FlightSim.Com Reviews: GoFlight's GF-45 Avionics for FS2000

GoFlight Inc. GF-45 Avionics Boxes for FS2000

Another step towards realism at your fingertips

By FlightSim.Com Staff (3 December 2000)

Go to GoFlight!

INTRODUCTION

Cool hardware is always a good thing. Getting away from keyboard entry is another. When the kind folks at GoFlight approached me for doing a review on their avionics boxes, I was a little skeptical at first. I honestly thought, what fun would someone who doesn't have time to use any ATC program have with a radio stack?

Well, let me tell you, they are not just radios. With a recent software upgrade available for free, you can now not only simulate COMM1, NAV1, NAV2, ADF, and OBI, but a slew of autopilot functions. The great news is that you can simulate all the autopilot functions you could with FS2000, right from one GF-45 box! That's right, you can control altitude, vertical speed, airspeed (autothrottle), heading, and more from one unit. The left knob selects what function, the right one selects the actual results you're looking for (such as airspeed dial).
Don't let this picture fool you. The units are strongly built with bright green and red digits. This picture doesn't do justice.

Real cool! And easy...

So easy, this hardware dummy had it hooked up in less than 8 minutes. Simply plug in up to two units right into the two USB ports on your PC, let Windows find it (it will, believe it or not), and then have Windows locate the drivers (from the floppy disk provided). Install will continue and in seconds you can run the configuration utility that is a lot of fun.

How can an install utility be fun? Well, I'll tell you how. You can drag the function you desire for each box, to each box, live, using the icons on the screen. It takes seconds to set up to as many units you want. Seconds. If only reinstalls of FS where that easy.

Using my number one unit as the autopilot and number two unit as the nav system right below it (like a stack similar to what I'd have in a real plane) felt very natural. The display quality was a bright green for the title strip on top, and a bright red for the data window below (the image shown above is from the GoFlight web site and is quite poor; the photo of the review unit is much better).
Aaah, that's better. Here's a picture of the GF-45 in action.
The entire display looked great at night, in a dark room. In addition, it's higher quality than most real avionics displays, and can even be dimmed accordingly to your taste. The knobs are rather sensitive, and don't have much resistance to them, so you'll have to turn them carefully as to not "jump" over your desired settings or "twitch" past them (a fault of FS that has been ongoing since version 2). Because it's directly linked to FS2000, it will twitch and skip just as the keyboard or mouse buttons will do, right onscreen. That was frustrating, because when you're running hardware, you somehow expect it to be more precise, but it is not. Using the autopilot turn function resulted in some injured passengers, as twisting the knob left or right would result in an FS2000 twitch to some 30 degrees in the opposite direction, banging the airplane over the other way. Again, this is not a fault of GoFlight, but Microsoft. It's just now we notice it even more, because your fingers are tempted to dial in a new heading quickly as you would in a real plane, unaware that violence will often occur!

Another thing to note is that you must be looking forward and have no other windows open in order for everything to run smoothly. For instance, if you're looking outside the plane, and command the autopilot to do something, it won't take effect until you are back inside, looking forward.

Changing airspeeds, altitudes, vertical speeds and more, proved quite enjoyable. The realism factor went up a lot with these boxes within reach. It looks nice too. I felt closer to being in a real airplane, where these functions are often automated.

The handy configuration program lets you "drag and drop" the base functions into each unit you have working.
I have only used two units, but can hook up more using a USB hub. I have yet to do that, but am planning that soon. It appears to be an easy task. GoFlight says you can hook up an unlimited number of boxes, to simulate a unique function on each unit, to really raise the realism. But once again, if your budget allows only one, you'll still be getting several functions available. For a one-box user, I'd certainly configure it to be autopilot. I found that the most useful of all.

At $100 each, many people may just not be able to afford more than one. That's a shame, as the more you have, the better it gets. I'd be more interested in touting this as a must have item if each unit were only $50 or maybe priced by number of units ordered, such as $100, $75, $50, $25 for each subsequent unit. The quality of each little box is very good, solidly built, and sturdy enough to mount or keep anywhere. I believe they'll last a long time. And again, they look real good in the dark!

If you're not going to be doing a lot of ATC simulating, or online ATC interaction, then I'd get one unit, and use it as the autopilot. If you're into all the popular ATC control options these days, either online or via some other program, then these are a must have. Still pricey, but more of a necessity. The team at GoFlight told me they will always be fine tuning, and adjusting the software to alleviate some of the quirks I have mentioned. Product support goes a long way these days, and is a good value in itself.

The GoFlight GF-45 Avionics Units get an 90 out of 100 points. The price, being the only limitation to these easy-to-install steps toward greater hardware realism.

Go to GoFlight today!

[ Back | Main Menu | Logout | Help ]