DC9-30 Professional

Published by Just Flight
Developed by Flight One
Requires: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Price : £24.99

The DC-9 has proved itself to be one of the truly legendary passenger aircraft. It was introduced in 1965 and today, almost forty years later, it still continues in service. This DC9-30 Professional add-on pack allows you to fly an aircraft, as it says on the back of the packaging, "from the days when men were men and instruments were analogue!" All the flight procedures have to be handled by the pilot which will test your skills to the fullest. This is definitely an add-on for the hardcore enthusiast.

Included Liveries
The pack comes with 11 pre-installed liveries and 7 more that you can install from the CD with the Text-O-Matic software that is also included. That makes a total of 18 liveries in all and they are as follows:

Pre-installed
Aeromexico, Alleghney, Valujet, Alitalia (classic), Austrian, British Midland Airways, Swissair Cargo, C-9A Nightingale (USAF), Eastern Airlines, SAS, KLM.

Text-O-Matic
Aeronautica Militare Italiana, Iberia, North Central, ONA, Northeast Airlines, Alitalia modern (passenger), Alitalia modern (freight).

Installation
Like all Just Flight products installation was straightforward and gave no problems at all. The software automatically finds the location of Flight Simulator. On starting Flight Simulator all the relevant new material is added with only a minimum amount of time needed. The hard drive space required for installation is 300MB.

Documentation
All of the documentation comes in .pdf format. The Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.1 comes on the CD too. You get a 72-page Pilot's Operating Handbook that explains all the procedures for flying a DC-9. It uses quite a few pictures of the panels to make the instructions easy to understand and is generally very well written and will be of the utmost importance to newbie virtual pilots who have never stepped onto a DC-9. You also get a superb 4-page history of the DC-9 that should keep the connoisseurs amongst you very happy. You also get a Quick Startup that explains how to use the new material in Flight Simulator. Finally there is an 8-page guide to using the Text-O-Matic software that will prove invaluable in getting you up and running with the program.

Aircraft
There are four DC-9 variations included in the package. There is the Mc Donnell Douglas DC-9-31, DC-9-32, DC-9-33F and the DC-9-C9A. They all look great and pleasingly come with a virtual cockpit display that looks impressive. The gauge displays are very good and the attention to detail with the aircraft as a whole is brilliant. You even get to see the steps on the external views of the aircraft. Of course with all the extra detail on display here you could be forgiven for thinking that the framerate would suffer but this didn't prove to be the case at all. Having said this though our PC did exceed the recommended requirements of a 1.4GHz CPU, 384MB RAM and a 64MB graphics card. It may have been a different story had our PC not exceeded the requirements.

Overall Game Rating: 8.4/10
Another great expansion from Just Flight. Just make sure your PC meets the extra requirements that this add-on needs.

Deaf Gamers comment:
This add-on doesn't make Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 any less deaf gamer friendly so check our review for our comments.