I’ve owned the F14 since pre-order and like everybody else, was blown away by the detail, the characteristics, the sheer art and love adorned into this module. It truly felt like a once in a lifetime kind of release… or at the very least, raised the bar for everybody else. What a time to be a simmer.
But I just didn’t enjoy flying it. Until now.
I’m a stick and rudder guy, I can plop a Huey down on a picnic table, am drawn to the F86, F5, 737-200 and 727s in X-Plane. But no matter what I did I just couldn’t get those warm feelies for the Tomcat until now.
It really is a whole other beast. In every sense of the word(s). In sim world there is no gravitational force, there is no rumble and reaction to air frames. I’ve learned that all those clues ARE in this module, and that is why she is so hard to master.
This majestic bird is the ultimate hotrod, and anyone that’s ridden a Harley or high powered bike can relate. It requires the finest of touches. You really have to stroke the controls and make the most minor corrections. The rudder and stick movement is a ballet like I’ve never experienced. And when it starts to click, it really is incredible. When it goes bad, it goes really bad.
It’s still early days for me, but now I’m finally starting to get the Heatblur F14 Tomcat, and can understand why everybody else is (still) so in love.
A fighter of mighty size and weight
composed of surfaces curved ever so perfectly
configured with gizmo’s up the gazoo
to rule the whole airborne hullabaloo
These wings they spread
and all manner of flaps flip and flutter
front, back, top and tailfeathers
No wonder they call it a turkeybird
As it gets slow and dirty with the mirth.
But let not size and age deceive
this machine will not deceive
it speaks to you, so listen
and soon a hungry eye shall glisten
for there’s no kill like a guns kill.
Let it rattle and hum
heed its mighty thrum
Ignore the useless hud
until it’s time comes where it aint no crud
Line ‘em up with wings a’ rattle
and rrrrrrrrip off the wings of your victim in battle.
Yeah I love that big ol’ bird. It can BFM with the best of 'em. You do need good rudders so you can kick its fat ass around the sky because rolling is not what she likes to do with any alpha on her.
It can also go fast like a motherlover. Accelerate. Climb. Yeah she’s a hot interceptor. And that mighty radar with those big bad boomsticks seals the deal.
Ah, but there is! I’m gonna do a long post on this some day (in the hope of saving others some time/money): bass/seat-shaker. As I’ve mentioned in other places here, I’ve gotten it to where the G/Stall-Buffet is darn near annoying. But that feedback is such that I can’t go without it anymore (2nd only to my VR headset).
“…high powered bike can relate”
Yup, though not as big an adrenaline-spike [in a sim]: I stopped doing track days on my 1000 cc sport-bike when it dawned on me: a) I use it to commute, too (tires got expensive), and b) I don’t heal like I used to.
“The rudder and stick movement is a ballet…”
Agree. I’ve not ripped the wings of one in a long time now…I littered the virtual desert with them for some time. I’ve not gotten anywhere near expert in it but, yeah, in a downward grovel it’s rudder only.
It is also my favorite one in a “just fly it” kinda way. And I’m not nor have ever been a pilot. But operating the Tomcat seems to show me what is required.
Learning to fly tomcat well has made me an infinitely better virtual pilot on anything from fokker dr.1’s to YaK’s to MiG-29s.
It’s insanely powerful with those B model engines. A bit more plane to lug around, and much more stuff hangin’ out in the air than an eagle, but the same engines. You can’t just power your way through a BFM situation, but a bit of patience, a bit of finesse and there’s really nothing it can’t handle.
I recently turned up bass and lower middle tones on the equaliser and that makes a world of difference in how the machine sounds. Powerr!
Those simshaker deals look cool on paper. But I don’t think my housemates will let me get away with a seat that goes BRRR BRRRRRR BRRR BRRRR! when I’m flying.
Yeah, there’s that. I purchased a 1" thick rubber/foam pad for under my chair. You need this anyway to isolate the the effect(s); goes more into the chair than the floor/house/roommate, etc. The spousal-unit thinks it’s ‘cute’.
I used to use (I still have it in the closet) my Logi G940 HOTAS which had FFB. You could REALLY feel things with that. It’s a shame it didn’t become standard on all HOTAS.
Guys how’s ACLS and the super carrier? Most of the time I’m getting stuck on LANDING CHK with a mobile localizer but a glideslope that is stuck to the bottom. I asked Jester to set up the TACAN (which is accurate) and the datalink. Is it something I am doing wrong?
