Anybody flown this beast yet. The screen images look great. Just curious if its as good as it looks.http://www.alphasim.co.uk/CheersAdam

Greetings Adam!I had a look as well, and I'm quite interested. However, I'll be waiting for "Drac" to give his comment. If Drac says it's okay, I'll definitely buy it. If he says it's mediocre or worse, I guess I'll pass on this one. Either way, I'll go with the experts opinion, and since Drac spent more hours on the B52 than I did on my first wife, I'll wait for his verdict. Be well!Jaap Verduijn.

Hello All, Boy, upon MY recommendation . . .guess I should take a good look at this one then,. I haven't bought it as of yet, but I will look at it later this evening and see.Best to all and thanks for your confidence in my judgment.Drachttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...ers/Dopke01.jpgClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

I just wish that there was a company that developed military planes to the level of PMDG, or Level-D, or Dreamfleet, or Flight 1.Cloud 9 has supposedly developed a a starfighter, but they are old and no longer in military service, except a small number of countries, I wish they'd do something more modern. Lot's of wishing in this post. My wish will be answered in 2006 when I get a hold of some of the government projects the Air Force is doing for FS9.Jeff

From what I've read about flying these beasts, to be truly authentic, it should come with a spray can of buff fragrance - combination of burnt coffee, la fragrance du chemical toilet, sweat, grease with gentle overtones of vomit.

Alpha's planes are higher end freeware at best BUT you will not find a better bunch of guys. They listen,take advice and whatever the custumer wants, they deliver. Ive gotten faster responses and help from their forums than any of the other BIG producers. No anal skygods that rip and flame people who ask questions. I own 1/2 dozen of their planes and get as much enjoyment out of them than with my LevelD,PMDG and other heavy weights. The planes are very framerate freindly and even though I have one of the faster computers out there, its nice to crank up everything and fly around smoooothh.Ok about the BUFF. Nice visual models but do not expect rivets. 2D panels are good with all the important stuff but again, Dont expect a FMC or circuit breakers. V-cockpit is nice with basic textures. You will need to mod you panel.cfg to get pop ups but thats explained in the forums. Alphas flight models are all convincing and this is a good one. Handles just as you would imagine and has actually had me having to practice. Which says alot considering I have over 50 planes. Bottom line. Dont expect PMDG but Alpha's planes are inexpensive,dont eat FPS, great support and most of all fun.

CWBoy, did you hit the nail right on the head! Best,Clayhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...ers/Dopke01.jpgClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

Jim,The important questions are:a. Does it fly like an ill handling Greyhound bus? b. which end lifts off first, the nose or the tail?Both of these questions are important if they flight model is even close to being correct. And, I'll even answer them for you. Oh, and not one Buff I have ever flown had an FMC so I wouldn't miss not having one. Did they try to reproduce the INS at all? Probably not for 20bucks, you can't have everything.a. YESb. tailNow, you can tell me what we have.Best,Clayhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...ers/Dopke01.jpgClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

Drac,I know the B-52's have the same type of engine as our E-3 (PW TF33's) I was wondering how many engines you could lose after takeoff and still make it back to the runway safely? Also, did you hear about the B-52 who lost one engine, and ATC made the plane that was landing in front of go around, and the pilot of the plane going around said over the radio, "Oh no, the dreaded seven-engine landing."Jeff

>The important questions are:>>a. Does it fly like an ill handling Greyhound bus? >>b. which end lifts off first, the nose or the tail?a. Not quite... don't get the roll delay on the G (haven't tried or ever flown on an H). Overall, seems too responsive (subjective call from an ex-crew chief POV)b. Nose (I know).c. Level flight pitch seems _too_ low at higher speeds (normal nose down seems okay at lower speeds).c. Some odd colored paint schemes.d. Some oddities in the model (mostly antennas... for instance ecm antennas do not come close to matching the scars on my back. *grin*).e. Spoilers' visuals seem to be set to 1 (IFR/AR range).While all the above sounds negative, if you dabble in things FS, there is definitely something to work with here. (not to mention Alphasim is fantastic with customer support/requests/patches, so much of this may be fixed if requested enough)

This is actually one of their better planes. I mean who else has a SR-71,U-2,B-1B,B-52.There are definite weaknesess but overall I hope the improvement is a trend that continues. I got a real kick watching the buff take off from tower view and watching the wings gradually flex up while the wingtip wheels lifted off.I consider myself an old stick but I busted my butt twice trying to heave this monster around. Got my $20 worth.

I have been waiting for this one, I personally like it although it doesn't have all of the complicated avionics in that we have all become used to.. Still good though!!

Hi all,Thanks for all your feedback. Sounds like a dog to fly but that's what I'm hoping for, a bit of grease & metal.:-wedge Regards Adam:-beerchug

Jeff,The answer to the engine out at TO depends upon what weapons load and fuel load you are carrying. Heavy, I've seen 2 out, close to empty, perhaps 3, but not all on the same side. That quote, although I'm not sure it's real, but could be, was supposedly spoken by a single engined, combat fighter who was p'eed off because he had to go around when the Buff had 8 engines total and he had only one. LOL. Landing with 7 instead of 8 with a light load is a 'nothing' deal.It's been around since I was flying and is pretty much a urban ledgend .I have experienced 2 engines out on TO from Andersen (one per side)with heavy weapons load and very little fuel. That configuration was during Linebacker II when we were leaving base for North Vietnam with a very overloaded aircraft weapons wise and just enough fuel to TO and hit the tanker. We were put on the heavy weapons, light fuel configuration after at least 1 Buff ended up in the drink at the end of Andersen's very long runway failing to gain altitude. To put it mildly, in that config, with one engine out per side, it was very touchy to be able to bring the aircraft around and then land, espicially with that full load of weapons. With the Linebacker II effort going on we were told to try to bring it back with weapons as their usage per mission was very large and there was a supply problem, so don't waste them if at all possible. It all depended upon the pilot and how comfortable he felt with the aircrafts situation.During that time, the Buff's engines were highly overstressed even with water assist during takeoff -- I can't remember off hand how much we were overloaded with weapons but if memory serves me correctly it was by at least 10k, hence the light fuel load to become airborne.If you were a crew of Buff's out of Andersen at that time, there were some really interesting stories about 'where the #### is the tanker', and NOW, what the #### do we do! Not to mention crew chief's who didn't like sending their aircraft up in such a configuration. Decisions made by 'non-flying' officers, based in Washington, (remember Micro Management of the war?), were not always the brightest of ideas -- and the topic of much grumbling by aircrews.Even with all that, Linebacker II was a great effort which we all wanted to participate in -- something which should have been done years before. In those 12 days, we pretty much gave North Vietnam all they wanted in the way of visits from Buff crews. They didn't invite us to dinner any longer after that, LOL.Best,Clayhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...ers/Dopke01.jpgClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

Micromanagement then, micromangement now. Vietnam, that must have been some experience. Thank you for your service sir.Jeff