I just read the manual. It’s tempting to pick up… Apparently the weapon “preset” model is just one with the config files set up for a full load; you can still adjust the weights and set up a livery with whatever loadout you’d like.
But wow, the manual comments about airbrakes and tailhook make me wonder if Phil has actually done any exploration of what others have done on the sim. It reads like he’s just depending on the (severely lacking) SDK documentation. Even the MS Top Gun F/A-18E has a working air brake and tail hook. Carriers aren’t included in free flight but there are add-ons to enable the MS carriers, there are commercial add-on moving carriers, and there are freeware carriers. You’d think Phil and team would want to support this stuff to make the product more attractive. It’s not required, certainly, to support third-party add-ons, but you’d think you’d look at the ecosystem and see what would make your product more attractive.
I want Virtavia to succeed here. I want that F4D Skyray. I want an F3H Demon, a B-36, and so many of the other awesome planes they’ve done over the years. But those manual comments read like they downloaded MSFS and ignored the ecosystem, resources like FSDeveloper, etc. I hope this stuff gets fixed and that future products reach the state off the art established by devs like IndiaFoxTecho and DC Designs, so that Virtavia is successful enough to keep their library growing.