The Flight Simulator

The pc flight simulator can provide hours and hours of enjoyment for its users, from individuals who  first learn how to fly with them and then move on to a career in aviation, to experienced pilots who like to feel the rush and to fly planes that they never otherwise would be able to do…like the Wright Flyer or the Santos-Dumont 14 bis, to military aircraft such as the Fokker triplane of WWI to the Spitfire of WWII to the Lockheed SR 71 Blackbird.

The first criteria of course is that the user have a computer that is powerful enough to run the flight simulator. Flight simulators are made for both the Mac and the PC, and while the Mac used to have much better graphics than the PC, that distinction has pretty much fallen by the wayside in the last few years.

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What is important, for a pc flight simulator, is that the pc have more than the bare minimum of capabilities to run the simulator. For FlightProSim, for example, here is what they recommend:

A processor with a speed of 2+ Ghz, in a computer that is running Win 98/2000/ME/XP, with at least 256 Mb RAM, and a Video card + OpenGL Driver.

OpenGL is, according to their website “the premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications. Since its introduction in 1992, OpenGL has become the industry’s most widely used and supported 2D and 3D graphics application programming interface (API), bringing thousands of applications to a wide variety of computer platforms.”

For the average user of a pc flight simulator, a single processor computer, with a speed of at least 2+ Ghz, is fine. The frame lag (which causes blur for just a second or so as the screen switches to new scenery) is hardly noticeable. But the hard-core flight simulator enthusiast will typically have a computer with a dual-core processor, which significantly decreases the lag time.

Another feature that significantly increases the enjoyment of flying via a pc flight simulator is to have all the add ons – a yoke, a joystick, and rudder pedals, even a headset. (Indeed, the hard core enthusiast can go all out and hook up throttle levers, as well.)  It is not necessary to purchase these items, most simulators – including FlightProSim, allow the player to fly using the keyboard alone.

One thing to consider when purchasing a pc flight simulator is the future costs. Is the game expandable, and will you have to pay an arm and a leg to add on software packages? With FlightProSim, all additional scenery and aircraft is without charge, part of the cost of purchasing the software. The user simply goes to the Members section, and downloads what he or she wants.

FlightProSim is open source software, so any qualified developer can – and does – add aircraft and scenarios to the database on a regular basis. This is exceptionally fun as there is no limit to the imagination of these developers, and the aircraft on offer are a wide variety of new and classic aircraft.

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