FSX Steam Edition: F-105D Thunderchief Add-On DLC

Fun to fly. Will go supersonic with ease. Challenging to land. I recommend it.

Plane is great and flight chacteristics are pretty good but no historical squadrons or markings is a real downwer.

pretty cool very fast jet and handles just like you would expect a f105 to handle

Fun aircraft to fly around in the game. Historical, so would please people who like vintage military aircraft. In the information it states that development was assisted by a real world former F-105 pilot. I've never flown one so I will defer on performance authenticity to the creator. I'm a former crew chief aka glorified aircraft mechanic, so I like looking at planes for detailing, wear n tear, systems modeling, etc. Unfortunately there's not a lot of bonus for me with this model in that respect. Visually the aircraft looks good. Exterior is not super-detailed but it is enough to give some authenticity and realism to the exterior looks of the aircraft. Has both green camo and bare metal versions of the aircraft. It certainly looks the part which helps with the immersion factor. Has working speed brakes, tail hook and refuel probe extends and retracts. I will say that the plane does feel heavy (it is large for a single-seat fighter, after all, especially when carrying external items) and so be prepared as it loses altitude in the turns. That is actually pretty realistic. Interior has both 3D and 2D cockpits, which is nice. However, with both, they look rather dated. Perhaps the aircraft was made for an older flight simulator, such as FS2004 and ported over to FSX it seems. Still, what you get is good enough. After all, it's a warbird and not s showroom condition civilian aircraft. So maybe the rough look fits the character of the aircraft? Regardless, there are some 3D switches and elements to the virtual cockpit to give you stuff to do and look at. 2D looks very good, though a bit stretched wide in HD resolutions as this is a pre-HD aircraft, and most things on it are switchable. Both have plenty of tooltips throughout. There are also popup mini panels to use as well as a modern day GPS. General systems seemed to be modeled ok though they are very basic and limited to just fuel states and engine performance. Nothing extra or advanced like oxygen systems, fuel flow, hydraulic systems, etc. CONS: The virtual cockpit has its share of bugs. You'll find a lot of warning lights that illuminate and stay on for the entire flight when flying in virtual cockpit view. For example, Low Fuel warning light stays illuminated from crank to shutdown in virtual cockpit flying. In 2D panel flying it works as expected, as do the other warning lights. Speaking of shutdown, I could not find a way to shut the aircraft down when parked at the destination airport. A random bug? A permanent bug? I clicked all around in the virtual and 2D cockpits to no avail, using the 2D panel fuel cutoff as well as the CTRL-SHIFT-F1 method of fuel shutoff. Also shutdown battery, generators, the works. The engine refused to shutdown. CONCLUSION: Overall a pretty decent product though I'd recommend you get it on sale as the standard price seems a bit much for an aircraft ported from a prior sim and only somewhere better than a freeware. Also, be aware there are some bugs you may likely find that I didn't. It's not a perfect aircraft, but for general fun flying the plane is good. Avionics all seem to work as does the ILS though a bit buggy sometimes as this is a high-performance aircraft and you have to be on your game to prepare it for landing else the ILS autopilot will leave you feeling like you are in a rodeo as it tries to correct, then over-corrects, tries to over-correct the over-correct, and that's not good. Otherwise, the autopilot and most all the systems I used appear to work pretty well. Recommended if you like historical aircraft like this and just want to do some fun flying in it. If you're looking for a maximum simulation aircraft full of all the bells and whistles you may wanna steer clear.

This thing is a hoot to fly. Nothing will catch it on the deck. Buzzed Campbell River airport at 1.22 mach at less than 2/3 throttle at 4000 ft. Turns like a semi, stand it on knife edge and pull, will black you out easily at speed. Stable as a swiss franc. Good auto pilot but, has an anomoly. When autopilot turned off on sub screen mach command switch right below asi stays on even though red indicator on asi goes out. Continues to control throttle. Turn this off and good to go. Other than that good visability and fairly docile to land. Flys like everything I have read the Thud was like. Would be nice if you could drop ordinance, maybe you can but have not figured out how. All and all worth the coin. Enjoy.