thought I would share my observations for anyone interested in this type of stuff.
was throwing the plane around like I was in an imaginary dogfight. truth be told its not far off from AH with combat trim on. controls were very light and responsive with no noticable trim needed in the dive and climbing aspects of basic fighter maneuvers. though my adrenalin was probably going so high I wouldnt have noticed if there were.
did some stall climbs and dives simulating BnZ and rope a dopes. you can really hear the wind past 160 or so the green arc ends around 200 if I remember correctly but I stayed below it to be nice to the classic warbird.
even at these lower speeds you can really feel the G's in steep turn. I didnt look at the G meter till after we were returning to the airport but it was maxed at 4gs probably on the loops as most of the other stuff was lower G maneuvers of posibly 3g or whatever it is the average steep sustained turn pulls.
the instructor basically gave me free reign of the airplane and I was off to basic fighter maneuvers land. did a few show stunts like 4 point roll and stuff though but I was kind of wishing there was another t6 in the air to play fighter pilot with.
I was very interested in how it handled the common fighter maneuvers I use most often in Aces High.
one maneuver the instructor did that I didnt try was a spin which the t6 seemed to enter and exit without any fuss at all.
all in all I think Aces High does a satisfactory job and compares well to an actual warbird be it the t6 was a big heavy advanced trainer.
AH being by its nature a flight simulator you are sitting still in front of your pc and the seat of the pants visceral nature of the actual beast is quite overpowering in reality and can not yet be duplicated in the virtual arena.
the vibration and noise is deafening and being in the back seat without the map or GPS I pretty quickly got the I do not know where I am feeling from the clouds and the terrain below as we were playing at 5000 feet.
after about 30 minutes of heavy maneuvering I was quite tired and drenched with sweat from the exertion of the G's and the sun beating through the greenhouse canopy.
we turned back to the airport and the decent down to 1500 feet from 5000 with the speed at the top of the green arc the sense of speed from the sound and vibration of the wind was very noticible.
I didn't try the takeoff or landing portions of the flight though so I can't comment on its handling though from the back seat following on the controls the control inputs felt similar to what I experience in a J-3 cub. though the j-3 cub I've been flying is 85HP and 800 lbs and this t-6 is 600hp and about 5000 lbs.
not me in the video though it is the same airplane I flew in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6zn0HxCbngthe veiw from the rear seat in the video is the same one I was experiencing.
