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4 July 2011

Carenado C185F Bush for FSX

Before I start another review please be aware that you do not need the normal C185 to get this BUSH edition it is a standalone product from Carenado! Another big thank you goes to the Carenado team for providing the software for this review!

Background Information

The aircraft is basically a Cessna 180 with a strengthened fuselage. The main difference between the two aircraft is the larger vertical fin on the 185 and the 300 hp (224 kW) Continental Motors IO-520-D engine as opposed to the 230 hp (172 kW) Continental Motors O-470-S fitted in the Cessna 180. The exception was that a Continental Motors IO-470-F engine of 260 hp (194 kW) was initially fitted until midway through the 1966 production year. The later model Skywagon II has a factory fitted avionics package.
A real life version of the C185 with Floats

1976 Cessna A185F on floats
The Skywagon can also be fitted with floats, amphibious float, or skis. The AGcarryall variant of the 185 adds a 151-gallon belly chemical tank and removable spray booms for aerial application. It is also possible to fit a cargo pod under the fuselage that can carry an extra 300 lb (136 kg).
The 180 and 185 are widely used in bush flying, the commercial transport of passengers and freight to remote austere airstrips and float plane and ski-plane accessible lakes and snowfields, primarily in Canada and Alaska.
The ICAO designator as used in flight plans for the Cessna 185 is C185.

Because this is a standalone product to the original cockpit I am going to review everything again because except for the Tundra tyre version the cockpits are very different to that of the original release.

First Impressions

Wow! After loading up the Ski version at Courchevel airport in France, I am actually amazed at the amount of changes that Carenado have put into this aircraft to make it suitable for bush flying. After looking around the outside of the aircraft you can see how much time and effort has been put in to make sure that it looks as realistic as possible, the ski's are attached to the fuselage with wires and the wheels are available for runway landings. Looking inside the aircraft I see that Carenado have put supporting beams across the window frame, to support them hard landings that you might get on the snowy terrain that you are going to be landing on!
    After this I loaded one of the float versions up at Friday Harbour, and well the basic cockpit is there like on the C185 original however they have modeled a gear lever as you can retract and extend the gear for water and land landings - At this point I am happy with the fact that Carenado haven't just altered the external model they have in fact gone into the depths of the cockpit and flight dynamics on this aircraft.

External Model

As explained earlier on in the review I am truly amazed at the amount of changes that Carenado have made to the original C185 to create this Bush add-on, because there is 3 different models included with this package I will start with the Tundra Tyre version.

   The Tundra tyre for all that don't know is larger wheel that allows an aircraft to land literally on any terrain possible you can even dip your wheels in the water to slow yourself down on approaching the sand bar! The external model on this tundra tyre version is a perfect replica of the real aircraft - the tyres seem within scale and the fact that it does actually allow you to land on any terrain its great! However the only thing that I found a bit wrong with this external model is that approaching the water upon landing instead of skimming across the top you actually sink into the water then crash which is a small annoyance if you want to land on gravel bars however I only know one publisher that actually designs in the fact that a tundra tyre can actually do this and that's A2A.

Moving onto the Ski Version, there are 2 models of the ski version that of the normal ski and the ski with door window (the floor door or foot window) basically it replaces a panel on the external model with a window allowing for more view out of the cockpit. The external model on the ski version is amazing, the animations of the ski's retraction and extension is realistic and the fact that Carenado have factored in the fact that ski's don't just float they need support, this comes in the form of wires protruding from the main engine plant and fuselage. More on the characteristics of the ski version later on.

And finally the float version, the float version is my all time favourite in this package. It has become my favourite partly on the fact that flight model is realistic and partly because I love this plane on floats the elegance sitting on the water bobbing up and down with the wake and then again the fact that you have got wheel for runway landings makes this the most versatile aircraft in the package to use. The floats are instead of the main gear and you have a really nice animation of the gear coming out from the inside of the float!


Internal Model VC

As stated earlier not only is the external model changed from the original release, the cockpit has also changed. Although there are no changes to the actual instrumentation in the cockpit it is still the basic aircraft that the C185 was at the time, however for example on the ski and float version has the gear lever located under-neath the autopilot and furthermore to this the ski version has the supporting struts on the inside of the actual airframe - talk about realism.

For this review I am not going to review the flight model as I have found that this has not changed from the original flight model - for more details on the aircraft please look at my other review.

Thanks for reading this review on the C185 BUSH - I hope that this has helped.

If there is any requests for aircraft to be reviews then please contact me on mattmarshall120@hotmail.co.uk


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