due to different years in the Cessna, however that was my experience.

Yes, this plane works great in VR. At least for the flying portion. I have found that the walk around process is much easier to do in 2D, so I usually stick to the monitor for the walk around and then jump in VR once I am ready to fly.

For one, you have to actually maintain this plane, which makes you less likely to fly it like a fighter jet. This will wear down quicker. It will also help you to understand when you are not flying it properly.

This plane also comes with a nice weight and balance setup. In fact, a neat part of the weight and balance is that when you increase the luggage weight, you actually see the plane fill with luggage in the storage. This just shows you how much detail the developers put into the plane.

In the menu system, there is a Center of Gravity Limits Chart that adjusts as you change the weights in the plane. This can be calculated if you have the proper flight tools for real world flying, but not everyone has those tools, so this helps to give you a nice quick understanding of where your plane is sitting. In fact, if you plan to go up and do spins, you could actually put your plane into the Utility Category, in order to be within proper weight.

Of course, if you were doing a worst case scenario, you could always fill your plane properly, however put it in a spin anyways. This is not something you can practice in real life, but you may encounter this on an accidental stall. Just food for thought. If you want to know more of my ideas on emergency flights, take a look at my post on X-Plane 11 failures.

The plane has 140 sounds installed on it. The sounds in the airplane are actual real life recordings. You can definitely tell they spent some time on the sounds, as each switch, lever, brake has incredible sounds. You can even virtually plug in a headset, which muffles the sound. I prefer to keep this unplugged, as I enjoy all the sounds it offers.

Now last, but definitely not least, the walk around on this plane is pretty neat. To start, it is interactive, so you can add tie downs, open the cowling, pull on the ailerons, the flaps and many other surfaces. Essentially anything you check on a real plane, you can check on this aircraft. It would be the perfect plane for someone learning to do a walk around.

The one downside to the walk around is that, it can be difficult, but not impossible to use in VR. So if you are flying in VR, I might suggest that you do the walk around before throwing your flight into VR.

So, how much does this plane cost. Well it is actually posted for sale for $34.95 USD on X-Plane.org. So if you interested in getting this plane, please take a look here, Airfoillabs Cessna 172 at store.x-plane.org.

Rod Machado, the Legendary flight instructor from FSX is the best of the best, as he is down to earth in the way he explains everything in his book. Best preparation and motivation for your flight lessons.

Given the above, it seems to be quite logical for AFL to offer a study level version of this iconic airplane. Since its first flight in 1955, the Skyhawk, as the 172 became known, has been through twenty-one model variants. See this 172guide.com website. It is far beyond the scope of this review to dive into a detailed description and history of the model but, for those interested, the Wikipedia article on the Skyhawk is a good place to start.

There have been many complaints about the complicated nature of the installation with no documentation to help people through it. Here your team at X-Plained.com provide you with that absent set of instructions with a step-by-step guide.

The product manager installs as both a stand-alone module as well as an integrated plug-in if you choose. If you do not integrate the Product Manager as a plug-in, you will need to remember to open periodically open it in stand-alone mode to check for any updates. Installation of the Product Manager will be according to how you install any other program for your operating system.

What you download from the store is an installer that, when executed, downloads the remainder of the Product Manager and sets it up. Note that if you have already used the Product Manager for another AFL product, you do not need to download the Project Manager. You simply open the one already installed and proceed.

Once that is complete, open the Product Manager to begin installation of the C172 NG. When you open the Product Manager, you will see a list of the AFL items you have installed. If this is the first time using it, you should see the XJet Plug-in listed. To begin installation of the C172 NG click the Install New Addon button (1). On the next screen, select the C172 NG from the list of items and then click on Install (2).

They began with four videos, one after the other, and then the process came to a halt. As of this writing, there is no indication when the next one(s) will be available. The existing ones take you through the walk-around, towing, and things you can do on the outside of the plane. I hope to be able to provide you with some of what is missing as we go through looking at this airplane.

This option, along with a few others, is on the settings screen. If you intuitively head up to the Plugins menu in X-Plane, you will see an item for Settings under the C172NG menu item. This does nothing. This, and everything else you see on this menu, is available from the icon menu that appears when you move the mouse cursor to the left side of your screen. Before we head over there, note the menu item for Airfoillabs. On the next level of this menu is where you will find the option to open the Product Manager from within X-Plane if you chose to integrate it during installation.

This is a composite image of the pop-up menus you will see. The first column is what shows up when you move your cursor over this area. The columns to the right of that in each row is what shows up when you click on the leftmost circle of that row. The rows, in order, are start-up conditions, 2D panels, aircraft ground objects, aircraft configuration options, weight and balance, repairs and maintenance, settings, situations, remote control.

The first preserves all switch settings, throttle, and mixture lever positions, aircraft equipment options, and selected ground item choices. The second option allows you to maintain the wear and tear level of the various parts of the aircraft so you can experience the cumulative effects of use over time. The next section allows you to choose when pilot and passenger figures are visible. Then we find what we came in looking for: the check box to disable the welcome screen. Clear the box to disable it, leave it checked to keep it enabled.

Under the sound section, the only active choice is for Environment Sound. Apparently, any speech options are reserved for future use. You may also fine speech options for the checklist in the settings for the checklist itself that we will be looking at. Disable Aural Warning refers to the sound you hear whenever a warning or caution message appears on the PFD of the G1000. It is a sound like the one you hear in many automobiles when the door is open with the key in the ignition.

Between the settings and remote menu lies the Situations menu from where you can load pre-defined situations or save ones that you create. The predefined situations show the aircraft in the AFL Hangar at KAWO if you have that package installed.

As mentioned, I have not seen this hangar. Selecting the option here loads my plane in a grassy area behind a chain link fence. I assume this is where the hangar should be. Choosing the ramp situation loads my plane inside a fixed object aircraft in the same spot. The usable option here is the ability to create your own situation and save it.

Startup Options

Now, on to the more complex menus. The top row is the available options for how the aircraft loads when you start a flight. Your choice will take effect immediately and will remain in effect until you change it if you have the option to remember your aircraft state selected in the settings menu. So, if you want to jump in and take a quick flight by using any of the options other than cold and dark, the C172 will start in that same mode the next time you want to use it.

Before Taxi: Aircraft is started, internal and external lights are set as necessary. Before selecting this option, you may want to be sure your mixture axis, if assigned, is not set to cutoff because an attempt to move it once the aircraft is started will cause the mixture to move to cutoff and the engine to stop.

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