Is it just me, or does the Hornet Korea Gold demo have a really cool terrain engine? It looks good, and there are no pauses for loading whatsoever. It may be a little repetitive, but it gives a good sense of speed at all altitudes, and the view distance is reasonably far. The sea textures look a little odd, but they give a great sense of distance and depth. Which is more than I can say for the paltry ocean textures in Flanker 2 and Janes F/A-18, which give you absolutly no idea of high high you are above the sea. I would really love to see this engine developed into the next logical step - a high fidelity Harrier sim!!!

Another neat detail I've noticed: Your aircraft gets buffeted realistically when travelling at high speeds very low across the landscape. I don't believe I've ever seen this modelled in another sim. Now I understand why the real-life Tornado has such thin, small wings and why the crew of the broad-winged F-15E are in for such a rough ride at low altitude!

[This message has been edited by Fishbed77 (edited 04-09-2001).]

Yeah, the Beagle's wings were designed for an interceptor/dogfighter, NOT a low-level attack plane. In that respect, the losing F-16E/F was superior. But the Beagle had twin engines and a higher MTOW, and that was probably the deciding factor.
The Jedi Master

Take it from me, and I'm sure Hornit will back me up, that's the way it is in real life. You have zero sense of altitude above the ocean, particularly on calm days when the ocean is relatively flat. In fact, that has been a causal factor in several mishaps. Pilots lost SA and flew into the water, thinking they were higher than they really were.

Yes! Its very difficult to tell your altitude unless there are some pretty good size waves just due to the fact that you have no frame of refference to work with...everything looks the same so distance gets hard to judge.

One of the strangest times I recall was a morning launch in the med. The sea was glass smooth, it was almost surreal, the sky and sea looked as one. We talked about it before the launch while doing our preflights. Very beautiful but also deadly....you had the wake to the rear but off the cat it was really weird....like a mirror.

Hornit