X-Plane 9:Real Simulation of Flight

You will not find a finer product anywhere on the planet. This is not a GAME. This is a professional flight simulator that takes time and patience to master. If you want to fly around and shoot down other planes, don't buy this product. It is a teaching tool for those of us who are not pilots but wish, desperately, to share in the experience. X-Plane 9.0 (as all other versions of the sim have been) is a BETA, and that is fantastic. Austin Meyer, the creator of the program, allows users to add their own input as to improvements, criticisms and more. Unlike other extremely unrealistic flight simulators on the market, you are not buying a finished product - you will be given FREE updates for the next 2 or so years. Updating is easy, and it is just like getting a brand new product with every release.

You must love to fly to love X-Plane. If you're looking for kicks, buy something else. It really shocks me how some people have an attention span of, oh, nine minutes or so. Why would you spend this much money on something that you are not willing to invest your time in? And, why are you buying flight simulators if you are looking for a cheap thrill? The very fact is that X-Plane features a genuine physics model, real weather conditions, real air traffic control systems and more. Read a book and learn how to fly. Then, start up X-Plane and you will relish in the fact that it isn't just eye-candy. I have learned so much about flying by using this program. Don't be intimidated by it. Instead, invest time and energy into learning how to fly terribly complicated aircraft that are modeled PRECISELY after the real-life counterparts. Avionic systems work when the pilot actually knows how to use them. Imagine that.

X-Plane 9.0 is not to be "played" like a game. It is to be used to learn how to actually operate an airplane. If you are not willing to perform 15 minutes of pre-flight checks before actually hitting the runway, don't bother with it. Of course, that puts you square in the "cheap-thrills gamer" category, leaving the rest of us alone to explore all that the program has to offer. The support network for X-Plane is also outstanding. Some of the best aircraft designs that I have ever seen are created by people just like you - and for free. What other piece of software allows free updates for years to come, a virtual community of enthusiasts, an immense amount of free aircraft and scenery, and the ability to email the actual creator? If you don't like the way X-Plane operates, you have the ability to change it! Why would anyone want the cookie-cutter Microsoft Flight Simulator? Do they care this much about the community that uses their product?

Make no mistake, this is a real Simulation of flight. Four hours is a long time for an install, and unneeded. The extra DVD's (disks 2 through 6) contain, as they are labeled, nothing more than the Hi-res imagery for the planet outside of the United States. Installing the first disk is all you need to do to get going, and Northern California is all you get to see if you've downloaded the Demo. X-Plane is not a "Toy Video Game with Airplanes", it's a true Flight Physics Simulator. It doesn't have fancy looking interface designs, no happy guidance on how to fly. X-Plane is for the people who want a highly realistic simulation of actual aircraft physics. For this reason, many pilots prefer it over the competition's product. It's accurate, it feels like flying a real plane, and it doesn't fudge any numbers for the sake of simplicity.

If you take a design from X-plane, build it in real life, with the correct power engines, correct wing designs, and correct fuselage design, your plane will fly exactly the same in real life. (Cirrus' "The Jet" and the Carter Copter were actually designed using X-plane). If you know how to use autopilot systems in real life, they will all work here. If not, you've got a learning curve to tackle.
Can you load up the game and start flying immediately? Almost. You'll have to program your joystick. Tell the sim what sliders should do what, what buttons should do what. After that, yes, you can "just go". X-Plane isn't going to give you an intro on how to take off, you need to either know how, or figure it out. (Throttle + Flaps = Flight)

You can even design your own aircraft, design your own airports, and update world maps. (I don't actually know how to change the world, but I've made a few aircraft designs in my years, none all that impressive. The community website is full of new designs, (admittedly since V9 is only a month or so old, the pickings are fairly slim), and many v8 designs still work nicely, or so I've heard. This sim is the best value for the money, and the most serious item around. If you've got a motion control platform, you can configure it to move with the sim. You can run multiple copies on a network for multiple screens, multiple aircraft, and instructor stations, if you've got a pile of money to buy it all. The new high-res graphics are killer nice, and flying over NYC brings my computer to it's knees, but NYC isn't exactly a village now, is it? If you want a video game, look elsewhere. If you want to know how to fly, you've got but one choice. X-Plane.