Rescue Pilot Mission Pack For FSX

By Nigel Martin
25 July 2008

OVERVIEW

Some of you may remember the Rescue Pilot Playable Demo for FSX that Just Flight released providing us with a great opportunity to experience the life of the Rescue Pilot. I had great fun with it. OK, it was not perfect, and I had some issues with it, but in the main it was great fun.

Flying in FSX it can be a little, well bland. OK, you have the additional detail and amazing effects on the land, water, ground and aircraft detail, but, no interactive ATC or real time map (I appreciate we have the default GPS, but not as good as FS Navigator).

This program potentially, offers that 'something' bit extra, 15 new missions to get to grips with.

So, who are we flying for? You will be a part of a private air rescue service operating out of Caemarfon Bay in Wales, very close to RAF Valley, in the UK, with the Irish Sea to the north, and St. Georges Channel to the south. To the southeast, the foothills of the Cambrian Mountains and the Snowdoina National Park, these mark the southeastern boundaries of the operating area.

The aircraft in the fleet include: Cessna 172, Bell 206 Jetranger, Beech King Air and the Learjet 45. OK, these are all default, but they come with a rescue color scheme applied.

If you have seen the promo shots on the Just Flight web site, I am sure you will agree with me, the program, or rather the screen shots, looks great...So, with map in hand, and a desire to get some medals for outstanding flying, I am off to the airfield...

INSTALLATION

This process is effortless. After removing the DVD from the sturdy plastic case read the instructions, they provide you with some invaluable information.

Typically with all Just Flight's DVD's they auto-run (you can also download this product if you wish) and all you have to do is follow the clear on-screen instructions, lean back and hew presto installed and ready to go!

Do seek out a section in the instructions called Mission Tips. They are precisely that, offering constructive tips for the missions. I had several "Oh, now I know how to do that" moments, so my brethren, well worth a read before you embark on that mission.

IN-USE

To start you on the wonderful world of being a rescue pilot, you have to access the mission list, and you see all the Rescue Pilot flights now visible in the mission list, within the beginner intermediate, and expert level choices. You can if you wish, select the JF Rescue Missions only, all 12 are on easy view.

I know we all tend to jump straight to expert, because we are all experts? And do not need to go to the beginner level right? OK, I guess it's a man thing!

Well resist! Take your time, in fact work through all 12 missions in sequence. Not only does that allow you to get accustomed to the instructions, and get to grips with the aircraft on offer in the rescue fleet, but also allows you get to grips with the navigation aids, and the co-pilot's interactive conversation.

Some of the missions make reference to one of the previous missions flown, so please start at the beginning, and all will make perfect sense.

You will notice that the aircraft are shown in a rescue style livery. Well actually I did not particularly like the color scheme, so, from the Select a Paint Scheme/Create A Company Sign option, and you are able to change the color schemes of the aircraft and the font.

There are a set of standard options on offer, but if you are particularly creative, you can 'magic' up a scheme, why not a bespoke company sign as well. All can be achieved within this very handy and easy to use facility.

I opted for one of the color schemes presented, a striking white and red scheme I felt more indicative of the emergency nature of the fleet.

So, ready for the off, but first make a selection. I decided to work through the mission list sequentially, with the first one being in the Beginner selection, Car Crash.

I stood outside the main crew building and being informed from the invisible co-pilot that the helo was the most applicable for this rescue, so using the throttle, I stared to walk, and increasing the throttle increased your pace to a run. Aiming for the helo on the pad, as you get within a meter or so, you are given an option to fly the helo, selected yes, you then appear in the helo hot, all running ready for the off. (I would have preferred the co-pilot starts the aircraft, so you hear the engines run up, but I have confirmed this is due to technical reasons, may be a feature on the next mission collection!)

The co-pilot then gets the clearance for you, and provides directional information, direction etc. FAB!

To further assist you, you have the option to have a pointer on view over the 'target'. I thought this was a great feature. You have the option to remove the visual identification if you wish, relying on your own navigation.

A really great option is you can partially complete a mission and save it, and when you return, you can continue, without adverse effects. Nice, also, if the postman arrives or you need to cut the lawn, by pressing 'P' you can pause the action, press 'P' again and rejoin the mission, again a nice touch.

Once you compete a mission, successfully, you are rewarded by a medal, in the record of achievement option, and of course you get a verbal congratulations message for a job well done.

At the various airports you will visit, take notice of the traffic, including the base airport. You will witness a mass of traffic both static and moving, both on the ground and airborne really adding to the realism. The attention to the various buildings is also worthy of note.

The ATC will also make reference to this aircraft traffic, which does give you the impression you are sharing the sky with other people.

The keen of eye will realise I have not covered any of the 12 missions in depth. If I did this review end up the length of a set of encyclopedias! So I have tried to provide an overview.

CONCLUSION

Let me firstly say I loved it. It has provided me hours of fun, and don't forget some of the scenarios will take an hour or so to complete. It is real time after all. Many missions are presented in a lot less time to complete.

The missions in the main are great fun to fly, and rewarding for all your efforts, OK, some of the situations are a little unbelievable, i.e. rescuing a person from a village on fire. I made a direct approach, and landed in what can best be described as fire maelstrom. If real life you, and the helo, would be cinders. It was down to the flame graphics, well being just too excessive.

Also, one mission I found very difficult to complete (finished it by luck, more than precession flying) was a rescue in very bad weather conditions, a person in a mountain lake. You had to hover over him for a set time period, to affect the rescue. I opted to 'hop' outside the helo to get a better visual perspective over the person to be rescued.

Boy, the driving rain/snow had a very odd visual effect which rendered the visual reference useless. OK, in real life one may encounter such extreme conditions, but, I felt the limitations of Flight Simulator generated weather effects detracted from the mission experience.

I experienced some other minor issues within some of the missions, but I got around them. Again, I would advocate reading the instructions.

The co-pilot was excellent, he was clear in verbal information and actions proved in the way of setting the Nav/Comms of great value. A squawk code was confirmed, by the co-pilot, as well as other coms instructions, but the code was not evident in the aircraft, it remained at the default setting (1200) and did not alter despite the co-pilot confirming the change to 7000, but again, the mission system does not use the default FSX ATC system, so the code remains as shown, obviously you can make the alt if you wish.)

As with the demo, there is German gentleman who offers 'pearls' of wisdom in-flight, my view is the same when I reviewed the demo, this offers no value to the program at all. If anything, the co-pilot should offer conversational additions, not this other person. After all, who is he supposed to be? There can only be one co-pilot.

On this co-pilot issue, I would have been very impressed if all the aircraft actually had the co-pilot sitting in the cockpit, because when looking at the aircraft on an external view, one pilot is seen in the cockpit. A very small point, but would be more accurate, but again, these were default aircraft, and only come with one pilot Again, may be a subject for the next release?

For what ever reason, I could not get the anti-collision beacons to function on the aircraft. OK, once selected, you could detect a flash of red on the fuselage, but the beacon did not flash at all. Also you could see the red and green reflections but no light source. Interestingly, you could see the front wheel olio mounted landing light? There is now a patch (very small and easily installed) downloadable from the Just Flight site that will cure this issue, and provide lights on the emergency vehicles.

This could be a unique issue to my computer? But I think not. Obviously I checked the switches were indicated ON, and they were.

Also, for some reason, I found it very difficult to start the engines on the Learjet. The Ctrl+E function did not work. This is down to my own impatience! If you wait to get clearance from ATC the engines once selected will run up--you have been warned!

Perhaps I really should appreciate this is not a stand-alone program, but a MISSION EXPANSION, so Just Flight have to work with the program parameters within FSX. But the 'issues' I experienced were frustrating.

I have had, and continue to have, great fun with this offering, I will complete all the missions, and will revisit many of them, because they are FUN to fly.

On one mission you have to land on a motorway, the vehicles on show are excellent. I love the emergency vehicles very accurately executed. I did not however, detect any flashing lights on the emergency vehicles. On the demo, they had the US color combination flashing, i.e., red and blue. I have flown this mission twice, and on both occasions, have not seen any blue lights... Bit of a shame, how about some moving police ambulances or fire engines? Now that would have been really nice!

In this mission expansion I experienced some issues, but do they rein the enjoyment? A resounding NO. I really hope there will more additions to the Rescue Pack. I think this offering could go from strength to strength, improving the visual audible and available missions, in fact it has the hallmark of a 'classic' about it.

The cost is not excessive, in fact, in my opinion Rescue Pilot Mission Expansion offers great value, considering the hours of fun you will have flying any one of the 12 missions.

A real quality product and possible accolade of excellence within reach, but still needs tweaking.

I have to say, I would LOVE to fly some RAF rescue aircraft, not based on a civil service. Now, that would offer SO many incredibly interesting mission options! Just a thought?

Now, who needs to be rescued!

Onwards and Upwards.

System Requirements

Flight Simulator X (requires FSX Service Pack 2 or Acceleration to be installed)
PC with 2.5 GHz+ processor
1Gb RAM
128Mb+ 3D graphics card
Windows XP/Vista
1Gb hard drive space

System Used For Review

AMD 64X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+
3 Gig Ram
Nvidia G-Force 7900 GT

Nigel C. Martin
n.c.martin@btinternet.com

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