Mayday Mayday

I put on my Thunderbirds cap and goe Search and Rescuing.

The staff at BBC radio Lincolnshire are thanked in the manual - so presumably it was a BBC trained announcer who provided the voice of your co-pilot, and if so he sounds like an amiable bloke with that reassuring lack-of-fluster you look for in a flight instructor!

The first flight I took was the scenic flight over the Lakes District. This is a pleasant flight with the instructor pilot chatting amiably away in the manner of a tour guide, pointing out local points of interest... "Yeats wrote a poem over there", another famous person wrote a book over that way" etc.

The scenery itself was less than inspiring though, faling to live up to the poetic rapture of the guide and displaying ugly seams here and there.

Luckily the scenery improved over the next 14 flights... yes 14, for this pack only has 15 flights in total. Perhaps this is a common standard in the civil aviation world, but I found it amazing that there were so few adventures. I actually played the whole set, with repeates in one long nocturnal fly-a-thon. And I'd be happy to fly them all again.

For a change of pace I next tried the float-plane rescue mission. This was fun and had good sound effects for the take-off and landing. I had a great laugh when the passengers climbed aboard and were greeted quite calmly, with classic British understatement, by John.

floatplane

My attempts to play International rescue in the Bell helicopter were pathetic in the extreme... but at the same time a lot of fun.

Hover over the ship for 5 minutes - oh yeah?

North Sea Rescue

Eggbeaters require a lot of practice and this one is no exception. Now don't get the idea that I bungled EVERY mission! Not totally anyway. Look, here is a fine example of my flying style in the Lear Jet:

Overall this is a very well presented package with generous supporting material. It is made more immersive with the voice-overs.

Engaging in this kind of directed activity in MSFS 98 gives a sense of purpose to your flights and creates a sense of urgency, especially when you are responding to "Mayday! Mayday!".