A mention of this plane on AVsim was how I heard about Cloud 9...even before Fly The Lakes (which now is larger...but I digress). I looked at some screenshots and was quite impressed.
Now before I go on, there are two things you need to know. Firstly, I
do not own the Captain Sim F-104, nor have I ever flown it. For that reason, I have no intention of trying to compare the two. Secondly, if you're looking for a cool bird that you can just get in and fly, move on. The F-104 was a quirky, easily-pissed-off, and very touchy bird, and that is what is modeled here. It's difficult to take off, tricky to fly, easy to damage while flying, and
really hard to land (without damaging that is). You're going to crash, have to eject, etc. a lot. Get used to it. You
will want to read the flight manual, even print it out, and have it on hand when you try to fly.
It is well-modeled, with lots of cool extras, even the GPU and intake covers!
That GPU is not just for show either. There is a GPU panel which is how you start the engine.
And by the way, be sure to disconnect the GPU after startup, or you cannot taxi!
Follow the instructions, and you should be okay!
There are a lot of gauges and switches in the cockpit too!
Most are modeled in the VC (in fact, the only thing I didn't see was the barometric pressure, I had to go to the panel to change it).
And as you can see, the VC looks very nice. Even the radar is functional. Though not really for combat...this is not a combat sim.
Many surfaces are animated...
And the Afterburner effect is great!
And there's something about the shape that really is nice!
But remember, you
must watch your gauges as you fly, or you can cause a failure when you fly!
Be careful to retract your landing gear before you get going too fast (or you'll kill your hydraulics, and have to pump them up).
There are plenty of liveries and different models, and even different versions of the F104 are modeled!
The panel looks great at night...
But unfortunately, I can't say quite the same for the VC...there
is a floodlight, but the gauges aren't backlit the same way. In addition, the textures in the VC are tied to how high you have your Global Terrain Texture set in display settings. Since putting them at Massive (the only way to get the sharp textures in the VC) causes blurring attacks on my machine in certain places, I have to be very careful where I fly with this puppy!
But as you can see, the liveries are a real treat (the bare metal ones are among the best I've ever seen), and there are several packs to download.
I've been sitting on this review a bit, not because I'm waiting for some update, but rather because I'm trying to get better at landing it! I've managed a good one once...here are some examples:
Good landing.
Bad Landing
The "I said Coff
ee not Coff
in" landing (and the gear will go all bent if you damage it badly enough)
The chute is modeled, but doesn't flop around like some other models out there. But trust me, you're going to be so busy landing it, you won't notice!
One thing that bears mentioning: I did run into a problem with the plane not quite starting for a time on my system. Cloud 9 has a forum where I mentioned my problem. The next day, I had several suggestions to get it working again. I was cras...er ah, flying it again in a matter of minutes!
Another thing that is modeled is the Ram Air Turbine (in case of electrical failure) A cool feature!
Now, if you get too frustrated, a simple version is modeled (though I really didn't try it). If you
really want to challenge yourself, an "unreliable" version is also modeled, to experience a failure on every flight...I didn't try that either.
So the bottom line: if you're looking for a plane that will challenge you, this is one to try! And between the plane, downloadable liveries (which install by exe file, easy as cake by the way), and the fun in flying it, I give this a big 9 out of 10!
Kudos to Cloud 9!
F 104, By Cloud 9
. Happy flying.
[GK-customfield]FSX[customfield-GK] 
