Okay, this will be sort of a quick & dirty review. To be honest when I first heard about the model here on SOH I was a little leery of it at first because as I stated on the previous thread, I recalled the old C-160 model and thought this one might be an upgraded rehash of an elderly model. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is in fact a brand new model and the screen shots and promo video was enough to convince me to take the chance on buying it. That being said, it is a gorgeous model inside and out and the VC has tons of small and precise detail. Some may feel the texturing is the only shortcoming which I would say is average to perhaps better than average but certainly not "baked" high end textures. With the level of detail involved in the VC and exterior, any good texture artist (not knocking the one who did this model) could conceivably create some sharper textures for the VC and exterior. Again, I'm happy with the textures as is but just leaving the door open on tuning suggestions. As far as systems depth, it is AMAZING! It has excellent systems flows and realistic APU and Engine Startup and Systems Management (not that I've ever flown a real C-160 but the flows make sense). The FDE is very nice and predictable but the pitch trim seems a little sensitive and hard to settle into trim which forced me to gently bump the trip switch ever so slightly rather than make an input and hold it a second or two which would throw it way out of trim. The airspeeds and acceleration are slow as this bird does not have the power of Allison T56's on a C-130 or similar aircraft but at cruise it has reasonably good cruise speeds once up and leveled off. Maneuvering handling is good in all speed ranges of flight and landing is a piece of cake. The model is also loaded with tons of nice animations from the various doors and ramps, access panels, etc and there is a 2D popup animations panel. The sounds (both engine, apu, switch & door sounds) are superb. One thing I will warn about, this is a model which is not a "Control+E/Fly Now" model. You have to follow the procedures in the manual or in the tutorial videos to get this bird up and running. Some users might find this to be a nuisance but the procedure flows are pretty easy and can have you up and flying very quickly.
Again, at $26, this model has a lot of value and potential fun & systems depth learning for interested users. A few Screens:
Thanks ever so much for taking the time to put in your review. It would be great if they could get the Flight1 people to help with integrating their GTNs... Or do they work in the VC already?
FSX
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