Jan 4, 2011

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!

13 comments:

  1. pro flight simulator is used by pilots
    Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was also looking for it, And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him. So I should thank you for the free lunch I got.

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    1. Good for you. Its just like a google search for a free version every download is nothing more than an advertisement or a thing that wants you to download more advertising programs.

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  2. Their ads pop up on my Facebook page all the time, probably because I listed "pilot" among my activities. However, today I saw an ad for a flight simulator with a URL that read "x-plane.com". Assuming it was actually x-plane I clicked on it, and voila it brought me to the ProFlight Simulator page. Totally dishonest.

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  3. Glad to be of help.

    So far, even with the release of Microsoft Flight and Aerosoft FS, FSX is still king of the hill. And from all the energy coming from developers for new aircraft and scenery files it's not going away anytime soon!

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  4. Over at Zyzmog Galactic Headquarters, I've been watching ProFlightSimulator and its aliases for a couple of years now. Thanks for speaking the truth about it. It's a scam that needs to go away. Unfortunately, all it takes is a few suckers a day to keep making a decent living off the scam.

    A note to Facebook readers: If you see an ad for PFS or one of its aliases, click "X" on the ad and then select "Misleading" from the list of reasons FB offers you. If enough people do this, FB will pull the ad (or they say they will).

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  5. Pro Flight Simulator is a scam. I've bought every flight simulator out there. There are only 2 worth Buying: Microsoft FSX and Xplane X. Microsoft FSX Gold is at least the equal of X-plane X. FSX Gold, costs around $30 and there are tons of add-ons available. X plane X costs about $70 and the aircraft are limited. FSX allows you to install your software and be done with it. X-plane x requires you to leave the dvd in the drive to play, or, purchase a thumb drive key for another $30. Don't be fooled by the people who say Microsoft's Flight Simulator X is old school and out of date. It most assuredly, is not out of date. For $30, is the best value in software, period. Professional pilots use FSX. I know, I am a real licensed pilot.

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  6. Your blog is awesome. Thank you so much for giving plenty of useful content.

    Plane games

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  7. Unfortunately with the demise of multi-player in FSX and the fiasco that was "Flight" it would seem future development of a MS-based flight sim has come to an end.

    One would hope that somebody - even Microsoft, would someday pick up the torch and continue on with the most successful and well-rounded sim that ever was, but for now all we can hope for is continued third-party add-ons.

    Long live FSX!

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  8. This is honestly the biggest scam I have ever seen in this hobby. Beside the fact that it is all available free they were to lazy to even change the name on the start up screen which says welcome to flight gear. It is honestly not worth the money. It has horrible graphics all the scenery appears flat, the aircraft either don't respond realistically or over respond and the whole user interface sucks. Its a nightmare to try and connect a joystick or any hardware you might have and if you do get it to recognize the hardware it does not work properly. This was a waste of money time and caused a lot of frustration. I own both x-plane 10 and FSX and they are both millenniums ahead of proflight. They are both impressive software and would recommend either on to anyone. Please DO NOT waste your money or time with this BS. There has to be some way to warn all the other unsuspected victims. I am so frustrated after three days trying to get it downloaded installed and working properly on my cockpit setup and to find that it was crap. NOT WORTH THE HASSLE!!!! FSX or X-Plane are the superior choices.
    Dr. Ahmad Abdella, M.D.

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  9. Thanks so much for the great reviews. I was about to buy proflight but now I think I will save my money. I have been using MS FSX and am very happy with it. Guess I thought there was something out there that was better.

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  10. unfortunately I had purchased this a few years back and it does not work! Someone made a lot of money and flight gear should sue for copy right infringement and have this website of Pro Flight Simulator removed. I have a 4 disc set.Main program disc 1 and disc 2,3,4 are world scenery. I agree that X plane and MS fsx are the greatest.So stay clear of Pro Flight Simulator! Its garbage!

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  11. Close shave, I was just about to purchase this and said to myself to look at reviews - glad I found this page -thank you!

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  12. I bought this ProFlight stuff a long time ago but iy got put into a remote storage corner and as I had a good system already I did not miss it, This week I discovered the four discs still virgin wrapped in a white cardboard box. I thought: must be worth a few quid so will send to auction. I looked up ProFlight on the web to see what was viable today and found this site. I now know I am a mug as will have to scrap it rather than burden some other poor soul via the auction.

    Lee Tracey -UK dvrdigital@gmail.com

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