UPDATE REGARDING CTD's: India Foxt Echo have updated the product and according to other users, the CTD issue does now seem to have been sorted. I haven't had a chance to test this myself yet, but I will update the comment accordingly, when I have confirmed no more CTD's. Cheers!
Hola José, Depende de dónde haya comprado el avión. Si es de Simmarket, deberá volver a descargarlo; si es de Orbx, debería actualizarse automáticamente cuando ejecute Orbx Central y, si compró a través de MSFS Marketplace, deberá esperar a que la actualización esté disponible (por lo general, toma un tiempo para que lleguen las actualizaciones al propio sim) y luego puede actualizar a través del administrador de contenido. Espero que eso ayude un poco. ¡Todo lo mejor! : )
Muchas gracias, por considerarme y dar respuesta a mi consulta, siempre sigo tus contenidos, y es más, gracias a ello he comprado la mayoría de mis aviones. Siga volando alto y orientandonos en las simulaciones de vuelo. Saludos y abrazos désde Chile. ( lo compré en Simmarket, si lo descargo nuevamente tengo que pagarlo? Gracias nuevamente y saludos.)
Muchas gracias por las amables palabras José! Estoy muy contento de que estés disfrutando del canal/contenido : ) El F-35 es una compra única, por lo que puede descargarlo tantas veces como desee a partir de entonces. ¡Todo lo mejor!
Just one thing to critique: if you're gonna land the jet, LAND IT! Lots of real videos on UA-cam of this. You establish a hover above the landing spot, then you commit to a semi-rapid descent. Don't try to gently place it on the deck, plant it. ;)
very nice review. I think this one is not for me for now, I would rather be excited on the Harrier, this is just too digital. nevertheless I have to admit that I’m very impressed by how they modelled the hovering and the uniqueness and the implementtion of the PCD is also a WOW!
Thanks Péter! I’m completely in agreement with you. The F-35 is fun to hover and it’s an incredible piece of engineering (if true to life), but you don’t get that feeling of being a flying god, as you wrestle the Harrier around the skies haha XD Cheers! : )
Well some people do Neogenmatrix ; ) Nobody would deny that an iPhone is by far the more impressive piece of technology, but the rotary phone is also a design classic - simple, a little more soulful and a more tactile user experience. In much the same way, the Harrier clearly isn’t nearly as technologically advanced as the F-35, but to me it feels like it has a boatload more “character” and is more hands on, challenging and fun to fly. To each their own of course though! Cheers : )
By far the best and my favorite of all the Jets in my collection. Alway a pure gem by this man ! Nothing shot of absolute perfection or as close to it as we can hope to get from here.
Super detailed review and thanks for making such a long detailed review. I bought it too at launch and had two CTD's while in external view in VR. I did switch some times during recording from VR to 2D for screenshot for my first impression video. The jet is very special and unique and they will find the cause of the CTD together with MS / Asobo once it gets tested before in sim marketplace release. I'm pretty sure it's a sim related problem. The new Aeroplane Heaven Grumman F3F-2 also has some CTD's when launching the sim if that was the last plane loaded. The sim is still in Beta now after SU7 so there are lots of bugs and problems, especially in VR. Hope they all get fixed ASAP. Thanks again for this perfect review.
Thanks very much Sven, my pleasure as always! I agree that the F-35 is quite a special / unique addon in some respects and as you say, I’m sure IFE / Asobo will get to the bottom of it. I’ve no idea whether it’s a sim problem, or a problem with the jet; I’ve done some more testing though and it’s only the F-35 giving me CTD’s in the sim. As you say, the sim still has plenty of issues for sure though - fingers crossed the next sim update will sort some of them (given that it’s meant to be a bug fixing exercise). Thanks once again for watching, very happy you enjoyed it : ) All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations yes a sim hotfix, I will try the f35 later today with this new version of msfs, Hope it brings more stability ! As Always thank you for your video !
Well I gather the update has somewhat screwed the throttle assignments. One now has to bind to “Throttle Axis 1” instead of just “Throttle Axis”. Fine if you only fly single-engine, but it’ll be a bit of a pain if anyone flies multi-engine stuff as well I suppose. They did at least fix TrackIR, so I’m pretty pleased about that. Haven’t had a chance to try the F-35 again yet though. . . My pleasure on the video! Cheers : )
So bought this, downloaded, installed then used your vid to help with the startup procedure, got it running switched into VR and flew from KDEN out over the Rockies, climbed to 50k, burned 6.5 tonnes of fuel and landed it back on runway 7 at KDEN and had an absolute blast. Zero CTDs. Performance ok on my GTX1070. Brilliant stuff. Edit, spoke too soon. Getting regular CTDs now.
Ah, well I’m happy you’re enjoying the aircraft otherwise Mark. I find I’m averaging about 1 CTD per hour, so it’s usually possible to squeeze a quick sector in. Obviously far from ideal though. . . Hopefully IFE and / or Asobo figure something out for the jet soon. All the best! PS happy to hear that the video was a useful learning guide also : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Quick shout out here for IFE who have refunded the purchase price based on my CTD experience. Will try to do some ongoing testing for them, see if I cannot isolate at least the duration when this occurs. It’s a cracking aircraft, hope they can fix it.
Ah well that’s thoroughly decent of them. Great to hear! It’s always nice to see a dev doing the right thing. I hope they get it figured out - I’d like to see them go from strength to strength : )
Thanks very much SeattleAviator, glad you like it! It isn’t to everyone’s taste to be fair haha, but I figure it adds a little more immersion in certain videos and some people do seem to appreciate it. Cheers and all the best : )
IndiaFoxtEcho had to make some big guesses about what automation might be in the aircraft and how the cockpit might look. As you say, we have no idea whether they are close or wildly wrong on that. But i guess one day - maybe a couple of decades away, we'll all get a good look at the real one and see how close they were. In the mean time, your guess is as good as IndiaFoxtEcho's and as good as mine about what is in the aircraft. But I for one amd IMPRESSED!!! Good video too by the way.
Hi Mike, For sure. Maybe in 20 years time, we’ll realise that IFE had access to all of the top secret documentation haha ; ) As you say, either way it’s an impressive effort! Plausible, if not necessarily accurate. Glad you enjoyed the video. All the best! : )
Interesting to know re the sounds Caleb and I agree that IFE have done a very nice job modelling the cockpit. A very solid effort overall. I’m glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks very much for watching and all the best! : )
Thank you for this in depth and honest review. Too many content makers are shilling add-ons they were gifted or perhaps even sponsored. Waiting for a balanced review like yours has saved me a lot of disappointment..... and money xD
Thanks very much KL, always my pleasure! I certainly try my very best to be objective, honest and fair during my reviews. I am gifted products from time to time, but I’m quite selective with who I take them from and I’m always upfront with the dev, that I will only be offering honest feedback on the product either way (I have lost the support of at least dev as a result haha). Some devs are great, some take it personally, but of course if a product is good, it will stand on its own merits. I’m quite happy with what I’ve created here on the channel and I value the channel’s integrity, far more than I do a free addon etc. Ultimately the point is to help people decided what’s right for them and yeah, if I can save you some money and disappointment in the process, great! ; ) Cheers and all the best! : )
Seems like bit of a mixed bag. Lots of reports about crashing on the forum thread as well but IndiaFoxtEcho are pretty good with patching products so hopefully they'll be fixed up but it's a bit worring considering how they delayed it because of the crashing. That big touch screen looks pretty good and the auto take-off hover system is kinda cool. Think I'll wait on this and see if it improves with time. Plenty of other things vying for my attention and limited funds though: Twin Otter out pretty soon, still eying up the Kodiak and also the FreedomFox looks kinda neat. Then there's Big Radials' Grumman Goose and Wing42's Boeing 247 in the not too distant future hopefully that I'll almost surely be picking up. Bloody expensive hobby this flight simming! God knows how much I've spent on it over the past decade or two. Cheers for the review, great stuff as always and it's nice to see the Mach Loop more in MSFS. Still waiting on a Bleriot timed run though!
Yeah, very much so I would say Megadyptes. It’s a hard addon to sum up and I’m not quite sure I articulated myself very well in the conclusion. As a technical achievement I think it’s excellent (minus a few flaws / things that need fixing up). The auto-takeoff, flawless hovering, smooth operation of the screens etc is impressive! Judging it by the metrics on which we judge most addons (sounds, graphics etc) I think it’s somewhere between average and good. I too think it’s a bit disconcerting that they delayed it due to CTD’s (according to what I’ve read), only for there to still be CTD issue. I do hope they didn’t just disregard the issue and go for release in the end. Looking forward to the Twotter myself, although I’m not too sure how happy people are actually going to be with it; even Aerosoft are saying it will be somewhat “simplified” and Xbox-ified etc. We’ll see. . . I do want to try out the FreedomFox also, keep meaning to send the devs an email to see if they’ll let me take a look. . . Definitely looking forward to that B247 now that you’ve pointed it out haha and a whole host of addons will be hitting the wallet hard this year no doubt! It is an expensive hobby for sure (I do actually know how much I’ve spent on it, for accounting purposes), still cheaper than golf though I reckon haha : P Haha, you’ll have to bear with me on the Bleriot Mach Loop run; I started in in November, I’m just about coming up on The Cross Foxes In as we speak! XD Thanks as always! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I've also read people having problems with the auto trim like you had. Someone on the forum thread claimed it was working better in the beta but some testers complained it made it too simple to fly so it was changed. Dunno if that's true but if so it would be pretty disappointing as surely the real version would have a pretty sophisticated auto trim system as you said in your review. I won't mind if the twotter is a bit simplified but hopefully not too much. we'll just have to wait and see I guess. Hope you get your hands on the freedom fox, I've watched a few reviews and the opinions are generally quite positive but I'd really like to get your views on it too! Eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Bleriot in Machynlleth sometime around March. I have a feeling it could pose a serious challenge to the Lightning.
Makes sense Bruce. I guess the F-35 has got some pretty sophisticated gyros, accelerometers and computers, all working overtime to do the tricky bits and the pilot just commands the jet as to where he wants it to go. Pretty impressive stuff! Cheers for the info : )
Great review, and extremely fair. I would honestly have given up after 3 or 4 CTDs, let alone 9! I'm quite concerned as to if this will ever be fixed - according to them it shows no errors and they even had Microsoft look it over and it's "confirmed not to be related" but that seems pretty hard to believe... So I'll probably hold off on buying it for now, sadly. I was really looking forward to it but it doesn't really make sense. I might get the TF-104 instead for now and check on this plane in a few months.
Seems they are missing the point that there are users who have frequent CTD's with only F-35. Starfighter is great and I'm quite happy even with SC Designs F-16 which should handle similar like this (FBW with working autotrim). I had zero issues with F-16.
Hi Will, thanks very much once again! Haha, I will say that the CTD’s did at least have the courtesy not to occur during a critical phase of flight - otherwise I’d have been fuming by the end XD I think (certainly hope) that the issue will get fixed, but there does seem to be a bit of finger pointing going on and of course the customer doesn’t really care about who’s fault it is, they just want their product to work. I gather IFE did have Asobo go over the code but, not wishing to be rude, Asobo are hardly the bastion of faultless coding themselves. . . I don’t like to say it, but frankly I think it of course makes sense to wait until the issue has been figured out / resolved. The TF-104 is a nice jet, should keep you occupied in the meantime. It can’t go vertically down, but it can go vertically up! : P All the best : )
Agreed Tomas. It doesn’t really matter who or what’s to blame, if it’s affecting a large number of customers, it needs to be fixed. I realise that might not be a straightforward process. . . I’ve done a fair bit of testing at this point and it’s only the F-35 giving me issues, on my otherwise very stable sim. Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations For anyone who is considering buying this and worrying about CTD's, it's has been fixed with latest patch, problem was in HMD. It's really great plane, especially B variant.
Thanks very much for the info Tomas. I’ll give it a try myself when I get the chance and then post / pin a comment accordingly, to notify anyone watching the video. Cheers! : )
Do you have a website where you have, or should I say advise, what the best size PC is to get the results you’re getting? If you don’t, then that might be a good idea then you can get people over to your site if you have one… I’m just getting back into flight simulator now and I would very much like to know
You want to know how powerful the PC needs to be to look this good? This video is at 1080p at a 16:9 aspect ratio and I'm guessing 60 frames per second. A monitor like that would be quite cheap now, compared to a 2560x1440 resolution monitor at 120Hz or frames per second. UA-cam videos always look worse than the original version as UA-cam compresses the video. It depends on your monitor, on how powerful your PC needs to be. Flat screen or VR. Resolution and the frames per second you want. The RTX 40 series has a Frame Generation mode for 2D screen monitors that give you twice the frames but at a cost of higher latency and RTX cards have DLSS mode for better performance. These modes work with selected games only. MSFS 2020 is one of them. I myself would go for an intel motherboard with a 12th gen CPU socket myself. Or you could wait for an intel 14th gen CPU board. Just because I am more familiar with intel and Nvidia technology. His PC specs are listed as: PC Specs MSI B550M AMD Ryzen 7 5800x 4.7GHz NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 32GB DDR4 3600MHz Hardware Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Saitek Pro Flight rudder pedals HP Reverb WMR headset TrackIR5 Earthquake Shell Shoxx transducer
Hi Ade2Bee, I don’t have a website I’m afraid. To be honest, a website would only mean more work (I’m rather flat-out as it is haha) and wouldn’t benefit the channel greatly I don’t think (and the channel is my primary focus). That being said, I always try to answer any comments I receive here and I do have a channel Discord, for anyone that wants to make use of that. As British Dragon kindly points out, my PC specs are in the video description. That’s about the sort of equipment you would need, to have the sim settings turned up reasonably high and still maintain decent FPS (in 1080p). If you watch some of my oldest MSFS vids, that should give you a good idea of the results you’ll get on older equipment. Welcome back to the hobby! Any further questions, please feel free to get in touch : )
You’re most welcome once again sir! Glad you enjoyed it. I don’t seem to be getting the reviews out as quick as you can buy em anymore! : P Happy flying in the F-35! Hopefully if you are having any crashes, it’s into the deck and not to the desktop XD
Thanks for the review. I've had 2 CTDs in 6 flights today. Hadn't had a CTD in months before installing this aircraft. Oddly when it CTDs the next time I fire up the sim the aircraft is not showing in the flight menu and I have to verify files in ORBX to have it show up again. Beyond that the flying I have been able to do has been a blast so hopefully they get this CTD issue sorted ASAP.
My pleasure Dave! Thanks for the info on the CTD’s. I’ve seen a few others mentioning the jet disappearing after a CTD, that seems to be an Orbx peculiarity. Like you, my sim is usually pretty solid otherwise and having done some more testing today, it’s only the F-35 giving me grief. As you say, I hope IFE manage to figure the issue out and get it sorted. The aircraft is indeed rather good fun otherwise! Cheers : )
I really enjoy your films. Great Camera work and I love the way you structure the arc of the storyline. Like a plane..what goes up must come down and a arc is a nice way to do it. Bravo
Thank you very much indeed Donald! It’s always nice to hear that some of the “smaller” details in my vids are enjoyed also. It’s great that people find the reviews useful, but I try and make the videos more than “just” a review, so it’s brilliant to know that my efforts aren’t in vain haha. Creating reviews can be a little bit formulaic, so throwing in somewhat of a side story and giving the video a more “artistic” slant, really adds to my own personal enjoyment of the whole process. I’m really happy to hear that you’re enjoying the end result also! Cheers and all the best : )
Hi Alexander, Hmm, well I seem to recall that India Foxt Echo changed some of the key assignments since this video was recorded, but last time I flew the F-35, one had to assign a key to "Toggle Autopilot Heading Hold". Otherwise, I’m sure the keybind will be detailed in the manual. I hope that helps! All the best : )
Best F-35 MOD IN MFS2020!!! No HUD Display replicates the in built F-35 Helmet HUD It has the capability for using its VTOL/STOVL capabilities, and the cockpit has a lot of options and is very realistic, as well as the model.
Hi SNA, It certainly is a rather decent replication of the F-35, given the sim's limitations and the general lack of information about the aircraft, available in the public domain. Really glad you're enjoying it! All the best : )
Thanks very much Peter. My pleasure and I’m glad it helped you decide whether it’s right for you or not. Absolutely; in fairness to IFE, one can’t expect to see a study-level jet, when most of the materials on said jet are still classified (and I think they’ve done a nice job in the systems department considering). The F-35 is actually quite fun to operate in the sim, but they really need to figure out what’s causing these CTD’s. . . Thanks again, all the best! : )
I definitely want the F35 for the sim, but not if it's going to crash out and slow my PC to a crawl. If they sort out the issues and the odd handling/power I'd be all over it. I bought the Goshawk but was disappointed in how it flew as it felt underpowered and sluggish in handling so I don't want to jump on this quite so quickly.
The CTD issue needs sorting for sure. I’ve not idea whether or not India Foxt Echo will be able to do much to improve the FPS impact. I never much cared how the T-45 handled either. Apparently it is heavier and has less power than the Hawk (so one might expect it to feel a little more sluggish), but in pitch, I always felt like there was a lack of control authority. Never flown a real T-45 though, so that was just conjecture on my part (though the DCS version flies much closer to what I was expecting). The T-45 never quite hit the sweet spot that the MB339 did - a shame, as it was a beautifully modelled jet. Cheers! : )
Thanks very much Kevin, glad you enjoyed it! This is the carrier I used in the video, but unfortunately it seems as though the file is not currently available: flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring I suspect there might be other freeware carriers available on flightsim.to, but I'm not too sure on that one. Cheers and all the best! : )
That’s really impressive would love to see this come to dcs. I remember watching a documentary which was fantastic about the x-35 vs x-32 which thank god the x35 was picked cause the x32 was ugly I’d say the a10 looks better the. X32 anyway I remember back then they said this could not be done the Air Force marines and navy version all in one airframe. Looks like they did it even tho it was the most expensive military endeavor ever.
It would indeed be awesome to have in DCS Craig, but I can’t imagine it will happen any time soon sadly (at least not officially), with so much still being classified etc. Haha, I think I watched the same documentary and completely agree - the most beautiful fighter one! But then there is always that old adage; “if it looks right, it will fly right” ; ) Cheers! : )
Quite possibly Data. I actually don’t have much of a clue as to how aircraft change from prototype to final production version these days (at least not with the military jets). I would have thought that with modern computer design techniques etc, the prototype would already be a fairly refined version of the aircraft, but I’m sure changes still crop up along the way (as indeed you allude to). Either way, I guess we got the F-35 haha. Cheers, all the best! : )
It does have that look / feel to it at times Steelmush. I’m broadly willing to forgive IFE on that one though, since I’m sure it’s no easy task modelling such automation in the first place. The takeoff is definitely the area where this behaviour is most apparent. I gather the whole flight model will be updated at some point, so hopefully the team can refine things a bit in this regard : ) All the best!
Is the carrier bundled? Cant find it! Or did you buy another carrier, and if so - which one? Does all carrier launch and land options work for all planes valid for carreier landing? =)
Hi Rymd, apologies for the slow reply. Unfortunately, the carrier I was using in this video is no longer available. There are a few other options over on Flightsim.to though: flightsim.to/discover/Carrier Previously, 3rd party payware was required to get carrier functionality working, but I believe that some of these addons work in their own right now. I haven't tried them myself but they're free, so worth giving a go. I hope that helps! All the best : )
Thanks very much Conleth, really glad you enjoyed it! Haha, I think UA-cam's compression algorithms are actually to my benefit in some respects; they seem to "soften up" some of the sim's blemishes and make things look a little more convincing in the video, than they actually do in the sim for me XD Cheers once again! All the best : )
Hi Andrew, The carrier is available over on Flightsim.to (search “Superspud Carrier” and you should find it). The download was briefly taken offline, but I think the dev has put it back up again now. There is also now a payware UK carrier fleet available from MilSimTech. I hope that helps. All the best! : )
Sad that they aren't a dcs developer. Even tho it probably wouldn't fit into as there aren't any other stealth jets or equally modern jets in dcs, I would still love to see that one
I believe India Foxt Exho are moving into DCS as well Henrik. They have the MB339 and then I seem to recall they’re doing a G-91 also. Maybe the F-35 will make it in one day, but I would say it’s unlikely, since they simply won’t have the technical data available to bring the aircraft up to DCS standards. + as you allude to, it would potentially just dominate the skies haha! Cheers, all the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations yea thank you, all the best for you too. Tbh, if you look at what the f35 in p3d is capable of in combination with the tacpack and if you would combine this with the improved logics and systems of the msfs version (even tho it doesn't have the tactical systems, the out of combat systems are more advanced) it would be better than any other dcs module after release and there are many modules in dcs which infact are less advanced than many actually think. The f16 for example only has a ground radar since a couple of months. That one is one of the more needed systems but it still took them a long time until it was integrated.
Well that’s true Henrik; a lot of DCS modules release in quite an incomplete state. Usually when they are finished though, they are excellent. Personally, I’m not so much into the modern jets (though there’s a few I like) - I prefer the Viggen, Harrier F-5 era sort of aircraft - a little bit more hands-on work for the pilot. Also less systems to learn haha. I like learning aircraft systems, but I’ve never been much good at learning the weapons operation side of things. Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations ye I can understand. I myself like the ww2 aircraft the most and my biggest wish would be the me262 in dcs. But I love learning systems and the modern jets.
Hey was just doing some testing in the sim with the f35. turns out I had a key bound to decrease prop pitch 4( which was also bound to elevator trim) and everytime i pressed that key the sim would crash to desktop without fail no matter which variant i was using. I un bound the key from decrease prop pitch 4 and left it bound to elevator trim and flew the f35c around for about an hour using all the manual trimming features of the aircraft with no crash to desktop. i imagine indiafoxtecho has some variable to control the pitch of the fan on the f35b that is interfering and causing the sim to crash to desktop when the aircraft is trying to trim for hover and svtol flight. im gonna do some testing without using the fan at all in the f35b and see if that changes anything or if the programming for how the fan works is just incorrect right now causing ctd.
Thanks very much for the info Jesse! I don’t think one would apply to me necessarily, as I’ve had the jet crash under all sorts of situations - sometimes even just idling on the ground, with me not touching anything. There’s definitely an issue though; I’ve done some more testing myself and it’s only the F-35 giving me CTD’s in my sim. Hopefully it gets sorted soon. Cheers! : )
I think this solved the CTD problems for me too! I deleted all 4 prop pitch bindings on my Saitek/Logitech throttle quadrant, except for the main one. No CTD on 4 flights after this!
Ah, haha, never mind then. Still, nice Jesse to try and offer up a solution! I think it’s something fundamentally wrong with the F-35 causing the issue and we’ll just have to wait for IFE to figure out what it is and then fix it unfortunately : / Cheers Breeze! All the best : )
Thanks very much Extra, glad you enjoyed it! The ATC is real-world military recordings, that I’ve then edited into the video. There is an ATC chatter app available for MSFS though, if that’s the sort of thing you’re after : ) Cheers and all the best!
Hi Rainer, Thanks very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Hmm, well I seem to recall that India Foxt Echo changed some of the key assignments since this video was recorded, but last time I flew the F-35, one had to assign a key to "Toggle Autopilot Heading Hold". I hope that helps! All the best : )
Hi Pedro, This is the carrier I was using, but it seems the file is no longer available sadly: flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring I'd imagine there are other freeware carriers available though, otherwise there are some payware options; all carrier options will require a payware tool, in order to have "working" catapults etc. As of now, there is no default MSFS carrier option unfortunately. I hope that helps a little. All the best!
As Bernard (helpfully) states, it’s actually real world ATC (military in this case) that I edit into the video. As you say, I think it makes the video feel more immersive, so I’m glad you agree : ) There is an ATC chatter mod available for MSFS though, if that’s the sort of thing you’re after; otherwise you can just listen along to a bit of LiveATC.net as you fly. Cheers, all the best!
Seems like a plane I could actually enjoy in the future. Unfortunately - like so many things - it was released in an unfinished state.... So for now I'm going to wait before getting it. Overall it's still quite impressive on what they were able to achieve. As always thanks for the review and take care!
I mean, technically is STOL capable - so you could take it bush flying etc : P It does seem like it was released before it was ready though sadly (in terms of CTD’s). It sounds like IFE plan to overhaul the flight model as well - which would suggest they weren’t entirely happy with the one they released. It’s already a great aircraft in some respects and I really like IFE as a company, but I wouldn’t have expected issues like we’ve seen, from one of their products - a little bit of shame. But agreed, the F-35 is uniquely impressive; quite an accomplishment in any sim I think! Cheers Dream! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Well, just need a good explanation then on why I landed a 100+ million dollar jet on a riverbed. Well lets hope they can still turn this into a solid product. After all they showed that they can do it with their previous products. Well, take care!
I just bought it and my flight model feel really jumpy in pitch, it doesnt seem to auto-trim (if I do a STOVL short take off, as soon as I click on the STOVL button to go back to normal mode it just plunges straight to the ground if I am not careful for instance) and when releasing the stick in pitch make it bounces in the opposite direction. The f18 feels extremly smooth to fly in comparison, I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
Hi Gadac, I've been getting a bit of an influx of negative comments regarding the F-35 of late, so I wonder if a previous sim update perhaps broke something. Then again, IFE did just update the F-35 and if you only just purchased the addon, I expect you're running the most current version. Some of the points you mention, I also found to be true during the review. The aircraft is a bit twitchy in pitch, though unfortunately most MSFS aircraft are. Unlike the real F-35, this version does not have auto-trim (annoyingly) - it was removed by the devs on the recommendation of the beta testers. . . I gather that IFE are working on an all-new flight model for the aircraft though and they said this will include auto-trim. Regarding the STOVL takeoff, I'm afraid it's been a while since I've had the chance to fly the F-35, but I do seem to recall having to be quite particular with how I came out of the STOVL mode, in order to prevent the aircraft from then descending (but I don't remember exactly what that entailed). I don't know that you're doing anything "wrong" by the sounds of it, the F-35 does have its quirks for sure. Hopefully IFE's new flight model (whenever that arrives) will address at least some of your issues though. I hope that helps a little. Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations hey, thanks for the clarifications, I will be waiting for sure for the new flight model in hope it will fix my issue. In the meantime i'll keep playing as Maverick with the F18 😅
Thank you for all the information on these different aircraft. I have narrowed my options down to the F-14 or the F-35 your thoughts? I did see an F-35 improvement mod as well, not sure if that might put the F--35 over the F-14. Also should I buy from marketplace or the mod website?
Hi Smoove, You’re most welcome! : ) Overall I would probably go with the F-35. Both products have their strengths and weaknesses, but the F-35 is a higher quality product generally speaking. The F-35 has more systems depth, better modelling and texturing and you get the 3 variants in one package (the B variant makes for some very interesting flying!). The F-14 is (I think) more fun to fly though (the F-35’s flight model feels a bit questionable) and if memory serves me correctly, also has better sounds (and at the end of the day, it’s an F-14 haha!). I haven’t tried the F-35 improvement mod I’m afraid, so I can’t comment on what sort of difference that might make. The F-35 also seems to receive a lot more care and attention from the dev, with multiple updates etc (updates to the F-14 have been more sporadic thus far). I suppose it really depends on what you’ll want the aircraft for. If you want something with a bit of depth and complexity, I would go with the F-35 all day long. If you want something to have fun in, blast down valleys etc, then I’d be more tempted by the F-14 personally. I’m not sure whether you’re aware, but the F-14 is also on sale at the moment (I don’t know whether that would factor into your decision). I would 100% recommend buying either addon outside of the Marketplace: Aircraft with weapons are not permitted on the Marketplace and so any weapons have to be removed by developers. Purchasing from another vendor, will mean that you will have weapons available on aircraft that support them (as the F-35 does for example). I hope all of that helps a little. All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Really appreciate your detailed reply. I'm just getting into Flight Sim so overall just looking to have fun. I don't even know how realistic each aircraft is supposed to be I'm so new, which can be a good thing.
My pleasure! I might suggest the F-14 a little more overall then. It’s somewhat simpler to operate (press button XYZ and the aircraft will behave accordingly - whereas the F-35 can require quite a bit of rifling through menus / subsystems etc) and it’s generally an easier aircraft to fly. The DC Designs aircraft are rather aimed at more causal / newer simmers, whereas the India Foxt Echo stuff is perhaps aimed at the mid-level enthusiasts. The F-14 does look a little bit rougher graphically I would say, but not to a degree that would spoil the experience. Welcome to the hobby! Hope you have fun : )
Honest balanced and fair review, when I had 2 ctds in the first 2 flights I thought oh know not Santas sleigh again, and this time I have spent money to experience this .... not a free download. Still it did seem to settle and I flew for 2 hours with no other issues. I am a bit surprised none of the Beta test reviewers hadn't mentioned the Drs issues. I did read that the developer said they acknowledged ctds but that it was due to the flight sim and not the aircraft. So I was a bit surprised to find everyone having the same issue. Anyway that said and ctds aside I enjoyed the flying experience and so much easier than flying a Harrier 👍creating depth review. Look forword to its time trial around the loop, Th at is if you can get round without ctds !!!🙄👍
well me and my friend neither had a single ctd in a couple hours of flight time. i read somewhere that it has something to do wiith directx12, which would be fitting as neither of us uses directx12
Happy to hear it’s working well for you Jonas. It seems to be a real mixed bag, working for some and not for others. I’m on DX11 myself, so it isn’t that (for me anyway). I ran some more tests today: Under the exact same conditions, I was 2 for 2 on CTD’s with the F-35, the other aircraft I tested were fine. Hopefully IFE will get to the bottom of it, or someone will work out the cause. I’d like to be able to say that it’s all been resolved. The F-35 is a lot of fun otherwise. Cheers! : )
Thanks very much Garry! Haha, uh oh, not Santa’s sleigh again XD I’m still averaging about 1 CTD per hour myself. I’m not mad, but I do hope they get it fixed up. I gather the beta testers did in fact report CTD issues and the product was initially delayed as a result - so I’m really hoping they didn’t just say “sod it” and release in the end. I sympathise with IFE that it may be a sim issue and not an aircraft issue, but it needs to get fixed either way - it’s the same result for the customer. . . The aircraft is certainly good fun to fly otherwise! Though I’m not sure I don’t prefer wrestling a Harrier around the skies, for the sake of a good challenge (and feeling like a champ) haha. Glad you enjoyed the video. I’m sure the F-35 will get it’s turn to go around the Mach Loop full-pelt at some point ; ) Thanks again Garry, all the best! : )
Pretty sure that the nozzle angle is wrong for STO. It should be 45-50` down to provide a serious forward thrust component (you can see the nozzle opening from behind the jet). If the nozzle is at 90` for vertical landing and the jet still accelerates, the FM is messed up. Nobody would design a STO takeoff sequence in which the jet was in the air before the ski jump. Fail to get height (pitching bow, high takeoff weight) and you're going to redefine ramp strike.
Hi 123, I don't know the details of the real-world F-35, but what you're saying certainly makes sense. The product has received a tonne of updates since it was released, so perhaps this issue was subsequently addressed. . . Yes, I did think the ski jump thing was a bit silly, but I suspect in fairness, STO probably isn't used on a carrier with a ski jump (I did want to demonstrate it for the purposes of the video however)? All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations It's a combination of flight safety and payload. ua-cam.com/video/7JqTHf71tnA/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/XNgIc_LMoA4/v-deo.html The shortest I've seen a CTOL fighter take off, ashore, was about 900ft for a stripped down F-15A with no tanks and 4 missiles. Vastly higher thrust to weight ratio than an F-35B. Take the runway to sea and crank on 30 knots with a 20 knot headwind and now you can do it in 400ft. A-7Es, which were a backup Ready-5, could do this, with 2 AIM-9Ms. Because of all their high lifts and relatively light weight (half fuel). It was practiced as a backup, in case we were slow in a channel or had all four cats go down. Jet started at the stern and used 100% of the angle deck (foredeck is air park). There are problems with this however, especially in rough seas, as deck crew in a 30 knot wind over deck environment are having to 'lean in', pretty hard. By fifty knots (30+20) they would not be able to do prelaunch checks safely. Most carrier flight ops are at ~12 knots, simply to stay inside an ASW/ASUW protected bastion of sea space when operating close inshore. Now, throw in some serious payload like 4+2 X 685lb GBU-12 and 2X 180lb AIM-9X plus 900lbs for the gunpod, which is pretty normal for CAS these days. That's 5,400lbs in munitions. Added to say 13,000lbs of fuel atop a 28,000lb empty weight. Around 46,500lbs mission takeoff gross weight. On an engine which is pushing 43,000lbs of thrust in full burner and only about 27,000lbf in military thrust. QEII and the Marine LHA assault carriers don't have Jet Blast Deflectors. So the F-35 cannot just be sweeping the deck for 200ft downstream of the nozzle with a supersonic AB exhaust plume at launch. Instead, you add 9,000lbs of roll control nozzle thrust plus 18,000lbs from the lift fan and suddenly (27+9+18) you've got 54,000lbs of oomph. Some of which is lost due to the angle of the nozzle and the mechanical lift fan shaft takeoff but not much. Videos depict plenty of USMC F-35B taking off and landing, conventionally, from landbased runways. Because of noise abatement and maintenance savings as dollar per flight hour budget issues (that downblast is _hot_ and eats runways, kicking up all kinds of FOD). But on the boat, it's always rolling STO and VL.
This is a very impressive add-on to see, however, it needs some refinements and patches before I would consider buying it. In a way this mod is very similar to situation the jet is in irl where I have no doubt it will be an incredible jet but it needs more development and various refinements before it can truly become the game-changer it was meant to be
Haha, I think that's a very fair comment on both fronts Megu. I doubt India Foxt Echo have quite the resources of Lockheed Martin, but hopefully they will still get their jet fixed up nonetheless! XD Cheers! : )
This plane is definition of beauty. Also very accurate and in depth review (even though I don't have a msfs, I felt really good 😁👍) it must be fun to land this vtol
Oh really, I think Concorde, or the Spitfire might have something to say about that! ; ) Glad you enjoyed the review, thanks very much for watching once again! The F-35 is indeed good fun to fly in the hover, incredibly easy; you don’t feel like quite so much of a sky god as one does when landing the Harrier though! : P All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I meant in modern era 😅..... No aircraft takes place of spitfire ❤️ 😁 I like Concorde but it's too hard to control, I tried fslabs it was hard to land (for me) I felt like I'm flying tricycle t6 Texan 😂, but Concorde speed is phenomenal 🤩 I didn't know (F 3 5) it was easy to land, I thought it would be super tricky...
Haha, that’s ok then! ; ) Ah nice! Always wanted to try the FSLabs Concorde myself. Never did though unfortunately. . . The systems depth looked excellent. Well, who knows how accurate the India Foxt Echo version actually is, but the aircraft is fairly easy to fly overall. It’s actually much trickier to get a conventional landing out of it, than it is to get a vertical landing out of it. It’s definitely no Harrier haha. Cheers : )
Hello, Do you happen to know if they have improved this recently? I am hesitant to buy because of some of its issues. It just came out in the Marketplace for me Yesturday with outstanding reviews, but again not sure if it's worth the 30 bucks. Please tell me if it's worth 30 bucks. Just want your opinion :)
Hi Matt, Haha, well I don’t like to tell people if it’s worth the money, as money means different things to different people. The quality is however right up there with other products of a similar price range. I gather the CTD issues have been fixed up, which was my major reservation with the product and an improved flight model + working ordinance is somewhere in the pipeline. The addon is not perfect, but it is a very nice product and the F-35B is so unique (doesn’t compare with anything else I’ve ever flown in a sim) that I’d say the product is worth picking up overall yeah ; ) I’m planing to do another video on it at some point, when I get the chance. . . If may be that you’ve already picked it up by now? If so, I hope you’re enjoying it! : )
Sorry to hear that Michael. It wasn’t the issue for me, but DX12 seems to be one of the culprits causing CTD’s. If you’re running that, might be worth trying DX11. Otherwise, I’ve done some more testing and I’m a bit stumped at this point. . . All the best!
i have tried to land this thing, at 150 -200 kts and stalls,same with the eurofighter,and how do you find an airport to land at on the nav,and line up?
Hi,I buy the great mod but I have some question... how to get the HMS Queen Elizabeth in the MSFS2020?or the US LHD? And how to change the graphic setting to make the HMD more easily to read?
Hi YenLin, HMS Queen Elizabeth can be found (included as part of a free carrier pack) here: flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring The more detailed US carrier that you see in the F-35 promotional material, I believe India Foxt Echo will be selling separately at a later date (I couldn’t see anything in the manual regarding it, but they state that on their FB page). I’m not sure what I did regarding the HMD I’m afraid. I know antialiasing used to affect it, but I have mine on the highest setting and it doesn’t seem to cause issues any longer. I’m running in 1080p - perhaps it doesn’t look as clear if you’re running in 4K? I hope that helps a bit. All the best! : )
Haha, wouldn't that be great RS! Sadly I don't see it happening any time soon though. I guess there simply isn't enough information out there in the public domain, to produce a DCS-level F-35. All the best! : )
hi there - i didnt have time to really go into the F35 systems yet, but i had a quick browse through the users' manual and it appears that the HUD is projected to the Pilot's helmet. so there is no real dedicated screen for it on the airplane's windshield. I'm still hesitant if i should invest time into it when the CTD issue seems to be so inevitable. cheers :)
Hi Havoc, The HUD has indeed been replaced by the HMD. Makes sense in many respects I suppose. One thing I really wonder about with the F-35 though; it does seem to have much redundancy. If that big screen goes, or the HMD goes, I can’t imagine you’d easily be able to fly the jet, let alone fight with it. I’m sure the boys and girls at Lockheed Martin are much cleverer than me though and have given it some thought haha. As to whether to get stuck into it; I would say why not! It’s actually a pretty quick jet to learn and I’ve been finding I’ve been averaging about 1 CTD and hour; so it’s potentially quite possible to finish some short sorties without issue haha. I’m on DX11 myself by the way. I’ve done a bit more testing and I think at this point, it’s quite conclusively an F-35 issue (at least on my machine). Cheers! : )
Had one flight so far. Good fun. However first time loading aircraft got a CTD before getting to load the flight. Re-loaded and had one flight so far. Will continue to monitor CTD.
Interesting. I seem to consistently get a crash inside of 1hr when using the aircraft, in all sorts of flight phases etc. I did some more testing today and it really does seem to be only the F-35 causing issues in the sim for me. . .
From what I h ave heard, in reality when in hover mode teh throttle controls forwards and backwards, i kinda locks itself to a midpoint, and pushing forward on the throttle goes forward, and pulling back goes back. I guess using the sick to pull to go up and push to go down kinda reflects how you would fly in standard flight
Ah ok, that makes a bit more sense. Logically, coming up and down on the stick probably is the more sensible option - it's just a case of getting used to something else I suppose (with the Harrier, helicopters etc). Thanks very much for the info rjc, much appreciated! : )
i found airbrake config is very convenient for takeoff and landing, much better than use auto fcs. for vertical and short run is no matter of course:) and that's about vestibula too lol. that's jump effect at approach and run to take off not good:) sure i don't feel it, but imagine in real aircraft have to be, when flaps go down auto and ac go to lift before landing or before airborne, when use air brake it's go nice when run and go smooth all approach way
@@IntotheBlueSimulations actually if play nice is no matter, those effects only some time when rotate too far or glide too aggressive. and btw if too too aggressive effect opposite - flaps go up even at air brake config, i just think it's work ok for standard way. but autoflaps works not smooth enough and make some jumpy way have a nice ...everything, what better be nice:) and all the best for sure:)
as always, top notch review... what a stunning looking aircraft.. i seems like a good attempt at representing a aircraft so unknown to the public.. i think this will be a addition to the virtuel hangar if they can fix the bugs :D Blue have you had access to aerosofts new DHC-6 Twin Otter, would love to hear your take on it :D
Thank you very much Thomas, very kind of you to say! Indeed, I think a pretty impressive effort in many regards from India Foxt Echo, given how limited any documentation on the aircraft must be. The aircraft is certainly good fun to operate - hopefully the devs can get these CTD issues (which seem to affect some and not others) fixed up! Sadly I’m not in the “cool kids club” for the Twotter no haha. I think it’s only beta-testers that have access at the moment. . . I did think about reaching out to Aerosoft and seeing if they would let me take a look (as they did with the CRJ), but given that I believe even Aerosoft themselves are saying it’s going to be a somewhat “simplified” version of the aircraft, I think I’d rather review it completely independently and that way I can review it 100% honestly, without feeling like I’m abusing anyone’s generosity. It’s definitely an aircraft I’m potentially looking forward to and for sure I will be looking to review it when the time comes! Cheers, all the best : )
Hiya! Been a while since watched any flight sim content and you still produce some of the best videos. Nice work. Amazing review as always! Just picked this up as my PC was out of service for nearly 3 months (xbox is great but really not even comparable) and I am in love. I think the model looks great given the plane is a very simplistic design, love how easy it is to use, though my STOVL needs some work for sure, though I will say its quite a bit more sluggish to handle than I exoext. I'm not sure if was doing something wrong or what but I thought turned a bit quicker and sharper than does but also do get that it's not nessicerily a plane that has to because of how technically advanced it is. Gonna be one of my my flown I suspect as years go on.
Hi Chandler, Yeah, it's been a while, good to see you again! Glad you're still enjoying the content : ) Sorry to hear about your PC, that's never fun (I thought I had killed my over Christmas, but luckily it was just a minor hiccup haha). Yeah, it didn't handle quite as I was expecting in the hover, but then I only really have the DCS Harrier as a reference and that thing is a menace haha. Otherwise I have no frame of reference, but I suppose given all of the tech under the hood, it's quite conceivable that the aircraft would be fairly sedate in the hover. I hope you continue to enjoy the F-35! Thanks for stopping by once again : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I'm glad to be back. Thanks. I am sorry your PC had some problems but glad it was sortable. I definitely agree. The more look into the plane and fly it the more in love I become with it. I have absolutely no reference for my thought on it (I mean I own the Hydra in GTA. That's about It for VTOl planes so really no comparison haha) though have tried to look at videos and stuff and I do think the dev team did an amazing job as always as making as believable an F-35 in the simulator as possible given the fact we as a whole don't know too much compared to most planes by natue. I did watch a video with the head of Production I believe it was for the F-35 and he did claim that anyone could land the F-35B so from that I'm inclided to agree that the hardware all round must be incredibly stable but also as simplified as can be. It makes sense if think the purpose of the F-35 that it would be so user friendly (well as can be) though. Just find it amazing how after only a year we have this in the simulator with working STOVL and avionics. Take care mate and I'm looking forward to your next videos 😀
Thanks very much Patrice! My pleasure - I’m glad you found the video useful : ) I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to your question. The IFE F-35’s flight model has gone through a number of iterations; back when I last flew the addon, there was no FBW etc. So I’m not entirely sure what’s been modelled since then and indeed whether or not the auto-trim can be deactivated. There is another UA-camr called “CGAviator”, who seems to be pretty clued up on the F-35, it might be worth asking him : ) I hope that helps a little. Cheers and all the best!
Besides the manual i think its a nice airplane and the texturing of the radar absorb paint is pretty good, so i don't agree with you on that, after 2 hours flight i haw no crash to desktop at all. Yes it's a little nimble and shaky on landing in 150 kt because the trust is very sensitive. i give it a 4+ out of 5 😄👍
Haha, fair enough Betty! Of course, any review is always going to be somewhat subjective. I’m very happy to hear you’re enjoying the aircraft - indeed it is great fun to operate. I’m still having some CTD issues myself, but hopefully IFE will get it fixed up soon enough and then maybe I’ll see you in the virtual skies! ; ) Thanks as always : )
I haven’t contacted the devs personally Eduardo no. It seems there’s plenty of discussion about the topic on their forums though. The issue seems to be affecting some users and not others. I did some more testing today and under the exact same conditions, it was only the F-35 that produced a CTD. So definitely an issue somewhere unfortunately. . . I hope IFE get it fixed soon, but as you say, probably worth waiting until they do. Cheers, all the best : )
How id you assign a key for the hook STOVL, I know how to do it, well I think i do, but for some reason whatever button on my stick i assign to the hook it is not operating it, i assume it would be the toggle or set tailhook command?
Actually Jay, the button isn’t assigned to the tailhook command; you need to assign a button to “Wing Lights” of all things haha (the manual outlines the required keybinds for all of the custom functions). Not sure why India Foxt Echo went with that, but there you go. . . Happy flying! : )
I'm on Xbox and after landing the F-35 I cannot get nose wheel steering working, completely unable to taxi. Setting the toggle works on the F-18 but not the IFE F-35 or the DC Designs F-14.
Hi Walker, A couple of other users have mentioned the same thing, so I presume there must be some sort of bug. If memory serves me correctly, there was no requirement to turn the NWS on when I flew the F-35 (it just worked). Perhaps it’s worth heading over to the IFE forums and seeing what the deal is. Actually, I think IFE just put out an update for the product today, perhaps that has sorted your issue? Sorry I can’t really be of more help on that one. All the best! : )
I would say it’s worth holding off and waiting for now yes (unfortunately). The jet is good fun, but I’m averaging about 1 CTD an hour and it seems I’m not the only one. I’ve done quite a bit more testing and it really is only the F-35 I’m having issues with. Hopefully IFE will figure out the problem soon and get it sorted. Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I hope the devs see these posts as I love flying fighter jets in VR…The hawk and F14 are awesome…doing canyon runs…Cheers for the reply buddy
I’m pretty sure they are well aware of the issue, I’ve seen plenty of posts about it on various forums. There seems to be a bit of back and forth regarding what / who’s causing it (IFE vs Asobo etc), but the end result is still the same for the customer, so it really needs fixing. VR is indeed awesome! Sadly I’ve never had it running that well in MSFS on my machine. . . All the best! : )
Thank you for this review. I guess i'll wait for IFE to fix a few things before buying. Question please: Do you use FSrealistic when your review a new plane? Because I check if the flight model reproduces as closely as possible the real mass and behaviour of the plane or if it feel like flying "a paper plane" as is often the case on MSFS ...
My pleasure as always 06! : ) I was indeed using FSRealistic during this review, though that was an error on my part really. Of course it would be far preferable to review an addon without FSRealistic running (for a number of reasons), but as the application starts up automatically with the sim, I do have a bit of a habit of forgetting to close it of late : / So yes, using it in this video, but ideally I would have turned it off. . . I hope that clarifies things. All the best!
Hello again Skins, Using my DCS metrics again; the F-35 is about the same as the T-45 (so roughly a 6). It behaves reasonably during normal flight, but not so much at the extremes of the flight envelope. IFE also decided to remove the FBW control systems (due to user feedback), so in that respect it isn't accurate to the real-world jet. It's amazing what the devs have managed to achieve with this one (the auto-hover etc), but the jet does exhibit some strange behaviors on occasion. A lot of the info on the F-35 is still classified of course, so it would be hard for IFE to model everything accurately. They are apparently planning on updating the flight model in due course, so things may well improve further down the line. . . Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Given the testing that I have done, the flight model while hovering seems to behave far too leniently, you can roll and pitch to rather large angles at very low velocities and recover extremely easily. In reality any meaningful roll while stationary at low altitude would result in a crash. The flight computers likely wouldn't allow this condition in reality however.
Hi Brain, Thank you very much, my pleasure! I know that India Foxt Echo are certainly aware of the issue and the coding etc had been investigated previously by both themselves and Asobo apparently. I would hope that they’re doing their best to come up with a solution, but certainly there’s been no fix / update yet I’m afraid. I hope that clarifies things a little. All the best! : )
Hello I need some help, I purchased the F35 of Sim market, put the file in the game but it's nowhere in my Hanger? Am I adding it to the wrong location?
Hi Jeremy, Apologies for the slow reply. Where exactly are you putting the aircraft file? It needs to go in your sim's community folder : ) Let me know if you're still having trouble. All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Hello, it's all good and I was able to figure it out. The community folder was split in two different drives and it was on a very small steam folder so I got the bought file in there
Hi BigZero, It depends; if you’re looking at a freeware mod of the F-35, then you can indeed use it without purchasing this version (though the fidelity will not be nearly as good I’m sure). If you’re looking at repaints for the India Foxt Echo version though, you will need this payware module. Does that answer your question? All the best : )
Not really. I pretty much demonstrated everything that the jet is capable of during the video. Aerial refuelling isn’t an option I’m afraid and the aircraft systems whilst good, are really just IFE’s “best guess”, since most of the F-35 is still of course classified. It’s a pretty decent offering from IFE, but don’t expect anything to the same standards as a DCS addon for example. I hope that helps a little : )
Hi Beric, I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid I can't remember off the top of my head - it is in the manual though. I think maybe it was "Toggle Strobe Lights" or something similar (not the tailhook keybind, as one would logically think haha). I don't have the manual to hand right now but as I say, you will find it in there : ) Cheers and all the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations It's ok, thanks anyway. I have found a copy of the manual and have set both the STOVL and hover modes. The manual can be found here: orbx-user-guides.storage.googleapis.com/indiafoxtecho-f35-msfs-user-guide-388ff3.pdf
Hi Damuffin, Cheers, you’re most welcome for the video! In terms of purchase, I believe you can find the aircraft at Simmarket, Orbx, Just Flight and a number of other 3rd party vendors. Hope that helps! All the best : )
Pretty good recreation of the F-35, There is just so much that isn't accurate to IRL. Little things like you can't just set the engine switch to norm before the IPP starts, because the IPP needs to be on first to give stuff time to turn on in order to start the engine. I wonder if they had a Lockheed advisor when making this. Coming from an F-35A maintainer.
Thanks very much for sharing your feedback Patrick, always good to hear from someone in the know! I've no doubt there are plenty of inaccuracies with the addon. I'd imagine India Foxt Echo have had to make do with the information available in the public domain and that probably doesn't amount to a whole lot I'm guessing. Even then though, IFE tend to strike somewhat of a balance between fidelity and accessibility, so their addons are not generally 100% accurate either way (though still very good in their own right). Cheers and all the best! : )
Aircraft informations are classified. The people who are behind these addons are working with open/public sources and maybe, for older aicrafts, informations pilots can give them. For the F-35, there is only so much they can work with and to be honest, considering the small amount of information they had, they did an amazing job. I still don't get it, why so many people are saying it's not real life accurate when nobody really knows anything about this aircraft.
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I don't believe so. The JF Hawk has a fully working TACAN. The 339 is non functional. He needs to correct that! It's been faulty from release. Asobo have patched the sim since the 339 was released, hence the Hawk works just fine!
Oh, is that so?! My apologies then David! I had no idea TACAN worked on the Hawk haha. I though the beacons still weren’t modelled in the sim (great to hear that Asobo finally sorted that one out then). . . Cheers!
Hi LCTR, Still running with DX11 on my end. I know DX12 can cause issues with some addons (and it doesn’t work well on my system at any rate). I did some further testing: 2 more crashes in 2 hours with the F-35, whereas I managed a couple of 2 hour stints with no issues in other aircraft (under the exact same conditions). I think I’ve seen enough to state, that at least on my system, the F-35 has some sort of issue that I’m just not seeing with other addons. Good point though, thanks for bringing it up. All the best : )
Many thanks for the very informative review, as always. Please note, I do run MSFS 2020 to almost full ULTRA settings all the time on a "Primitive PC " : MSI X58 Pro-E motherboard - Intel Xeon X5690 overclocked to 4.5GZ - 24GB DDR3 3172MHz memory and Radeon RX 580 series overclocked with MSI Afterburner - Direct X11 settings - Oculus Rift S /TrackIR5 - Dolby Atmos Headphone system - Logitech X-56 controllers and Logitech rudder pedals, I have flown the India FoxtEcho Lightning F-35 for over 15 times now and I had no issues with crashing to desktop......... I am not an expert on pc but I see you are using NVIDIA graphics card, your problem with crashing to desktop could be coming from the NVIDIA drivers or settings, please see if the others that reported the same issue are also using NVIDIA graphics cards to begin with. Again, I thank you for your very informative SUPERB videos you always give us!
Thanks very much OGP. It’s a good point; there’s certainly a few people in this comments section having similar issues, so I’ll try and see if there are any common threads among us. I’m sure IFE will be looking into it also. I did some more testing today myself: Multiple flights (using different aircraft) under the exact same conditions, only the F-35 caused a CTD. Thank you very much for your support, I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed the video and indeed that you’re enjoying the content in general! Cheers : )
Hi Ivo, The carrier is available over on Flightsim.to (search “Superspud Carrier” and you should find it). The download was briefly taken offline, but I think the dev as put it back up again now. I hope that helps. All the best! : )
Hi Jenny, To my knowledge, no real news or updates yet. Asobo’s recent hotfix did somewhat screw up the aircrafts throttle assignment though haha (they’ll get it right one day I’m sure!). I did quite a bit more testing with the F-35 and it’s the only aircraft (in my sim at least) giving me CTD’s. Just going to have to be patient and wait for IFE to figure out what the problem is I think. . . Sorry I don’t have better news for you on that one, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations ok thank you for replying , weirdly i read about the throttle issue in the notes for RSP helicopters but when i checked mine they were totally fine
You’re most welcome Jenny : ) Haha, the mysteries of MSFS. It’s as though Asobo made tens, if not hundreds of thousands of different sims - it seems not one person has the same experience to the next! The throttle issue has been affecting me though unfortunately : /
Hi Jake, You can find it included in this freeware pack: flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring Hope that helps, all the best! : )
Always a pleasure David, cheers! Yep, the CTDs are unfortunate and a real stumbling block at the moment. I did some more testing today; on my system at least, it’s still only the F-35 crashing the sim (seemingly). . .
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks buddy! I am flying everything in MSFS and trying to find an aircraft that makes me fall in love with it? I can not find one. I bought the 339 and find its TACAN is STILL UNSERVICEABLE. JF Hawk..nice but...They all have the same flight models, give or take a few knots? All the latest fancy models miss something in either the navigation or realism section! Ive been flying the game for 40 years! Before that 707's...!So far the best appears to be PMDG 737 P3d? A2A "anything" P3d....QW 787....all the rest are low quality! I am underwhelmed! There is something amiss? Its called commercialism..."Lets sell this to as many as punters as possible"!!! Ignore the fact this is a flight simulation?
I'm almost about to buy this or the Hawk for VR only. Does anyone know how well this works in VR, I.e. The HUD. Does it look silly, like the text is just floating like a holograph. How well does the cockpit mouse cursor work in VR? Is it smooth, or sticky and annoying, just like other planes in this sim. And performance etc. I'm running a Reverb G2 V2, RTX 4090 and i-9 12900k. I'm hoping for approximately 60 FPS (like I get in the JMB prop) with almost everything at Ultra settings apart from Map Shadows, which is set to the High numbers. Thanks in advance!
Hi British Dragon, I’m afraid I don’t have any experience with the F-35 (or the Hawk) in VR. The only thing I could suggest, is that you’ll probably see more of an FPS impact with the Lightning vs the JMB, though of course that will be system dependent etc also. If you did end up picking up the F-35, I hope it’s working out for you! Sorry I can’t be of more help on that one. All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks. :) I decided not to get a boring fly by wire plane, so I just purchased the Spitfire instead. It's very different to the DCS version. The physics felt a little strange to what I was used to. I wanted to take off from Iwo Jima and was surprised it's not in the sim on the globe map. Just a generic island but no airport, although you can clearly see one exists on the tiny island. Weird.
You’re most welcome! Haha, nice choice! I find almost every virtual Spitfire I’ve ever flown handles quite differently, so it’s always a little bit tricky to gauge what is accurate (especially since sadly, I have never flown the real thing ha). I gather the FlyingIron Spit’s flight model has received some input from real-world Spitfire pilots, but then again I’m sure the DCS version had the same treatment. Either way, I find the FlyingIron Spit a real joy to fly in MSFS. Iwo Jima probably isn’t included in the sim, owing to the fact it’s a military base (this is the case with a lot of military installations in the sim), though I suspect there would be some sort of mod available for the base over on Flightsim.to. Happy flying! : )
Hi Stevo, I’m afraid I’m not sure on that one. I have seen a few others making the same comment, so I wonder if it’s not s bug. If memory serves me correctly, it wasn’t a requirement to “turn on” the NWS with the F35, it simply worked. Probably better to reach out to India Foxt Echo regarding the issue, as they should know a lot more about it than I do. Sorry I can be of more help on that one, I do hope you manage to get things sorted! All the best : )
Hi Kyle, I purchased it from Simmarket.com, but there other vendor options available also (Orbx for example). Just google India Foxt Echo F-35 and you should see a number of available purchase options. I hope that helps! All the best : )
I just bought the F-35 addon and it's amazing! i just have a question, when i engage hover-mode the jet sometimes continuously turns left (counter-clockwise), it's as if it's being pulled constantly. I can't understand WHY. Does it have something to do with my flaps being at 30%? It shouldn't since it works other times, but i'm not sure
Hi Tangent, I'm really glad you're enjoying the F-35 for the most part. Hmm, that does sounds a little odd. Are you sure it's not some sort of control binding / calibration issue (that sounds like the most likely culprit, in terms of what you're describing). The flaps certainly shouldn't be causing you any issues like that. Are you landing in a strong crosswind by any chance (and the aircraft is then weather-vaning into wind)? I know that India Foxt Echo recently put out an update to the F-35, has that fixed your issue at all? Cheers and all the best! : )
Hi fq eagles, Hmm, I wouldn’t say it’s the “wrong” sim for it personally no. I know a lot of people don’t like fast jets and / or warbirds in civilian sims. I used to be very much the same myself, but I find MSFS has changed all of that for me. Having the whole world to explore in high(ish) detail is a bit of a game-changer and something unique to MSFS; as a result, I find myself wanting to fly all sorts of routes that I wouldn’t be able to do nearly as accurately in other sims. I love DCS, it has the best flight modelling of any sim in my opinion and some of the best graphics, but the maps are of course quite limited, so there’s no flying the Sidewinder route, Mach Loop etc. I really enjoy flying warbirds in MSFS, a bit the same way one might enjoy driving a classic car. I don’t find myself flying the fast jets all that much personally, but if someone else enjoys the sim for that, great! For better or worse, MSFS has become a bit of a sandbox sim to some degree and people now enjoy it for all sorts of different reasons, personally I’m fine with that. That’s just my two pennies worth though. . . I know not everyone feels the same. All the best! : )
With the fighters I somewhat agree with you, but even then, I figure it’s very rare in the real world that they actually deploy their weapons - most flights will be training, navigation exercises etc (which you can still do in MSFS of course). For the warbirds, I think it’s still fairly realistic to fly them in MSFS, as they are of course flown in this fashion today (whether for leisure or display etc). I think your opinion is more common than my own on this matter though, so what do I know haha : P Cheers!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Ha ha! Oddly enough, we actually do use "Not my cup of tea" here, although it never dawned on me that it had British roots until just now. Interesting side note: years ago, ending a message with "Cheers" seemed to me to be a uniquely British thing to do, but now is much more common for Americans to use as well :)
Haha, is that so. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the origins of the phrase, don’t stem from a little protest on your side of the water many years ago? ; ) I’d say it’s mostly Americanisms making it into other parts of the world these days, but I’m happy to hear that “cheers” has made it across the pond haha. All the best!
I’m pretty sure the cockpit layout of the F22 and F35 aren’t classified since you can find pictures of the cockpit on the internet. The things that are classified on both aircrafts are the functionalities of the system, how to operate them and etc.
Hi XJP, As Waltz points out, the actual cockpit layout is quite easy to find in the public domain. I believe even some of the display architecture etc is easy enough to find pictures of. So the visual representation is probably reasonably accurate, but the avionics. / software is certainly still highly classified, so the devs would have to fill in a lot of “holes” there (and I think India Foxt Echo have done a very good job at doing that convincingly overall). Cheers! : )
Hi F14 man, Short answer; not even close. That’s not to criticise the F-35 specifically, but the flight model in MSFS is nowhere near as good as DCS generally speaking. MSFS is ok in normal flight, but at the extremes of the flight envelope it tends to fall apart a bit - something that DCS generally handles very well. For flight modelling, DCS is still the leader of the pack, as far as I’m concerned. Cheers! : )
Haha, very true Jin! I’d imagine that could have been quite interesting though, with the exhaust nozzle and fan now pointing upwards XD All the best! : )
Hi Ace, It certainly should be possible. It will depend though on whether you're starting on a runway. MSFS only defaults to "cold and dark" when you start from the parking area; if you start on the runway, the aircraft will be configured as "ready to go". The same is true when starting from a carrier. I hope that helps? All the best : )
Does anyone know why I can’t seem to turn the aircraft very well on the Xbox version? I’m pulling back all the way on the stick and I’m only pulling max 3 gs
Hi StayAwake, It’s not something I know a lot about, but I gather there is an option in the sim’s control settings, that allows one to reduce the sensitivity of the Xbox controller. Apparently having this option tuned on, will lead to the sort of behaviour you’re describing (having it turned off, might make the F-35 a real handful though I would imagine!). I hope that helps a little. All the best! : )
I would rather fly a washing machine than these ultra modern Apple phones with wings. You can tell the pilot was added as a after thought. As a premier fighter I understand the need and function but as a plane to burn holes in the MSFS world you might as well go to a external camera view and fly the camera.
Haha, well I somewhat agree JimJam; the F-35 is not my personal cup of tea - I prefer my jets a bit more old-school. For those that are into this sort of thing though, IFE have come up with a reasonably plausible and nice version of the aircraft. Cheers and all the best! : )
Flaps yes, they’re automatic ; ) The throttle is a nice new bug that Asobo decided to introduce haha. Reassign your throttle to “Throttle Axis 1” (as opposed to just “Throttle Axis” and all should be working again! : )
Hi AL, Yeah, there is quite a lot of choice around these days. There is the payware HDS carrier module and a number of other payware carrier options - India Foxt Echo have 2 of their own now, on which the detailing is very nice. This freeware pack includes a number of carrier types, dotted all over the world. I'm sure there other freeware options out there these days as well. I hope that helps a little. All the best! : )
Hi Toby, Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I was just saying not to purchase it from the in-sim Marketplace, otherwise you won’t be able to load weapons onto the aircraft etc. You’ll be better off purchasing from a 3rd party; Simmarket, Orbx, Just Flight et al. Does that answer your question? All the best! : )
Im thinking of getting this but I dont know if its autopilot systems are good, does anybody know its capabilities? I would like to be able to load a flight plan and possibly an approach.
Hi CK, I’m afraid, not having had the chance to fly the F-35 in a long while myself, I can’t really offer up much info for you there. The addon has certainly received a tonne of updates since I recorded this review though. I would recommend checking out cgaviator’s channel, as he has covered the F-35 much more recently and that may give you a better idea as to what the product currently has to offer. I hope that helps a little. All the best! : )
Thanks very much ACA! Yes, these things always seem a long time in coming, but hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer. . . Cheers and all the best! : )
Unfortunately Mike, it does seem as though it would have benefited from a bit longer in beta testing at the very least. It seems it’s not only me having the CTD issues. . . Hopefully it will come good in a few months time (if not sooner) as you say. Cheers!
UPDATE REGARDING CTD's: India Foxt Echo have updated the product and according to other users, the CTD issue does now seem to have been sorted. I haven't had a chance to test this myself yet, but I will update the comment accordingly, when I have confirmed no more CTD's.
Cheers!
Hola amigo, dónde consigo la actualización, es gratis para quienes compraron el avión. Gracias.
Hola José,
Depende de dónde haya comprado el avión. Si es de Simmarket, deberá volver a descargarlo; si es de Orbx, debería actualizarse automáticamente cuando ejecute Orbx Central y, si compró a través de MSFS Marketplace, deberá esperar a que la actualización esté disponible (por lo general, toma un tiempo para que lleguen las actualizaciones al propio sim) y luego puede actualizar a través del administrador de contenido.
Espero que eso ayude un poco.
¡Todo lo mejor! : )
Muchas gracias, por considerarme y dar respuesta a mi consulta, siempre sigo tus contenidos, y es más, gracias a ello he comprado la mayoría de mis aviones. Siga volando alto y orientandonos en las simulaciones de vuelo. Saludos y abrazos désde Chile. ( lo compré en Simmarket, si lo descargo nuevamente tengo que pagarlo? Gracias nuevamente y saludos.)
Muchas gracias por las amables palabras José!
Estoy muy contento de que estés disfrutando del canal/contenido : )
El F-35 es una compra única, por lo que puede descargarlo tantas veces como desee a partir de entonces.
¡Todo lo mejor!
Are CTD issues sorted?
Just one thing to critique: if you're gonna land the jet, LAND IT! Lots of real videos on UA-cam of this. You establish a hover above the landing spot, then you commit to a semi-rapid descent. Don't try to gently place it on the deck, plant it. ;)
Haha, fair enough Kamraam. Old habits die hard! ; )
Very good thank you bro
very nice review. I think this one is not for me for now, I would rather be excited on the Harrier, this is just too digital. nevertheless I have to admit that I’m very impressed by how they modelled the hovering and the uniqueness and the implementtion of the PCD is also a WOW!
Thanks Péter! I’m completely in agreement with you. The F-35 is fun to hover and it’s an incredible piece of engineering (if true to life), but you don’t get that feeling of being a flying god, as you wrestle the Harrier around the skies haha XD
Cheers! : )
That's like someone saying they prefer a rotory phone to a modern cell phone.
@@neogenmatrix6162 rather like prefering a Ferrari Testarossa to a Tesla Model S. but is this wrong? 🤷🏻♂️
Well some people do Neogenmatrix ; )
Nobody would deny that an iPhone is by far the more impressive piece of technology, but the rotary phone is also a design classic - simple, a little more soulful and a more tactile user experience. In much the same way, the Harrier clearly isn’t nearly as technologically advanced as the F-35, but to me it feels like it has a boatload more “character” and is more hands on, challenging and fun to fly.
To each their own of course though! Cheers : )
By far the best and my favorite of all the Jets in my collection.
Alway a pure gem by this man !
Nothing shot of absolute perfection or as close to it as we can hope to get from here.
Super detailed review and thanks for making such a long detailed review. I bought it too at launch and had two CTD's while in external view in VR. I did switch some times during recording from VR to 2D for screenshot for my first impression video. The jet is very special and unique and they will find the cause of the CTD together with MS / Asobo once it gets tested before in sim marketplace release. I'm pretty sure it's a sim related problem. The new Aeroplane Heaven Grumman F3F-2 also has some CTD's when launching the sim if that was the last plane loaded. The sim is still in Beta now after SU7 so there are lots of bugs and problems, especially in VR. Hope they all get fixed ASAP. Thanks again for this perfect review.
A msfs hotfix will be out today, Hope it'll help !
Thanks very much Sven, my pleasure as always!
I agree that the F-35 is quite a special / unique addon in some respects and as you say, I’m sure IFE / Asobo will get to the bottom of it. I’ve no idea whether it’s a sim problem, or a problem with the jet; I’ve done some more testing though and it’s only the F-35 giving me CTD’s in the sim. As you say, the sim still has plenty of issues for sure though - fingers crossed the next sim update will sort some of them (given that it’s meant to be a bug fixing exercise).
Thanks once again for watching, very happy you enjoyed it : )
All the best!
Brilliant Alexandre. That’s a sim hotfix (as opposed to a hotfix for the addon) is it?
Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations yes a sim hotfix, I will try the f35 later today with this new version of msfs, Hope it brings more stability !
As Always thank you for your video !
Well I gather the update has somewhat screwed the throttle assignments. One now has to bind to “Throttle Axis 1” instead of just “Throttle Axis”. Fine if you only fly single-engine, but it’ll be a bit of a pain if anyone flies multi-engine stuff as well I suppose. They did at least fix TrackIR, so I’m pretty pleased about that. Haven’t had a chance to try the F-35 again yet though. . .
My pleasure on the video! Cheers : )
So bought this, downloaded, installed then used your vid to help with the startup procedure, got it running switched into VR and flew from KDEN out over the Rockies, climbed to 50k, burned 6.5 tonnes of fuel and landed it back on runway 7 at KDEN and had an absolute blast. Zero CTDs. Performance ok on my GTX1070. Brilliant stuff.
Edit, spoke too soon. Getting regular CTDs now.
Ah, well I’m happy you’re enjoying the aircraft otherwise Mark. I find I’m averaging about 1 CTD per hour, so it’s usually possible to squeeze a quick sector in. Obviously far from ideal though. . .
Hopefully IFE and / or Asobo figure something out for the jet soon.
All the best!
PS happy to hear that the video was a useful learning guide also : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Quick shout out here for IFE who have refunded the purchase price based on my CTD experience. Will try to do some ongoing testing for them, see if I cannot isolate at least the duration when this occurs. It’s a cracking aircraft, hope they can fix it.
Ah well that’s thoroughly decent of them. Great to hear! It’s always nice to see a dev doing the right thing.
I hope they get it figured out - I’d like to see them go from strength to strength : )
I like the way you use an audio filter during your commentary to give the ‘speaking through an aircraft microphone’ effect.. bravo!
Thanks very much SeattleAviator, glad you like it!
It isn’t to everyone’s taste to be fair haha, but I figure it adds a little more immersion in certain videos and some people do seem to appreciate it.
Cheers and all the best : )
IndiaFoxtEcho had to make some big guesses about what automation might be in the aircraft and how the cockpit might look. As you say, we have no idea whether they are close or wildly wrong on that. But i guess one day - maybe a couple of decades away, we'll all get a good look at the real one and see how close they were. In the mean time, your guess is as good as IndiaFoxtEcho's and as good as mine about what is in the aircraft. But I for one amd IMPRESSED!!! Good video too by the way.
Hi Mike,
For sure. Maybe in 20 years time, we’ll realise that IFE had access to all of the top secret documentation haha ; )
As you say, either way it’s an impressive effort! Plausible, if not necessarily accurate.
Glad you enjoyed the video. All the best! : )
The startup is very close to sounding like how it starts up in real life. And the cockpit looks just like it does in real life too. Nice vid
Interesting to know re the sounds Caleb and I agree that IFE have done a very nice job modelling the cockpit. A very solid effort overall.
I’m glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks very much for watching and all the best! : )
Thank you for this in depth and honest review. Too many content makers are shilling add-ons they were gifted or perhaps even sponsored. Waiting for a balanced review like yours has saved me a lot of disappointment..... and money xD
Thanks very much KL, always my pleasure!
I certainly try my very best to be objective, honest and fair during my reviews. I am gifted products from time to time, but I’m quite selective with who I take them from and I’m always upfront with the dev, that I will only be offering honest feedback on the product either way (I have lost the support of at least dev as a result haha). Some devs are great, some take it personally, but of course if a product is good, it will stand on its own merits. I’m quite happy with what I’ve created here on the channel and I value the channel’s integrity, far more than I do a free addon etc.
Ultimately the point is to help people decided what’s right for them and yeah, if I can save you some money and disappointment in the process, great! ; )
Cheers and all the best! : )
Seems like bit of a mixed bag. Lots of reports about crashing on the forum thread as well but IndiaFoxtEcho are pretty good with patching products so hopefully they'll be fixed up but it's a bit worring considering how they delayed it because of the crashing. That big touch screen looks pretty good and the auto take-off hover system is kinda cool.
Think I'll wait on this and see if it improves with time. Plenty of other things vying for my attention and limited funds though: Twin Otter out pretty soon, still eying up the Kodiak and also the FreedomFox looks kinda neat. Then there's Big Radials' Grumman Goose and Wing42's Boeing 247 in the not too distant future hopefully that I'll almost surely be picking up. Bloody expensive hobby this flight simming! God knows how much I've spent on it over the past decade or two.
Cheers for the review, great stuff as always and it's nice to see the Mach Loop more in MSFS. Still waiting on a Bleriot timed run though!
Yeah, very much so I would say Megadyptes. It’s a hard addon to sum up and I’m not quite sure I articulated myself very well in the conclusion. As a technical achievement I think it’s excellent (minus a few flaws / things that need fixing up). The auto-takeoff, flawless hovering, smooth operation of the screens etc is impressive! Judging it by the metrics on which we judge most addons (sounds, graphics etc) I think it’s somewhere between average and good.
I too think it’s a bit disconcerting that they delayed it due to CTD’s (according to what I’ve read), only for there to still be CTD issue. I do hope they didn’t just disregard the issue and go for release in the end.
Looking forward to the Twotter myself, although I’m not too sure how happy people are actually going to be with it; even Aerosoft are saying it will be somewhat “simplified” and Xbox-ified etc. We’ll see. . . I do want to try out the FreedomFox also, keep meaning to send the devs an email to see if they’ll let me take a look. . . Definitely looking forward to that B247 now that you’ve pointed it out haha and a whole host of addons will be hitting the wallet hard this year no doubt! It is an expensive hobby for sure (I do actually know how much I’ve spent on it, for accounting purposes), still cheaper than golf though I reckon haha : P
Haha, you’ll have to bear with me on the Bleriot Mach Loop run; I started in in November, I’m just about coming up on The Cross Foxes In as we speak! XD
Thanks as always! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I've also read people having problems with the auto trim like you had. Someone on the forum thread claimed it was working better in the beta but some testers complained it made it too simple to fly so it was changed. Dunno if that's true but if so it would be pretty disappointing as surely the real version would have a pretty sophisticated auto trim system as you said in your review.
I won't mind if the twotter is a bit simplified but hopefully not too much. we'll just have to wait and see I guess. Hope you get your hands on the freedom fox, I've watched a few reviews and the opinions are generally quite positive but I'd really like to get your views on it too!
Eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Bleriot in Machynlleth sometime around March. I have a feeling it could pose a serious challenge to the Lightning.
From what I've heard the F-35 steers simular to a drone in hover mode so it staying perfectly steady without any inputs appears to be realistic.
Makes sense Bruce. I guess the F-35 has got some pretty sophisticated gyros, accelerometers and computers, all working overtime to do the tricky bits and the pilot just commands the jet as to where he wants it to go. Pretty impressive stuff!
Cheers for the info : )
Great review, and extremely fair. I would honestly have given up after 3 or 4 CTDs, let alone 9! I'm quite concerned as to if this will ever be fixed - according to them it shows no errors and they even had Microsoft look it over and it's "confirmed not to be related" but that seems pretty hard to believe... So I'll probably hold off on buying it for now, sadly. I was really looking forward to it but it doesn't really make sense. I might get the TF-104 instead for now and check on this plane in a few months.
Seems they are missing the point that there are users who have frequent CTD's with only F-35. Starfighter is great and I'm quite happy even with SC Designs F-16 which should handle similar like this (FBW with working autotrim). I had zero issues with F-16.
Hi Will, thanks very much once again!
Haha, I will say that the CTD’s did at least have the courtesy not to occur during a critical phase of flight - otherwise I’d have been fuming by the end XD
I think (certainly hope) that the issue will get fixed, but there does seem to be a bit of finger pointing going on and of course the customer doesn’t really care about who’s fault it is, they just want their product to work. I gather IFE did have Asobo go over the code but, not wishing to be rude, Asobo are hardly the bastion of faultless coding themselves. . .
I don’t like to say it, but frankly I think it of course makes sense to wait until the issue has been figured out / resolved.
The TF-104 is a nice jet, should keep you occupied in the meantime. It can’t go vertically down, but it can go vertically up! : P
All the best : )
Agreed Tomas. It doesn’t really matter who or what’s to blame, if it’s affecting a large number of customers, it needs to be fixed. I realise that might not be a straightforward process. . . I’ve done a fair bit of testing at this point and it’s only the F-35 giving me issues, on my otherwise very stable sim.
Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations For anyone who is considering buying this and worrying about CTD's, it's has been fixed with latest patch, problem was in HMD. It's really great plane, especially B variant.
Thanks very much for the info Tomas. I’ll give it a try myself when I get the chance and then post / pin a comment accordingly, to notify anyone watching the video.
Cheers! : )
Do you have a website where you have, or should I say advise, what the best size PC is to get the results you’re getting?
If you don’t, then that might be a good idea then you can get people over to your site if you have one… I’m just getting back into flight simulator now and I would very much like to know
You want to know how powerful the PC needs to be to look this good?
This video is at 1080p at a 16:9 aspect ratio and I'm guessing 60 frames per second. A monitor like that would be quite cheap now, compared to a 2560x1440 resolution monitor at 120Hz or frames per second.
UA-cam videos always look worse than the original version as UA-cam compresses the video.
It depends on your monitor, on how powerful your PC needs to be. Flat screen or VR. Resolution and the frames per second you want.
The RTX 40 series has a Frame Generation mode for 2D screen monitors that give you twice the frames but at a cost of higher latency and RTX cards have DLSS mode for better performance. These modes work with selected games only. MSFS 2020 is one of them.
I myself would go for an intel motherboard with a 12th gen CPU socket myself. Or you could wait for an intel 14th gen CPU board. Just because I am more familiar with intel and Nvidia technology.
His PC specs are listed as:
PC Specs
MSI B550M
AMD Ryzen 7 5800x 4.7GHz
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
32GB DDR4 3600MHz
Hardware
Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog
Saitek Pro Flight rudder pedals
HP Reverb WMR headset
TrackIR5
Earthquake Shell Shoxx transducer
Hi Ade2Bee,
I don’t have a website I’m afraid. To be honest, a website would only mean more work (I’m rather flat-out as it is haha) and wouldn’t benefit the channel greatly I don’t think (and the channel is my primary focus). That being said, I always try to answer any comments I receive here and I do have a channel Discord, for anyone that wants to make use of that.
As British Dragon kindly points out, my PC specs are in the video description. That’s about the sort of equipment you would need, to have the sim settings turned up reasonably high and still maintain decent FPS (in 1080p). If you watch some of my oldest MSFS vids, that should give you a good idea of the results you’ll get on older equipment.
Welcome back to the hobby! Any further questions, please feel free to get in touch : )
Bingo British Dragon! Thanks for offering up the help : )
I love this plane, my favorite addon of all time rn
That’s great Slendii, very glad to hear you’re enjoying it!
Happy flying : )
Thank you for the review👍 I bought it yesterday.
Excellent as always.
Take care.
You’re most welcome once again sir! Glad you enjoyed it.
I don’t seem to be getting the reviews out as quick as you can buy em anymore! : P
Happy flying in the F-35! Hopefully if you are having any crashes, it’s into the deck and not to the desktop XD
How much? I'm downloading flight sim rn
Hi Brandon,
It will depend on where you buy it from, taxes etc - but it’s around the €25 mark.
Hope that helps. All the best! : )
Thanks for the review. I've had 2 CTDs in 6 flights today. Hadn't had a CTD in months before installing this aircraft. Oddly when it CTDs the next time I fire up the sim the aircraft is not showing in the flight menu and I have to verify files in ORBX to have it show up again. Beyond that the flying I have been able to do has been a blast so hopefully they get this CTD issue sorted ASAP.
My pleasure Dave! Thanks for the info on the CTD’s. I’ve seen a few others mentioning the jet disappearing after a CTD, that seems to be an Orbx peculiarity. Like you, my sim is usually pretty solid otherwise and having done some more testing today, it’s only the F-35 giving me grief.
As you say, I hope IFE manage to figure the issue out and get it sorted. The aircraft is indeed rather good fun otherwise!
Cheers : )
I really enjoy your films. Great Camera work and I love the way you structure the arc of the storyline. Like a plane..what goes up must come down and a arc is a nice way to do it. Bravo
Thank you very much indeed Donald! It’s always nice to hear that some of the “smaller” details in my vids are enjoyed also. It’s great that people find the reviews useful, but I try and make the videos more than “just” a review, so it’s brilliant to know that my efforts aren’t in vain haha. Creating reviews can be a little bit formulaic, so throwing in somewhat of a side story and giving the video a more “artistic” slant, really adds to my own personal enjoyment of the whole process. I’m really happy to hear that you’re enjoying the end result also!
Cheers and all the best : )
What button is it called in Control Options to keybind the HOVER mode?
Hi Alexander,
Hmm, well I seem to recall that India Foxt Echo changed some of the key assignments since this video was recorded, but last time I flew the F-35, one had to assign a key to "Toggle Autopilot Heading Hold". Otherwise, I’m sure the keybind will be detailed in the manual.
I hope that helps! All the best : )
Best F-35 MOD IN MFS2020!!!
No HUD Display replicates the in built F-35 Helmet HUD
It has the capability for using its VTOL/STOVL capabilities, and the cockpit has a lot of options and is very realistic, as well as the model.
Hi SNA,
It certainly is a rather decent replication of the F-35, given the sim's limitations and the general lack of information about the aircraft, available in the public domain.
Really glad you're enjoying it! All the best : )
Great review again, thank you. Not for me I’m afraid. It must be very hard to get a good simulation of such a complex aircraft.
Ugh, typical…
Thanks very much Peter. My pleasure and I’m glad it helped you decide whether it’s right for you or not.
Absolutely; in fairness to IFE, one can’t expect to see a study-level jet, when most of the materials on said jet are still classified (and I think they’ve done a nice job in the systems department considering). The F-35 is actually quite fun to operate in the sim, but they really need to figure out what’s causing these CTD’s. . .
Thanks again, all the best! : )
I definitely want the F35 for the sim, but not if it's going to crash out and slow my PC to a crawl. If they sort out the issues and the odd handling/power I'd be all over it. I bought the Goshawk but was disappointed in how it flew as it felt underpowered and sluggish in handling so I don't want to jump on this quite so quickly.
The CTD issue needs sorting for sure. I’ve not idea whether or not India Foxt Echo will be able to do much to improve the FPS impact.
I never much cared how the T-45 handled either. Apparently it is heavier and has less power than the Hawk (so one might expect it to feel a little more sluggish), but in pitch, I always felt like there was a lack of control authority. Never flown a real T-45 though, so that was just conjecture on my part (though the DCS version flies much closer to what I was expecting). The T-45 never quite hit the sweet spot that the MB339 did - a shame, as it was a beautifully modelled jet.
Cheers! : )
Great video! What scenery are you using and how do I get the carrier?
Thanks very much Kevin, glad you enjoyed it!
This is the carrier I used in the video, but unfortunately it seems as though the file is not currently available:
flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring
I suspect there might be other freeware carriers available on flightsim.to, but I'm not too sure on that one.
Cheers and all the best! : )
That’s really impressive would love to see this come to dcs. I remember watching a documentary which was fantastic about the x-35 vs x-32 which thank god the x35 was picked cause the x32 was ugly I’d say the a10 looks better the. X32 anyway I remember back then they said this could not be done the Air Force marines and navy version all in one airframe. Looks like they did it even tho it was the most expensive military endeavor ever.
It would indeed be awesome to have in DCS Craig, but I can’t imagine it will happen any time soon sadly (at least not officially), with so much still being classified etc.
Haha, I think I watched the same documentary and completely agree - the most beautiful fighter one! But then there is always that old adage; “if it looks right, it will fly right” ; )
Cheers! : )
Tbh I’m sure if they proceeded the x-32 wouldn’t look much like it’s prototype. You know how many end stage aircraft look different from the proto?
Quite possibly Data. I actually don’t have much of a clue as to how aircraft change from prototype to final production version these days (at least not with the military jets). I would have thought that with modern computer design techniques etc, the prototype would already be a fairly refined version of the aircraft, but I’m sure changes still crop up along the way (as indeed you allude to).
Either way, I guess we got the F-35 haha.
Cheers, all the best! : )
The x32 looks like a boat
my only beef is the fact it looks like its flying on rails, you can see it especially well on take off from the external view.
It does have that look / feel to it at times Steelmush. I’m broadly willing to forgive IFE on that one though, since I’m sure it’s no easy task modelling such automation in the first place. The takeoff is definitely the area where this behaviour is most apparent. I gather the whole flight model will be updated at some point, so hopefully the team can refine things a bit in this regard : )
All the best!
Is the carrier bundled? Cant find it! Or did you buy another carrier, and if so - which one? Does all carrier launch and land options work for all planes valid for carreier landing? =)
Hi Rymd, apologies for the slow reply.
Unfortunately, the carrier I was using in this video is no longer available. There are a few other options over on Flightsim.to though:
flightsim.to/discover/Carrier
Previously, 3rd party payware was required to get carrier functionality working, but I believe that some of these addons work in their own right now. I haven't tried them myself but they're free, so worth giving a go.
I hope that helps! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Cheers, and thanks for the info! =)
You’re most welcome! : )
Excellent review as always very detailed. Looks great It was like watching the real plane, Many Thanks.
Thanks very much Conleth, really glad you enjoyed it!
Haha, I think UA-cam's compression algorithms are actually to my benefit in some respects; they seem to "soften up" some of the sim's blemishes and make things look a little more convincing in the video, than they actually do in the sim for me XD
Cheers once again! All the best : )
I love the f-35, coming from a military family and a family member flying the f-35, but to be honest, I would rather fly the F-22 all day long
Hi just wondering where you got HMS queen Elizabeth from?
Hi Andrew,
The carrier is available over on Flightsim.to (search “Superspud Carrier” and you should find it). The download was briefly taken offline, but I think the dev has put it back up again now. There is also now a payware UK carrier fleet available from MilSimTech.
I hope that helps. All the best! : )
Sad that they aren't a dcs developer. Even tho it probably wouldn't fit into as there aren't any other stealth jets or equally modern jets in dcs, I would still love to see that one
I believe India Foxt Exho are moving into DCS as well Henrik. They have the MB339 and then I seem to recall they’re doing a G-91 also. Maybe the F-35 will make it in one day, but I would say it’s unlikely, since they simply won’t have the technical data available to bring the aircraft up to DCS standards. + as you allude to, it would potentially just dominate the skies haha!
Cheers, all the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations yea thank you, all the best for you too.
Tbh, if you look at what the f35 in p3d is capable of in combination with the tacpack and if you would combine this with the improved logics and systems of the msfs version (even tho it doesn't have the tactical systems, the out of combat systems are more advanced) it would be better than any other dcs module after release and there are many modules in dcs which infact are less advanced than many actually think. The f16 for example only has a ground radar since a couple of months. That one is one of the more needed systems but it still took them a long time until it was integrated.
Well that’s true Henrik; a lot of DCS modules release in quite an incomplete state. Usually when they are finished though, they are excellent. Personally, I’m not so much into the modern jets (though there’s a few I like) - I prefer the Viggen, Harrier F-5 era sort of aircraft - a little bit more hands-on work for the pilot. Also less systems to learn haha. I like learning aircraft systems, but I’ve never been much good at learning the weapons operation side of things.
Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations ye I can understand. I myself like the ww2 aircraft the most and my biggest wish would be the me262 in dcs. But I love learning systems and the modern jets.
[required additional options]
** Customize Windows Virtual Memory **
Min : 12288 MB
Max: 32768 MB
[caution]
- Manage all drives automatically (not use) - CTD!
- System managed size (not use) - CTD!
- No paging file (not use) - CTD!
* Turn on your fastest drive. (ex: SSD C Drive)
Thanks again for the info Gun Power : )
Hey was just doing some testing in the sim with the f35. turns out I had a key bound to decrease prop pitch 4( which was also bound to elevator trim) and everytime i pressed that key the sim would crash to desktop without fail no matter which variant i was using. I un bound the key from decrease prop pitch 4 and left it bound to elevator trim and flew the f35c around for about an hour using all the manual trimming features of the aircraft with no crash to desktop. i imagine indiafoxtecho has some variable to control the pitch of the fan on the f35b that is interfering and causing the sim to crash to desktop when the aircraft is trying to trim for hover and svtol flight. im gonna do some testing without using the fan at all in the f35b and see if that changes anything or if the programming for how the fan works is just incorrect right now causing ctd.
Thanks very much for the info Jesse!
I don’t think one would apply to me necessarily, as I’ve had the jet crash under all sorts of situations - sometimes even just idling on the ground, with me not touching anything. There’s definitely an issue though; I’ve done some more testing myself and it’s only the F-35 giving me CTD’s in my sim.
Hopefully it gets sorted soon.
Cheers! : )
I think this solved the CTD problems for me too! I deleted all 4 prop pitch bindings on my Saitek/Logitech throttle quadrant, except for the main one. No CTD on 4 flights after this!
Interesting Sputnik, guess I might as well give it a go then. . . Nothing to lose haha!
I just removed all binds related to prop pitch, and the F-35 still CTD'd. So much for that theory.
Ah, haha, never mind then. Still, nice Jesse to try and offer up a solution!
I think it’s something fundamentally wrong with the F-35 causing the issue and we’ll just have to wait for IFE to figure out what it is and then fix it unfortunately : /
Cheers Breeze! All the best : )
Cool vid. How are you getting realistic ATC voices?
Thanks very much Extra, glad you enjoyed it!
The ATC is real-world military recordings, that I’ve then edited into the video. There is an ATC chatter app available for MSFS though, if that’s the sort of thing you’re after : )
Cheers and all the best!
Great video, thanks a lot. I have one question, the in VTOL-mode, how cane I map the HOVER on the screen to my HOTAS? I try it, but found no solution.
Hi Rainer,
Thanks very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Hmm, well I seem to recall that India Foxt Echo changed some of the key assignments since this video was recorded, but last time I flew the F-35, one had to assign a key to "Toggle Autopilot Heading Hold".
I hope that helps! All the best : )
Can you tell me where you found the aircraft carrier? Like, where did you find a rendered, working aircraft carrier on the map? Where is he?
Hi Pedro,
This is the carrier I was using, but it seems the file is no longer available sadly:
flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring
I'd imagine there are other freeware carriers available though, otherwise there are some payware options; all carrier options will require a payware tool, in order to have "working" catapults etc. As of now, there is no default MSFS carrier option unfortunately.
I hope that helps a little. All the best!
What 3rd party ATC communications package are you using in the sim? It sounds really good & adds to the immersion experience.
i beileve it's just recordings of ATC sourced from the internet, added to the video in post-production. it's not a mod.
Corrrrect! Thanks for offering up the info Bernard : )
As Bernard (helpfully) states, it’s actually real world ATC (military in this case) that I edit into the video. As you say, I think it makes the video feel more immersive, so I’m glad you agree : )
There is an ATC chatter mod available for MSFS though, if that’s the sort of thing you’re after; otherwise you can just listen along to a bit of LiveATC.net as you fly.
Cheers, all the best!
Seems like a plane I could actually enjoy in the future. Unfortunately - like so many things - it was released in an unfinished state.... So for now I'm going to wait before getting it.
Overall it's still quite impressive on what they were able to achieve.
As always thanks for the review and take care!
thanks I'll pass it on to the dev team
I mean, technically is STOL capable - so you could take it bush flying etc : P
It does seem like it was released before it was ready though sadly (in terms of CTD’s). It sounds like IFE plan to overhaul the flight model as well - which would suggest they weren’t entirely happy with the one they released. It’s already a great aircraft in some respects and I really like IFE as a company, but I wouldn’t have expected issues like we’ve seen, from one of their products - a little bit of shame.
But agreed, the F-35 is uniquely impressive; quite an accomplishment in any sim I think!
Cheers Dream! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Well, just need a good explanation then on why I landed a 100+ million dollar jet on a riverbed.
Well lets hope they can still turn this into a solid product.
After all they showed that they can do it with their previous products.
Well, take care!
I didn't realize British carriers had "marshmallow" decks! The tricycle gear tires seem to have slightly sunk into the deck surface! LOL
Haha. I don’t know about marshmallow but, the way the UK is going these days, there’s a distinct possibility they’re built out of cardboard! XD
I just bought it and my flight model feel really jumpy in pitch, it doesnt seem to auto-trim (if I do a STOVL short take off, as soon as I click on the STOVL button to go back to normal mode it just plunges straight to the ground if I am not careful for instance) and when releasing the stick in pitch make it bounces in the opposite direction. The f18 feels extremly smooth to fly in comparison, I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
Hi Gadac,
I've been getting a bit of an influx of negative comments regarding the F-35 of late, so I wonder if a previous sim update perhaps broke something. Then again, IFE did just update the F-35 and if you only just purchased the addon, I expect you're running the most current version.
Some of the points you mention, I also found to be true during the review. The aircraft is a bit twitchy in pitch, though unfortunately most MSFS aircraft are. Unlike the real F-35, this version does not have auto-trim (annoyingly) - it was removed by the devs on the recommendation of the beta testers. . . I gather that IFE are working on an all-new flight model for the aircraft though and they said this will include auto-trim.
Regarding the STOVL takeoff, I'm afraid it's been a while since I've had the chance to fly the F-35, but I do seem to recall having to be quite particular with how I came out of the STOVL mode, in order to prevent the aircraft from then descending (but I don't remember exactly what that entailed).
I don't know that you're doing anything "wrong" by the sounds of it, the F-35 does have its quirks for sure. Hopefully IFE's new flight model (whenever that arrives) will address at least some of your issues though.
I hope that helps a little. Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations hey, thanks for the clarifications, I will be waiting for sure for the new flight model in hope it will fix my issue. In the meantime i'll keep playing as Maverick with the F18 😅
Just got it last night love it you might get a new pc haven't had a problem with it so far but you never know
Thank you for all the information on these different aircraft. I have narrowed my options down to the F-14 or the F-35 your thoughts? I did see an F-35 improvement mod as well, not sure if that might put the F--35 over the F-14. Also should I buy from marketplace or the mod website?
Hi Smoove,
You’re most welcome! : )
Overall I would probably go with the F-35. Both products have their strengths and weaknesses, but the F-35 is a higher quality product generally speaking. The F-35 has more systems depth, better modelling and texturing and you get the 3 variants in one package (the B variant makes for some very interesting flying!). The F-14 is (I think) more fun to fly though (the F-35’s flight model feels a bit questionable) and if memory serves me correctly, also has better sounds (and at the end of the day, it’s an F-14 haha!). I haven’t tried the F-35 improvement mod I’m afraid, so I can’t comment on what sort of difference that might make. The F-35 also seems to receive a lot more care and attention from the dev, with multiple updates etc (updates to the F-14 have been more sporadic thus far).
I suppose it really depends on what you’ll want the aircraft for. If you want something with a bit of depth and complexity, I would go with the F-35 all day long. If you want something to have fun in, blast down valleys etc, then I’d be more tempted by the F-14 personally.
I’m not sure whether you’re aware, but the F-14 is also on sale at the moment (I don’t know whether that would factor into your decision). I would 100% recommend buying either addon outside of the Marketplace: Aircraft with weapons are not permitted on the Marketplace and so any weapons have to be removed by developers. Purchasing from another vendor, will mean that you will have weapons available on aircraft that support them (as the F-35 does for example).
I hope all of that helps a little. All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Really appreciate your detailed reply. I'm just getting into Flight Sim so overall just looking to have fun. I don't even know how realistic each aircraft is supposed to be I'm so new, which can be a good thing.
My pleasure!
I might suggest the F-14 a little more overall then. It’s somewhat simpler to operate (press button XYZ and the aircraft will behave accordingly - whereas the F-35 can require quite a bit of rifling through menus / subsystems etc) and it’s generally an easier aircraft to fly. The DC Designs aircraft are rather aimed at more causal / newer simmers, whereas the India Foxt Echo stuff is perhaps aimed at the mid-level enthusiasts. The F-14 does look a little bit rougher graphically I would say, but not to a degree that would spoil the experience.
Welcome to the hobby! Hope you have fun : )
Honest balanced and fair review, when I had 2 ctds in the first 2 flights I thought oh know not Santas sleigh again, and this time I have spent money to experience this .... not a free download. Still it did seem to settle and I flew for 2 hours with no other issues. I am a bit surprised none of the Beta test reviewers hadn't mentioned the Drs issues. I did read that the developer said they acknowledged ctds but that it was due to the flight sim and not the aircraft. So I was a bit surprised to find everyone having the same issue. Anyway that said and ctds aside I enjoyed the flying experience and so much easier than flying a Harrier 👍creating depth review. Look forword to its time trial around the loop, Th at is if you can get round without ctds !!!🙄👍
CTD not Drs 🤣
well me and my friend neither had a single ctd in a couple hours of flight time. i read somewhere that it has something to do wiith directx12, which would be fitting as neither of us uses directx12
Happy to hear it’s working well for you Jonas.
It seems to be a real mixed bag, working for some and not for others. I’m on DX11 myself, so it isn’t that (for me anyway). I ran some more tests today: Under the exact same conditions, I was 2 for 2 on CTD’s with the F-35, the other aircraft I tested were fine.
Hopefully IFE will get to the bottom of it, or someone will work out the cause. I’d like to be able to say that it’s all been resolved. The F-35 is a lot of fun otherwise.
Cheers! : )
Thanks very much Garry!
Haha, uh oh, not Santa’s sleigh again XD
I’m still averaging about 1 CTD per hour myself. I’m not mad, but I do hope they get it fixed up. I gather the beta testers did in fact report CTD issues and the product was initially delayed as a result - so I’m really hoping they didn’t just say “sod it” and release in the end. I sympathise with IFE that it may be a sim issue and not an aircraft issue, but it needs to get fixed either way - it’s the same result for the customer. . .
The aircraft is certainly good fun to fly otherwise! Though I’m not sure I don’t prefer wrestling a Harrier around the skies, for the sake of a good challenge (and feeling like a champ) haha.
Glad you enjoyed the video. I’m sure the F-35 will get it’s turn to go around the Mach Loop full-pelt at some point ; )
Thanks again Garry, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Its a fun aircraft but still unable to complete the famous air show 'bow' of the Harrier. Look forword to your next review 👍
Pretty sure that the nozzle angle is wrong for STO. It should be 45-50` down to provide a serious forward thrust component (you can see the nozzle opening from behind the jet). If the nozzle is at 90` for vertical landing and the jet still accelerates, the FM is messed up.
Nobody would design a STO takeoff sequence in which the jet was in the air before the ski jump. Fail to get height (pitching bow, high takeoff weight) and you're going to redefine ramp strike.
Hi 123,
I don't know the details of the real-world F-35, but what you're saying certainly makes sense. The product has received a tonne of updates since it was released, so perhaps this issue was subsequently addressed. . .
Yes, I did think the ski jump thing was a bit silly, but I suspect in fairness, STO probably isn't used on a carrier with a ski jump (I did want to demonstrate it for the purposes of the video however)?
All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations
It's a combination of flight safety and payload.
ua-cam.com/video/7JqTHf71tnA/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/XNgIc_LMoA4/v-deo.html
The shortest I've seen a CTOL fighter take off, ashore, was about 900ft for a stripped down F-15A with no tanks and 4 missiles. Vastly higher thrust to weight ratio than an F-35B.
Take the runway to sea and crank on 30 knots with a 20 knot headwind and now you can do it in 400ft. A-7Es, which were a backup Ready-5, could do this, with 2 AIM-9Ms. Because of all their high lifts and relatively light weight (half fuel). It was practiced as a backup, in case we were slow in a channel or had all four cats go down. Jet started at the stern and used 100% of the angle deck (foredeck is air park).
There are problems with this however, especially in rough seas, as deck crew in a 30 knot wind over deck environment are having to 'lean in', pretty hard. By fifty knots (30+20) they would not be able to do prelaunch checks safely. Most carrier flight ops are at ~12 knots, simply to stay inside an ASW/ASUW protected bastion of sea space when operating close inshore.
Now, throw in some serious payload like 4+2 X 685lb GBU-12 and 2X 180lb AIM-9X plus 900lbs for the gunpod, which is pretty normal for CAS these days. That's 5,400lbs in munitions. Added to say 13,000lbs of fuel atop a 28,000lb empty weight. Around 46,500lbs mission takeoff gross weight.
On an engine which is pushing 43,000lbs of thrust in full burner and only about 27,000lbf in military thrust.
QEII and the Marine LHA assault carriers don't have Jet Blast Deflectors. So the F-35 cannot just be sweeping the deck for 200ft downstream of the nozzle with a supersonic AB exhaust plume at launch.
Instead, you add 9,000lbs of roll control nozzle thrust plus 18,000lbs from the lift fan and suddenly (27+9+18) you've got 54,000lbs of oomph. Some of which is lost due to the angle of the nozzle and the mechanical lift fan shaft takeoff but not much.
Videos depict plenty of USMC F-35B taking off and landing, conventionally, from landbased runways. Because of noise abatement and maintenance savings as dollar per flight hour budget issues (that downblast is _hot_ and eats runways, kicking up all kinds of FOD).
But on the boat, it's always rolling STO and VL.
Thanks very much for the very informative post 123! A lot of new things I learnt there : )
Much appreciated!
This is a very impressive add-on to see, however, it needs some refinements and patches before I would consider buying it. In a way this mod is very similar to situation the jet is in irl where I have no doubt it will be an incredible jet but it needs more development and various refinements before it can truly become the game-changer it was meant to be
Haha, I think that's a very fair comment on both fronts Megu. I doubt India Foxt Echo have quite the resources of Lockheed Martin, but hopefully they will still get their jet fixed up nonetheless! XD
Cheers! : )
This plane is definition of beauty. Also very accurate and in depth review (even though I don't have a msfs, I felt really good 😁👍) it must be fun to land this vtol
Oh really, I think Concorde, or the Spitfire might have something to say about that! ; )
Glad you enjoyed the review, thanks very much for watching once again! The F-35 is indeed good fun to fly in the hover, incredibly easy; you don’t feel like quite so much of a sky god as one does when landing the Harrier though! : P
All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I meant in modern era 😅.....
No aircraft takes place of spitfire ❤️ 😁
I like Concorde but it's too hard to control, I tried fslabs it was hard to land (for me) I felt like I'm flying tricycle t6 Texan 😂, but Concorde speed is phenomenal 🤩
I didn't know (F 3 5) it was easy to land, I thought it would be super tricky...
Haha, that’s ok then! ; )
Ah nice! Always wanted to try the FSLabs Concorde myself. Never did though unfortunately. . . The systems depth looked excellent.
Well, who knows how accurate the India Foxt Echo version actually is, but the aircraft is fairly easy to fly overall. It’s actually much trickier to get a conventional landing out of it, than it is to get a vertical landing out of it. It’s definitely no Harrier haha.
Cheers : )
Hello,
Do you happen to know if they have improved this recently? I am hesitant to buy because of some of its issues. It just came out in the Marketplace for me Yesturday with outstanding reviews, but again not sure if it's worth the 30 bucks. Please tell me if it's worth 30 bucks. Just want your opinion :)
Hi Matt,
Haha, well I don’t like to tell people if it’s worth the money, as money means different things to different people. The quality is however right up there with other products of a similar price range. I gather the CTD issues have been fixed up, which was my major reservation with the product and an improved flight model + working ordinance is somewhere in the pipeline.
The addon is not perfect, but it is a very nice product and the F-35B is so unique (doesn’t compare with anything else I’ve ever flown in a sim) that I’d say the product is worth picking up overall yeah ; )
I’m planing to do another video on it at some point, when I get the chance. . .
If may be that you’ve already picked it up by now? If so, I hope you’re enjoying it! : )
Purchased, downloaded, installed, played and CTD within 20 seconds of starting to fly.
Sorry to hear that Michael. It wasn’t the issue for me, but DX12 seems to be one of the culprits causing CTD’s. If you’re running that, might be worth trying DX11. Otherwise, I’ve done some more testing and I’m a bit stumped at this point. . .
All the best!
i have tried to land this thing, at 150 -200 kts and stalls,same with the eurofighter,and how do you find an airport to land at on the nav,and line up?
Hi,I buy the great mod but I have some question...
how to get the HMS Queen Elizabeth in the MSFS2020?or the US LHD?
And how to change the graphic setting to make the HMD more easily to read?
Hi YenLin,
HMS Queen Elizabeth can be found (included as part of a free carrier pack) here:
flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring
The more detailed US carrier that you see in the F-35 promotional material, I believe India Foxt Echo will be selling separately at a later date (I couldn’t see anything in the manual regarding it, but they state that on their FB page).
I’m not sure what I did regarding the HMD I’m afraid. I know antialiasing used to affect it, but I have mine on the highest setting and it doesn’t seem to cause issues any longer. I’m running in 1080p - perhaps it doesn’t look as clear if you’re running in 4K?
I hope that helps a bit. All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations thx^0^
You’re most welcome! : )
We need this in DCS…
ASAP!!!!!
Haha, wouldn't that be great RS! Sadly I don't see it happening any time soon though. I guess there simply isn't enough information out there in the public domain, to produce a DCS-level F-35.
All the best! : )
hi there - i didnt have time to really go into the F35 systems yet, but i had a quick browse through the users' manual and it appears that the HUD is projected to the Pilot's helmet. so there is no real dedicated screen for it on the airplane's windshield. I'm still hesitant if i should invest time into it when the CTD issue seems to be so inevitable. cheers :)
regarding the CTD: are you running your sim with DX11 or DX12? heard that using DX11 reduces the crashes
Hi Havoc,
The HUD has indeed been replaced by the HMD. Makes sense in many respects I suppose. One thing I really wonder about with the F-35 though; it does seem to have much redundancy. If that big screen goes, or the HMD goes, I can’t imagine you’d easily be able to fly the jet, let alone fight with it. I’m sure the boys and girls at Lockheed Martin are much cleverer than me though and have given it some thought haha.
As to whether to get stuck into it; I would say why not! It’s actually a pretty quick jet to learn and I’ve been finding I’ve been averaging about 1 CTD and hour; so it’s potentially quite possible to finish some short sorties without issue haha.
I’m on DX11 myself by the way. I’ve done a bit more testing and I think at this point, it’s quite conclusively an F-35 issue (at least on my machine).
Cheers! : )
Had one flight so far. Good fun. However first time loading aircraft got a CTD before getting to load the flight. Re-loaded and had one flight so far. Will continue to monitor CTD.
I had 1 CTD the first time I flew it yesterday, but none since.
What system INTEL AMD and GPU are you running
@@TAP1992 intel i7 16g ram GeForce RTX AORUS 3060
Interesting. I seem to consistently get a crash inside of 1hr when using the aircraft, in all sorts of flight phases etc. I did some more testing today and it really does seem to be only the F-35 causing issues in the sim for me. . .
Have since flown it a couple more times, short sorties maybe 20-30min each. No CTD.
From what I h ave heard, in reality when in hover mode teh throttle controls forwards and backwards, i kinda locks itself to a midpoint, and pushing forward on the throttle goes forward, and pulling back goes back.
I guess using the sick to pull to go up and push to go down kinda reflects how you would fly in standard flight
Ah ok, that makes a bit more sense. Logically, coming up and down on the stick probably is the more sensible option - it's just a case of getting used to something else I suppose (with the Harrier, helicopters etc).
Thanks very much for the info rjc, much appreciated! : )
Ah ok, interesting Valerie. Thanks for the info! : )
i found airbrake config is very convenient for takeoff and landing, much better than use auto fcs. for vertical and short run is no matter of course:) and that's about vestibula too lol. that's jump effect at approach and run to take off not good:) sure i don't feel it, but imagine in real aircraft have to be, when flaps go down auto and ac go to lift before landing or before airborne, when use air brake it's go nice when run and go smooth all approach way
Ah ok, thanks very much for the tip Einherz! I shall give it a go next time I'm out in the F-35 then : )
All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations actually if play nice is no matter, those effects only some time when rotate too far or glide too aggressive. and btw if too too aggressive effect opposite - flaps go up even at air brake config, i just think it's work ok for standard way. but autoflaps works not smooth enough and make some jumpy way
have a nice ...everything, what better be nice:) and all the best for sure:)
as always, top notch review... what a stunning looking aircraft.. i seems like a good attempt at representing a aircraft so unknown to the public.. i think this will be a addition to the virtuel hangar if they can fix the bugs :D
Blue have you had access to aerosofts new DHC-6 Twin Otter, would love to hear your take on it :D
Yes, the DHC-6 Twin Otter really interests me too. Can't wait for the review.
Thank you very much Thomas, very kind of you to say!
Indeed, I think a pretty impressive effort in many regards from India Foxt Echo, given how limited any documentation on the aircraft must be. The aircraft is certainly good fun to operate - hopefully the devs can get these CTD issues (which seem to affect some and not others) fixed up!
Sadly I’m not in the “cool kids club” for the Twotter no haha. I think it’s only beta-testers that have access at the moment. . . I did think about reaching out to Aerosoft and seeing if they would let me take a look (as they did with the CRJ), but given that I believe even Aerosoft themselves are saying it’s going to be a somewhat “simplified” version of the aircraft, I think I’d rather review it completely independently and that way I can review it 100% honestly, without feeling like I’m abusing anyone’s generosity.
It’s definitely an aircraft I’m potentially looking forward to and for sure I will be looking to review it when the time comes!
Cheers, all the best : )
Great Peter. I’ll certainly be looking to have a review up as soon as I can, after the aircraft releases : )
Hiya! Been a while since watched any flight sim content and you still produce some of the best videos. Nice work.
Amazing review as always! Just picked this up as my PC was out of service for nearly 3 months (xbox is great but really not even comparable) and I am in love. I think the model looks great given the plane is a very simplistic design, love how easy it is to use, though my STOVL needs some work for sure, though I will say its quite a bit more sluggish to handle than I exoext. I'm not sure if was doing something wrong or what but I thought turned a bit quicker and sharper than does but also do get that it's not nessicerily a plane that has to because of how technically advanced it is. Gonna be one of my my flown I suspect as years go on.
Hi Chandler,
Yeah, it's been a while, good to see you again! Glad you're still enjoying the content : )
Sorry to hear about your PC, that's never fun (I thought I had killed my over Christmas, but luckily it was just a minor hiccup haha). Yeah, it didn't handle quite as I was expecting in the hover, but then I only really have the DCS Harrier as a reference and that thing is a menace haha. Otherwise I have no frame of reference, but I suppose given all of the tech under the hood, it's quite conceivable that the aircraft would be fairly sedate in the hover.
I hope you continue to enjoy the F-35! Thanks for stopping by once again : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I'm glad to be back. Thanks. I am sorry your PC had some problems but glad it was sortable.
I definitely agree. The more look into the plane and fly it the more in love I become with it. I have absolutely no reference for my thought on it (I mean I own the Hydra in GTA. That's about It for VTOl planes so really no comparison haha) though have tried to look at videos and stuff and I do think the dev team did an amazing job as always as making as believable an F-35 in the simulator as possible given the fact we as a whole don't know too much compared to most planes by natue. I did watch a video with the head of Production I believe it was for the F-35 and he did claim that anyone could land the F-35B so from that I'm inclided to agree that the hardware all round must be incredibly stable but also as simplified as can be. It makes sense if think the purpose of the F-35 that it would be so user friendly (well as can be) though. Just find it amazing how after only a year we have this in the simulator with working STOVL and avionics.
Take care mate and I'm looking forward to your next videos 😀
thank you for this great life saving video! Another question how to deactivate the autotrim, at home it is always on???
Thanks very much Patrice! My pleasure - I’m glad you found the video useful : )
I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to your question. The IFE F-35’s flight model has gone through a number of iterations; back when I last flew the addon, there was no FBW etc. So I’m not entirely sure what’s been modelled since then and indeed whether or not the auto-trim can be deactivated. There is another UA-camr called “CGAviator”, who seems to be pretty clued up on the F-35, it might be worth asking him : )
I hope that helps a little. Cheers and all the best!
Besides the manual i think its a nice airplane and the texturing of the radar absorb paint is pretty good, so i don't agree with you on that, after 2 hours flight i haw no crash to desktop at all. Yes it's a little nimble and shaky on landing in 150 kt because the trust is very sensitive. i give it a 4+ out of 5 😄👍
Haha, fair enough Betty! Of course, any review is always going to be somewhat subjective. I’m very happy to hear you’re enjoying the aircraft - indeed it is great fun to operate. I’m still having some CTD issues myself, but hopefully IFE will get it fixed up soon enough and then maybe I’ll see you in the virtual skies! ; )
Thanks as always : )
Did u contact the devs to try to solve the CTDs? I really want to buy the aircraft, but I am waiting for a soluution for the CTDs.
I haven’t contacted the devs personally Eduardo no. It seems there’s plenty of discussion about the topic on their forums though. The issue seems to be affecting some users and not others. I did some more testing today and under the exact same conditions, it was only the F-35 that produced a CTD. So definitely an issue somewhere unfortunately. . .
I hope IFE get it fixed soon, but as you say, probably worth waiting until they do.
Cheers, all the best : )
How id you assign a key for the hook STOVL, I know how to do it, well I think i do, but for some reason whatever button on my stick i assign to the hook it is not operating it, i assume it would be the toggle or set tailhook command?
Actually Jay, the button isn’t assigned to the tailhook command; you need to assign a button to “Wing Lights” of all things haha (the manual outlines the required keybinds for all of the custom functions).
Not sure why India Foxt Echo went with that, but there you go. . .
Happy flying! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks very much that works perfectly
Perfect! You’re most welcome : )
I'm on Xbox and after landing the F-35 I cannot get nose wheel steering working, completely unable to taxi. Setting the toggle works on the F-18 but not the IFE F-35 or the DC Designs F-14.
Hi Walker,
A couple of other users have mentioned the same thing, so I presume there must be some sort of bug. If memory serves me correctly, there was no requirement to turn the NWS on when I flew the F-35 (it just worked). Perhaps it’s worth heading over to the IFE forums and seeing what the deal is. Actually, I think IFE just put out an update for the product today, perhaps that has sorted your issue?
Sorry I can’t really be of more help on that one. All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Awesome thanks for the recommendations! I'll try it out today and if not I'll make a forums post.
Im going to get this aircraft but not until the CTD issue has been resolved as im hearing a lot of people are having this problem right now
I would say it’s worth holding off and waiting for now yes (unfortunately). The jet is good fun, but I’m averaging about 1 CTD an hour and it seems I’m not the only one. I’ve done quite a bit more testing and it really is only the F-35 I’m having issues with. Hopefully IFE will figure out the problem soon and get it sorted.
Cheers : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I hope the devs see these posts as I love flying fighter jets in VR…The hawk and F14 are awesome…doing canyon runs…Cheers for the reply buddy
I’m pretty sure they are well aware of the issue, I’ve seen plenty of posts about it on various forums. There seems to be a bit of back and forth regarding what / who’s causing it (IFE vs Asobo etc), but the end result is still the same for the customer, so it really needs fixing. VR is indeed awesome! Sadly I’ve never had it running that well in MSFS on my machine. . .
All the best! : )
@Into the Blue Simulations - is this a flying iPad? :-) Great enjoyable review - many thanks!
Haha! It basically is isn't it Haden XD
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks very much for watching and all the best : )
Thank you for this review. I guess i'll wait for IFE to fix a few things before buying. Question please: Do you use FSrealistic when your review a new plane? Because I check if the flight model reproduces as closely as possible the real mass and behaviour of the plane or if it feel like flying "a paper plane" as is often the case on MSFS ...
My pleasure as always 06! : )
I was indeed using FSRealistic during this review, though that was an error on my part really. Of course it would be far preferable to review an addon without FSRealistic running (for a number of reasons), but as the application starts up automatically with the sim, I do have a bit of a habit of forgetting to close it of late : /
So yes, using it in this video, but ideally I would have turned it off. . .
I hope that clarifies things. All the best!
How would you rate the flight model realistically on a scale of 1-10 to the real life aircraft
Hello again Skins,
Using my DCS metrics again; the F-35 is about the same as the T-45 (so roughly a 6). It behaves reasonably during normal flight, but not so much at the extremes of the flight envelope. IFE also decided to remove the FBW control systems (due to user feedback), so in that respect it isn't accurate to the real-world jet. It's amazing what the devs have managed to achieve with this one (the auto-hover etc), but the jet does exhibit some strange behaviors on occasion. A lot of the info on the F-35 is still classified of course, so it would be hard for IFE to model everything accurately.
They are apparently planning on updating the flight model in due course, so things may well improve further down the line. . .
Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Given the testing that I have done, the flight model while hovering seems to behave far too leniently, you can roll and pitch to rather large angles at very low velocities and recover extremely easily. In reality any meaningful roll while stationary at low altitude would result in a crash. The flight computers likely wouldn't allow this condition in reality however.
Thank you for the excellent video. Has the CTD issue been investigated and fixed as far as you are aware?
Hi Brain,
Thank you very much, my pleasure!
I know that India Foxt Echo are certainly aware of the issue and the coding etc had been investigated previously by both themselves and Asobo apparently. I would hope that they’re doing their best to come up with a solution, but certainly there’s been no fix / update yet I’m afraid.
I hope that clarifies things a little. All the best! : )
Hello I need some help, I purchased the F35 of Sim market, put the file in the game but it's nowhere in my Hanger? Am I adding it to the wrong location?
Hi Jeremy,
Apologies for the slow reply. Where exactly are you putting the aircraft file? It needs to go in your sim's community folder : )
Let me know if you're still having trouble. All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Hello, it's all good and I was able to figure it out. The community folder was split in two different drives and it was on a very small steam folder so I got the bought file in there
Ah great, glad you got it sorted! : )
hi, i see too many mods about F35 in flight simulator so Can I to use it without purchase the official main F35 in flight simulator ?
Hi BigZero,
It depends; if you’re looking at a freeware mod of the F-35, then you can indeed use it without purchasing this version (though the fidelity will not be nearly as good I’m sure). If you’re looking at repaints for the India Foxt Echo version though, you will need this payware module.
Does that answer your question? All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations ohhh thanks so this is the official ndiaFoxtEcho F-35 Lightning II, thanks for reply
@@IntotheBlueSimulations its this jet fully functional like the real one irl ? I mean if you can get refuel A/A
Correct, it’s the IFE version.
You’re most welcome! : )
Not really. I pretty much demonstrated everything that the jet is capable of during the video. Aerial refuelling isn’t an option I’m afraid and the aircraft systems whilst good, are really just IFE’s “best guess”, since most of the F-35 is still of course classified.
It’s a pretty decent offering from IFE, but don’t expect anything to the same standards as a DCS addon for example.
I hope that helps a little : )
What "control command" do I need to assign to a button, in order to toggle the STOVL mode on my joystick?
Hi Beric,
I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid I can't remember off the top of my head - it is in the manual though. I think maybe it was "Toggle Strobe Lights" or something similar (not the tailhook keybind, as one would logically think haha).
I don't have the manual to hand right now but as I say, you will find it in there : )
Cheers and all the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations It's ok, thanks anyway. I have found a copy of the manual and have set both the STOVL and hover modes. The manual can be found here: orbx-user-guides.storage.googleapis.com/indiafoxtecho-f35-msfs-user-guide-388ff3.pdf
where is this available? thanks for the review!
Hi Damuffin,
Cheers, you’re most welcome for the video!
In terms of purchase, I believe you can find the aircraft at Simmarket, Orbx, Just Flight and a number of other 3rd party vendors.
Hope that helps! All the best : )
I wish dcs also releases f-35 mod with its own cockpit
Yeah, this jet would fit rather nicely into DCS. I suspect someone might mod it up, or develop one for the sim one day : )
All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations And helmet mounted sight
Pretty good recreation of the F-35, There is just so much that isn't accurate to IRL. Little things like you can't just set the engine switch to norm before the IPP starts, because the IPP needs to be on first to give stuff time to turn on in order to start the engine. I wonder if they had a Lockheed advisor when making this. Coming from an F-35A maintainer.
Thanks very much for sharing your feedback Patrick, always good to hear from someone in the know!
I've no doubt there are plenty of inaccuracies with the addon. I'd imagine India Foxt Echo have had to make do with the information available in the public domain and that probably doesn't amount to a whole lot I'm guessing. Even then though, IFE tend to strike somewhat of a balance between fidelity and accessibility, so their addons are not generally 100% accurate either way (though still very good in their own right).
Cheers and all the best! : )
Aircraft informations are classified. The people who are behind these addons are working with open/public sources and maybe, for older aicrafts, informations pilots can give them. For the F-35, there is only so much they can work with and to be honest, considering the small amount of information they had, they did an amazing job.
I still don't get it, why so many people are saying it's not real life accurate when nobody really knows anything about this aircraft.
I would like to see the 339 finished first. The TACAN still is non functional in the sim?
Well to be fair to India Foxt Echo David, that one’s on Asobo. . .
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I don't believe so. The JF Hawk has a fully working TACAN. The 339 is non functional. He needs to correct that! It's been faulty from release. Asobo have patched the sim since the 339 was released, hence the Hawk works just fine!
Oh, is that so?! My apologies then David! I had no idea TACAN worked on the Hawk haha. I though the beacons still weren’t modelled in the sim (great to hear that Asobo finally sorted that one out then). . .
Cheers!
Are you using the DX12 beta in MSFS?
Hi LCTR,
Still running with DX11 on my end. I know DX12 can cause issues with some addons (and it doesn’t work well on my system at any rate). I did some further testing: 2 more crashes in 2 hours with the F-35, whereas I managed a couple of 2 hour stints with no issues in other aircraft (under the exact same conditions).
I think I’ve seen enough to state, that at least on my system, the F-35 has some sort of issue that I’m just not seeing with other addons.
Good point though, thanks for bringing it up.
All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations cheers, thanks for the reply!
Cheers LCTR, my pleasure! : )
Many thanks for the very informative review, as always. Please note, I do run MSFS 2020 to almost full ULTRA settings all the time on a "Primitive PC " : MSI X58 Pro-E motherboard - Intel Xeon X5690 overclocked to 4.5GZ - 24GB DDR3 3172MHz memory and Radeon RX 580 series overclocked with MSI Afterburner - Direct X11 settings - Oculus Rift S /TrackIR5 - Dolby Atmos Headphone system - Logitech X-56 controllers and Logitech rudder pedals, I have flown the India FoxtEcho Lightning F-35 for over 15 times now and I had no issues with crashing to desktop......... I am not an expert on pc but I see you are using NVIDIA graphics card, your problem with crashing to desktop could be coming from the NVIDIA drivers or settings, please see if the others that reported the same issue are also using NVIDIA graphics cards to begin with. Again, I thank you for your very informative SUPERB videos you always give us!
I have a Nvidia RTX2020 TI and have had several CTDs with the F-35
I’m on a Nvidia card as well William.
Thanks very much OGP. It’s a good point; there’s certainly a few people in this comments section having similar issues, so I’ll try and see if there are any common threads among us. I’m sure IFE will be looking into it also. I did some more testing today myself: Multiple flights (using different aircraft) under the exact same conditions, only the F-35 caused a CTD.
Thank you very much for your support, I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed the video and indeed that you’re enjoying the content in general! Cheers : )
Hi is the carrier in the video ? and where I can get its?
Hi Ivo,
The carrier is available over on Flightsim.to (search “Superspud Carrier” and you should find it). The download was briefly taken offline, but I think the dev as put it back up again now.
I hope that helps. All the best! : )
Why does it have parking brake application limits?
has there been any updates to the F35 or any news/ solutions on the CTD issues?
Hi Jenny,
To my knowledge, no real news or updates yet. Asobo’s recent hotfix did somewhat screw up the aircrafts throttle assignment though haha (they’ll get it right one day I’m sure!). I did quite a bit more testing with the F-35 and it’s the only aircraft (in my sim at least) giving me CTD’s. Just going to have to be patient and wait for IFE to figure out what the problem is I think. . .
Sorry I don’t have better news for you on that one, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations ok thank you for replying , weirdly i read about the throttle issue in the notes for RSP helicopters but when i checked mine they were totally fine
You’re most welcome Jenny : )
Haha, the mysteries of MSFS. It’s as though Asobo made tens, if not hundreds of thousands of different sims - it seems not one person has the same experience to the next! The throttle issue has been affecting me though unfortunately : /
Where can we find the HMS QE to add to the sim?
Hi Jake,
You can find it included in this freeware pack:
flightsim.to/file/4930/aircraft-carrier-uss-msfs-uk-mooring
Hope that helps, all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Many thanks! Never spotted the QE in this package
You’re most welcome Jake!
Haha, it’s hiding in plain sight - off the coast of Portsmouth ; )
Thanks for another fine review. CTD=Unstable=not for me!
Always a pleasure David, cheers!
Yep, the CTDs are unfortunate and a real stumbling block at the moment. I did some more testing today; on my system at least, it’s still only the F-35 crashing the sim (seemingly). . .
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks buddy! I am flying everything in MSFS and trying to find an aircraft that makes me fall in love with it? I can not find one. I bought the 339 and find its TACAN is STILL UNSERVICEABLE. JF Hawk..nice but...They all have the same flight models, give or take a few knots? All the latest fancy models miss something in either the navigation or realism section! Ive been flying the game for 40 years! Before that 707's...!So far the best appears to be PMDG 737 P3d? A2A "anything" P3d....QW 787....all the rest are low quality! I am underwhelmed! There is something amiss? Its called commercialism..."Lets sell this to as many as punters as possible"!!! Ignore the fact this is a flight simulation?
I'm almost about to buy this or the Hawk for VR only.
Does anyone know how well this works in VR, I.e. The HUD. Does it look silly, like the text is just floating like a holograph.
How well does the cockpit mouse cursor work in VR? Is it smooth, or sticky and annoying, just like other planes in this sim. And performance etc.
I'm running a Reverb G2 V2, RTX 4090 and i-9 12900k.
I'm hoping for approximately 60 FPS (like I get in the JMB prop) with almost everything at Ultra settings apart from Map Shadows, which is set to the High numbers.
Thanks in advance!
Hi British Dragon,
I’m afraid I don’t have any experience with the F-35 (or the Hawk) in VR. The only thing I could suggest, is that you’ll probably see more of an FPS impact with the Lightning vs the JMB, though of course that will be system dependent etc also.
If you did end up picking up the F-35, I hope it’s working out for you!
Sorry I can’t be of more help on that one. All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thanks. :)
I decided not to get a boring fly by wire plane, so I just purchased the Spitfire instead. It's very different to the DCS version. The physics felt a little strange to what I was used to.
I wanted to take off from Iwo Jima and was surprised it's not in the sim on the globe map. Just a generic island but no airport, although you can clearly see one exists on the tiny island. Weird.
You’re most welcome!
Haha, nice choice! I find almost every virtual Spitfire I’ve ever flown handles quite differently, so it’s always a little bit tricky to gauge what is accurate (especially since sadly, I have never flown the real thing ha). I gather the FlyingIron Spit’s flight model has received some input from real-world Spitfire pilots, but then again I’m sure the DCS version had the same treatment. Either way, I find the FlyingIron Spit a real joy to fly in MSFS.
Iwo Jima probably isn’t included in the sim, owing to the fact it’s a military base (this is the case with a lot of military installations in the sim), though I suspect there would be some sort of mod available for the base over on Flightsim.to.
Happy flying! : )
How do I turn on nose wheel steering, I’m taxing straight into buildings and I’m loosing the will to live 😬😓
Hi Stevo,
I’m afraid I’m not sure on that one. I have seen a few others making the same comment, so I wonder if it’s not s bug. If memory serves me correctly, it wasn’t a requirement to “turn on” the NWS with the F35, it simply worked. Probably better to reach out to India Foxt Echo regarding the issue, as they should know a lot more about it than I do.
Sorry I can be of more help on that one, I do hope you manage to get things sorted! All the best : )
Is this the LVFR Queen Elizabeth?
Hi AV,
It’s not. It’s a freeware alternative, available over on Flightsim.to (as part of “Superspud’s” carrier package : )
All the best!
Could you please post what site you downloaded the plane from? Thanks!
Hi Kyle,
I purchased it from Simmarket.com, but there other vendor options available also (Orbx for example). Just google India Foxt Echo F-35 and you should see a number of available purchase options.
I hope that helps! All the best : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations thanks mate!!
Cheers Kyle, you’re most welcome! : )
I just bought the F-35 addon and it's amazing! i just have a question, when i engage hover-mode the jet sometimes continuously turns left (counter-clockwise), it's as if it's being pulled constantly. I can't understand WHY. Does it have something to do with my flaps being at 30%? It shouldn't since it works other times, but i'm not sure
Hi Tangent,
I'm really glad you're enjoying the F-35 for the most part. Hmm, that does sounds a little odd. Are you sure it's not some sort of control binding / calibration issue (that sounds like the most likely culprit, in terms of what you're describing). The flaps certainly shouldn't be causing you any issues like that. Are you landing in a strong crosswind by any chance (and the aircraft is then weather-vaning into wind)?
I know that India Foxt Echo recently put out an update to the F-35, has that fixed your issue at all?
Cheers and all the best! : )
I love F-35 an fighter aircrafts in general but for me this is not the right sim for them do you agree?
Hi fq eagles,
Hmm, I wouldn’t say it’s the “wrong” sim for it personally no. I know a lot of people don’t like fast jets and / or warbirds in civilian sims. I used to be very much the same myself, but I find MSFS has changed all of that for me. Having the whole world to explore in high(ish) detail is a bit of a game-changer and something unique to MSFS; as a result, I find myself wanting to fly all sorts of routes that I wouldn’t be able to do nearly as accurately in other sims. I love DCS, it has the best flight modelling of any sim in my opinion and some of the best graphics, but the maps are of course quite limited, so there’s no flying the Sidewinder route, Mach Loop etc.
I really enjoy flying warbirds in MSFS, a bit the same way one might enjoy driving a classic car. I don’t find myself flying the fast jets all that much personally, but if someone else enjoys the sim for that, great! For better or worse, MSFS has become a bit of a sandbox sim to some degree and people now enjoy it for all sorts of different reasons, personally I’m fine with that.
That’s just my two pennies worth though. . . I know not everyone feels the same.
All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations yeah everyone has different taste,but it's so SAD seeing a fighter that can't use weapons
With the fighters I somewhat agree with you, but even then, I figure it’s very rare in the real world that they actually deploy their weapons - most flights will be training, navigation exercises etc (which you can still do in MSFS of course). For the warbirds, I think it’s still fairly realistic to fly them in MSFS, as they are of course flown in this fashion today (whether for leisure or display etc).
I think your opinion is more common than my own on this matter though, so what do I know haha : P
Cheers!
As a Yank, I typically find various British sayings enchanting, but I gotta tell ya... "nice piece of kit" drives me crazy for some reason :)
Haha! One might say that the expression is "not your cup of tea" then Animator? : P
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Ha ha! Oddly enough, we actually do use "Not my cup of tea" here, although it never dawned on me that it had British roots until just now. Interesting side note: years ago, ending a message with "Cheers" seemed to me to be a uniquely British thing to do, but now is much more common for Americans to use as well :)
Haha, is that so. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the origins of the phrase, don’t stem from a little protest on your side of the water many years ago? ; )
I’d say it’s mostly Americanisms making it into other parts of the world these days, but I’m happy to hear that “cheers” has made it across the pond haha.
All the best!
Isn't its cockpit layout classified in real life? So I assume every F22, F35 cockpits in every game are just different "artist's impression"?
I’m pretty sure the cockpit layout of the F22 and F35 aren’t classified since you can find pictures of the cockpit on the internet. The things that are classified on both aircrafts are the functionalities of the system, how to operate them and etc.
Hi XJP,
As Waltz points out, the actual cockpit layout is quite easy to find in the public domain. I believe even some of the display architecture etc is easy enough to find pictures of. So the visual representation is probably reasonably accurate, but the avionics. / software is certainly still highly classified, so the devs would have to fill in a lot of “holes” there (and I think India Foxt Echo have done a very good job at doing that convincingly overall).
Cheers! : )
Exactly - well that’s my understanding anyway : )
Cheers Waltz!
How is the flight model compared to dcs or something of this
Hi F14 man,
Short answer; not even close.
That’s not to criticise the F-35 specifically, but the flight model in MSFS is nowhere near as good as DCS generally speaking. MSFS is ok in normal flight, but at the extremes of the flight envelope it tends to fall apart a bit - something that DCS generally handles very well. For flight modelling, DCS is still the leader of the pack, as far as I’m concerned.
Cheers! : )
You forgot to do the customary Top Gun aileron roll on takeoff
Haha, very true Jin! I’d imagine that could have been quite interesting though, with the exhaust nozzle and fan now pointing upwards XD
All the best! : )
hey, is cold and dark available because i downloaded mine but cant set it to cold and dark
Hi Ace,
It certainly should be possible. It will depend though on whether you're starting on a runway. MSFS only defaults to "cold and dark" when you start from the parking area; if you start on the runway, the aircraft will be configured as "ready to go". The same is true when starting from a carrier.
I hope that helps? All the best : )
Excellent review as always very detailed. very nice review Looks great It was like watching the real plane, Many Thanks.
Thanks very much Robert! Very kind of you to say and I'm really glad you enjoyed the video - my pleasure : )
All the best!
Does anyone know why I can’t seem to turn the aircraft very well on the Xbox version? I’m pulling back all the way on the stick and I’m only pulling max 3 gs
Hi StayAwake,
It’s not something I know a lot about, but I gather there is an option in the sim’s control settings, that allows one to reduce the sensitivity of the Xbox controller. Apparently having this option tuned on, will lead to the sort of behaviour you’re describing (having it turned off, might make the F-35 a real handful though I would imagine!).
I hope that helps a little. All the best! : )
I would rather fly a washing machine than these ultra modern Apple phones with wings. You can tell the pilot was added as a after thought. As a premier fighter I understand the need and function but as a plane to burn holes in the MSFS world you might as well go to a external camera view and fly the camera.
Haha, well I somewhat agree JimJam; the F-35 is not my personal cup of tea - I prefer my jets a bit more old-school. For those that are into this sort of thing though, IFE have come up with a reasonably plausible and nice version of the aircraft.
Cheers and all the best! : )
Is it normal i can’t move the throttle and i can’t use flaps ?
Flaps yes, they’re automatic ; )
The throttle is a nice new bug that Asobo decided to introduce haha. Reassign your throttle to “Throttle Axis 1” (as opposed to just “Throttle Axis” and all should be working again! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations ok thanks and for the throttle ?
@@IntotheBlueSimulations thanks
Any other Carrier choices?
Hi AL,
Yeah, there is quite a lot of choice around these days. There is the payware HDS carrier module and a number of other payware carrier options - India Foxt Echo have 2 of their own now, on which the detailing is very nice. This freeware pack includes a number of carrier types, dotted all over the world. I'm sure there other freeware options out there these days as well.
I hope that helps a little. All the best! : )
Great review , want get this but you said something ,not from??
Hi Toby,
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I was just saying not to purchase it from the in-sim Marketplace, otherwise you won’t be able to load weapons onto the aircraft etc. You’ll be better off purchasing from a 3rd party; Simmarket, Orbx, Just Flight et al.
Does that answer your question?
All the best! : )
Im thinking of getting this but I dont know if its autopilot systems are good, does anybody know its capabilities? I would like to be able to load a flight plan and possibly an approach.
Hi CK,
I’m afraid, not having had the chance to fly the F-35 in a long while myself, I can’t really offer up much info for you there. The addon has certainly received a tonne of updates since I recorded this review though. I would recommend checking out cgaviator’s channel, as he has covered the F-35 much more recently and that may give you a better idea as to what the product currently has to offer.
I hope that helps a little. All the best! : )
Nice review! Looking forward to the Xbox release.
Thanks very much ACA!
Yes, these things always seem a long time in coming, but hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer. . .
Cheers and all the best! : )
doesn't look like it is ready for prime time yet. revisit in 6 months.
Unfortunately Mike, it does seem as though it would have benefited from a bit longer in beta testing at the very least. It seems it’s not only me having the CTD issues. . . Hopefully it will come good in a few months time (if not sooner) as you say.
Cheers!