Cockspur Phenom 100 Released

[Tom Clayton]

According to the Cockspur FB page, and if I'm reading it right, the Phenom 100 will release at 2301Z today. That would be 1801 US Eastern. AvAngel has a review video posted (not sure how she got it), and from what I can see, I have mixed feelings. Functionally, it seems to be good. Most everything works as it should and the plane looks nice inside and out. What I'm not thrilled with is the fact that "By Cockspur" is painted into the liveries and into the splash screen on the Garmin MFD. I'm considering buying this, but if I do, I'll definitely pick my favorite livery and delete that flagrant self-promotion on the livery, and probably explore the avionics folders for that splash screen too.

If you have the Honda, you basically already have a VLJ that will do what the Phenom does, so if you have that one and don't need something else that will do the same thing, you can save your money. If you want another VLJ that looks different, buy it. (This is AvAngel's assessment too.) I'm still trying to decide. If it's in the same price range as their Mustang jet, it may come down to a coin flip.



Purchase link from dev: https://cockspur.eu/product/cockspur-ph100​

[tiger1962]

What I'm not thrilled with is the fact that "By Cockspur" is painted into the liveries and into the splash screen on the Garmin MFD.

I'm pretty sure those will be 'watermarks' which only appear on the pre-release evaluation version. I have the Cockspur C510 which is great, but on my system it does suffer from flickering shadows on some of the cockpit surfaces which I hope won't also appear in the Phenom.

[tiger1962]

I see that on their Discord they're advising everyone to always start from cold and dark on a ramp, NOT on a runway with everything up and running because some systems may not be up and running correctly.
I think that indicates a serious issue or a group of issues which will need ironing out over the next few updates before I'll splash out on this one.

[jmbiii]

Yeah, I think I'll hold off on this one. Like you said, I have a Honda. Now if a PC24 should appear . . . . . . . .

[Tom Clayton]

My OP is now edited to reflect actual release and a link to purchase. I'm still on the fence. I like the looks of the office - it's just a little more complex than the Honda. But I have the Honda, so do I want to spend the extra on that, or spend it at my favorite watering hole tonight...

I think I know how my dancer friends would like for me to spend my money...

[jmbiii]

Sounds like a good plan. Especially if one of "your dancers" is Phenom-enal!

[tiger1962]

Sorry to report that I couldn't resist and bought it anyway. It's just too cute, and the FSReborn 300 is probably 12 months from completion.
First impressions are that the avionics are superb, the model, textures and sounds are great and the handling is utterly benign with no bad habits whatsoever on the ground or in the air - and that's one hell of an achievement on it's own.
You can easily hand fly this plane from any hard surface runway to any other hard surface runway up to a thousand miles away - the minimum landing speed is 77 knots. If this is anything like your "thing", get it while you can!
Second impressions are:
The .FLT files are all missing the engine 2 parameters, that's why the engines cut out on a runway start - I've reported this on the Cockspur Discord and they've locked the bug report!
If you want to do runway starts, just copy all the .FLT files from their C510 (or possibly any other twin engine jet) and paste them over the PH100 .FLT files.
The landing light switch on the overhead doesn't switch the landing lights off, I've report this bug too and they're looking into this one.
Finally, (and no apologies for flying the red white and blue) if you don't want the "by Cockspur" wording on the tail or below the cockpit side windows, you can remove it by editing the main texture AND the alpha in the "PHENOM_MARKINGS.PNG.DDS" file in the "texture" folder:

[Tom Clayton]

You're right that editing the textures wouldn't be that hard for most users familiar with programs like Gimp, but the arrogance of that kind of self-promotion on a paid product tends to put me off of the product on principle. It's the same reason you won't see me buying Nike shirts. If I'm going to put their name out in the public view, they need to pay me.

[DennyA]

You're right that editing the textures wouldn't be that hard for most users familiar with programs like Gimp, but the arrogance of that kind of self-promotion on a paid product tends to put me off of the product on principle. It's the same reason you won't see me buying Nike shirts. If I'm going to put their name out in the public view, they need to pay me.

Pretty sure this has to do with the slippery slope of licensed/non-licensed add-on airplanes. Cocksput can't put Embraer, so they thought it'd be cute to add their own.

At any rate, solvable with a simple fs.to download, so wouldn't let it affect my decision...

https://flightsim.to/file/67105/cock...kspur-branding

I already have the excellent Vision Jet, so that has this category covered for me.

[Tom Clayton]

If you like the Vision, give the Honda by the same dev a shot. The twin VLJ is flies faster, higher, and farther. It's also virtually identical in performance (RW stats) as the Phenom 100EV.

[MZee1960]

I liked flying the Hawker H850XP and the Beech 390 Premier 1A (Carenado birds) back in FSX.

Hopefully these are on someone's 'to do' list in the near future, as well.

The Phenoms are definitely eye candy, unfortunately in FSX days, their Garmin Suite relegated many flights to slide shows, especially around 'heavy' scenery.

[tiger1962]

The Phenoms are definitely eye candy, unfortunately in FSX days, their Garmin Suite relegated many flights to slide shows, especially around 'heavy' scenery.

They certainly did! I came to the conclusion that any Carenado plane with a glass cockpit was an FPS black hole - the more memory you had, the more it would take.
Fortunately this one isn't by Carenado and doesn't suffer from any FPS hit - my only reservation was the 'cold and dark starts only' proviso from the devs, but a simple edit of the runway.flt fixes that and this plane is pleasure to fly.