What a plane! I had my doubts, and already had the DCS F-16C module, so I was on the fence for a while (just fly it in DCS I told myself…). Picked up the plane on the marketplace on a whim, grabbed the local livery from flightsim.to, fueled her up and took a blind run to the north from KTUS. Zoom climbed to FL450 off the runway, waved my wings at some much slower GA players on the way out, performed some acrobatics at Mach 1.2 over Phoenix, and then got totally lost up the canyons to the north at supersonic speeds and 100 feet AGL. Performed what I hope was seen as a respectful intercept on another player in an airliner, but they dropped into IMC and I didn’t know where the de-icing switches are yet so I had to break off. Landed at KPRC in Prescott once the ice melted off my canopy.
This plane’s flight model is just like the DCS one as far as I can tell, which is to say it’s like nothing else, especially in VR. It would be nice if the systems looked a little more authentic, but the important stuff for the kind of flying you will be doing in MSFS is all there and works basically like it does in DCS. Frankly, the DCS F-16 is a nightmare to start up so I totally get why SC designs made this decision to simplify things.
The F-16 is really a great fit for MSFS. Fast, agile, great visibility, and decent range. You can basically do anything you would want to do in the sim but haul cargo with it. I guess you could even drop it into neofly and RP putting passengers in some travel pods…