The man with the difficult to pronounce last name, staff reviewer Douglas Zabizewski  has became an FSX missionary to bring you our review for three different commercial mission pack products: FSXADVENTURES – BRITISH AIRWAYS MISSION PACK and UNITED MISSION PACK aswell as PERFECT FLIGHT – FSX MISSIONS EUROWINGS CRJ-700.
“Hello fellow sim-pilots! I hope you have all had a very productive and fun time since my last review. Today I am actually writing about three products. The reason for this is simple. I have been playing three very similar add-ons for flight simulator X and I can only think of one way to write the review because otherwise it would be three separate, quite similar reviews. I feel my job is to make it a little easier on you, (the most important part of a review), the reader to weigh the pro’s and con’s of a product and take the guesswork and possible waste of valuable time and money on an unknown product out of the equation by trying them for you and pointing out the good, the bad and the ugly. Now that being said lets move on shall we? “
Fortunately these three very well put together programs in my opinion have no bad or uglies LOL. My last few reviews were strictly scenery, and this time I got to try a few “mission oriented” add-ons. They are in no particular order, the FSX Euro wings CRJ-700 missions pack, the British Airways mission pack and the United (Airways) mission pack.
I will try to break these add-ons down in a comparison type basis.
| British Airways Mission pack | United Mission pack | FSX Euro Wings CRJ-700 | |
| Flights/Missions | Over 40 flights in total | Just under 60 flights in total | Approximately 16 flights |
| Variable failures and weather? | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. Probably the most of the three products. |
| Airport graphics including push-back trucks, option of progressive taxi, (if you want it) for us not so Expert pilots. | YES all of the above. | YES all of the above. | YES all of the above. |
| Daytime, nighttime and variable seasons. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mission compass to assist in findings airports. | No. | No. | Yes. |
| All missions labeled as Expert. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Do you need to be an expert pilot to use add-on? | Absolutely not. Absolute beginners may find it a little frustrating at first though. | Absolutely not. Absolute beginners may find it a little frustrating at first though. | Absolutely not. Absolute beginners may find it a little frustrating at first though. |
| Wide range of flight destinations? | Yes, with a strong emphasis on European airports. | Yes, with a strong emphasis on American/north American airports. | Yes, with a very strong emphasis on strictly European airports. |
| Tested well with FS Passengers (Sold separately) | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. |
| Frame Rate Friendly? | Yes, however this is the only of the three products that had a small stutter while flying a 747 using the “spot view”, but this cleared up and worked normally again after about 15 seconds. |
Yes. | Yes. |
| Value for money on a 1 to 10 scale 10 being the best value for your money, | 8.5/10. | 8.5/10. | 8/10. (Simply because there are less flights to choose from) |
| Variable flight distances to choose from? | Yes this program ranges from an average of 70 minutes to up to a possibility of 3 hours. | Yes this program ranges from an average of 45 minutes to up to a possibility of 1.5 hours. | Yes this program ranges from an average of 45 minutes to up to a possibility of 1.5 hours. |
| Download size | 108 Megabytes | 141.43 Megabytes | 63.84 Megabytes |
| Large range of Jets to choose from (within the add-on) you can fly any plane in your FSX fleet of course. | Yes. With an emphasis on “Heavy’s” due to the long duration of flights | Yes. Not as much as the British Airways package however. | As the program is named CRJ-700 this is the main jet to choose from with this program. |
Now, as I have had different experiences with “Mission type games, I feel I should tell you that there is not a “Story or plot to follow in these add-ons. These are missions that allow you to feel like you are a pilot for a major airline with the emphasis placed on flying, doing pre flight checks, dealing with in flight failures with a wide range of failures. You definitely do not need to be an expert pilot, all three programs have copilots to remind you of things you may forget, you do not have to know how to dial in radio codes for communication during handoffs, (Unless you want that level of realism) or need to understand much more than how to press the correct number in response to questions. You should know how to input an altitude, and understand how to fly the right direction when you are asked to turn left 30 degrees and resume own navigation. If you can do that, you can use all of these add-ons. Oh it probably wouldn’t hurt to learn how to restart an engine….just in case LOL.
Once again this review is growing a little long, so here’s it the usual breakdown.
Cost: All three are well worth the money. The list of flights you have to choose from gives you a nice warm feeling just looking at em LOL. Then you add in the graphics, the realism, and the feeling of being a real Airline pilot, makes it worth it all.
Installation: All three programs were super easy to install. Not one single problem. Click the exe program and within minutes you are doing a preflight check and preparing to taxi.
Documentation: Average for all three programs. They tell you what you need to know. Have a few suggestions on how to get the most out of the products, but that is basically it.
Graphics and textures: Excellent, my mid range computer looked just fine on all three products and the flight dynamics were quite excellent. From turbulence to the slow response time of the “Heavy’s” everything just sucks you in and immerses you into the sim experience.
Extras: I can’t honestly answer this one completely. If I spent more time I may have found more but basically the extras for me are the options available to help the non-expert pilots out. Like the progressive taxi, not having to dial in radio frequencies and the assists from copilots were an extra at least to me. Plus they all worked with FS Passenger (Sold separately) and a few scenery packs I have installed as well worked fine. (However if you don’t want everyone mad at you for flying too low I don’t recommend getting down within a few hundred feet to see if scenery add-ons are working perfectly LOL).
So in conclusion, these products are definitely worth the money. The tough part is choosing which to buy. Personally I suggest you start by narrowing down your first purchase by using the above guide, but in the long run, as I am sure you will enjoy any of the three as much as I did, you will just have to save up and purchase the other two as well so you can have the best of all three add-ons.
Doug Zabizewski
At a Glance:
- Installer: EXE — Above average. A few clicks and you are on your way to Green Bay, Toronto, or perhaps Munster Osnabruck, (depending on which program you purchase of course).
- Documentation: DOC — Good. Enough information to get you going.
- Modelling: FSX Format — Excellent
- Textures and presentation: Excellent.
- Texturing: BMP — Excellent
- Extras: None (Does work with FS Passengers (sold separately), and has real-time weather included in the briefings (except for Eurowings, as well as flight aids for the less than expert pilot, part of all three programs).
Links & Costs:
FSXADVENTURES – BRITISH AIRWAYS MISSION PACK EURÂ 22.01 without VAT EURÂ 18.50
FSXADVENTURES – UNITED MISSION PACK EURÂ 23.80 without VAT EURÂ 20.00
PERFECT FLIGHT – FSX MISSIONS EUROWINGS CRJ-700 EURÂ 26.77 without VAT EURÂ 22.50
Test System: Intel Core2Duo E2220 @ 2.40 GHz-2.40 GHz, 4Gb RAM, Nvidea Geforce G100, Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 (DX9)