Reminiscing over the glow of the GoFlight rack and USB port light, I can't help but think what an amazing past two years that we have had with Flight Simulator 2004. The sim has bought many improvements and enhancements that made us all break open the piggy banks or whip out that credit card and start tapping away or numbers on the keyboard for hardware upgrades or caused us to almost melt the plastic on our credit cards as we purchased more and more fabulous add-ons.

Some that I recall as I sit along the virtual journey in my mind was the eager release of Flight 1's and Scenery Solutions wonderful Ultimate Terrain USA and Canada, Europe, and as far as I know pending Australia. You remember these sceneries I'm sure? Accurate coast lines, lakes and streams, enhanced rails, and excellent night lighting which used 3D light points for the first time to simulate street lights and automobile traffic on the highways. Call me crazy, but those "little touches" meant a lot to me, especially coming in on approach over what appears to be a busy interstate, you can only hope "please don't fail on me now..." to avoid crushing hundreds of innocent people on the ground below.

Then we saw an upgrade to the scenery for airports with Flightscenery's excellent Flight Zone 01: Rhode Island, which added photo ground textures and a highly detailed T.F. Greene Airport which desperately needed upgrading from the default scenery.

So now I can only wonder, what is to come of Flight Simulator X? Microsoft has finally lifted the cap of the 100,000 feet mark which means we'll finally be able to go into the boundaries of outer space, so one can only wonder how many Space Shuttle add-ons will be coming out.

But before we get off topic, I'm sure we can't wait to see if our favorite aircraft like Eaglesoft's Citation X or PMDG's 737NG will be ruising across the FSX skies, I can just imagine how well all our screen shots will look with "out of the box" scenery, I can just picture what will occur too when we add our beloved terrain mesh files to the picture as well.

Don't get me wrong, FS2004 still has plenty of life left to it, but until the day that we rush out to our favorite retailer and rip our eagerly awaited copy of FSX out of the clerks hands and install it on our hard drive, Microsoft actually didn't do anything wrong, they simply waited the full two year cycle and it will only make us appreciate it a lot more when released.

Until next month, happy flying and keep the blue side up!

Flap's Flap Interactive Calling!

Calling all freeware developers! Calling all freeware developers!

Do you remember the old show from the late 70's/early 80's "Buck Rogers In the 25th Century"? Well, if so, here's a chance for you to shine and be the first person into space for Flight Simulator X.

I am challenging all freeware developers to develop a Gmax modeled Starfighter and Draconian Marauder or Ranger 3 for FSX! Now that we have the ability to go into outer space, let's use it! I can provide screen shots from the DVD series that was released if needed, and you can email me your finished models. I will personally select what I think is the best one, and all of you can upload your files to the FlightSim.Com file library when finished, but I will personally upload your file and give you credit for the best ones in the aircraft description when uploading capability for FSX is released. Get cracking away Buck Rogers fans!

Now, for some light legal stuff:

Flap’s Flap does not accept any responsibility for varied performance in systems. Please note my system specs and the display properties work fine with MY system. Set your display properties accordingly to your computer. Also, with any How To items that are given in these articles, please use at your own risk! I will hold no responsibility to any damage done to your system. And, as always, remember: Back up your files before changing them!

John J. Thuot II
ragtopjohnny01@aol.com