Harrier Jump Jet Review - By William "BBall" Ball - Page 1 of 2
Last summer vacation, my son set an all-time family personal best for "maddening statements by a pre-teen". It was the first day of summer vacation, and we had not even made it to lunchtime before he uttered these (now famous) words, " I'm BORED". I launched off at him like a 4th of July roman candle (you can just imagine)…but alas, he was expressing what I would guess more than a few flight sim addicts are now wallowing in. Yes, although I don't subscribe to the thought that flight sims are "dead", we all know that at the very least, their birthrate has slowed down considerably. I personally think that this isn't all bad, for it has forced us to get re-acquainted with some old favorites, and/or check out some cool new strap-ons, err, ah, I mean add-ons. This review will take a look at one of the newest ones for the Microsoft trio of titles: FS 2000, CFS, and CFS 2.
I can't truly say that boredom drove me to investigate this one, but maybe it was a contributing factor. However, let's see a show of hands from everyone that would LOVE to see a good Harrier sim. I see nothing but hands in the air…O.K. who's the dumb ass that said he would rather see the MP feature in "Barbie's Riding Club" addressed first? (Somebody whack that moron with the spiral version of the Falcon 4.0 manual!) I know that I for one, have always been a bit intrigued with this vehicle, and the thought of a sim that would accurately portray it, had my brain waves all worked up.
No matter what one might think about the titles that Microsoft have dished up, at the very least we can all agree that they've made sims that can be tweaked and added-on to within an inch of their lives. So in steps a company by the name of Alpha Simulations (published by Just Flight, Ltd.), with a product with the cool title of Harrier Jump Jet. It promises to give one the chance to prowl the skies over the Falklands Islands (or if you prefer, the Malvinas) in the year 1982. You get to fly for either Margaret Thatcher's team in your trusty Harrier, or fight for the Argentineans from the cockpit of one of three different aircraft. Sounds super, right? We'll see.
Out of the box tumble the CD, the manual and the obligatory advertisement and/or registration cards. The manual is bit on the "light" side, but there is a pretty good reason for that. One of the BIG things you have to do before flying this sim, is to have a high degree of competency within the "host" simulation you choose. Again, you can choose to add it on to your FS2000, CFS or CFS2 title, and the appropriate keystrokes, etc., will now be the same within HJJ. The requirement for a huge "explain it all" type manual is non-existent. The manual does go into rather specific detail about what to do when installing and/or getting ready to fly it from the standpoint of each "host" simulation, and I chose to use CFS2. One important note: one can't use the weapons or fly the campaign missions from within FS2000, so unless you just have a hankering to fly around with the intent of showing off your shiny new Harrier, I would probably say, "why bother? Another note about using FS2000, if you do use it for your "host", a patch that comes on the CD that must be installed before one can fly. The manual does give you some great info on the various Harriers and the other aircraft within the sim, also a description of each of the missions.
Installation went off without a hitch, and within minutes I was investigating just what I could put out on the flight line for my inaugural "free flight" around the field. Here's the list, and it's pretty impressive: two versions of the Skyhawk, the Sea King helicopter, eighteen (18!) different versions of the Harrier, the IAI Dagger, and a cool little turbo-prop called the Pucara (reminds me somewhat of the Marine Corps OV-10 Bronco)…now I'm no math major, but that's TWENTY THREE different machines to choose from…way cool. And of course, since you're accessing this all from within the familiar (CFS2 in my case) GUI, you can start aboard a carrier (the HMS Invincible), at any one of MANY airports (one of the new ones is a joint called RAF Cottesmore), or damn near anywhere in the world via the lat/long ability. So the term "Free Flight" really lives up to it's name.
O.K., now let's get to the "meat and potatoes" of this bad boy. How the heck does this damn thing fly (sim wise), and is it worth the pesos I'm gonna have to shell out to see? First let me say that Alpha Simulations puts in the manual a little addendum to quell the drool coming from one's mouth, it reads: "Please note-true vertical flight in Flight Simulator 2000 and Combat Flight Simulator (both versions) is not possible due to limitations of the host program. Harrier Jump Jet gets as near as possible to stationary flight under these circumstances."
Alrighty then, let's see what it WILL do. I fired up a version of the Harrier (the USMC version, the AV-8B), set myself to begin at RAF Cottesmore, set the "Fuel" setting to 50% (figured if I was going to learn to fly this thing like the real boys do, I might as well lighten the load and make it easier, for I'm sure even the real thing has a bitch of a time going straight up when at max gross weight), and hit the "Fly Now" button. I spawned into the cockpit, set the parking brake (old habit I learned from my Cessna 150 days as a student pilot), hit the "E" key to start the engines, set the flaps to 100% (meaning the nozzles are now full down), released the brake, added some thrust and AWAY I went. Yep, they were right, it wasn't STRAIGHT up, but it was DAMNED close…close enough for this cowboy.
It was a bit touchy at first for this simmer, but with some practice, I got the hang of it. Imagine if you will, trying to balance on a beach ball with about three shots of tequila in you…that's what flying this thing around with the nozzles pointed straight down is like until you get used to it. I brought up the gear, and (in stages) brought up the flaps (bringing the nozzles toward the forward flight positions), and zoomed around the English countryside like a kid high on sugar! What a gas! O.K. enough of the sightseeing trip, let's make this thing do what it's designed for…come to a hover and plop it down on a predetermined spot. The manual states not to use the flaps/nozzles above 100 kts., so I used the airbrake to slow down. Under 250kts, I extended the gear, and at 90 kts, put out the first notch of flaps/nozzles…."WHOA there hoss!" The nose shot up pretty dramatically, and the airspeed dropped to under 50kts in a heartbeat. A little disconcerting, but I soon had it back under control (the manual has some good advise concerning this). Slowly descending, I put down the flaps/nozzles in stages and soon had this beast crawling along at under ten kts and just above the tarmac…. MORE way cool. With practice, I'm now able to do a true hover, and put it darn near anywhere I want…but rest assured that's after lots of practice. Getting this thing back on the HMS Invincible after a mission, gives one a TRUE appreciation for what the skill level of the real world pilots that fly this thing must be like.
