Freeware Reviews

The company, Societe de Construction d'Avions de Tourisme et d'Affaires (SOCATA) (whew! That's a mouthful!) of France began in 1966, initially as a subsidiary of Sud-Aviation, but over the years, is now a subsidiary of Aerospatiale.

The Socata TB Series of aircraft has its beginnings back in 1975, when the design for a four to five seat cabin type monoplane began with the Socata TB 10, named the Tobago. The Tobago laid the ground work for a series of light, cantilever low-wing planes. the third plane to come along in this series was the TB 20 Trinidad. The main differences in the Trinidad were the retractable tricycle style landing gear, a more powerful engine, and some airframe modifications to accommodate these changes. The TB 21 model has a turbocharged Lycoming T10-540-AB1AD engine.

Starting with the exterior of the model, the sleekness of the aircraft is apparent in the smooth lines of this aircraft. The exterior is detailed right down to the non-slip surface and "no-step" decals. While looking into the aircraft from the outside, the cockpit is very visible and detailed. There is just the right amount of dynamic shine to give the aircraft that just washed and waxed look! The paint job excellent, with a two-tone livery that fits in nicely with the colors of the southwest! Climbing aboard, we jump into a very detailed and again, a very well rendered cockpit. The panel is excellent, with a host of knobs, buttons and switches that are usable. Watch out for your fuel tank switch over! Sub panels are also very well rendered. The same goes for the Virtual Cockpit, with its clickable avionics available for your use. The yokes can be toggled on or off, but even when visible, they don't really hamper your view of the panel, and they move along with your stick or yoke inputs. Everything is pretty standard, so even the newcomers to the sim world can fly this aircraft easily!

This is a fine piece of freeware, and it makes you appreciate the fact that it's FREE, and you should also appreciate the work that goes into making these fine models for all of us simmers to fly in our virtual skies! I know I may mention this fact a lot, but it's worth noting! The credits for this fine model go to JP Brisard for the design, Barry Blaisdell for work o the FD, Panel, Sound, and HTML. Master Paint was done by Bob May. Well done! I

I had received an email from Barry telling me of their hopes for an award over at Flightsim.com. I think this model is a definite contender for the freeware category! It's nice to see a hobby where your efforts are rewarded by recognition of your peers! An incredible amount of work goes into these models! At present, I'm learning to use FSDS by Abacus, and its given me a new look at what goes into the making of these aircraft models! Hopefully I'll be able to make aircraft that are of decent quality! By the way, watch for a review of FSDS as soon as I hone my skills a bit more!

For those into the light and fast GA, this model is a definite must have!