Ok, I went with the IRIS. . .Looking at the Eaglesoft offering, especially the VC, without actually having a model to look at on the sim, they're both gonna be pretty much the same, it is the same airplane after all. Would the Eaglesoft VC be more detailed? Maybe, they do nice work, but overall, I just didn't see enough of a difference to sway me.
Both aircraft have the same engine and if I was going to be moved one way or the other it would have been the powerplant, but no difference there either.
Price, at least for me, plays into it big time and while I know Eaglesoft hasn't yet set a price for theirs, the current discount on the IRIS version just couldn't be ignored.
Ok, first impressions:
Geeze I love that engine sound, lol
I didn't have any problems on takeoff, steered straight as an arrow (I have a twist grip). After take off, flaps up, trim to straight and level flight. . .again, no problem.
Appeared to be very smooth in flight, but I had very little wind to contend with and that would make a difference.
I flew from Goodwood to Bembridge, setup for the straight in approach, dropped the speed to 90kts, lowered flaps (full) and gears and slowly descended and let the airspeed bleed off to 85kts at TD. As everyone else has noted already. . ."where's the brakes"? lol Braking is almost nonexistent so needless to say, on that rwy, I went a tad bit over, lol.
Taxied back to the rwy and took off for a short hop to Sandown. Landed there at 80kts and tried throwing a rope around another aircraft tied down close to the rwy to slow down. . .not much help there either, lol.
Took off again and flew straight back to Goodwood and touched down on the numbers at 75kts and I was able to slow down enough to taxi off the rwy just before becoming part of the days race event, lol. Yep, I am really curious as to whether or not the brakes are actually that inefficient.
Overall, in the air, the TwinStar is a real sweet ride. . .did I mention I love the engine sounds? lol. Something I considered while I was flying about the UK is that everyone has their realism settings tweaked a bit different, and while that doesn't have anything to do with the braking, it may have a lot to do with the "in-flight" quirks that some see and others don't. I don't have my settings maxed out, but they are all to the right of top dead center, so I am getting enough realism that the plane isn't just flying itself.
I like the airplane, glad I made the purchase and I hope that the brake question is remedied or at least answered at some point when David has time to breathe again, lol. Thanks to everyone who put in their two cents as well.!!:salute: