New "Maverick" challenges and new splash screen

Fired up the sim to try out my new GrassMonkey King sensor and was pleased to see the new TBM(?) startup screen. Sure beats not knowing that the game is loading.

Also did the very painless update to add the Maverick specific F/A 18 challenges. Pretty neat.

Fired up the sim to try out my new GrassMonkey King sensor and was pleased to see the new TBM(?) startup screen. Sure beats not knowing that the game is loading.

 

Also did the very painless update to add the Maverick specific F/A 18 challenges. Pretty neat.

It is nice. On one of my other games, MS has put up a splash screen as well. It does help :)

Yep, flying fighter jets is it's own unique experience, just as flying bush planes is to airliner autopilot flight, or flying helicopters compared to sailplanes and gliders, or vintage VOR navigation and hand-flying an ILS approach compared to the GPS and FMC's doing SIDS STARS today!!

Oh, and once you get the hang of flying (no pun!) the beauty of simulation is that you can experience ALL those things, and I guarantee you'll learn many new things when you try a new-to-you form of flight. At one point I used to like shutting that airliner's fuel off, at random places, and see if I could glide it down, save some passenger's lives! I even recreated Air Transat Pacific fuel starvation glide:

https://simpleflying.com/azores-glider-the-story-of-air-transat-flight-236/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

With fighters, unless you are in a full dogfight, you have more maneuverability than any airliner, more than you need for basic flight! HOWEVER, you are severely limited by fuel consumption, which if flown like an airliner can give a respectable combat radius (range to get to the enemy, fight a bit, and come back with a bit of fuel left over). BUUUUTT... use that afterburner too much, fly down low too much, and you'll soon worry about having enough fuel to get to an airfield!!

Then in civilian world, and peacetime, fighter pilots are severely affected by speed limits, as it's VERY UNCOOL to break the sound barrier Mach 1.0 anywhere near populated cities. Breaking windows, waking babies, giving Grandma a heart attack... One Canadian fighterpilot got disciplined, not for speed, but because he did a low level flyby of his former highschool in Vancouver BC, at probably 1000ft AGL and briefly engaged afterburners for a bit of noise! But the complaints... and that was in a slow Hornet, not a real fast rocket like an Eagle or Viper!!