I have been flying MS Flight Sim since the early subLogic days, and thought the first fairly detailed panels were amazing. I don't know how many of you have been in this as long, but when Dreamfleet started producing ultra-real aircraft, and then I came across the MAAM Navy R4D/DC-3, I knew the future of amateur flight simulation had arrived. Since then, I have tried to get my hands on the most realistic flight models I could find.

 

That's when I came across A2A, and had to get the P-51. As I stated in an earlier post, I have a very good friend who flew Mustangs in WWII, and I live close to Fantasy of Flight, where Kermit Weeks regularly flies his 2 P-51's, Cripes A'Mighty 3rd and the red-tail C model. To be able to fly a P-51 "by the book" was impossible to resist.

 

Yes. I'd love to fly ANY P-51 with the same realism traits - that's why I became interested in the DCS model. I just didn't want to install a whole new simulator just to fly one aircraft. Especially if it's a combat sim. But after hearing all of the hubbub up here about this one, I still might go for it.

 

The P-51 is not an easy aircraft to fly, so when you start splitting hairs as to things like negative torque and stall characteristics, I don't know how much more realism I can stand. We will see...

Yes gpbarth, I started in 1983 :-) and it was a serious virus for the rest ( I believe... ) of my life :-)

 

My pilot license - gliders - was obtained in 1980 - yet, it was only with Silent Wings that I finally found an acceptable soaring simulator. Nor MSFS nor recently X-Plane ever presented acceptable soaring models, Flight Unlimited did a very good work with the Stemme though... Regarding GA aircraft, MSFS is IMO, still the best living platform (others were very promissing, like Propilot/ESP-Protrainer, Flight Unlimited, Fly!, etc...) and although I still place some expectations in X-Plane10, I am dissatisfied with the route being followed by LR...

 

This is basically a justification for being "here" in the DCS World, when I really (say) I don't like combat flight simulators (because when I start playing air combat, I do like after all :-))))

 

I resisted buying DCS p-51d, and later bs2 for many months, basically by the same reasons you present - not interested in combat, buying a limited scenery and just two airplanes and supposedly just to fly one of them..., etc...) Then I had the chance to test the DCS p51-d at a friends home (using, I must say, much better controls than those I own...) and soon after I decided to buy A2A's p-51d (I had bought all of their products before 2006, when Accu-sim was not yet available) and even reinstalled FSX Gold just to give it a try. Any p51 models I had experimented for X-Plane10 were a joke, and I was hopping to find the perfect p51d not even having to invest in another simulation platform...

 

As I posted at the A2A forum and here at AVSIM, this airplane is a true masterpice! But!!!!! But!!!!!! we can't forget it is still tied to the MSFS core flight model, good enough for GA and probably airline-type iron simulation, but rather limited when you push it to even the faintest limits... After having "flown" the DCS p51d, all I can say is that there is simply no point in using either FSX or X-Plane...

 

I still use ELITE and Silent Wings... It's a good diversion from flying in the DCS World :-)

 

The p51d is, IMHO, the most advanced and accurate WW2 prop aircraft (I'd say single engine prop aircraft overall...) ever designed for the PC flight simulation market....