51 minutes ago, qqwertz said:

Blackbird Sim is simulating the stage of the airplane during the late 1980s, which is much easier to fly than the original plane in the 1960s. The main difference is the addition of computers that take care of a lot of things that pilots had to do manually in the 1960s. In particular

- If the airflow into the compressor inlet is slightly off, you will get an unstart. Think of one engine failing for a period of time. This makes the airplane extremely hard to control. You can avoid unstarts by making sure the airflow is good. Thats the purpose of the spikes, the peaky cones in front of the engines. It has to be positioned in such a way that the cone of the sonic boom just touches the compressor inlet. In the 60s they had to do that manually, but in this BBS model the computer takes care of that.

- Similarly to the Concorde, the SR-71 has 6 different tanks that are used to control its center of gravity (CG). There is a precise schedule which tank has to be emptied first, which second and so on to make sure that the plane is balanced to obtain the right angle of attack for supersonic flight. In the 60s the pilots did that, in the BBS model the computer does most of the work.

Mind you, there can still be unstarts if you fly with full realism and forget to operate some switches when you pass Mach 1.7, 2.0, and 2.6. And the CG can still get into a critical range if you don't pay attention, but you only have to take action occasionally, not all the time like in the 60s. Plus, there is a whole lot more that you have to pay attention to: compressor inlet temperature, nitrogen consumption, temperature of radio and electronic equipment. Trust me, that model is anything but boring 🙂

Peter

Yep. 👍 

I guess what I’m trying to get across is that we’re not getting a flies by itself Airbus, or even a DarkStar with a Garmin G1000 😉

there seems to be a presumption by many folks that military birds are all automagic, when in many cases that is extremely far from the truth, particularly when it comes to civilian operations  

For eg, I’m sure the recent inclusion of the A400 and C-17 have muddied the waters further, as they have civilian FMC’s and are designed to interoperate with civ infrastructure 🤙

 

Edited December 16, 2025Dec 16 by UrgentSiesta

All the very deep features commented in this post are music to my ears. BUT, and I think this is very important for a study level product like this one: will we have documentation and tutorials for all these procedures you are discussing, or will we only receive a simple checklist and the orginal POH?

It’s a shame that many study-level products, after tons of hours of development and investment, are forgotten precisely because of this: the documentation included does not provide an in-depth explanation of the features that the add-on offers. In most cases, it's justified that all the information is found in the POH, but honestly, I think that's shooting oneself in the foot.

I believe that the magnitude of this add-on, given how iconic this aircraft is and the complexity you mention it will offer, deserves detailed information on how to use it. It would be very disappointing, and a mistake on BlackBird's part, not to invest in comprehensive documentation and to offer only the checklist, a copy of the POH, and a few basic video tutorials, or even worse, to expect that some YouTubers—most of whom have little knowledge on the subject—will train future users.

22 minutes ago, Maddormo said:

All the very deep features commented in this post are music to my ears. BUT, and I think this is very important for a study level product like this one: will we have documentation and tutorials for all these procedures you are discussing, or will we only receive a simple checklist and the orginal POH?

It’s a shame that many study-level products, after tons of hours of development and investment, are forgotten precisely because of this: the documentation included does not provide an in-depth explanation of the features that the add-on offers. In most cases, it's justified that all the information is found in the POH, but honestly, I think that's shooting oneself in the foot.

I believe that the magnitude of this add-on, given how iconic this aircraft is and the complexity you mention it will offer, deserves detailed information on how to use it. It would be very disappointing, and a mistake on BlackBird's part, not to invest in comprehensive documentation and to offer only the checklist, a copy of the POH, and a few basic video tutorials, or even worse, to expect that some YouTubers—most of whom have little knowledge on the subject—will train future users.

Fair points, especially for the Blackbird where you can’t even get to Mach 2 if you don’t follow the right flight maneuvers. 

unfortunately, Blackbird nee MilViz don’t really do a good job explaining how to use their addons. 

I mean, they do include checklists and such, but a lot of their addons have been/are non-standard military models. 

that’s okay if you’re dealing with a steam gauge T-38A, but not at all when it’s an esoteric highly complex glass cockpit T-38C. 

what id recommend is taking a look at their POH for their recent C-130 (Dirty 30). It’s available for free download in the product page (I do love them for that habit!). 

VERY little about HOW to fly the aircraft beyond checklists and such. 

in fairness to BBS, though, even the USAF & USN don’t teach you how to fly the aircraft in their aircraft manuals.

All that stuff is in a series of other manuals comprising many thousands of pages for each airframe and activity. 

BUt here’s the Good News: this addon is so famous and so atypical that it’s going to have more than a few super nerds who will explain it all to us.

and god bless them because I’d never be able to figure it out without them! 😎🙏

This may whet your whistles, gents. It certainly did for me. 

An IRL airline captain who only simulates by the book (within reason 😉):

(This addon showcases the “medium” fidelity version available in XP. But the profiles and some idiosyncrasies are well illustrated) 👍

59 minutes ago, Maddormo said:

will we have documentation and tutorials for all these procedures you are discussing, or will we only receive a simple checklist and the orginal POH?

25 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

unfortunately, Blackbird nee MilViz don’t really do a good job explaining how to use their addons. 

What I know is that documentation will not be fully complete for the early access release, but they are working on getting as much done as possible before that. The testers got a document with about 30 pages of text (not many pictures, so dense information). It explains the basics of how to fly the plane and discusses the most important instruments. It also has a checklist and several scenarios (flying the pattern, A short trip with TACAN navigation, a longer with ANS, and one with refueling). It has detailed information on how to plan a flight, how to refuel at various levels of realism, and how to avoid critical problems like angle-of-attack or CG out of range. I would expect that users will get a more comprehensive document on Thursday, and more down the road. And I found the tester's document sufficient for learning how to fly the plane.

As for the checklist: There is an automated audio checklist in the plane, with the actual voices of Brian Shul and Walter Watson. It goes through (their) checklist and pauses if you need to take action. Really cool 🙂

 

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

what id recommend is taking a look at their POH for their recent C-130 (Dirty 30). It’s available for free download in the product page (I do love them for that habit!). 

VERY little about HOW to fly the aircraft beyond checklists and such

This has definitely been on my mind as I contemplate trying to fly the SR-71.  I had a super frustrating experience on the weekend trying to get a flight going in their C-130 (which I’ve owned for a while but never really spent much time with). 

While I’m very well versed in flying complex airliners, there were several things on the C-130 I just couldn’t figure out, and manual didn’t really explain what I  should be doing.

I could see that being a big challenge in the SR-71 which I presume will be a bigger challenge than the C-130.

Edited December 16, 2025Dec 16 by regis9

8 minutes ago, regis9 said:

This has definitely been on my mind as I contemplate trying to fly the SR-71.  I had a super frustrating experience on the weekend trying to get a flight going in their C-130 (which I’ve owned for a while but never really spent much time with). 

While I’m very well versed in flying complex airliners, there were several things on the C-130 I just couldn’t figure out, and manual didn’t really explain what I  should be doing.

I could see that being a big challenge in the SR-71 which I presume will be a bigger challenge than the C-130.

Ironically, you may want to check out the dozens of tutorials recently published for the DCS c-130, including at least one IRL C-130 pilot. 

lots and lots of step by step by step instructions. 👍

12 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Ironically, you may want to check out the dozens of tutorials recently published for the DCS c-130, including at least one IRL C-130 pilot. 

lots and lots of step by step by step instructions. 👍

Great idea, thanks!

14 hours ago, qqwertz said:

I don't know for sure, but I believe that they will try to do that.

On Discord, they said only the official release will be listed on the marketplace.

I certainly hope the early access version is significantly closer to a finished product in comparison to the state of the C-130 when it was first released. I hangared the C-130 very quickly in view of many unfinished aspects or systems that did not work correctly and frankly made flights frustrating. That’s fine if you are looking for aesthetics with an extremely early release but not at the expense of an acceptable and representative flying aircraft regardless of the introductory price.

1 hour ago, The Flight Level said:

I certainly hope the early access version is significantly closer to a finished product in comparison to the state of the C-130 when it was first released. I hangared the C-130 very quickly in view of many unfinished aspects or systems that did not work correctly and frankly made flights frustrating. That’s fine if you are looking for aesthetics with an extremely early release but not at the expense of an acceptable and representative flying aircraft regardless of the introductory price.

Come now, good Sir...! The Dirty 30 was loudly disclaimed to be in an Alpha state, with a long list of missing/incorrect features - and BUGS(!), in exchange for half off the final price.

In contrast to you, I feel that the 130 was one of the best deals I ever got on a Hi Fi world famous glass cockpit modern "airliner". Heck, I just paid $70 for DCSW C-130, and THAT is a fair price considering all the extra stuff you can do with it in DCSW. 

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by UrgentSiesta

Blackbird have now released an excellent set of tutorials for the SR71.

Can't wait to get this.

Jase 

I bought the Dirty 30 knowing it was an early access alpha but after trying the most recent iteration I still have it hangered. I see it as a long term investment but it still has a way to go I think before it is worth installing. 

 

And the first review is here: