Flight Replicas Messerschmitt Bf 109F For FS2004 And FSX

he Messerschmitt Bf-109 was one of the longest serving fighter aircraft of the Second World War era and it was produced in tremendous numbers, seeing combat in every theatre. It was first demonstrated in public during the 1936 Olympic Games, fought with the Condor Legion during in the Spanish Civil War, the first Bf-109Bs arriving in March 1937. Pitted against vastly inferior biplane fighters, the seeds of the Luftwaffe's disastrous strategy during the Battle of Britain were sown, because all their planes so thoroughly out-performed the opposition that little thought was given to the need for a long range daylight fighter to escort bombers against a well-equipped defence force. Astonishing though it may seem, the type was still flying in the late fifties, as the Rolls-Royce Merlin engined CASA HA-112, which Spain built under license, the final hulls coming off the line in 1956, at which point the Messerschmitt design could claim to have been in near enough continuous production for 20 years.

The fore-runner of the Bf 109 was the four seat Bf 108, the first all metal type designed and built by Messerschmitt (and which I have always thought would make a fantastic FS addon, because it is such a terrific plane). The Bf 108 was fully aerobatic and caught the eye of the Luftwaffe, who were seeking to re-equip with modern fighters. Work on the new plane began in 1934, against the usual competitive specification, but although Messerschmitt had enemies within the German military establishment, it became clear very early on that his design was going to win the contract, despite initial criticism of its narrow-track gear, which made the ground handling tricky. Although the track was widened until the test pilots considered it satisfactory, it was never easy and to make matters worse, production was dogged by problems with reliability, with the result that by the end of the war, more 109s had been damaged in landing accidents than had been by the enemy. However, the aircraft was so outstanding in every other respect and so much faster and more maneuverable than its contemporaries, that the 109 was ordered into production.

The B and C variants were Junkers Jumo 210 powered and consequently didn't turn in the performance that the airframe was capable of, given that the Jumo only produced 640 hp. From the short-lived D onwards, the 109 was re-engined with Daimler-Benz DB6xx variants, starting with the DB600A. At the outbreak of war, the E-1 was in production, which wasn't quite as fast as the Spitfire, but was a better fighter above 20,000 feet, and most importantly, was available to the Luftwaffe in large numbers, most of which were finished as fighters, although some saw service as fighter-bombers. Landing and take-off accidents were still a major problem and in an attempt to cure them, the E had a tail-wheel locking device installed, which operated automatically as the throttle was opened and helped to counteract the swing on takeoff. By the time the attack on France was launched, the Luftwaffe had about 850 E-3s in service, but once again, the air battles which followed largely pitched the 109 against inferior fighters, like the Morane 406, Curtiss Hawk 75s and Dewoitine D.520s. It was the Bf 109E that faced the RAF during the Battle of Britain and taught the Luftwaffe that good though the 109 was, it needed serious improvement if it was to hold its own against skilled opponents flying modern aircraft. The result was the F series featured in this addon, deliveries of which began in February 1941.

The addon is around 70 megs and is available as a download from the Pilot Shop. Although the package is 'FSX certified' the installation routine obliged you to install it into FS2004 at the time of reviewing, which might be a problem for simmers who only have FSX. The readme explains that the aircraft works in FSX, but the files have to be copied over manually and no instructions are given about how to do this. In practice, it isn't difficult to drag the folders over as long as you know what you are doing, the only real test being finding the gauges, which are in a .cab file in the fs9\gauges folder. It is also necessary to do some editing of the aircraft.cfg if you want to be able to use the correct start-up sequence described in the manual, the only slightly tedious thing about this being that it is necessary to do this to every variant of the plane - which means doing it seven times.

A quick check of the Start Menu revealed a Flight Replicas program group with a link to an uninstall routine, but that was it; no docs. A hunt through the usual places found a Word file in each aircraft folder, which is limited to a check list - but although this is perfectly sufficient as it stands, there isn't anything resembling a panel guide and unless you are familiar with the Bf 109F panel, or are prepared to spend time triggering tool tips, you are going to have problems starting and operating the plane. Okay, so fighters of this era weren't that complicated, but the Flight Replicas 109 has one of the most realistic cockpits I have seen in Flight Simulator and it deserves a more extensive manual, linked to the Start Menu. Some of the buttons, switches and toggles you will need are hidden away in strange places and it will take you time to find them all, although you will have fun doing so, because this is such a great simulation.

I did the review in FSX, on a 2.66 Core2Duo with 4 Gb of RAM and a 768 Mb GeForce 8800GTX under Vista. The developer's recommended spec is very realistic in suggesting a 3.0 Ghz Pentium or above, because this is a very realistic simulation that demands to be flown from the virtual cockpit (VC), chiefly because there isn't a 2D panel.

Starting FSX showed seven variants of the 109F, which include: a couple of F-2s from the 1941 French and Russian theatres; a dark green camo F-4 of JG54, as flown in Russia, June '42; a grey F-4 with a yellow cowling, also flown in the Russian campaign; the same two planes fitted with drop tanks; the dark green camo F-4 equipped as a fighter-bomber; an F-4 fighter-bomber stationed in France, 1941; a couple of F-4s with gun-pods; an F-4 Trop from Libya, 1942; an F-4 from JG-3, stationed in France 1941; and an F-4/Z from JG-3, flown in the Russian campaign in 1942. The same liveries keep recurring in the list, but there is plenty to go at and the schemes are varied enough to keep your interest.

I don't know quite what I was expecting when the addon loaded for the first time, having never seen a Flight Replicas package before, but I was seriously impressed. In general, WWII fighters for FSX seem to be developed for the teenage market and developers never devote quite as much attention to them as they deserve, but the 109 is clearly different and from the very first time I saw the cockpit, I was strongly reminded of the RealAir Spitfire, which, until now, was so far in front of other payware piston-engined fighter addons as to be in a class of its own. As you can see from the screenshots, the Bf 109 is extremely well modelled and looks utterly convincing in FSX. All the airframes show weathering and there is plenty of fine detail, right down to rivet lines and small airframe legends. The best way of summing the model up is that the original looks damned agressive and the addon does it absolute justice.

The textures are first class, with convincing color and no evidence of over-done dynamic shine - looking around the planes, I couldn't see any areas where I wanted more detail. Animations are - as far as I could tell, there being no manual - confined to the usual ones, plus an opening canopy and operational slats. The latter always seem to open together, which they didn't in the real 109, having a horrible tendency to snatch open differentially in combat, ruining the pilot's aim; but this may well be an FSX/FS2004 design limitation.

The cockpit is quite a treat. As I remarked above, there isn't a 2D panel, beyond the default compact 'bottom screen' set, which will prove quite useful until you master the curved approaches necessary to land this type of plane; there isn't a forward view on approach. The VC is at least as good as the RealAir Spitfire, which means that it is at least as good as anything I have ever seen in Flight Simulator - the moment I clapped eyes on it, I knew that the 109 was going to be fun to fly, which indeed it is. The vast majority of the controls in the panel work, although I found the lack of a cockpit guide something of a handicap. Realistic engine starts are possible in FSX as long as you make the .cfg edit recommended in the readme and just about the only criticism I have to make is that some of the click spots are far too small, which means that certain actions can only be carried out if you pause the sim, or have a third hand. However, if all VCs were this good, then my job as a reviewer would be considerably easier - just take a look at the enlarged screenshot and you can see for yourself how everything in that cockpit looks as if it belongs there, with no trace of earlier generation gauges having been slipped in and everything not only matching, but looking real. VCs simply do not get better than this.

Like its real-life counterpart, the Flight Replicas Bf 109F is hard to handle on the ground, so tough, in fact that it will prove a challenge to anyone who hasn't graduated from the default sims - it makes the Extra look like a pussycat. Ground-loops are quite possible on take-off, never mind landing, and if you do manage to fly a perfect approach to a three pointer (don't try to wheel it on), remember to keep the nose high and let it sink onto the runway, after which, I wish you luck. This is a plane which demands to be flown using TrackIR and if you have that product, you are in for some tremendous fun, because if it is a handful on the ground, the 109 is stunning in the air and just demands to be have everything it will give extracted from it, which is one hell of a lot. I have seldom flown an FS plane which has had such a convincing flight model and also been so much fun to handle. The sound set, by the way, is great too, and although the addon has an effect on the frame rates, it doesn't knock them down as far as say the G1000 fitted planes do, so if your system meets the recommended spec, you shouldn't have any trouble flying it. For what it is worth, if your PC struggles, in my experience the best way to get things moving is to turn off the Autogen completely, if you are using FSX.

Verdict? The 109F would have got an AAA gold if it had had more extensive documentation - given an automatic FSX installation routine, a panel guide and some general handling notes beyond the checklists, it would merit an equal rating with the RealAir Spitfire. But don't let that put you off; the Flight Replicas Bf 109F is one of the most fantastic simulations I have had the privelege to review and I can't wait to see more from these guys. Just get out and buy it.

Andrew Herd
andy@flightsim.com

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