Hello there folks, this is Kenneth J. Kerr (a.k.a. "KJKSimmer")once again, and welcome to another article in my series on an oldersystem.

While many of my articles will be based firmly in the world of FSX,today I want to branch off in a totally different direction, and itmight surprise the heck out of you. Today, instead of looking at anolder "legacy" sim platform, we're going to consider a "newgeneration" program that actually runs on my old computer. We're goingto "teleport" over to the world of Aerofly FS2. Say what? O yes, I canhear the muffled expressions of shock and horror coming from somereaders even now... "That thing? Are you serious?" Well, yes, Iam serious, and we're going to talk about it very openly, warts andall.

Before we jump in however, I should let you know that this articlenaturally splits into two sections. The first part is the narrative,and I've chosen not to add screen shots into that section as it mightdisturb the flow of thought. The second section is photographic, andthat's where you'll find over 50 fullsize (1920 x 1080) screen shotsfrom AFS2. These are not edited in any way, what you see is what I sawon my large monitor, although there might be some image degradation insaving them as jpegs. Where add-ons are shown in those images, I willtry to acknowledge them in the commentaries. I will also add a briefarticle conclusion and summary after the image gallery.

So buckle up, and let's fly into a brave new world!

Is It A Real Sim?

Aerofly FS2 is in many ways a very beautiful simulator. However,many of our flight simming brethren don't even think of it as a realflight simulator at all. Now, I get that, because I've been aroundthis genre for more than 30 years. These days we have very highexpectations in the industry, and with the impending arrival ofMicrosoft Flight Simulator (FS2020 colloquially), the bar is beingraised even higher. And so, we expect a modern sim to at least havethings like real weather, AI traffic in the air and on the ground, AirTraffic Control, detailed global scenery, complex GPS navigation evenin the Cessna, immersive aircraft systems, and so on. Let's face it,after years of add-on development for the legacy sims, we have becomeaccustomed to such things as almost the starting point of ourexperience.

Perhaps that's why many simmers dismiss AFS2 without even giving ita try. At the very best, AFS2 is a "light" sim in comparison with thisshopping list of features. It does not have real weather, it does nothave AI traffic, it does not have ATC. There are vast areas of theworld undeveloped, and autogen is sporadic even in some of the areasthat are developed. I must also point out the absence of street lightsat night in many of the core areas, and the fact that there is nothingeven close to real water. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many people,these startling omissions relegate the title to the status of ajoke.

However, after two years of using AFS2, I must voice the followingopinion. If you leave AFS2 untried because you think it's a joke, thejoke might just be on you. No matter how incomplete it may arguablybe, I see more and more experienced and discerning simmers giving AFS2a go every month. The numbers are growing in the user base, thecommunity is expanding in the forum, and maybe the best way to answerwhy this is, is to simply tell you my own AFS2 story.

My AFS2 Story

Like many of you, I have decades of time (and thousands of dollars)invested in the Microsoft Flight Simulator ecosystem. I've grown veryused to how that world looks, feels, sounds, and acts. It really hasbecome like a second home, a home where I slip on some kind ofalter-ego avatar, and jump back into familiar territory that fits likea glove. But, every now and again, the familiar becomes boring. Ofcourse, we can always buy another add-on, and that's what we typicallydo. It's a constant balance of the known versus the new, but it'sstill the same world. Well, for many people the answer is to tryanother sim. And so they have bought and loaded up DCS World, orX-Plane, or the latest Prepar3D. And, of course these new worlds havereplaced the old world of FSX for many hobbyists. And truth be told,I'd like to do that too! BUT..._ you guessed it... My oldsystem will NOT run these newer programs. And so, I have stayed backin planet FSX while many have moved on.

And then, two years ago, I started hearing stories aboutAFS2. People with newer systems were being blown away with 150+ FPS,no stutters, no blurries in photoscenery, and the thrill of a totallynew approach. I was curious. If AFS2 could run that fast on a newcomputer, was there a possibility that (unlike the other new sims), itmight at least run on my old rig to some acceptable level? I pluckedup the courage to download Steam, then I bought Aerofly FS2 with veryfew expectations. "This might end up being a one-flight-and-eraseexperience" I thought. But I was wrong. Two years on, I have loggedover 980 hours in AFS2, and instead of using it less, I'm actuallyusing it more often.

So What Did I Like?

To begin with, you simply cannot downplay my sheer delight in thefact that AFS2 even runs on my system. A few moments ago I went backonto Steam and reviewed again the so-called minimum required specs forthe program. Frankly, my old rig shouldn't even run AFS2, but it does!Do I get those lightning speeds with super smoothness? No, Idon't. BUT it does run just about as well on my old computer as FSXdoes, and for me that has been the passport into a new world, and anew experience.

And, there is so much to love about the new experience. The firsttime I ran AFS2, I remember being totally shocked that I could be upand flying in less than a minute. I have become so used to launchingFSX and literally having time to go and put on a pot of coffee beforethe sim has even got me to the loading screen! Wow... How manytimes had I felt like flying for just five minutes and been unable toaccomplish that with the loading times of the old technology? Now itwas possible.

There was more to love. Want to gain altitude and fly around at say5,000 feet in a Cessna? No need to piddle around climbing. Just press the"U" key a few times and you are there. I've used that a lot in AFS2when I had limited time to fly. Or what if I feel like a change oftime? Who needs menus when you just hit the "T" key and instantlywatch the sun move around the sky, complete with appropriate changesin shadow, shade, and light. These are seemingly small items in theoverall scheme of things, and yet I have grown to really appreciatethem. Still talking about light and shadow, I used to watch YouTubevideos from X-Plane and Prepar3D and feel very envious as Ipractically drooled over the way the sunlight and shadows moved acrossthe instrument panels in the VCs. FSX could never match that advance,and my system could not run the sims that had it. My first few days offlying AFS2 brought smile after smile to my face because I couldfinally enjoy something as simple as that on my dinosaur computer!

And then something else hit me. I flew the F-18 low and fast,and... Where were the famous FSX blurries? There were none. Whatabout the annoying "popping in" of the distant trees? No, they werevisible for miles! I took it higher. How does the photoscenery lookin the distance now? Stay within the AFS2 default scenery areas and itdisplays far clearer than add-on photoscenery does in FSX. OK, let'sadd mist and see how that looks. Weather menu perchance? No. Justpress the "V" key a few times (or Shift+V) and change the visibilityon the fly. Looks pretty good with a hint of fog on the horizon. Thesewere some of the lasting first impressions of AFS2 for me. I alsoliked the map screen for changing location, the fact that I could hitthe "L" key and have place names displayed on the screen in flight,and the sheer beauty of the VC interiors, surpassing the aesthetics ofalmost everything I had seen in FSX add-ons over the years. Yes, therewas so much to love about AFS2 right from the start.

And Then The Boredom Set In

And so, for several months, I simply put FSX aside and spent all mytime exploring AFS2. I went back into Steam and added some free DLCpackages put out by IPACS (the makers of AFS2). Now I could also enjoyUtah and Colorado, and higher definition textures for the more westernUS states. Many of the airports in those IPACS sceneries (and some ofthe cities) are very nicely done, so I added more months to my flying,exploring this new world with a passion. It was addictive andstimulating, until the first little hints of boredom began to showup.

It was lonely to fly out of an airport with not as much as anotherCessna on the frequency. Indeed there was only silence and an emptyworld. I started to miss using ATC, started to long for the sight ofanother aircraft taking off or landing in front of me, and even missedthe road traffic on those terribly empty highways. Was I the lastperson left alive in the virtual world?

I went back to FSX, and flew it for a few weeks. BUT I was sofrustrated at the long loading times, the return of the blurries, andall the deficiencies I had forgotten about there. Sometimes, I'd fly ashort flight in AFS2 to get the real scenery, then I'd repeat the sameroute in FSX to get the missing immersion. Each simulator had itsstrength, and each had its weaknesses. There was truly no such thingas perfection in any one simulator. The funny thing was this, despitethe limitations of AFS2, I did not abandon it, just as I had notabandoned FSX even in spite of its old architecture. That simpleaction speaks volumes about the inherent appeal of both AFS2 andFSX.

But Behold The Turning Point Cometh

Well, that was two years ago, and now it is the second week of2020, and I'm flying AFS2 more than ever. Sure, I am still aware ofthe perceived negatives, the idiosyncrasies, and thelimitations. However, as we advance into the new year, an interestingturning point has been reached. It's a crossing of the Rubicon sort ofa moment, a paradigm shift if you will! In a nutshell, the third partyecosystem for AFS2 has come alive!

Why is this important? Just look at industry history to find theanswer. Microsoft Flight Simulator would have been buried decades agowithout the development of the add-on ecosystem that supportedit. Same can be said for X-Plane. This is why these two platformscontinued when many other contenders disappeared. And now, the thirdparty world has finally started to explode for AFS2. In fact, there'shardly a day goes by without something new coming from the third partydevelopers.

In the last three months we have seen the entire UK beingtransformed from something unusable into something completely flyable,with freeware photoscenery, hundreds of basic airports, autogen, nightlighting, and hi-res topographic coverage. We're seeing the same thinghappening for areas as diverse as France, Argentina, Norway, the CzechRepublic, Italy, and parts of western Canada. We have also seen therelease of a magnificent freeware Tecnam P2008 to fly, and it iseasily up to commercial standards. In addition, there are hints offurther development of the free airport-adding program that waslaunched almost two years ago, and a newer photoscenery creationprogram has taken the place of older approaches that were the normeven a year ago. All of this is coming freely to the AFS2 world at thehands of hobbyists. They even have their own web site(http://www.flight-sim.org).

And the commercial world is taking note too. Orbx has severalhighly-detailed airport packages on the market, as well as the AFS2version of TrueEarth Netherlands. While they pulled back from theiroriginal plans to give us a lot more in 2019, we are still hopefulthat 2020 may see a revival of their AFS2 interest. Aerosoftalso has a few smaller scenery packages out.

But it's not just scenery. Just Flighthas ported four of their popular General Aviation aircraft intoAFS2. While they do not have the systems depth of their legacy-simversions, they have all the looks and sheer fly-ability in them! Andyou know something? I cannot even run the FSX versions of those sameaircraft on my old rig without it becoming a slideshow. Yet in AFS2, Ican finally enjoy the Just Flight Cessna 152, PA-28 Arrows, Duchess,and Tomahawk. There are also new mesh offerings for AFS2 fromTaburet,a new commercial version ofBostonfrom a new development team, and a somewhat complex (and so-farlimited) ATC program as the starting point of development in thatarea. These are commercial offerings.

This change augurs very well for the future of AFS2 from the user'spoint of view.

Let's get to the screen shots! (Clickable to expand in size.)

So, what's the best way to share the beauty of AFS2 with you now?That's where these screen shots come in. Please note that they aretaken on a monitor (a very large TV actually). I say that because oneof the biggest selling points for AFS2 is that it's the best sim outthere for those with VR headsets. Well, my old rig won't run one ofthose new-fangled devices, so monitor it is! I'll add comments to theimages as I go along.

1. The default Cessna 172 over default scenery near Santa Barbara,California.

2. The Cessna 172 cockpit. There are two female pilot avatars inAFS2, and quite a number of gentlemen too.

3. The default Beech Baron 58 over default scenery of SanFrancisco, California.

4. The Beech Baron cockpit.

5. The default Pitts over default scenery near Trinity Lake, California.

6. The cockpit of the Pitts.

7. The default Corsair over default scenery near San Diego,California.

8. The Corsair cockpit.

9. The default Beech C90 over default scenery near Reno, Nevada.

10. The Beech C90 cockpit.

11. The default Learjet 45 lifting off in default San Franciscoairport scenery.

12. One of the gentlemen pilot avatars at the controls of theLearjet 45.

13. The default P-38 over the default Las Vegas scenery.

14. In the P-38 cockpit.

15. The default Airbus A320 in Delta colors lifting off from SaltLake City, Utah. Utah is a free Downloadable Content (DLC) from IPACSavailable on Steam.

16. The Airbus A320 cockpit.

17. The default Boeing 737 as supplied by Milviz, high overColorado. Colorado is a free Downloadable Content (DLC) from IPACSavailable on Steam.

18. The Boeing 737 cockpit.

19. The default Boeing 747 in suitable KLM livery near Amsterdam inOrbx TrueEarth Netherlands scenery.

20. The Boeing 747 cockpit.

21. The default Jungmeister over Switzerland. Switzerland is anadditional paid content available from IPACS via Steam.

22. The language-appropriate Jungmeister cockpit.

23. The default Schleicher ASG29 glider over Switzerland. Switzerlandis an additional paid content available from IPACS via Steam.

24. A great view from the ASG29 cockpit.

25. The default Robinson R22 helicopter over New York City. TheNortheast USA is an additional paid content available from IPACS viaSteam.

26. The view from the R22 cockpit.

27. The Dash8 Q400 is a free downloadable content by IPACSavailable on Steam. The scenery is part of Orbx Innsbruck, a paidadd-on also available on Steam.

28. The Dash8 Q400 cockpit.

29. The default Extra 300 over Switzerland. Switzerland is anadditional paid content available from IPACS via Steam.

30. Extra 300 cockpit.

31. The default Sopwith Camel over user-created freeware scenery ofEngland.

32. Sopwith Camel cockpit.

33. This Robin 400 is for those adventurous enough to download andinstall the SDK, and then run the aircraft converter program. Ihappened to also add a fictional Canadian registration. The scenerygives a tip of the hat to the early days of flight simming, it's theOrbx rendition of Chicago Meigs Field as it was before being tornapart and turned into a park. The scenery is available to purchase onSteam.

34. A "Go-Pro inspired" wide angle shot from the Robin 400 cockpit.

35. The brand new default Boeing 777 was just added by IPACS in theChristmas 2019 update. This Air Canada example is high over LosAngeles in default scenery.

36. The Boeing 777 cockpit.

37. The Just Flight Duchess model 76. I've been a fan of JF for avery long time, and I was saddened that their latest in-house aircraftdesigns would not run on my old system in FSX. However, the AFS2versions run fantastically! I will do a separate article on the AFS2Just Flight fleet shortly. You can purchase direct from JF, Steam, orin theFlightSim.Com Store.The freeware scenery in the picture is user-created, somewhere nearthe coast of southern Wales.

38. The Duchess cockpit.

39. The Just Flight Cessna 152. The freeware scenery isuser-created, somewhere over the northern coast of France.

40. The Cessna 152 cockpit.

41. The Just Flight Piper Turbo Arrow III lifts off from Liverpoolairport, England. This is one of the very few highly-detailed freewareairports created by hobbyists so far, but they are coming! You cancreate simpler airports using a program calledFSCloudport(also free), but the detail shown here is still exceptional. The photoscenery, mesh, and "cultivation" are also freeware.

42. The Piper Turbo Arrow III cockpit. I used to fly a PiperWarrior equipped with an Archer engine and constant speed prop, so Iwas very happy to see this aircraft fly in the AFS2 skies.

43. The Just Flight Piper Turbo Arrow IV. The freeware scenery isin northwest England.

44. The Piper Turbo Arrow IV cockpit.

45. The Just Flight Piper Tomahawk, their latest AFS2 commercialrelease as this article is written. The freeware scenery isuser-created, covering a small area on the western coast ofCanada.

46. The Piper Tomahawk cockpit.

47. The recently-released, user-created, freeware Tecnam P2008. TheScottish scenery is a combination of both user-created freeware, andcommercial releases.

48. The Tecnam P2008 cockpit.

49. The default F-15 Strike Eagle. The Scottish scenery is acombination of both user-created freeware, and commercialreleases. That's Loch Ness in the background.

50. Screaming down low in the front seat of the F-15, the villageof Fort Augustus (my old Scottish home), flashes by at over 400knots. THIS is what has re-kindled my interest in AFS2. The excellentbase program being added to almost daily as the third party ecosystemis now developing.

51. The default F-18, repainted by a user into a gloriousrepresentation of an actual RCAF aircraft. It's just flown throughpart of the Mach Loop, experiencing this user-created freeware sceneryof Wales.

52. The office of the F-18. The aircraft received significantsystems upgrades by IPACS just before Christmas 2019. Sometimes theirdevelopment may seem slow, but as this shot suggests, it is worthit!

Aerofly FS2 - So What Do I Think Really?

While I am still primarily an FSX user, I can honestly say that Ienjoy AFS2 more than ever these days, and my continued interest islargely due to the third party developers.

• Is AFS2 a perfect simulator? Not a chance, but I enjoy itregardless
• Can I fly it with all the sliders to the right? No, but I fly itanyway
• Is it a real flight sim? Of course! It is a real flight simbecause it simulates flight, it simulates aircraft, and it simulates aworld to fly over
• Is it an expansive sim like X-Plane or P3D v4? Not a chance. But,those other sims won't run on my system at all, and AFS2 does!
• Will I still run it in the future when I have a modern system?That is academic until I have such a system
• Will AFS2 run on your system? I have no way of knowing that
• Will it even appeal to you? I don't know that either

BUT, if you dismiss it as worthless, you may be making one heck ofa mistake, and missing out on a beautiful flight simming experienceyou could find as addictive as I do at this time. So, if you'veenjoyed this article, why not give this brave new world a try? Love itfor what it is, accept it for what it is not, and you might indeedbecome a fellow citizen of AFS2 Nation... Even on an oldersystem!

Kenneth J. Kerr

Purchase Aerofly FS 2