flightsim

now launched

I did a preview of this new simulator from Ripmax on ModelFlight #7 at the end of April. At that time, it was due for release sometime this summer and no prices were published; a development version was on show at the Sandown Model Symposium. It is now fully featured in Ripmax's latest version of their Modellers Handbook and should be available from your Ripmax stockist. I reckoned that the simulator would have to come in around the £100 mark if it was to compete with other sims, but I dithered a bit when I saw the higher price of the RealFlight DeLuxe simulator, with which this one seems to compare most closely in many respects.

However, I wasn't far off the mark after all - the simulator with an interface to connect with your Futaba, JR or HiTec transmitter is priced at £79.99, whilst the version complete with its own dedicated transmitter is £109.99.

This sounds like a really good simulator with an impressive specification and many interesting features although it does not include any helicopters, which you will find are part and parcel of RealFlight DeLuxe. It features 10 aircraft, 10 flying fields, weaponry, realistic 3D rendering and a series of games such as bombing, target shooting and limbo! It has a full training program for beginners and experienced pilots.

The software is said to be fast loading and supports virtually all major 3D cards, old and new. Recommended system specification is a Pentium II 266, 32MB of RAM, 100 MB of free hard-drive space, a 2nd generation 3D accelerated video card with 8 MB (or more) video RAM and Windows™ 95/98 (or better, of course). The sim will run on a lower spec than that, but be sure to check carefully before purchasing!

I'm repeating the item on the Dreamfleet Cessna panel for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 since it's such a lovely bit of freeware! For the first two days of ModelFlight #11 being on the web, I had an error in the Dreamfleet link which I then corrected after Frank Biba kindly brought it to my attention. Be assured, it is correct in this repeat of the item!

Cessna panel for FS2000

If you like to make your flying environment in FS2000 a bit more life-like, then you might be interested in this panel from Dreamfleet. This is the main panel for the Cessna 182 RG, fully operational and very finely detailed. It has a novel facility in allowing you to zoom in on some of the flight instruments should you find them a bit small. Once installed, it replaces the default 182 RG panel, although Dreamfleet do provide unsupported documentation to make it possible to have both versions available.

The panel also has an alternative view of the lower half of the cockpit as you see here. This is not a view you are likely to use very often, but it is fun and very pretty! The trim settings are operational from this view. The cockpit interior and exterior views are equally detailed. This panel is another of the incredible free add-ons made available from very gifted designers purely for the benefit of flight-sim enthusiasts. It can be downloaded from http://flightsimmers.net/airport/dreamfleet and the download includes comprehensive documentation and installation instructions. You also need to download the Dreamfleet 2000 Manager. Installation needs to be done with care, but it is straightforward if the instructions are strictly followed. It is a large download and you really need a fairly high-spec PC to use the panel, but I thought it was well worth the time and effort. These screenshots are thumbnails and were taken off my own PC - click on them to see the panel in all its glory!

ModelFlight is keen to hear from you if you have any contributions to make on the subject of flight simulation - whether the mainstream 'games' or the dedicated r/c model versions. My favourite sim remains FS2000, hence the fact that it features so much on this page, but it would be really good to have items on some of the others.