Airplane Simulators: Three Keys To Success

Flight simulators were some of the earliest games available for personal computers; subLOGIC's FS1 Flight Simulator, later released as Microsoft Flight Simulator, hit computer screens in 1979. While Flight Simulator is arguably the granddaddy of personal airplane simulators, other, much more expensive flight simulators were available to professional pilots as early as the 1960s.

Unlike the early days of aircraft, when there was really only a single product choice, today there are so many choices it can be confusing to choose the correct software for your needs. Below are three things to think about when shopping for the airplane simulator that will satisfy your needs:

1: Scenery packages. Does the flight simulator offer a high level of scenery realism? The early aircraft simulation programs had blocky graphics and only the barest hints of scenery outside the cockpit. They included "scenery" for four cities, including a few simple buildings, and less than twenty-five airports. Buildings, roads, houses, trees, airports, mountainsall were rendered in basic tones of color and dotted lines.

Some of today's flight sims have incredibly detailed scenery packages for virtually all of the world's terrain. Highways, airports, rivers, trees, mountains, metropolitan areas, rural areas: all are highly detailed. The sense of realism in the new aircraft simulator packages is truly astounding.

2: Cockpits and control response. Although the basic cockpit layouts for light aircraft in the first flight sim packages were surprisingly accuratewith gauges, radio stacks, power settings and morecontrol response was negligible. Control response is an important component in how the aircraft reacts to your inputs. With the early simulators, there was too much lag between entering a control input and the aircraft response.

Today's airplane simulators respond smoothly and quickly to pilot inputs, and the feeling of aircraft control is greatly intensified. Just as with real aircraft, if you haul back on the stick and keep it there, the plane will stall...unless you're flying a military jet or an EA-300 aerobatic plane. The simulator you choose should respond smoothly to your control inputs through a joystick or yoke; rudder pedals add even more realism to the simulator experience.

3: Added features. Realism in today's flight simulators goes beyond just the aircraft controls and scenery. You can set the time of day and the weather, with everything from a sunny, cloudless day to a hurricane. One popular airplane simulator for both the PC and the Mac, ProFlight Simulator, has a default setting that reads your computer's clock, downloads the current conditions from the Internet, and sets the actual conditions in the area you're "flying" over.

In other words, if your route takes you from Denver, Colorado, to Salt Lake City, it's 8:30p.m., and the actual weather conditions are unsettled late spring rain showers, your flight display will default to twilight over the Colorado Rockies, and raindrops will be hitting the aircraft's windshield. How's that for realism!

A flight simulator can be a lot of fun and a great source of piloting. Airplane simulators can provide hours of fun, learning to fly your own aircraft from the comfort of your own desk. Investigate the software available, and compare the control response and the realism in the aircraft and scenery packages available for each simulator. Then launch for the skies with a flight simulator that fits your needs!