Excellent review!

Having flown the T-38 for the then-standard 100 hours or so in Pilot Training back when it was somewhat newer (1972!) I can say that with but one exception it flies remarkably like a real T-38. The exception, sadly, is approach and landing. I have bought both the original and the later improved FSX versions of the Milviz T-38, and both manifest very touchy handling on approach.

Mind you, this is to a certain degree realistic; but the way it gives up, and falls out of the sky rocking and buffeting when you get a mere knot or two slow, is not the way I remember it. In fact, considering that USAF student pilots start flying this with only 100 hours or so in their logbooks, if it handled in real life like it does in FSX the ground would be littered with T-38 parts and the graveyards at UPT bases would be full of hapless students. Neither has been the case.

That is the only fly in an otherwise outstanding ointment.

Originally Posted by avallillo

Excellent review!

Having flown the T-38 for the then-standard 100 hours or so in Pilot Training back when it was somewhat newer (1972!) I can say that with but one exception it flies remarkably like a real T-38. The exception, sadly, is approach and landing. I have bought both the original and the later improved FSX versions of the Milviz T-38, and both manifest very touchy handling on approach.

Mind you, this is to a certain degree realistic; but the way it gives up, and falls out of the sky rocking and buffeting when you get a mere knot or two slow, is not the way I remember it. In fact, considering that USAF student pilots start flying this with only 100 hours or so in their logbooks, if it handled in real life like it does in FSX the ground would be littered with T-38 parts and the graveyards at UPT bases would be full of hapless students. Neither has been the case.

That is the only fly in an otherwise outstanding ointment.

Developers creating a flight model for the 38 will be faced with a daunting task to recreate the approach behavior for the 38. As I'm sure you are aware as well as me the 38's behavior on approach on one side of the equation is beautiful. On the other hand from the base turn on down the final things can get pretty nasty as far as developing a sink rate if your numbers on fuel addition are off a bit. Of course having an indexer and flying the donut solve for your GW speed on final, but all this being said, I rank the 38 as one of the most critical planes I have ever flown concerning the approach.

Don't get me wrong. I loved flying the airplane. It's a blast and handles beautifully, but the extreme left side of the envelope on approach has nailed more than one otherwise good pilot who got a bit lazy on final in this aircraft.
I tried the A model in FSX and uninstalled it for the same reasons you have stated here. I haven't flown the Redux in P3D and I don't know if Milviz tweaked it to improve the approach behavior. Last word I had from them was that they had very good T38 pilots working on the flight model so I didn't press them.
Dudley Henriques

Originally Posted by Dudley Henriques

Developers creating a flight model for the 38 will be faced with a daunting task to recreate the approach behavior for the 38. As I'm sure you are aware as well as me the 38's behavior on approach on one side of the equation is beautiful. On the other hand from the base turn on down the final things can get pretty nasty as far as developing a sink rate if your numbers on fuel addition are off a bit. Of course having an indexer and flying the donut solve for your GW speed on final, but all this being said, I rank the 38 as one of the most critical planes I have ever flown concerning the approach.

Don't get me wrong. I loved flying the airplane. It's a blast and handles beautifully, but the extreme left side of the envelope on approach has nailed more than one otherwise good pilot who got a bit lazy on final in this aircraft.
I tried the A model in FSX and uninstalled it for the same reasons you have stated here. I haven't flown the Redux in P3D and I don't know if Milviz tweaked it to improve the approach behavior. Last word I had from them was that they had very good T38 pilots working on the flight model so I didn't press them.
Dudley Henriques

It received several updates over the past 2 years due to PTN IPs and KEDW test pilots giving it a workover.

I'm one of the lucky few civilians to have grabbed the Charlie model before it was removed from public sale.

Fantastic addon and i really wish MV could figure out how to put it back out to the public. Perhaps when the Red Hawk takes over IRL?

I've never piloted anything more complex than a Piper bug smasher, but the custom "external flight model" in this addon handles far and away better than the typical P3D offering.

My only frame of reference to this is the DCS F-5 Tiger, a cousin to the Talon, and a model with a very good FM of it's own.

They handle fairly similarly in-sim, and as noted in the first comment, base and final can get lethal on both if angle of bank and airspeed are not respected. How accurate that is to real life, i have no idea, but it makes sense given the aircraft's plan form.

In any case, this addon is so good (IMHO) that it is one of the only reasons I keep on flying P3D these days (A2A's birds being the others).