Amidst the endless debates on which MSFS airliner is better to fly, the Airbus or Boeing series, Just Flight have come out with something completely different. This is their second MSFS airliner release and it’s a type that is lesser known but made all the more charming because of it. There are my thoughts and first impressions of the Just Flight Fokker F28 Fellowship.

Something a bit different

The Fokker F28 is something very exciting to me. It’s different!

Aircraft like the A320 and the 737NG are extremely popular with virtual airliner fans, however, I like when things get shaken up just a bit and that’s what Just Flight has been doing with their BAe 146 Professional first and now the Fokker F28 Professional. These are two airliners that are off the beaten path for most flight simmers but are also still very intriguing and valuable.

The Fokker F28 was first flown the same year that the Boeing 737-100 flew and once you get to know it a bit, you can tell that this is from a very different era than the modern experience. This is an airplane that lacks many of the modern conveniences and complications of more modern airliners. I get the impression from my first couple of flights with it that the instrumentation and the way of operating this airliner shares perhaps more with general aviation types of the era than it does with the modern successors to those earlier airliners. And I think that’s fascinating!

There’s no flight computer here so everything that the pilots do for navigation is based on radio beacons, compass, and traditional navigation skills. Just Flight have smartly made available an optional GNS530 GPS system which lets you fly this a bit more like a modern airliner if you want to or you can hop VOR to VOR as they used to fly these.

There’s also the autopilot which is very clearly a more antique predecessor to what we see and expect on a more modern airliner. There’s more manual control, more needing to manage and fly the airplane, and that can be quite freeing if you’re still new to airliners as this is a more hands-on experience that is less programming computers and more about just flying the airplane.

Nothing diminishes those PMDG 737 or Fenix A320 experiences but what we have here with the F28 is something different. Different is good!

Variants available

There are four variants available. The F28 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000. The 1000 variant has capacity for 70 passengers while the 2000 variant stretches the fuselage slightly making room for 9 more. The 3000 is based on the 1000 but with a longer wing while the 4000 is the same as the 2000 but again with the lengthened wing.

For the most part these aircraft are quite similar to each other in most other respects but they do each have their own selection of liveries based on which airlines flew which type.

Visuals and sounds

Just Flight have previously impressed me with their Piper Turbo Arrow III/IV that I reviewed last year. The visual work by their artists is at a top level that competes with the best in the industry and that shows here with an exemplary cockpit. It also has a very good cabin that sports all of the right details.

There’s an aesthetic that is at play here too with the airplane taking on a worn appearance. This isn’t new and just off the factory line but instead an airplane that has flown quite a bit, has seen quite few takeoffs and landings, and it has attracted all the appropriate grime and wear that you’d expect. That carries right through to things like the smoky Rolls-Royce Spey Mk 555-15 engines.

A couple dozen liveries are included in this pack spread across the four variants. These offer a pretty wide array of historic liveries including some airlines that no longer exist. There’s the classic KLM scheme which never seems to age to the Fokker house livery which is quintessential 1960s in scheme. My personal favourites are of course the Canadian Airlines and Air Ontario schemes… the second which I was not expecting as the company operated just one Fokker F28 which saw a tragic end.

The sounds are great as well. Preview videos made by Just Flight weren’t kidding when they made it clear that the team had come up with unique sounds for every switch and button, every creak and groan, chime and buzzer. This airplane looks and sounds the part of an older airliner that is decidedly not modern although offering portents of what airliners would eventually become.

How it flies

As much as I’ve flown aircraft like the A320neo recently, it occurs to me that my actual stick time on that airplane is limited. I have hand flown it but I haven’t really needed to most of the time. There’s an appeal to that kind of flying too, however, sometimes you really do want to fly the airplane and here Just Flight have again seemingly done a great job of developing a good flight model.

Ground handling also feels very solid and stable with none of the wobbly nature that I feel with types like Aerosoft’s CRJ.

I’ve never flown an airplane like this but it appears to hit the published numbers and the feel is definitely right. This is an airplane with somewhat heavy control surfaces. It’s big and analogue with a bit of asymmetric yaw when rolling. It’s definitely more bus than sports car!

I’ll get a better feel for it as I fly it on more routes but I do think Just Flight have done well here.

Final thoughts

While I continue to spend time with this aircraft in anticipation of a full review sometime later on down the road, the Fokker F28 from Just Flight does overall offer an extremely impressive release. With a great smattering of details, superb sounds inside and out, and ample features and accommodations, there’s very little that I’m unhappy with on this aircraft.

I do need to spend more time learning it and getting to grips with the way it does things but that’s ok. That’s part of the fun of the experience!

What I would suggest is that Just Flight have priced this product at a premium price and while I think they have managed to justify it with a quality release, I do wonder if they may have been better served by offering it at just a bit lower of a price point. The $69.99 USD puts it on par with PMDG’s 737-700 and -800 releases but higher than their -600 and -900 releases while the Fenix A320 undercuts them all at £49.99 (about $65.50 USD).

All of these offer different experiences but they do compete for airliner sim fans dollars and Just Flight’s greatest challenge won’t be the module itself but getting people to buy a slightly off the beaten path airliner. It’d be a Fokker of a shame if people do end up missing out on a great experience. If they do buy it, I think they will be impressed. More to say when I’ve dug much deeper into the F28 and can write a full review!

Interested in the aircraft? It’s available exclusively for the moment through the Just Flight store.