The Douglas DC-8 was one of the aircraft that brought long distance air travel to the masses. It made transatlantic air travel possible for a much larger group of people, thus making the world a much smaller place. Commercially it was successful up to 1972 when wide bodied aircraft like the B747 took over its place. There were many variants and once in a blue moon you still see the “Old Smokey” carry cargo. Old Smokey was just one of the many nicknames the aircraft was given by pilots that loved flying them. DC Late, Greasy8, Death Cruiser, Whiney Bird and Cigarette Jets were others.
For a long time, we lacked these important aircraft in our simulators but this add-on adds a version to your virtual hangar that is not only looking and sounding good, but also offers a good system depth. Every real pilot will enjoy navigating by VOR and NDB and manually managing the four finicky power plants. It is hard work but the DC-8 will reward you with great handling.
It’s time to forget about MCDU, FMS and FADEC and go back to real flying, complete with instruments with needles and a sturdy but steady hand on the throttles and stick.
Features:
- Simulation of a 50 series DC-8 passenger airliner with a focus on normal procedures
- 3D model of the exterior with animated flight surfaces, reversers, landing gear, four exits and two cargo doors
- Virtual cockpit model with detailed simulation of instruments and controls at the pilot’s, first officer’s, and flight engineer’s positions
- In-depth simulation of more than 10 aircraft systems
- Visual rain effects on cockpit windows using TrueGlass technology by TFDi
- P3D V4 version includes dynamic landing, taxi, and ground floodlights that illuminate objects
- Cockpit lighting including main panel, pedestal, and engineer’s panel floodlights, dome light, panel back lighting, and instrument gauge lighting
- Instrument gauge lighting has four selectable levels of intensity
- Engine and other sounds by Turbine Sound Studios including start-up external air cart sound
- Radar display showing terrain with three ranges selectable
- Loader utility to add and remove passengers, cargo and fuel
- Detailed engine simulation with accurate EPR readings to set power for takeoff, climb and cruise
- Detailed performance tables to determine V speeds, power settings, takeoff trim, manoeuvre and stall speeds, and more
- Custom icing code will cause airframe ice accumulation to increase drag and degrade lift while de-icing will gradually remove effects of ice
- INS waypoints may be manually inserted, or simply by loading a standard FSX flight plan
- INS simulation is very detailed with random drift, DME updating, realistic or fast alignment and more
- A cold and dark state is available at any time using the pop-up loader utility
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Compared to the Just Flight DC-8 series (which doesn't require any special tricks to work in P3Dv5) Aerosoft's is much more technically polished. The fuel system works as advertised, including automatically maintaining the 1 and 4 mains at a certain level by feeding from their alternate tanks. Speaking of fuel, it has a neat payload and fuel loader that distributes fuel properly in this complicated tank system. It has a decent INS that gives you the option of operating in a realistic manner or just loading a standard flight plan and off you go. You can (and need to) fly it by the numbers, which are in the excellent manual containing a well-written long-haul tutorial. It feels like I imagine a DC-8 should feel and keeps you plenty busy during cruise. It's a solid product at a good price.
I do wish this "steak" had more of the "sizzle" of the Just Flight DC-8. There's nothing really wrong with the graphics. The sounds are underwhelming. Everything you need to fly the airplane normally is animated, but that's about it. Crossfeed? Nope. (Nor do you need it for normal operations.) I agree with another reviewer that some apron toys would have been nice. Had I not spent a lot of time in the JF DC-8 first, I might not have even noticed these things.
But the important point is that the Aerosoft DC-8 works like a DC-8 is supposed to work, while the JF version, while good-looking and fun in its quirky own way for me, just doesn't. This is the one to get unless you are a certified classic jet fanatic who will want both versions. Adventurous users of P3Dv5 have some options for classic jetliners and it would be a shame to see this really nice DC-8 passed by when it works beautifully with a little help.
Btw the yokes are removable by clicking the air-brake lever on the MIP. My wish list would include a dedicated cargo version/livery. A load/flight planner with a little bit higher fidelity and the ability to incorporate Milviz Wx Radar. The radar included only displays terrain, or at least that's my understanding.
Nice Job!
Overall a great vintage airliner and if you like these, go get her...
I would love to see a B747-SP, which is of the same era.
FSX and FSX:SE, Lockheed Martin Prepar3D V4
Microsoft Windows 7 / 8 / 10 (64bit)
CPU: Dual-Core with 2.6 GHz (Quad Core highly recommended)
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Graphics card: 3 GB VRAM, DirectX 11
Disk space: 1.1 GB free disk space (SSD highly recommended)
Resolution: 1920x1080 (Full HD) or higher