As always, C&C very appreciated!
Aerosoft’s Hughes H-1 Well, I might as well get it out at the start of this review; I am incredibly biased towards this airplane. When people think of vintage, they generally either think biplanes or WWII aircraft. Well, as the H-1 exemplifies, there was plenty going on between those times. She is an absolute beauty in my eyes: that gleaming silver skin, that lovely, uncluttered panel, and she feels like she was born in, and never wants to leave, the air.
The download from Aerosoft’s server was about 70 MB. The installer ran and required your email and order number. I didn’t encounter any problems, and a group in the startup menu, containing the uninstaller and the manual, was created. The manual is quite refreshing; it contains a smattering of history, technical details, and of course, what’s needed to fly the plane. It’s quite apparent in reading the manual that how delicate this airplane is was a large factor in its creation by Aerosoft. I’m not saying that this plane, which set the land speed record, is delicate and ‘prim,’ but rather that if you don’t treat it right, you’ll be landing in a beet field amid thick black smoke.
Interior-
Even someone who isn’t as in love with this airplane as me can recognize the beauty here. Aerosoft portrayed the cockpit down to its last detail. Frankly, Hughes would be proud of this alone. Only one inaccuracy is to be seen here; the fuel quantity gauge. In the original H-1, there was only a clear plastic tube which the fuel ran through in the cockpit. This would only tell the pilot when he was out of fuel, not give a measurement of the remainder. Aerosoft snuck in a little gauge in an unused space in the corner. By clicking a button at the top, you can cycle through the fuel tanks to see remaining quantity. Otherwise, the cockpit is true to life. There is some padding up against the glare shield, and scuff marks around the edges of the panel. The cockpit is, of course, where the airplane is flown from, and Aerosoft was very faithful in how they modeled some of the H-1’s systems. For instance, the wobble pump is quite simply a hand pump, which is used to prime the engine to suitable fuel pressure. Another unique feature is a machine Howard Hughes installed to boost the seat up for better visibility during taxiing, takeoff, and landing. Additionally, the way the glass in the cockpit retracts into the fuselage is quite interesting, and when you open the ‘door,’ you have a very nice sound of the chains clanking.
Unfortunately, the cockpit is where we experience the few bugs that the Hughes has. First and most notably is that the rotary switches (i.e. Radio frequency, gyro compass calibration, and attitude indicator) can only be turned one way. So, you cannot scroll up with your mouse for an increasing number, or scroll down for a decrease. As you can imagine, this makes things like adjusting the autopilot much more difficult, and sometimes impossible. The only other bug I noticed had to do with the cockpit’s only entry and exit. Sometimes you can’t open the glass by either the lever in the cockpit or Shift-E. This only happened to my two times, and I was unable to discern a cause. I hope that Aerosoft releases a patch for these, as they are flaws in an otherwise excellent addon.
Exterior-
The exterior is just as beautiful as the inside in my opinion. Some might complain at the lack of paints, but after all the Hughes only flew in a livery with blue wings. I imagine that the original bird was kept in exemplary condition, and this is represented in the sim by the highly polished skin. As a matter of fact, you can see cloud reflections in it! In her day, the Hughes was quite revolutionary, and she was the first to have flush rivets. Overall, any panel lines or rivets aren’t very distinct, as the glare from the skin sort of washes it out.
The Hughes was built in two variants: long wing and short wings. The short wing’s only purpose was to beat the land speed record, which it did. During Hughes’ attempt at breaking the record, he ran out of fuel and crashed landed into a beet field with little damage to the airplane. The long wing variant carried auxiliary fuel tanks, and was made to surpass the current transcontinental speed record which, or course, it did. The fuselage was shared between the two variants, and they just switched the wings.
Failures-
As I said, it seems that Aerosoft made this plane to exemplify what can happen to an airplane when is not ran well. They created all new and quite revolutionary failure algorithms for the Hughes. From reading the advertisement, this doesn’t seem like such a big part of the model; when you fly her, however, you find how testy she is a central part of this model. For instance, carburetor icing is a definite factor. If the temperatures are between 5 and -5 degrees Celsius, with sufficient humidity, the carburetor will ice up. When this happens, airflow is restricted to the engine. If it ices up completely, a sort of whining will come from the engine accompanied by loss of power. A gauge is included to monitor carburetor temps, and you can turn on the heat with the lever in the cockpit. Another large factor is engine temperatures. Remember the first time you flew the Acceleration mustang? I’ll bet you (as did I) overheated the engine. Don’t feel bad, odds are you’ll do as I did and blow the engine on the Hughes. This is incredibly easy to do: If you takeoff full throttle or with too much power, you’re likely to spend the rest of your short flight trying to cool down the engine. I myself stuck to around 35 inches of manifold for takeoff and most of the flight.
Flight-
My best estimation of this airplane is that it flies like a bullet. Yes, I know how cliche`d that sounds, but it’s true. She’s optimized for aerodynamics and speed. If anything interferes with how she cuts the wind, you’ll feel it. Case in point, the landing gear causes absolutely massive drag. It almost feels more effective than the speed brake on the F-18!
Takeoff is, as usual, straight forward. If you use full throttle, you’ll rocket forward and get up to 70 mph in a heart beat. However, I find it much safer but still effective to use 35 inches of manifold pressure to takeoff. This will still get you up to speed in perhaps 3000 feet. Generally, to keep from using undue thrust and so heat up the engine, I used quite a bit of flaps (40 degrees or more). Also, I retracted the landing gear almost immediately because of the amount of drag. As you can imagine, that engine generates a lot of torque, but it wasn’t as large of a factor as I might have thought.
Flight can be tricky; if you’re trying to cool down your engine then you’ll have a wild time keeping up altitude. However, if you’ve maintained your engine well, you’ll have little trouble. For optimum power for cruising, I’d recommend some 30 inches of manifold pressure. However, for climb, 35 should be sufficient. Also, I kept propeller control at 75%. Make sure you keep a very close eye on your temperatures. There’s quite a bit to see in one scan of your instruments, so keep in mind you can’t let this plane off to fly herself.
Landing… wow, what do I say? Almost all of us are more familiar with tricycle gear than tail draggers, and frankly this tail dragger is like nothing you’ve seen as far as landing. See those tiny little landing gear? Do they look like they can take much of an impact? It takes a lot of practice to land her satisfactorily, and I still bounce once or twice when I land. First time I flew her, I blew the engine. The landing was not pretty… As I said, those gears produce enormous drag, and trying to land her without thrust is not what I’d call pleasant. Normally, I landed the plane with full flaps, had the manifold at 20 inches, and killed the power once I stopped bouncing. This plane gives you quite a challenge to land. For practice, I highly recommend going to Edwards and practicing on the twenty thousand foot runway there. Keep at it, as it’s very rewarding when you can land after your first approach. And anyway, doing a go around will likely flame up your engine.
Final Word-
From the marvelous throaty start up audio to the superb realization of the engine and failure dynamics, this bird is really the best vintage flying experience I’ve had for any sim. You really have to take care of your plane. This is certainly not what I’d call a model where you can ram the throttles forward and head into the sunset. Some might complain at the lack of paints, but there really isn’t anything else to paint on her. The failure algorithms add a whole new depth to your simming, and everything from the sound set to the exemplary virtual cockpit will immerse you. I cannot say enough good about this product, and I know it will be a worthy addition to your virtual hangar.