Flight Test 11/30/04RealAir Griffon SpitfireDudley HenriquesP51 Warbird Demonstration PilotProfessional CFI/Aerobatic Instructor (retired)System;Hypersonic Sonic Boom3gigP4/HT1024RAMGeForce 5900UltraNvidia Reference Driver 66.71CH FighterstickPro ThrottleUSB Pedals/differential brakingConditions;Civilian Version Griffon SpitfireAll Spit settings as specified in flight manualLocation KILG United States Daytime VFR ClearHaving prior experience with RealAir Simulations; owning their Decathlon and Scout, both excellent examples of design and performance for MSFS, and as an ex warbird demonstration pilot who has actually flown a Spitfire, I have naturally been keenly interested in RealAir

And that's probably the best aircraft review I've ever seen Dudley. It's good to see you here. There aren't many (any?) simmers with your background and it's really great that you've taken some time to share some thoughts with us. I've enjoyed your newsgroup postings over the years and hope to see you again here at AVSIM.Doug

"And that's probably the best aircraft review I've everseen Dudley."I'll second that... very well written.GregP.S. Does that Racer version have some cajones, or what? WOW

Great review - I can't stop flying the plane, it's so fun hehe!

Dudley - haven't seen you here at Avsim before, although yours is a familiar name from the sim newsgroups.As others have said, your review is excellent and I wish that Avsim would package it up and present it as they do the reviews that staffers write. The level of detail is refreshing, particularly given that it comes from a RL warbird jockey.I too am fairly obsessed with realism (to the extent possible on a PC anyway), so although I'm not generally a purchaser of military add-ons (exceptions: T37 Tweet, Capt Sims L39 Albatros) I may just have to get this one.From your writeup on the 3D cockpit, I would say that it's a grand day when an add-on developer can raise the bar like this - past what you (and I suspect I) thought possible. I fly 2D cockpit almost exclusively but this is very enticing.Thanks for the PIREP.Dave Blevins

> And that's probably the best aircraft review I've ever>seen Dudley. It's good to see you here. There aren't many>(any?) simmers with your background and it's really great that>you've taken some time to share some thoughts with us. I've>enjoyed your newsgroup postings over the years and hope to see>you again here at AVSIM.>>DougThank you very much. I have always liked this site and I have a great respect for the work that goes on here and Avsim's value to the sim community. Since I've retired from active flying, my work in realism and immersion for the sim community has been a very rewarding pastime. You can be sure I'll post here again.

>Dudley - haven't seen you here at Avsim before, although>yours is a familiar name from the sim newsgroups.>>As others have said, your review is excellent and I wish that>Avsim would package it up and present it as they do the>reviews that staffers write. The level of detail is>refreshing, particularly given that it comes from a RL warbird>jockey.>>I too am fairly obsessed with realism (to the extent possible>on a PC anyway), so although I'm not generally a purchaser of>military add-ons (exceptions: T37 Tweet, Capt Sims L39>Albatros) I may just have to get this one.>>From your writeup on the 3D cockpit, I would say that it's a>grand day when an add-on developer can raise the bar like this>- past what you (and I suspect I) thought possible. I fly 2D>cockpit almost exclusively but this is very enticing.>>Thanks for the PIREP.>>Dave BlevinsThank you. Since I retired I've enjoyed working in the sim community and with MS on FS9. It's a pleasure to be even a small part of what I consider some of the best creative work I've ever seen. Like you, I have always been a 2D cockpit guy. In my case, from the realism context, I have always preferred the snap views available in 2D as opposed to the pans in the VC's. With this Spit from RealAir, I decided to give it a real try, and I have to admit, I like what RealAir has done . The 2D snap view is still there if you want it. You can use the number pad. I actually am using a combination. I use the CH Fighterstick, USB Pro Throttle, and USB Pro rudder with differential braking. This gives me 16 assignments on each controller. What I did was take one 4way switch and assign the proper look direction keys to it, so now if I want a snap view, I have it on the throttle. The VC that realAir did on the Spit nothing short of spectacular! This coupled with their programming of the pitch changes on the Rotol 5 bladed prop from course through fine pitch gives you a real world in flight experience you have to see to believe!Thank you for the kind word, and I'm sure that if you purchase the Spit, you will find it amazing!Enjoy

Very interesting and nice review. I seriously doubt anyone could argue that RA does not create awesome add-ons ;-). I am interested in something though that I believe is missing from your review, as with every single add-on ever made there are always some items that cannot be modelled or at least not 100%. Since the majority of flight simmers will never fly one of these puppies in rl can you comment on anything that you believe in the future be advanced? This question is more directed at MS's platform and not RA's great plane.Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/southparkcartmad.gif[h3]PMDG 747![/h3]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)ASUS KV8 DLX | AMD 3200 64 | 1 GIG PC 3200 DDR | GIGABYTE 5700 ULTRA | ViewSonic VP192b 19" |

>> Very interesting and nice review. I seriously doubt anyone>could argue that RA does not create awesome add-ons ;-).>> I am interested in something though that I believe is missing>from your review, as with every single add-on ever made there>are always some items that cannot be modelled or at least not>100%. Since the majority of flight simmers will never fly one>of these puppies in rl can you comment on anything that you>believe in the future be advanced? This question is more>directed at MS's platform and not RA's great plane.Dudley HenriquesInternational Fighter Pilots FellowshipCommercial Pilot. CFI RetiredYou bring up a very interesting point, as it is directed at something I've been interested in for some time; that being the limitations within the sim itself that developers have to work with when they have to deal with realism and immersion.The way I work with developers is by taking a specific aircraft I have flown in real life and then I fly it in the sim, I then compare what I see on the screen to what I would be expecting to see and experience if I was back in the real airplane. The result is that I'm sometimes able to pick up extremely subtle realism aspects that I can pass on to the designers.This is where the limitations come in. I'll submit a list of things I've noticed, and sometimes the sim programming will allow these additions and changes; sometimes it won't! There's only so much a developer can do working within the framework of the Microsoft program. That's not to say the program is lacking. Quite the contrary, the MS flight simulator program as it exists, as far as I'm concerned anyway, represents one of the greatest computer accomplishments I've ever seen. It's a truly magnificient program, and a great achievment for MS.The problem is that there's only so much the 1's and o's can give the developer and solving for all the realism possibilities can be a real hassle for them sometimes.So the answer is usually what it has been in real aviation engineering since day one......a compromise! I'll tell you the truth; when it comes to squeezing the most out of what FS9 has to give a programmer, RealAir has managed to squeeze it out. Their stall programming is excellent; their spin programming is unbelievably accurate, and they have somehow addressed the elusive slip problem and dealt with that as well. In my opinion, this design team is at least at the very top of their profession. I'm amazed at what they have accomplished.For the future, I have envisioned a much more realistic failure mode for the sim aircraft. The aspect that has been missing so far concerning this issue is suprise vs planning. What this means basically is that in the real world, if you do something wrong and/or misuse your engines, there is a price to pay for this, and the way I address this issue is as a real pilot. Foir a failure mode to be realistic, it has to follow an instrument and behavior profile that if left unnoticed, will result in a failure at an UNKNOWN MOMENT IN TIME! This is the next step as I see it; forcing the sim pilot to actually do things right and in the proper sequence, and to manage the airplane through monitoring what the instruments are saying. No prearrainged sliders and pre-picked failures; but failures caused by incompetence and pilot error.With this in play, the days of drinking coffee while knowing nothing wrong is going to disturb you will be over.This is the future as I see it anyway, or at least part of it.Along these lines, what I've seen the design team at RealAir do with their creative talent has at least partially solved the issues I've described here, and they are well on their way to solving even more.It will be interesting to watch what happens in the next version of MSFS. I think the base code will be there for people like the RealAir team and others as well to sink their teeth into.Who knows how far talent like this can take flight simulation?

I agree to Dudeley's flight test report (not that I'm a RW pilot and my only exposure to the Spitfire is seeing it fly once in an airshow), but I purchased real air's spitfire last night and I just love it...though I'm not totally used to flying from the VC all the time, but then I guess the way to fly this legendary fighter, aerobatics and all of that, is from the VC.In-effect this is my first military add-on for the flight sim and I'd been waiting for an agile, powerful, classic airplane...and I'm glad I did...I'm gonna use this bird to learn and master some aerobatic flying...I guess that's the only way we can use military aerobatic a/c in MSFS....Cheers,Pranav

THANKS for the great tips...especially the "equal triangles". I'm not a tail dragger guy and that really helped.What a HOOT to pull 8 point rolls...well 6 1/2 points but gimme time!(-:

<>Me too Dave. Never could stand the VC cockpits but this is NEW territory. It is the NEW STANDARD for fligt simming.

Hello Dudley.Many thanks for your excellent and well written flight test review. As it comes from a person with as much real single engine warbird experience as yourself it makes it even more worthwhile and credible.This is the first time I have been so closely involved with such a small team in developing an FS aircraft and I felt I needed to make as good a job as possible as my father actually spent 2 years flying Spitfires during the war. I was lucky enough to be asked by Rob Young, one of the greatest flight dynamics engineers in FS today to be involved with the Spitfire which in my humble view is without doubt the greatest aeroplane ever built. Combine that with the amazing cutting edge graphic talents of Sean Moloney, the first designer to manage to create super smooth virtual cockpit gauges and the scenery building genius of Bill Womack we have created a pretty darn good package I'd say. I have hundreds of hours of time invested in flying this lovely rendition and I still get the same tingle of excitement when I fire up the Griffon in the sim.On behalf of the rest of the team thanks again for your very kind words Dudley, they mean a great deal to all of us and make the time invested over the last year or so all very worthwhile. We are all extremely proud of it.CheersTimSpitfire development Test Pilothttp://members.chello.nl/t.westnutt/realair.gif

All we have to figure out now is how to import it into a Combat Sim. Anybody got any ideas?? :) It seems such a waste to have it stuck inside Fs2004.Barry

Hi Barry,We did consider this. But several reasons stopped us. CFS3 has a very different architecture and we'd have to do an almost ground up re-design to have the same standard of graphics and flight feel.CFS2 is a different matter and we may take this seriously if we get enough requests.Kind Regards,Rob Young