Yesterday, my copy of Shockwave's absolutely awesome ** Heavy Bombers and Jets arrived. I installed it last night, but it was too late then to fly.So I flew first thing this morning. Read the VERY appreciated manual's B-17 section, then fired-up the B-17G "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby" and flew a short hop from SGF to KSUS. Whoa! Awesome..everywhere I looked I found something else. The VC is stunning, the flight modelling is dead-nuts accurate (according to the books, anyway, but it felt just like I had read before).I had downloaded about 15 repaints before it even arrived, lol, so I put them in. "909", "Memphis Belle", "Chow Hound" and more now reside in my hangar. I'm going to download the paint kit tonight and whip out the virtual brushes and paints..there are MANY sweet fortresses not painted yet...:)And that's just the B-17!I decide to make a quick little aborted run in the Privatier, "Naval Body", where I took off from KSAN and climbed to 8000ft. Talk about a whole different bird.I'm really going to enjoy this add-on. Heck I already do, and I've only flown 3 times! To those that recomended this excelent add-on, thank you! To Scott from Shockwave, if he reads this, thank you for the excelent PR! And to those on the fence, hop off and get it!-Jeremy BurchThe Ozark Dogfighter http://forums.avsim.net/images/wedge.gifHappy Flying!Engine Failure: A condition which occurs when all fuel tanks mysteriously become filled with air.Firewall: Section of the aircraft specially designed to let heat and smoke enter the cockpit.Lean Mixture: Nonalcoholic beer

Jeremy; Have you flown the Superfort yet? I found it a real challenge toeven get it airborne at max weight. Also found, because of the weight, landing to be quite challengingas well. Denny

Jeremy I'm thinking of getting this package.I'd be more interested if you could get a sort of FSCrew-type programme which allows you to simulate what flying these aircraft was all about. For instance, a virtual navigator to give you regular course changes to steer, and a flight engineer to help you out on take-off, balancing the tanks - that sort of thing.Also, it'd be great to have an AI squadron or wing with which to practise formation flying. Be good to try and hold position and keep a tight group- 'wing tip in the waist window', as it were.The combat sims are hopeless for this sort of thing, but I've always felt that FS has the potential to recreate wartime heavy bomber flying quite well - without the flak and fighters of course!RegardsIan

Hi Denny!The ** Superfortress sure's a beauty, eh?! Getting her airborne becomes a bit easier if you bear in mind that you need to gain speed, Speed, SPEED! While getting airborne just forget about any decent positive rate of climb and/or the gaining of height, and stay LOW! Hoist your undercarriage quickly after your wheels leave the ground, and again: stay LOW! Flaps up (bit by bit), as soon as you can afford the loss of the extra lift of these enormous Fowler flaps. Mind the change of trim, and build up speed, Speed, SPEED! If you bear these things in mind, you'll find her actually rather docile when taking off, even with maximum weight.Have fun!Jaap Verduijn.