Classic British Flight Sim

Hi Chaps,

Just a bit of info on the Wilco Harrier. Where you buy it from its anything from £23.00 - £29.00. You get a great looking GR3 model and a Good (I think) FRS1. I've never been that close to the FRS1 so I'm possibly not best placed to comment. There are a fair few repaints over at AVSim and a few at Flightsim. No 2D panel, but a very well modelled VC which is the same in both the GR3 and the SHAR. Weapons load out is controlled via the weapon arm switches, but for the life of me I can't find how to get the sidewinders to show. The all important "hover" controls take a little getting used to, no flap controls (as per the real thing) but the vector thrust control in the VC seems to be "stuck" as when I try to grab it with the mouse; the lever shudders a bit but wont move back. This means reverting to the keyboard controls to vector the thrust, which works well on landing because you already have forward momentum, but isn't smooth enough for take off. I should mention that this issue may be down to my set up. The best way (apparently) is if you have a throttle / mixture control yoke you can use the mixture control lever to alter the vectored thrust which would probably be the easiest way to do it. Flying in the cruise is a doddle and the aircraft is easily trimmed for level flight. A lovely touch is the radar which shows other aircraft and their range (nothing earth shattering there), but if you click on an aircraft in the Radar, the HUD then displays the "target" with a box round it giving you distance to target info. So I really like the HUD, and I also like the radar "eyelids" in the nose which can be opened with SHIFT+E+3. The thrust effect of vertical or STOL take off / landing is pretty good too, but when in the cruise and viewed from the side it looks wrong against the rear of the airframe. Another annoyance is that when starting the engine with the parking brake applied, it seems to automatically come off when the engine starts. I like the Harrier a lot, so I will look at any model of it through rose tinted glasses to some extent. But this is a very nice model, not perfect, but very nice.

Ah.. the Wilco Harrier

Not sure about the colour of the Shar.. probably an FS thing. The GR3 looks mighty nice.

Been blasting around in the UKMIL Shar all morning and it's not bad. Hover/flight transition or more to the point, hover/flight transition is lumpy but they all are in my experience. Not the easiest thing in the world to get something to go forward fast and very slow

I know you have a reasonably 'quick' system but what's it like on fr's? Does that radar track ground objects too?

ATB
DaveB

Frame rates are fine for me, If I use DG's Hunter as a yard stick they are about the same or slightly better. unfortunately it doesn't track ground objects which would have been great. There are a few SHAR repaints, that one is very "light" the others are Dark / Blue, but the repaints at AVsim look a bit better. What do you reckon to the shape on the SHAR matey, you've been closer to these than many.

Hello Mate

It's difficult to say how accurate it is. The most common variant toward the back of it's life was the FA2 which had a different shaped nose and this is the one I remember. Having just had a gander through some shots.. it seems to be a pretty fair rendition of an FRS1. I can't see anything obviously wrong or wrong enough to stick out. Attention to shapes looks very good.. the round bits look very round and the model/s look nice and tight

Just in case you're thinking something isn't quite right.. take a look at an FA2 and that nose really does make the whole thing look different. As I said.. it looks pretty okey dokey for an FRS1 though A good buy by all accounts

DG's Hunters are surprisingly ok on my current fit.. I tend to see more judders from the Bucc, especially while panning in spot. It does have an awful lot of bits and bobs hanging off it though.. all those lift generators on the wings for one

ATB
DaveB

I have this and quite like it.

The thing that made me chuckle is that they got some squadrons wrong - i.e. they call it 1sqn when the texture is for a 4 sqn aircraft etc. Good R&D work. Not!

What is even more amusing is that a certain well-known artist who does repaints for payware stuff (especially Capt Sim ) has done the same. Even though I advised him of the error, he is happy to leave himself looking rather daft by anyone who served in or with those squadrons and anyone who cares to look it up.

Makes you wonder how much tosh is out there by these 'experts'?

To be honest, there are a LOT of commercial pressures put on folk who make stuff like this. Errors are advised but nothing is done because the last version sent either wasn't checked (it was assumed to be correct) or the last version was released and wasn't the 'Gold' version. Many of the faults are known about but pressure to get something on the shelves and selling stops them getting fixed so you end up buying something and there's a service pack ready for it. Some developers simply don't listen

We expect a lot with payware and rightly so. Sometimes, the team involved are not at fault.. sometimes they are. A lot depends on the quality of after service. I've seen people ask questions on the CS support forums and that was the last ever heard of them

ATB
DaveB

After reading the reviews I just got this (part 2 of birthday money - or similar excuse ). Instead of Just Flight I got it from the Flightsimstore for £18.88 - quite a saving on the £25 JF are asking for.

Regards,
Chris

Cheers Chris. I looked at it last night and said to myself.. don't do it!

ATB
DaveB

Having done purgatory on both Gr and FRS1 variants, from 1982 thru 1986, there are a couple of errors, but if you've never
been near or in a real one all powered up and ready to go, then you won't notice, and it doesn't detract from your sim experience.

As Dave says, the mark 2 was a different beast, different radome, fuselage plug @ frame 31,
donkey with a little more power etc.

Oh, and its a Laser rangefinder and marked target sensor in nose of the Gr3, not a radar!

Ttfn

Pete

Was thinking about the 146 set Dave but wanted something a bit more sporty and also not to have to worry overmuch about spilling the drinks.

I have noticed that the engine sounds are not at all like the real thing - anyone who spent any time in Airport Camp in Belize in the late 70s/early 80s can't possibly forget the smell of kerosene in the morning or the sound of the GR3s as they went about their daily business.

The 146 set will have to wait until Christmas now.

Regards,
Chris