I dropped enougth hints at Crimbo and received the Lanc as a pressie.
So after a bit of playing around with it I decided to fly the Operation Chastise Dambuster Lanc on a training flight to the Derwent Resovoir.
I flew with 50% fuel load so I could fly easily at low level and land again in short order. Flying with an AUW makes her sluggish and slightly nose high.
Lined up on Scamptons main runway. This is the standard Lanc not the Special.
The external views are good with lots of detail. I'm not sure about the colours, they seem washed out and faded. A bit too faded maybe?
There's also annoying silver squares on the nose cones where the props attach. Presumably to give the illusion of spinning but not necessary.
On route to target over Lincolnshire.
The sounds are good but there appears to be a bug which I'll mention later. Externally sounds are sufficient. Definitely merlin engine sounds.
The cockpit glass has nice reflective qualities especially the dome and turrets.
Internally the cockpit reflections are way overdone. The pilots seat back shines like a sun on the glass.
Sounds internally are great. It's great throttling up those big merlins and remembering the scenes in the film Dambusters when training over the dams.
Approaching the Dam for a training pass.
Flying the Lancaster gives a good feeling of a large, heavy aircraft. It banks and turns relatively sedately but can be cranked round with effort. The rudder seems a little
underpowered and the turn slip indicator doesn't seem to work.
Steady, steady, bombs gone skipper! A low pass over the resovoir.
Handles well allowing good control at low levels. Interstingly flying this mission and watching my control inputs is spookily similar to a you tube movie of the BBMF lanc in cockpit flying the same mission.
You have to rearly crank that control wheel over to get her to bank.
Approach to land at Scampton.
Gear down, 30 degrees flap, +8 boost, 2500 rpm (no idea if these figures are accurate but flies stable at 140knots).
Landing is challenging and needs good alignment far out to give time to stabalise on approach.
This image looks very similar to a Robert Taylor painting I have and rearly shows off the Lanc well.
Safely back at base.
So, what do I think of this aircraft. Certainly the best model so far for FSX (and 2004). It's fun, sounds like a Lanc, flies like a Lanc and if you like big WW2 bombers a must have.
You can download some Dambusters scenery to complement it.
Unfortunately the aircraft is marred by some bugs which I will list below. Hopefully a patch will address. But the bugs, though annoying, do not detract from the fun of flying a Lancaster.
I don't see any FPS hit.
Things for fixing.
Turn Slip indicator doesn't seem to react as expected in turns.
Uneven fuel burn causing right bank after a few hours. Fuel gauges don't seem to correspond to tank layouts.
Engine sounds change when cycling from external to internal view. So if at idle on the runway and you cycle external when returning to cockpit engines sounds to be at high power. In the air this happens but in reverse and not so pronounced. Cycling the engines fixes.
Cockpit reflections need toning down.
BTW Dave G's Beaufighter and the Lanc have the same sound / tank bugs so it must be an FSX gotcha. I don't get this from any other aircraft so a symptom of their design, programmers gotcha in FSX maybe ? Only mention this in case it helps you design boffins.
I would say get it of you like Lancasters. 7-10. Personally I love it but I could go for one better. Accusim version, yes please!
