Captain Sim C130 Pro

 

CATEGORY

Military Turboprop

LEARNING CURVE

Moderate

This product is developed by Captain Sim. Sales information and acquisition of the product may be attained here.

TEST FLIGHT CONDITIONS

I did not fly IFR for this route. Instead I flew VFR using VOR navigation from KCOS, intercepting the BRK 277 radial to DBL VOR, then shooting the KASE VOR approach from DBL for a touch and go, then followed the missed approach back course as published to re-intercept DBL and a 097 radial back to BRK. From BRK I flew as published the ILS runway 17L approach back into KCOS.

KCOS35L BRK DBL KASE15 LINDZ DBL BRK KCOS17L

ActiveSky X was used for real world live weather during this review.

The scenery you see in Megascenery Earth Colorado and Aspen X (with Aspen's photo-scenery removed to blend in with MSE Colorado).

INSTALLATION

Once you purchase and download your product, you simply run the exe file to install. During the install, you do need to enter your order number, so you will have to have an internet connection to install this product. This product is not available anywhere on CD, however offline activation is a possibility with this product, so it is not absolutely necessary to have FSX on an internet capable computer to install and activate her, but you do need internet to download and get the required files to do so.

INTERIOR

I have personally been in quite a few C-130 aircraft, not only during my time in the US Army from 1994 to 1996 (I was nothing but cargo at the time), but at air shows as well. I have to say that Captain Sim have nailed the interior right on. A very impressive note here is that almost every system is simulated, everything is animated, yet the frame rates are outstanding. I was able to stay at 30 FPS locked for the entire flight.

Avionics and other data are easy to read on my resolution and the detail of this aircraft is as crisp and clear as I can possibly expect from an FSX add-on.

EXTERIOR

As stated above, I have been around many C130 aircraft. As with the interior, CS has nailed the exterior as well. All expected animations are present and accurate, and the detail in the texturing is amazing.

FLIGHT DYNAMICS, HANDLING AND SYSTEMS

I could honestly only find one complaint about the entire operation of this aircraft - the knobs that dial, such as Heading and Course. I am not sure if there is a setting I am missing somewhere, but I do not like how you cannot adjust to a precise heading or course. When working with the knobs, the numbers seem to "jump" in multiple numbers. For example, when doing the missed approach at KASE, I had to proceed to LINDZ to intercept the 244 radial back to DBL. I could not get 244 precise on the dial. It kept jumping from 243 to 245 or from 243 to 246, 7, etc. There's no pattern to it. It's just hard to get a precise setting unless you are lucky and it happens to fall on the number you want.

Other than that small annoyance, there is nothing at all to complain about with this product and her systems. Everything functions as I'd expect it to and I was able to make my first maiden flight after install without a single incident.

UTILITIES

A tool is included with this product called the ACE utility. It acts as a load manager, as well as a utility to adjust interior preferences. For the cargo, you can choose to transport containers, hummers, tanks, guns, paratroopers, ground troops or even casualties. You can also use ACE to tweak the cockpit, choosing VC on or off, lighting as blue, green or red and glass reflections on or off. You can also edit aircraft call signs, flight numbers and tail numbers. Last, but not least, you can use the ACE to toggle engine smoke, engine start effect, exterior fuel tanks and paint specular.

If you download ACE compliant repaints, you can add them using the ACE utility as well or delete variations you do not wish to have.

DOCUMENTATION AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT

It has to be pointed out that the manuals are NOT installed anywhere on your computer with the installation of the product.  In order to read the manuals, you must go to the Captain Sim web site and download the manuals from the C130 product page.  In a way, though, this is good as the manuals are available to you to read before purchasing the product.  This gives a good idea of the product’s abilities and features to the potential buyer.  However I still think it would be nice to have the manuals also included in the EXE file for the base pack, allowing me to access them easily via the start menu if needed.

There are 4 manuals – User, Aircraft Systems, Normal Procedures and Performance.  This documentation is great and covers each area well, but for the price of the product I would have liked to see at least a tutorial for those new to the C130.  The other major developers of advanced airline simulations seem to have a trend of including a tutorial flight in detail.  Also, while normal procedures have been included in excellent detail, I think some abnormal procedures would have been nice as well.  However, I also have to look at the fact that no failures are simulated in this product, which may be why abnormal procedures were not included as documentation.

While the documentation is lacking in a couple of areas, this is made up for by customer support. There are the expected ways to get in touch with customer service - by opening a support ticket or posting on the forum. The forum is more of a community forum and is not officially used for technical support. The developer does actively participate there, but to receive official support you must use the trouble ticket system.

The staff at Captain Sim have been nothing but nice to me since I started using their products in FS9 days. They seem to be professional and well worth talking to if you have issues. They seemed to have a borderline reputation with their "Block" system of releases -- but no one forces you to buy those blocks. I, for one, am one of those customers who will wait for the professional, completed product to be released. The good news is, once CS releases a professional pack of their product line, it is the complete product.  If you are also one of those customer types, in the case of Captain Sim always keep an eye out for titles that are labeled “Captain” or “Pro” in their product line.

CONCLUSION

Being former military, and an overall lover of the C130 series of aircraft, I would highly recommend this product to anyone wanting a good military cargo aircraft, turboprop or large size utility aircraft. This aircraft has proven itself well in both military and civil applications and in the FSX world it would serve you well also.

LIKES

• Excellent visual quality
• Easy installation
• Excellent handling
• Great animation features and extras
• Excellent sound package
• Excellent texture detail
• Excellent performance considering the complexity of this aircraft.

DISLIKES

• Turning knobs so sensative that I cannot seem to adjust to a precise setting such as heading or course.

SCORE: 93% - "A"

Out of an expected 127 items expected for this add-on, 118 passed. This gave the product a base score of 93% for an "A" grade. Beautiful job, Captain Sim! I am going to be logging many hours in this add-on for sure.