ProFlight 98

When the opportunity arose to review ProFlight 98 my first thought was that I was going to be merely doing yet another package review of some copycat software. You know...the same old adventure generator, with some kind of nifty interface that looks like the navigation system computers we're used to seeing now. And, I thought, "why another payware package that's already covered by some freeware or shareware package?" I could not have been more wrong!

Here's a list of what ProFlight 98 offers:

Adventure Planner
Flight Management Computer
Aircraft Personalization Wizard

What? Is that all? Isn't that just what you mentioned in paragraph one? NO!

To begin, I opened the package on arrival and was immediately impressed by the quality-- a solid covered binder with great documentation, a vinyl sleeve holding the CD version of the program, another vinyl insert for holding charts, maps, or checklists. The glossy binder slides into a solid box resembling a library bookshelf slipcase. Impressive. Inside the documentation was well illustrated and concise, giving all the necessary information to install and begin use within minutes. The binder has 3 tabbed sections within. First is a quick overview and reference section that includes the install instructions, the Adventure Keystroke Commands chart (I suggest copying this one and laminating it for keyboard use), and a sample flight from Dallas to Atlanta with step by step instructions, and then some quick tips on the use of the Flight Management Computer. Finally within the first tab is a few pages of problem solving questions and answers. Tab 2 is the details of the Adventure Planner and tab 3 covers the Flight Management Computer in detail. Now, let's see what distinguishes ProFlight 98.

Start the program and you're presented with even better polished appeal -- one of the niftiest graphic presentations for a program I've seen. The main program is like a pilot's logbook with spiral binding on the left, tabbed sections to the right for the various functions. The tabs are:

Pilot Info: this is where defaults for the flight plan are set up and include call sign, pilots name, aircraft, and departure time. You also may set the specs for a specific aircraft here.

Weather Info: allows you to set, modify, and read the weather for your adventure. All the typical weather settings are available here...cloud types, temperatures, winds, barometric pressure, turbulence. Seasonal changes are also possible, as are enroute and destination/alternate forecast changes.

Flight Planning Page: here the page is divided into two sections: one allows selection of the departure, destination, and alternate airports with information about each, the other section displays the options for customizing the adventure to be generated. This is a part of the whole package -- you can select many different options and you get a good overview of a vast amount of information including frequencies for all the departure and destination radios, tower, clearance, ground, departure, approach. You can elect to take SID/STAR routes, use NDB's, use intersections, and select from a variety of pilot voices, and then write all the information to the Flight Management Computer for total flight control. An airport selection page allows a search of the entire FS98 database with search functions by name, ID, or simply scrolling the entire list. A waypoint page is displayed after the flight has been computed and displays the entire flight plan waypoints.

Aircraft Personalization Wizard: this area provides an easy way to personalize 4 of the default FS98 aircraft. Here you can repaint the aircraft with some provided textures and even customize the panel for the aircraft. There is an additional utility that allows new aircraft settings to be made. Here is where new aircraft can be placed into flight planner, and climb rates, speeds, cruise altitudes are modified.

An additional set of utilities is included for database changes to the runways, navaids, call signs, and airports. This is called ProUtil98 and covers all database changes above.

Finally there are some custom panels included which include the Flight Management Computer built in and as a bonus there is a Boeing 777-300 airliner included with a full modern glass cockpit with FMC built in.

As you may have gathered already from my enthusiasm for ProFlight 98, I am impressed. Not only was the entire program easy to install, it was easy to use to plan and implement an entire adventure. The voice ATC is authentic and adds so much to the FS98 experience. My first flight was the Dallas to Atlanta example. I'm a BIG believer in thoroughly reading the manual first...I've mentioned this before and this review was no exception. Then I jumped into running that first adventure, a bit unsure of myself with the keystrokes to request contact with ground, then tower. Finally though...I was aloft with voice ATC guiding me along unfamiliar routing. Without problems I made the entire flight. Next I built a flight plan using the Flight Management Computer, this time flying a 737 with the FMC on the panel. Easy! And I used SID/STAR routes to guide my flight from start to finish...an easy flight from Tampa to Miami. Since then...more flights, more plans, more fun.

If you've followed the launch of this program at all or were merely curious, you're probably aware that initially there were some bugs in the program. In fact, although I didn't encounter any of the mentioned bugs in the early part of my testing, I did delay much of my work on the program review while I awaited the patch for the program. I tend to try to be very thorough on a review. In this case I read many of the forum boards for any mention of ProFlight 98 so I could look for any problems. It was during this I became aware of the upcoming patch, and decided to delay my review to cover the patch.

Happily there is even more good news about this program. The authors of this program and another excellent add-on that I've reviewed -- FSClouds and Textures Pro/Flight Director 98 (actually two separate programs that work together) have announced that the programs will now work together. Here's the scenario: set up an adventure with ProFlight 98 and don't run the weather function in ProFlight 98. You'll use the FSClouds and Textures Pro to set the weather instead. You'll need to use the ProFlight 98 function to export the plan to an external WX generation. Then start up Flight Director 98, load a current weather file and select the Update Weather function. Then select the Flight Plan button to call up the flight plan you just created in ProFlight 98. Flight Director 98 then will do the job of using ProFlight 98's compiler to compile the adventure, only now it includes FSClouds weather setup. Then use the Flight Director 98 EFIS system (or the MAP or GPS display) and start FS98. Go to the departure airport, select the adventure and off you go. You'll need to make sure Flight Director 98 uses the compiler in ProFlight 98. I haven't tested this yet, but it should make for the best in FS98 realism.

So...what's the bottom line on ProFlight 98? I highly recommend it. Buy it. And FS98 will never be the same...you'll be flying with voice ATC with many variables, you'll get a great FMC to pilot those heavies over the long haul distances, and you'll have a ton of fun. My guess is that we'll see folks publish their adventure plans too. We're already seeing some folks creating their own voice modules too...so the voices will never get repetitious and stale.

ProFlight 98 requires FS98, WIN 95 or 98, at least 8MB RAM, CD-ROM drive, mouse, a sound card and an available 60MB of hard drive space.

ProFlight 98's Web site is at http://www.simpilot.com