FSX: Steam Edition: Grumman E-2C Hawkeye® Add-On DLC

Need Some Repaints for her

FUN TO FLY!

I like it but i just dont now how to do some of the options like fold up the wings.

With the various patches this plane is a joy to fly, if not as complex as the usual aircraft I fly.

What a plain Paint. you Can't seem to use your own paint program due to mirroring in the coding . The Dome does not spin on top and I cannot get launch bar lowered. Flight characteristics are backwards on the ailerons, there are more my friends have discovered. It seems like this plane was quickly put out with attention to details ignored. I wish I had not wasted my money on this aircraft.

Nice plane to grab when on sale. With just two paint schemes being extremely bland and missing some valuable clickable it’s just not worth full price. That said it is fun to fly! The rotor dome (frisbee) does indeed turn if you turn it on. The switch is easy to find and is just above the captains seat on the left side of the overhead panel. Can’t miss it, and it is kinda neat to see it turning while flying. It handles very nicely but having never actually flown one I couldn’t possibly know just how accurate the flight model really is. Nevertheless I am enjoying it and pleased enough to give a positive review for a great sale purchase.

Love the E-2C. It's a great plane to learn how to do carrier runs compaired to the defualt F-18 that you get from FSX, also even though their are no paint schems for the plane you can simply download freeware skins (or payware what ever floats your boat) to bring life to the E-2C plus it can be catapulted form the FSX carrier.

After reading some of the reviews I was a bit hesitant about buying this one but this is a Steam Exclusive so it is the ONLY way to get it, HOWEVER, since those reviews Virtavia has updated the files to Version 2 and has addressed a few of the issues (as so noted in the readme file). Version 2 fixes / additions : Added rotating rotodome Added switch for rotating rotodome Fixed reversed ailerons Added better glass reflectivity Improved rudder texture mapping The radome works via a selector switch on the far left of the overhead panel that is so marked (about 10 O'Clock high when in the left seat). The aircraft config file has not been update so the suggested adjustments from another review might still be useful. I found the sounds to be adequate. Maybe not as beefy as they could be but not totally off either. You could drop in the freeware sound set for the Convair 580 that does have that classic Allison engine sound: http://www.calclassic.com/580.htm It is a drag that there are no additional repaints shipped with the DLC other than nondescript plain but there are some oustanding freeware repaints done by one of the official Virtavia/Alphasim painters for Egypt, French, Israel, Japan, USCG the famous VAW-123 "Screw Tops"! :) They are available here: http://www.mirage4fs.com/Alphasim/index.html#A-4 The cockpit is done well, very crisp and readable with useful pop-up 2 D's for the radios via the FSX control panel located by the Aircraft Commanders left knee with additional views for the overhead and center panels. I have been flying Virtavia's aircraft since their AlphaSim days of FS9 and CFS2 and have a hanger full of their planes and I would rate their Hawkeye as one of their best. There is another payware Hawkeye out there but once you go get the excellent free repaints by Frank Safranek from the link above, for the price, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Especially now that Virtavia has now tweaked the files a bit since it's original issuance.

I don't know what the fuss is about, this plane for the money, is a treat to fly and operate. no problems found. even the radar goes around, and the wing fold is good, sounds of engines pretty good. Buy it, fly it.

I absolutely love carrier borne aircraft and the E-2 Hawkeye is no exception. However, I can't say the same for this DLC. Don't take that in the wrong way; I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. Allow me to explain. Let's get the positive aspects of Virtavia's latest addon out on the table first. The Model and the animations look great for the most part. The wing fold, gear retracts, and control surface movements are nice and smooth. I was very happy to see that they stayed true to the three rudders on the empenage, something overlooked on every single other E-2 addon I've seen thus far. The VC is exactly what you'd expect from Virtavia: Quite pretty and 70-75% of the switches are clickable. (rough guess, take it for what you will) Cat shots feel accurate. You don't leave the deck at a ridiculous speed like I've noticed for other prop driven carrier based addons. Now that the positives are out of the way, let's delve into the negatives. (there are quite a few) As I said above, the model and animations look great... FOR THE MOST PART. There are some glaring aspects of the model animations that are completely off and I can not overlook. For starters, when the engines are shut down the prop pitch is reversed. 100% gives you a feathered look and vise versa. After scouring the cockpit and panels for a switch of some sort, I aslo have yet to find a way to make the frisbee up top rotate on its axis. And one of the most evident issiues with the model animation is the ailerons being reversed. Stick left gives you a left bank, but the ailerons look like they should be taking the aircraft to the right... and vise versa. (I'm getting sick of that phrase already) That's it as far as the animations go, but I'm still not done here. I had to spend quite a while fixing the flight dynamics of the aircraft. The approach speed of the Hawkeye should be around 105 kts at max takeoff weight. (contrary to what the checklist that comes with the addon states) Flying Virtavia's E-2 at this speed in the dirty configuration, however, will result in an ungodly high nose up attitude just to maintain level flight. In the realm of real life, the Hawkeye should look almost level at this speed and configuration. (maybe a few degrees nose up) The roll rate felt too aggressive. Tuned that down. The engines were overpowered. Tuned them down. The tension on the tailhook was too high. Tuned that down as well. Also, it sounds nothing like a Hawkeye should. You're better off finding a replacement sound file. Figuring out these modifications took me a decent amount of time, but now my aircraft flies close to how it should in the real world, so to save everyone the trouble, I'll include my modifications at the bottom of this review. I'm not going to touch on the textures lacking any squadron paint since I guess that's how Steam does its business. Looking forward to seeing some repaints though. VAW-123 Screwtops in particular. To sum things up, the Virtavia E-2C Hawkeye has a lot right with it, but also has a lot wrong with it too. So, would I recommend it? Only to those of you who are dying to have one for your flight sim, otherwise, save your money for something better. 5/10 would ♥♥♥♥ every now and then. Aircraft.cfg modifications: [flight_tuning] cruise_lift_scalar = 1.75 parasite_drag_scalar = 1.1 induced_drag_scalar = 1.0 elevator_effectiveness = 2 aileron_effectiveness = 0.65 rudder_effectiveness = 1 pitch_stability = 2.5 roll_stability = 1 yaw_stability = 1 elevator_trim_effectiveness = 1 aileron_trim_effectiveness = 0.30 rudder_trim_effectiveness = 0.95 hi_alpha_on_roll = 1 hi_alpha_on_yaw = 1 p_factor_on_yaw = 0.06 torque_on_roll = 0.08 gyro_precession_on_roll = 0.07 gyro_precession_on_yaw =0.05 gyro_precession_on_pitch =0.05 [Turboprop_engine] power_scalar=0.9 [propeller] thrust_scalar=0.9 [TailHook] cable_force_adjust= 0.65 [Flaps.0] type=1 span-outboard=0.500 extending-time=5 system_type=1 damaging-speed=250.000 blowout-speed=300.000 lift_scalar=1.125 drag_scalar=1 pitch_scalar= 1 flaps-position.0=0 flaps-position.1=10 flaps-position.2=20 flaps-position.3=30 Update: There are now repaints for this aircraft that can be found here: http://www.mirage4fs.com/Alphasim/index.html#E-2C VAW-123 Screwtops included! And a French Navy Hawkeye to boot! Très bon!