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Concorde Pilot, Captain John Hutchinson, is a man who takes his flight simulations very seriously indeed. When we asked him to put Strike Force Harrier through its paces, little did we expect that he would go out and actually fly one.

"I was taken up by Flight Lieutenant Ray Coates, who is the RAF's Harrier display pilot... It was a mind-boggling experience. The Harrier is a wonderful, versatile aeroplane and Ray certainly showed it off to the full. All the time I was thinking what marvellous training and flying opportunities there are in the RAF today."

Fortunately for CU the review copy of Strike Force Harrier arrived two days after Captain John's ride in the Jump Jet. Here is his report.

For those of you not lucky enough to fly the real thing, you'll be pleased to learn that Mirrorsoft's simulation does a pretty good job of bringing this sort of flying into your living room.

The simulated handling characteristics are certainly representative of the famous Harrier Jump Jet. For the uninitiated, the pilot can change the angle of the engine nozzles from the conventional horizontal position right through to beyond 90 degrees. This gives the plane what is called 'vector thrust' and enables it to perform the remarkable vertical take-offs and landings. The best way I can describe these take-offs is that it's like being in a high-speed elevator with wings.

The games has four play modes: Demonstration, Practice, Combat Practice and Combat itself. When you have selected your game your choose the pilot ability level - Pilot, Commander or Ace.

I chose Practice Mode at the Basic Pilot level. Even us Concorde pilots have to be cautious with a new simulation.

The first thing I noticed was the Head Up Display (HUD) directly in front of me in the cockpit wind shield. It includes an array of vital flight information including a compass and air and vertical speed indicators on the left side. There's an altimeter and pitch indication on the right side, and in the centre of the screen there's a combined gunsight and roll indicator.

Underneath the very realistic HUD is another display panel. This has a Vector thrust indicator, Air Attack Radar, thrust and fuel gauges and a little message screen which comes up with helpful hints from time to time.

This panel also features a device called Foftrac (not an authentic Harrier instrument) which is a friend or foe indicator.

Real Harrier pilots would be delighted if this was for real - it illuminates your flight paths, pin points mountains and enemy surface-to-air missile sites, and it tracks hostile aircraft and tank movements. One drawback with this is it is sometimes very difficult to understand what the thing is trying to tell you.

To get airborne, you select an appropriate Thrust Vector setting (there are only three of these: Horizontal, Vertical and 45 degrees), check brakes off, flaps down, and then slam on the power. The engine whine as you throttle up is very effective, as are the sound effects throughout the game.

I soon mastered all take off and landings with the exception of conventional landing which I found impossilbe since the prepared ground sites in a combat zone are necessarily small. Aircraft response to joystick is both immediate and positive which I found most welcome.

Successful ground attack is not at all easy. After several unsuccessful missions I found the best method was to roar in hard, low and fast with a slightly nose-down attitude. Most exhilarating.

The ground attack weapons are bombs (use the bomb site function on the keyboard to aim) or short bursts of cannon fire, You can't let rip with these weapons, though, as you only have a limited armoury, and you have to be able to get back safely to a ground site to re-arm.

Another useful instrument that the RAF boys would like to get their hands on is the 'Homer'. Press this and a long line comes up on the HUD and guides you safely back to base.

To engage the enemy's MiG 23s, climb through the cloud base at about 10,000 feet until you break through the blue skies. Now watch out for red dots on the Foftrac. Generally, I found most MiGs lurking at about 16,000. They make formidable opponents as well, with their supersonic capability, manoeuvrability, cannon fire, and four deadly missiles - two infra red and two homing.

Luckily the Harrier is equally manoeuvrable and is equipped with 'Chaff Pack' which you can use to outwit the enemy missiles.

Once you hear an enemy you have just seconds to respond. Ultimately, survival depends on lightning reactions, good flying skill and a fair dose of luck.

Having whetted my appetite on ground attack and air combat I was ready for a fully fledged Combat Mission.

My aim was to fly 250 miles North East oy my original ground site and destroy the enemy headquarters. As you might have guessed this is nowhere as easy as it sounds. The entire operational area is divided into 512 sectors with a map and 'key card' to help you plot your route.

Each sector has tank SAM Missile sites to be destroyed in order to protect your own vital ground sites. If that wasn't difficult enough your Softrac will only function once you have flown a reconnaissance sortie at 16,000 feet over the centre of each new sector - which means that enemy MiGs are never far away. On top of this, each time you run low on fuel and weaponry, you must land in hostile territory and airlift one of your ground sites to your current position.

I'll have to be honest, I never quite made it to the enemy HQ and instead found myself mildly irritated by two apparent weaknesses in the package.

Firstly, you are given a grid reference on your message screen each time you enter a new sector. I found this so eractic as to be virtually useless. For example, it could readily jump from one sector to another without any logical sequence. As a result I was never entirely sure where I was in relation to enemy HQ.

Secondly, the Foftrac was not precise enough for me and I had great difficulty in translating what I was being shown on screen into finding real targets either on the ground or the air.

That said, I don't want to leave you with the view that, because of these two gripes, I was unimpressed with Strike Force Harrier. Far from it. I had great fun reviewing it. The graphics are good, sound quality is excellent and I defy anyone to successfully destroy the enemy HQ before they've had hours of challenge and enjoyment from this exciting new simulation.