Here's my short and sweet early review for anyone who likes to read my ramblings... (who am I kidding, lol)
She's a beautiful plane. The artwork is overall very nicely done. All of the parts of the VC that matter are high resolution so there's no trouble reading switches. The paints included are of high quality as well. I'm not an A-10 expert but the model itself looks exactly like some of the A-10's I've seen at airshows and it compares well to photos I found online.
The flight model is also nicely done. She's a quick one in the clean configuration but load some weapons on and she'll be much more tame. You can really feel the difference between flying the plane clean and flying it heavy with bombs and fuel tanks attached. I don't know why, and I can't really back it up with numbers right now, but she still feels just a hair fast. Maybe as I get some more hours on her I'll get a better feel. My only real criticism of the flight model is the ground handling, especially with braking. To me she taxis sort of like a naval plane or a F-16 where the mains are closer together. Sometimes when using the brake she just wants to tip over, even at slower speeds. The suspension is also a bit too bouncy, but that's really nit picking. After all, it is FLIGHT simulator, and not taxi simulator. I always criticize flight models the most but I really don't have much to complain about on this one. Great job.
I'll leave systems modeling to another reviewer who goes into the plane in greater depth. Plus I've not had quite enough time to dig into all of the modeled features. The effects add a nice touch, especially the cannon fire. This isn't VRS by a long shot (didn't take 5 years to build either!), but I still enjoy the level of complexity presented.
My only real complaint is the sound. 1.2 certainly sounds better than the videos of the earlier version I saw and heard, but it still didn't sound like the A-10 I've seen perform at airshows so many times. I like this plane so much I decided to drop a little more money on the TSS sound set. It sounds exactly like the A-10 to me. I mixed the cfg files a little so the sound effects like the callouts and cannon still work. I'm assuming I had to do a little mixing for them to work. Admittedly, I didn't try the virgin TSS soundpack.
EDIT: I forgot my favorite part! The coolest part about this plane is the subject material itself. Bada$$ plane. Just gotta remember that those ain't afterburning turbojets on the back. I nearly splattered myself short of the runway once because of the engine lag...
As always, these are my opinions. Most of my complaints are pretty subjective, so IRIS has done an outstanding job with this one. Every release seems to keep getting better. Out of all the payware companies I've been familar with since I started buying addons, IRIS has improved the most. That certainly deserves a

.
Thanks to the whole IRIS team for creating such a monster for us to enjoy! Keep up the great work! :salute: