This is a fun one! Airvan is an airplane that is little known in most places in the world but it has a storied history all of its own. SimWorks Studios are making this their next Microsfot Flight Simulator aircraft release and I very fortunately was able to do a little testing and then write this preview ahead of its release in a couple of weeks. This article is going to be part flight journal, telling the story of a couple of adventures that I went on, and also part preview article as I go over my first two flights with the upcoming aircraft.

Initial comments on this preview build

Before I launch into this, SimWorks Studios sent me the Airvan to check over and write whatever I wanted to write about it. I don’t want to write a review at this moment because the aircraft is still being finalized and I sometimes wait until a few patches have come out before really digging into something and giving it a more complete evaluation. Still, I wanted to provide some commentary at the end on what this is like and who is going to potentially put it into their virtual aircraft hangar.

SWS, while setting me up with the aircraft, pointed out to me that there are some quirks and issues that they are hammering out and that the sounds are 90% done. There is still a bit of work to do as you’d expect in the road to release. There are also still some features they are finalizing including the new tablet which you’ll see in some of the shots but is not yet enabled. Soon it will be! Setting expectations.

First flight in Australia

The GippsAero GA-8 Airvan was manufactured in Victoria, Australia so I thought my first flight should be somewhere “down under.” As it turns out, I’ve just purchased a few more Australian airport scenery packages recently that I will be making use of.

Today’s flight would take us out of YBRK Rockhampton Airport published by Orbx and put together by indie developer Rob Byrne. My destination was freeware scenery pack featuring LYT Lady Elliot Island Airstrip located on an island just off the coast and not too far, as aircraft go, from Rockhampton.

Using real world weather, I spawned into a murky scene with looming showers and storms all around. This is Stormbirds after all and many of my flight tests seem to invariably be done in stormy weather! It seems thematic even if it wasn’t entirely planned that way.

I did have a bit of trouble getting the aircraft started at first. Then I learned that the avionics master switch, showing on, needed to be cycled to actually turn it on. These are quirks that you get with a preview and I’m certain SWS will have sorted them out before launch. Once through these quirks, the Airvan is quite easy to get started. No more difficult than a Cessna 172 and subsequent start-ups were quick and painless. No trouble at all! The interactive checklist is already in place which is fantastic to see.

The aircraft has some interactive elements on the exterior. These work in MSFS 2020 and 2024, however, right now you have to move the camera outside to interact with the exterior elements. That took me a moment to figure out but its no big deal. The nice thing is that MSFS 2020 players will get a bit of a walkaround experience with the Airvan. The 2024 dedicated variant will undoubtedly use that sim’s built in method to do the same. That’s what I’m assuming anyways!

After removing the chocks, checking the oil, and removing the engine plugs and pitot cover it was time to get to flying.

Taxiing with the Airvan takes a bit of power, more than with your conventional Cessna, but it does get rolling eventually.

A quick backtrack on runway 15 and, turn around, take full power into the stormy skies!

Off we were after that cruising at low altitude and doing my best to avoid the worst of the rain storms.

We flew over rural areas (I hear cattle farming is big here) and over the city of Gladstone before heading out over the Pacific.

The Airvan is not a fast airplane, crusing anywhere between 110 and 125 knots depending on the wind and the load onboard, and so this next part of the journey was a little slow as it took time to cover the distance. I also winged my planning on this and filled it with just a half-a-tank of fuel. As we progressed out over the ocean, being rocked about by turbulence, I became worried that we wouldn’t make it without running out of gas. The needle certainly got pretty close to the mark next to empty!

Fortunately, Lady Elliot Airstrip appeared thanks to both GPS navigation and a bit of the good ole Mark I eyeball. I was saved!

What proceeded was one of the worst landings I’ve made recently in gusting winds! But I was down and ok.

That was a nail biter from an otherwise quite placid airplane… it may be named Airvan and it may not look like much but you can have some adventures in this!

Island tour in Greece

My second flight went much more smoothly fortunately. This time around I used one of the specific liveries available for Greece Island Tours. The aircraft looks like its used around the island of Kos, however, I don’t have that airport scenery but I do have iniBuilds excellent LGHI Chios Island National airport. So, I flew this one as a sightseeing tour around Chios instead!

The scenery here in 2020 wasn’t great but thanks to 2024’s enhancements it looks really quite impressive and the airport itself is a terrific little island airport thanks to the scenery pack.

This flight was a little different than my last one as I spent more time hand flying the airplane getting to know it’s character in the air.

This flight didn’t have as much adventure as my point to point run through a storm as in the previous one. This one was calming, relaxing and beautiful with the low sun angle and the golden hour lighting. After hand flying for a time, I then turned on the autopilot and made ample use of the type’s basic autopilot to get around. Having that as a feature automatically makes this a prime candidate for some long distance adventures but it works well just doing a cruise around an island off the coast of Greece too.

After touring around the island for quite some time and with the sun getting low, it was time to bring it back home.

I brought the GA-8 in for a still somewhat choppy landing but certainly a better one than before. It is an airplane that gets kicked around by turbulence a fair bit so you’ll want to watch that when you’re coming into some of these windier locales!

First impressions

SimWorks Studios are busy putting the finishing touches on this aircraft and its coming along nicely. They have a few quirks to work out but that’s par for the course and the overall product is looking really good at this stage.

The GA-8 itself is an interesting proposition. The aircraft I most compare it to, in feeling, is the BN-2B Islander that I’ve flown a bunch in X-Plane. This is a similarly small, slightly underpowered, workhorse of an airplane that does nothing fast yet brings a ton of charm with it along for the ride.

It’s not a hard airplane to learn and fly but there are a few steps that you’ll need to follow through on to keep it flying well. It’s sensitive to weight and balance so you’ll have to do your work there too making sure that the centre of gravity is appropriately setup or this becomes a little tricky to fly. As it should!

I did stall the GA-8 in some tests but its the kind of airplane that mostly just flops forward, looses a few hundred feet, and then recovers.

On the whole, however, its quite a benign aircraft with few bad habits and not enough power to really get you into serious trouble. On the other hand, it doesn’t have enough power to get you out of trouble if you try to outclimb some steep mountains or you’re too heavy on too short of a runway. There’s fun to be found in all of that.

If you like older more analogue style utility aircraft with bushplane credentials, the Airvan is an airplane you should put on your list. It’s not sexy but it gets the job done and from what I see right now, this is one sharply detailed airplane inside and out with good sound work and every system filled out to potential.

Look for SimWorks Studios to release the Airvan in a few weeks for MSFS 2020 and then a few more weeks while they get things setup for 2024.