Micro Flight Version 4
By John Dale (15 April 2004)
urely you cannot sell
a serious flight simulator program for $25 U.S? Well you can now!
Ilan Papini of Quality Simulations,
www.hangsim.com
has recently released Version 4.0 of his popular Microflight
Simulator. This is a stand-alone simulator with an interesting
history. Ilan originally designed "HangSim" which many FS enthusiasts
will know, back in 1998. This was actually a Microsoft Flight
Simulator add-on. It was designed to improve the sensation of the
flow of air over the ground and to work with thermals. It did give an
ability to use hang gliders within MS Flight Simulator but due to
certain limitations of FS, Ilan decided to branch out and create an
independent simulator. It has evolved over the years into a
full-blown simulator with helicopters and aircraft of a general
nature. It is quite different than the Microsoft product and it is
encouraging to see a little more competition in the flightsim world.
Ilan has also released "Virtual Sailor" for those of nautical
leaning. It can be found at his website.
Over the years we have had Flight Unlimited and a few others, which
have died natural deaths. X-Plane, recently
reviewed, remains a
successful alternative to Microsoft's product but Microflight appears
to me to answer a need for a certain niche in the flightsim world. If
you want a complex ATC driven, IFR capable simulator, with scenery
worldwide then go for FS2004 or X-Plane. You can still fly IFR in bad
weather in Microflight. However for $25 U.S. you can download a small
package by comparison of Microflight 4.0 and add a few planes from
the website and go and have a lot of fun. It initially strikes one as
a superb introductory simulator. It is that and more however. It is
definitely a work in progress with feedback appreciated by the
author. Ilan Papini is himself both a hang glider pilot and regular
aircraft pilot, with a background in aeronautical engineering.
Microflight does not offer world scenery but has some scenery in France and California and some extra, very easy to install, scenery in chosen spots around the world. Plus you do have a basic shuttle to play around with.
After the initial logo on a very fast load, the program takes you to
a menu (right). Here you choose from the basic installed aircraft
(all called gliders in my original version but soon to be changed to
aircraft) to any one of a growing number of owner-designed machines,
including some ground ones. If your fancy takes it you can zoom
around on a vintage BMW motorcycle.
You can add the BMW just on the ground while you fly along behind it and blast it with an ultralight, or fly formation with any number of other planes. You can go from listening to gulls squawking, whilst you float along in a hot air balloon, to shooting buildings or other planes with ultralights fitted with rockets. It is quite relaxing to listen to gulls (although I am not sure what they are doing this far inland) and soar over the French Alps.
Papini did start out to develop a hang glider and soaring and ultralight program, but it has evolved now to a full-blown simulator and is the cheapest price of any of the others. It is very simple to use, the weather changes are straightforward, it does not allow any real weather downloading, it takes up far less of hard drive space than all the other flight sims and uses less computing power with frame rates on my computer of 60-90 against FS2004 rates of 22 on average, everything maxed out.
Specific features which have been built in to MF4 are the way air
flows over the ground and up across the ridges, making ridge soaring
very realistic.
The thermals around clouds and the local air currents are more
exactly programmed. You can follow birds around the thermal, or even
attach clouds to visible thermals to make it real easy for
yourself.
The joystick sets itself and is rather limited, not using the potential of more complex joysticks. You are not able to program brakes and trim into the joystick, although they are simple to find. The plane's trim has a somewhat annoying click each time you move it, the noise should be removed and it should be slightly more smooth and analogue. The mouse is quite useful as an ancillary controller and does a great job panning. The F12 key freezes the action, though not the noise, and then you can pan around for taking screen shots, great for a reviewer. There is a simple replay camera.
The GPS is based on a Magellan 315/320 with full functionality and although there is not an autopilot in the normal sense, the autopilot here simply takes over and does the flying for you. This is a nice option in the glider aerial tow, until you get the hang of it.
The website is extremely well put together and useful. Other flightsims could take a lesson here in user friendliness. One gains a good understanding quite quickly of the whole program. There is online playing built in.
Scenery is limited in area but very good when local. There is an excellent web page describing the making of scenery and that can be found here: http://www.hangsim.com/mf/scn.php
Micro Flight supports three types of scenery:
