Phantom Crash-Land

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Is it me or is there a whole flood of these flight simulators hitting the market? After Jump Jet and Strike Force Harrier we now have a new one from the publishers responsible for the enjoyable 747 Flight Simulator.

Like 747, Phantom was written with the aid of a professional pilot - and it shows, making the simulator realistic and interesting to fly.

My initial grump is over the choice of keys, which are not as you would expcet - how often do you use H, V and M regularly? (A joystick option is provided and I suspect it is about time I repaired my analogue port.) The simulator is an in-cockpit affair with the panel on the lower half of the screen presenting a wealth of dials, guages and knobs for you to goggle at.

Above the panel you look out of the cockpit down the runway. The view is not really spectacular, but after a few circuits of the airfield, at which I attained Mach 1, this became a minor annoyance. The real test is in flying the Phantom - no easy task. Anyway, after two quick spins I reckon I'm just about ready for the real thing - no more practice runs for me. Crash. Oh well, just one more practice run then.

There are a lot of nice touches throughout, like the whole plane shaking around you as you hit the ground. In fact, the easiest part of this simulator is crash-landing!

Overall, a very good flight simulator that comes with the Smith seal of airworthiness. Crash! Ah well, perhaps just one more practice run, then...

Bruce Smith