So you want to fly your own Avro Vulcan ?

wonwinglo

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Apr 18, 2004
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Barry
Having just put Just Flight's new Avro Vulcan through its paces I would like to give you my findings,there must have been quite a bit of research gone into this latest offering to enhance our flight simming experiences as all of the feel of the Avro Vulcan has gone into this software,what do you get for your money ? well for starters no lesss than seven different versions of this aircraft from anti-flash white to the last one on the airshow circuit together with some facilities to do a few repaints which I have not yet found out about ? on top of this you get a period R.A.F Cottesmore airfield with all buildings,hangars and respective scenery.

Well how does she fly and above all does she handle like this queen of the skies ? the answer is breath takingly yes !! As you line her up on the end of Cottesmores big runway you look in awe at the instrument layout,all the switches and knobs can be activated as you move the controls and do your cockpit check,the ground turning radius is very tight for a machine of this size and she can be taxied with ease around the perimeter track,as the engines are slowly opened up a really first class sound emits from the engines as a puff of black smoke clears at just over half throttle,knowing about this aircrafts almost fighter like climb I decided to simulate that climb,but first we had to leave the ground ! at about runway intersection length I decided to rotate and eased back the stick,she lifted cleanly into the air,soon afterwards I retracted the gear and the aircraft was nice and clean for the climbout,before long she had reached a couple of thousand feet as the nose was still high I looked back at Cottesmores long runway,simply awesome as I only then throttled back to half power and that realistic puff of smoke re-appeared,with weather set to CAVOK I decided to do a circuit but before checked out the stall of this big triangular bird,gently easing back the stick with the nose high closing the throttle,she started to mush and I poured on the coals again,next I lowered the gear and did the same again,this time correctly she dropped the nose quicker as to be expected,gear up and clean again with more power to get a bit more height and this time to try out the large flaps,throttling back I lowered the flaps and sure enough the nose went forward,before I tried a landing I needed to know how she handled and gently applied power to bring the nose up again,she responded beautifully and I lifted the flaps again and decided to see where I was at this stage,the map showed me to be just over Barkston Heath so I put her into a long flat powered glide gradually turning towards Cottesmore again,it seemed to be taking ages to loose any height so I lowered the gear and sure enough the drag set in,doing a very wide circuit I kept Cottesmore in view with judicious use of the top hat on my joystick,slowly does it as the aircraft lined up with the runway a few miles away,it was difficult to judge the angle of approach but it seemed very flat,time to drop the flaps/airbrakes and down came that nose again,now I needed to work the throttle and balance everything out,a juggling act ensued but it felt right as she was pointing in the right direction at least and loosing altitude fast,too low so I once again poured on the coals dragging her in over the threshold,starting to pull up the nose and with a jolt the mains touched the runway,she rode nose high and gently lowered until the nosewheel touched the ground,I had already configured the 'wing fold' in the options to act as braking chute instead,and although it is only a cosmetic function,it certainly felt right as the big chute unrolled ! its all a visual thing.

Well what are my feelings on the Avro Vulcan put out by Just Flight ? well simply superb and if you get the feel that you were flying her from my description above then you will be right,she really does behave like a Vulcan should and it is the only chance that I will ever get to fly a Vulcan thanks to this software,well done JF you have really excelled on this one and it is well worth the money.

Cannot wait to do some circuits and then take her over the sea to do some high altitude stuff,I know now why the Vulcan was so popular with its pilots,she really is a throughbread machine.

Rating out of six-

Price-at £19.99 not bad considering what you get.****

Flyability-Excellent.******

Scale control responses-Excellent.******

Realism-Very good.*****

Manual-Adequate but could do with some info on the method of colouring ?**

After sales back-up-No telephone service now,only on-line which from past experience is slow,could be improved upon.*
 
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