Flight1 Cessna 172R
CATEGORY
General Aviation Single Engine Airplane
LEARNING CURVE
Very Easy
This product is developed by Flight1 Software. Sales information and acquisition of the product may be attained here.
TEST FLIGHT CONDITIONS
This flight has no flight plan. For this flight I did a VFR hop from KGXY, following HWY 85 south to Denver, then following I-25 south to KAPA, entering downwind and landing.
ActiveSky X was used for real world live weather during this review. it took me a while to find a good day to do this review as I am one of those enthusiasts that absolutely refuses to fly without real-time, real-world weather.
INSTALLATION
Installation is done via the Flight1 wrapper (or CD-ROM if you have the boxed product). It's pretty straightforward and simple. The only annoyance is in the case of the download product, where you must have an internet connection to reinstall the product. Considering the increasing piracy issues lately, however, this is an expected and accepted practice, and pretty much everyone has internet these days anyway. That said, I rate this as one of the more stable and simple purchase/download/install processes available. Flight1 is a trustworthy company, and their security seems to be top notch, so I have no issues running my credit card information through their e-commerce installer.
If internet is a problem for you, and you wish a boxed version of the product, fear not -- a boxed version can be purchased by clicking HERE.
One of the things I like about Flight1's newest improvement to their E-Commerce wrapper is the integration of user accounts with products. The old way used to have a physical key file which was on your computer physically. I found it was easy for me to misplace keys or have them nuked somehow in my computer cleanups. Now, if you need to reinstall the product, you simply enter a username and password and you are on your way to enjoying your product once again. Good work, Flight1.
INTERIOR
A lot of people tend to think of interior design as more of a focus for airliners in the FS world. However, there are many, myself included, who agree that this level of detail extends right down to the simplest GA aircraft. This 172 is no different. The 172 is simple, so there is nothing spectacular as far as eye candy goes. However, for what would be expected of a Cessna 172, this product goes above and beyond expectation, with great detail being attended to in the gauges and interior. What you get is a "new" interior, so no "wear and tear" is present. That's okay, though, and I like having an "off the factory floor" GA bird in my fleet.
EXTERIOR
I am going to admit that on this particular aircraft, I was extremely picky about the interior and exterior design. For those who do not know, I am a student pilot with 59 hours (at the time of this writing) in various Cessna 172 aircraft. I know that to a seasoned pilot, that does not sound like much, but I have to say that compared to the average "armchair pilot" I tend to look deeper into what is on an add-on aircraft when I have actually been around and experienced it for myself. I am willing to gamble that this is true for every real world pilot that uses their real world counterpart in the FSX environment (or any simulator for that matter).
With that said, the Flight1 Cessna 172R comes through in every aspect of her design. My screenshots are of the no wheel pants configuration, since that is all I have ever flown. Ever little nook in this bird's exterior has been done outstandingly well, and I give kudos to Flight1 for enabling me to do a complete exterior pre-flight even in the virtual world of FSX.
FLIGHT DYNAMICS, HANDLING AND SYSTEMS
Again, being a real world pilot familiar with the handling of the Cessna 172 line of aircraft, I was very pleased at the handling of this add-on. The developers were very meticulous and accurate with the handling and flight dynamics. I can simulate all maneuvers to the numbers using a real world AOM that I have for the 172. I can pull real world weight and balance sheets out and have them match what is dictated by FSX for the load-out.
Being a GA aircraft, there are not many systems to report on. However, all avionics and flight instruments performed as I would expect from the counterparts I fly in real life. Everything matches with performance charts and numbers. Perfect.
UTILITIES
This add-on comes with a simple utility which enables you to adjust load-out and performance. It is easy to use and gives options for high or low resolution avionics and textures. This is very handy in case users may have a lower end system. A paint kit is also available for artists who wish to add more variations to this aircraft.
DOCUMENTATION AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT
For this product, the developer took away from the normal PDF files you normally find with add-on FSX aircraft. Instead, everything you need is placed in an organized format using the Windows help style. You can search and easily find anything you want to know without having to switch between multiple manuals and files. This also makes it very easy to open on a networked computer, making it very handy to have while in flight.
Customer support by Flight1 and all of their partner developers has always been seen in a positive sense by the FS community. I have never heard or experienced anything bad from this company and it makes me feel great to be able to turn to them for support. They have many methods for support which go above and beyond what I see from other developers. This is evident by the ability to submit a personal support ticket, post on technical support forums, contact developers directly, refer to knowledge databases and download patches in one place. I have always felt confident that when I contact Flight1, I get the support and answers I need, even if they are general questions and not necessarily problems.
CONCLUSION
If you are a student pilot, and you fly ANY Cessna 172 (SP, M, N, R, etc.), then I highly recommend you get this product. One of the main purposes of my site is showing real world pilots ways to use FSX as a training tool. For the student pilot, this product is a cornerstone for such use.
LIKES
Excellent detail all around, great handling. Stable product with excellent support.
DISLIKES
To be honest, I could not find anything to dislike about this product.
I do wish there were Hobbs and maintenance tracking on here (similar to what a few other developers have done with GA aircraft) which enable the engine to "age" and need looking after. Also, having a traceable Hobbs would give more of a sense to tracking flight time in the virtual world and encourage student pilots to keep on their toes about watching important numbers often overlooked.
SCORE - 91%
Out of an expected 69 items possible in FSX for this type of add-on, the Cessna 172R passed 63.