Just Flight® / Aeroplane Heaven® DH-98 Mosquito

Delivering the goods

Ground handling seems very realistic, feeling not unlike a DC-3, but with a great deal more power. I’m a reluctant tail-dragger pilot and normally don’t do well with them. I learned after a while how to taxi this one effectively and reasonably smoothly, though wished at times for dual throttle levers on my flight yoke. Differential power would have been welcome from time to time. It takes a fair amount of throttle to taxi. It won’t even begin to roll at less than 2,100 RPM. If the Mossie has a tail-wheel lock it didn’t seem to make any difference. At any rate there’s no control or indicator for it and the default keystroke didn’t seem to have any effect. The weather-veining effect in crosswinds was present, but not severe.

The sound is very good. The exhaust note of the Merlin is unmistakable and very well done. For some reason it’s more distinctive and altogether better at idle and low power settings than higher. At cruise there seems to be some obvious looping in the engine sounds, but not enough to be a bother. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think of it as the beat frequency of slightly unsynchronized engines. As with most high-performance piston types I’ve tried, the engine effects “play” very well on the Butt-Kicker. Flap and gear sounds are good and reasonably convincing, but the flaps change position very quickly. I can’t say that is inaccurate, but it seems unrealistically fast.

The radios are convincingly “period” with indicators and controls suggesting the methods of long ago. There are two NAV radios with the capability to tune a VOR, but there's nothing on the the panel to make use of one. There is a switch for Marker Beacon audio, but you don’t need to worry about ever having to fly an ILS with the Mosquito – what you would need is just not there. Radio navigation is by ADF, or if that fails…. by ADF! There are two COM radios with the expected modern frequency ranges and a pair of ADFs, with an odd set of controls that allow frequency setting in “bands” of frequencies. That’s very neatly done, except that the band from 420 to 490 KHz is missing entirely and cannot be tuned at all. I discovered this in IMC and really needed to be able to tune a nearby NDB in that frequency range. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. You’ll be happy to hear I survived, however.

The radio stack

There is quite a nifty magnetic compass mounted on the left side near the throttle quadrant. It’s a big thing, far too large to be panel mounted. I’ve never encountered anything quite like it, at least not in an aircraft. Once figured out it’s very helpful for flying a precise heading. In look and configuration, it resembles a ship’s compass. It is viewed from above and there is a fixed “lubbers line” oriented fore and aft across the transparent face. The bezel and compass rose rotate (by mouse). Moving with them is a T-shaped box outline. Below all that, viewed through the face is an iconic airplane figure which is the part that moves with a heading change. By lining up the bezel so that the T-shaped box aligns with the airplane icon beneath, the heading can be read – quite accurately – under the lubbers line. Even a one degree change in course so obviously misaligns the T-box and the little airplane figure that it is easily discernable. It’s very neatly done.

Magnetic compass

VC – and the Entry to the Luxurious “Observation Deck”

There are a pair of radiator flap controls on the right side of the cockpit, operated by the mouse, but requiring a kind of cranking motion that I found a little difficult. I could never detect any change in engine coolant temperature or oil temperature from operating these or not operating them. All four gauges seemed riveted to normal readings within a few minutes after engine start and never moved no matter what I did with the radiator flaps.

Things to do - things to know