Reviews

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Developer

Thrustmaster

Purchase From

Thrustmaster

Price

$99.99

BUY HERE

Version Reviewed

N/A

Press Copy Provided By

Thrustmaster

FSElite's preferred Flight Sim vendor is SimMarket. (Why?)

As per our Community Charter, all of our reviews are free from bias, prejudice and favouritism. Don't forget, each reviewer has their own style and thoughts, although they all abide by the Review Guidelines - something I suggest you read.

Having a good headset is one of the key fundamentals to a good flight sim setup. Whether it’s flying online or flying with friends, I always want a good quality headset that really pumps out the sounds accurately, as well as one that enables me to communicate clearly. We’ve all been on the receiving end of a poor sounding mic, so I never want to be the person who is delivering that.

Despite having a few headsets in my collection already, they’re all very gamer-orientated. Not a bad thing, but they are big, bulky and full of bright lights and other colourful things. None of them really give the sensation of an actual pilot headset. Fortunately, Thrustmaster saw a similar gap in the market and released the T-Flight US Air Force Edition headset. But are they just a regular headset hidden behind some fancy marketing, or are they actually a suitable replacement headset for a more immersive experience?

Let’s start with the overall look and feel of the T-Flight US Air Force Edition headset (from this point, I’ll simply refer to it as  ‘headset’). The symbolic military faded green is an interesting colour, but considering it’s dubbed as a US Air Force edition, it makes a lot of sense. I quite like it, and again, unlike conventional ‘gaming’ headsets, it’s a nice change compared to the colour-driven variations I’m otherwise used to.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Developer

Orbx Systems

Purchase From

Orbx Systems

Price

$23.89

BUY HERE

Version Reviewed

1.0o

Press Copy Provided By

Orbx Systems

FSElite's preferred Flight Sim vendor is SimMarket. (Why?)

As per our Community Charter, all of our reviews are free from bias, prejudice and favouritism. Don't forget, each reviewer has their own style and thoughts, although they all abide by the Review Guidelines - something I suggest you read.

Introduction

Santa Barbara, Queen of the Missions, or the American Riviera: whatever you want to call it, Santa Barbara airport (KSBA) is like no other.  Santa Barbara is situated in the north of SoCal, just 95 miles north of Los Angeles, and a short hop from San Diego. One of many SoCal airports, Santa Barbara sees its traffic mainly from regional airlines and a few majors, with CRJs and 737s being a regular occurrence at the field. Business jet and general aviation traffic is also heavy, with the airport housing two FBOs and a staggering three flight schools. All in all, this makes for a rather busy airport situated in one of the busiest airspaces in the world.

When Orbx first announced Santa Barbara at FlightSimCon 2016, many were excited to see another large SoCal airport coming from Orbx. After this initial announcement, the project went pretty quiet for a while, apart from the occasional reassurance that the project hadn’t been canceled. Seemingly out of the blue, Santa Barbara developer Misha Cajic made an announcement to the Orbx forums back in October announcing all that we could expect to see from the project, along with a plethora of previews showing the airport in an advanced state. Released just 13 days after the initial announcement, the release was met with great excitement to finally see the project in our sims, but how does it hold up against their previous releases and high-quality standard? Let’s find out!