justflight.com/product/meteor-f8-fr9

<a href="youtube.com/watch?v=i_-Wd2_kM_c" class="bbvideo" data-bbvideo="560,315" target="_blank">youtube.com/watch?v=i_-Wd2_kM_c

Good Lord! I must have mentioned it during one of our TS chats, lol! Thanks!

A bit of a semi-personal story regarding the old Gloster Meteor, hope it doesn't bore you all too much. The Ecuadorian Air Force got a squadron of these as their front line interceptors back between 1954 and 1957, at the same time they were obtaining the English Electric Canberra B-6 as their bomber force. The idea was to give Peru as good as they gave if they ever dared attack Ecuador again, as they did in 1941. By the mid 1960's, a certain pilot, Colonel Luís Morejon had become the champion of the Meteor, and formed an aerobatic display team with them. They were called the "Aguilas", and here's a link to them with some pictures (sorry, it is in Spanish)...

Aguilas

In 1974, my father was posted to Ecuador as the technical representative of the Canberras, and we enjoyed watching the Aguilas on a couple of displays on Ecuadorian national holidays. By this time, Luís Morejon had been promoted to General, and removed from flying to do some administrative duties. In recognition of his contributions to the FAE, he became the Commander in Chief of the Air Force, at about that time. Here's a FAE gallery portrait of him...



Sometime in March, 1975, he had to attend a meeting at the Ministry of Defense in Quito. Being at a base at the coast, at the time, he decided to relive the old days and fly a Meteor to Quito. In short, my dad, an English airframe repair technician instructor called Henry, and myself (age six) were at our home in Quito, by coincidence on the roof garden, when we saw this same Meteor fly over, joining finals, and then plummet towards the ground about two miles away. A few moments later a pall of black smoke rose from where it had disappeared from view, and my dad and Henry rushed off. Of course, at the time, they were not aware it was the Commander of the Air Force involved.

With the original Gloster technicians who had trained the FAE years before long gone from the country, my dad was the only British tech rep in Ecuador at the time, and both he and Henry were roped in by the MoD for the crash investigation. During the site investigation, my dad found the air-brake jacks fully extended, along with extended landing gear actuators, but the flap actuators still retracted. The conclusion was pilot error of flight control selection, through lack of recency on the type. I can remember my dad coming home from the base one afternoon during the proceedings, mentioning it seemed he had mixed up the controls, which were not far from each other. Morejon had inadvertently extended the airbrakes, at low speed, when he had probably intended to extend the flaps, stalled, and thus killed himself. The FAE had to produce a slightly better story for the press, for such a hero, which I am here blowing the cover of, years later.

There are, of course, some happier memories of the FAE Meteors that I have, and somewhere some pictures tucked away, if they are not lost with all the moving around I've done since then. My best memory of them, a couple years after Morejon's death, was the farewell of these former Aguilas, before the Meteors were taken out of service and moth-balled. My dad took me to the base for the event, and he had been asked by the Air Force to "see them off" from the line. After start up, six of them sat there on the apron, canopies slid back, with all cloth helmeted heads in the cockpits turned towards us (yep, no bone domes!). My dad gave them a traditional RAF long way up and short way down salute, followed by a thumbs up, and they all taxied out together for their last display. I was over the moon with the moment. It is making me a bit gulpy remembering it all, now, lol!

What times....

Thanks again, Magnet. It is a must for me! Until I find those shots, here's one of them on display at the old Quito Airport FAE museum.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photos/airliners/7/3/2/1287237.jpg?v=v40

So, please excuse the number of screenies, I was very happy with this add on!

Downloaded it, installed, and went straight to my Avialogs account to download THIS . Ah! The good old days of 96 page <span class="abbc3_strike" style="text-decoration: line-through">Flight Crew Operating Manuals</span> Pilot's Notes! OK, it is for a Mk. 7, but acceptable for procedures and data as it was a twin seat trainer version of the Mk. 8 that I chose to fly.

So, after a read, I set myself up with an Orbx weather preset at Taura AFB, Ecuador. I was impressed by the cockpit, immediately (it was the first of several moments of being impressed to come). I ran through the checks and got ready for the first take off. Here am I testing full and free control movement, lol!



The elevator trim tab moves, too, btw! So, all looking good, I scanned through the take off procedure again and went for it, progressively pouring on the power. Moment of being impressed Number Two; they've done their research. The old Derwent engines spool up slowly. These were the days when it was not yet decided in which direction the future of jet engines lay, and the centrifugal compressor Derwent (as several other subsequent jet engines of the time) had notoriously slow spool up times compared to more modern and better designed axial flow units. 90 knots, stick back as per the instructions, and a lively unstick at 120 knots...



Climbing out over the Ecuadorian coastal plain, the weather preset did a good job of setting the correct, clammy tropical look to the day!



Set Guayaquil Approach on the VHF, and Guayaquil VOR on the Nav radio...



...and headed out west towards Salinas, climbing to 16,500 ft.





Once again, time to be impressed. They've modeled head movement through G, so when you turn, there is a slight jiggle-joggle. If any other standard aircraft have this, I've never noticed. Also, the performance figures are bang on. Set the power to what the manual says, and you get the cruising speed you should. Again, good research. After doing a bit of air work over Salinas, I headed back over the mangroves south west of Guayaquil to the International Airport for recovery...



...up the Guayas river delta...



...over Guasmo district of the city...



...left downwind to base for runway 21, again noting that the power settings and configurations were giving me almost exactly what the manual said they should...



...finals at the advised settings, as per procedure...



...and touched it down right on the aiming point markers (take note, Nick, you need to work on that with your 737, LOL!). Exited left off the runway to the FAE platform to run through the after landing actions, and concluded a very pleasant sim flight!



Conclusion; a great add on aircraft! Good attention to detail for serious simmers who want something to keep basic navigation skills up to scratch and also cover a bit more distance for your time than that old DC-3 while doing it. I'll be flying this one quite a bit!

PS: By the way, please read the note at the bottom of page 50 of the Pilot's Notes Manual. Makes you think, if you read my previous post. Sad stuff, poor guy...

Thanks for this, it was a fun read!