Pilot's Review of the DSA Starship 2000

The Following is a pilot's review of the new DSA Beechcraft Starship:

DSA's new Beechcraft Starship is probably one of the most highly awaited planes in Second Life. I have been privileged to have watched this plane from it's initial lay down and watched it's daily progress over the length or the construction so it was with a rapid pulse I took the controls for the first time today.

Rezzing and start up:

Once the plane is rezzed, follow the messeges in open chat that instruct you to right click and sit on the carpet below the stairway and sit to enter the aircraft. The first thing you notice is that this plane is actually pretty large. The interior is fully furnished and is beautifully done. Attach the aircraft to you by selecting okay in the drop down message prompting you to accept the attachment. Attach the HUD by right clicking and wearing it from the Aircraft folder. The DSA HUD is pretty much self explanatory and is fairly intuitive. Clicking the start button begins the engine start up sequence which while lengthy, gives a good approximation of bring the beastie to life.

The engines may also be started with the following commands in chat:

Left engine: lstart to start, lstop to shut down
Right engine: rstart to start, rstop to shut down

Throttle Response:

Throttle Response is smooth with no problems.

Taxi and take off:

After the engines have started and are idling, click the yoke switch or say 'y' in chat to switch to wide yoke for taxi. This gives you more control in turning while taxiing. Once in position for take off, click the switch or say 'y' in chat once more to switch back to Tight yoke for take off and flight. Advance the throttle to 100% and begin your take off roll. rotate the nose up and she will almost leap into the air! Click the gear switch or type 'g' in chat to raise the gear.

Flight under tight yoke conditions:

Once in the air the Starship is a very smooth aircraft to fly while in tight yoke. Tight yoke settings will give you about 40 degrees of bank and allow you to turn easily inside of a one sim radius. Banking is smooth as is the directional change. Pitch is a little slow, but not overly so.

Flight under Wide yoke conditions:

Flying under wide yoke conditions is a little harrowing at times if you don't pay attention. Wide yoke gives you full roll capability left and right 360 degrees around the roll axis. Not too shabby in the roll rate, however be careful when you pitch up or down. Pitching up or down too quickly can cause a loss of control of your aircraft as the sim performance may not be able to keep up with the pitch input, causing a condition that is similar to hitting a sim line and the gaining sim not being able to read your aircraft right away. The aircraft can, and often will flip end over end until the sim can catch up. The starship WILL perform loops and rolls, and is aerobatic as a large aircraft such as this can be. Make sure you have enough altitude when doing anything aerobatic.

Speed:

The DSA Starship can be flown at any and all throttle settings depending on sim performance. 100% throttle shows a 300kt Indicated Airspeed on the Airspeed gauge. Average flights can be conducted easily at 50% - 70% throttle with no problems crossing most sim boundaries. The Starship has very positive and controllable slow speed handling characteristics making Landings and slow speed flight a real delight.

Do not engage the brake while airborne... I can not stress this enough. Engaging the brake while airborne will stop your aircraft in mid-air. Period. The brake is for ground use only it is most decidedly NOT an airbrake!

The following speeds were noted at the noted power settings with the airplane clean (flaps and gear up) and as close to level flight as possible:

20% 98 Kts IAS
30% 110Kts IAS
40% 115 Kts IAS
50% 140 Kts IAS
60% 150 Kts IAS
70% 196 Kts IAS
80% 220 Kts IAS
90% 260 Kts IAS
100% 300 Kts IAS

Textures:

The DSA Starship is beautifully textured inside and out with a sleek blue and white factory livery on the outside and a plush, luxurious and well appointed interior on the inside.

Approach and Landing:

Approach and landing is best conducted at 40% throttle in the early approach and 30% across the threshold at 10 to 20 feet. Once over the runway (and clear of any sim crossing lag) you may flare and drop the throttle to 0% and the Starship will flare and drop gently to the runway. Advance throttle to 20% or so to taxi clear of the runway.

Single Engine Operation:

Single engine operations are possible while in flight to simulate in flight emergencies and single engine recoveries. The engines are individually startable/stoppable by typing in chat lstart or rstart to start and lstop or rstop to stop an engine while in flight. With one engine stopped the airspeed dropped to approximately 142 kts IAS @100% throttle. While in single engine operation there is slightly reduced maneuverability, however single engine landings are possible and completely controllable, though at slightly higher throttle settings than normal. Single engine takeoffs are possible, but not recommended. Single engine running with flaps up the take off run took the entire Hollywood runway to get the plane in the air at 100% throttle. Climb was very slow even at single engine full 100% throttle. Turn around and landing was accomplished single engine as well.

Cost:

At $6000 linden, the DSA Starship is in line with other aircraft this size and detail, but then you're not getting a quickly designed and marketed plane either. A lot of hard work and effort went into this plane to make it as accurate and smooth flying as possible in Second Life. This is a plane that a true second life aviation connoisseur will be happy with and is well worth the asking price.