• FlightSim.Com Site Help

    FlightSim.Com Site Help

    You can get help on the following subjects. For more detailed information, click on the subject you want more help with. Use your browser back button to get back to your previous location.

    Help Index

    Site Overview

    FlightSim.Com is a world-wide central meeting point for everyone interested in flight simulation and aviation. This site brings together an entire community, including large commercial publishers, freeware and shareware developers, and of course end users.

    You will find a variety of services, including hundreds of thousands of quality downloadable files, FAQ Files, Wiki, and other information resources including message forums where people can meet, product reviews, industry news and much more. FlightSim.Com also offers the largest selection of flight simulator inventory in the popular FlightSim Pilot Shop.

    From the basics of learning to fly, to the advanced craft of airplane and scenery design, you can find it all at FlightSim.Com. By bringing all this together in one place FlightSim.Com provides the support that both beginning and expert flight simulator users need to keep their sim usage enjoyable and educational.

    FlightSim.Com welcomes all members of the flight sim community and we encourage you to get involved as we feel this is the best way to enhance your flight simulation experience and make great friends.

    There are categorized file sections which have complete program descriptions to allow you to find what you are looking for. With the click of your mouse button you can download a file. You can get a listing of all the files that are new since the last time you checked. There is a search engine which can quickly find files containing the information you are looking for. The system also contains message areas for you to exchange public and private messages with other system users.

    FlightSim Pilot Shop

    FlightSim.Com has been the leading flight simulation community site for over 10 years, dating back to around the time flight simulator was first introduced to the Windows PC platform. As an authority on flight simulation, the site has brought news, reviews, and related product information to hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts around the world.

    FSPilotShop.com is the official shop of FlightSim.com, offering the largest selection of in-stock flight simulation products, software and accessories anywhere. With over 1000 products from dozens of vendors, you can find whatever you are looking for to make your flight simulation experience as realistic as possible. From the beginner to the advanced user, FSPilotShop.com caters to its customers with huge product selection, expert advice, knowledgeable staff and outstanding customer service. Partnering with leading gaming product manufacturer and distributor eDimensional, we are able to offer state-of-the-art distribution capabilities worldwide. We look forward to serving you!

    Some of our clients include all branches of the US Military, NASA, Canadian Military, various European military services, plus dozens of flight schools, high schools and universities, and nearly 100,000 flight simmers like you!

    Visit the FlightSim Pilot Shop Today!
    Basic File Search

    The "Basic File Search" allows you to search for files based on text in the file description or the file name or both. This search can be narrowed to a particular file section and ordered by Date, Downloads, File Name, File Section or Size. The results of that ordering can then be listed in descending or ascending order.

    There are five fields associated with the Basic Search. Three of these files are drop down box selections and two are used for you to input your text. Here is an explaination of each field and how it works.

    Search only file section:

    This field is simply a drop down box that allows you to select the file section you would like to perform your search. The default is to to search All File Sections. By selecting one of the file sections you are asking the search to only search the files in that particular file section.

    Search for text:

    This field looks for words, partial words or phrases to narrow your search. The text you type in this field is not case sensitive (in otherwords you don't need to worry about capitalizing words). This field is based on the MySQL Match/Against Boolean Full-Text Search. Please note however that your input has been modified to force the AND function on each word in this field. MySQL does support the * wildcard character at the end of the word with this type search.

    Here are some example uses of this field at the time of this writing:

    Typing: aircraft
    Results: 26,436 files that have the word aircraft in the description

    Typing: aircraft boeing
    Results: 4,389 files that have the words aircraft AND boeing somewhere in the description

    Typing: "aircraft boeing"
    Results: 130 files that have the phrase "aircraft boeing" in the description ignoring any special characters such as ":" or "-" or "." etc that might be in front of them, between them or after them.

    Typing: air
    Results: 21,407 files that have the word air in the description. Files with "Air Combat", "King Air" and "Air Transport" showed up in this search because it is a full word search.

    Typing: air*
    Results: 77,831 files that have the partial or complete word "air" in the description. This includes files with "aircraft", "airport", or just "air" in the description.

    File name Search

    This field allows you to narrow your search to particular filenames. It is based on the MySQL "LIKE" comparison and can be used with single and multiple chacter wildcards using the "?" and "*" characters respectively. In otherwords "*" matches any number of characters, and "?" matches exactly one character. The "_" (single character match) and "%" (multiple character match) also work because these are the native characters used by MySQL for these wildcard characters. Any combination of these wildcards can be used to get the results you want in the filename field. You may also combine the filename field along with the "search for text" field to narrow your search even further. Here are some examples.

    Typing: boeing*
    Results: 14 files that have filenames starting with the text "boeing"

    Typing: est*
    Results: 27 files that have the filenames starting with the text "est"

    Typing: est?3*
    Results: 7 files that start with the letters "est" have any character as the 4th character, have a "3" as the next character and any characters after that.

    Now lets narrow our search to files that meet the above condition but also have the word "aircraft" in the description.

    Typing: aircraft (in the "Search for text field")
    Typing: est?3* (in the "File name" field")
    Results: 3 files meet our condition and they are: est733.zip, est735-1.zip, and ests340.zip

    Finding files that have text in the middle of the filename can be done with the "*" wildcard on each side of the text.

    Typing: *air*
    Results: 1,712 files meet this condition. File names like, "airship1.zip", "airport4.zip", "ithair.zip" and "usair732.zip" as only a few examples.

    Sort file list by

    This field allows you to sort the results of your search by Date, Downloads, File Name, File Section, or Size. You simply drop down the box and select what type of sort you would like your results to use. These sorted results can also be further organized in ascending or descending order by using the drop down box to select one of those options.

    Advanced File Search

    The "Advanced File Search" is an extension of the "Basic Search". It allows you to do the same search as the "Basic Search" but with the ability to use six more fields to narrow your search in different ways. This search allows the mixing of phrases, words, eliminating files with words you would like to exclude in the results, and using the OR function in your search. Since the Advanced Search is an extension of the "Basic Search" be sure that you read up on the "Basic Search" first and undertand how to use it. Only the additional features and differences will be described here.

    The "Search only file section", "File name", "Sort file list by" and "order" fields all work the same as the "Basic File" search. Please refer to that section to get a better understanding of what can be done using these fields.

    all these words

    This field is worded a little different but is used in the same way as the "Search for text" field on the "Basic Search" page. Keep in mind that words are force ANDed together in this field and that you can use the "*" multicharacter wildcard at the end of words. Here are a few examples that resulted at the time this help was written.

    Typing: aircraft
    Results: 26,449 files returned with the word aircraft somewhere in the description.

    Typing: aircraft boeing
    Results: 4,420 files returned with the word aircraft AND boeing some place in the description.

    Shortcut for doing mixed phrases and words in the "all these words" field

    Typing: aircraft boeing "routes between"
    Results: 6 files that have the word aircraft AND boeing AND the phrase "routes between" somewhere in the description. Note here that you must use the double quote characters around your phase.

    this exact wording or phrase

    This field is provided to allow you to search for a single phrase as part of your search condition. This field DOES NOT use the double quotes around the phase. Simply type the phrase you want included in your search and all results will be required to have that phrase in the description. An example of the same search above done using the exact wording or phrase field would look like this

    Typing: aircraft boeing (in the "all these words" field)
    Typing: routes between (in the "exact wording or phrase" field)
    Results: Same 6 files that returned in the search above

    one or more of these words

    These fields provide the OR function in your search. This allows you to search for a particular word OR any other word. An example of this might be if you wanted to find all the files that had the word "Boeing" or "United" in the description.

    Typing: boeing (in one of the OR fields)
    Typing: united (in one of the other OR fields)
    Results: 28,298 files that have the word "boeing" or "united" somewhere in the description

    Sometimes you may feel confused by the results. Searching on just "united" results in 2,085 files on the site today. Searching on "boeing" results in 27,038 files. This adds up to 29,123 files which doesn't seem to match the results returned when they are searched together. Using the "all these words" field, and looking for results with "boeing" AND "united" both in the description results in 825 files. Subtacting that from the 29,123 gives you 28,298 files that had either "boeing" OR "united" in the results. Keep in mind that the OR function will show you files that have both names in the description as well as either name. In this case it was 825 files.

    any of these unwanted words

    This field can be useful in eliminating single or multiple words that you do not want in the description of your search results.

    Typing: boeing (in the "all these words" field)
    Typing: fs2004 (in the "any of these unwanted words")
    Results: 15,234 files that have the word boeing in the description but DOES NOT have the word fs2004.

    Typing: boeing 737 (in the "all these words" field)
    Typing: fs2004 (in the "any of these unwanted words")
    Results: 5,753 files that have boeing AND 737 in the description but DOES NOT have the word fs2004

    Typing: boeing 737 (in the "all these words" field)
    Typing: fs2004 900 (in the "any of these unwanted words")
    Results: 5,542 files that have boeing AND 737 in the description but DOES NOT have the words fs2004 OR 900.


    User Settings.

    This form lets you view or change your user settings, including your current membership status and expiration date. This is also where you can change your login password. Please keep your user information up to date. If you do make changes on this form, remember to click on the "Update" button. If you change your mind about changes you have made, you can click on the "Reset" button and restore the values to what they were before you entered the page.

    Change User Settings Here

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