iniBuilds T-33 Jet Trainer v1.0.1 Update - let's talk about what this contains!

Hello all! 👋

Today we're talking about our latest release and the first update shipped to the T-33 Jet Trainer🚀 If you haven't already picked up a copy, you can get one here and with the latest changes, we're certain you'll love it! Buy Now.

The feedback from the community so far has been super useful, with the overall feeling and reception to this aircraft being incredibly positive! We're glad you've been enjoying something a little different to our usual products with this one and hopefully this update today will bring some welcome Quality of Life and other refinements to the aircraft. 💪

Update v1.0.1 brings a variety of improvements, bug fixes and new features that enhance both the visual experience and overall flight experience to the jet, so let's jump right in and see what we've done in the last week since launch!

Visual and Texture Enhancements:

One of the points of feedback from the community on liveries was the desire for the bare metal to show through how it does in real life, some of the community were quick to make mods for this to get the most realistic representation which we love to see! However to prevent you from having to download something extra to see how it does in real life, we've made the necessary changes for this to be in the base download! 

We've also had notes of some decals not being placed correctly, so we've resolved these too, these covered a couple of different liveries, so you should see a more accurate representation across the base liveries moving forwards. ✅

Moving on, we have made some slight tweaks and adjustments to the cockpit textures and placements of some items, including general improvements for better clarity and realism. The canopy open/close panel has been slightly shifted to make more visible also and we've added some markings to the fuel pressure gauge to make for easier interpretation. 👀

Other cockpit changes include the elevator trim indicator has now changed to the correct colour, the ADI ball has been fixed to show the horizon line on the gauge rotate in the expected manner with roll maneuvers  and other floating cockpit decals have been fixed. 👻

On the outside of the jet, we've added some weathering effects to the luggage pod for a more worn and realistic look as well as some fuselage fixes which had see-through areas, the mechanics have been busy patching these over!

Paint Kit 🎨
Now, a BIG request from you guys, which we wanted to have ready for the initial release but it fell slightly behind, the Paint Kit!
Finally ready for you guys to get stuck in to with! There's so many impressive liveries out there beyond the ones already made by some, however hopefully this paint kit will make it easier to recreate some of those really awesome paint jobs out there for this historic aircraft.

Systems Improvements:

Some other QoL tweaks for systems/lighting includes changes to the most of the lights systems, the TACAN panel and updated in-cockpit checklists. 📄

Starting off we've made sure that the beacon light is not always on, this was a weird one but we've made sure that is no longer an issue for you! Next, overall lighting tweaks have been made to bring these closer to real life, including changing the intensity of the landing and taxi lights, these seemed to be rather dim and lifeless initially, but now they should appear at lot more prominently in sim, especially at distance! 🚨

Updated checklists have been included to reflect some of the above points, these should enhance the accuracy and realism of these checklists and operation of the aircraft overall. 📃

Closing out the systems improvement section, we've made adjustments to the TACAN panel, to ensure that the numbers are now correctly displayed, there were some issues causing these to "fall through" the panel and become unreadable, so this should now show as intended. 🔢

Flight Model Updates:

On to some of the juicier bits, we've verified with Gregory Colyer from Ace Maker Aviation to ensure figures and details are as expected from the real jet. So with flight model adjustments they are always a sensitive subject, and some tend to have their own ideas on what is right/wrong, which we can totally understand, but they are not necessarily the most accurate in relation to the real jet. 🛩️

So with this, we've made sure to fine tune every aspect of the flight model to ensure an accurate representation of the real jet and meet the expectations of this product. So let's dive into the changes with the first point referencing the Dive break effectiveness;

Dive brake effectiveness/performance have been tuned to be slightly less efficient than they were in the release build. Previously they were "too" effective, which in reality is not the case. We've dialed the numbers back a bit so you'll have to think about slowing down a bit sooner now! 🚫

Moment of Inertia (MOI) has been re-evaluated to be in line with NASA test data for a more accurate flight dynamic, in general it has been increased, this will mean that the sense of 'weightiness' has been increased and you'll notice an addition of stability, especially in yaw. 

Fuel Flow has been slightly adjusted for results closer in line with what we expect from the numbers provided by Greg. This changes spans various altitudes and tightens the tolerances to what we expect to see. The largest change in a sizeable increase of fuel consumption can be seen at lower altitudes! 🔥

Slow Speed Handling, this thing likes going fast, but you'd be amazed at the slow speed capabilities of this jet! We felt that the aircraft was a little too unstable at slower speeds which doesn't reflect accurately on the jet in real life, you'll see that these changes will help maintain stable approaches in landing configuration, as well as low speed maneuvers.  Overall the aircraft will feel less sensitive to pitch inputs when trimmed correctly for approach, however don't get soo slow otherwise you'll see the new Stall Mechanics!

Stall Mechanics, have been adjusted to an improved and more realistic representation of the behavior you can expect from the jet, whilst this is still an incredibly stable platform to perform stalls, being able to hold a fully developed stall all the way to the ground from altitude if you really wanted to (not sure why you would, but you could! 😅), the characteristics have been fine tuned to be more in line with what should be expected from the real jet. The departure of attached airflow angle and speed have both been lowered, this results overall in stalling speeds being lower in general. 🍂

Aerodynamic Profile, another one which has been update to be a more accurate representation after pilot feedback, are the aerodynamics of this jet. As previously mentioned, it is an incredibly stable platform - across a broad range of configurations. Therefore, we've slightly tweaked the peak AOA lift to assist with departure of airflow across surfaces in clean aircraft configuration and improved control authority at higher relative AOA's 📐

Drag profile is a fun one! Previously the speed decay through the air was too low (if you can believe that!) 🤯 This isn't a high bypass ratio engine, it's effectively a missile with large wings and somewhere to sit! Once you cut that throttle, the aerodynamics of this jet will keep it going for a long time with relatively little effective speed loss. However through the mid ranged Mach numbers, it was proving a little too slippery for what we'd expect to see, therefore we've tuned in a small increase in overall drag to this range and this should hopefully match what we're expecting to see from the jet. 🪂

Engine thrust profile has been tuned according to changes in the drag profile changes as mentioned above. The fuel flow data also plays into this and has tightened the tolerance to the datums. In general a reduction in thrust at mid altitudes will see the biggest difference and will align the aircraft to pilot handbooks. 🚀

Nose wheel suspension, Last on the list for the flight model changes, we have the updated nose wheel suspension. This is a minor change overall, however you'll notice slightly more movement in the nose wheel when applying the breaks, especially whilst taxiing/landing and parking. Before it was a little too stiff and with feedback from Greg it should now have a little more 'bounce' to it. Now you'll feel a bit more connected to the aircraft especially at that crucial point during landing and slowing down! 🛞

Documentation:
Flight Manual and the QRC  have been updated to reflect the latest changes and improvements. You can find these here - 

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TL:DR? (but we think you should 😉)

T-33 Jet Trainer Changelog V1.0.1 :

Art

• USA livery now has metallic background colour.
• USA livery decal issues resolved.
• Bare metal paint scheme added.
• Paint kit now available.
• General cockpit texture tweaks.
• Canopy open/close panel now more visible based on pilot feedback.
• Mexican livery pilot names now move with canopy frame.
• Weathering has been added to the luggage pod.
• Fuel pressure gauge markings have been added.
• Elevator neutral trim indicator light now correct colour.
• ADI ball's horizon line now rotates with roll.
• Various floating cockpit decal's fixed.
• Environment occlusion mesh tweaked.
• See-through parts in the fuselage patched.
• Co-pilot in the rear cockpit now able to be toggled on/off to display or not in external view and cockpit view.
• German livery decals have been updated.
• Co-pilot Show/Hide added to EFB Options Page.
• Pilot models re-scaled.
• Joystick show/hide ability added by clicking base.

Systems

• Beacon lights always on has been fixed.
• Tweaks to landing and taxi lights intensity.
• Checklists have been updated.
• TACAN panel numbers now showing.
• Updated sounds for missing elements in the cockpit.

Flight Model

• Dive brake effectiveness tuned.
• MOI's tuned in line with Nasa Test Data.
• Fuel Flow updates.
• Slow speed handling updated.
• Aero profile updated.
• Nose wheel suspension updated.
• Stalling mechanics improved.
• Drag profile tuned.
• Engine thrust profile tuned.

Documentation

• Flight manual and QRC's updated.

N.B: users of any 3rd party flight model modifications should remove these prior to updating to avoid any unexpected behavior or conflicts.

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Thank you to all the members of the community who provided feedback for this update. Your input is invaluable in helping us improve the T-33 Jet Trainer so don't stop! Please keep feeding back anything you think is relevant to a staff member on the forum or in discord and they'll get passed along to the right teams to take a look and be included for any future updates!

Thanks again & happy flying!
iniBuilds Team ❤️ 

T-33_MSFS_Manual.pdf T-33_QRC.pdf

T-33_MSFS_Manual.pdf T-33_QRC.pdf