NZFF

Hi all

Last mounth Ian (Warren) won the screenshot compatition, the prize being a Captain Sim download, seeing as Ian already has all of CS's products, and I had expressed an interest in the "Space Shuttle", he decided to gift the prize to me! Captain Sim were more than happy to gift the prize, so within a few weeks I got the download link and prodcut code, downloaded Wednessday night and have spent the last few days flying it and snapping some screenshots.

So, heres some shots Iv got during my missions, I have spent about 3 horus editing them all so hope you like them!

*about 4mbs here, I would also sugest you save these and watch them all in a full screens slide show, they are much better like that*












"Gear down"













I brought Real New Zealand Wellington and it arived on Friday! I installed it in both fs9 and X, will be posting a series of screenshots of that soon.

Heres some shots from my first succsesful landing... Was funny cos I decided to turn stormy weather theme on and set time to night then set myself 12,000 on approach to NZCH, and my first sucsesful landing ....

















Heres some more shots of differant flights..










On approach to NZCH, spectacular view of the South Island!!










There are many animations on this brillaint exterior model, certainly one of the best exterior models I have come across!



I was amazed with the VC, it covers all down into the crew area with the ladder, beds, compresion chabber thingy, with very detailed textures.






Egmount From Space!


And my favorite shots of all..








Its getting late so I don't have time to wright a full review, but here some mojor points about this woudnerful simulation.

Perforamce:

The big question with any Captain Sim Product, quite frankly I was astonished with the perforamce I got with my old system, it perforamced equaly to the defualt 747-400. The 2d panel had an incress of about 1fps over the VC, dispite the detail in the VC I got good steady FPS, there was no stutering. Texture load time was a small prblem in the VC, waiting up to 15 seconds for textures to load, with more system RAM this would not be a problem and was not a major for me at all.

Over all perforamce was great, CS have done an excallent job here.

Systems:

To be quite simple about it, the systems are very very basic, defualt GPS (delux fsx owners have the G1000 displays avalible) for naviagation and a simple autpilot, the comms panel is identical in operation to a defualt panel. But this is an "express line" prodcut by CS so detail in the system is not to be expected, I am not at all concernd about the systems the panel, modeling the full systems of the "space shuttle" is some time away for flight sim and would be a incrediblae task, so what we have for now is adaquit, we can't expect a realistic systems simulation for a shuttle for a very long time I woudl imagine.


Sorry I am cut short here, I don't even have time read through it sorry, I will add to my little review of things tomorow, I will write a short review of simulation and what is simulated and more about the model.

So in summary, thanks Captain sim for sponsoring the screenshot compatition and for the awsome "Space Shuttle" model, something I have wanted in fs for some years. And a very very big thanks to Ian for kindly gifting me the prize, awsome mate

Hope you enjoy these screenshots as much as I enjoyed taking them!

James

very very very impressive

Super Shot s James ... some there make you feel ya really going thru re-entry and your right a brilliant model .
Big thanx to NZFF team and the best 'Captain Sim' looking forward to the shuttle updates.

Nice one James - why do thespace shuttles have such steep final approaches though?

Cool (hot?) re-entry shots

Glad you like em

Nice one James - why do thespace shuttles have such steep final approaches though?

Its a glider mate, the descent rate it incredible fast, hardly deserves the term glider, more like brick with wings So to maintain a speed at what you can flare and shallow out your descent rate for touchdown then you need to be going quite fast, gravity seems the best way to maintain that speed, really really steep approachs

James

Awesome edits man- I heard the Shuttle handles like a brick, is that modeled in FS?

I'd be interested to hear how the whole orbiting flight is modeled and stuff.. look forward to youre review.

Good to know James - so I guess they can't go out and practice some circuits beforehand?

I'm not really a fan of space shuttles, but that is amazing

Right, finaly back to finish my little review..

Simulation:

A big question is what can you actuly do with the Space Shuttle in FSX? It should be made clear this is an "express line product" so Captain Sim are just seeing what the response is to it, so if they continue their "space" line we can expect better simulations.

There is really only one way to get in the air, that is with three (3) presaved flights, called Entry, TAEM (terminal area energy management) and Approach.

Entry: Placed at about 300,000ft heading on course to the cape canaveral shuttle landing facilty (also the place where the blast em up too, thow were not alowed to do the blasting with this model ). The sad thing is the entire reentry must be left in slew mode, the only input the pilot may have is to "adjust the course" by useing slew commands, thats the lateral course, the vertical course is what the slew mode has to be engaged for. You may disengage slew but it will continuly reenge itself, if you manage to get it to stay disengeged you may be able to sucsesfuly reenter but you will not see the heat effects and plasma trail. I have managed to get all the way down to the ground without useing the slew, yet did not see the effects but did end up landing safely in the end..

TAEM: TAEM is prety much 110,000ft overhead the feild, where you can eathier have the autopilot guide you lateraly and control the vertical attitude yourself or do it all manualy, you can find out more about this procedure on the free manuals at Captain Sims website.

Approach, 10,000ft on finals to the runway, the landing gear deployment is armed, you simply fly the approach, deploy the gear, arm the drag chute and lower the body flap.

Orbiting is not possible with this simulation, the only timer you spend in "space" or near it anyway is when loading up the saved flight file "Entry" and going down, you can not simulate orbiting functions.

Control Surfaces:

You have no engins of course so the throttle is used to control the speedbrake witch is located at the rear of the vertical stabiliser wherre a rudder would usualy be, so although this is a glider it is very important to check the location of your throttle or else you may be returning home eariler than planned. There are the conventional Alirons and elevators simulated. The body flap extends downwards from below the rear thursters, this is controlerd with the normal flap keyboard commands.

Landing gear has an armed and extend buttons, you must arm before pressing the extend gear pushbutton, more details on how this system works can be found in the systems manual on the Captian Sim website. The drag chute is operated in a similier way, you must arm the system then after touch down press the deploy push button and then once slowed to a specific speed press the release button, the drag chute will automaticly release (so dispear) once you have come to a full stop.

Panel Systems:

To put it simply, the most complex system is the gear deployment system. Do not expect much from the systems, you may find a full explanation of the system on the Captain Sim websites free "Space Shuttle" manauals.

Visual model:

This is really one of the selling points for this product, the model is not only realistic but a real "treat for the eye". In this short review the best way to show the exceptional visual model is in the screenshots. The virtual cockpit is also fully brought to life in this product, the entire flight deck and crew area is there, as well as the cargo bay in the rear. There are also many animations, everythign from a controlable boom (yup the boom!) to the hatch (once your on the ground of course), far to many little details to mention here.

Flight dynamics:

Well, im not an astronuat, ill come back and tell you in 60 years time.

I think that covers it prety well, thanks Ian and thanks Captain Sim for sponsoring NZFF with this brilliant product.

James

That is so cool! You are so lucky

AWESOME MAN!