Fuji FA

The four seat light aircraft Fuji FA-200 Aero Subaru is a product of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., a conglomerate of industrial concerns, building industrial plants, locomotives, buses, military aircraft (Nakajima), cars (Subaru) and parts of the space-shuttle program ”HOPE”.

Developed 1964, the first prototype flew on August 12, 1965 with a 160 hp engine. It was the first wholly Japanese designed light aircraft. In 1967 it was certified by the FAA in the categories NORMAL, UTILITY (reduced weight, three seats) and AEROBATIC (reduced weight, two seats). In 1968 the 180hp version was developed, powered by a fuel injected engine, followed in 1973 by another 180hp version but with somewhat recuced specifications such as a carburettor engine and fixed pitch propelller.

Among the first customers were Japanese flying clubs as well as All Nippon Airways and the Japanese Air Force which used it for training.

Import to Germany started in 1970 by the then exclusive importer Panoramaflug at Egelsbach. The aircraft, arriving in parts by sea, were assembled, inspected and flown in by the enterprise Roeder Praezision.

Compared to other aircraft of its class such as the Piper Archer and Cherokee it is longer and higher, exceeding them by 31.5in in length and 13.8in in height. The longer tail provides a better directional stability and manoeuvrability. Indeed its controllability around the three axis is more nimble than with a number of US aircraft which are often more reluctant to control-inputs. By the Fuji's higher ”legs” the propeller was better protected from ground contact. The retractable canopy was a further element distinguishing it from comparable models. Besides the fully open position there are four intermediate positions, allowing flight with the hood partially slid back. The greatest difference, however, was its capability to stand 6g of positive deceleration, thus surpassing all of its competitors in this respect and allowing basic aerobatics.

It is regrettable that production of this aircraft ended in 1977 in spite of its many advantages and reliability. 274 planes were built by then. Up till 1986 a further 25 were built by firm order. 65 are still flying in Germany.

(Excerpt from htp://www.fujiflyer.de, the hompage of Fuji Club Germany, eV. and some other sources Translation by Christoph Ruhtenberg and Mathias Elsaesser)

	FA-200 (160)	FA-200 (180)
Type:	four seat light aircraft
Wing Area:	150.7sq ft
Wing Span:	30ft 11in
Length:	26ft 1in	26ft 2in
Power:	1 Lycoming O320D2A	1 Lycoming IO360B1B
	flat four piston engine	fuel injected engine
	120kW (160hp)	135kW (180hp)
Prop:	McCauley two blade fixed pitch	constant speed
Weights:	empty 1366lb, MTO 2335lb	empty 1433lb, MTO 2535lb
Fuel Capacity:	54gal
Speeds:
Max:	120kts	126kts
max cruising:	106kts	110kts
Long range:	89kts	90kts
Max Range:	820nm without reserves	755nm without reserves
Service Ceiling:	11,400ft	13700ft

Some notes about the settings in the airfile of this simulation model (FS98)

The dimensions and measurements in the airfile of this FS98 model are as close as possible to the data from the real aircraft. - If you are curious to look at the airfile you may find that "Dry Weight" is not set to the Empty Weight. The FS98 engine adds the fuel weight to "Dry Weight" but not the load. As the aircraft (under normal circumstances...) will not fly empty, We have to add load to Empty Weight (of the manufacturer). The difference between MOTW (minus the weight of 54 gal fuel) and Empty Weight is 778lbs. As Load, composed by Persons and additional load I chose two third of this difference, i.e. 519lbs. That's why you will find Dry Weight being 1952 lbs.

The 180 hp real aircraft has a constant speed propeller. However, because I have more fun adjusting the prop manually, I decided to select this option. - For a flight you may select "automatic" in the aircraft | aircraft settings | engines.

RPM should be 2700. In the default Cessna Panel this is beyond the red arc. We should have another gauge for this aircraft.

My ideas about how to fly this simulation model
===============================================
(Apology to any pilot of the real aircraft. I never had the chance to fly in this plane. So I set flight dynamics such as I esteemed they might be, following the data which were available. - Any more detailed description would be welcome!)

- A Force-Feedback Joystick is supposed to be used.
- Sensitivity of the joystick's inputs in FS98 for all the four axis:

"Reality" of the flight is set to highest.

Create a flight with this aircraft, or load it to a flight, you have created with the default Cessna 182 S FG. (If you load it to a flight created with the default Cessna 182 R RG, indication of RPM and Fuel- Flow may be different.)

The flight dynamics were tested with 75% fuel (Nobody will land with 100% fuel.) and 10% fuel.

The following notes refer to this FS98 Model, not to the real aircraft.

Start: Set the elevator to its neutral position and trim to about 20 (on the Gauge recommended in the TrimGauge.txt).

Rotate at 65 kts, Lift-off will be at about 75 kts.

Best continuous climb at a speed of 99 to104 kts.

Cruise speed 110 kts:

Reduce manifold pressure to about 20in, and reduce mixture. Adjust blade-angle so that RPM will be about 2200. (You get a fine, deep sound from the propeller.)

Fine tune of horizontal flight
1. Tune the trim to get a regular horizontal flight, without any pressure left on the joystick. The joystick should have a neutral position, which it keeps with some stability.

2. We can do the remainig fine trim with the keybord without touching the joystick, thus avoiding any disturbing inputs on the control surfaces. Adjust Trim Pitch with 1 or 7 on the numpad. With 75% fuel the number on the Gauge will be around 24. (with 10% it will be around -4.)

If your trim setting is different at level flight, don't worry. There may be differences in the joysticks and the position, where they remain with the stability needed.

You may further finetune Prop-Pitch with Ctrl+F2/F3, and Mixture with Ctrl+Shift+F2/F3. It will take some time until the plane will find its continuous flight level at an IAS of 110 to 112 kts, varying only +/- 3ft. After you are sure it has it, look around and enjoy the landscape! (or read a newspaper...)

With a bit more than 25in Manif.Pr. you can have a continiuous speed of 128 kts.*

* In addition to the general data listed in the "Aircraft.rtf" and likewise in the "Aircraft.txt" I found the following ones in a
manual of the aircraft from 1971:

"Air speed limitations (CAS):
Vne (never exceed speed): 158 kts
Vno (Maximum structural cruising speed): 136 kts
Vp (Design Maneuvering Speed) (N Category): 126 kts"
So you have a margin left above 126 kts. And don't be too afraid, if
speed eventually goes up to 135 kts in a descent.

Turns:
As with most FS98 aircraft it is no fun to fly a turn with applying rudder constantly. There is not much pressure on the force-feedback-joystick required to make the aircraft fly turns. Start the pressure on the ailerons gently (a light touch to the rudder may help to introduce the banking) and enjoy the smooth transition to the turn. You may continue the pressure and fly a narrow turn, or bring the banking to a halt any time. The reactions of the aircraft are very precise and easy to dominate.

Landing: Reduce speed to 99 or 90 kts. Set one step of flaps, the second one some time after. Set the third step around halfway of the descent. (In a normal landing you will not need more than three. Thus you have the fourth step "in reserve" in case you need it in steeper descents.) Adjust speed so that not too far from the threshold you have 74 kts. After flairing you will have a soft touchdown with about 60 to 57 kts.

24. Aug. 2002

Christoph Ruhtenberg

Fine-tuning the trim is possible with a trim-gauge, I found on the panel by Ed Zapp. There each step (of 1) is displayed. What I did not know before: In FS98 we have 511 steps up and 511 steps down! Hit [1] on numpad, num unchecked, once, and you get 1 step of trim up, hit [7] for one step down. If you press the keys longer, the amount will be higher.

With this possibility of fine-tuning the trim in a well controlled way, you can achieve level flight at any speed you wish.

As a default we assigned the panel for fixed gear Props in the FSFSConv-folder. To use the mentioned gauge download t34lima.zip from FlightSim.Com. the panel included is from Dave Haskell, reworked by Ed Zapp. It is not necessary to install the aircraft or the panel. (Both are worthwhile to be installed, however. The panel in this reworked version seems not to be available seperately.) Just copy the c&k.elevator_trim.1 gauge to your gauges folder.

Open the panel.cfg (with MS Editor) in FSFSConv\panl.recip.fg.1, and, under the gauges of window00, add the following line:

The new elevator trim will be displayed on your panel as can be seen on the picture below:

This aircraft model is made available for the private use of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Under no circumstances may this zip file be modify or sold for profit.

This aircraft is released as Freeware.

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