| PSS Avro Vulcan |
| Thursday, 04 May 2006 | |
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The Avro Vulcan is an icon of cold-war aviation. It first flew in 1952 and helped recapture the Falklands in 1982, and in my opinion is one of the most beautiful aircraft of all time. She is a long range high altitude bomber and was manufactured at Avro's Woodford Cheshire plant (there is a vulcan, XM603, parked at Woodford today. A total of 134 were built and the Vulcan is still acknowledged as a great milestone in British aviation as being a design 50 years ahead of its time, she was one of the V-Bombers from the RAF'S Quick Reaction Alert Commitment. She ended operational service in 1985 and continued flying at air shows until 1992. The last aircraft to fly (in March 1993) was XH558, which is the main focus of this package. The liveries
The Vulcan is fully animated, the moving parts include landing gear, flight surfaces, air brakes, engine fans, bomb doors, crew hatch, braking parachute etc... and comes with the standard 2D and VC cockpit. The parachute is only eye candy and has no effect on braking performance upon landing, but still looks good!
Although it is possible to fly from within the VC, it is not clickable. The gauges, rudder, control stick etc... are all animated, so the experience of flying from within the VC is still good.
The scenery of Cottesmore, as with all products from Gary Summons, is of a very high standard and has minimal impact on frame rates. The textures and buildings are all nicely modelled, look very realistic and help bring some character to the air base, which looks rather dull when using the default scenery from Microsoft.
There are several military combat ramps to park at, as well as a couple of static Vulcans, military vehicles, a fire station and cargo bundles. On the outskirts of the airport there are lots of trees dotted about to add a little more atmosphere to the airfield, and these trees look very realistic. It may only be a small detail, but it shows that this Gary Summons hasn't cut any corners in creating this 'simple' airfield. Although this scenery is not as complex as some of his other airports, Gary Summons has done a great job in re-creating it for FS2004. The simple designs are very effective and make flying the Vulcan out of RAF Cottesmore a lot more enjoyable.
Those of you who are lucky enough to have had the chance to see the Vulcan flying in all her glory will know the great noise that those 4 Rolls-Royce Bristol-Siddeley Olympus engines make, and this hasn't been missed out here. Turn the volume up loud and open the throttles, the noise is fantastic. as you rumble down the runway she will lift off at about 140KIAs fully loaded, and easily climb at rates of 10000fpm+. Once airborne remember to keep an eye on the speed, she will easily overspeed (64% N1 will easily give 350kias at 9000ft). Unless I am planning on a quick ascent, I chop the throttles back slightly after take-off until I have established a stable speed and climb rate, then increase the throttle as I please. As you watch the take-off from the tower, it is easy to see the characteristic black smoke coming from the engines.
Once up in the air and at a safe altitude, it's time to see what this aircraft is all about. The autopilot at first can be a little tricky to work out, but once you have read through the tutorial flight a couple of times, you begin to grasp how to use it. If you wish to climb at a specified speed, let the aircraft accelerate to this speed, engage the autopilot and click the IAS knob, and she'll climb at that speed until you say otherwise. To level off, switch the IAS button back to ALT and she'll level off and pass management of the speed back to you! A neat little aspect of the autopilot is the ability to disengage some control inputs of it. If you want to practice turns, and not concentrate on your altitude, just click the ailerons switch and the course of the aircraft is turned over to you, just keep an eye on that speed when you're throwing her about. A test pilot once barrel rolled a Vulcan over the factory roof and the shock wave broke all the windows in the roof, and indeed you can do the same with the PSS version, although without the broken glass! Switch back on the ailerons switch and the autopilot will take over again. You can also disengage the elevators to practice your climbs and descents, and also the rudder. After a few hours playing, you can easily begin to master the autopilot.
The exterior modelling by PSS is very neat and tidy, and I noticed no significant drop in frame rates during all stages flight. There are no jagged edges and the whole airframe has a very smooth look about it. Even though the model was first designed for FS2002, it still holds up well in FS2004. The details are very accurate, there is the drop down ladder the pilots used to climb into the cockpit and the bomb bay doors open. At first you may think that the view from within the cockpit is restricted, from being inside the cockpit of a Vulcan (on static display), I think that the developers have got the view more or less spot on. Some of the gauges can be a little difficult to read with the analogue dials, but if you move the mouse over them, they will give a digital read out for you. Overall this aircraft is a very nice addition to your hangar. It's not a complex add-on by any stretch of the imagination, but there is enough to do to keep you challenged and entertained throughout your flight. It's not up there with some of the commercial aircraft add-ons, but then this isn't a commercial aircraft, she's an old aircraft from the 50's. Flying her is good fun, and the noise of the engines on take-off is superb. If you want to spend hours and hours going over the fine points of an aircraft's FMC and flight dynamics, stay away from this aircraft. Once you have got to grips with her, she is nice and easy to fly, but with an element of challenge still there. PSS deserve lots of praise for this aircraft as no other developer has attempted to make the Vulcan, and some of the profits also go to help to try and return this great plane to the skies, which no other developer is doing (that i know of). Whether you want to take her up to FL450 to throw around and barrel roll, practice circuits around Cottesmore, or perform a long range bombing run to the Falklands, you're sure to be kept entertained and enthralled by this add-on.
Blue Skies Rob Scott MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FS2002 or FS2004 installed |
