A bit of a handful

[speedbird591]

I had a desire for a heavy so I threw a whole twenty squids at Just Flight for the 747 classic. It's part of their F-Lite series without too many polys and switches for those of us with short attention spans. It's not perfect but it's probably worth the money and keeps me busy crashing at Kai Tak. The British paints in the bundle aren't too good but I found this iconic one at Avsim. The pic is of the only time I got it on the runway



Ian

[VEGAS]

Lovely Ian. That paint work really suits the 747-100.

It just works perfectly.

Great shots mate.

[Chris Trott]

I've always wondered about the JustFlight F-Lite version. I've got the VMAX 747 Classic and that's good for VA work (where I tend to spend the time anyway) with some panel upgrades that give it a more "semi-modern" feel using the ISG1 addon gauges. When I occasionally fly "for fun" with heavies, I've always used the POSKY 747-100 with an addon freeware panel. What are your opinions of this compared to them?

[DaveB]

I think the JF releases are exactly the same as the CLS models under the JF banner. I fly the CLS 74's quite regularly and I like 'em

You can't really compare it to the POSKY 741. That is one of those models that spends most of it's time on the runway bouncing.. something with generally shows the plot isn't that right. That said, once in the air.. the POSKY 741 flies reasonably well but to fly it at the correct weight and at any altitude above FL250.. you have to fly it on V/S otherwise you'll fall from the sky. It could be argued that this is 'real' but the bouncing on the deck certainly isn't.
By comparison, the CLS (read JF for the sake of this thread) model will go pretty much where you want it to go. I couldn't tell you what the performance differences are between the RR and PW models but I'm guessing they're much the same. The CLS/JF 742 (the 741 model has the same aircraft.cfg as the others) is no LearJet. It needs work at MTOW/MLW (taking off and landing) but becomes predictable with use
One thing that confuses me with the 'F-Lite' series is that ALL CLS products seem to be 'F-Lite'.. that is, you can fly one without 2 weeks groundschool and none of them come with FMC's.. I have the Scarebus series, the B74's and the DC10's. The Scarebus panel I don't care for much and it has an annoying in-built function under AP to go from IAS to Mach at around FL240 and there's nothing the pilot can do about it. This leaves you stuck in somewhere not very nice as if you leave it.. you stand a chance of falling from the sky and if you change the mach speed to your 'intended' IAS.. you're going to fast
The B74 panel I like a lot. Uncomplicated.. no sign of 'glass' and what you'd expect for a 200srs. Slightly modern for a 100 but not modern enough
The DC10 is pretty much the same. There's a lot of it but it's uncomplicated. A disappointment for the button pushers but a sigh of relief for the rest

I wouldn't consider any of them 'cutting edge'.. certainly not in the same league as CS or Dreamfleet/F1 but for the end user.. they're not supposed to be.. hence the F-Lite tag

ATB

DaveB

[speedbird591]

Dave's summed it all up perfectly - as usual The 747-200 (The BOAC paint job blanks out some of the upper deck windows to make it look like a -100) is indeed the CLS jobby marketed under the JustFlight banner. I think F-Lite is clever marketing that suggests that these models are designed for 'ease of use' whereas they are just 'less developed' or older models given a new sales opportunity But it's still useful to end users because if they are all sold under that banner you've got a pretty good idea of what you're going to get and the price is reasonable. So although it's not new or ground-breaking it certainly fills a niche and I don't have any complaints. It's a good, basic aircraft for the money.

I also bought their A320 F-Lite, after a review in PC Pilot, as I fancied the occasional circuit with a glass cockpit, and that fits into the same bracket. It's easy and it flies pretty well and looks OK and is only 15 squids. But it's not in the same league as Peter's iFly 737!

The other advantage for me is that they're also lite on frame rates. As I'm currently running a basic FSX on a 'power-challenged' laptop I don't have the spare capacity for complicated models.

Ian

[Chris Trott]

Ahh, thanks for the clarifications. I have the CLS DC-10/KC-10 package and am quite happy with it on the occasion I still pull it out to fly, so I may have a look at their 747 collection in the future.

[DarrenL]

Co-pilot looks happy you got it down in one piece

[DaveB]

Yes.. it's true to say that the FD crew are not typical of a BOAC 741 That aside.. perhaps even the 'Airplane' crew look more credible Let this not detract from the overall package

ATB

DaveB