Falcon (series)

Falcon

• Where to get it:

  • Mac: Falcon: F-16 Flight Simulator - Macintosh Repository

  • You can also get the DOS(?) version on Steam

Reviews

• “falcon 1 is probably my preferred over Falcon AT - it just works much better and has better view distance” (source)

• “You can improve it a bit by using the Tandy version. The Amiga / Atari ST version are much better, much better control, fps, graphics, sounds and replay value.” (source)

  • If you start Falcon from Steam you’ll see an option to choose between Tandy and CGA in the pre-game settings dialog.

My checklists for various important procedures

Takeoff

1. Perform your preflight check:

   1. TRIM – NEUTRAL - Make sure the pitch trim is set to the middle position (press '4' to look at your left-hand instruments then Shift+Up/Down).

   2. FLAPS – UP - ('f'). If you see a “FLAPS” message in your cockpit, the flaps are down (which is not what you want).

   3. WHEEL BRAKES – OFF - Disable wheel brakes (“w”). Never exceed 80% RPM with the wheel brakes engaged.

   4. BRAKES – OFF - ('b')

2. POWER – 100% - Full power ('+'). Optionally turn on the afterburner ('/') to gain speed faster.

3. Take off at 150 knots.

4. GEAR – UP - Raise landing gear ('g'). The left cockpit view has the landing gear indicator. You can also look to the right of the HUD for the “RY” (READY) indicator, which seems to indicate if the landing gear are ready to be used to land (so if it turns off, the landing gear are up).

Landing

1. Video demonstration of the steps below: Falcon 1.0 - Finally nailing the landing at the highest realism level

2. Fly to the road that runs north-to-south to the west of runway 9. Use that road as your Initial Approach Fix (IAF).

   1. Aim to have your altitude at ~5,000 feet when you reach the IAF.

   2. Aim to have your speed at around 300 knots when you reach the IAF. Use the airbrakes ('b') and reduce power ('-'). I set my RPM to 50% when I need to slow down a lot (like anything over 400 knots).

3. When you reach the north-south road, turn east towards the runway.

4. Look at the yellow dots on the terrain that run west-to-east that are parallel to and just north of the road that runs west-to-east. You want to be inline with them. If you’re way out of line, maneuver closer to being in-line before doing the stuff below.

5. Configure the plane for landing:

   1. HUD – ILS - Switch the HUD to ILS mode ('F7') if it isn’t already.

   2. PITCH – 0 DEGREES - Set your pitch to something close to 0 degrees.

   3. POWER – 70% - Set power to 70% RPM.

   4. GEAR – DOWN - Lower your landing gear ('g').

   5. PITCH TRIM – UP - Look at your left-hand instruments ('4') and raise the pitch trim all the way (Shift+Down repeatedly).

6. Use your airbrakes to keep your airspeed close to 200 knots.

7. If the GSD (Glide Slope Deviation scale) shows the horizontal bar more than one pixel above the center of the vertical bar, just decrease your power a bit (like from 70% to 65%) for a bit to get back to at most one pixel above center, then increase back to 70% power.

8. Use the LD (Localizer Deviation) scale (the horizontal bar) in combination with looking at the yellow dots on the terrain (mentioned above) to gauge if you need to turn left or right.

9. When you touch down:

   1. AIR BRAKES – ON - Press 'b' to activate your air brakes.

   2. FLAPS – DOWN - Press 'f' to lower your flaps.

   3. POWER – 50%

   4. WHEEL BRAKES – ON - Press 'w' to activate your wheel brakes.

Notes from reading the manual

Part 1

• -/= to switch between areas of the menu

• -/= to change armament number on ranks above 1st Lt (which has infinite ammo)

• Enter/Backspace to toggle between A2A and A2G modes

• F7 to toggle ILS HUD

• C to toggle MFD between radar and map

• -/= to increase / decrease power

• 3/4/5/6 look forwards / L / back / R

• P to pause

Taxi

• RPM between 65-80% and speed between 30-100 knots to taxi (100 knots when needing to travel far quickly, 50 knots for general use, and ~30 knots when turning).

• Press “b” to use your wheel brakes.

• At upper ranks you must stay on the runway or you’ll be punished (permanently grounded).

• “NW” to the right of the HUD stands for Nose Wheel and indicates that you are on the ground and the Nose Wheel System (NWS) is active (so you can turn with the nose wheel).

Takeoff

• Disable wheel brakes with “w”. Never exceed 80% RPM with the wheel brakes engaged.

• Take off at 150 knots.

• Raise landing gear with 'g'.

Climbing and flying

• The DC to the right of the HUD stands for "disconnect" and lights up when you leave the ground

• Climb at 8-12 degrees until you reach 400 knots then climb at 30-40 degrees.

• Level off at 25k feet and 72% RPM

• The faster you're going, the bigger your turn radius

Using air-to-ground missiles

• 25k feet, 300-400 knots

• Switch to AGM65 (Backspace)

• Turn on radar (R) and radar screen (C)

• (Not in the manual but my preference: decrease speed to 200 knots when about to dive at the target.)

• Aim at the target in the middle of the HUD (so, dive at it), use your radar screen to see if you have the target in the very center.

• Press spacebar to "pickle" (target designate) the target.

• X to clear a locked target.

• Spacebar to launch the missile.

Landing

• Only runway 9 is set up for ILS landings

• Approach from the road to the west of runway 9

• GSD - Glide Slope Deviation scale - the one that moves up and down

• LD - Localizer Deviation scale - the one that moves left and right

• You want to maneuver your plane to “follow the needle”: have the two runway guides show up as a cross in the middle of your HUD.

• The manual says “Approach at 37k feet and 300 knots, at 15k feet reduce speed to 125-150 knots” but if you fly up to 15k feet the GSD will show you as being too high. The game’s behavior doesn’t seem to match up with the manual.

• Toggle your air brakes with B.

• At 4k lower landing gear.

• RY to the right of the HUD stands for "ready" and refers to the landing gear.

• Check the left cockpit view to confirm all gear are down.

• You want to have an Angle of Attack (AOA) of between 8-13 degrees when you land.

• The set of lights to the left of the HUD is called the “Angle of Attack Indexer”. If the top light is on, you’re coming in too steep and slow. If the bottom light is on, you’re too fast and shallow.

• When you touch down, reduce throttle to less than 60% RPM, apply brakes (b is both air brakes and wheel brakes), flaps (f), and wheel brakes (w).

Falcon A.T.

• The “A.T.” just stands for “Advanced Technology”, the game is just a slightly-improved version of the original Falcon for “AT-class” machines (a new-and-improved type of IBM computer at the time the game came out).

Reviews

• Although Falcon AT seems to mostly just be a graphical update of Spectrum Holobytes fantastic sim "Falcon" (1987), there are some other differences which I think make it not as good as Falcon:

  1. The view distance at which objects appear seems quite smaller, which means it is impossible to do as the manual would suggest and conduct a bombing run/missile strike from 25,000 ft; you need to really more like 5000 ft and close to almost passing over the target to see it, which makes lining up the maverick to lock difficult

  2. somehow although its the same map it feels smaller than in Falcon, as though the scale seems reduced (source)

Falcon MC

• “MC” stands for “Macintosh Color”. This is the equivalent of Falcon A.T. except for Mac instead of IBM.

• Where to get it: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/3168-falcon-mc

Falcon 3.0

Others' advice

• You DO need a true HOTAS system such as F-16 FLCS+TQS+RCS or equivalent such as HOTAS Cougar+TQS+some third party rudder system or HOTAS Warthog+TQS+rudders. This will set you back between 400 and 600 US dollars. You may consider a cheaper Saitek or CH Products HOTAS system + rudders but they will still cost you around $300-350. Otherwise you simply should not even consider getting these sims. (…) the manual is around 300 pages. There is a STEEP learning curve. (source)

Falcon 4.0

Falcon BMS

One-minute guide

• Controls

  • Joystick to control the plane.

  • Hold RMB to look around.

How to learn the game

1. Session 1: I just plugged in my joystick, set all the settings to “Easy” / “Novice”, did an “Instant Action”, and just flew around a bit.