IRIS Simulations

A-10A Warthog Driver II for FSX and P3D

By Thomas Jones - In Partnership with Flightsimglobal.com

i7-2600K turboboost to 4.6ghz | Nvidia ASUS GTX580 1.5gb | 16gb 1600mhz RAM | 2x 1TB HDD | Windows 7 64 bit

Background Information:

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, or “Warthog” as the plane is affectionately known, is quite possibly one of the ugliest aircraft ever designed and used in the United States military. This ugliness is its number one strength though, as it allows the aircraft to do its job better than any other aircraft. The A-10 was designed around its most intimidating weapon, the GAU-8/A Avenger cannon. The Avenger cannon fires thirty millimeter, depleted uranium shells designed to cut through tanks like a hot knife through butter. It can fire up to a rate of 4,200 rounds per minute. Iris Simulations has chosen to model the A variant of the A-10. This is the second version of the A-10 from Iris, as evident by the name “Warthog Driver II”, and is part of their Airforce Series of products. The A-10 is available in four different versions, one for people with just FSX and the Acceleration expansion pack (or the Gold Edition), one for people who have Lockheed Martin's Prepar3d, one for people who have FSX along with Virtual Reality Simulations TacPack, and a Gold Edition that contains all of the above three. Features included, as stated on Iris's website are as follows: • Custom soundpack by IRIS AudioworX • 3D Gauges for silky smooth operation and optimized performance.

• Custom payload manager for your on-board weapons. • Superb flight models for the A-10A . • A wide variety of paint-schemes in high resolution. • Custom in cockpit audio for the pilot, airborne warning controller, tanker operator and more. • Working GAU-8 Avenger cannon with sound effects. • New design techniques including ‘Lotus Style’ landing light effects, in-game night vision capability and more. • With TacPack installed, lase and fire laser guided missiles, drop iron bombs and fire rockets and air to air missiles and much more!

Installation:

Installation of the A-10 was a breeze, simply download the 172mb installer, extract it, run it, enter in any required information, and done! Isn't it nice how simple installation is nowadays?

Exterior Model: The A-10 is a rugged aircraft, designed to fly right into war zones and tear things apart. Iris has recognized this and gave their A-10 a rugged feel. Every little bump and rivet that is on the real A-10 is on its simulated counterpart, and it really helps emphasize the not-so-graceful lines of the fuselage, wing, and tail. The GAU-8/A Avenger cannon is also modeled with great detail along with the weapon stores. Iris has included a popup panel that allows the user to equip their A-10 with a variety of weapons. The weapons are very nicely modeled and textured. The aircraft comes with nine high quality liveries that stay sharp up to a point. Obviously, if you get too close things will start to get fuzzy, but that's how everything digital is. From all normal viewing positions, the textures look great!

The Interior: The cockpit of the A-10 is just as nicely detailed as the exterior. Since this is the A-10A model, there is only one digital screen in the cockpit, compared with the A-10C model that has screens all over the main panel. The A model is great for people who love to work with “steam” gauges. What makes the steam gauges even better is that they are all modeled in 3D, allowing for very smooth and realistic performance. The gauge faces remain crisp and easy to read at all zoom levels. Subtle wear and tear is evident in the texturing around the cockpit. The little details like this really help with immersion

Systems Modeling and Flight Dynamics Iris has done a fairly good job with the flight dynamics of the A-10. The speeds I tested the plane at matched what I was able to find online, with a stall speed at 120 knots and rate of climb of 6000 feet per minute at lower altitudes. It wasn't until about 20,000 feet that I started to notice the engines having trouble maintaining speed. When I loaded the aircraft with a bulky payload of weapons, I didn't see any change in the way it handled. The stall speed and maneuvering speeds were just like when the plane was clean. The systems in the plane will vary depending on which version you bought and installed. If you are not using TacPack, none of the weapons will be able to be fired or dropped. Although the systems will still work, the weapons will just be for looks. When using TacPack, the weapons will be able to be fired and dropped properly and use all of the features that come with TacPack. The aircraft is able to be started from a cold and dark state, flown, and shutdown properly. The more complex systems are the ones that

are left out, making this more of a casual simulation. If you absolutely want every single minor system to work exactly like the real plane then I recommend the DCS A-10C, but if you want a fun A-10 to fly in FSX or P3D and are okay with only relevant systems being functional then this is your plane. While flying, you may notice a slight grunting noise in high-G turns. This is the “pilot” and reflects how you would actually be breathing in that situation. I've noticed the pilot having a lower-G grunt noise and a more rigorous higher-G noise, so the effect is a bit more believable than just a single noise. All warnings the actual A-10A have are also included and can be triggered when pushing the aircraft into uncomfortable situations. I did notice a sound bug when shutting down the engines, changing the view to outside, back to inside, then outside again. When I did that, the engines sounded as they were on and running again. Other than that, the engines and other noises that accompany the aircraft are fantastic and sound great.

Performance In FSX, the A-10 was excellent on the frame rates. I noticed no drop in my frame rate at all, given the nice modeling detail. The aircraft also loads quickly and I have observed no stutters when flying it. This may be difference for you depending on your computer setup, since no two builds are the same, even if they are the same.

Documentation The only documentation that I was able to find was on the product page for the A-10. The link takes you to a incomplete (at the time of writing it is stated the page is under construction and being added to) wiki page with a few selections of topics. There is a link included on the page that leads to a PDF for Iris's previous A-10 model from the Platinum Series. This is full of information, but some of it has

changed in the new model. That PDF can be found at http://www.irissimulations.com.au/media/poh_a10.pdf

Overall Iris's A-10A Warthog Driver II is a very fun aircraft to fly! It has enough systems detail to run through basic checklists and fly the plane, but not so much as to scare off beginners. The plane becomes more fun when you include VRS's TacPack and begin blowing things up! The modeling, texturing, and sounds are fantastic and help bring the aircraft to life. Iris Simulations A-10A Warthog Driver II is certainly is a great plane for both beginners and semi-hardcore sim pilots.