JF Flying Club

At the outbreak of WW II, all international airline operators were removed from London and based at Shoreham. General Aviation is the largest user of this beautiful airport today, along with pilot training. No scheduled flights go into or out of the airport, but there are a small number of business flights that use the facility. In 2002, it was reported that there were 72,336 aircraft movements. Of these, 53,885 were associated with aero clubs, 14,226 were private flights, and just 679 were classified as commercial air transport movements. You can find out more about the Shoreham airport by visiting www.shorehamairport.co.uk. For some truly awesome shots by one of the locals that goes by the name of "mutley" in the Just Flight forum, click here.

One of the clubs that are located at the airport, "The Flying Hut", helped in the creation of this product, by providing aircraft, advice, assistance, and time. They also provide, in real life, Flight Training from basic pilot license to multi engine aircraft. They also allow groups of people to get together and fly more often than if they were just on their own, renting a plane. These clubs offer opportunities for great fellowship and camaraderie, which is a staple of aviators, the world over. For more information about the Flying Hut, visit www.theflyinghut.co.uk.

The other club that lent a hand in this project was AirBase, a flying club based at Shoreham, allegedly with the best view of the facilities from the bar! A very important area of operations at any airport! That is, after the flight is over! These folks provided the Cessna 152 for study and flight, and were very helpful and giving of their time as well. You can visit them at www.airbaseflyingclub.co.uk.

I really like the concept behind flying clubs. It gives folks the opportunity to get more flight time in than they would normally, and folks are able to share their experiences with fellow aviators and friends. Camaraderie is an ever present factor in the aviation world, and you can see it in the Flight Sim world of aviation also! This is evident in the teamwork it takes to put these fine products out there for us simmers to enjoy!

Just a reminder here, that my comments are directed at all four aircraft, since the modeling of the "inner workings" is just about the same for each craft.

Now lets move on to the heart of this product, the aircraft! You get four quality, light aircraft:

PA38 Piper Tomahawk
PA28 Piper Warrior
PA-34 Piper Seneca
Cessna 152

All four of these aircraft are used world wide, and are among the most popular General Aviation aircraft that are on the market. You'll be able to see why when you take them for a flight! Each of the aircraft are finely detailed, the exteriors very well modeled. They all have doors and hatches that open, and the sounds of these too, are realistic. On the Seneca, you can take a look see at the power plant under its hood. Detail everywhere. The same goes for the inside of the aircraft. The 2D panel is easy to read, all of your standard gauges in their proper places. In this view, there is a button on the panel, giving you the choice of having the yoke in view or not. While it looks nice, in this view it does nothing but obscure a couple of the instruments. It does not move when you move your control yoke. I preferred to just switch it off, to make everything nice and visible.

The 2D views were very detailed, with a couple of sub panels for your use, i.e., flaps, GPS, etc. There's not an abundance of sub panels, for these are simple aircraft, so you're not going to find anything complicated here. That's what makes these aircraft a joy to fly!   The Virtual Cockpit views were also very well done, crisp, clean, and realistic looking. I was impressed with the "padded dashboard" in the Seneca, very real looking. This may just be a small point of detail, but like pennies, they all add up! Everything you need is "clickable" in the VC view. One thing I've noticed about a lot of the aircraft products out there is that while in the VC viewing mode, the instruments are only usable from the default viewing position. In other words, if you back up your "seat" view using the “control+enter" keys, this usually renders the clickable instruments inoperative. Just hit your space bar to jump back into the forward view and everything is OK. Watch your knees as your sliding that seat forward though!

Each of the aircraft's flight dynamics are very realistic. While in the Tomahawk and the Cessna 152, I couldn't help but remember that "floating leaf" feeling I've had while in small planes. No, I was not on any medication at the time! The sounds of the aircraft are authentic also, recorded and engineered for this package. Each of the aircraft were flown in real life, to help in replicating the actual feeling of flying the real thing. I think they did a fine job in this department. This is an area of particular importance. If you have various aircraft models that all fly the same, needless to say, I think I would get a little bored with the whole deal. Having each planes' own unique flight characteristics really makes the product worthwhile! With Flying Club, the four aircraft provided for you offer a great range of these different flight characteristics.

There are some utilities that are provided for your use with this product. They are accessible from the AeroSelect Icon that is placed on your desktop, or you can find it in your Programs Folder. This open a program that lists all of the aircraft that are loaded with the AeroSelect utility. Bear in mind that if you installed with the option to use these aircraft in your MSFS 2004 Lessons, these utilities will not be able to be used. They are for the UK "based" aircraft. The utilities are:

AeroLoad - Manage your passenger, fuel, and baggage here.
AeroPaint - This is a repaint tool that you can use to customize your aircraft.
AeroFace - Now here's a unique item from Just Flight. This utility allows you to put your face, or anyone else's face on the face
                    of the pilot in the plane. Here's another personal touch. When you make a turn, the head of the pilot actually turns
                    in the direction of the bank! Just for the heck of it, I put my wolf's face on it, and it turned out like something you'd
                    see out of a horror movie! I went ahead and put my face on and it worked great, although it was just as scary! This
                    tool puts a real "personal" touch into the sim, and is definitely a benchmark in the sim world!

I think the folks at Just Flight did a great job with this product, Flying Club. This package has a lot to offer. For the new flight simmer, they will enjoy finely crafted, easy to fly aircraft, with realistic flight dynamics, that are actually used by many real world Flight Training Schools. For the experienced simmer, this package also is appealing. Take a break from those complicated "Heavies" and their Flight Management Computers, and relax and do some sightseeing! These aircraft are perfect for the day trip flights to enjoy the scenery!   Speaking of scenery, four aircraft, AND Shoreham Airport scenery make for a nice package indeed! At $44.99 USD, this is a chunk of change, but remember what you're getting. Four aircraft and Airport Scenery! If you're into light GA, or are new at the flight sim controls, this would be a great place to start a collection!

For more information about Just Flight's "Flying Club" visit them at www.justflight.com.