FlightSim.Com Reviews: Abacus' Corporate Pilot

Abacus Corporate Pilot

A Follow-Up Review, after the Patch

By FlightSim.Com Staff (10 April 2001)

Alaska is a perfect backdrop for me to test fly the BeechJet! I guess I'd be happy flying a squirt rocket there, come to think about it. This view shows me near Juneau with Lennart's Texture set in place of the default FS2000 textures.

NOTE: I took screen shots in a variety of quality levels. Please note actual product may look far better than in these screen shots. Some pictures are lower quality to save loading time. If your monitor is not running in 32-bit resolution, you will not see the same quality.

INTRODUCTION

My original Corporate Pilot review was very promising. I gave it an 86 out of 100, for a final score. What was going to be a really excellent product fell short a bit from some pretty glaring bugs and flaws that should have never been "let out".

Soon thereafter, Abacus released a patch to fix the issues everyone knew about. Finally, I got a chance to sit down and test fly most of the aircraft I found flaws with during the original version. I flew each airplane through traffic patterns, and some longer stage length journeys.

Tight locking turns are now possible, after the patch.

You'll need full right rudder, right brake [F12] and some left engine thrust. Balancing them all out will provide you with a smoothly controlled turn.

The patch is supposed to address the following:

Aircraft Dynamics

Taxi problem corrected.
Sunken wheels corrected.

Gauge Updates

Readability of digital displays improved.
Flight Director and mach readout displays for Citation X, FalconJet 2000 and BeechJet 400 added.
Vertical speed display corrected.
FMC LNAV and VNAV buttons corrected.
Autobraking capability improved.
The update also installs the file cpfullscreen.exe into the FS2000\Corporate Pilot folder. If you fly FS2000 in full screen mode, run this program to optimize your FMC map display panel for the BeechJet 400, Citation X and FalconJet 2000 aircraft.

Mmmmmmmm ... smell the jet exhaust hit your face!

The gauge programming was done well. As far as I can tell, stutters are very slight, with great frame rates similar to any default FS2000 panel. Also, be sure to set your forward_view line in your panel.cfg, to a number of 12. Now, you'll see much better over the panel like a real pilot does.

After a few hours of test flying, I can gladly say the patch was a great success! Not long to wait, for such improvements. No longer did I find any sunken wheels, or problems with turn radius and ground friction. The Citation X is so beautiful to gawk at, but could never be flown in the first version. She wouldn't turn. So, unless you were to be towed to the active, she wasn't going anywhere. Well, now it's clear the Abacus team got their arms greasy, and hooked up the linkages! In addition, the big TEN, does not need full power to move. That was another problem. She pivots and ground taxis with pride. In fact, not one of the aircraft I tried had any ground problems at all anymore.

FL460 on the way to Anchorage and beyond. M.92 and 515 ktas! No one can catch me now. No one!

I can't think of any corporate jet as, well, sexy as this one. Can you?

Falcon 2000 office. Clean, crisp and it all fits now! No more overlapping CRTs and sloppy stuff.

I have never seen a better tire on a flightsim aircraft! Wow. What tires!! Makes me want to "ArmorAll" them for sure. This is one big machine. For bigshots only I guess.

Perfectly timed landing gear motion as well. It finally seems designers are getting away from the three second gear sequence. If it weren't for the camera plane nearby, you'd never know this however.

Approaching the pattern at Calhoun (Tanana) Alaska. Using real weather the actual temperature this morning when I did this, was a horrific -31F! Wow. At those temperatures, ANY aircraft can make a contrail. So did I. In this case Photoshop did it, but you get the idea. A gravel runway will greet my wheels upon touchdown of this frozen wilderness.

After flying the BeechJet, and the immensely powerful Citation X, I tried out the big Falcon. The heaviest of the fleet, was another dream to pilot. Flies like an airliner. Felt like one, just slightly snappier.

At 31 below zero, it's hard to get out. I'll go peek in my freezer and pretend I'm there.
The jets have clearly been fixed to a level that I can only brand them outstanding. There is still one flaw remaining however. The Conquest does not fly much like a multi-turbine when one engine is shut down. Recently, after doing this for practice in a real Cheyenne, the "good" engine will yank you over quickly if you're not strong enough with your rudder and aileron inputs in the opposite direction. In this plane, it felt like a jet. Barely noticeable pull, and didn't feel right. Just like the default King Air. Lame engine failure simulation. In addition, the Conquest's props do not really feather at all. In fact, externally, the engines won't even stop by themselves. I mean, if you shut down an engine in flight, it still shows it running, until both are shutdown. Finally, the Conquest climbs at over 6000 fpm at 160 kts. Last time I looked, this was not a Learjet, and is still far too powerful to be realistic. Cruise speed seems okay (240 or so), but climbing up at breakneck speeds just doesn't seem right. It's fun, don't get me wrong about that. But, well, that's jet stuff only. Now, I have never flown a real Cessna Conquest, but I think if they performed like this one - pilots would be talkin'!

As it stands, Corporate Pilot is by far the very best collection of general aviation executive aircraft designed for FS2000. I have not seen any others that even come close to the external visual quality, panel offerings and flight modeling. Everything Abacus did here was a well thought out product. Not too snazzy visually to destroy frame rates (thank goodness they didn't go with a scenery-based aircraft model...yuck), not too system-crazy in the panels so that beginners couldn't use them (I like systems but there is something just right about the level on these), and flight models that convince me. (Fool me once, fool me... ) It's a perfectly blended production. Similar to a Starbucks Frappicino. One worth buying and keeping for a long time. A custom soundset would have really done it for me - but I can survive using the default sounds for now.

When I have somewhere to get, in a hurry, and the heavy jets I normally fly aren't going that way, I'm gunna be a Corporate Pilot!

The revised Corporate Pilot gets a 94 out of a possible 100 points.

Visit Abacus Publishing (and get the patch there): Click Here.

Visit the home of Lennart's Textures featured in this review.

Visit our guide to fixing your zoom and forward view tilt.

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