Virtavia's new Hampden for MSFS.

[Paul K]

[TSR2]

I saw this the other day when i was away. What do you think Paul?

[Airspeed]

I won't be getting it, as my connection won't handle MSFS, but it looks neat externally.
I lived next door to an Australian ex-pilot, who had no complaints about flying them during the war.
He had a half-model mounted on his entrance hall wall.

[Paul K]

I saw this the other day when i was away. What do you think Paul?

Well, Ben - bearing in mind I'm biased because I love inter/early war British aircraft, I think very highly of it. I loved their FSX one too, but this time the cockpit is far and away superior to anything we've seen from Alphasim/Virtavia. So much so that I have a feeling someone else built it for them ( it looks very Flight Replicas to me ).

A bit of a handful when taking off, needing lots of rudder, but is quite docile thereafter. There are basic autopilot functions, in that you can grab and hold altitude and heading. You can turn crew visiblity on and off, open all the canopies and entrances ( including the air vent panels to either side of the windscreen ) open the bomb bay doors, switch weapon visibily on and off as desired. The aircrew figures are much better than those in the Stirling

Minus points - the engine sounds are too snarly and buzzy for the Bristol Pegasus, which I imagine sounded very similar to the whispery Mercuries on the airworthy Blenheim at Duxford. They are more reminiscent of a Harvard, really. Other little gripes are that the yoke has very limited roll movement ( though the aircraft responds well enough ) and I'm not certain the rear and ventral gunner figures appear on all the models. Some of the levers and pipework in the cockpit seem to be missing textures - or maybe they are supposed to be grey, I don't know. I think the parking brake lever animation on the yoke is reversed too - a very minor gripe as I fly with the yoke hidden anyway.

Virtavia/Alphasim have produced some hounds over the years, but this Hampden is excellent: with that cockpit, I reckon it's the best thing they've ever done. A genuine instant favourite. I've been doing circuits around Duxford, plus a Met. flight from Benbecula, as below.

( Click on them to enlarge )









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