By Brandt Ryan January 18th, 2000

  Carrier Ops

I'll make this short and sweet (sort of like the experience of taking off from the carrier in this sim). Taking off looks good and feels good, but requires little in order of procedures from the pilot's seat. In fact, just throw the throttle into AB and release your brakes. That's it.

However, landing on the carrier is a different story. To me it is very challenging, and a lot of fun. The tower is screaming at you the whole way down baby, and you gotta call the ball, if you got a pair -- because most of the time they're gonna wave you off if you're not coming in just perfect like. I'm no expert at carrier landings, but it seems to be very realistically rendered.

You have to be in constant communication with the tower, constantly cross checking your instruments, and constantly wiggling your toes. Boltering is almost as fun as landing in terms of heart-rate increase factor. Then you get vectored around for another try. I don't know how they do it, but so far, the ATC has been solid.

If you're looking for a pretty slide show on the carrier deck, complete with guys running around giving you strange hand signals that might offend certain people in other countries, you won't like the way Jane's rendered the flight deck. The important things however, especially when landing, are there. That, in my opinion, is all that's important. It feels right and real, but when you catch that wire the show's over. Well, the show's not completely over--AI takes over your aircraft, taxi's you over to the side, wings fold up, and if you wait long enough, your canopy will open. Not bad, not bad at all.

Campaign System (79%)

The campaign feels very nice, and is, as far as I can tell at this point, the best of the "semi-dynamic" types. It's NOT Falcon 4.0, so if a fully dynamic campaign is your thing, your must have, your peach pie, your thing by which you judge the sim, then you might be a little dissapointed.

I love dynamic campaigns, but I can overlook the lack in F/A 18 because of everything else it has to offer, most notably the mission builder. Again, it is an excellent campaign of the semi-dynamic sort. I feel like I'm taking part and having an effect in the campaign. The missions flow nicely from one to the next. There's definitely an ATO, and you're definitely an integral part of it.

Click to continue

Check in with FAC at 20 miles.

FM, Physics, Weapons and Systems (88%)

Apparently (if you read the recent article comparing this sim to the actual military sims or the Hornet Duel article) the flight model is very good. I'll default to the "I've never flown an F18, so I can't talk about the Flight Model" response.

I must say though, that I was greatly relieved to find myself not flapping around like a fish ala F-15. At the same time, I wouldn't exactly say that the aircraft if an extension of your body--the feeling I get from my lover in Falcon 4.0 (Yes baby, I miss you too. No, of course I'm not cheating on you! You see, I've got this new job, so I'll have to split up my time between this new job, and our lovely rendevous'. I know you'll understand baby.) Sorry about that folks--sadly enough I DO feel like I'm cheating on my beloved Falcon 4.0.

However, I think that perhaps the F/A 18 is supposed to be somewhere between the F-15 and the F-16 in this way of looking at the aircraft in terms of it being an extension of your body.

Let's talk navigations systems. While training with a real deal F-16 pilot in Falcon 4.0, I learned to use the TACAN instrument extensively. I found this to be great fun, and very useful. I liked it so much that the first thing I tested out in F/A 18 was the TACAN instrument, or HSI.

Sure enough, it works flawlessly. Not only that, but you have the choice to fly in different steering modes: waypoint, TACAN, and ACL (which points you to Mother.) The TACAN itself is configurable, i.e. you can put in the proper course so that you intercept that TACAN station from any heading you like. Master this HSI and watch the fun factor go up immensely!

NOTE: Falcon 4.0 Players, if you are wishing the waypoint HSI would display the waypoints with lines connecting them (ala Falcon 4.0), simply make sure you click on SEQ in the bottom right of the HSI. Ou la la! Look familiar?

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