DreamFleet/Flight1 Cessna 310 - 7 Charlie Mike

By John Dow (6 September 2003)

The Review

As I sit down to write this, I ask myself "What is it that am I trying to accomplish in this review." After a lot of thought the answer that keeps popping up is "I must present a balanced view of the product that will help possible customers decide whether they should go ahead and buy it." So, I don't intend this review to be a long drawn-out list of statistics and functions, rather I'll try and bring out what it is (if anything) that sets this aircraft apart from the rest of the pack.

DreamFleet already has a legion of fans who don't need to read a review in order to make the decision to purchase, they just rely on reputation and automatically order whatever comes out. (See the DreamFleet forum if you don't believe me). If you're one of the fans, you won't need to make a decision based on this review, and all I can offer you is (hopefully) an entertaining read. If you're not a committed DreamFleet disciple, or your budget is a bit tight and the choice is this between this download, or a couple of pizzas, then read on and hopefully I can help you decide.

The review only applies at this stage to the FS2002 version, though the aircraft has been designed for FS2002 and FS2004. The DreamFleet site and forum have information and screenshots of the aircraft in FS2004.

The Real Aircraft

The Cessna 310 is no longer produced and yet remains one of the most popular twin-engined aircraft around. The 310 first flew in 1953 and production continued through to 1980, with several significant design changes along the way. By the time the 310L appeared the early 'drop-tank' style wingtip tanks were replaced with the 'Stabilitip' tanks and the tail fin and passenger windows had been re-designed, giving the plane a much sleeker look, which remained virtually unchanged for the rest of the type's production life.

The DreamFleet aircraft is modelled on a real-world 1967 vintage C310L operating out of Knoxville Tennessee, “Seven Charlie Mike”, which is the personal chariot of Charlie Queen, of the Knoxville Flyers Flying Club. In some ways that makes it a bit special, because when you take delivery of this bird, it’s not some faceless, nameless default aircraft you’re about to fly, it’s a real plane with a real history. However, the DreamFleet version does vary from its real-life counterpart in two ways, it has been given turbocharged engines, and the avionics have been upgraded to state-of-the art.

The real C310 Seven Charlie Mike photographed flying over the hills and fields of Kentucky	A screenshot of the DreamFleet version, (as close as I could get to the same angle) over default FS2002 Kentucky scenery

While the standard 310L cruises at 195 knots at a ceiling of nearly 20,000 feet, the turbocharged engines in the 310T allow the aircraft to cruise at close to 240 knots at over 28,000 feet. DreamFleet have certainly given us one hot machine. The Garmin GPS530 is also an added bonus, making navigation a breeze for those who choose to use it. Mind you, the GPS is a very complex machine and will take some time to learn if you want to get the best out of it. That said, there's nothing to stop you leaving it turned off if you wish to navigate by traditional means.

The Download

The aircraft is available from the Flight1 website via download. File size is a rather large 38 MB resulting in long download times for those of us forced to use 56K modems. However even at 56K a download time of 3 hours is attainable if you’re getting 3.5 k/sec or better. For those of you who find these large downloads impossible, a CD version will be available later.

Installation is via a single .exe file that will install the installation files into a folder and allow you to run the actual installation. This .exe file produces a number of security requirements that must be followed for the installation to proceed. One thing to note is that you must be connected to the internet during installation, so that the security codes can be checked from the download source. Thanks to all the pirates out there it’s a necessary step, and in practice it's a painless routine. Just don't fiddle with the folders after installation!

Once the download and installation have been completed, it’s time to look at…

The Aircraft Exterior

The alternate green paint scheme. Note the level of detail in the panel joins, the interior and the luggage bays. The side baggage door just aft of the side window opens as well but I forgot to open it for the screenshot.	The detail extends to every conceivable aspect of the plane, (short of dynamic bug stains on the nose and windscreen that is.)

I don't own a C310 (yes really) and therefore I can't tell you if the exterior model is 100% accurate in every respect. Then again I guess all but a select lucky few of the readers don't own C310s either. So all we can do to assess the exterior model of the aircraft is judge how it looks, and have confidence that the team at DreamFleet have put everything in its place. And my judgement is that the visual model is, in a word, stunning. There's really no other way to describe it. The combination of Mikko Maliniemi's 3D modelling in Gmax and Lou Betti's digital photographic skills have rendered this aircraft in a level of detail higher than I have ever seen.

If you asked me to be really picky and find something that's not quite perfect, I'd have to say that I've noticed that the paint scheme on the tip tanks is different to the original in that the paint lines are lower on the inside (see comparison photos above.) Also at close range under the belly, one of the undercarriage doors shows a small amount of bleed-through at a certain critical angle. But other than that, and having gone all over the aircraft at close range looking for faults, I'm unable to report anything else. The amazing thing is that the more you look around the aircraft the more you realise how extraordinary the level of detail is. Look closely at the green model in the screenshot above. Note how the black strip that is the walkway to the door shows the dirt from someone's none too clean shoes.

Now look at the screenshot on the right showing the underside with the gear down ready for another smooth landing. (Clicking on the pictures in this review brings up larger versions by the way.) Spend a minute just looking at the individual items and the level of detail in each. Note how the engine exhausts have stained the undercarriage doors, and if you look really closely you can see where oil has leaked out of access holes in the engine cowlings and behind the nosewheel cavity.

Animation is becoming more and more important in the virtual skies of FS2002 and if multiple concurrent animations are your thing then this aircraft has everything you could wish for. There's the usual crop of 'standard' animations (who can remember when we would pray for a moving rudder and ailerons) such as the control surfaces and trim tabs, prop spinners and opening doors and luggage bays. All open smoothly with no evidence of gaps between surfaces. The flaps also deserve a mention, because as they extend, a complex series of ribs and spars is exposed. Now, there's an interesting tab on the each of the ailerons that moves in the opposite way to the aileron itself. I was curious as to their function so I rang the local airport maintenance shop and was informed that they are there to balance the ailerons, and to help in reducing adverse yaw. Their very presence is indicative of the level of complexity in the model. And I'll admit I got goosed by the elevator trim tab that seems to move opposite to what you'd expect, however I am assured that the animation is correct. Setting nose up trim causes the little tab to move downwards, thereby applying an up force to the larger elevator surface, and lessening the load on the yoke for the pilot. Crystal clear now, isn't it?  

The propellers are possibly the best I've yet seen in a flight sim model. Whether you're looking from the outside, or from the virtual cockpit, they are detailed and have the correct shape. I've now become quite a fan of engine-out practice. Shutting down an engine in flight without feathering leaves the prop windmilling in the wind. Move the pitch lever to the feathered position and the blades quickly stop rotating and performance improves. Unfortunately, if you then set the lever to fine position it doesn't start windmilling again. I guess there are only so many things you can ask a model to do in FS2002.

The gear sequence in six parts. (Yes, the nameless pilot was a bit late in raising the handle after takeoff)

Without a doubt the shining star of the aircraft's exterior model is the gear animation. Almost as though being conducted in a symphony of movement, the various undercarriage doors open, some staying open, some closing again after the legs have extended, and during the whole process the steps bar extends slowly from its cavity under the fuselage. Hit the G key again and the whole symphony is repeated. Once on the ground the wheels turn, the front leg turns and the front suspension gives a satisfying dip under brakes.

The aircraft lighting is also comprehensive and has some unexpected touches as well. All the nav lights, beacons and strobes are just about perfect in size and placement and when they're all lit up create quite a show. The taxi light turns with the nosewheel leg (nice for turning into taxiways at night). One interesting feature is the way the landing lights operate. They are located under the tip tanks and are normally recessed. The first click of the landing light switches extends the lights, which swing down out of the tanks, a bit like an upside down version of a sports car's pop-up headlights, and the second click turns them on.

So... what sets this aircraft exterior apart from the pack? Just about everything. I feel confident in saying that this is the most comprehensive aircraft exterior available for flight simulator bar none. In saying that, I realise that some of the heavy iron models are also very accurate and complex, but I'm still going to hand it to the C310. Not only are all the details there, but there are no aspects that I can find where the 3D modelling has taken a short cut or a texture has been left out or compromised. In some ways the exterior alone is worth the purchase price, and look what else you get...

The 2D Photoreal Panel and Interior Views

Although for me the importance of the 2D cockpit has greatly diminished since the advent of the detailed virtual cockpits, they still form the main part of most people's flying experience in FS2002, especially those who lack a POV hat switch to smoothly pan around the virtual cockpit with a press of the thumb.

DreamFleet have always produced the finest quality photoreal panels in the business and the 310 is no exception. The bitmaps are as usual crisp and very detailed, and all the cockpit views are from the pilot's perspective, so there is no "jump-seat flying" with this plane. One thing that is immediately obvious is that the layout of the panel is absolutely authentic. What you see is a digital representation, pixel by pixel almost, of what the owner sees when he gets into the real plane. Where the panel shows a gauge or a switch in its spot, that's exactly where it is in the original plane, allowing of course for the inclusion of the upgraded avionics that is. There is an option in the Config-o-matic function (included in the download) to change the instrument layout to a more modern "T" arrangement with a modern artificial horizon etc.

The DreamFleet version of the Reality XP/Garmin 530 GPS that sits fair and square in the middle of the panel is one of the most complex pieces of equipment that you will ever find in a flight sim plane. The Garmin manual for the item is actually thicker than the already large manual supplied for this aircraft. Although this version has only a fraction of the features of the real thing, to sit down and learn everything about the GPS, radios and the autopilot, and how they interlink, and what they all do, is a project for a whole evening, and even then you'd probably still not know it all. I must admit I'm not a GPS pilot as a rule, I tend to fly VFR using the old Mk1 eyeball and WAC charts and NDBs and VORs, so I haven't really taken the time to study the unit in detail. But I can tell you that it offers more than enough functionality to fly point to point on autopilot with a collision avoidance system and airport data available with just a few clicks. If you would like to study the GPS unit and its features in this aircraft, you can download the C310 manual from the C310 section of the DreamFleet site.

The 2D cockpits in this aircraft feature almost every level of detail you can imagine. Switch on the master switch, and there's the gyro sound spinning up, but discreetly. No need to tell you that the switches have a satisfying click. There are click spots to access the right-hand and landing view panels. There is a row of unobtrusive simicons to bring up the various pop-up panels if you can't remember the shift+number command or you want to access the fuel switches. Clicking in the middle of the GPS window will bring up the Garmin 530 pop-up, and by clicking in the middle of other gauges you can select a digital readout, or a cover if you wish to practise instrument failure procedures. The interior lighting is a lovely shade of pink and gives a soft all over glow over the instrument panel. In the 2D mode I find the gauge back-lighting a bit too bright, and in the VC the gauges are not back-lit at all, which when switching between the two is a bit unsettling. Presumably this is an FS2002 anomaly that will be fixed in FS2004 with its active VC gauges.

So... what sets this aircraft's photoreal panel and interior apart from the pack? Let's see now, you get an absolutely authentic panel with full functionality plus goodies. A GPS unit that could keep you occupied for hours without even flying anywhere. Correct-perspective views in pin sharp photoreal detail. And more. This panel is everything you'd expect it to be and isn't dominated by the incredible exterior, rather it complements it. By now you'd have to say the exterior and 2D interior together are worth the purchase price, but wait... there's more.

The 3D Virtual cockpit and interior

In my humble opinion (and that's what a review is after all) the virtual cockpit (VC) in this aircraft is its shining star. It's so good I suspect it'll even convert many of the die-hard 2D cockpit fans out there who until now have been able to resist the inevitable evolution of Flight Simulator towards virtual cockpits.

In order to get the most out of a VC you have to be able to pan around, and that is normally accomplished using the hat switch on your yoke or joystick. However if you don't have a hat switch, fear not, for there is a solution. You can re-assign the keys that are used by keyboard flyers, since you don't use them anymore. Simply go to the Options, controls, assignments menu and under the views commands look for the pan right, left, up and down assignments. Using the change assignment function you can now assign the numeric keypad 2, 4, 6 and 8 keys, and use them to pan around the VC. What could be simpler? That said, I would highly recommend to any keen simmer who likes to fly the light stuff like this C310 that you get a control with a POV hat switch. You'll never look back.

All VCs in FS2002 are unsharp when compared to the 2D panels. It's a function of the sim. Personally I find the slight unsharpness works better with the softness of the scenery. Now that I'm used to flying almost exclusively in the VC, the crispness of the photoreal views seems to clash with the ground beyond. As with most things in flight simming it all comes down to personal preferences though. When FS2002 first came out, VCs were quite noticeably blurry and lacked detail. The first panels I remember that broke out of this mould were the Falcon 50 of Yannick Lavigne and team and the legendary Archer II of DreamFleet. Since then the technology has improved by leaps and bounds, and developers who produce sub-standard VCs are being left out of the race. After the incredible detail of the Cardinal I was wondering what DreamFleet were going to come up with for the 310...

Because the 310 has a grey panel, initially it appeared that the VC was not going to eclipse the Cardinal's, which featured an almost colorful look and feel. But the further I delved into the 310's VC, the more impressed I became. The level of detail is a step up from anything else out there in flight simulator land.  Every conceivable detail (allowing for a frame-rate friendly product) that I can think of seems to be there.  And it's not just what you can see from the pilot's viewpoint either.  Move over to the co-pilot's seat, or back to one of the rear seats.  Look around, up, down, left and right, it's all there.  The smallest surfaces in out of the way places are rendered in detail.  The carpet under the pilot's feet has mud stains where airport dirt has been brought in by over the years.  The rudder pedals are shaped and have detailed textures.  The door trims have texture.  So does the control pedestal with its highly detailed throttle quadrant.  There's even an opening briefcase to explore.  There are monogrammed towels in the seat pockets.  I don't think I need to go on, or you'll have nothing left to discover by yourself.

With the release of FS2004, a new era in VCs is about to commence. The VCs in FS2004 are interactive, in other words they feature the same functionality as the 2D cockpits. Click on a switch or control in the VC and it will work the same as in the 2D cockpit.  So for most functions there will be no need to leave the VC at all.  When combined with the shift+number commands to bring up the pop-up windows such as the GPS, this development promises to revolutionise the way many sim-pilots will fly from now on.  No more diving out of the VC into the 2D cockpit to fiddle with something then back to the VC as you're trying to keep your bearings during a circuit.  Just pan back to the panel, then back outside, as you would do in the real world.  It's still not a perfect system though because the panning rate will always be slower than your head and eyes will turn, but it's certainly a good start!

So... what sets this aircraft's virtual cockpit (VC) apart from the pack? Once again, almost everything.  Seamless switching of viewpoints between the 2D and 3D cockpits, the pilot's viewpoint is the same in each.  A level of detail that would be hard to believe if it wasn't there as proof.  And yet frame-rate friendliness, with only a small hit from the default aircraft and about the same as the DreamFleet Archer's.  Authenticity.  This is not a 'near-enough is good enough' virtual model.  Every aspect, from the dimensions to the instrument layout and the cabin details has been faithfully re-created directly from the real aircraft.  Simply put, if you want to feel more real, you're going to have to go real.  And that'll cost you around $100,000 for a similar real aircraft.

Flight Dynamics and Modelling

By its very nature the C310 is not a particularly stable aircraft.  With the tip tanks holding 50 gallons of fuel as far from the center of gravity as it is possible to get, with the stubby fuselage and long legs of the undercarrriage, and with two powerful engines each side of the centerline, it was never going to be a rock steady platform, and as such it requires a reasonably skilled pilot to handle it correctly.  One of the first things that a novice pilot has to learn is not to 'over-control' an aircraft, and this aircraft will not behave if not treated with finesse.  One advantage of this tendency to touchiness is that you get an interesting bird to fly that will keep you on your toes for most of your flights.

As far as this FS2002 pilot can gather DreamFleet have managed to pretty well nail the flight characteristics of the C310.  Some users have reported difficulty in keeping a straight line on the ground, and there are some fairly easy modifications available for such problem setups.  The flight envelope feels right and the numbers match the published performance figures for the aircraft with the turbocharged engines.  As with most turbo-equipped aircraft, the differences in performance at low altitudes are not all that noticeable.  But get high up and the turbos, with their ability to squeeze more of the thin atmosphere into the cylinders, start to really make a difference.  As mentioned above, the service ceiling goes up by nearly 50%, and the cruise gains an extra 45 knots true airspeed.  That might not seem a lot until you chart a course from say Los Angeles to Seattle, a distance of 829 nautical miles.  The standard C310L takes around 4 hours 15 mins, this version reduces that to just under 3 hours 30 minutes.  That's 45 minutes longer to sit in the bar and swap stories with other pilots when you get there.

For this review I will just list some of the major features of the performance envelope.  After the engines have started and warmed a bit, the aircraft can be set in motion with a relatively small amount of throttle, and then it is very easy to find yourself taxiing at an excessive speed, and finding yourself running wide on turns.  With patience and a soft touch on the throttle it will taxi at a nice pace.  The ground behaviour can very quickly get out of control if rudder inputs are not precise and gentle, and not all users' setups allow such precision. With a light touch on the rudders and trying to catch the swings before they get out of hand, I'm normally able to keep taxiing and takeoff rolls fairly straight.

There are a few steps that users can take to minimise the likelihood of unexpected behaviours in FS2002.  The first and most important is to open the default startup flight (the Cessna 172 at Meigs, found in the 'Other' section of saved flights).  From there, you can change to the C310, change airports, times, seasons, weather, etc. to configure your own C310 startup situation. Save your new flight with a new name and you will have the best chance of a trouble-free setup.  If you uncheck the 'Show Startup Screen' box in the settings options, each time you start FS2002 you should find yourself sitting in the default Cessna at Meigs, and from there you can set up your flights or select your own saved flights.

If the default settings for the C310 don't suit your setup, you might find that the following change in the aircraft.cfg file will suit.  To make the change open the aircraft.cfg file located in the C310's folder, and in the flight tuning section change the yaw stability figure up from 1.3 to anywhere between 1.9 and 3.0, and the rudder sensitivity down from 1.0 to anywhere between 0.8 and 0.5. (Be warned though that increasing the yaw stability will impact on engine-out realism.)  Save the file and reload the aircraft and you should find it wandering about somewhat less.  If you don't like the change, simply type in the original values and save again.  Remember though that the C310 is not an aircraft that flies like a bus, and needs to feel a bit sensitive in the air, especially with full wingtip tanks.  It also needs to have some instability around the yaw axis to model the 'dutch roll' inherent in the real aircraft. As you get more used to it you might find you can return the config back closer to the default settings.

One important thing to note is that the elevator trim wheel MUST be set to the takeoff position before attempting to get airborne, or you'll find that the published rotation speed of 95 kts and lift off by 105 kts just won't happen.  The trim window is easily accessible with the shift+8 command, and this plane will teach you to start using trim (like real pilots do) if you want to fly comfortably and safely.  With the trim mark somewhere in the takeoff arc, you will find that it does indeed rotate at 95 kts with back stick, and leaves the ground comfortably at 105 kts, quickly gaining speed to 120 kts which it will maintain comfortably at an initial rate of climb of 1500-2000 fpm. It's easy to keep full power and climb away at this rate for several thousand feet, but if you're interested in simulating a flight rather than playing a flying game, you will look after those engines and reduce power as you get some air between you and the ground.  By the time you're 1000' up you should have reduced to 35" manifold pressure (MAP), and soon after you should be setting the MAP to 30" and the RPM to 2400.  That will deliver a climb rate of around 800 fpm at better than 160 kts. Once at cruise height, 24" of MAP and 2400 RPM will see you hunting along at 240 kts true airspeed at 25,000 feet if you're on a long and high flight.

I have found that with the 'add random turbulence' checked on in FSUIPC, and even light turbulence set up in the FS2002 weather, the C310 will sometimes swing from side to side excessively.  The changes to the aircraft.cfg file listed above have certainly reduced that, but it will be interesting to see what effect the new turbulence coding in FS2004 will have.  In the meantime you could reduce the Turbulence setting in the main FS2002.cfg file to TurbulenceScale=0.500000.  That has the advantage of giving much more realistic turbulence for all light aircraft in your hangar.

The C310 engines are also sensitive to cooling shock, so if you are simulating reality, you need to take that into account when planning your descent.  Reducing airspeed before descent to the white arc, and deploying the first stage of flap so that some power is maintained, will simulate real world procedures.  Once into the circuit the aircraft should present no difficulty to a capable pilot, just remember that twins don't like playing gliders, and to give yourself a nice wide circuit so that you don't get too rushed.  One thing I do like about the flight dynamics is the accuracy of the approach and final approach phase. As is the case with a real twin, if you're holding the glideslope to touchdown, you keep power on until the wheels touch, and if you've judged it correctly it will land smoothly.  Reference figures are around 120 kts on finals, 105 kts across the threshold and with just enough power held on to allow the airspeed to be decaying slowly.  Chopping the throttles and flaring can easily lead to a hard landing as the high wing loading quickly runs out of lift. 

So... what sets this aircraft's flight modelling apart from the pack? Accuracy in the air, above all, and that's where it counts.  If the penalty for having a realistic 'flight' model is twitchy ground behaviour, then I can live with that.  I would much rather be constantly correcting a taxi, or wander a bit on takeoff and landing, than feel like I was in charge of a boring old bus once I got airborne. 

Sounds

Despite the importance of the sound environment to the simming experience, at this moment I'm not the best person to be reviewing sounds, due to a rather sorry lack of a decent sound card.  I've had to remove my PCI card and rely on the onboard AC97 sound built into my motherboard due to a conflict with my video editing software.  But I can tell you that the sound, even through this card and a small pair of computer speakers, is rich and vibrant, and mostly smooth in its changes as power is applied, especially from inside.  Compared to a 310 at my local airport, this one sounds just a little less throaty, but I shouldn't really be comparing because I can't comment on how the real Seven Charlie Mike sounds.  My sound card insists on trying to make my sound 'spatial', as well, so when I switch to the outside view I'm presented with a 'doubled' sound that I'm sure isn't in the actual DreamFleet sound files.  All I can really say about the external sounds is that they sound as good or better than any of the twins on my system.

The cockpit sounds are much more important to me as an 'inside' pilot than the external ones so I'll concentrate on them.  The engine notes from inside are suitably muted compared to the more throaty outside sounds, as though the sealed environment had taken the edge off the pitch, and that is what you'd expect.  They are slightly more intrusive than I'd expect if I was wearing quality aviation headphones.  The cure for that of course is to reduce the volume on the sound options menu if it does represent a problem.  The engine start sounds exhibit perhaps just a little too much of a sharp transition between the cranking sound and the engine note, but I'm really splitting hairs here and in reality they are perfectly acceptable.  As power is applied from idle the change in sound volume, type and pitch is quite smooth and essentially what I'd expect to hear in such a twin engine set up.  One thing that experienced twin pilots might miss is the cycling of the pitch during the takeoff run as the two engines cycle in and out of synchronisation, a feature that appeared in the Cessna 421 from Flight1.

To go with the excellent engine sounds are a raft of other high quality sound effects.  Although C310 pilots report that the flaps are not audible from inside the cockpit, DreamFleet have (wisely I believe) decided to include them in this model.  We're all so used to hearing flap sounds in FS2002, (even in some of the airliner cockpits where you would no more hear them than one of the bathrooms being used), that their omission would result in an outcry. So there they are. I guess if you wanted to you could replace the supplied 310flaps.wav file with a silent one if you were insistent on being 'as ultimately real as it gets'.  Anyway I digress.  The gear sounds are by comparison very prominent and even under full power the gear motors and flap doors banging shut cannot be missed. 

Other sounds that I must mention are the excellent ground roll rumble, the touchdown squeals, and the annoying gear warning if you make the aircraft even suspect you're heading into a landing without the legs extended.  The action of opening and shutting the door is accompanied by a very satisfying swing and a clunk.  One thing that might have been possible in the sound setup was to use the default MS sounds for surfaces other than concrete or asphalt.  Landing on a grass strip and hearing a high pitched squeal from the tires is a bit unsettling!  But all in all Aaron Swindle has done an excellent job on the sounds and certainly deserves his share of the accolades due to the DreamFleet team for this wonderful release.

So... what sets this aircraft's sounds apart from the pack?  Attention to detail for one thing.  The cockpit environment wouldn't be the same without the various environmental touches such as the gyro spool up, the parking brake release and the ground roll as speed increases.  Complementing the cockpit environment are the superb engine sounds.  It's quite easy to become blase about the increasing quality of sounds across a whole range of aircraft, but if you want to see how much better these files are than what we were given by MS, just go for a fly in the default Baron.

Conclusion

At the start of this review I said I wasn't going to go into a long list of the aircraft's features.  Well, I was wrong.  I couldn't help it.  There's just so much to tell.  The whole package is such a complex and realistic addition to MS Flight Simulator that it nearly qualifies as a simulator in its own right.  The entire team of Louis Betti, Elmar Calbo, Ron Freimuth, Nick Jacobs, Tom Main, Mikko Maliniemi, Alexander Metzger, and Aaron Swindle all deserve a special mention for outstanding work.

The normal thing at this stage of the review is to give a list of pros and cons, or what I like or dislike about the product.  Unfortunately for that angle, the serious dislike side would be empty.  The only aspect of the whole package that hasn't met my initial expectations is the ground handling, and the more I fly it the more I wonder if it's not a combination of FS2002 bugs (to do with setting up the flight over existing situations) and my abilities.  I know that I can control the ground behaviour quite well if I concentrate hard, and maybe that is what is required to handle a stubby high performance twin such as this. I'll never know for sure unless I get to play with a real one, and that's not looking likely!

Guess what's different about this screenshot.	Ditto here.  Is it the real thing or FS2004?

So for those of you who insist on a table at the end of a review, here it is:
 

The price of $22.95 is around about what you'd pay for a couple of pizza deliveries or a budget night out.  For that you get what is the most detailed, authentic and fun-to-fly package available to flight simmers, bar none.  Given that you'll probably end up having this aircraft in your favourites list for months or even years, there's no contest.  Do yourself a favour and make this investment, you won't regret it.

Computer specs for this review:  Athlon XP1800, 512 MB SD RAM, 64MB GEForce2 Asus video card, 17" CRT (ordinary) monitor. CH Pro Yoke and CH Pro pedals.

Click here to download a 1 minute 10 second video of the C310 flying a left hand circuit at Meigs (4.2 MB).

Click here to download a 1 minute 30 second version with more interior views. (5.1 MB)

For further information go to DreamFleet or Flight1.

To directly purchase the aircraft at the Flight1 site click here.

To contact me (to agree or disagree, I don't mind) send an email to:
mycanberra.com.au