Falcon 50 CAEA For FS2002 Pro

By Andrew Herd (10 March 2002)

t is always good to see old friends coming back, particularly when they are ones that you miss seeing around. Yannick Lavigne, Fred Banting and Rob Young's Dassault Falcon isn't so much an old friend as a passing stranger - I first reviewed it in October 2001, in the last weeks before FS2000 was due to be replaced and I remember being seriously impressed. At the time I thought that it was the best business jet I had ever seen for Flight Simulator and I am delighted to say that having spent some time with his new version for FS2002, I haven't changed my views.

While the Falcon is definitely a team production, I have already reviewed an earlier version and I thought I would take this opportunity to showcase Yannick Lavigne's contribution to flight simulation specifically.

The first time I sat up and took notice of Yannick's work was when he released a freeware J3 Cub panel back in February 2000 (CUBPANEL.ZIP). The panel stood out from the pack because of its exceptional graphics and given my weakness for Pups, I used it for a long time - well a long time in Flight Simulator terms, anyway. In very short order, Yannick released an Aeronca Chief panel (AERONPAN.ZIP) and I downloaded that one too. The only problem was that there wasn't an aircraft of a similar standard available to go with it, but the panel pointed to what was to come; if you hit the correct hotkey there was a Garmin GPS III in the glove compartment that looked so real it just had to work (it didn't; believe me, I tried, but it was worth a go). A second version (AERNPAN2.ZIP) was even better - I still hanker after that panel and if someone would just develop a good FS2002 plane to go with it, who knows, Yannick might get an upgrade done?

The odd thing about these panels was that between them they only racked up about 2000 downloads, which is far less than they should have done, given their quality. But Yannick stayed with it, releasing a wood effect Cub panel in March 2000 (CUBPAN2.ZIP) - once again, this didn't hit the spot for some reason, though it made a good partnership with the Ron Ackerly Cub. That was all to change; the next panel Yannick released was as part of a collaborative work which was downloaded more than 8000 times - known to insiders as the Red Cub, the reason being a secret that I am sworn never to divulge. This was a complete Piper Super Cub package with a visual model by Bob Wening and good though it was, it was just a dress rehearsal for the (wait for it) Blue Cub, which is still one of the best freeware FS2000 Cubs available, and which had additional gauge work by Fred Banting. For an excellent review of these Cub packages, by Robert van Vaals, try here.

In July 2000 Fred Banting released a freeware DHC2 Beaver that rightly collected a FlightSim.Com Developers' Award and still crops up near the top of almost everyone's GA favorites list for Flight Simulator. Yannick supplied exterior and interior visuals on all three of the models included in the package as well as the instrument panel and gauge graphics. This plane almost single-handedly lit a huge surge of popular interest in bush flying in FS2000 and it became such a favorite that out of sheer self-defence, Fred had to upgrade it to work in FS2002. In its original form the Beaver racked up over 23000 downloads and it must be one of the most repainted aircraft ever released - I lose count of how many different liveries it has turned up wearing, but if you lump them together the total downloads must stand around the 60000 mark, which is just incredible. If Fred is reading this, all I can say is that I and thousands of other fans are in his debt for developing such an oustanding simulation - and that we are looking forward to seeing his next project!

One month later Yannick released a knock-your-eye out repaint of the default FS2000 Boeing 777, with a completely reworked and much superior cockpit, which was a small triumph of design - like the Beaver, I gave it a very enthusiastic review and I live in hope that Yannick will release an official upgrade so at the very least the cockpit is available for FS2002. The plane had flight dynamics by Steve Small and while it lacked the sophistication of the payware PSS 777 that was released around the same time, it made a very good (and in some respects superior) alternative.

Hot on the heels of the 777 came yet another Cub, this time in partnership with Manuel Medel, Steve Small and Aaron Swindle, that saw 17000 downloads and was one of the first hints of the emerging talent at FlightSim Developers (FSD), who supported the project. This would still be one of my favorite packages if it hadn't been absolutely blown away by a much upgraded payware version. Again, the plane was distinguished by the lush panel graphics which are the stamp of a Lavigne original and it still remains a favorite of mine - a relatively simple, yet a classic example of what good quality freeware is all about.

When Yannick's name appeared on the credits list of the FSD FS2000 Pro Pilatus Porter, I began to wonder how he found time for his day job. This, perhaps the most downloaded freeware aircraft of all time, was released in November 2000, barely nine months after the Cub panel that I began this review with, and it marked the point at which Yannick (and FSD) made into the big time of Flight Simulator development.

One further package lay between Yannick and the Falcon and that was Fred's Turbo Beaver, released in March 2001 and later upgraded for FS2002. This plane wasn't quite as popular as the original Beaver, possibly because it suffered from the handicap of having to use Microsoft's broken turboprop model, but also because it didn't have the most spectacular range of liveries. This is a shame, because I still think the Turbo Beaver is an FS Classic. The ideal situation would be, of course, that Microsoft issued a patch for the turbo which made it more flyable and let programmers forget about hacking it and get on with designing planes based upon it, but there you go, we can only live in hope, huh?

The Falcon which is the subject of this review was first released in early September 2001 as an FS2000 package and I was seriously impressed. By then, I had seen enough of Yannick's work to know what to expect, but the package was developed jointly with Fred Banting (gauge programming) and Rob Young, who is well known for his exceptional flight dynamics development skills. Rob is better known for his Fly! flight models and collaborated in a succession of well known GA simulations starting a few years ago. Those of you who still have copies of Fly! II left lying around might like to take a look at the RealAir Simulations Citabria and Decathlon review I did a while back, because it has the most realistic flight model of any aircraft I have ever seen for that sim. Rob has begun to venture into FS2002 development more often of late and if you want to try some of his freeware flight models, try here.

The FS2002 Falcon carries over much of the work from the previous version and anyone who is interested in downloading it would do well to read my previous review as my comments still stand. There are considerable differences between the two packages, but most are hidden from the user, so I am only going to highlight the most obvious changes. Chief among these is the radio stack, which I guess I had better dispose of straight away. In the FS2000 version, the Falcon used Dai Griffith's freeware Collins radio set, which was one of the most realistic radio stacks available for that version of Flight Simulator. Unfortunately, lack of time has meant that Dai hasn't been able to upgrade his software, but improved code in FS2002 has lessened the impact that the loss of this package might have had. Using standard code also means that the installation of the Falcon is much simpler, which is just as well, because it has grown to over 16 Mb. The installation includes two versions, a thrash the silicon, take no prisoners detailed visual model and a cut down one for owners of less well specified systems.

As you can see from the screen shots, the FS2002 Falcon oozes the same feeling of quality of its ancestor and it looks even better, thanks to the more advanced lighting available in the new version of the sim. The visual model is absolutely gorgeous, although the fact that Yannick has chosen a mercilessly white finish for the exterior exposes a slight mismatch between the textures on the forward end of the hull. To be fair, a similar problem can be seen on the vast majority of FS2000 and FS2002 planes and from discussions with developers it seems that the only way to avoid it is to avoid certain colors, which is hardly practical. But with a plane that looks this good, who cares? White, I like.

The new version boasts an extremely attractive virtual cockpit (VC). Actually, that is not doing it justice - it boasts a fully fitted, leather trimmed virtual interior as long as you use the most detailed model, and if you read the bilingual instructions found on the placard fixed to the foreward bulkhead, you can walk around the plane as if it was your own. Thanks to FS2002, this has been achieved without using the slightly cumbersome work around that Yannick used in the previous version and it adds up to the most impressive interior I have yet seen on a Flight Simulator aircraft. Sure, this is eye candy, pure and simple, but it is eye candy of the very highest grade. If you read my piece on VCs a while back you will realise that I have changed my views on this facet of Flight Simulator and so will you, once you have taken a good look at what can be done by a real artist. One day, all 3D graphics will be like this. Incidentally, you can't thieve the placard, it seems to be fixed on, maybe with some kind of security device at the back - I tried. Once you have given up trying to prize the notice off, then you can take a closer look at the cockpit, from where, I might add, it is possible to call up the radios and other secondary panels using a series of shift key combinations. This makes it possible to fly the F50 from start to finish using the virtual panel, which is seriously useful.

The only downside of the virtual interior is that your default point of view is loaded rather far back, so that you can read the placard, and it takes a seriously large number of button presses to get your nose near the glareshield, but I guess it is worth it just to admire those reflections. You would think that notice would be really tough to keep clean, but often as I have loaded the plane there has never been the slightest trace of dust on it. Virtual cleaners, possibly?

I needn't add that all the glass is transparent, that there are two pilots in the cockpit and that all the control surfaces and undercarraige are animated, but I will, because I need something to space all these screen shots out and words are the only thing that comes to hand easily. That is the terrific thing about words, there is just an inexhaustible supply of them and if I keep typing, my mind usually keeps coming up with them as long as I keep drinking espresso to keep it right side up.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, animation. One small thing that is lacking in this version of the Falcon is an animated thrust reverser - reverse works, but until such time as the SDKs are released there is no visible deployment. The cabin door, incidentally, is closed by switching on the panel lights - I lost count of the number of people who posted questions about how to shut it after reading my previous review.

The flight model is considerably enhanced compared to the FS2000 Falcon, and is on the nail. The plane is a treat to fly, although, like the Lear, or indeed any jet in Flight Simulator (or in real life, for that matter) it pays to set it up for a stable approach about ten miles from the threshold, or you may have trouble with power management. Unlike the turboprop, the FS jet model isn't too bad and while it isn't as well adapted to bizjets as it is to the big iron, Rob has done his usual magic. Do not, incidentally, interpret the lack of wordage on the flight characteristics as meaning there is something wrong with them - it is just that it is very difficult to criticise something which has been done so well. For example, the climb out (once 200 knots + established) is exactly to specs at 3400 fpm at 97.5% N1 - as opposed to 3500 fpm in the FS2000 version which was 100 fpm too fast. That should please the most obsessional simmers; the rest of us will just enjoy flying it.

One minor problem with the package is as ever, the autopilot. It will interest readers to know that the autopilot function of Flight Simulator has never been properly documented, but until this latest release it was reasonably well understood by high end developers like Rob. Up to and including FS2000, most of the autopilot parameters which needed adjustment lay within a particular section of the air file, with a few boarded out in the aircraft.cfg. By the time FS2000 had been out a while, assiduous detective work meant that the depth of understanding of this undocumented code was such that decent ILS and general autopilot functions were guaranteed.

But when FS2002 was released, third party developers found that the autopilot function had been ripped out of the air file with no hint of where it had gone. This leaves us all with a problem. Until such time as Microsoft releases information on how to make it work properly, or we see a patch, or enough time passes for developers to figure out where the parameters have been hidden, we are stuck with planes that won't fly ILS approaches too well and which do all kinds of other strange and interesting stuff when flying on AP. Yes, it sounds bizarre that anyone would release a package like FS without adequate documentation of vital functions like this, but that is how it has panned out.

According to Rob, 'I have therefore spent a great deal of the FS2002 Falcon development time in trying to optimise the a/p, without ruining the smooth trim and other control parameters already set. The result is that in fact the "normal" turn, altitude, speed and ILS functions actually do work remarkably well in the FS2002 Falcon considering the enormous restrictions MS imposed on developers. Regarding the glideslope, PROVIDED you set up well in time, and you do not allow airspeed or approach angle to fluctuate, the ILS glideslope is reasonable, albeit showing a couple of degrees "out" on the indicator.'

So the good news is that the Falcon autopilot works just about as well as it can within FS2002. Who knows, Microsoft might act out of character and spill the beans on how to access the core AP functions, but no-one I know is holding their breath, this just isn't the Microsoft way. Keep an eye out for Rob's work, as the outfit he is with - RealAir Simulations - appears to be developing at least one full FS2002 package and there is an interesting freeware 182S aluminium reskin package that comes with a new air file by Rob available on the site too.

The Falcon manual is just unbelievable. I nearly died when I launched it the first time, because it is a fully interactive file along the lines of the one supplied with the RealAir Citabria, only better, if anything. The text is in English and French and has integrated audio - I recommend reading it right through, which shouldn't take too long and will add greatly to your enjoyment of the package.

So there you go, another FS classic returned to the fold, I guess. I particularly appreciate seeing this aircraft upgraded because I only got to use it for a comparatively short length of time after it was released - FS2002 and life kind of got in the way. But I never stopped thinking about it, because at the airfield I fly from, right slap in front of the GA stands is a long line of Falcon 2000s that FR Aviation use. All the pilots have to do are long boring flights out over the North Sea, after which they come screaming back flat out, like bats out of hell at wave top level, dodging and weaving around while the RAF do their damnedest to intercept them. Tough work, but I guess someone has to do it.

Every time I have looked at those planes over the last few months I have been reminded of the Falcon 50, which has very similar performance: 475 kias maximum cruising speed, a range of 3000 nm and a service ceiling of 45000 feet - yet there it is, languishing on my disk in an unused collection of FS2000 aircraft. Well now it's back - and to show how much I appreciate Yannick's, Fred and Rob's efforts, I have done a custom splash screen just to celebrate. Here's to you, Monsieur Lavigne and partners.