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OK, man, so, like........I been on the hunt for a reeeeaaalllly good miltary jet to tool around FS9 with, to burn some holes in the sky and make some serious tracks with when I get that itch. And, I dunno, man, but it's like.....well, no offense to the freeware developers but I'm kinda particular about some stuff. And for some reason, lots of these jets have stuff that doesn't seem to work right...must be a complex task, So, instead of gettin' all excited about every jet that comes along and looks good, I've been really putting some of the more promising ones through the paces to find "The One".....and man, I tell ya, thanks to a great tip from good ol' JG300-Lurps, this is IT for me!!!

It's the FSD T-38 Talon, and you can get it from this link right 'char:
library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=33097

I know she's been around awhile and lots of ya may have it already, but sometimes ya gotta point out these planes lest they be forgotten. So for anyone who didn't know about it, I'd be happy to tell ya all about it before you head off to download her!

Had a few criteria to meet, which were:

1) Coolness factor, of course.....gotta look good and be a beechin' plane,
2) Gotta install with a minimum of fuss. Minimum file manipulations and all that,
3) Gotta be available from a reputable source, and easy to download for others,
4) Gotta fly good, I mean GOOD......
5) Gotta have a VC, and lotsa detail and readable intruments,
6) GOT to be ILS-capable. This sucker's for all-weather flying and you never know what's under that cloud blanket below.
7) Gotta have stuff that works in any normal plane. I mean autopilot, spoiler, all that jazz. A VERY cool F-18 has a 'super spoiler' that acts as a carrier trap by bringing the speed down to zero in nothing flat. That's cool, but makes it impossible to use spoilers in normal flight. A real nice F-14 has no ILS indicators anywhere in the cockpit - go figure.

So anyways, coupla nights ago I was flyin around with Lurps and Drafty (aka "Hoppa Jr") and Hoppa.....Lurps says hey go get this plane...so I check her out, skeptical at first, and have been flying her ever since to see if she's really up to snuff on the above needs.

Well this baby meets those criteria fully. I mean, she's beautiful, cool, shapely and sexy.....she got a one-click install from an self-installing executable in the ZIP fle......she's from FSD and available at Avsim, so it's quality goods bro......flies like she's on rails, got a serious roll rate too, just THINK about rolling left and she's there ......VC is just as readable as the 2D panel, and offers better visibility than the 2D panel for landing......and her instrumentation is 60's vintage but accurate and capable, LOL man I had to learn her ILS instrumentation the hard way while landing in an unexpected blizzard (dumb me, I was doing a Britain hoplist with real weather, for this time of year).......this gal pulled my @ss out of that jamb with grace and style, SUUUUUWEEEEEEEEEEE!

Here's some photos and yak about the lil'sweetheart......

Like 'the Manolo" says, "Some pictures, they do not need the caption"......


I use the VC for landing, and for some reason I had an initial tendency to land WAYYYY nose-high....and when I let the nose down too fast, she scalded me with an authentic-sounding "BANG" from the nosegear, just to let me know she didn't like it.....but she's a tough gal and hasn't broken on me yet, and I treat her much nicer these days.


With the small wing area, I keep an approach speed of about 140 knots as per Lurps' advice, but she's got excellent brakes and accelleration, and can actually get in and out of some surprising airstrips. The animated oleo struts on the gear are cool, as you're taxiing along on rough ground the plane is stable and gently rocking, but outside view shows those little wheels busily bouncing up and down on the gravel....


I've put A LOT of miles under her wings already and this is just one of many refueling stops that've been necessary. Which is saying a lot becuase she actually gets fairly good fuel economy and I cruise her at FL150 at about 0.9 Mach. Here's me and the GIB takin' a smoke break between hi-speed legs.....


Here's the virtual cockpit......looks great, eh?? As you can see, the visibility over the nose is GREAT (probably why I'vebeen landing her so nose-high at first). This was an ILS approach, and the glidepath needle (vertical position) is on the left side of the artificial horizon (small white arrow), and the runway centerline needle (horizontal position) is the usal segmented line in the middle of the HSI just below that. I've found I really like this arangement compared to having both indicators on the same instrument....it enforces good panel-scanning practices, as opposed to staying fixated on just one instrument.


"So there I was....".......flying along at FL150, enjoying a nice hoplist over Great Britain with excellent (real) weather. Or so I thought........as I slowed and descended down to the destination, we sank into heavy cumulus and ground fog....okay, what was that ILS frequency and where th'heck are the needles on this thing........at FL100, we're totally engulfed by the gray stuff.....at FL050, the snow kicked in....intercepted the ILS needle and set up on final approach....getting closer...closer......FL005 now.....where the hell is that runway....

It was at that point I noticed I was juuusssst a little bit below the glideslope.....and WHOAAA......I swear to gawd, out of the corner of my eye, through all the muck and snow, I saw a CHURCH STEEPLE flash by on the right.....and the top was above me.....YYYEEEEEEOOOOWWWW!!!!

Of course, at about this time, the periodic "FSHOST Server yada yada yada" thing came scrolling across the top of the screen...just what you need when you're sweating out the final seconds of a tight approach in mimums, LMAO!!!!

After a tiny slight climb and a few fractions of a second, I figured I had to be on top of the damn runway, so lowered the nose a bit more...STILL nuthin!!!....then suddenly..BANG....dropped out of the fog about 10 frikkin' feet above the runway, and dang me if I hadn't already passed the threshhold!

Set 'er down, hit the brakes, took this pic before turning off the runway, and went outside for a smoke...MAN I haven't had such an exciting time with a new plane like this for so long!!!!!!



A coupla caveats, and not bad ones at that:

1) When you install this plane, there's a "T-38 Paint Scheme Manager" program that gets installed in your Start->Programs menu. You gotta run that to get the extra two liveries, otherwise all you'll see is the default NASA scheme. This is explained in the README.

2) The autopilot is certainly 60's vintage, which means it'll do the job but isn't like the AP's you might be used to. However, I found that figuring it out (not hard, and Lurps helped me out there a bit) was kind of a pleasure. Gives the plane some unique character, and you get a little sense of accomplishment out of it too.

3) Haven't had her supersonic yet, just up to 0.99 Mach. Don't know if it's because this is originally an FS2002 aircraft, or if I haven't had her high enough, or what. There's an operating handbook for her that also gets installed in the program menu, just been havin' too much fun to read it yet!

Wow Stoopy ! That was truly an epic tale you wrote in the above !
I'm tickled to death that you like the Talon ... probably more than me ... LOL !
I'm looking forward to hooking up with you again for some more 38 flying .... sure had fun the other night.
Also .... absolutely great pics you captured there ..... you have quite the knack for getting those shots that look just too cool !

~S~ and

S! and thanks Lurps! Yeah, not sure if I made it clear that I dig the snot outta this bird, LMAO!!

I also got my B-52 problemo fixed (I had followed the readme TOO well and overwrote the config file with the AI version....duhh). Flies right proper now, so we're all set for next time!

Check the FS2004 forum Stoop ..I explained how to go
into afterburner ... shift F4 ...

Check, saw it, thanks! Muchas Gracias!