This is a 200 variant expansion for JF's 737-200ADV base pack and will set you back ten quid, which along with their recently released 100 series add-on (also ten quid) means their range of original 737 variant is now pretty complete. Not everyone who bought their 200ADV was overly impressed with it in comparison to the Captain Sim 200 variant (and some people reported issues I seem to recall), but I've never had any problems with it and actually quite like it, it being gentle on FPS amongst other things, and it does fly alright, well it does on my PC anyway.

 

But if it were only a model of the 200 alone, then I would perhaps not have bothered, since the CS 737 is a 200 variant, and it looks a bit better than the JF model, and that too is remarkably good on FPS for a CS add-on. However, being the 737 completist that I am (read: sucker for any FS 737), I found it hard to pass up having a model of the 737 'Gator', of which you get three paint variants, and which would easily be able to be painted up to represent a CT-43 VIP transport too, and an NT-43 if you are a really obsessive 737 completist. So that expands its possibilities considerably, not least because, in addition to the T-43s, it being a 200 series expansion, you get some commercial airliner repaints, notably Pan Am and others of the relatively short-lived era of the 200 before the ADV variant and upgrade packages for standard 200 models became available. Notable too of course, is that for fans of Janet (of which there appear to be many in the FS world if Avsim is anything to go by), this would be a decent thing to have, they having ended up with some of the ex-USAF CT-43s.

 

For those of you who don't know the real aircraft incidentally, the T-43 was the 'flying classroom' for prospective USAF navigators (a bit like the RAF's Dominie variant of the HS-125), which is why the T-43 was nicknamed the 'gator. It was also later utilised as a VIP transport too, by ripping out the navigator training stations and putting posh seats near the windows. So if you fancy being Air Force Two, or something along those lines, then the T-43 is the one you want (up until about 2010 anyway, since they are now retired).

 

Still, I suspect this is one for completists if you already have the CS one, since being the expansion fans they are, Capitano Simulación will probably bang out a T-43 at some point, but having been able to throw some of my JF loyalty points at this purchase, I got it for (very nearly ironically) 7.27 quid, which is not a lot, although probably too much for anyone who doesn't specifically want a 737 variant with less doors and fewer windows LOL, which is basically what the T-43 is.

 

Visually it is on par with the preceding base pack, as you would expect (i.e. not mega-high res and not made from a billion polygons, but as we all know, this isn't always a bad thing with FSX airliners, since it does keep the FSX system overhead very low, which is handy when all your other whistles and bells are chomping through your RAM like there's no tomorrow). They've got the windows, or rather lack of windows right, and the deleted doors on the T-43 are correct too, although they've not gone mad with the antenna differences. Like the 100 expansion, this is a visual exterior model expansion only, so there are no VC differences (which there actually should be on the 100 expansion, since it had main gear doors and as a consequence an additional door gear seal indicator light; CS also being guilty of this), but in the case of the T-43, that means no navigator training stations in the cabin, nor sextant periscopes, although I suspect you'd have to be truly obsessive to care about that. But it does mean that if CS do one, since they do model the cabin, you might see that on theirs, if they can tear themselves away from animating the cup holders, and any posters of Lenin or the glorious heroic crane drivers of the Soviet Union would probably have to be removed from the cockpit of one of these things too.

 

Being an FSX model, there is also the interesting possibility of doing a merge with the CS VC to get a military variant with the flashier CS VC, and of course I presume that option will also be possible with the forthcoming MILVIZ 737 too, although I think MILVIZ are actually doing a T-43 variant anyway. So for now at least, fans of the military version of the original Baby Boeing will be reasonably well served with this thing.

 

Some piccies of the JF T-43/200, Cue the Star Spangled Banner...

 

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed, at the twilight's last gleaming...

 

 

 

 

 

Al

Nice, but after CS release theirs, the JF one is on the shelf for good or until they release a patch to correct the many system, sound and model issues it has.

Yup, as noted in the original post, some people are having issues with the base pack. I've not had those issues, but I still pointed all that out as a heads up.

 

Al

I downloaded the demo and had the problem that when I went from windowed to full screen, FSX crashed on me. Don't have this with any other plane, and I tried to work this out with their (excellent) customer support, but we didn't find the cause of my problem. So I am sorry to say I will stay away from it, as much as I would like to have it.

Yup, it seems bizarre to me that so many people appear to have had issues with it, it runs like a charm on mine. I was getting no dip in FPS at all, and that was with literally every slider maxed and every option turned on in FSX at some payware scenery, so I can see tjhe benefits of them keeping the polygon count down.

 

But of course if I was having issues with it, then I wouldn't buy an expansion disk for it either, so I don't blame those who are . One can only hope that with the product and two expansions available for it, JF, or indeed the developers who built it for them, will see the sense in trying to get to the bottom of the issue, since if they don't then it will preclude buyers from considering what amounts to three products.

 

Anyway, even if you don't buy any of these, here's something you can have fun with. Take a look at the screenshot of the T-43 cockpit close up. I think it is a young Harrison Ford on the left in the co-pilot's seat, and a young Saddam Hussein in the P1 on the right. However, my wife Maxine thinks it is a young Engelbert Humperdinck in the co-pilot seat, with a young Josef Stalin in the pilot seat. Any other suggestions?

 

Cue the ironically patch-related Engelbert tune:

 

Please release me, let me go. For I don't love you anymore.

To live a lie would be a sin. Release me, and let me love again.

 

 

Al