I’m back in the cockpit with a classic fighter from WWII: the Focke Wulf Fw190A-8. This one has been developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator by FlyingIron Simulations who are busy developing aircraft for both Microsoft Flight Simulator and DCS World these days. I recently re-reviewed the developer’s Spitfire IX, their first warbird for MSFS, and now I’m taking a good close look at their latest. Here’s how my first flight went!

Flying the Fw190

For today’s flight I decided my start and end point for this familiarization flight would be EDNY Friedrichshafen Airport. The airport scenery I’m using is part of City Update 5 and the airport provides a mix of historic and modern as its also the home of the Dornier museum. Not quite Focke Wulf but I thought the theme would work well enough.

First thing I did was have a look at the airplane inside and out. I’ll save my full list of comments for the review but suffice to say that I was very impressed with the details all over.

After admiring the aircraft, I switched to getting set to fly it. FlyingIron Simulation has included a checklist in their tablet and they also use the built-in checklist which is great when you’re looking for the controls that you may have forgotten about.

After turning on all of the electrical, priming the engine, and then starting up the inertia starter I clicked the starter and the engine sputtered and then roared to life. We were in business!

Getting a feel for the taxiing with the Fw190A-8 took a bit of time. The brakes are on the sensitive side, however, the tail wheel lock system does work and its actually not quite as hard to taxi as the IL-2 or DCS version. It is close though the feel is a bit different.

After that, it was takeoff time which happens exactly as you’d expect in the Fw190. Stick full back to engage the tailwheel lock, gently move it forward while dancing on the rudders to keep it straight, and then gradually pull back again to get off the ground. Gear up, flaps up and climb away at 1.2 ATA.

After gaining some altitude I started to put the aircraft through it’s paces. Loops, gentle rolls, fast rolls (have to test the Fw190s high roll rate), accelerated stalls with its famous wing over, followed by some dives and zoom climbs.

After some of the more energetic flying, I took it a bit slower and flew a bit more gently. I took in some sights and sounds and appreciated the modeling of the aircraft inside and out.

Twenty minutes later, my fight times were coming to an end so I headed back to the airport that I took off from…. but not before dropping down from altitude to do a little low level flying first. That was a great way to head back!

I did set myself up a little low for a landing and here the traditional concrete runway is a little different from the grass fields that I’m more used to with Fw190 flying in IL-2 and sometimes DCS. Seeing over the nose is difficult and a little higher on the approach should provide a little more visibility before it all disappears beneath your sight line.

Landing was good, taxi went well and I parked and shut the Fw190 down.

I’ve got more flying, more features to check out, and a review to write so stay tuned for more!

FlyingIron Simulations Fw190A-8 has just released for MSFS and its available from their webstore for $45.00 AUD (or about $30 USD).