Can lightning strike in the same place twice? Just Flight’s F28 release a few years back really enthralled me as a still new to airliner flying virtual pilot. The combination of simplicity, handling, some really good built in features, and the type of places you could realistic visit worldwide with the F28 really captured my enthusiasm and attention. To this day, its probably still my favourite to go back to and fly even though others capture my attention all the time. When Just Flight announced that they’d be following the F28 up with its successors, the F70 and F100, I was overjoyed. Now, more than three years later we finally have the new jets in our virtual hangars. Does it live up to the expectations? Is it really the same thing or are we comparing apples to oranges here? Let’s have a look.

A bit of history

Netherland’s based Fokker announced in 1983 that it was going to produce a new version of the Fokker 28 regional jet. The new design was stretched by just over 18 feet, it was re-engined with Rolls Royce Tay high bypass-ratio turbofan engines, the wings and tailplane were redesigned and enlarged, and the flight deck was significantly modernized with a Rockwell Collins flight instrument system, new autopilot and auto thrust system, CAT III autoland and various other modern features. In short, Fokker sought to bring the F28 up to the then modern standards of the time while responding to needs of a design that could seat up to 122 in maximum density configuration. The new aircraft was called the Fokker 100 while a shortened model, the Fokker 70, was introduced later in production.

Major customers for the type included launch partner Swissair as well as American Airlines, TAM, KLM and USAir. Financial troubles within Fokker itself doomed the aircraft with the company going bankrupt in 1996 with production ending in 1997.

A series of shocks to the aviation industry followed with the September 11 attacks and the Great Recession of 2008 seeing many of these aircraft retired from their mainline operators. Despite this, the Fokker jets found service elsewhere in the world and are still used regularly in places like Australia with Qantas Link and Alliance still flying some. They have been gradually replaced by Embraer E-Jet aircraft and their time is gradually coming to an end.

Features and systems

Just Flight have brought their usual approach to airliner design with the Fokker 100 & Fokker 70 release. Custom-coded systems with hydraulic, electrical, fuel and pressurization systems are all covered in a reasonably deep simulation of the aircraft though the company has avoided doing full failure or electrical system modeling and you can’t pull the breakers on this airplane.

Despite that, you still have quite an in-depth experience of the systems with EFIS, MFDUs, CDUs, all simulated and fully interactive. Cockpit, cabin, exterior, flight model, and sounds are all at levels that you’d expect for a high fidelity offering.

Just Flight have included four variations of the Fokker 100 in that version of the aircraft package:

• F100 with Integral Airstairs and Small Cargo Door
• F100 with Integral Airstairs and Large Cargo Door
• F100 with Sliding Door and Large Cargo Door
• F100 with L2 Door, Integral Airstairs, and Small Cargo Door

For the Fokker 70, there’s just the one configuration as is typical in the real world.

Some have requested Tay 650-15 (in place of the 620-15) with a little extra power. Just Flight haven’t confirmed if they will be adding the extra engine type but it may happen over the course of its release cycle.

Both come with over a dozen liveries each representing a mix of government operators and airlines including both classic and modern liveries for everything from British Midlands to TAT, Alliance Airlines, Carpatair and more.

The liveries are installed via Just Flight’s new livery manager. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that they have offered an external program that lets you load and unload your preferred livery packs. Liveries are large in size so you can save some space by installing just the offerings that you want. The software is slightly dated feeling, however, it works and generally gets the job done. No issues have been encountered. A paint kit is available for artists to do their own works too!

Visuals and sounds

Just Flight are typically strong on visuals and that’s certainly the case here. Sharp 8K textures do push system requirements a bit higher than the F28 but the results are an aircraft that’s impressive in look and feel.

Surprisingly, the developer has not yet embraced detail textures or decal based text so getting up close to certain warning signs or instruments in the cockpit will still start to blur in ways that aircraft using more modern techniques do not. Still, the effect is generally mitigated by sharp texture work so its not a huge problem.

Lighting in the cockpit is superb with the aircraft’s backlights, spotlights, and the various glows from the types CRT displays all lighting up the cabin in believable ways. Its every bit as spectacular as Just Flight’s F28 which I think has one of the most beautiful cabins at night (in a rugged classic airliner way). Exterior lighting is similarly well executed.

The cabin is nicely done as well with high detail seats, overhead bins (not openable), and interactive controls within the cabin for lighting and boarding/deboarding music. There’s also a coffee machine that you can turn on in typical Just Flight fashion. Some details like logos and colour schemes are livery specific adding a bit more customized flare to the experience. For some users, none of the stuff behind the cockpit matters but for others this is a key part of the experience.

Up close, the aircraft is sharper and more detailed than the F28 that came before it. The wing details, the work around the tail and the APU, even the wheels stand up under reasonably close inspection.

There’s limited walk-around interactivity in MSFS 2024 with this airplane but when you do walk-around it certainly holds up at pilot eye level. Great to see.

The sounds are excellent! Just Flight does their own in-house sound work and they have typically done a fantastic job of representing aircraft that they’ve simulated. The developer recorded sounds from a real Fokker 100 to get that authentic flare and everything from the buttons and switches in the cockpit to the roar of the engines and the sound attenuation as you move the camera through the cabin is captured beautifully.

My only complaint about sounds is that the Fokker 100, and to some extent the 70, is just a bit more quiet and refined than the F28 that they did previously and so you don’t hear the engines as much. Things are just more subdued in the cabin and cockpit than before. Its less visceral that way… though move to the external view and its still quite a loud jet.

Flying the F100 and F70

I’ll start with the biggest “disappointment” and that is that the F100 and F70 are much more like big airliners than the F28 that I’ve been flying. In my head I’ve been seeing this as the follow-up to the F28 and while that is true… these are more automated and less hands on aircraft than the F28. They aren’t as direct and thus not quite as fun to fly as the F28. The F28 has this kind of “bushplane but in jet form” experience that you don’t really feel as much with the F100 and F70 and that has caught me out a bunch of times and required me to fly the airplane more like one of the larger 737-900s or maybe the CRJ (with its small supercritical wing) where you need to fly it by the numbers and do a little less seat of the pants flying.

None of this is a complaint leveled at the product itself because I think generally Just Flight have captured the flying character of these larger, heavier, somewhat more modern commuter jets.

The modernized systems also mean that the cockpit experience is more like a 737 or perhaps the ERJ. There’s lots of automation but you also need to make sure the jet is setup properly and that its flying the way it should with those automations in place. Its doesn’t quite hold your hand the way an A320 does and instead you need to stay ahead of the airplane know its quirks. Auto throttle likes to take over and “help you” in go-around situations but this has caught me off guard while trying to get into a trickier airport. I thought the AT was even buggy for a while before I learned a bit about the Fokker’s quirky setup.

Fly it the way its meant to be flown, however, and these are generally pleasant aircraft to fly and manage. It takes time but you’ll get to know the systems and find that they are generally straightforward once you know them. A warning display will let you know when you’ve done something wrong (like exceeded engine limits) and even step-by-step indications of what you should do next.

The aircraft features a functional weather radar and both wing and engine icing is simulated with appropriate detection systems and mitigation systems built in.

The EFB and immersion features

The latest edition of Just Flight’s EFB system is present here on the F100 and F70. The tablet interface is reasonably intuitive although GUI style and design changes somewhat as you go through each section which does feel slightly disjointed at this point. Nonetheless, the features and functionality are all here.

SimBrief and NaviGraph support are built in, an aircraft display and settings screen gives you control over the aircraft’s fuel state, panel state, passenger loading, and lets you select various preferences like realistic or fast INS alignment speeds.

The EFB also has some nice immersion features that are felt throughout the product. The ability to play prerecorded announcements, have the copilot announce certain aircraft states (V1, rotate, takeoff thrust set, gear up, etc.), and do either realistic, 5-minute or instant fuel and aircraft loads. I love the 5-minute feature because you can have the aircraft fueled and passengers loaded in 5-minutes while you setup the rest of the aircraft’s systems and all the while you have the sense that everything behind you is being readied for takeoff. Without the long wait time.

Fast and fun?

Something I like to do in airliner reviews is determine how quickly you can get the aircraft up in the air. Just Flight have tended to score quite well here thanks to some of the features of their EFB.

The biggest and most important feature is the ability to do a state change going from cold and dark to ready to fly. A press of a button in the EFB will do it and the jet will automatically go through the start-up process and get itself ready to go. That’s great.

The EFB also supports importing flights from SimBrief so you can go on there, plug in your flight, and then import the passengers, cargo, weight and other information automatically.

The EFB once again comes to the rescue for inputting performance values. You can pull them from SimBrief, into the EFB, and then export them to the aircraft’s flight computer with the click of a couple of buttons.

All of this comes together to make the F70 and F100 reasonably quick to get going. For the best experience you’ll still need to spend some time with the flight computer where you’ll need to import your flight plan from SimBrief but once done you should be reasonably able to have a nice quick flight with minimal setup and fuss.

And of course, should you want to some or all of this manually… you can!

Pricing

Just Flight have priced the F100 Professional and F70 Professional at high fidelity levels. That’s not unexpected as the sophisticated avionics and most of the feature list put it in solid contention with other high fidelity offerings.

They are asking for $69.99 USD for the F70 and F100 models sold as individual packages. Want both of them? You can buy the bundle for $84.99 USD.

They may be asking just a little too much, however, as Fenix Simulations A320 slightly (by $2) undercuts each model individually and offers up a full failure simulation. PMDG asks for a premium on some 737NG models (coming in some $12 more for the -800) and also adds failures to the extensive feature lists. That aside, Just Flight is going toe to toe with these developers and generally matching them in most respects.

The bundle is the cheapest way to get the entire experience and buying them individually with one purchased later is basically buying a whole other airliner that is more or less the same. I appreciate that the developer has spent years putting together a very sophisticated aircraft.

I think the value is probably sticking with one model and being happy with it. I suspect the F100 Professional will end up being the top seller of the bunch as its the more popular option worldwide and offers the most real world routes to fly. If you must have both, and I did for the purposes of the review, then the bundle is the way to do it.

Final thoughts

Just Flight have typically put together solid products over the last several years of me reviewing their work and the Just Flight F100 Professional and F70 Professional continue to maintain the reputation.

Though they do lack a few features like interactive electrical breakers and a more complete failure model, these aircraft are otherwise interesting and in-depth full fidelity airliner experiences that build on their past efforts.

I’ve come to see this product as less of a sequel to the F28 as a flight sim experience and more of a complete other product. A semi-modern commuter jet is one of the most fun experiences you can have in this category and the hands on nature and occasionally quirky systems should keep most flight simmers busy over the course of short and medium haul flights. That’s good entertainment and Just Flight makes it worth your while!

Unlike the recent A220 release, Just Flight also seem to largely have the aircraft’s bugs and performance issues sorted out on release. It has seen a couple of updates to solve some niggling issues but the jet is already in a good state and that does give you confidence in the overall experience. The developer has also built a reputation for keeping things up to date with their F28, Avro RJ, and BAe 146 products all seeing plenty of free updates over the years. I imagine we’ll see the same continue.

The Just Flight F100 Professional and F70 Professional are available for both MSFS 2020 and 2024. You can buy the F100 Professional, F70 Professional or the F70 & F100 bundle package here on the Just Flight website.