SF1, Stock SF2, vs. Super Mega Pack F-104s — Which Has The Most Accurate Flight Characteristics?

[Alect7]

Hello all,

Recently I've shown interest in the F-104 Starfighter and decided to mod it into the game. However I've encountered some differences between flight models and am wondering which is more accurate to the real life aircraft.

I have three playable F-104 Starfighter "setups" installed:

 - F-104G Starfighter by 3rdwire for SF/WO* 1.0.0, uploaded by zade1990
 - SF2 F-104 Starfighter Super Mega Pack 2016 v3.5, uploaded by Viper63a and others
 - the stock SF2 F-104 whose only modification is the addition of a cockpit from the above Mega Pack

The stock SF2 and F-104 Mega Pack Starfighters seem to fly almost the exact same way. Flying them against the stock MiG-21F-13 has it beaten in almost every metric, from maneuverability, acceleration, and maximum speed. The SF1 Starfighter however feels less useful to fly, but feels more authentic, as pitching up for too long may cause it to enter a spin as reported by both anecdotal experience and written documents, and turning is an exceptionally slow and heavy-feeling affair.

Watching videos of a modded F-104 in DCS seems to combine my two experiences, as it frequently kept up with MiG-21s in turns with maneuvering flaps, but still suffered from the pitch-up flat spin issue caused by the T-tail.

If anybody has played with all three flight models, or has installed other, more accurate ones, which one in your opinion had the more "realistic" or "balanced" approach to simulating the F-104? If there are other F-104 mods out there which provides a more accurate experience, or for gameplay purposes balances out the Starfighter's weaknesses without being too fantastical, I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

[yakarov79]

Using SF1 flight model might not be a good idea in SF2.

Soon*, there will be an upload of new variants with new ini files, and an update of already released zippers - earlier this year/last year. With avionics and the flight model reworked by alfa2. 

You can always go to the download section, SF2 - Cold War - US origin -and then the subsection that is interesting for you.

 

* proverbial fortnight.

[Wrench]

yeah, DO NOT mix SF1 and SF2 data inis. 1stGen units are missing a shit load of aero statements, even on the AI only birds.

Until Yakarov & Co get their's finished, just add the cockpit as outlined in KB, and fly. 

 

 

[Alect7]

57 minutes ago, Wrench said:

Until Yakarov & Co get their's finished, just add the cockpit as outlined in KB, and fly. 

 

 

I see, thank you. I'll definitely be looking forward to Yakarov and others' custom F-104s, and in the meantime will check out what others have already created.