Eating my words and my hat.

[peterchambers]

I feel I have to post in order to eat my words. I also want to share what I almost missed. As a long time simmer using PMDG, IFly, REX and similar quality addons costing £100 and £100s I was determined not to touch Flight with a bargepole.

It was free to try so I did. I would not have otherwise. I have now spent a few hours on it each day since it was released and I have become an enthusiast and can see why the Avsim Flight users are so positive about it.

I do not think flying has ever been so enjoyable for me. The crosswinds, up and downdrafts, undulating, half hidden runways and "jobs", (missions), offer a challenge and fun I have found nowhere else in a sim.

The things that are lacking in Flight are made up for by the things it does well. Simplicity is one of those things. The use of waypoint skipping to avoid long hauls in a slow plane over miles of ocean. You can complete the most satisfying elements of a flight in 10 minutes if you want to.

My grandson would never spend more than ten minutes in FSX. Now he is happy to get up early before school in order to take a flight, completer a mission or challenge. He is even beginning to look at VOR navigation and ILS landings.

One of my favourite Youtube flights depicts what I am spending many happy hours doing in Flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0gXS...layer_embedded

Flight is not a substitute for FSX but a companion - and one that I would not now want to be without. I do not know whether Flight will ever offer PMDG quality planes and I suspect I will always need both sims.

For those that have not tried it I urge you to give it a go - a proper go, that is. I hope you will not regret it.

[azzaro]

I applaud your rationality and honesty, and agree with you whole heartedly. I also like the educational component the aerocaches add.
I'm sure MS has worked some deal with the Hawaiian tourist board, If they haven't yet... I'd like a piece of the action! — Bob

[StringBean]

Nice post Peter and welcome to the fold.

peace,
the Bean

[mith]

Nice post Peter and welcome to the fold.

peace,
the Bean

No comment other than I like the name "string bean"... LOL.... how did you come up with THAT name...

[azzaro]

No comment other than I like the name "string bean"... LOL.... how did you come up with THAT name...

Something he picked, no doubt. — Bob

[mith]

Something he picked, no doubt. — Bob

(Mith glances at his pickle on the plate to the left of him....)... hehe... when I'm online, I nibble on pickles, cheese and onions... that's how i roll... hehe

[StringBean]

how did you come up with THAT name...

A long, long time ago in a land, far, far away I was on my High School's wrestling team.

At a road match I walked in to the weigh-in room and the opposing team's coach looked at me and said "you don't look like a wrestler, you look like a string bean".

I was quite skinny for my height.

By the end of the next school day my teammates had spread the story around the school and, as they say (whoever they are), a legend was born.

peace,
the Bean

[Leo112]

Your comments mirror exactly what happened to me. I'll go further in saying if it wasn't free I wouldn't have touched it because after FSX I was sure my machine couldn't run it. The first thing that jumped out at me was not only my machine able to run the sim but it ran very well and it looked like the preview pictures Microsoft has been posted. I never seen anything like this from Microsoft, certainly not in the FS arena. I remember when FSX came out with one island as a preview and people (including myself) couldn't run in on hardware of the day. The rest of what you wrote is spot on, Flight has great potential. I wish people would give it a serious look and stop the BS.

[mith]

A long, long time ago in a land, far, far away I was on my High School's wrestling team.

At a road match I walked in to the weigh-in room and the opposing team's coach looked at me and said "you don't look like a wrestler, you look like a string bean".

I was quite skinny for my height.

By the end of the next school day my teammates had spread the story around the school and, as they say (whoever they are), a legend was born.

peace,
the Bean

I like string beans.... so you're cool with me..... one cool bean if you will... hehe

[alaskancrab]

Great post... yeah the frame rates make a huge difference when it comes to the immersion created by a flight simulator. I wouldn't worry about it not catching on right away, the franchise is not going anywhere and neither is Super Mario World. From day one of electronic computers they've been trying to make flight sims. Pretty much human nature to want that experience and I doubt that'll every change until we grow wings.