stretch

I wrote this song about a year ago and finally got it recorded. Thanks for listening! Aaron

Fun: I had downloaded Flight a few months back, flew it few times and did not go back to it until a few nights ago. I decided I would make an effort to explore it with an open mind. The first surprise I encountered was; after flipping the Stearman inverted for an extended period of time caused it to cough, sputter, smoke and eventually die out. I decided to check out the "crashing aspect" of the aircraft. It does not fly apart...but you tend to bounce off the hangar, tree, house with some smoke, sparks, dust, and pretty cool sound effects. Flying down into one of the active volcano's, you can hear the bubbling, roiling sound of the goo below you as you fly over. Unexpected audio plus for sure. In mutliplayer, as other aircraft buzzed by me I could hear their engines and crash sounds! Wow, not bad! Next I decide to do a roof top landing on one of the hangars at Maui. Well I was never able to land on the roof; but as you drag your wheels across the tin it makes a nice loud screeching sound as it should. I notice the sound aspect of the sim is fairly quiet and docile compared to what we are all used to in ACOF/FSX. The sound environment does has a warm closed intimate feel to it, nice work over-all. Graphics: With all sliders set to High my 3 gig AMD Phenom runs very smooth in the sim with no stutters or pauses. Very crisp scenery below, and sharp clear glass look to the gauges in the cockpit. I set the time of day to dusk and flew at an angle to the setting sun. I was rewarded with a nice dynamic shine from the water, moving shine over the Stearman's wings and a beautiful glow coming through the low storm clouds in the distance. I landed the Stearman near the waters edge and exited the aircraft. The water looks very real and it moves with an actual ebbing of the tide movement. WOW! I then flew along the cliffs and noticed how solid the terrain felt and looked to me. If you do not turn away from the cliff wall, you will smack into it..and down you go into an unplanned Hawaiian scuba adventure! I did put the aircraft into the water on purpose and it floats about half sunk as it should. The ambulance screen then comes up to take you to be patched up of course. The graphic look of the sky, clouds, fog on the mountains is smooth with no gradient transitions visible. It has a great looking natural depth as if you were looking into the sky at your favorite airport. I also like the weather choices. I chose fog for one flight instance, and the runway lights appeared just below 500' for a successful landing. As you fly in the fog....the mist rolls past your wings and cockpit surround with an absolute life like realness. The clouds also move along in the sky just as they would in real life. If you take your time, the visual aspects in the simulator will keep you engaged and grow on you very quickly. The graphics we've all been striving for so long are contained in this simulator. Whatever altitude you fly the farms fields, buildings, houses maintain the right size aspect ratio very consistently. Roll off a dirt runway and you get a nice dust kick up off your wheels. The dust looks like dirt in the air, well done! Conclusion: My very first encounter with a Flight Simulator was back in 1986 at my brothers house. I was preparing to enter the green machine (U.S.M.C.). I stopped by his house to bid farewell and he pulled up a slow moving wire screen simulator for me. I was immediately fascinated with the look of it. Years later, upon leaving the military and entering college my brother sent me that same computer with the simulator still on it. I had forgotten about it until then. I remember thinking this thing might catch on? I have owned every version of Microsoft Flight Simulator since those days. Being a small developer has kept me engaged in the almost two decades evolution and growth of the software and our community here at Flightsim.com I have been honored to work with some brilliant programmers that have more knowledge than I'll ever attain in my life time. Flight dynamics, gauges, paint schemes, animations, scenery writers, sounds packages. I am, and always will be amazed at the talent that resides in our community. Yes, having the plug pulled on "Flight" is a loss for all of us. New doors will open; and the pool of talent that exists around the globe will propagate new software and opportunities for all that are interested. As real world pilots, and sim-pilots lets try to stay focused on the positive aspects of what we love to do. "We love flying, and that's a wonderful thing" Thank you for reading, Aaron Swindle

Amen! I feel much the same. I think it was a cruel thing to do to us, like they were saying "Ha, take that you bunch-a dedicated sim customers"! "We'll show you what loyalty can gettch-ya"! Yes, I downloaded Flight, I found it uh...boring. I think Goldhawk hit on the head, we should all be given free Microsoft health care due to the stress they are putting us through!! LOL! I jumped the gun on "Flight"..its actually pretty cool if you explore it a bit! With age comes the ability to re-evaluate one's own short-comings and learn to restrain from tongue and pen more frequently! :) Stretch