Flying Stations: Payware and Freeware aircraft and scenery for FSX, FS2004 and SFP1.

The absence of a serious Sea King for FSX left a gaping hole in my flightsim experience. There are some freeware versions available, but none of them really suited my taste. Let’s see whether this payware offering from Virtavia did The Sea King took its maiden flight in 1959, entering service in 1961 as the HSS-2. Simple Serial Wedge. It was renamed SH-3A in US Navy service in 1963. Originally designed by Sikorsky to be an amphibious anti-submarine warfare helicopter, it went on to perform a multitude of tasks. Sea Kings performed their intended ASW roles, but also flew anti-ship, search and rescue, transport, VIP-transport, airborne-early-warning, and other missions.

The Sea King was license built by Agusta in Italy, Westland in the United Kingdom and Mitsubishi in Japan, while aircraft were assembled from Sikorsky-built parts in Canada. Despite being a military helicopter by design, Sikorsky successfully marketed civilian versions of the Sea King, designated S-61. Serving operators on each continent of the world, Sea Kings are getting old, and many operators either have replaced them, or are somewhere along the path of having them replaced. The Virtavia Sea King promises to bring 10 different models in 20 different liveries, covering airframes built by all manufacturers. The product page on simMarket promises a visually stunning product, but doesn’t say much about systems. Graziano Sag 14 Manual.

Although the product has been available since August 2010, it’s new on simMarket, hence this review. Just to be clear, I’m reviewing the FSX version here, although an FS2004 (FS9) version is also available. Installation: After buying the Sea King, the obvious next step is downloading the package. This download is a 130MB zip-file.

Inside this zip-file, there’s a.msi-installer. All there’s left to do is run the installer, accept the EULA, point it to your FSX location, and wait. A note here, the installer didn’t find my custom FSX location (F: FSX) automatically, but I had to point it to it manually. A small downside, but apart from that, no problems with the installer. Note that there is no serial, but more importantly, no other unwieldy DRM-software. Upon installation, you get 21 new entries in your FSX aircraft selection menu under Westland/Sikorsky, and a manual in the Virtavia folder in your FSX root folder.

Installation is easy and trouble free, except for having to locate a custom FSX location manually. However, why all Sea King entries have to be under Westland/Sikorsky, and not under the manufacturer which actually built the represented helicopter (Westland for the British, Belgian, Egyptian, helicopters, Sikorsky for the US airframes, and so on) beats me. Exterior: The exterior of the Virtavia Sea King doesn’t impress me. The general shape is good. The ‘core’ of the helicopter is modeled very well: the fuselage, tail, sponsons and gear. These sections are modeled accurately, and smooth.