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AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Review
Civil Air Patrol:
Search and Rescue
Product Information
Publisher: Abacus
Description: Add-On Aircraft and Utility.
Download Size:
41 MB
Format:
Download & CD-ROM
Simulation Type:
FS9 and FS-X
Reviewed by: Adam Volcek AVSIM Staff Reviewer - March 26, 2007
Introduction
Do you ever wonder how search and rescue works? Better yet, do you wonder who is willing to be part of search and rescue?
Enter onto the stage, the Civil Air Patrol or CAP. CAP is an official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force, made up of
volunteers, whose three missions include aerospace education, cadet programs, and operations. There are several facets to
its operations, which include search and rescue, disaster relief, and now homeland security.
To better understand the role of CAP in SAR operations, Abacus has created Civil Air Patrol: Search and Rescue. CAP: SAR,
as I’ll call it for now on, is an offshoot of CAP: Pilot released a while back, which included five aircraft and a basic mission
creation capability. CAP: SAR takes the old CAP: Pilot and builds upon it a bit, creating two new aircraft and expanding upon
the mission capability. It is available for download at $29 or via CD-ROM at $29.95. When you purchase CAP: SAR your key
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works for both FS9 and FSX versions, and accordingly this review has mostly been done in FS9, however differences in FSX
will be noted.
In brief, CAP: SAR includes two aircraft, the first being the Cessna 182T, not to be confused with the turbocharged T182T. In
addition to the C182T is the Maule MX-260, the naming of which I will comment on later. Both aircraft come with two paint
schemes, old and new, and the Cessna comes with two panel options. One is with the standard steam instruments, the other
with the new Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. Not only does CAP: SAR come with the two aircraft, it also comes with a mission
builder system that is rather ingenious. In order to complete your custom made missions, CAP: SAR comes with 4 new
instruments that equip your aircraft.
This review will run you through installation and documentation, then take a look at each of the aircraft. Finally, we’ll take a
look at the mission builder and the 4 instruments you’ll find in the cockpit to help you complete the missions.
Installation and Documentation
Test System
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 3700+
Corsair XMS 2.5GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX
256MB
WD 2x160GB SATA2
WD 2x250GB SATA2
WD 1x160GB SATA
Samsung 19” LCD DVI
Windows XP Pro
CH USB Yoke
CH USB Pedals
CH USB Throttle Quad
Flying Time:
15 hours
The download for each version is just over 40MB and were downloaded without a hitch,
they're standard executable installers.
The first page on the install warns that it must be in the main FS9 folder, which the
installer will look for in the registry. If not found, you must find the FS9 folder manually
as well as the Flight Simulator Files folder in My Documents. My install found FS9 in the
correct directory on another hard drive and the rest of the install went smoothly, it found
my FS9 directory and completed successfully.
One glitch occurred on the last page, which has a box to check if you wish to look at the
read me. Clicking this and then "Finish" leads to an error in finding the file that is looking
for the read me for FSX, not FS9 that we are using. Just clicking cancel and you get the
end result of an icon on the desktop for the Mission Builder, along with a program group
in the start menu under Abacus. The FSX install went off with a hitch.
Now that the install is complete, let's look at the documentation. First off, there is a little
pamphlet to get more information from CAP. Following that is the read-me file, which
contains a little overview of the program, and simple "how to" instructions, much like a
quick users guide. Then comes the manual that contains and expands upon the
information in the read-me.
The manual doesn’t mention anything about the included aircraft, but does give some
very good information about the mission builder and the 4 custom gauges for use in
completing the missions you create. In case you need to freshen up on how to use the G1000, there is a separate manual
that is a mixture of the real Garmin manual and some new pages. This manual is short for a G1000 manual and largely
contains pictures and screen shots of the available pages and buttons on how the G1000 was implemented for this product.
Be aware that this G1000 version is a very simplified implementation of its real-world counterpart. There are no notable
differences when it comes to documentation for FSX.
Cessna
The visual model of the C182T overall isn’t too bad, but it does have some quirks. Some attention was given to detail and
many of the antennae and other various protrusions found on the C182T are modeled and look good. Like I said though,
there are some quirks, which leads me to believe that testing was shorter than it should have been in order to make a
quality product. Some things that I have noticed include some bleed-through on the doors and others places where parts
come together, but they are only noticeable on darker painted surfaces.
Another model anomaly that I noticed was the right elevator and trim tab. The very back edge is modeled with a slight
vertical face, unlike the left side, that was either not textured at all or not textured correctly. Resulting is a blue trailing
edge. There is also a texturing problem on the right flap trailing edge, in which you can see some red and blue striping
meant for the top and bottom surface of the wing. One other complaint that I’ve got concerning the model, is that the white
tail navigation light is missing.
As a whole the textures aren’t too bad. Each aircraft comes in two different flavors of CAP paint, one old style that you
probably won’t see in very many places, and the new current style that will really catch your eye if you ever see one on your
ramp. Each style is done nicely and includes some good detail like the many rivet lines and inspection plates that are found
on the real bird.
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There are two options for panels in the C182T, one being the old steam instruments and the other the new Garmin G1000
avionics suite. As a plus both versions are modeled with both a regular 2D and virtual cockpit.
Panel of the steam instrument C182T
Panel of the Garmin G1000 C182T
Garmin G1000 PFD and MFD
First off with the standard panel, all I’ve got to say is wow…unfortunately, it’s not a good wow. The standard panel looks like
a beginner’s attempt at making a panel for the first time. The designers have gone for a realistic view from the left seat,
unlike the default C182 panel that crams everything into one screen for the most part.
The main panel bitmap has a crude, untextured look to it, with a lot of empty space that could have been better utilized. To
get at the rest of the instruments, multiple panels can be brought up with the use of mini-icons. The sub-panels are just as
poorly done, and it shows by the stretching of gauges beyond their normal resolution that gives you a very pixilated
instruments. In order to fully enjoy the aircraft you’ll have to fly it in the virtual cockpit that is done a lot better than it’s 2D
counterpart.
The Garmin G1000 avionics available for the C182T are a nice treat in the package. While it doesn’t have the functionality of
some of the dedicated products that are available, it does get the job done. Upon loading the aircraft, I came upon an
“issue” that was fixed in very short order, kudos to the Abacus support team. It’s kind of hard to fly when both PFD and MFD
do not work at all, but a couple of new files from Abacus, and all is well again.
My issue, which is only the 2nd time the Abacus team has had to face it, was an issue that could not have been caught
during testing. However, there are several problems that I have found that should not have made the final product. Some of
these include the fuel quantity that does not work in the MFD, too large of font on the PFD when changing ADF frequencies,
and that some knobs do not work correctly on some pages, when they do on others.
One of the largest gross errors that I noticed was the usage of a “Load %” instrument, which I assume to be “%HP”, even
though the real airplane uses a manifold pressure instrument. This decision is a large step in the opposite direction in terms
of realism, and detracts heavily upon the product, in my opinion. I can only guess why they decided in going that route. All
in all, while the G1000 2D panel is a step ahead of the steam instrument panel, please do yourself a favor, again, and use
the virtual cockpit on the glass panel as well.
The aircraft sound is aliased to the default Cessna, so you will hear the common drones of the Lycoming IO-360. No, that is
not a typing error. Yes, I know that the Cessna 182T comes standard equipped with the Lycoming IO-540, however the
designers aliased the sound to the default C172 and not the C182. I have some reasoning, which will I will try to speculate
on in the next section on Flight Dynamics.
Flight Dynamics
This is where a not so great aircraft, but certainly not terrible one, gets ever closer to having a one way ticket to the recycle
bin. Many, many things have gone wrong in this category. I think that most, if not all, are due to a very big suspicion that
the flight dynamics are a direct port, or at least really close, to that of the default C172S.
First thing I noticed that got my suspicions forming was the information on the aircraft selection screen, stating that this
particular C182T had 50 less horsepower than the real deal. Checking the fuel and payload, resulted in even more
confirmation. Empty and max gross weight is identical to the C172S, as is the fuel quantity. The typical empty and max
gross weight of a C182T is about 2000 and 3100 respectively, while the standard tanks are possible of being filled with 87
gallons of usable gold…excuse me, fuel.
This C182T comes with 52. I hadn’t even started flying the airplane yet, and I could tell that things might not be like they
should. While flight-testing the model, I was able to get speeds that are higher than real-world C182 speeds. So things just
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aren’t right there, maybe correct horsepower with incorrect low weight is to blame. Unrealistic RPM is also a problem,
because the instruments correctly show 2400 as the maximum RPM, but during flight-testing the needle didn’t stop till
around the 2600 mark.
I’m sorry Abacus, but if you are going to copy things, at least copy the right model.
Maule
Maule Air Incorporated is a company based in Georgia and makes the M-7 series of production aircraft. The aircraft is
famous for it’s STOL capability and the CAP currently has 7 in its inventory.
Before we begin with the model, I became very confused as to exactly what aircraft they were trying to simulate. As it
stands there is not an MX-260, as Abacus advertises the model, made by Maule, there is a 260HP version but goes under
one of three types. A M-7-260 and M-7-260C, both tail-draggers with the difference being spring aluminum or oleo strut
gear, or the tricycle MT-7-260. To muddy the waters further, the description in the simulator names the MT-235, which
happens to be the model that the CAP really does fly. Other contradictions with the engine model and propeller equipped in
the performance specifications section creates quite the headache. In the real world, both the –235 and the –260 are nearly
identical except for engine and propeller, so I guess we’ve got a mixture of both in the MX-260.
It again appears that this aircraft was created using a port of the default C172S. Lucky for us the weights are actually close
between the Maule and the Cessna. Again, the fuel quantity is not correct, this Maule being able to hold the same 52 gallons,
instead of the correct amount of 70 found in the real airplane.
Now that we’ve tackled that, we can proceed to the model, which is ok, but it does seem to have a lack of attention to detail
and for the most part seems very basic, unlike the C182T model did. There is no moving trim tab. Even still, some things
don’t quite look right. Overall, this model seems to sit too high than its real-world counterpart, less angle on the main gear
and shorten the nose gear and it would be perfect.
Next comes a trademark item found in Maule aircraft, flaps that have a negative angle detent. The real-world Maule has
detents at -7, 0, 24, 40, while this Maule seems to have detents at 0, 10, 20, and 40. Much like the C182T model, this model
is also missing the white tail navigation light. One plus, I did not observe the amount of bleed through with the Maule model
compared to the C182T
Looking at the textures, like the model comparison of the C182T and MX-260, the MX-260’s textures are lacking the detail
that I observed with the C182T. There are both old and new style paint schemes, however I doubt that any were actually
painted in the old scheme when they were obtained just over 5 years ago.
Unlike the Cessna, the Maule 2D panel is actually flyable for me. It is still far from what I expect from something that I pay
for, but after the Cessna panel, you really can only get better. For the most part everything you need is located in the main
panel, radios too. It is far from perfect though as the engine gauges were left out of the 2D panel, not only are they not on
the main panel, there isn’t even a sub-panel with them. You have to use the virtual cockpit in order to see how your engine
is performing. Speaking of the virtual cockpit, the view outside is phenomenal. With the observation windows, nearly all
surfaces that are normally opaque have been replaced with windows. It's no wonder why CAP uses these, there are not that
many blind spots with the Maule.
Maule panel on takeoff.
Maule panel with direction finder
locating ELT just to the right.
Maule with the search target straight
ahead.
At least the designers thought a little bit on the Maule and aliased the sound to the default C182 this time. So here you will
be hearing correctly, the Lycoming IO-540 that you are all too familiar with.
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So much for being a Maule. Since it is probably using the default Cessna flight dynamics, little was as it should be. Takeoff
distance was nowhere close to the advertised 250ft, and landing distance was ballooned as well. Cruise speed was close but
still a little high. The one thing that was close was the stall warning, which went off dead on with published numbers.
FSX Aircraft Differences
I will just lump the FSX section for the two aircraft into one, as there doesn’t seem to be much that was changed from its
FS9 counterpart. In fact, so little has changed that they couldn’t even clean up the aircraft to display correctly in the aircraft
selection screen. Thankfully they did include thumbnails of each one, but Abacus does not use the “publisher” field that FSX
includes that further embraces and integrates aircraft from add-on developers. Instead, you must select “Abacus Search and
Rescue” as its manufacturer like that of FS9.
In FSX, on selection of an aircraft you must go through the security, allowing the use of the four custom search and rescue
gauges that are included. I’ve got an unresolved issue, in which the aircraft will not preview in the aircraft selection window
and the whole preview window is just white. This effect also crossed over to the virtual cockpit and turned the entire screen
white on selection of the VC. After installation of a registered version of FSUIPC, the virtual cockpit once again would display.
I don’t know if they are related and I can’t get an answer from Abacus, but not seeing the aircraft in the selection window,
while annoying, isn’t a deal breaker in itself.
Because of use of the default gauges, which have been updated in FSX, the panels seem to look a little nicer in FSX. Other
than that, the two versions are identical, so you should have no surprises. It would have been nice for Abacus to integrate
the FSX style missions into the product, but I feel that would justify them charging for an update.
Mission Builder
If this package has a bright spot, it is with the mission builder and four custom
gauges included in the aircraft.
One quick disclaimer, which Abacus explains as well, the mission builder does not
create missions for use with the built-in mission capability of FSX. I have only just
started to use FSX and the missions of FSX are a nice touch for some challenge, but
you won’t be able to use it with CAP: SAR.
The mission builder with sector
search for jumbo-jet crash.
Launching the mission builder, you are greeted by a window that has everything you
need in order to create your mission. It is a WYSIWYG editor that I found to be very
intuitive, so reading the documentation isn’t really necessary unless you get
stumped somewhere. Even if you do get stumped, simply click on the “How Do I…”
button and it pulls up a little window with information on, you guessed it, how to do
whatever you want to do.
Step number one is also where I encountered my only problem with the editor. Though a minor error, it really does show the
quality of work, or lack thereof, that was put into this product. In case you can’t see it, it is the “Soft” by ID check box. Of
course it should be “Sort”, and the proximity of the letters on the keyboard could have easily caused it, but simple testing of
the product should have corrected it.
When you finish up creating the mission you have options to view and print a summary and worksheet to take with you in
the simulator, save the flight plan for use with the included GPS and set the conditions for completing the mission. Click the
“Fly Now!” button and off you go to find what you just created.
As I mentioned in the introduction, the mission builder is quite ingenious, and I haven’t seen anything like it before. After
making all your choices, you create the mission by saving a scenery file in flight simulator. This file contains the object you
want as well as effects and sounds, and then you fly the mission. But all this is worthless unless you have access to the 4
gauges included with the CAP aircraft.
There is no difference between FS9 and FSX besides the locations of where you save the files.
Gauges
There are four gauges that come with CAP: SAR to use with your created missions.
First is the communicator. I personally found little use for this gauge, and its use is not required or really needed, but it does
add some realism when it comes to radio operations during a mission.
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Next on the list is the GPS/Autopilot. If it looks familiar, it should be, it is a stripped down version of what seems to be
Abacus’ go-to GPS/Autopilot that can be found in numerous titles. It is stated in the documentation, but I thought it worthy
of mention, when flying a mission and loading up one of the CAP aircraft in the simulator the GPS/Autopilot automatically
searches for and loads any flight plan that has the “AB_CAP.PLN” filename. If the flight plan that you saved has any other
name, you will have to load it up manually. This GPS/Autopilot comes in handy and will fly your mission hands off so that
you can spend most of your time looking out the window, searching, rather than flying. Unrealistic, but due to flight
simulator limitations, necessary.
In order to search for an ELT, the package comes with two direction-finding gauges. One is analog, while the other is digital.
The analog unit I will liken to a standard CDI, pointing either left or right in varying amounts to tell you which way to turn.
The digital on the other hand works much like an ADF and will give you the relative bearing to the object. The gauges have
one real-world feature that takes into account the effects of range and altitude on the signal, so that you will be able to hear
it higher than when at low altitudes. Kudos to the design crew for that capability. Unfortunately, it does not take into account
line of sight, which in the real world can be quite the conundrum.
I have found that using the DF gauges in the simulator, with the accuracy of the ELT at 100%, way too easy as it just follows
theory. In the real world, using DF in an airplane can almost be an art, depending on the location of the ELT. If you want to
be a realist, turn down the accuracy of the ELT, so that you are forced to look outside the airplane to find the object and not
just flying with your eyes locked on the needles. Now you know why real CAP missions are flow with 3 or more people.
There is no difference in usage or capability of the gauges between FS9 and FSX.
Performance and Summary
The only thing that really caused a hit on frame rates was the use of the G1000 Cessna 182T, of which numbers were cut in
half. Everything else was right near default aircraft rates, but considering the lack of detail and extensive use of default
material this wasn’t a surprise at all.
The nicest thing I can seem to say about this product is that it has potential. Looking at the mission builder, you see a very
friendly and intuitive interface, but to me the glaring error of “soft” vs. “sort” seems to be an ominous foreshadow of what is
to come.
Then you bring up the Cessna 182T with standard instruments and are amazed at its cheap, poor rendition of a panel, and
even more wowed that it seems to be a copy of a Cessna 172 when it comes to flight dynamics and sound. Only the external
model has anything to be praised about. The Garmin G1000 panel looks a little bit better, but when pages don’t work as they
should, even knowing you have reduced capability from the real thing, it is a disappointment.
The Maule, while being a refreshing step outside the normal box for add-on aircraft, also seems half-done. The model and
textures aren’t very detailed, the panel is missing some key instruments, and the performance is anemic compared to what
the Maule should be able to do, yet it still retains some characteristics of what it was copied from. Another big problem with
it, the key thing in my book, is what model it's supposed to be simulating. You can’t compare things if you don’t know what
you are comparing them to.
Like I said, the product has potential. Fix the small things with the mission editor, renovate the aircraft, and you would have
a completely different package that would be worthy of purchase. It wouldn’t hurt to try and integrate the FSX style missions
into the product as well. So far, as it stands, I have a hard time justifying the price when there are completely bug free
detailed products out there for the same price or below what you pay for Civil Air Patrol: Search and Rescue.
What I Like About Civil Air Patrol: Search and Rescue
●
●
The Mission Builder – Easy WYSIWYG editor.
Flying Your Own Custom Mission – A sense of challenge that is
otherwise missing in FS.
What I Don't Like About Civil Air Patrol: Search and Rescue
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●
●
The Aircraft – Poor craftsmanship really degrades the product as a
whole.
The Price – The quality of work does not warrant the price.
Printing
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Civil Air Patrol: Search and Rescue
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