FS2004.org

Already being impressed wih the amaizing layout of the 2D panel, I couldn't wait to go through the Checklist and get this bird into the air. The airplane has a name "Mad Dog" and really, once it finds itself on the home turf of the air, it justifies the name nicely. The airplane isn't easy to tame, and very quickly goes through the initial altitude restriction of a Standard Departure of Gatwick! Before even getting a chance to call ATC you are most likely to hear the altitude horn indicating "1000 feet to go!". The dynamics of the flight have been very nicely made and the ariplane, althugh it it needs some getting-used-to, is a pleasure to fly manually in all phases of flight.

The heart of the navigation system is a Litton LTN-311 OLF Navigation System which resembles an Inertal Navigation System in it's simplicity, but also has some improvments, regarding the number of waypoints it can take at one time and the ability to input the names of the waypoints as well. The ONS along with the PMS imply of a steep learning curve when it comes to navigating through skies, but once getting used to it, nothing but pleasure is to follow. Aircraft performs beautiffuly in the air, but on the ground it's a very strange airplane. With the nosewheel steering having hard limits around 82* of travel both left and right, turns need special care and full twist on the joystick is very likely to make the nosewheel skid right ahead and slow the airplane down rapidly almost without turning. Breakaway power is also beyond any expectation for the airplane of that size, with amaising 45-50% N1 to make this one move from the apron. The electrical system is one of the downsides of this addon, because so far, there was no fix to make the battery not dead after a certain amount of time spent in the APU/Ground powered airplane. With the navigation system that takes a while to get set up, that is a problem that isn't welcome on flight preparation.