Talk:Havoc Gunship
From a Blog post----
“It’s just something for our own use. We brought them along because if we had something to exhibit, we got free entry, and early entry too to set up our stand. So we get to see all the cool stuff before the crowd.” Jet Jaguar isn’t shy about hiding her real reasons for coming. “And it’s good advertising for Survival Shot”
Still, I’m here to review each piece of hardware in the hall, regardless of origin, and the 2-seat brutal flying battleaxe that is the GR-02 Havoc is waiting with open cockpit door.
It’s a cramped cockpit, but not uncomfortable like. Ergonomics are alright, and with all the armour surrounding it definitely feels like a safe place to be. Everything’s in easy reach and there’s something peculiarly satisfying about punching buttons and thunking switches. It’s very much a pilot’s spacecraft.... there’s zero AI support, just a course-following autopilot, and the controls have a direct action, rather than being fly-by-wire. Cockpit glass is laminate venusian diamond, and the armour is reasurringly thick.
A teenage boy takes the rear pilot’s seat, leaving me in the gunner’s up front. Visibility is good enough. The gun camera tracks where I look, and I’ve got a nice targeting reticle on my visor. It takes me a moment to realise they’ve done nothing more than bodge up a smartlink system. The targeting array is similar to an early model Y-wing. Cheap, robust, satisfactory for the job at hand, but lacking many modern features.
The rotors pulse as it takes off, and for a few moments, everything seems normal. It accelerates smoothly up to a slow top speed of just 6.5% C. It’s all very unimpressive, right until the teenaged pilot stomps on the pedals and spins the chopper around through a one eighty. While still proceeding along the same vector at full speed. What follows is a dizzying riot of maneuvers that always seem to outpace the ability of the drive fields to damp it out. I’m glad they don’t use touchscreen when I’m bracing myself against panels to keep from being pinned. There’s no doubting this thing’s maneuverability is A-grade. It’s beyond A-grade . It’s the one thing that earns the Havoc it’s place in the exhibition.
Overall, it’s not a bad spacecraft by any means. I know people who’ve paid for much worse. It’s definitely a curiosity. In the hands of a pilot who knows how to use the hypermaneuverability to their advantage, a Havoc could surprise supposedly superior hardware. But there’s no hiding the age of the technology aboard. It never loses the air of something built down to a budget, because an amateur builder couldn’t afford or understand anything better. Still, I suspect fighting one of these would be like taking bites out of a porcupine. It can bring it’s quills to bear in any direction.
Score. 2.5 out of 5. Not bad, but with some issues. Sales are ‘Plans only’. It would make a fun project, especially if you spend money upgrading the avionics yourself, and maybe wake up an AI to make things easier. But if you do nothing else this week, do take them up on their offer of a free ride in the gunner’s seat. It’s a blast.
Too bad the twin-rotor Hokum was a single seater. And repeatedly refused to start.”
