The EastWest Fokker F28 "Fellowship"
This here is a Report I have made of the F28 Model available off EastWest Virtual Airline's Aircraft site. The picture below is of this aircraft. My full report below. (click on the picture for full size pic)
To download the F28 for Flight Simulator 98, CLICK HERE to get it from EastWest Virtual Airlines,
or CLICK HERE to go to their main site.
or CLICK HERE to get the technical statistics for the F28 in Word 6 formatt (off the EWA site too)
NOTE: You will need Winzip to use these files and FlightSim 98 and FlightShop Converter for the aircraft file itself.
First things first. This F28 I have been flying in Eastwest Virtual Airlines since about October, and so I know it well. I find it is a pretty looking plane Visually which has a very stable model. It can be a little touchy at times, but looking at the size of it, that's not particularly surprising. The paint scheme is quite nice (with the EastWest Livery nice and bright, no doubt adding some Friendlyness (not to mention the "Green and Gold of downunder) to this "Fellowship". There are some little things which I dislike about this Aircraft, and one very big feature is missing... Moving parts! After being spoilt somewhat by Captain Slug aircraft, It was a huge dissapointment to select flap 5, and see nothing visually happen to the aircraft at all! Thinking I was missing something, I hit the "Flaps Down 40". The flaps did nothing for a moment, and suddenly appeared... to be sure, the flaps do look good, being segmented and all, but they are... what's the word.... Digital? (ie on or off but no in-between). The Landing Gear is the same. There is no Virtual Cockpit, not that a Virtual cockpit is usefull in any way...
On a more positave note, The EWA F28 does have Landing lights and a very nice Flight Model.
Fuel: The F28 holds10286kg's of fuel in total. According to the documentation for the model from Eastwest, The aircraft burns 2200kg per hour, but from my experience it actually burns less than this (actually just a little over half) in a one hour flight.
Takeoffs: set flaps to 5*, power to 90 to 95% N1 and rotate at about 120kts if light and 140 if at MTOW (max takeoff weight). It should get off the ground in a relitavly short time. not that I'v measured it, but Taking off from Sydney Runway 16R, you'l be in the air by the time you pass runway 07 intersection.
Climb: I usually climb with around 90%n1. From take off to 8000ft I climb at around 2500ft/min to stay below the 250kt speed limit below 10000ft. by the time you pass through 10000ft, you really have to start reducing your climb rate to say, 2000ft per minute... to keep the speed from dropping away too much. Watch the N1 in the climb, as this tends to increase with altitude without any Throttle input. IE, to hold 90%N1 at 1000ft requires more throttle than holding 90%N1 at 30,000ft. Above about 22,000ft, I usually hold a 1000ft/min climb to keep at about 250 to 260 kts, and try to hold this speed right up to thr cruise, with N1 always below 95%
Cruise: During flights of duration of an hour or more, I usually cruise at either FL290 (29,000ft) or FL310, depending on the direction and flightplan. If you are carrying full fuel, it might be an Idea to stagger your cruise altitude. Ie climb to FL240. stay there for a couple of hours, before continuing to FL310.
I usually cruise with between 90% and 85%N1 at FL290 or FL310. this results in a speed of about Mach 0.71 or 0.72. This will cover about 400Nautical Miles in an hour.
Landing speeds: Landing speeds in the F28 vary quite a bit according to the weight of the aircraft. The empty weight (ZFW) of the F28 is stated to be 25400kg in the EastWest documentation. At this weight the aircraft will stall at 110knots clean and at about 80 knots with full flap. The V-ref is stated as 101kts with 42*flap.
I usually make my approaches at 130kts, this is with one hour reserve fuel at least. In one particular flight to Maroochydore in March, my V-ref speed was 119 kts (with 28100kg weight).