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| Posted by davidallen on Sunday, September 24 @ 02:55:37 EST
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The Avro Lancaster is probably the most famous heavy bomber ever built and it rates alongside the Spitfire as one of the most easily-recognised aircraft. Lancaster is supplied in a variety of variants and liveries and all come with detailed crew stations that you can man the aircraft from.
In his second review for AusFlightSim, David Allen gives us the run down on this package, an aircraft he has only ever seen close up in real life at the War Memorial in Canberra, and in the air as part of the Battle of Britain display at Farnborough a few years ago.
The Aircraft
There are two aircraft in the package. The Avro Lancaster and the DeHAVILLAND Mosquito.
I will deal with each separately.
LANCASTER
Britain’s lead heavy bomber during the second world war and for many years after with variants flying until modern times in the guise of Shackelton...you have a good airframe, use it, expand it and modify it to fit a roll. Variations on a theme... This is the program Boeing has pursued in the years ensuing. The Lancaster was modified to fit many roles as the air war in Europe rolled on and Just Flight have included many variants for you to play with. WITH THE VARIANT COMES DIFFERENT FEATURES. In some models, there is a bombardier's station where you can let the bombs go; radio rooms to facilitate use of old style "Coffee Grinder" nav radios. (Have not done that since late 60’s when I was flying some old buckets that still had them fitted... God how I love digital electronics.) When you use these radios in real life or in the sim... "am I on the right frequency..?????"...the only way is to listen to the Morse identifier. That made me remember something I had not used in recent years and is now not a requirement for IFR certification. (MMmmmm...why can't they be like we were...over worked in every way...)
One of the nice things about this aircraft as it comes from Just Flight is the fact that there is no digital radio appearance or GPS when you press the buttons. How good is that...so do a flight.. You have to plan it properly and actually use the map feature and use the nav aids as exactly that...an aid.
The nav display system is exactly as one would expect in a British aircraft of that era, it’s in there, it’s inconvenient, and it blocks vision... But it works. The British at that time were definitely behind the Americans in the area of aircraft design and it shows aircraft like the Lancaster...yes everything is there, you just have to find where they put it, and it takes a crew to fly it, not just a pilot. Placement of operational systems and ergonomics were not an issue at that time of development. I took some time and went to a few web sites to get a look at real life Lancaster’s and have found that Aeroplane Heaven have done as they always do...attention to detail and reality rather than make it pretty... good work.
Once again, this attention has made the aircraft heavy, power responsive and reliant and makes you work to get it all happening. As a developer, Aeroplane Heaven pays attention to real world performance. In any thing I have flown published by Just Flight, the attention to the math behind aircraft performance and operation is meticulous.
Try landing over weight...what a pig.
Throw her around heavy...bigger pig.
Will the aircraft forgive you if you screw up...No
Auto Pilot functions...Virtually none...you actually have to learn to trim the aircraft.
SOUND
Not what I would have expected. I have been close to some Merlin Engines and in a Mustang I was fortunate enough to fly in Paris Texas, actually had one of these beasts (Packard Merlin built under license) under my control...they are awesome..loud...hot and smelly. In the sim, the sound was there in the air and under revs, but the thump of 4 merlins at idle and inside the cockpit was not as prolific as I thought it would be. Outside in spot view, yes they hummed along and if you wind the speaker volume up, what a nice sound and as close to the sound in The Dam Busters Movie as I have heard.
PANELS
MMmmmm well... fantastic. Once I learned how to navigate my way around (after a quick e-mail to Just Flight for clarification) and use the Virtual Cockpit systems on the " C " model aircraft, this is really fun.. Flying from the 2D panel is great...from the virtual is really awesome. You need to set up some sub views so you can move around the aircraft to bomb aimers position and still see what is happening in the aircraft, but once you get the hang of the way the system has been designed..lets go hit those dams in Rhur.
If anything the virtual cockpit has too much information and sometimes the time taken for the graphics card to catch up with the massive amount of information it has to contend with can be a bit slow...solution...better graphics card coming.. (She does need the hair dresser or new shoes this week anyway) With my system there was a delay in the VC coming alive and some interesting colors like the northern lights showed while the card caught up.
If ever there was need for the TrackIR 4 scanning system, this is it. (Wonder if she really needs to shop at all this week) There is so much to see in the VC system; you really need to assign some easy access keys to view lateral, vertical and horizontal movement.
In normal 2D panel, when you have switch to limited panel and then come back, the system defaults to the copilots panel instead of the 2D. I found that a little annoying, but not a real issue.
One of the great things that Aeroplane Heaven has done, British aircraft of this vintage and for quite a few years after had ASI calibrated in Miles per Hour. (Lets not get me started on commonality of units worldwide, or language on VHF i.e. why speak French in the circuit area in Montreal or in France.. MMmmmm ) The panels inside the aircraft show in miles per hour, but the limited panel.,.knots, the default FS9 setting ) If you try to land at the checklist speed and use the limited panel...woops remember 1 knot = 1.150 779 448 mile/hour (mph)
Or conversely... 1 mile/hour (mph) = 0.868 976 242 knot. So do a quick calculation when switching panels or else she falls down really quick.
Has the Aircraft Translated to FS9?
Hell of a question... The only experience I have had in an aircraft any where near this in real time was in a B25. I was lucky enough to get a ride, hell of a day. So a bomber World War 2 vintage, yes I think it translates and flies brilliantly in FS9. To make it really better, turn off auto rudder in your system and make like a real pilot.
I tried to emulate a couple of things from the movies, bring it home with two out on one side and still with a full bomb load...now that is a handful of airplane and given these guys had been shot at, were tired and probably wounded, control degradation, landing under that situation is well...thank god I was not around doing that.
For realism, in the dam buster’s model, Just Flight has made the two 60 foot height finding lights available. Try that low level, pitch black, and throw in some bumps and crosswind...damn.. Those guys were good.
Summary
Once again, Just Flight have done a brilliant job in giving us something that is fun to fly and yet requires a high degree of skill to operate, getting the most out of what the simulation is capable of.
Their attention to detail is so far beyond the free downloadable version. (I did that for comparison)
Once again, I will comment on the documentation. There is a brilliant booklet that comes with the package and has some great stuff in it. The checklists and other information available on the knee pad is great, but once again, the documentation does not really explain clearly some things it would be nice to have. As I mentioned, I had to e-mail and ask how to get to bombardiers position. Just simple things that it's nice to know.
To Just Flight and the Aeroplane Heaven team, congratulations on a brilliant package overall. I loved flying it, so did my young son and a couple of his friends...but he was disappointed he could not drop the bombs and have them explode. Going to have to watch him.
Okay some points scoring and my thoughts.
Realism.....10
Graphics.....10
Sound.....8
Documentation.....8
Bang for the Buck.....10
Would I buy this.....YES
DeHAVILLAND MOSQUITO
Much the same as above. Brilliantly maneuverable, fast, touchy. On the ground...horrid...it taxies like a tiger moth with a PT6 stuck on the front. Directional control is non existent. Free castoring tail wheel... The only way is slow, differential braking and asymmetric power inputs. (A great case for Flight Sticks Programmable Quadrant.)
Get her to the end of a runway, slow on the power and use the rudders or she will go anywhere she wants, get the tail up and balance or she will nose in. The sound in this is better and the aircraft howls.
Most of what I said above applies. Great fun... taxing to fly. Just as an aircraft of that period was and should be
That’s about it for this time... Go buy this one, have some fun
Good Flying.
The Just Flight web site can be found here:
http://www.justflight.com
The Lancaster and many other packages from Just Flight and Aeroplane Heaven available right now at The FlightSim Store.
System Requirements:
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
Pentium IV 1.7 GHz PC
Windows 2000 or XP
512Mb RAM
64Mb 3D graphics accelerator card
1.5Gb hard drive space
DVD-ROM drive
Review by David Allen
(casperda)
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