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Fun: First, my qualifications: I'm a 3000 hour real-world instrument flight instructor. I have been flying PC-based flight sims ever since 1983, when I installed the original "Microsoft Flight Simulator" on an Apple IIe with a monochromatic-green monitor. Since then, I've put in roughly 10,000 hours of "flying" on essentially every PC-based flight sim ever made, from Microprose F-19 Stealth fighter all the way up to Falcon 4.0. For whatever it's worth, folks, I'm an expert on this particular subject. A few years ago, Shockwave Tri-Synergy came out with the equally magnificent "Wings of Power," that included the coolest airplane ever designed for MSFS 2004, the B-29 Superfortress "Doc's Deadly Dose." I said then that "Wings of Power" was worth the $30.00 for that airplane alone. I am please beyond words to report that, in "Aircraft Powerpack 2," the geniuses at Shockwave Tri-Synergy have utterly outdone themselves yet again. This time, the star of the show is the absolutely magnificent and totally addictive P-51D Mustang, "The Flying Undertaker." Ladies and Gentlemen, there has simply never been a finer airplane designed for Microsoft FS than this utterly FANTASTIC P-51D. The other airplanes are all great too. In fact, they are so good that I feel bad giving so much of the spotlight to the Mustang. But anyone who is a part of the aviation community will understand. If there is one airplane in the history of all aircraft that has the biggest aura of "The Right Stuff" hanging around it, it is the P-51. Quite simply, if you were to survey all the serious pilots on earth and ask them what their all-time dream airplane is, I'm guessing that the Mustang would beat out the next closest answer by a huge percentage. In this nearly perfect simulation software, Shockwave Tri-Synergy has given this legendary airplane all the attention it deserves. Quite simply, this Mustang and all the other fighters included in this package are so good that they will give you a reason to go out and drop $5000 on the hottest gaming platform made, simply so that you can crank up all the scenery and frame rates to their max and immerse yourself in the ultimate adrenaline-pumping flight sim experience. Very few of us will ever fly, much less own, a real P-51 Mustang. For several thousand dollars, you can get an hour in "Crazy Horse" down in Sanford, Florida. For several million dollars plus maintenance and operating costs, you can own your own irreplaceable piece of history and spend your nights awake worrying about some line guy backing his tug tractor into a propeller that would cost over $50,000 to replace. Most of us pilots have had to content ourselves with watching Jeff Ethell's "Roaring Glory" DVD series and flying these airplanes in our dreams. Now, thanks to Shockwave Tri-Synergy, we get to take our dreams to the next level. Let's put it this way - nearly everything in the cockpit works. And I mean nearly EVERYTHING. Right after you install this and start flying the P-51D, you are going to wind up going online, looking for a copy of the real Mustang Pilot's Operating Handbook. Plus, this cockpit isn't the battered, half-complete, half-modernized amalgamation that most half-restored P-51s have today. This is a cockpit that you would find in a brand-new P-51 in 1945, with everything shiny new and all the switches, levers and buttons right where they should be. No matter how experienced a pilot you are (either real or virtual) you will want to get to know this airplane cautiously. Give yourself plenty of room - use the big runway at Edwards, or the one at Salina, Kansas. Spend some time doing traffic patterns, and discover the big pitch change that comes with landing gear operation. Discover the fact that you can't just pull the power back to idle on the downwind leg abeam the touchdown zone, like you would in a Cessna 172, unless you want to come down like a stone. Discover the fact that full flaps need to be saved until you are crossing the fence at about 100 - 110 mph. Discover that the tailwheel is free castoring, and that with the throttle all the way back at idle, you have no rudder effectiveness and have to use differential brakes. Discover that when you put the nose down at 25,000 feet with the power at 50 inches, you will learn about transsonic control difficulties very quickly. Discover that, without proper mixture control, you won't be able to climb past about 15,000 feet, and that with it, you can scratch for 40,000 feet if you are determined enough. Discover that you can blast along a shoreline at over 350 mph at 100 feet, and then pull the nose up, up, up and zoom climb over a mountain, roll inverted and plunge back down to the ocean again. Discover the ultimate piston-driven adrenaline rush. And that's just in the P-51. The Thunderbolt, Spitfire, Zero, Me-109 and Warhawk are all modeled with equal love and care, and I only have a few nits to pick. For one, why do we get three almost identical Messerschmitts? The Trop would be enough, couldn't we have had a Corsair, a FW-190 or a P-38 Lightning? Why do we get the almost pre-historic looking P-47C, with its cage cockpit, when we could have had the far more beautiful bubble-canopy P-47D? Why do the landing gear sound like little civilian electric motors, instead of like the real systems in the real fighters? And that's my list of nits - there really isn't anything else to complain about, and there is SO much here to love! I said this once about "Doc's Deadly Dose," and I'll say it here again about "The Flying Undertaker." To any serious pilot or aviation buff, this software would be worth more than $30.00 for the P-51D alone. The other airplanes are just a fantastic bonus. Buy this now, and prepared to be blown away! Comment | Permalink | function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. Your vote will be counted and will appear on the product page within 24 hours."; } else { showVoteErrorResponse(msgLayer,result,value); } } (Report this)

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