YF-23 out!!

[Boomer]

Gonna pick this up this evening

It even has a trial period... Interesting...

[Rezabrya]

Are you talking about the FSD/Milviz YF-23? If so, that has been out for quite some time now. I would definitely pick it up if I were you though.

[calypsos]

A description or link would have been nice!!!

EDIT.....the text IS a LINK, sneaky!!!!!!!

I might get the trial, just for a bit of fun, but this type of aircraft is not for me. I do not have the defence budget either!

[falcon409]

Gonna pick this up this evening

It even has a trial period... Interesting...

When a company who has never done this before (trial period) suddenly offers a trial period, it makes you wonder why, ya know. Did this one bomb to the point that in order to at least get some sold they decided on a trial period, or is this just a smart way to increase sales?

I flew the freeware version for a looooong time in FS9 and even over to FSX for a while. The exterior was nice, the VC was awful, but there was just something about the design that I really liked. FSD has done a really nice job with the Black Widow, but I almost puked when I heard the spin up sounds from inside the cockpit. . . ."omg. . . .tell me this isn't aliased to the Lear". It's not, but it sure did sound very familiar on startup. It's actually aliased to the FA-18. The exterior sounds are nice, but man that initial blood curdling spin up was almost too much to bear, lol.

The other thing that I guess is rather common and I'm sure it helped in getting the aircraft released sooner is that the MFD's are very familiar. . .I've seen these same ones in other aircraft, not necessarily the bezel but the programing of the gauge itself is what I mean, the way it looks on the MFD, so those were not done specifically for the YF-23. I guess, as I said, it's not a big deal and probably took a lot of work off the shoulders of whoever would have had to program all new custom gauges.

One thing that did bother me a bit was the arming handle for the ejection seat. Granted, I am not familiar with the seat that would have been used in the YF-23, it might have been an early ACES or Martin Baker, but when you rotate the arming handle down, the ejection handle pops up, just on the left side, but it does move. On the F-16, the arming handle rotates down and recesses into the seat shelf, touches a microswitch that shows the seat is armed on the system display panel. Maybe the handle actually did rotate up on the left, my guess is that it didn't, it's just one more thing the pilot could inadvertently catch on and fire by mistake. You don't wanna do that, lol. (just in case someone would suggest I have no idea what I'm talking about, I spent 26 years working Fighter aircraft, all of it on the Egress System and the last 13 on the F-16).

Ok, with that out of the way, I can't comment on the FDE, I've never flown in the YF-23, no one in here has, so while some nitpickers would suggest "it just doesn't feel right", actually you don't know that with any degree of certainty. For me, it is fast, climb rate is phenomenal as is the roll rate, it seems pretty stable in level flight, landing is easier than expected and braking is realistic (I think). That's the long and short of what I know about flight dynamics folks. Give it a try! I had actually forgotten about the release on this one and the e-mail "nudge" that I got from FSD brought me back. Thanks to them for that.

[Lionheart]

When a company who has never done this before (trial period) suddenly offers a trial period, it makes you wonder why, ya know. Did this one bomb to the point that in order to at least get some sold they decided on a trial period, or is this just a smart way to increase sales?

I flew the freeware version for a looooong time in FS9 and even over to FSX for a while. The exterior was nice, the VC was awful, but there was just something about the design that I really liked. FSD has done a really nice job with the Black Widow, but I almost puked when I heard the spin up sounds from inside the cockpit. . . ."omg. . . .tell me this isn't aliased to the Lear". It's not, but it sure did sound very familiar on startup. It's actually aliased to the FA-18. The exterior sounds are nice, but man that initial blood curdling spin up was almost too much to bear, lol.

The other thing that I guess is rather common and I'm sure it helped in getting the aircraft released sooner is that the MFD's are very familiar. . .I've seen these same ones in other aircraft, not necessarily the bezel but the programing of the gauge itself is what I mean, the way it looks on the MFD, so those were not done specifically for the YF-23. I guess, as I said, it's not a big deal and probably took a lot of work off the shoulders of whoever would have had to program all new custom gauges.

One thing that did bother me a bit was the arming handle for the ejection seat. Granted, I am not familiar with the seat that would have been used in the YF-23, it might have been an early ACES or Martin Baker, but when you rotate the arming handle down, the ejection handle pops up, just on the left side, but it does move. On the F-16, the arming handle rotates down and recesses into the seat shelf, touches a microswitch that shows the seat is armed on the system display panel. Maybe the handle actually did rotate up on the left, my guess is that it didn't, it's just one more thing the pilot could inadvertently catch on and fire by mistake. You don't wanna do that, lol. (just in case someone would suggest I have no idea what I'm talking about, I spent 26 years working Fighter aircraft, all of it on the Egress System and the last 13 on the F-16).

Ok, with that out of the way, I can't comment on the FDE, I've never flown in the YF-23, no one in here has, so while some nitpickers would suggest "it just doesn't feel right", actually you don't know that with any degree of certainty. For me, it is fast, climb rate is phenomenal as is the roll rate, it seems pretty stable in level flight, landing is easier than expected and braking is realistic (I think). That's the long and short of what I know about flight dynamics folks. Give it a try! I had actually forgotten about the release on this one and the e-mail "nudge" that I got from FSD brought me back. Thanks to them for that.

It is indeed difficult to get them all totally correct, especially on such a new fighter. I'll bet getting details on it were very difficult.

On the MFD displays, this is mostly because they are using the Accelleration panels or gauges. On such a model, half the battle (I would think) would be creation of such a huge amount of code. Luckily FSX Accel has that.



My thoughts are, if its a demo, and you are interested, try it. :d Cant hurt if its for free. I have gambled on buying payware. Some I didnt care that much for and just bit the bullet, and some are on my tops list, like my Carenado 182 RG. (Love that thing).



Bill

[falcon409]

. . . . .On the MFD displays, this is mostly because they are using the Accelleration panels or gauges. On such a model, half the battle (I would think) would be creation of such a huge amount of code. Luckily FSX Accel has that.

No wonder they look familiar, lol.

My thoughts are, if its a demo, and you are interested, try it. Cant hurt if its for free. I have gambled on buying payware. Some I didnt care that much for and just bit the bullet, and some are on my tops list, like my Carenado 182 RG. (Love that thing). Bill

Yep, that's very true Bill. Is the 182 an FSX model as well, or was that one only done for FS9?

[hey_moe]

Bob is FSD the one who is selling this...Mike

[Francois]

Bob is FSD the one who is selling this...Mike

See his link ;-)

[MenendezDiego]

I'd assume the reason for the trial period would be initial low sales.

I remember the sticky we had here. I don't think it made it past 3 pages.

Hopefully the F-15/F-22/P-38 do better

Regards, Diego

[Chuck_Jodry-VJPL]

The trial demo installer is going to be in place for all our future releases, we decided to get the work done now , the next series of releases are in the late stages of production and its a good time to try this out , as well a promotion is about to begin for the F23 and the Review's publication.

BTW the ejection seat in this works...

[MenendezDiego]

Sounds great Chuck.

I believe trial versions will do two things

1) Make believers out of sceptics
2) Limit the amount of un-happy buyers

[falcon409]

Well, I was interested in the Black Widow enough after the trial flight to go to the purchase page. . .nope. Aircraft addons are just getting out of my range anymore. That makes two I would have purchased in the past week (Lotus's L-39 was the other) but I'll just go back and pull out the freeware versions if I get an itch to fly em.

[Lionheart]

I think the Demos do good for sales. I have pondered doing them. Great to try before you buy, test drive it a little bit.


Thanks Chuck for the heads up.


Bill

[stiz]

if its a trail .. why do you want my address and phone number?

[noddy]

I picked this model up when it came out, I like it. Good fun to blast around the virtual sky.

[jmig]

I picked this model up when it came out, I like it. Good fun to blast around the virual sky.

Yes, I like it too.

[AckAck]

Is it just me, or did the price go up?

Was the $26.95 a special temporary offer? And now that we can test it for free for two days, it is $35.95? (Is the recession over? I know some say it is.)

I'll still look at it, but only after I get a computer that can run FSX worth a damn. But now that the price has gone up $10.00, I'll look a lot harder.

Brian

[falcon409]

Is it just me, or did the price go up?
Was the $26.95 a special temporary offer? And now that we can test it for free for two days, it is $35.95? (Is the recession over? I know some say it is.)
I'll still look at it, but only after I get a computer that can run FSX worth a damn. But now that the price has gone up $10.00, I'll look a lot harder.
Brian

Yea, I kinda thought it was less expensive at first too, but that's the way it goes I guess. Just can't swipe the card as much as I used to anymore.

[3/7charlie]

found this:

[krazycolin]

Yeah, that's done by Chris of Zactomodels. He's making a 1/32 scale YF-23. He's been doing it for quite some time too and we actually got some info and markings from him for it. So, once again, thanks Chris!

[tigisfat]

Guys, what you see is what you get here. There's no hidden dissapointment like with many other payware fighters. I found MUCH greater satisfaction with this release than the L-39. This is a quality model at a fair price. I could name three other developers that won't give you as much for quite a bit more money, but I won't. I can only urge you to purchase this work of art. Everything in it is very hi-fi, but it's probably more FPS friendly than anything I've flown in a long time.

The proof is in the pudding:

[tigisfat]

[deathfromafar]

I bought this model early on. Generally, it is well done and flies well. However, the FD's lack enough available Pitch Moments & G's at lower airspeed which I base on video I have of Paul Metz taking the plane through it's paces and then talking about how it handled after the flights. This is easily fixed though and I did so with good results. The other issue which bugs me which was never corrected is the manual flap/slat settings while on the ground/or in air. Yes, the real plane had automatic slat extension in flight under dynamic maneuvering but if you look at any video of the YF-23, the flaps and slats have selectable takeoff and landing positions integrated with auto retraction above set speeds. This may seem a minor issue with the model but nonetheless a significant inaccuracy which I hope may be fixed at some point.

[Stickshaker]

Good points, Deathfromafar. Hopefully there will be a patch...