F-86 in FSX

While not a fully-adopted-for FSX, here's a model designed for FS9 that's been ported over to FSX: The venerable F-86 Sabre from SectionF8.com.

The Sabre has always been one of my favorite fighters and even today it still has gorgeous lines.

It's interesting that while the F-16 is known as having the worlds best near-360-degree view, the F-86 had a gorgeous bubble canopy, not unlike it's prop-driven predecessor the P-51 Mustang.

Not sure when SectionF8 will release a fully compatible FSX version, but this one flies just great as is - and damned if it doesn't look nearly real in the air.

Here's a few screenshots from a recent "flight".  Enjoy.

VirtualPilot3D: A repackaged flight-sim scam - again!

Not long ago I published an article about "Pro Flight Simulator", and that it is a full-on scam to swindle you out of your hard-earned cash (see post for details).

Now it appears the same people who created PFS have re-named their high-gloss, flight simulator scam into "Virtual Pilot 3D" with a new website.  Apparently there's big profit in scamming flight-sim enthusiasts into purchasing what you can actually get for FREE, otherwise there wouldn't be this refresh of an old scam.

If I had the time and money I'd make it a point to legally go after these f****rs and shut them down.  No, it's not like they're cheating the elderly out of their healthcare funds or abusing little children, but the blatant and rampant attempt to sell their re-packaged crap is offensive, nonetheless.

If you believe their hype, they make it appear that you'd be purchasing the "Mercedes Benz" of flight-sim software, but in fact all you'd end up with is a Mecury Merkur, with all the warts and failures.

For those unfamiliar with the original Pro Flight Simulator scam:  It's a retail packaging of FREE software called, "Flight Gear", which has been around for years and is open-source.  The only difference between FG and PFS - and now VirtualPilot3D - is that they compiled all this free data into a self-installing routine, rather than you having to manually bind and install the Flight Gear data yourself.

And for this "favor" of creating an installer, you can throw out the window as little as $67 dollars on "special" or, if your money is just burning a hole in your wallet you can give them as much as $120 - and more!  All for a product that is and has been 100% free!

By contrast, the GOLD version of Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) which includes the Acceleration Pack is now avaialble for direct download for less than $30.  And you can still purchase the DVD set for less than $19 at some retailers.

And as far as I'm concerned, FSX is still the undisputed king of flight-simulation software.  And yes, that's includind comparing it to the recently released Aerofly FS, Microsoft Flight, and X-Plane 10.  And for those who wish to debate that assessment, save it for another thread; this topic is about helping people from throwing away their money.

If you're into or curious about flight-sim software, don't get hooked by the ultra-glossy campaign for either Pro Flight Simulator or, VirtualPilot3D.  They're both scams, both software packages are actually available for free AND, they don't compare to what FSX has to offer.  Not even close.

Microsoft Flight: Review

Many of you know that one of my passions is for flight, and one of my hobbies is playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X or, "FSX" as flight-simmers refer to it.

Back during the '08 recession (which we're still not out the woods from yet) Microsoft announced that the ACES Studio which created FS9 and FSX was being shut down.  Then a year later word came that another division of ACES was being revitalized and a new version of FSX was in the works.  Suffice it to say everyone in the flight-sim community was abuzz and waiting to see what MS would offer us.

As of February 29th the wait is over and we now have "Microsoft Flight" as the supposed FSX replacement.  I can sum up the review of this new sim with one word: Crap.

What MS has done to the venerable FSX platform is nothing short of despicable.  This new "Flight" simulation should have the word "simulation" stripped from it's genre, as this is much more game-like than a simulation.  So what's wrong with Microsoft Flight?  Here's a simple breakdown list of some of the most obvious problems:

1.  All that is available to fly around in is the Hawaiian Islands - and to get full access to all the areas and features you have to pay $60 bucks!   You can buy a "gold" copy of FSX (which now comes with the Acceleration pack built-in) for less than $30 dollars and you get THE ENTIRE PLANET!

2.  Only 2 aircraft readily available; a few others you have to purchase.  FSX planes are NOT compatible with this sim and there's no method to install third-party add-ons - yet.

3.  No tower view!!  Huh?

4.  You're forced to start off with "lessons" on how to fly one plane; to gain access to other planes/areas to have to pass more "lessons".

5.  Aircraft graphics seem to be OK, but terrain is just fair, even on high settings.  Add-on packs for FSX blow Flight away by a far margin.

I could go on with pages of rants about why this new sim really isn't a sim anymore, and die-hard FSX fans - and even student pilots will be severely disappointed in this new release from MS.

The king of the hill has been and still is FSX.  I seriously doubt MS will take notice of all the poor reviews MS Flight is getting and retool this game back into the King of Flight Simulation that it's been for decades, but for now if you're into FSX then stick with it.

On another related note:  Ikarus has created a new flight-sim of it's own, based around it's years of experience with radio-control PC-based trainers (they use the radio transmitter hooked up to your PC to control a virtual RC model).  It's called, Aerofly FS and while it's just been released in the EU it's not available in the USA just yet.  But, the graphics capabilities of this sim would easily outpace both FSX and MS Flight, so that's worth watching for.

Pro Flight Simulator - It's a scam!

If you enjoy the hobby/passion of flight simulation then you're most likely always on the lookout for add-on's and ways to make it more realistic.  And, whether or not there's something being developed that's better than Microsoft's Flight Simulator "X" or, FSX as it's users and fan-base commonly refer to it.

In my own perusal of the 'net looking for the "latest and greatest" in FSX enhancements I came across a "new" flight simulator that's been getting a lot of web-visibility called, "Pro Flight Simulator".  At first blush it seemed like something that would trounce the current flight-sim king, FSX, what with the glossy marketing campaign and short but well-produced video teaser.  But in fact it's a wolf in sheep's clothing:  Make no mistake, this is a very well-disguised and pre-packaged scam!!

I first became alerted to the possibility that this new flight-sim offering might be more hype than reality by three very significant things:

1.  I found that every "review" was nothing more than a boiler-plate of over-hyped positive commentary - and that nearly every review posted was nothing more than a copy-paste of this same initial review - a word for word duplicate.

2.  Every review I found also had several hot-links back to the primary website for "Pro Flight Simulator" and it became clear that the review sites were truly nothing more than affiliates who had jumped on-board to try and sell it.  In fact if you look at the internal pages for Pro Flight Simulator you'll find they're actively looking for affiliates to post their "review" and subsequently offer the product for sale.

3.  One of the supposed review sites actually had the title:  Pro Flight Simulator: Is it a scam?". And then of course it went on to say quite emphatically that it was not a scam and how absolutely wonderful the software is. Really?  How stupid do they assume the general public is, anyway.  You're trying to *sell* a product by initially defending whether or not it's a scam?  C'mon people.

Alas, Pro Flight Simulator is nothing more than the freeware package that's been around for years called, "Flight Gear", of which there are both Mac and PC versions. What this company has done is to simply bundle together all the code you would normally have to compile manually to make a complete installation and put it on a DVD with an installer.  Any average computer geek could do the same thing in about 10 minutes - again, totally for free.

And while Flight Gear does have some amazing features it's nowhere close to the technology built into FSX - or even X-Plane for that matter.  And the visuals in Pro Flight Simulator are... well, several generations behind FSX both in detail and available animations.

Pro Flight Simulator comes it two flavors:  Really cheesy old-school technology for $50 or, you can add more cheese with the world scenery package for a whopping total of $140 - not including shipping.

By contrast FSX Gold Edition costs less than $20 in most national software retailers and is the latest and greatest currently available.

Or you could get all the components of Flight Gear totally FREE and compile the components and have a fully functional - and fun - flight sim.

So, if you enjoy getting ripped off by very a smart, glossy marketing campaign then be my guest.  But if you're like me and actually want something that's worth the asking price then get FSX and enjoy!