Potiential but needs polishing.

[JIMJAM1597]

As someone who in FS2004/FSX bought every cold war era jet along with the West coast bases they flew out of from the long gone Alphasim, I am still amazed nobody has done the Sr-71 justice. And I am still waiting. I am not a graphics nut and place the FM and overall atmosphere over shiny parts,counting rivets and whether or not the tables fold out. That said, this vr pit is very disappointing. On a large 35 inch monitor its freeware quality if not downright ugly. The throttles/switches/ weathering attempts alone are Abacus level. Again, I loved Alphasim because they dared do Cold war era black project aircraft and the basic models were fps friendly and allowed you to crank up the graphics. Well with today's P3D and machines that excuse does not cut it especially for $35. If you guys DO have a higher texture rez interior but cut it down for performance you should offer it to those of us who are not running Windows 95 still
I am really hoping you guys stay with the project and give it the attention and makeover it deserves. The entire cockpit needs to be redone to bring it up to early FSX standards. The FM does show some effort in achieving some of the characteristics pilots report and one would suspect the design would have so I know someone showed some TLC and effort.
BTW- The downwards periscope viewer I am yet to figure out. Yes, I am running p3d v3 and the pdf says there is a switch/on off underneath but I see nothing.

[DBushell]

Well I personally put my heart and soul into this for over two years with special emphasis on making the cockpit my best yet and I published many screenshots of the interior, so you had plenty of chances to see its not for you!

If you would like a refund please contact the shop you purchased it from.

The A-12 is quite a rare unheard of aircraft being over shadowed by the SR that came later. You will be hard pushed to find another pay ware developer willing to take it on.

Milviz and their team is working on an SR-71, so you may as well hold out for that one. Their team of Devs have both the time and the skills and access to the aircraft to make their SR as life like as possible. With their justified higher price point.

PS the knob for the downwards periscope is bottom left of the scope near the mirror select handle.

[JIMJAM1597]

Just one man's opinion. That said, some of the women and cars I had the best time with were not the best looking or expensive. Take the compliment. Others can look at reviews and your current sales and repeat will tell you how you did.
Again, I applaud you for not doing another airliner or another Cessna or Piper. I suspect Milviz will be pretty and be a generic dumbed down FM for $50-$60. Later they will come out with a Tacpac or a "ENHANCED VERSION and want another $20.
I know the game well being into sims since Microprose F-19. I can understand one taking it personally but this is payware and endorsed by a REAL Sr-71 PILOT.

[DBushell]

Just one man's opinion. That said, some of the women and cars I had the best time with were not the best looking or expensive. Take the compliment. Others can look at reviews and your current sales and repeat will tell you how you did.
Again, I applaud you for not doing another airliner or another Cessna or Piper. I suspect Milviz will be pretty and be a generic dumbed down FM for $50-$60. Later they will come out with a Tacpac or a "ENHANCED VERSION and want another $20.
I know the game well being into sims since Microprose F-19. I can understand one taking it personally but this is payware and endorsed by a REAL Sr-71 PILOT.

I take your comments onboard, and I remember you from the Alphasim days, your username sticks in my mind!

The endorsement was for the SR-71 that was released back in 2008, and is not an endorsement of the A-12, I haven't shown the A-12 to any of the pilots, and as such it's incredibly hard to find decent high resolution colour cockpit photos when most of the cockpits were used for spares, or have fallen into disrepair. The A-12's were in service for an incredibly short amount of time, and I tried to make the cockpit textures reflect this from what I could see in the rare colour photos of the restored cockpit of one of the A-12s.

One thing that can be said for the FS community is that they are very creative and have kept this hobby alive for so many years!

[JIMJAM1597]

When active I did a lot of beta testing but a back injury in a heli incident ended my career at 45. Anyways, the SR ,U2, F117,B2 , any black project planes are all I would like to see done.
But back OT. I have done about 10 full flights and imo the landing length is very short. Across the fence at 180-200, light fuel and in the TD zone with chute I am stopping sometimes within 1500 ft. IIRC the AVG IRL is 3600 ft or so. With a tire life of less than 10 flights I doubt they stood on the brakes and runway lenght was never a issue on landing. I suspect the chute is overly strong but I never fooled with many aircraft.cfg chute drag numbers if thats even whats causing it. I would like to know what number specifies the max drag of the chute and tinker with it in order to get a more realistic landing roll. My latest landing at Beale was just over 1000 ft. Thanks for any advice as I would like to tinker with that aspect. Jim

[DBushell]

When active I did a lot of beta testing but a back injury in a heli incident ended my career at 45. Anyways, the SR ,U2, F117,B2 , any black project planes are all I would like to see done.
But back OT. I have done about 10 full flights and imo the landing length is very short. Across the fence at 180-200, light fuel and in the TD zone with chute I am stopping sometimes within 1500 ft. IIRC the AVG IRL is 3600 ft or so. With a tire life of less than 10 flights I doubt they stood on the brakes and runway lenght was never a issue on landing. I suspect the chute is overly strong but I never fooled with many aircraft.cfg chute drag numbers if thats even whats causing it. I would like to know what number specifies the max drag of the chute and tinker with it in order to get a more realistic landing roll. My latest landing at Beale was just over 1000 ft. Thanks for any advice as I would like to tinker with that aspect. Jim

I'll take a look when I get home from work.

I've just read what I believe (could be wrong) your review on Simmarket's website. Not wanting to dwell on the content, but I must say your comment about a wing view - especially since in real life you couldn't see the wing from the cockpit without a helmet, let alone with (I've sat in one)!! It's too far back to see and even if you could you'd need to swivel your head 180 degrees!!! Which is one of the reasons the pilot had a canopy mounted periscope so he can check the rudders are aligned. You're not the first person to mention that - I had someone else say that he wanted to be able to see the entire plane when the viewpoint is moved outside the VC! While I can see the point on a small aircraft, I find the inclusion of an exterior model in the Virtual cockpit over he top. After all it's called a virtual *cockpit* for a reason! I have always included anything you can see from the cockpit ie the top of the nose etc. Anything other than that is a waste of FPS.

[DBushell]

To adjust the drag chute effectiveness, you'd need to edit section 1101 Primary Aerodynamics in the .air file, Drag Co-efficient Spoiler currently set at 0.390625.

[JIMJAM1597]

I have accumulated 4 pages of addons over the decades just at Simmarket alone. A 3 STAR rating is very good from me and is a compliment from what I assume is a small operation if not one man doing a very difficult aircraft. To qualify, a Carenado level with good fps and no bugs get 3-4. I can count the 5s I have given on one hand. I admit my rating was some what emotional as I have really been waiting for a SR. Again, not a rivet counter or by the numbers,spend 30 minutes programming a FMS type of guy. Did enough of that in real life. Hell, I CNT E even the A2As!!! I want a believable FM, nice graphics and atmosphere. Replace that horrendous throttle assembly and overall sharpen up that pit and she will be a dam fine fun to fly plane.
The fact that you answer so quickly, take criticism well and offer a explanation means a lot. The same can not be said for a certain Milv....
I may or may not fool with the chute just might ignore it. Aircraft seems to have high enough ground drag and brakes to not need it. But good to know I can do a carrier landing if needed.

[DBushell]

I'll take a look at that Throttle Quadrant. I agree, it could do with some TLC and will look at the VC as a whole.