Terminal Reality's FLY!

It's not often that I get to do reviews on a completely new flight simulation from the ground up, that looks to be with us for a long time. FLY! was released last spring, however in preparing for a review of this magnitude, I must take a long time to get to know the product inside and out. No newsstand magazine review here - this reviewer has actually spent months flying, testing, investigating, and tinkering with FLY!. Not only that, I've spent time checking out some of the new add-ons that are springing up all over the net. For the few that don't know FLY! - it is an open program where people like you and me have been making additional aircraft and scenery. Yes, it's the first program since Microsoft Flight Simulator's fame to actually allow this. In the months that FLY! has been out, it is clear the excitement, support and talk is going to keep this sim going for quite some time. With the sudden loss of the Pro Pilot line this summer, we are down to two major sims that will be cranking out future versions. The folks at TRI are already planning FLY! II, and that's great news for any die hard flightsimmer.

Opening the Box

Contents

Installation

Interface

After configuring my loading then I would next try the weather page. Aaaah, very simple, quick to operate and use. I like it so far! The weather menu allows you to change your global cloud layers (up to three), winds at surface, visibility and precipitation type and intensity. Very slick.

There is a great flight planner that comes with FLY! as well. This is the basis for generation of routings for ATC. You can select departure and arrival data right into the menus, and this will be sent to either the Hawker's FMS or other aircraft's GPS unit. You can edit the routes or have the computer build one for you based on real world navaids. You can use many icons to turn on or off display options. It is clear that a lot of design effort went in to the interface. It is still one of the best qualities of FLY!. However, if you are one of the few that don't own it yet, you'll want to know what it's like to fly and how the view from the cockpit is, right?

FLY!ing FLY!

By moving the mouse to the edges of the screen, you'll smoothly pan to the rest of the cockpit in front of you. For areas up, down, left or right of you, you'll use a keyboard shift-arrow combination. There is a real cockpit here folks, with workable knobs and switches all around you. Manipulating switches and toggles is accompanied by a quality "click" or "chhuuunnkkk" sound. Wow. That's detail! You will have to learn the real airplane. Okay, TRI was not that tough on those who just want to get up and fly. The magic "E" key will take care of all engine startups for you. Even if you're a seasoned pilot, using this key will train you the proper sequence of events needed to manually start your airplane. This alone is a great educational tool! Along with a pointing mouse, text is shown explaining what's going on. Step by step the automatic startup procedure will guide you to engine startup. Once this is all accomplished, now you're ready for action. Personally, I think it is very rewarding to spend an hour to learn all the systems and correct real-life procedures. Just like I would in a real plane I am unfamiliar with, the airplanes in FLY! demand lots of time and study. Even in preparation for this review, I really had to sit down for 45 minutes and learn how to get the jet started the right way. Try using a copilot to help you in learning these amazing cockpits!

Unfortunately, the manual does not do a great job of explaining exactly how these airplanes are to be started or operated. There are parts that talk about what to do, but don't show you. Unless you hit the net for some great tip sites, you may want to learn from the E startup sequence or figure it out on your own. This may prove frustrating for some folks. Once your engines are running, you'll feel pretty comfortable from here on out. The thing about FLY! is that even in the Cessna, there is always that nagging feeling you may have forgotten something and the mystery of whether or not something is going to happen to you as a consequence!

Flight modeling is extremely smooth and reacts with great precision. That's the word that comes to mind.

Taxiing the aircraft in FLY! is straight forward. The feel of motion is accented by great ground rumbling noises underfoot. Slightly touchy but very controllable is how I'd put it. From the Cessna to the Hawker, the ground handling is very well done, with differential brakes being handy to help tighter turns just as it is in the real world. Brake effectiveness was a little too strong for me, and was fixed in the patches.

Takeoffs are well done but a bit touchy on the elevator axis. Why this is so common on flight sims is beyond me. However, you can dumb down the touchiness by increasing the elevator and rudder exponential slider in the menus. Also, there is a null zone slider in the menus as well, obviously place it on the biggest null zone. Now, it is certainly reasonably sensitive, but that's on my heavy duty Precision Flight Controls Yoke. I can only imagine how touchy FLY! is on an everyday joystick. (Not to rant and rave here folks, but if you're a serious simmer, throw away your joystick and get at the very least, a good yoke from CH Products for around $60. Yokes are much more stable than joysticks! On the takeoff roll, depending on the aircraft, you'll get a good amount of torque and pull to the left. This is most noticeable in the Malibu, as the King Air certainly doesn't have that problem with two counter-rotating props. The Cessna requires a slight right rudder displacement as you accelerate down the runway. Just after a somewhat touchy rotation, the aircraft of FLY! act very responsively to all axis'. Too responsive? A bit so for my taste. Again, it takes a little getting used to and then you'll no longer say it's too sensitive. What we have here are very good flight models which feel like a lot is going on behind the scenes. As a real pilot, I can sense the effects of drag, thrust, lift, turning and weight. It feels like more is going on with the modeling than in the "other leading sim". All the aircraft do well in cruise flight and perform very close to the real life specifications. I have enjoyed long flights in all the aircraft. You'll be in charge of proper fuel and temperature management, as well as tweaking power settings for the desired speed, temperature and altitudes. Once again, I stress each plane is very individual and will need to be learned from top to bottom.

Cruise Flight in any of the FLY! aircraft will educate you on the exact management of fuel flow, temperature, speed, power, temperature and decreasing weight. It is very easy to notice how a decreasing temperature outside, will start to change airspeed. Bringing the jet or King Air up high will give you the advantage of far less fuel consumption. All of the aircraft have autopilots that resemble the real thing. Use the autopilots in-flight to give you time to study the rest of the panel or do some reading on the systems your airplane has. The FLY! autopilot has been improved for smoothness and accuracy with each patch. As for now, they work quite well. Occasionally the turning rate of the autopilot will throw you over into a bank rather abruptly. Since the last patch however, this has really been smoothed out. According to my observations, true airspeeds for cruising seem just about equal to the real life values. Fuel flows seem on the money too. I do have some questions on the Hawker 800 however. According to real Hawker data, the aircraft has a range far enough to go transatlantic. I find just making a trip of 2000 miles to be very challenging however. My fuel depletion seems high for a fairly low M.64 to M.70 cruise speed. I just don't know for sure if this is accurate.

Descents and landings are fine. I found good performance data as expected and no unusual quirks worth noting. Maneuvering on landings I found roll sensitivity a bit much as well as flaring and touchdown rather touchy too. With time, and practice, it's not too bad. All of the aircraft have a bad bug where they tend to bounce at least once even though your touchdown was a greaser! Even after the latest patch (101.83) they all seem a bit too bouncy still - better than before, but it's still there. Touchdowns seem like the airplanes have very stiff landing gear that don't want to absorb much of the landing force and bounces result. Braking to a stop can be abrupt, so I usually just tap the brakes lightly and in increments when full stopping is needed. Landing the Hawker is fun. Upon touchdown, you can pop the airbrakes, engage the reversers to full and ride the wheel brakes. The wheel brakes will activate the "lift dump" characteristics of the flaps, throwing them into a much steeper "dump" angle. All of this allows for good stopping ability, however I found the reversers really don't help as much as the airbrakes and wheel brakes. Maybe this is a real trait, but I can't say. I do know that some real Hawkers don't have reversers - it can be an expensive option. With my speaker volume set quite loud and a vibrating force feedback pad under my seat, all my landings in FLY! are just fantastic! The bold sound effects of "meeting pavement" are the best I've ever heard!