The Falcon flies again - in FSX

[Skybird]

For reduced price of 14 Euros, my F-16 for FSX by Aerosoft arrived today. The DVD had version 1.11, and so I was in for an immediate update to version 1.21 via a 64 MB download. After that I had 2.7 GB of additional aircraft-folders on my HD, two dozen versions of the F-16 in 3 blocks, and five dozen liveries plus a 50 pages pdf.

I'm a Falconeer of the very first hour, I already played the very first Falcon on Commodore Amiga in 1987. The Falcon saga culminated for me twice, with the Realism Patches 3-4, and then again with the release of Allied Force some years later. Oh those memories!

So I did not waste time reading the manual, just quicklaunched a flight at Seattle, and saw what I got.

And what I had gotten was a yelling "Huiiiiiiii...!"

With frames on my system (i5 2400, 8 GB, Win7Prof x64, GTX 460 1 GB) jumping between 40 and 80, above 60 for the most time, I raced through the air, enjoyed the spectacular look out from the panoramic canopy, and felt on the one hand at home since the cockpit layout is so familiar, but on the other hand was stunned because itfelt so differently to see this familiar cockpit projected before such a new terrain background that really had nothing, nothing to do with the scenery from Falcon 4 anymore.

The thing looks marvellous, it is definetly one of the best modelled cockpits, virtual, I have ever seen. The attention to detail is wonderful, all switches are 3-dimensional and not 2D pics. The feeling of being there and sitting inside of it, is absolutely convincing, nothing ever released for the Falcon 4.0-series and its mods comes even close to it - nothing. I like the night light effects very much. The manual specifies precisely which instruments work and which not, and let me tell you they did not waste time to model things like chaff and flare panel that could not be used with a purpose in FSX anyway, but what makes sense to be present in FSX they modelled with great care and dedication. There is no A-G radar, just a ground map that mimicks some of the functionality of the original screen, but at least there is a simplified a-A radar mode which creates the mark-box around the target on the HUD. The HUD looks exactly like I knew it from photos and from the F4 sim, and is animated with great smoothness. The whole plane in general is dripping with deja-vu, if you are a Falconeer.

Visual model from outside also looks absolutely convincing, and there are plenty, really plenty of skins installed. Moving parts are smoothly animated, and like other reviews already pointed out especially the engine section has gotten a special visual treatement by Aerosoft. Some things like vortex and afterburner look a bit static though, this is due to limitations with FSX acceleration pack, I read.

The handling in-flight feels - well, it feels different than the default Hornet, and very different from the planes you usually have in FS. I think this is due to the fly-by-wire input interface, which they probably have designed very nicely (don'T know the original, do I), and that necessarily should lead to different flight characteristics, or handling characteristics. The plane does not fly like a train rides on rails (like in F4), but by tendency, the flight behavior goes into that direction - that'S the fly by wire part. However, the attitude of the plane and the flight experience is more dynamic, less static than in F4, it feels more alive and like moving through a fluent, dynamic medium.

Needless to say the the sight from inside the cockpit is spectacular. If you want to do sightseeing and VFR flights and want to cover plenty of ground in a short amount of time, then this is the plane of choice for you, without rivals.

There got the Hickam AFB installed as well, two missions (with a separate mission pack available), and the plane can refuel in mid-air from any civilian airliner in the FSX sky. Position yourself behind that airliner like you would do if it were a tanker, and the fuel starts flowing.

I know no other fighter planes in FSX, only from reviews and their videos and photos, and while the Harrier Jump Jet package caught my attention, by the reviews' visuals I must say that the F-16 looks better to me. And it completely surpasses and outclasses the F-5II and the Phantom and the Starfighter I knew from FS2004, it must not be mentioned. If you want a fighter in FSX, this one is a choice you cannot afford not to take into consideration. And again, especially the superbly modelled 3D virtual cockpit deserves special recognition.

The web offers plenty of material for the F-16 by Aerosoft, videos and photos and reviews. They all score it very very well. There is one at simHQ as well, for a start, and flightsim.com.

Glad I got this one! Very good choice. Now off to the Grand Canyon again.