Aerosoft Flight Tales I

By Gustavo Mercado
21 December 2007

INTRO

n this great hobby of ours there are many types of flight simmers, but regardless of where we stand in relation to our flying preferences I think we were all excited and intrigued when it was announced FSX would once again ad missions to their core simulation software. Even for the heavy iron flying, realism junkies out there, every once in a while it is nice and fun to fly custom made missions full of surprises to challenge us.

Challenge is a good way to describe what Aerosoft's Flight Tales I brings to your FSX experience. Ten missions (plus a few tutorials) with different skill levels which include a broad spectrum of challenges that will take you from a fully loaded Airbus A321, to a Robinson R22, to a glider, flying in a wide variety of custom made locations.

TECHNICAL STUFF

The package (downloadable version, as reviewed) is a 95.1 mb zip file that is quickly downloaded from the Pilot Shop web site with a decent internet connection. Once downloaded the zip file comes with one main setup file and a read me file with some pertinent but not essential information.

Before launching the installation wizard you will need to enter a very long registration key which was automatically sent to your email once the online purchase process was completed. Once the code is accepted the software is unlocked and the program copies itself automatically and with no effort on our side. It is necessary to note that the registration code is sent instantly, it does not have the downside as some other products which make you wait 24 hours to receive the code.

After the installation was successfully completed, loading FSX takes a little longer then usual, since the software brings new scenery to your FSX world; the computer will take 5 - 10 minutes generating scenery files and indexes. After this process is done and FSX is loaded you get a new menu in your missions' folder called Flight Tales, this means you are ready to start flying.

MENUS AND MISSION SETUP

Flight Tales has a very efficient and very well thought out system for labeling the adventures, and for giving you all the necessary info to successfully fly them. Once you select a mission you will get a menu of five different labels that explain in detail all the aspects of the mission.

First choice is the story, which is a detailed summary of everything that was taking place right before you take the controls, and the situation you are getting into.

Second choice is the briefing, which describes exactly where you are taking the plane and all necessary information about the situation and aircraft before you actually take the controls.

Third choice is the notebook, which is basically a checklist style flow, describing info needed for you to fly.

Fourth choice is the maps and charts, which are self explanatory. Also helpful since it includes navigation and communication frequencies for instances when you do not have a co pilot.

And last but not least you have the designer notes. This is one of the characteristics that make this a product worth having, the attention to detail. You actually have the person who designed the adventure give you interesting info about them, since there is at least one mission modeled after a real life event; it gives you interesting facts about the real world situation.

THE ADVENTURES

Now for the fun part. By the time I wrote this review I have not actually tried all the missions, I think taking a logical sample (one mission out of every category) should be enough to get a good picture of the quality of the software. I can say without hesitation the end result was very good, very consistent with Aerosoft's high quality add-ons.

The adventures are well thought out, very creative, and at least the ones I got to fly were fun. The sound files are impeccable, when you are landing in France, you feel like you are in France, even your first officer has a French accent. A few of the places that are added to the scenery library are well made, and are great for the eyes. Special effects are good, although lacking in some instances such as the helicopter rescue with the container ship.

Practically all of the adventures have surprises, some have a surprise after you thought you already knew what the surprise was, one good example is the French distraction. I do not want to spoil the surprise so I will keep it to myself. I also like the fact that some of the adventures do not have the mission compass and the annoying green arrows telling you where you need to go. They are a nostalgic trip back to the earlier FS days.

I guess the only thing I would have asked for, would have been more adventures with airliners and big iron involved, more in the tradition of the French distraction adventure which although was not extremely challenging, was a lot of fun since I remembered the real life event that inspired this adventure.

FRENCH DISTRACTION

I chose this mission to describe as a detailed example for a couple of reasons, number one it's practically the only one in which you fly big iron in airliner simulation mode, and number two it is modeled after a real life event. In the early eighties a 737 airliner heading to Charlotte NC, declared an emergency after the left landing gear got stuck and failed to come down. In the mission it's up to you to safely land the aircraft the same way the pilot saved the plane in real life.

The mission starts with an Air France A321 getting ready to make an initial approach into Nice, France. It's a beautiful day with great visibility when the FO begins to call the approach checklist. The flight resumes normally with you on the controls and the FO handling all communications.

When it is time to call the landing checklist and set gear down, you only get two greens. Front landing gear and rear right landing gear go down, but left rear gear is stuck. After reporting the incident to Nice tower, the FO makes the cabin crew aware and talks to the passengers to explain. About 15 miles from Nice, the tower instructs to do a low altitude fly by to make sure the gear is stuck and it is not instrumentation failure.

The tower and FO give you instructions for the maneuver which is fairly easy; after the low altitude fly by of runway 04L you climb out back to 3,500 feet to try again. When you level at 3,500 Nice tower confirms that your left rear landing is stuck. Nice tower then decides to clear an emergency landing where you will slam the right gear on the runway to force the left to come out.

You are given instructions once again, it is imperative that the left wing does not touch the runway since you run the risk of crashing, or setting the aircraft on fire. Because of weather conditions it is another fairly easy procedure to try the maneuver. ATC will turn you around to try another landing in which you fail to bring the stuck landing gear down. You turn around for another try and on the second attempt, given it is done correctly and the left wing does not bump the landing gear comes down.

After the stuck gear comes down you are cleared to 3,500 to go around for a safe landing. Here is where you get your second surprise which I will keep for myself, since I do not want to ruin it. At the end you will be left in a situation where you will need to act fast, and fly WISELY to get the A321 on the ground.

ALL SAID AND DONE

HIGHS - Great new sceneries, great voice files for ATC, very realistic situations, wide spectrum of difficulty levels, great eye candy, great attention to detail, very well made product from start to finish.

LOWS - For the pilots who love to imitate real life airliner operations such as myself, we might have appreciated a couple of more missions with big iron involved.

THE VERDICT - Flight Tales is well made, challenging, modestly priced for what it offers, and most importantly FUN. I like it.

System requirements:
Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Windows XP SP2 or Vista
1.0 GHz processor
256 MB RAM
Video card: 64 MB Direct X 9 compatible

As Tested:
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (SP2)
Windows Vista
2.16 Dual Core II processor
4 GB RAM
526 MB Nvidia graphics accelerator

Gustavo Mercado
Gustavo@mdb.com

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