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Mike Stone Aircraft
By Eric van der Veen (9 September 2005)
f there’s one famous name attached to creating new
aircraft for MSFS, it must be Mike Stone. I would like to ask any visitor to
this site who has not heard of his name to go and stand in a corner with a red face.
If you type ‘Mike Stone’ into FlightSim.Com’s file search, you get no less than
1500 (!) hits. Those are primarily repaints, and some panels and other stuff.
In this review, we’ll go and find out what makes these aircraft so popular.
Intertwined with the review, we’ve added snips and bits of an interview with
Mike Stone.
A wide range
of aircraft
One gets a first impression of Mike’s work by going to his
website here. You’ll notice something
where Mike really stands out: the enormous number and variety of aircraft
available. Airliners, sport aircraft, military, corporate…...it’s all there.
Also, Mike has taken the stance to build aircraft that are off mainstream. They
may be unknown, exotic or otherwise special. They are aircraft that many people
may not know about. Without firing up your internet browser, could you tell me
a great deal about the
It also means that the payware developers will stay away from those. I guess he’s one of the guys who does another aircraft between morning coffee and lunch. In fact, I found it rather hard to choose which aircraft to review. So I took three, and even that took some contemplation.
A final thing that strikes before you get to download and fly any of these aircraft is Mike’s ‘about me’ section. He makes a very clear statement on his design philosophy and asks you not to nag if you happened to not like his work. Mike puts it rather elegantly himself:
"So if you like my
aircraft, then use them with my blessings. If not, then simply exercise
your option to not use them. It's really that simple. If my
aircraft don't meet your expectations, then just go somewhere else.
Please."
So there!
Having said this, there must be a reason for the large number of downloads and repaints. Why exactly are his models so popular? I’m about to find out...Let’s choose some aircraft to fly. I picked for no particular reason the Gulfstream G-V, the C-133 Cargomaster and the Robin HR200.
Download and installation
Using broadband, the download of the first aircraft was
rather quick. I though it must have been a quiet moment on the web’s highway.
But it wasn’t, it was just a small package. Now this is worth some attention,
because it seems opposite to the general direction of web and download
evolution. Aircraft packages, in particular payware, are not rare to exceed 
several
tens of Mb. But here I got this Mike Stone Gulfstream G-V at 590 Kb. The C-133
and HR200 have similar sizes. A blessing for our dial-up simmers, a worry for the
broadband hardcore high-end-system reality freaks...?
The zip file
contains two folders and a readme text file. One folder is the aircraft folder
to be moved to your fs9 aircraft folder. The other one is a package with base
textures for repainters. This is a first glimpse of understanding the
community’s need. More and more aircraft packages, both freeware and payware,
are appearing with a repaint base package.
The installed aircraft will appear under their manufacturer name. I noticed that the aircraft description was not there, and has the information for the default 737-400.
The aircraft comes with one paint scheme and a 2D-panel.
The Gulfstream V
Next thing I find myself at the ramp for a familiarization flight in the Gulfstream G-V. Let’s do a walk-around. It’s immediately apparent what Mike means. This is a no-frill aircraft. If you’re used to dynamic shine, rivet patterns, 100% texture coverage, fan blades rotating in the wind and intricate detail, then don’t look. This is where Mike keeps the filesize down, and his work effort manageable.
And mind you, my
dear fellow hardcore simmers, all of us probably spend quite a bit of time in
spot mode while flying. Unfortunately, there is no such option in real-life.
You cannot step out of your aircraft to have a look at it. There’s a lot of
real aircraft detail you never get to see unless the aircraft is on the ground.
So, in an extreme-realist approach, aircraft exterior detail is not all that
important (Yes, I’m starting to nag, I know.)
There are moving parts: door and stairs, thrust reversers, controls. And there’s start-up smoke. The sound is aliased to the default Learjet. Likewise, Mike could have used the default Learjet panel but chose to provide a specific panel for the G-V. The 2-D panel is like the aircraft exterior; basic but functional. Just sit down and fly the aircraft.
The aircraft
handles nicely during taxi. On take-off and climb-out you feel the power of the
two rather large engines providing thrust-over-weight of 0.32. There may be
some FS2004 overpowering effect in there, and you’ll quickly exceed 250 kts if
you don’t reduce power. In spot mode during flight is when you really get to
grasp the size of the wing. Mind you, the G-V was one of the first
ultra-long-range business jets. At a cruise speed of M0.80 you’ll get as far as
6500 nm with those wings. Maximum 
fuel accounts
for 45% of take-off weight. I wasn’t planning on trying that for the review, though…
Climbing to FL400 was quick and handling smooth. The flight model assures that the aircraft doesn’t react too lightly on control inputs.
High altitude provides a noticeable effect on power and drag, perhaps a bit too much even; I was able to descend from FL400 at a rate of 3500 feet/minute without the aircraft accelerating at idle throttle.
Approach and final were smooth, and control is good. The effect of spoilers, flaps and trim are all smooth. Even the 8 knot side-tailwind caused a ‘not a problem’ situation. Not in the least, the aircraft goes very easy on the frame rates. After having flown complex and resource-hungry aircraft, I found this aircraft a delight for simple strap-down and kick the engines.
The C-133 CargoMaster was designed and built with a specific
objective: to fly-transport intercontinental ballistic missiles. If you look
carefully, you can see that the wing entirely sort of rests on the fuselage
rather than going through as with the C-130 Hercules. This ensured that the
cargo compartment was not compromised. In total 50 were built, and served in
The aircraft exterior
is like that of the G-V; functional and no frills. The cockpit is equally bare.
The sound is re-used from the Cessna C208 Caravan, and all this helps keep the
file size down and frame rates up. Clever.
During a short flight, I was in for a surprise. I applied some flaps for take-off, and never left the ground. On a next try, I applied more flaps following both logic and instinct. Again I had to apply full brakes and reverse power. In spite of reaching sufficient speed, I never achieved positive rate-of-climb. It finally went right when I applied zero flaps. I’m not sure why this should happen, it’s probably not very realistic, but more importantly definitely a need-to-know for this machine.
In flight the aircraft handles very light for its size, even a bit springy. Don’t expect high speeds at cruise altitude. If you’re going long distance you better find a jet-stream to ride with.
Approach and landing were easy, and yes, I did apply flaps for landing. Then of course I had to try a landing without flaps, and that went quite all-right too.
The Robin HR200
Many people
will recognize a Robin aircraft by its clipped wings. Alas, not the HR200 which
has the conventional straight wing. I tried this aircraft in virtual
The exterior of the aircraft once again is sober but complete. Remember, we’d have committed murder for such an aircraft as an add-on to MSFS not too long ago. The canopy slides open forward over the engine cowling. The cockpit closely resembles the real thing and has an uncluttered and functional feel to it.
In flight, the aircraft handles ‘wobbly’ at low speeds which gives a nice flying feeling. This becomes especially manifest during take-off with one notch of flaps. During climb the aircraft feels a bit overpowered, achieving well over 1000 feet/minute climb rate at 80 kts and maximum weight.
In cruise, while accelerating there’s a very pronounced wind sound. The HR200 requires quite a bit of trim adjustment for speed variety and flaps.
An economical cruise setting at 3000 feet will give you approximtely 95 kts, and a maximum cruise speed of 120 kts. This matches real aircraft specification quite closely. Stalls are gentle, but dangerous because there is hardly any natural nose-down tendency. The aircraft will maintain aileron control but you’ll get very high descent rates with no self-correct. Careful there!
The HR200 is cleared for aerobatics as well, so why not give it a try. The basic maneuvers are easy: rolls, loops and inverted. Any caprioles with a main role for the rudder are less well accomplished.
Overall, I found the HR200 a pleasure and easy to fly.
Conclusion
Mike Stone found a niche, perhaps unintentionally. He creates a wide range of aircraft re-using default gauges and sounds. He adds a unique 2D-panel and functional exterior model. Importantly, his planes are easy to fly, which makes them attractive for so many of us. And there you go, the 80/20 rule kicks in; 80% performance for 20% effort and file size. These aircraft are a joy to fly, smooth to look at and easy on your system. Judge how you want, it is a good formula. Period.
Thank you, Mike, for your effort and the interview!
Download these aircraft and associated repaints and stuff at FlightSim.Com’s file library:
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Test System:
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fsnerd@tiscali.nl
