See, I've been on something of a binge lately. I've reached the decision gate. My computer is to be forever more devoted first and foremost to Flight Simulator programs. And, being as I can't manage to convince The Boss to permit me to place the cockpit of a 737 in the den, and certainly the neighbors (to say nothing of the Board of Directors of my Village, whose long history of poo-pooing any idea that may have even the slightest resultant "fun factor" is predated only by the parting of the Red Sea) would frown upon an entire nose cone of one of my beloved Guppies taking residence in my back yard, I have managed a small compromise.

At one time, I had a desk top on my computer desk. Said desk top, while not one which could boast, say, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, is nonetheless a seasoned veteran of years of monitors, disks and various other sundry items relating to things computer. This desk top is no more. Well, not precisely no more, but rather it has become shall we say, encumbered. Upon what has now become my favorite desk top of all time sits several products from the CH Products people. Specifically, it now sports full time the CH Yoke, the CH Throttle Quadrant and just below, the CH Rudder Pedals. Such joy! Add to this delightful mix two external hard drives, two monitors, a slew of DVD products including one of my favorites, SimPlates 2004, and the business end of my ButtKicker vibration generator. With all this stuff, what could be better?

What indeed. As I said, I have found the Holy Grail of flight simulation. It comes in the persona of a California guy named Michael Greenblatt. Michael and his partner, Giorgio Lapira have spent years of effort in order to bring to the flight sim table their services. And, what pray tell do they actually offer? Only our nemesis, our buzziest of buzz words, our most favorite forum topic:

Frame rates.

Brothers and Sisters, let me introduce you to Flight Simulator Graphics Solutions. In addition to all the cool stuff sitting on my computer desk, I've just completed my four and one half hour session with Mike the Mechanic. Michael Greenblatt has pedigree. A pureblood tech from the Microsoft Engineering department, consultant extraordinaire, and generally an affable type of guy, he decided he had something to offer the flight sim community. As he tells it, he grew tired of the nay sayers who populate the forums, and decided that if no-one was willing to listen to him for free, then by golly they'll listen once their wallets have become engaged. Just can't argue with that kind of logic!

Basically what we have here is what would used to be called a "Mom and Pop" operation, run by a guy with a brain the size of Montana, and a desire to see our community enjoying our hobby to its fullest to match. Of course, the cash is nice, too. Rather than get into a boring dissertation of what type of magic Mike does, let me just hit the highlights of the last few hours.

After an exchange of emails, it was decided I would contact Mike via telephone. His web site (http://www.fs-gs.com/) mentioned something about the first phone session being around an hour in length. He wasn't kidding. We got into the nuts and bolts of my machine, and it was soon discovered that while my CPU is just dandy, my video card was a choke point for performance. So, he suggested something of an upgrade. This accomplished, we set about doing session number two. I had downloaded several small programs he requested. Then, it started happening. We went to places in the system that I've never even seen, and frankly hope I never do again. Scary places filled with funky looking icons that you just know will explode when touched, which is why Microsoft buried them so deep in the bowels of your machine. We booted, rebooted and did it again. And when we were nearly done, he'd coached me into creating what is basically a new computer dressed in old clothes. Upon a reboot, I now have a choice between starting the same old system, or his super-tweaked gaming system. Please don't ask me how we did this, because I haven't a clue. But at the end of the carnage, something wonderful happened.

My computer was a caterpillar. Bet yours is, too. Mike changed that, and my machine is now the proverbial butterfly. I mentioned frame rates before. This isn't quite accurate. This process entails a unification, a smoothing if you will, of your CPU and your video card. Once these two parts are working together, well let's just give you a quick peek.

I've decided that stills simply do not do this justice. I'm flying the DreamFleet Piper Archer II. I've been flying this little bird for a long time, and I've never seen the interior lights reflected on the skin of the aircraft. Nor have I seen the green glow of the panel fill the cockpit/cabin. It's been a little while since I've played around with the General Aviation birds, but it would seem there's an awful lot I've been missing.

Now for the best part. First, an admonition. Do not mention frame rates. Trust me on this. If you are one of those angst filled compulsives who find they must fly with the frame rate counter displayed, well, I feel your pain. That's been me. Well, it's time to turn them off! I'm now flying my PMDG 737 full version from Fly Tampa payware airports, with Active Sky 6 going with all its bells and whistles, along with a fully engaged Ultimate Terrain USA and Canada/Alaska, Ground Environment, and FSTraffic 2005 at 90% density, FS Genesis mesh, AI Smooth and FSHotseatFX providing the tunes. And it was smooooooooth.

What about the frame rates? Well, with eye candy like this, who cares?

You'll notice the counter on a couple of these shots. Even when they dipped, the performance was better than I've ever experienced. I'm seeing things I never knew were there. As Mike says, "Welcome to the world of FS9"!

Now granted, my system may or may not have more juice than yours. But, such is the purpose of the initial contact with FS-GS. If Mike finds shortcomings in your system that are correctable, he'll make suggestions.

For those turncoats among you who may have read a review of FS-GS on that "other" site (I did, why do you think I called Mike?), note their review is nearly a year old. The current cost of this service is $85.00. This sounds steep until you consider that with the improvements/changes Mike will get you to do, not only your flight simming but gaming in general will be generations ahead of where it was, thus perhaps saving you the expense of upgrades that may not do what you'd like them to do. For example, I was contemplating adding more RAM memory, but I now see that I would have gained little from the addition. It was the video card on my particular system that needed an upgrade. That, plus the magic woven by Mike, has resulted in my system operating better than I can remember it ever has, with each game in my stable.

Think of it like this. I spent nearly seven hours of intense back and forth, question and answer, computer education, tips, hints and a mind-blowing upgrade in performance. What does that come to per hour? Just exactly what do you think you'd get bringing your CPU to your local tech? You'd be lucky to pay only $85.00 for the initial consultation and troubleshoot, to say nothing of the hourly rate thereafter.

And that's not all. The support that Mike and company offers continues indefinitely after your check-in call about 48 hours after the job is done (fear not of phone bills. Mike will communicate via voice over the MSN Messenger, which is a freeware download). He expects you to call him, at home, before you make any changes to your system. In this way, he will ensure that your change(s) work to enhance the performance of your system. And, as he says, his clients are friends first, clients second.

This new magic is not without its work factor, I must add. Mike is quite insistent upon performing several regular routines to keep your machine running as a thoroughbred. Before running Flight Simulator, you must clean from your system a couple of files which regularly collect trash which only slows down your performance. You are expected to launch Flight Simulator with FSAutostart, which he will set up with you in order to get the most benefit from its ability to shut down unnecessary systems that only serve to rob your system of resources which are far better served contributing to your final approach. Also, he highly recommends creating a restore point at the end of your last flight of the day. Thinking about chucking any of these routines. He'll know.

Finally (this part just KILLS me), you must ignore all tweak programs! As he says, should you pursue this avenue, and then call him for a bailout, he'll know and you will face a recharge of his fee. There is also a recharge should you reformat your drive and start from scratch. Finally, you will face a recharge should you perform a "serious" hardware change. Best speak with Mike for a thorough understanding of these points.

Ask yourself this. When was the last time you maxed out all your sliders? When did you depart or approach a payware airport with 90% traffic and payware weather going with 3D clouds? When did you last get smooth performance from startup to shutdown in a SuperSim with add-on scenery and all your other extras and goodies humming merrily along for the ride? And when did you do any/all of this, without muttering under your breath an obscenity or two while you enjoyed your Flight Simulator Slide Show?

Brothers and Sisters, if this ain't the Holy Grail, I don't know what is!

Three Green!

Chip Barber
rfbarber@optonline.net