So let’s take a look at Just Flights latest offering, the VLJ Business Jet. This package has been developed by the crew at CLS (Commercial Level Simulations) and is an addition to the F-Lite range. For those of you who aren’t aware, this is a range of aircraft that are high quality but don’t have the complex systems management of some of the other payware aircraft e.g. PMDG. With these aircraft, after a short time spent reading the manual, you can jump in and be up into the skies in no time. So they are very much aimed at the intermediate simmer, or a novice simmer wanting to take the next step up from the default aircraft. If you are a pilot who loves systems management, this add-on might not be the ideal product for you, but you will still get a huge amount of enjoyment from it.

The package is available as a download or boxed DVD version for £16.99. I like that fact that Just Flight have offered this as a boxed version as well, this means that the add-on is accessible for everyone. The VLJ is available for FS2004 and FSX, good to see that those of us still using FS2004 are not being forgotten about! The package is jam packed full of features and has all the usual animations that you would come to expect from a payware add-on. It is worth mentioning though that this aircraft is not modeled on a particular real-world aircraft.

I was fortunate that Just Flight opted to send be the boxed version to review. My personal choice for add-ons is as a boxed version with a manual. I prefer to keep everything in one place, rather that have to print of the manuals from the download and then find out that I’ve mis-placed that all important page when I need it the most! The manual is short and to the point, 26 pages (for the English version), with just under half of those pages dedicated to a tutorial flight to help you get to grips with the plane. Installation was a breeze, just insert the disc, select the version of FS you are using and then everything is installed automatically. While this is happening, have a quick look through the manual.

So after the easy installation process I loaded FS to take to the skies and have a play in my new toy. This was when I hit my first problem. Every time I tried to load the VLJ in FS, it caused FS to crash. I thought at first that I had done something wrong, so I un-installed the product and re-installed it, and things seemed to work fine, until I wanted to load it again. It seemed that the only way to get the VLJ to load was to un-install then re-install it each time I wanted to use it, otherwise it caused FS to crash. After a doing this a few times I asked Just Flight if this was a known problem or possibly a problem with my system. They replied to me within 24 hours and advised me to update my sound and video card drivers to see if that worked. But this didn’t help, so I went back to them. They let me know that they didn’t know what the cause of the problem was at present, but would come back to me when they did. A few days later they asked me to try increasing my screen resolution, and Hey Presto! I thank Just Flight for their first class technical support on this issue, as it is something that I would never have thought to have changed. Maybe it would be worth them including this problem in their FAQs on the website, as I’m sure other people will have had the same problem.

And now, over a week since I installed the VLJ, I’m sat at the runway ready to go. I opened the throttles and away we went…quickly! At full power the VLJ climbed more like a fighter jet than a biz-jet. I knew from reading the manual that the VLJ had lots of power, but this much seems a little unrealistic. I also found the plane to be very twitchy on the ground and during manual flight; this is probably more a problem I’ve created than the developers as I’ve spent a lot of time flying heavier jets lately. So the plane definitely feels like a Very Light Jet. Over time I got used to the twitchiness of the aircraft, but still feel it is a little too responsive, maybe this can be toned down a little with future patches and updates.

When you first step into the cockpit the first thing you will see is the 2D cockpit. I wasn’t bowled over by the quality of the 2D panel, but it is far better than the default FS panels. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the panel though. It is a completely glass panel with all the relevant systems info displayed right in front of you all the time. So you will definitely need to read the manual in order to get the most out of the included

 
2D Panel // Virtual Cockpit

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