Introduction: Well it's been about 3 weeks that I have had the new Cessna Citation by Eagle Soft and I have been flying it almost non-stop for every evening since I downloaded it. The ease of purchase of the Citation was nice. The system they use is the same system that Flight 1 uses. Basically you download the entire add-on, and then you buy the registration key, which is sent to you immediately via email. A system that most of us are used to when buying flight sim software from Flight 1, or vendors that use the flight 1 wrapper. It's reliable and fast and that is good. What you get in this download is a set of Citations, one set up without a Vc and one with a Vc. This seems to be the trend right now as there are obviously thousands of flight simmers still out there with processors below 1 gig. This is a smart move on the part of the designers to expand their market. I myself flew the no vc model for around 1100 km just to say that I checked it out, but as I have quite a powerful machine, I found no need for the extra savings not having a vc would have saved me, so I flew the rest of the test in the vc model. The following models come with the package: Air Ambulance; Air Ambulance 2002; Corporate 2002; Corporate full; and Corporate light. All work excellent. Installation & Documentation: Once I had the Citation installed into Fs9, I read over the documentation. This I highly recommend if you are serious about deriving the full benefits from this excellent offering. This is a very nicely researched and executed document which covers all topics from the engine start up procedure, the taxi procedure and everything in between right down to the shut down procedures. For the average sightseeing flight sim guy, of average ability and interest, this would be merely a curiosity feature. But for those, like myself, who are either real pilots or very serious about proper aircraft operating procedures, this is a very good document for getting oneself ready for a long trip. I was very impressed with the "read me" file and I think it set up the whole precedent for a good flying experience. For newer designers to flight sim, this is a great example of how to set up a great and successful project, such as we have here.Aircraft HandlingAfter I studied the documentation, I set the Citation up at Toronto International and plotted out a nice cross-Canada trip to Vancouver with a fuel and sightseeing stop at Calgary. Once at Vancouver, I set up another leg down south to Santiago, intending to fly in the sub commercial lanes at around 5500 - 7500 feet to take in the beautiful coastline all the way down to California.
I found the Citation very comfortable to handle on the taxi lanes, and nosing her up to the passenger/service bays was very easy. This plane handles very nicely on the ground, she is very smooth and very easy to steer into position. Unlike many offerings I have encountered, or even the ones I have built...he he. Once I had her lined up for take off and readied for my signal to proceed to take off speed (By the way I did this all online with a very good buddy of mine, he flew wing with me in the stock Lear, which was a very good match mate for the Citation) the set up procedure that the documentation set out worked well for the flight sim and I was off sailing the great white and blue on my way to a beautiful sightseeing trip across Canada. The Citation needs a fair length of run way for take off, there were no flutters or any indication of unstableness in the flight model. The voice gauges are excellent in this add on and I purposely pushed the throttle full on to see if they worked properly, and they did. For the casual nonserious flyer, this could become a irritation, but for the hard core realism guys like me this is awesome! The voice gauging continues to flaps, gear up / down, sink rate and also the over speed warnings. All were done very well and at the proper increments. Just after take off I climbed steadily and quickly to the desired altitude, trimmed out the Citation and set up the auto pilot and let it fly on its own while I checked out all the function ability of the rest of the fully dynamic and nicely laid out vc. All the while yakking up a storm about hot cars, bikes and women...and of course the odd look over the shoulder at the foot ball game…he he. I must say the Citation was steady as a rock in flight, at 100% realism with moderate clouds and wind she handled things quite nicely. Soon however I was going to push the envelope. After the stop over at Calgary international and a run to the potty and a stop at the ice box for an alcoholic beverage, I set up the rest of the Canadian leg of the journey in a very bad storm to see how the little Citation faired in the rough weather over the Canadian Rockies. Setting the trim and the needed instrumentation up for level flight at 14,000 feet, I let the Citation work its way through the storm for a while then dropped her down to a lower altitude to check out how she handled the turbulence changes. The Citation was pushed around a fair bit but held well on its course and was fairly stable through out. Even bigger planes like a 747 would get shoved around in this storm, although most pilots would simply just fly over the turbulent weather, I'm kind of nuts so I flew thought it… putting my $1.5 million Citation through a bit of a pounding as I did so..lol.
I cleared the weather for a beautiful sunset landing at Vancouver International. I found the Citation was very nice to land at both Calgary and Vancouver airports. In Calgary I slammed her down pretty hard to look at the shock absorber animation and also to see what the flight model would do on a hard landing. All the Citation did was squat and go straight, no wonder they use this plane for ambulance services;. Heck you could have had a cake in the oven and land this sucker with out flopping the batter; good stuff!
InstrumentationOn to the gauges and avionics of this aircraft. This is an area that you will need to study up on to get the full benefit from this product. This, as I said before, is a very well researched and executed project, therefore, the instrumentation is well done and accurate as well. To be able to fly this plane correctly it will be necessary for newer or novice virtual flyers to study the documentation and then practice each step as you go along. By doing this, the true enjoyment of this add-on will shine through, although you don't have to do this to have a lot of fun with this add-on. This is a great all around performer for all levels, but if you are are a hardcore sim flyer this will do the trick for you as well. In the Vc all of the switches and throttles are dynamic, in that I mean you can operate them with your mouse. You can set up the various modern avionics such as the Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) for full operation in the vc, as well you can adjust as you go within the vc. It is cool that Microsoft made this possible finally and double cool that the SDK helps us poor little designers to have it as a feature in our add-ons. Again, you will need to study this feature as well as some of the other advance avionics to understand how to use it/them, but once done, you will be very happy! Again, reading the excellent “read me” docs will help you to get a better grasp of how to use the gauge/avionic suite to its full potential.
The detailing in the vc is just right, not to overboard with huge bit maps that kill loading and frame rates, but not undetailed like some of the stockers. The detail is spread out to the parts of the vc that will catch your attention or where your eye is naturally drawn to. The rest is set up a little lower in detail but who the heck looks at the floor when they are flying any how? However, there are a few areas where I, myself, would have used more bitmap expansion to get some more wood grain detailing. Wood seems to make the quality of an add-on go up dramatically, some of the side walls of the rear cabin could use a bit more expansion as well… but you know, this is just me, my friends, and if you have ever seen any of my add-ons (simTECH Beech 18), I like lots of bitmap expansion… but then again... you need a heck of a computer to run my stuff too… LOL! The Citation is a balanced mix to make a good quality add-on without running your frame rates into the ground, so mid range to high range computers should run this add-on well.
Aircraft ModelThe model of the aircraft was done fairly well. Designed in FSDS v24, I think they (the designers) did a very good job on this one. Many will argue all day about the virtues of Gmax over Fsds but I say this, a great model is a great model, I do 3d for a living, draw a pay check every 2 weeks building games for a very large gaming company, I have seen guys come to work with a CD full of stuff built on 10 year old cad programs that literally blow me away. Simply put… a good model is a good model period. I would not let what the add-on was built in or animated in ever stop me from buying a good add-on. This add-on is modeled well, animated well and it looks correct. To me, that is what cuts the grade, not what it was built in. The modeling is smooth as it should be in the places where it needs to be. I like the nice chrome that was added to the engine cowling and the dynamic shine on all of the painted surfaces. I think the glass could be made to look more like glass, but I think it was done pretty good as well. The model comes with what we would all expect by today's standards as standard animation. Rotating wheels, opening exits, shock absorber movement and the normal aileron/flap/gear animations. Also neat little extras like when you shut the engines down the nose cone ribbons appear, and there are others I will just let you all find to enjoy. Very cool!
Visibility from within the Vc was good; the 2d panel was pretty good as well. Setting up the plane on auto pilot and then slewing to the back of the plane made for a interesting trip and view point, the interior was fun to move around in and look over. In this area the detailing was good, but I would prefer more... then again, that's me talking here, and my planes never did run...eerrmmm shall we say awesome… so this is a good balance of just the right amount of detailing to keep things moving along nicely in the frame rate department. Again, very good.
Final CommentsThe final thing that I have to talk about would be the pricing of this add-on. We all know that the pricing of some add-ons has, in some cases, gone through the outer stratosphere. There seems to be 3 different philosophies of marketing in this community: sell the add-ons low to get tons of sales and larger customer base; sell the add-on high and get a smaller customer base but have the same profits and lower customer service; and then there are the guys like me, that sell in the middle of the two or do freeware. The Cessna Citation by Eagle Soft comes with a price tag of $19.95.USD. In this I say this is a winner all the way around, you get a great add-on for a great price, and it's not one of those "fly it once with my buddies" add-ons either. You will find yourself flying this plane over and over as its just a pleasure to fly. It's not too big and cumbersome, it's not to small and slow, it can land on small or big air strips, it can fly low or high altitudes, it can go short or long distances… and it looks great! I really have no problems with this add-on other then a few little petty nags that are just my preferences as a designer. I would have done these few things differently, but again, that's just me and you all know what I design like. I would say this little Citation is a winner, it's easy to purchase, it's easy to fly, it's easy to look at and it's easy on the wallet. To me this is a keeper for sure. I have no problems putting my stamp of approval on this add-on! Good work Eagle Soft!
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