Aircraft Acceptance Report.
Aircraft Type: Bristol Beaufighter Mk.INF and Mk.IINF
Location: Woolston airfield UK
Time: 12 noon
Weather: Winds calm, standard pressure, medium clouds at 5 angels.
Pilot/Rank: Wulf190/Classified
First Impressions: Both aircraft are well modeled visually, I particularly like the 'weathered' appearance of both. But I was wondering about the lack of detail for the engine cylinders. Each one is painted in the flat silver/gray. Fine attention was made to the radar arrays on both aircraft, and were details to the different types of engines. To my knowledge there has never been a Mk.IINF done for CFS2, but that is not surprising as there are only a few examples of the Beaufighter type available for CFS2 to begin with. But for the virtually aviation community, I think that the both of these types, and the MK.IINF in particular, are firsts. Congrats to the design teeam on the achievement. I also liked the opening cockpit door, and working cowlflaps on the Mk.INF type, the later I think is a first for the design team, nice work. I saw no radiator door for the Mk.IINF's engines. The sounds for both aircraft fit well.
Cockpits: The 2D panel is of good playout and one I think we have all seen before, and that is not a bad thing. Colin Muir's Beafighters used the same panel. One thing I did notice is the when I pulled up the engine control panel there was the lable fo "boust" above the Manifold Pressure gauges. A type on the part of a Bristol Painter I'm sure. Also the Manifold guages are of a US design...on a British plane? I didn't know the yanks were getting these just yet. I'll have to talk to the air ministry about that....
Now the DVC (Dynamic Virtual Cockpit) is interesting. very useable and readable compared to the Alpha Beaufighters. The 'six pack' is presented well as are most of the guages. I like the compass is read able on the right console, eventhough it's not a true compass representation. The detail of the DVC is alittle mixed though. The comsols and mush fo the other structure items in the cockpit have very little visual detail, no joints or rivits, but are painted wither an Olive Drab or Brown color. In the end though thats a detail that would only truely matter if I was flying the aircraft for pleasure on boringly long flights, but thats not the aircraft has been built for, and any other pilot better not be spending too much time looking at the interior when they need to be keeping their eyes outside! The opening windows for the cockpit are not modeled in the DVC, as they are on the 2D panel. What if the pilot needed some fresh air? No bother, just a truly minor detail.
Airwork: Take off and climb were easy, but I didn't know I was a test pilot for Bristol, I'm going to find the mechanic or company pilot who took the checklist out of both aircraft and give him a stern dressing down... Light on the controls which is surprising given the other all look of the aircraft. On decent to kill off any excess speed all one has to do is drop the flaps. The gear adds some to the slowing of the plane, but not as much as the flaps. Landing on two engines is a non-event and thye aircraft does not exhibit any negative tendancy to nose over when brakes are applied. Landing on a single engine though can be interesting, but is pradictable. The aircraft will stall out at around 110mph-120mph if one engine out. With both engine working the normal approach speed is 90-105mph.
Weapons: No outher weapons but guns will be used on these types, which is to be expected. But as a combat pilot I don't care the machine guns and the cannons to both be locked to the same trigger. I like being able to choose which I will use. Machine gun ammunition is more plentiful then cannon arounds there for the machine guns can be used to sight the target while the cannons come in to finish the target off.
System Performance: These Beaufighters gave an over all system performance of 125FPS, compared to the Alpha Beaufighters of 66FPS.
Fixes requested: Disconnect machine guns and cannons. Add British boost gauges inplace of American Manifold pressure gauges. Add more detail to engine cylinders is you can.
....Also 106 rivets are missing for the right wing.....:friday:
Closing comments: These new Beaufighters are exactly what CFS2 has been needing. There has not be a freeware version of this type made since Colin Muir's, and Colin's while very good for there type and show their age. Again congrats to the design group. I look forward to your next variants of the type.
Outcome: Aircraft accepted.:woot:
