FlightSim.Com Reviews: airShow

by Nels Anderson (20 Dec 1997)

Note: click on any of the pictures to view a full size version of the same image.

F6F-3 Hellcat
ike I'm sure you do, I love airplanes. Some airplanes are simpler cooler than others and in general the military gets some of the coolest airplanes. The only problem is that military planes are generally used for, well, military stuff. Fortunately, many retired military planes get a second life entertaining people at air shows and that is what airShow is all about.

airShow is created by Remy Laven and published by Colorado Technologies in France. It creates a whole air show environment designed to work with Microsoft Flight Simulator for Win95. With the patch available here on FlightSim.Com airShow also works with FS98.

WHAT IT INCLUDES

airShow Aircraft
Messerschmitt Bf-109 F2/Trop Grumman F6F-3 US Navy Hellcat Hawker Hurricane Mk.I Lavotchkine La-7 Mitsubishi Zero A6M5
Table 1.

airShow is designed around "warbirds"...WW II era single engine fighter aircraft (see Table 1.). These aircraft are all high power and high performance aircraft that are quite maneuverable and capable of exciting aerobatic moves. Each of the five planes include detailed external textures, to the level that each plane models the exact aircraft of a WW II ace pilot. Each plane also has its own nicely detailed panel. Two sets of sound files are shared between the five planes.

Bf-109 Panel
Two scenery areas are also included. These are quite small, covering only a single airport where an actual airshow is held. You'll do most of your airShow flying at these two fields in Duxford, UK (which includes both a paved and grass runway) and La Ferte Alais, France (grass strip only).

USING AIRSHOW

Duxford UK Airport

The aircraft provided can be used like the default FSFW95 or FS98 aircraft. For FSFW95 a utility is provided to ease panel setup for the airShow planes; this utility does not appear to be necessary for FS98 users.

Situations are provided to allow flying any of the planes at either of the airShow airfields. This allows you to get up in the air and flying quickly.

A set of fifteen demos are also provided to show what typical airshow aerobatic manuevers should look like. These will help you get started in using the airShow planes to their fullest.

So far so good, but then there's the real heart of the product...

AIRSHOW'S ADVENTURE

Hurricane Mk.I

The ability to handle adventures is one of the great strengths of Microsoft's newer versions of Flight Simulator. Essentially, an adventure is a program that's written to give MSFS additional features. This is used to full advantage here in two ways: as a training aid in learning to fly air show manuevers and as a way to reward you for successfully flying and completing a full air show of your own.

You'll probably want to start with the training function. This lets you fly at three different skill levels where each higher level requires you to perform more precisely. You can practice each of the airShow manuevers one at a time as many times as you wish. If you do the manuever right the adventure will let you know. The only weakness here is that when you do a manuever wrong you're not given much help, just "Bad" and the offer to try again. Still it's a help to have someone watching you to confirm when you do things right.

La Ferte Alais Airport
It will take some practice to become ready for the full air show portion of the adventure. I haven't managed to get that far yet, but if you do the adventure will rate your full performance and earn you applause and trophies if you do things right. Doing a full show will certainly bring quite a sense of accomplishment to your sim flying.

CONCLUSIONS

Hurricane Mk.I Panel

Like any product, airShow has some strengths and weaknesses. It does give you five nice warbirds to fly each with a nice, detailed panel. It provides you with the appropriate scenery for the type of flying intended. It provides situations to get you started easily. Best of all it provides a complex adventure that creates an entire air show environment in which you can spend many flying hours.

On the other hand, the planes provided are more alike than different; they do fly differently but you'll have to gain some experience and skill with them to really notice. It would have been nice to have a couple of different but still common air show performers; perhaps a Stearman at the lower end of the performance range and a P-38 to let you try something with twin engines. It would also be nice to see the adventure extended a bit to give a more detailed evaluation of your performance when you fail to do a stunt right.

La-7 of Ivan Kojedoubl
Most important is that airShow is fun to use and provides something to do with Microsoft Flight Simulator that is quite different than your typical flying experience with it.

Nels Anderson
nels@flightsim.com

[ Back | Main Menu | Logout | Help ]