Hi Dudley,Thanks so much for your superb review. If you are ever in the UK let me know and I can show you round the museum at Duxford, where the latest restored Spitfire (late-Mark, no details to hand at present) has been unveiled.Duxford is also the home of the T.Mk.IX "Grace" Spitfire, ML407http://www.ml407.co.uk/ Best wishes,Alastair

>Hi Dudley,>>Thanks so much for your superb review. If you are ever in the>UK let me know and I can show you round the museum at Duxford,>where the latest restored Spitfire (late-Mark, no details to>hand at present) has been unveiled.>>Duxford is also the home of the T.Mk.IX "Grace" Spitfire,>ML407>http://www.ml407.co.uk/ >>Best wishes,>>Alastair Dudley HenriquesInternational Fighter Pilots FellowshipCommercial Pilot. CFI RetiredThank you. We had many fine pilots from the UK in the Fellowship; Douglas Bader, Ted Girdler and the entire Red Arrows team were just a few.Duxford is a fine place indeed!

>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.>>Cheers>Tim>>Spitfire development Test Pilot>http://members.chello.nl/t.westnutt/realair.gifDudley HenriquesInternational Fighter Pilots FellowshipCommercial Pilot. CFI RetiredThank you Tim;I've enjoyed my association with the sim community since retirement and it's always a pleasure when I can do something to help out. In this instance, the work you people did at RealAir on the Griffon Spitfire was so unusually outstanding that I wanted to add my voice to the general praise that will surely be coming your way from the rest of the community.I wish you all the very best of luck with the project, and please pass along these wishes to the rest of your people as well.

>I wish you all the very best of luck with the project, and>please pass along these wishes to the rest of your people as>well.Thanks Dudley I will indeed. Good luck in your retirement and keep enjoying the Spitfire!CheersTimhttp://members.chello.nl/t.westnutt/realair.gif

Dudley,I just finished reading your assessment of the Spitfire. I couldn't agree more with what you had to say! With the increase in quality of add-ons for MSFS, my virtual hangar has been getting smaller and smaller. There's no need to settle for second rate quality anymore, so now I only fly the best. Well... yesterday, I took great pleasure in squeezing the airplanes in my hangar a bit closer together to make room for this remarkable addition.And Rob, if you happen to be reading... Yes, the Muppet grin is still on my face! I don't foresee losing it anytime soon.Best Wishes,Ken

Wonderful assessment of the Spitfire. I couldn't agree more. I think without a doubt this is the most beautiful simulated plane I've ever seen. THe more I fly it the better it gets. Just outstanding...

Dudley, Superlative review - lots of good information but I am having severe problem with ground handling. With your experience both real world and sim I hope you can help. I have CH Flightstick and CH USB pedals (same as yours I believe). I have read everything I can find on pedals and tried everything (but not the right thing) from no sensitivity to full sensitivity but still can't keep this plane straight enough to get it in the air undamaged. I can do everything else within reason of only a few hours time and even landed the first time. I am using the freeware FSUIPC program. Would that solve my problem? Thanks to you and anyone else who might have a solutionCliffp

DudleyMany thanks for an excellent review full of tips. This is indeed a wonderful plane and I do think that there will a "before" and an "after" that baby. It is really a defining package for the future.Now you tell me how you slow that speed thirsty plane :D ! I take ages to get her down to 160 to extend flaps and/or gear ! I remember having read way back James Gilbert's description of landing a Mustang. Same ... :-)Dominique

Thanks for the review! Very good and useful information indeed. Because of your article I couldn't resist and bought the Spitfire today :) I was really impressed. It also flies almost as fast as a jet or faster than a turboprop so good to make some legs in VATSIM and be the king (or queen) of the skies :)

Although I don't have the plane yet, I read somewhere (this thread?) that you can't use full power on takeoff due to torque steer. Try taking off with a lower manifold pressure setting.Dave Blevins

Hi Dominique,As far as I know, there are two methods available.The first one is a particular approach called "side-slip". In order to realize this maneuver you must apply left rudder and right aileron or right rudder and left aileron in the same time and trying to maintain your heading for reaching the runway. Just after passing the threshold, you must replace these commands in the central zone as usual. It also has the advantage of improving the forward view and the runway is not hidden by this long nose the spitfire has.The second one consists of putting down the flaps whose deployment will generate more drag and speed will reduce. A combination of these two ones is also possible.I recommend you to maintain 1500 rpm during all the approach.Hope this helps.Kind regards,Vincent Mellinger

I just completed a flight in the Racer from Palm Springs (thanks Shez :-) ) to Reno-Stead (of course). What a great flying bird! No airplane I've flown in this or any other sim has provided such an extensive suspension of reality as the Spit. It's flight dynamics, absolutely superlative cockpit, smooth framerates, RealView configurator, and top notch graphics take this airplane into a "zone" like no other. I flew with Active Sky/FS Sky World 2004, and what I saw and felt was without a doubt the most "real" sim flight I've ever enjoyed. From the cold start-up procedures to the careful taxiing to the smooth application of power on take off and then that rocket-ship climb to the flight levels, the Spit takes it's virtual pilot to expereinces and sensations I've not known outside a real cockpit. The approach to Reno-Stead was the closest thing to reality I've ever flown in a sim... head north to the Mustang VOR and turn left... stayed above 12K until over the airport due to a cloud layer at 9K, then drop down on the north side of the valley and make a curving approach to 26. It was all so easy and by the numbers... all so believable.Even those who aren't into WWII era aircraft in this sim owe it to themselves to own an airplane like the RealAir Spitfire. This airplane, if flown by the book, requires complete comncentration from the pilot. Everything in that cockpit plays a part in the flight expereince. Fuel management, O2 management, power management, navigation, energy management while flying outside the cruise envelope... they are all a part of this airplane. It can be challenging, but the type of challenge that once mastered brings great satisfaction. Whether you enjoy zooming and booming thru the trees or advanced aerobatics or simply making cross country flights like I just did, the Spit delivers in all flight regimes. It is an amazing effort!Congrats to all who had a part in it's development,Greg

Hi VincentI understand that slideslipping is more to lose altitude. Very useful for that purpose.Deploying flaps can only be done below 160 mph on the SPit'. You can actually decrease speed to this level quite fast by reducing the boost almost to none but I thought it was not recommended for a piston engine. A minimum MP of about 15 HG is generally the rule. I may be wrong here...Dominique

Hi Dominique,I also had wondered about the best way to slow to 160 mph. Pulling the power back to about minus 2 pounds boost (!) works, and you can slow to 160 in a reasonable amount of time by holding altitude, but it raises the question of shock cooling the engine.The included original pilot's operating manual makes no mention of this, so maybe that's not a concern with this engine? I'll be interested to see what advice our resident expert has for us!Best,Ken

Hi again Dominique,I was thinking you were talking about reducing your speed in final.My apologies...Kind regards,Vincent Mellinger