Virtualcol Fokker 50

The Fokker 50 is a twin-engined, short to medium range, turboprop airliner. Design of the Fokker 50 started in 1983 as a refinement of the highly successful Fokker F27 Friendship. The prototype first flew on December 28 1985. The Fokker 50 was based on the stretched F27-500 airframe, but with more fuel efficient Pratt & Whitney Canada PW124 engines, an electronic flight and engine-management system, smaller windows in the fuselage and a two-wheel nose gear. The Fokker 50 can carry up to 58 passengers over a distance of 1,110 nm (2,055 km).

Virtualcol is developer of many Colombian scenery packages for both FS2004 and FSX. They also develop aircraft models. Their Fokker 50 comes with 2d panels, virtual cockpit with cabin, wingviews, sounds and manuals. The exterior is quite simple and the liveries are not very detailed. Also, the strobe lights timing seems to be too fast. All usual animations are present, including some doors that can be opened. The panel looks ok, quite a few cockpit systems are simulated, but not all buttons and switches are clickable. Same for the virtual cockpit, which is quite simple, but includes a passenger cabin and wingview. The knobs and handles are 2d textures. There are three different models to choose from. The normal 'full' version, the 'light' vc model which doesn't have the passenger cabin and the non-vc model with only the wings modeled in the vc mode.

One of the screenshots may suggest a weather radar, but unfortunately, it is just a dummy and not actually working, despite the fact that the radar image is moving. Left from the weather radar, you can see the FMS. It automatically load the fs flightplans and can be used for various departures and approaches. It can also display information about the aircraft, date/time, etc. Though it is nice to have atleast a FMS, this one is not like the real one on a Fokker 50. The flight dynamics are not bad and all the autopilot systems are working well. This package offers much more than the Dreamwings Fokker 50, however, for the ultimate realism, I would suggest to wait for another developer, perhaps one that offers the quality like the Digital Aviation Fokker 70/100.

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