VTOL VR F-5 Tiger Mod: What a Treat!

If there is something that has been very clear about VTOL VR, and that it's the fact that there has been an increase of high-quality modded aircraft, with the F-16, A-10 and F-22 being released not that long ago to extremely good reception.
Now, the most expected mod for VTOL VR has launched and it has changed my perspective of what I think is possible within the game: The F-5 Tiger by REDFOR Studios. This mod marks a before and after for VTOL VR modding, so, let's talk about it! 3D ART AND SYSTEMS What sets this mod apart the most is its art and presentation. The main model has been immaculately made, with most of its cockpit layout and internal model being mostly based on the real F-5E layout, with some liberties taken to allow the installation of MFDs and basic VTOL VR system functionality. The textures are excellent, and the mesh fits right in within the game's art style, but with a bit more polish than usual. All the animations are done excellently, with some extra things added in not only for their coolness factor. One such example are the air deflectors that are, on themselves, a part of the very cool and iconic M39 cannon two-stage trigger system that the developers have added. It's clear that the devs poured their heart and soul into the model and its animations, not to mention the exceedingly awesome liveries made available by the developers. FLIGHT DYNAMICS AND CONTROLS The Tiger feels pretty nice to fly, and, according to the manual provided with the mod, its flight characteristics are pretty damn good. I did notice that when the airbrakes are active you get a slight nose-up attitude, which is not accurate to the real F-5E which gets an induced nose-down attitude when the boards are active. Small nitpicking aside, the flight model is excellent and some of the best work I have seen in VTOL VR. Now, when it comes to controls it uses a center-stick set up that requires full hand movements instead of a wrist-centered movement. This means that for easily obscured inside-out setups such as those present on headsets such as the Quests or even the Pimax Crystal, this leads to erratic control inputs when the controllers no longer track properly. The workaround is to enable the back-up side stick, but this is a bit on the clunky side. ARMAMENT I will just say that this plane was made into a much more capable version of the F-5. It has the ability to launch Sparrows, Mavericks, and it can even carry the Penguin missile. There is a plethora of missions you can do, but do mind your limited fuel capacity and the fact that the Mavericks are laser-guided only, and that you are unable to do many solo missions. You will have to rely on squadron tactics with your friends to get it done JUST GOT FLY IT! Everything I said, the plethora of good things and the small amount of bad things, all of those are FREE for you to experience for yourself. Go download the mod, fly it and support the developers giving us aircraft like this. God only knows we need more of them.
About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy