Vickers Viscount - Legends of Flight Version
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I know that JF did not make this and who the builders were. I also know that it is an old product and was not really well supported for reasons unknown. This model had so much potential, great VC good texturing and some nice additional touches, like air stairs and ground support vehicle. But as far a working FSX simulator model goes nothing but problems. I have persevered with this for years but have surrendered and parked it in the back lot never to fly again. Here is why:
- There are many controls on the overhead and elsewhere mislabeled as far as the texture versus the tooltip that comes up when selected, so your never really sure if it is or isn.t
- There is no starter safety position for after start even though the manual says there is. The starter operating lights remain on after start.
- There are no generator control switches nor adequate instruments to show what the electrical system is or is not doing.
- The second ADF unit is for show only.
- You cannot switch to the 2nd VOR unit even though it is tunable so what is the point of that>
- Either there are bugs in the coding or there are random failure modes generated, and as these occur with the electrical and hydraulic systems and flap operation (is there a speed limit failure mode?).
- A complete electrical failure will also disable the compass system even the standby compass system (really? how you supposed to get anywhere in that condition).
- Could never figure out why you would want a toggle switch on the captains electrical panel that removes the co-pilots seat.
- There is no means to control electrical power or reset generators. In fact there are no electrical supply gauges at all.
- Could never find any park brake control or lever.
- Switches that work on the glare panel are duplicated.
- Why are there engine start switches on the overhead panel, when they are on the co-pilots panel?
- Where is the pitot heat control system?
As I said a real shame that AH never really addressed all the bugs in this bird. The only patch that came out was for ground handling oh and a fix for the incorrect speeds tabulated in the aircraft config file (tut tut). They obviously spent a lot of time making it look good, good sounds etc but it is just awful to use.
And finally I can see why there are so few repaints in comparison to the dozens and dozens around for the freeware Viscounts. The paint kit can only really be used by somebody with Photoshop and very very high painting skills, never seen a paint kit so hard to work with and with so many textures for different parts.
Anyway for the record only. Finally put it away never to return. As I said a real shame that such a classic aeroplane built in large numbers and used all over the world would be such a mess,
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Absolutely agree! The Viscount is an iconic airliner and should be one of my favourites to fly but unfortunately it just languishes in my virtual hangar. It would be amazing if Just Flight could take it on in the same way as they have the VC-10 and rehabilitate it with their ‘Pro’ treatment!
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I think the repaint situation says it all. Google and deep searches could only find less than a handful of repaints, there are just 4, yes 4, repaints for this one. Yet there were nearly 80 operators world wide of the various variants. By comparison there are literally dozens for the freeware versions, which by the way may not be as flash as the AH version but are a joy to fly - just as the real aeroplane was. Enough said, don't think we will ever see this one revitalised now. Bin it.