FSX P3D HD stunning FREEWARE Dino Cattaneo F-14 Tomcat, a review 

I came across Dinos stunning work last year... paused a couple of months in lack of a PC on which to run FSX... - now, started all over again on a proper machine. A quarter of a century in flight simming, I finally invested in REX and AS16 this week, added Javier Fernandez´ awesome CVNs, AICarrier, vLSO, AIBTC and a proper 5m mesh (for France only and VFR textures still to come)... - long story short: it's been until now that I saw your footage: an acurate and absolutely nice review! And you are right: Dino has deserved any donation one might make (given that Lockheed Martin is gonna sell their RL Raptors cheaper than expected, they're likely to cut cost somewhere else... I can imagine it's gonna be on the VR side...) -but, but, but...and if I may say it that way: Just as much credit goes to you for your dedication and promotion of foreign work - the love and effort others put in their products - commercial or not - reflect in your testimonials. Thank you and keep up the good work! Cheers, Pat :)

I had the privilege of being stationed aboard the USS Carl Vinson, from 84 through 87. I was in Fuel Division, and worked on the flight, and hanger decks, fueling, and de-fueling aircraft, or operating the fueling stations. Even after 4 years, I never became tired of watching these aircraft. At night, I could recognize all the aircraft by lights, and by sound, when they were on final approach. My love was definitely the F-14. I can't even articulate the awe I have for them. I would bet that most people don't understand how big an F-14 is. It weighs 22 tones, and it is bigger than a bus. Watching them perform combat maneuvers, it is hard to imagine the power, and strength required to throw something that large around the sky in that manner. It is also amazing how dependable these aircraft were. I watched a documentary, on the F-14 which centered around the de-commissioning of the last in service F-14. At that time, I hadn't even heard that this was occurring. I had a very difficult time watching that show, and there was definitely some eye wiping going on. Thanks for bringing this freeware aircraft to my attention.

Another very nice video from your channel. I really appreciate your expertise and attention to detail when making these videos -- it really gives me an insight and interest into aircraft types I may otherwise overlook.

THANKS - it is so rare these days to hear English spoken so clearly that as a hearing impaired person I can understand and enjoy such wonderful presentations. Your explanations of the beauty of the graphics made enhanced my status as a newbie! The explanation and demonstration of the cockpit latching were astounding. Glad to read that the "impossible" stall experience was indeed realistic rather than a programming fault. Inspired but daunted!

Very nice Scenery and the freeware F-14 Top.!! Thumbs Up and greetings from Switzerland

I've had this for years. It's gorgeous. Wonderful skins available for Her too. He does wonderful work ! In My opinion one of the top 10 free downloads available.

BTW, I now have Aerosoft's F-14X and will be doing a review and video. It will be nice to be able to compare the two models. All I will say is that the Aerosoft F-14A model is very fond of compressor stalls if handled incorrectly.

Great video as always - informative and entertaining. Really enjoying the channel. With regards to the strange autogen placement - I've experienced this myself and potentially you can solve the problem by checking that you have the correct regions applied in your P3D installation of FTX Configurator. The settings are not entirely intuitive - for example if you are flying in Europe you need to select 'FTX Global' - the Europe scenery should only be applied when you are flying in a more local scenery region you have purchased eg. FTX England. The FTX manuals probably explain this better than I have!

Ben D. Thanks for your help. I would go so far as to say I do Dino a disservice with my remarks about stalling his F14! I was intrigued by my observations in the flight test portion of my review so went to look at some of the aerodynamics in relation to high AoA characteristics of swept wing and in particular the F-14. The critical part appears to be related to 2 key areas. The first is the definition of a stall. Sounds simple because during PPL, CPL, ATPL studies and training, they go through the critical angle and the change of lift and drag profiles, with the key observation being the separation of airflow from the aerofoil beyond the critical angle and particularly the pattern of airflow separation leading to a 'stalled' wing. The subject matter includes the airflow separation pattern of fixed swept wings with the rather undesirable characteristic of the tips stalling first producing an un-commanded increase in nose up pitch forces. However..... This document www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=21&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFEQFjAKOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aviation.org.uk%2Fdocs%2Fflighttest.navair.navy.milunrestricted-FTM108%2Fc3.pdf&ei=S0CDVJOdLcX_ULqihNAP&usg=AFQjCNH_R15QltliMZ0ZSK3d0mz0FTyZXQ&sig2=U7yCtVYyUylO-IwaJWHOGw&bvm=bv.80642063,d.d24 details the criteria for assessing the stalling limitations from a test pilot's view point. The criteria include, loss of lift, high drag, un-commanded aircraft motions, undesirable flying qualities (eg. control reversal) and control effectiveness. It is apparent from a test pilot's perspective, that stalling characteristics will typically include at least 1 limiting factor, but not necessarily all of the characteristics. Indeed the stall speed is most commonly defined as the minimum steady speed at which the aircraft is controllable and is most commonly experienced as a wallowing with high rate of descent (with or without adequate control) or an un-commanded wing drop, in both cases with a subsequent low airspeed and high rate of descent. However, the documents acknowledges that the stall limitations may be set based on the operational performance requirements or the aircraft. Hence a Tomcat may have a very good tolerance at maintaining control effectiveness down to a very low speed, but may be considered stalled operationally based on an undesirable rate of descent combined with excessively high induced/form drag for example. This document does highlight that the maximum co-efficient of lift of an F18 is approximately 30-35 degrees, a marked difference to a more conventional aircraft. The second factor relates to 'blended bodies'. Current and last generation fighter aircraft don't conform to the normal bolt some wings to the side of the fuselage philosophy of the majority of aircraft. When you look at the flat fuselage of the F14 or the LERX (leading edge root extensions) of aircraft such as the F18, SU27 and Mig 29, it becomes apparent that the fuselage is an inherent part of the lift and manoeuvrability equation. I would however suspect that that angle is not indicative of high AoA control and manoeuvring but potentially just of a coefficient of lift profile of the airflow from the upper wing surfaces. Indeed, the F14 fuselage contributes 40 to 60% of a Tomcat's total lift. Furthermore, the huge deflection available to fighter elevons affords an enormous potential for maintaining dynamic control of an aircraft where the airflow has completely separated from the 'normal' flying surfaces of the wings. It would be worth considering that at high angles of attack, the elevons appear to be functioning in undisturbed airflow. And therein lies the key for me..... I was looking for the 'classic' stall characteristics in an aircraft which does not conform to the 'normal' fuselage and wing plan-form. I should have expected a deviation from the norm, but was shocked by the extent of that deviation. As your video highlights, adequate control can be achieved at airspeeds as low as 35 kts, but as I say, the stall limitation may be defined for other aerodynamic reasons. It should be added, that at such high angles of attack, the drag present can become a limiting factor such that whilst being able to fly at ridiculous pitch angle may be nice, the impact on airspeed and rate of descent may be of such penalty as to be dangerous despite control being retained. I for one would not like a rate of descent of 6-7000 fpm just to land on at 35-40 kts!!!! The infamous Cobra manoeuver demonstrated by the Su27 and Mig 29 both show the ability to go far beyond the normal wing profile for high angle of attack controllability. In reading a copy of the genuine flight manual, it describes a clean stall as full aft stick with rates of descent in excess of 9000 fpm! whilst still retaining manoeuvring control. It further goes on to highlight that the AoA will then generally stabilise at 35-45 units nose up AoA (much as can be seen in my video) and that satisfactory directional control can be maintained although there may be some less desirable behaviour demonstrated in wing rock. Thanks for your help :-)

can anyone show me how to successfully startup this bird from cold and dark? i cant seem to get the ddi's to turn on

This is one of my all time favourite add-ons for fsx, would you consider doing a video on tacpack as its something I'd be interested in.

Quick question, Sorry, I know it's a 2 year old video, but I'm wondering if it's possible to change the paints on the F-14 Tomcat, let's say that you do'n't particularly want the VF-2 Bounty Hunters aircraft. How easy is it to go about changing the texture renders to a different squadron's colors? Wonder if you might be able to do a video on that? I'm extremely impressed by Dino's work and am looking forward to grabbing it when I do get FSX on Steam.

Hi, pls tell me what website should i use to download Dino cattaneo F-14 tomcat? i have been trying from other website i couldn't. Pls help

One of my friends at my volunteer job was one of the first female US Navy fighter pilots. She flew Tomcats in the early 1990s, before being switched to Hornets.

Thank you!

I Love These Reviews!

If you think Dino's F-14 is a Hot Rod now, go into the payload options and get rid of all of the drop tanks and weapons :D

Hmm unfortunately even after following the installation instructions, this aircraft just crashes FSX when I try to select it from the aircraft screen. Anyone come across this and know how to fix?

What the hell, was this Grim Reapers earliest channel?!!

Are there any inorperable instruments? Like 'this is a freeware'?

This looks fantastic, thanks for the thorough review video.

everytime when I select the f14 in the menu, FSX is chrashing......

Nice Video... I'm not so sure that the stall characteristics you showed are all that unrealistic. High wing loading aircraft like fast jets don't stall at slow speeds any way similar to *normal* aircraft. The high decent rate nose-high angle is in no way unusual for this kind of situation. The wing is obviously completely stalled in this situation but the all moving stabs would still offer limited control and the twin fins would maintain some directional stability. Most modern jets (except F-16 and other dynamically unstable aircraft) don't depart into a spin like a conventional aircraft, indeed AoAs excess of 70 degrees are possible with the F18 (as an example) and still retain nose authority... Just my 2 cents.

Like your videos flightsim481, keep them coming. Have you ever tried DCS from Eagle Dynamics ?

FYI...the reason the Tomcat has elevons is because you can't have ailerons on the wing when the wing overlaps the elevators. Tomcat has spoilers on the wings, like the A-6, which has a good rate of role.......after a few seconds. The F-14 used them to make her role rate just silly.

what planes comes with p3d? let me know thks

how did you get the MFD's to show up?

You need to check out Dino s-3 Viking

And where can I download it?

dcs world ftw

Yes out of service.....last operational flight was in October of 2006

can you give me the link?

too much thrust

Fucking Eh VF2! #BountyHunterVF2