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INTRODUCTION
Vietnam Carrier OPS (VCO) is a set of
MSFS scenery and planes done to recreeate the feeling and challenging
experience of daily carrier operations during the Vietnam war era.
PACKAGE CONTENTS
In the package box you will find a "quickstart"
reference card, an illustrated booklet containing background information
about aircraft carriers/planes and the program CD.
INSTALL
The install procedure is very easy and fully
automated, just insert your CD and wait for the main screen, then choose
appropriate button between FS2002 and FS2004....aaand wait a while.
Launch ArrCab from your desktop then FS, you are ready for take off!
Program Features
AIRCRAFT
Included aircraft are F-4 Phantom, A-6
Intruder, A-4 Skyhawk, A-7 Corsair and F-8 Crusader. All planes are well
done and good looking, but they are basically FS2002 planes, so don't
expect to find "top of the edge" ones. Anyway they are all fitted with
moving parts and details like folding wings, tail hook and so on. Each
plane is equipped with a custom set of weapon visual effects, they will
not cause damage to FS objects, but they do nice explosions hitting them,
so you can practice your gunnery skills.
 
PANELS
Each plane is equipped with a 2D and a
3D virtual cockpit, but some panels are composed using unaltered default
FS gauges giving an annoying mix up sensation, same thing happens at
night where some of the gauges are glowing red, some not.
Anyway they are good enough to give you the right sensation, expecially
flying the F4 and the A7 where all things are set in the right place
with the right colours.
 
The F-4 and A-6 panels.
SCENERY
The aircraft carrier (USS
Constellation CVN-64) looks quite good and detailed, you will find, deck
crew, vehicles, cranes, blast barriers, lights, moving objets and the
meatball (the carrier landing system). You and your plane are perfecly
fitted in that enviroment and the AI planes are of the same quality as
yours. I'm sure you will spend many hours during your ops aboard the
ship testing your flying skills around the clock and in bad weather.
 
ARRCAB
ArrCab is the "engine" of this package
and is needed to operate the catapult and the arrestor cables, just
launch it before FS and keep it working in the background.
Taxi your plane direct to a take off position, on the rail after the
blast barrier then press SHIFT-F9 to activate the catapult, apply
parking brakes, set flaps as required, push full throttle and release
brakes for takeoff. All done... you are leaving the flight deck.
No special buttons are needed for landing, just reach the final leg,
configure your plane (flaps, gear, tailhook, speed) and try to land your
plane as smooth as you can over the cables.
REVIEW SCORE
As I said before you will enjoy flying
off and aboard that ship, planes and panels are not state of the art,
but you have a full package at the same price of one "top of the edge"
planes.
The best thing is that you can fly any of your planes
without any cfg or panel/gauge changes, just load it and follow the
procedure, but the other very good thing is that if you don't like the
carrier too, you can also add the catapult launch and cable-trapping
feature to any airport in FS (need MS Excel to do that).
So you can change ship and planes and use the program as "engine" for
your carrier operations only.
FINAL SCORE 3 out of 5
Reviewed by Angelo Moneta
staff@fsplanet.com
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