Aircraft Description

The following is a direct quote from Wikipedia:

The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined,shoulder-winged multirole combat aircraft, introduced during theSecond World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly ofwood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or "Mossie". LordBeaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production, nicknamed it "Freeman'sFolly", alluding to Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman, whodefended Geoffrey de Havilland and his design concept against ordersto scrap the project. In 1941, it was one of the fastest operationalaircraft in the world.

Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito's useevolved during the war into many roles, including low- tomedium-altitude daytime tactical bomber, high-altitude night bomber,pathfinder, day or night fighter, fighter-bomber, intruder, maritimestrike, and photo-reconnaissance aircraft. It was also used by theBritish Overseas Airways Corporation as a fast transport to carrysmall, high-value cargo to and from neutral countries throughenemy-controlled airspace. The crew of two, pilot and navigator, satside by side. A single passenger could ride in the aircraft's bomb baywhen necessary.

The Mosquito FBVI was often flown in special raids, such asOperation Jericho - an attack on Amiens Prison in early 1944, andprecision attacks against military intelligence, security, and policefacilities (such as Gestapo headquarters).

Specifications

• Powerplant: Two 1710 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 76/77 V12 engines
• Span: 54 ft 2 in
• Maximum Weight: 23,000 lb
• Capacity: Two crew
• Maximum Speed: 408 mph
• Range: 1485 miles

PC Specs

Recommended:

• Flight Simulator X (Acceleration, Gold or SP2 required), FSX: Steam Edition or P3D v4/v3/v2/v1
• 3 GHz or any Dual Core
• 2.0 GB RAM
• 512 MB graphics card
• Windows 10 / 8 / 7
• 600 MB hard drive space

Testing Specs:

• P3D v4.5
• Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor
• Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2x16 GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200 MHz
• Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Dual OC 819 2MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
• Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced
• Samsung 1TB 860 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6 Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive

Cost And Installation

At the time of writing this review the aircraft was priced at areasonable $39.99 (£31.85). The download size was small comingin at 172 MB. The download from the FlightSim.Com Store was quick andpainless with only a few clicks of the mouse required.

Installation was also trouble free. The installer will give you anoption of what simulator you would like to install the aircraft to,being either FSX or Prepar3D. Once a selection of these is made,further choices of which version of the simulator are available. Aproduct activation code is required in order to install the Mosquito,this will be issued once successful payment has been taken.

Documentation

The Mosquito comes with a 48 page manual which details variousaspects of the aircraft which include:

• Introduction
• Install, Updates and Support
• Panel Guide
• Flares, Munitions, Lighting and Doors and Covers
• Flying the Mosquito
• Checklist
• Reference Speeds
• Paint kit, credits and legal

A walkthrough start-up procedure is included in the manual, thisshows you where switches are located.

Cockpit

Entering the cockpit you're torn as to whether you have entered afighter or a bomber. The tight cockpit indicates a fighter but thesight of the two huge Rolls Royce Engines either side of the pilottells a different story. Visibility out of "the office" is good, youare seated in what can only be described as a greenhouse like cage,however it is a fantastic view through windowed sections. Lookingforward whilst on the ground nothing but the sky can be seen, thismakes it necessary to "snake" down the taxiway before you getairborne.

Texturing within the cockpit is fantastic, the usual aesthetics ofwear and tear provided by Just Flight can be seen giving a reallypleasant and natural look of realism. The texturing and animation ofthe gauges and instruments is nice and smooth, everything appears tobe clear and easy to read, there is however no shake or vibrationeffects on them which would have been a nice little touch since themighty Rolls Royce engines make the body tremble from their power, letalone the airframe they're attached too. Animations of the windows andaccess door can be observed from inside also.

Included are several different viewpoints around the cockpit whichallows you see a few things that are nestled away, such as the nav andradio stack behind the navigator's seat. There is also a single pop-uppanel included which allows you to toggle certain things such asremovable pilot/navigator, engine panel removal and a view pointadjustment tool. No default pop-up GPS is included, this isn't amassive issue but some people would have liked one if they just wantedto go for a jolly around the skies rather than trying to navigateproperly.

It would be fair to say that the aircraft has been modelled in the"Lite" category given that you can start her up with the easy "Ctrl+E"and systems don't need to be managed. However, this does not mean thatthere is no system integration into the aircraft. What appears to be abasic electrical system is present along with fuel and hydraulics, butas I mentioned above, managing them doesn't seem to be required.

The night lighting inside the cockpit gives the feel of a"war-time" environment with a dangerous yet warming red glow over theinstruments, something that I am sure many felt duringoperations. Instruments and gauges are still easy to read, due to thesubtle glow of the lighting and you aren't blinded when you lookoutside the cockpit as a result.

Overall the immersion visually from the cockpit is amazing.

External

Viewing this creation from outside will give you goosebumps, shelooks mean and aggressive with the machine guns stabbing through thenose, yet sleek and speedy when viewed from a rear position. The sizeof the engines compared to the rest of the aircraft tells a story thatyou are about to embark on something quite special and you need to beprepared.

Modelling of the aircraft is fantastic, a high level of detail hasbeen undertaken to ensure that she looks right, the smooth curves thatshe has is certainly pleasing on the eye, coupled with the details ofthe wheel wells, bomb bays and engines gives for a beautiful lookinglady. Viewing the aircraft you can see that she is unique being madefrom wood, ribs and spars can be observed when viewed from certainangles.

The aircraft ships with seven highly detailed textures from variousair forces and units as well as a factory fresh livery. Textures comewith a nice weathered look, details that make you believe you are inthe presence of a true workhorse. The model does feature what appearsto be bump mapping, however no PBR textures are included due to herbeing built before PBR was present in our simulation.

The "Mossie" comes with all kinds of external animations, some aremore than you would have thought should ever be included in asimulated aircraft, but boy, I'm so pleased that they did take thedetailing to the next level. Having the ability to actually removepanels for the engines and guns is really nice. This gives you aglimpse of what she could have looked like during her time at thesharp end of operational service, when engineers would be franticallytrying to get her back in the air for the next Op. She also comes witha nice gun effect that can be activated by pressing "I" allowing youto "pretend" you're strafing something. Bombs are nestled nicelyinside the bomb bay and have a nice animation that allows them to bedropped, however they don't affect the weight of the aircraft fromwhat I could tell.

Sounds

Knowing that you have two huge Rolls Royce engines strapped eitherside of where you are positioned in the cockpit is a tremendousfeeling, and then you hear the bang of them trying to start and all ofa sudden the goosebumps appear as you hear those beautiful enginescrank and then enter a throbbing idle. I don't know what Rolls Roycedid to produce such a magnificent sound but I take my hat off to themnonetheless.

Once these beauties are up and running you hear a lovely hum asthey are waiting to be unleashed, it's soothing and something I couldlisten to for hours. As you push the throttles forward, the enginesreally come alive, and this is when you don't only hear the enginesbut you feel them surging through you. Once they are at full throttlethe roar they give is impressive, however, I was still left slightlydisappointed. The recordings that have been used to generate thesounds are fine but a clear and obvious loop to the track can beheard, the engines roar and increase slightly in pitch but theninstantly revert to a lower pitch, this is of course repeated everyten seconds or so, after a while it became a little annoying as it'snot a smooth sound when a sudden change is heard, this takes away fromwhat otherwise is a fabulous sound set inside.

Another disappointment was that some of the animations didn't haveany sounds. Opening and closing the crew access hatch for example wasas quiet as a church mouse, if even present at all.

Outside the aircraft is a completely different beast, everythingsounds so perfect, so crisp. The thunder from the engines is magnifiedcompared to that inside the cockpit as one would expect. As you movearound the aircraft the sound will of course change in pitch and toneas it would in real life. The engine sounds fantastic even at idle,but you wouldn't expect anything else from Rolls Royce. The best parthas been saved for last, pushing the throttles forward allowing theengines to really sing is a magical experience. There isn't anyone onthis earth who can deny that listening to these beauties at fullthrottle isn't one of the greatest sounds ever made, and the developerhas captured a really fantastic representation of this and has done itjustice. The issue that can be heard inside with it looping is notpresent with the external sound thankfully. Overall the sound setincluded is really nice.

Aerodynamics

Right out of the gate you notice that this lady is a real speeddemon. She doesn't take long to get airborne and if you aren't carefulyou'll soon be whipping around at 240 kts in no time. It is worthmentioning that the manual provides recommended speeds for climb,cruise, etc.

When I think of flying the Mossie, I think of famous war films suchas "633 Squadron" or "Mosquito Squadron", where she is flown down lowand fast, hugging the ground as you snake through valleys and overrivers/lakes. At low altitudes she handles really well, almost asagile as a fighter but slightly heavier on the controls. This is to beexpected with being a larger aircraft than a Spitfire forexample. There is no need to wrestle her, flying with two fingers isall you need to do since she is very responsive.

As you climb out of the low level environment into your cruise backto base, she's so graceful, so smooth, and yet still manages to keepthe speed up in the thinner air. Handling is a little more sluggishthe higher you climb but at the higher altitude you're most likely tobe in a more stable flight condition than that at low level but stillthere is an enormous sense of achievement that you are flying thiswooden wonder.

Flying the circuit, it's pretty straightforward since she's notdifficult to handle, even at low speeds you shouldn't have anyissues. I still found it challenging to land with a slight nose upattitude but I think that's more because I'm not used to flyingtaildraggers. Since there isn't any form of payload manager for bombsor ammunition, the only thing that will affect the performance of theaircraft is the quantity of fuel that you carry. Either way she's adream to fly.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is tricky one to judge the aircraft on since itlargely depends on the headset that the user has at their disposal. Iuse the Oculus Rift and found it to be a great experience. The textaround the cockpit is clear and easy to read, whether that be theinstruments or text on the panels.

What I want from a product is a real sense of realism when I use itwith VR. This is one of those products. I felt like I was reallysitting in a Mosquito, everything felt a lot tighter in the cockpitwhen compared to the 2D feel of having just a monitor. This is wherethe detail that has been put into the cockpit such as the weatheringeffects goes a long way to fully immersing you within the aircraft.

I didn't notice any performance drop in terms of FPS whilst usingVR and overall the experience with it was sensational.

Summary

If I had to summarize my experience with one word, it would be"sensational". Just Flight has done a fantastic job in bringing thisaircraft to our simulator. The only real issue I found was with thesound as I talked about earlier, if this was fixed I don't think Icould fault her. She is so much fun to fly and the immersion isfantastic particularly in VR. She's one that will remain on myflightline and not in the hangar. It would have been nice if a payloadmanager was included and if the ordnance had a weight value thataffects the performance of the aircraft, however it is worthremembering that it's not a "study level" simulation of the aircraftand I like that I can just jump in and go.

If warbirds are your thing then this should be in your library,she's fantastic and you won't be disappointed.

I would rate this product a solid 9/10.

Dale Ashcroft

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