Could Be the Gift Answer You Are Looking for

Gift giving can be a very stressful affair. Battling crowds and looking for that one special,  meaningful present for a loved one can give you a major headache. Giving something that is meaningful to another person can be hit or miss.  What do you get the pilot in your life?

Plane simulator games may be the perfect answer that will save you from that cheesy gift with an airplane stuck on it. Which would you rather give? A set of coasters painted to look like various gauges or a plane simulator game that they will spend hours on perfecting their skills?

Plane Simulator Games Make Great Gifts

Do you know someone that talks about airplanes or dreams of flying? If so, then a plane simulator may be just the ticket to that perfect gift. Sure, you could give books on flying or airplanes. But, after a read or two they will just sit on the shelf. The gift of a plane simulator to someone wanting to get into flying would surely make their day.  It not only shows your support of their flying enthusiasm, but it shows that you want them to follow through on their dream.

Perhaps, you know someone who has already gone through the training to be a pilot. Giving plane simulator games as gifts means you are giving the gift of safety to a novice pilot. Pilots in flight must make the correct decision when something bad happens. Using plane simulator games, pilots can train themselves to have the proper response should that problem arise in a real flight. There is no better place to learn more about flying than in the cockpit of a flight simulator.

Experienced Pilots Will Love Simulators

But, what if the pilot you know has thousands of hours in the seat of an aircraft? How does giving a flight simulator game help them when he has surely trained countless hours for anything it could throw at him or her?  Beyond the obvious, there is no such thing as being too prepared for an emergency. A Plane simulator game allows pilots to revive a love of flight. Perhaps the pilot you know flies for an airline. His or her flights are strictly controlled by regulation and rules. Playing plane simulator games will allow them to perform things that they would never be able to do in real life.

Go Down Memory Lane with a Simulator

What if the pilot in your life has long been retired? Do you still catch them at times looking skyward with a far off look from time to time? That spark of adventure is still there, they want to take to the skies again. Giving them a plane simulator allows them to relive past glories. Wither it was in the skies above a battle field, or just taking the 3pm flight from St. Louis to New York. There would be no better gift than the gift that lets them in the wild blue once again.

Young or old, experienced or green as new wood, plane simulator games are a gift that any pilot can appreciate. No matter the area of their expertise, there is a plane simulator game that will make their face light up with delight when they pull back the wrapping paper. With many different types to choose from, no matter the area your pilot specializes in, there is a flight sim for him or her.  In no time, you can find the perfect gift to allow them to fly the virtual skies.

How to Survive

How to survive combat flight simulation is probably one of the biggest questions when approaching the game. People, ahem-pilots are always thinking kill, kill, kill, but really it is a question of survival that should be crossing their minds.

Combat Flight Simulation Game Survival Tips

In my years online I have probably built and maintained somewhere in the neighborhood of a 20:1 kill ratio. This means that for every time I was “killed” I had most likely killed 20 other players along the way. That’s not the most impressive I have ever seen, but it’s not too shabby. In the meantime I have trained literally hundreds of pilots with varying degrees of success.

ACM – Air Combat Maneuvering

The first thing I tell every new pilot is to find a resource on ACM; Air Combat Maneuvering. This will give you standard textbook maneuvers used by the real pilots. Learn them, learn how to apply them.

Start with the simple ones and work your way into some of the more complicated maneuvers in either a practice arena or offline in your favorite combat flight simulation game. Got ‘em down? Are your wings snapping over?  Is your nose responding with military precision? Good, now do them ugly.

Think about this, if you were a boxer, which is better, to telegraph your punches before hand or keep your opponent guessing? Flying with the precision of an airshow jock will get you killed. Mix it up and do it dirty, it will keep them guessing.

SA – Situational Awareness

Another thing to consider is SA; Situational Awareness. There is a reason most combat flight simulation games display the type of aircraft you are going against. That reason is to help you evaluate their performance envelopes. A BF-109 for example can out turn a P-51 in most games.

If you are in the ‘Stang you’d better start thinking of a way to get the heck out of there. If you are in the 109 you will need to try and bait the P-51 into a turn fight or what’s called and “E” (for energy) fight and make sure he doesn’t have an escape vector available to him.

Situational awareness goes beyond that. Knowing where your opponent is and what else is in “your air” will keep you from turning into stray bullets being thrown around by your opponent’s wing man.  So know you space, who’s in it and how you can get out.

Escape Plan

Getting out brings me back to that escape vector thing I mentioned earlier. Always have an escape plan. This is how you land kills. Without it, you could be pushing a bad position and push it too far. I didn’t get my kill ratio by going up and killing 20 pilots and then landing.  I got it by knowing when to bug out and how. The instinctual thing to do is to head 180 degrees away from the plane you are trying to get away from. This is bogus. 90 degrees works well, 78 works better. He will be looking for you dead behind him, bug out and watch what he does.

Fuel and Ammo

The final factor is your fuel and ammo. Keep track of them; losing either in enemy territory is a death sentence. Reserve at least 25% of your ammo for the return trip home and keep your fuel with about 5-10%.

Getting Home

Getting home after a mission is your top priority in a combat flight simulation. You might score 15 kills in a hop but if you don’t land them, you’ve accomplished half of what you could have.

Opening up the wild blue yonder for players of all ages, airplane simulation games cover the width and breadth of aviation. From flying behind enemy lines in the most advanced of fighter to gliding along in a parasail, every type of aircraft in nearly every type of situation is represented somewhere in the broad scope of gaming. These games allow players from experienced pilots to those who have never seen the inside of a cockpit take flight. What off puts most gamers looking at these titles is the illusion that a great investment is needed to take part. But, what do you really need to get started flying on your PC?

To start, beyond the obvious of a computer and the program itself, airplane simulation games only really need a means of control. While these games can be played with various control set ups, there are some that are better than others in terms of control precision and realism. In the end it all comes down to how realistic you want your experience to be; as well as how much money you wish to put into shaping your experience.

The first, and most basic, you could use is one you likely already own. A staple of PC gaming, the mouse and keyboard can be used with a great number of airplane simulation games to control the various aspects of flight.The primary benefit of this set up is that most gamers already own them. So it doesn’t require an additional purchase.

Mouse and keyboard can perform most basic flight maneuvers reasonably well. The problem is that it isn’t exactly as precise as other methods. Flying with a mouse and keyboard doesn’t exactly make for the most realistic of flight experiences.

The next tier up in control would be that of the gamepad.  Game Pads come in many shapes, sizes, and price ranges, but they all follow the same basic set up.

They have one or more analog control sticks, various buttons and triggers that can be programmed to the game you are using. Buttons work much like your keyboard, they are either on or off.

On the other hand, triggers and control sticks are what makes gamepads better than the mouse and keyboard. These analog controls are viable inputs. This means that binding a control to that input allows for more degrees of control between fully on and all the way off. Using these to control the rudder, throttle, and flight surfaces of your aircraft will give you much greater precision than a mouse and keyboard would be able to. Gamepads start relatively cheap for the most basic models, but can quickly get more expensive with increased quality and added features.

The final method of control in airplane simulation games is what many people think of when a flight simulation is mentioned; the joystick or flight yolk.

These two offer the most realistic experience as they mimic the airplane’s real controls.  They offer slightly better precision than that of the gamepad due to an increase in range of motion of their analog controls.

More advanced units will also have a control for the throttle and a means to control the rudder built in or through an attached unit. While more specialized than that of the gamepad and more expensive, they offer the best in terms of realism and control of your aircraft in your airplane simulation game of choice.

There are many options to choose from to gain control your aircraft. It comes down to your personal tastes and the depth of your pockets.  While you are able to get by in airplane simulation games without making an investment on a high end gamepad or flight yolk. These may be something you will want to consider buying down the road to improve your game play or as your skill increase.

So you thinking you want to fly Sparky, but you’re a little timid about what kind of flight simulator you want to start with. The sheer number of choices when it comes to flight sims can be overwhelming. While flight simulator reviews in magazines and on the web may be of help, only through a little investigative work can you really find a flight sim that is right for you.

Don’t get me wrong, flight simulator reviews are a good place to start. But, there is an inherent flaw in them. It is that reviewers typically do not spend extended periods of time with a piece of software. They are on a tight time frame and have to get a review done quickly to move on to the next project. This means that they can sometimes miss major flaws that only seasoned pilots will catch. Flight simulator reviews are but one tool, one point of view to consider. There are other things to look at.

Flight Simulator Reviews Give a Full Picture?

So, if flight simulator reviews do not give you the full picture, what will? As I said before, the pilots that use the software generally have good knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of a particular program. Starting there is generally a good idea.

Looking online for enthusiast sites based on the flight sim you are considering is a good place to find seasoned pilots for that flight sim.  Talking to one of these pilots one-on-one is best, then you can ask many questions without cluttering the forums.

Ask Questions About Flight Simulators

Ask good questions that pertain to what your interest in the flight sim is based on. A couple of examples could be as follows:  If it is a combat fight sim, ask how many missions does this fight sim have? How does your favorite aircraft handle? Only you can really determine what is important enough for you to ask about.

So, you have everything you need, right? Not a chance Junior. I’m sure you feel after talking to a couple pilots that you know everything you need. What you have now is a couple short sited general views from the flight simulator reviews and someone that loves the flight sim enough to patronize a fan site for it, a fan boy if you will.

Look in Flight Simulator Online Communities

Time to look in one more area before getting down and dirty with what information you  have collected. Look at the community as a whole. How active are the various sites that you visited when looking for pilots to talk to? Are the forums being posted on daily? Weekly? Have they had a post this millennium? Looking at a few fan sites can give a general feel for the activity of the community as a whole.

Alright, now that we have a good set of data it is time to figure out if the flight sim is worth your time and money. Compare what the pilots said and the reviewer said in your flight simulator reviews. Do they share like views? If they both agree in praise on certain key areas that are important to you, it is a good sign for your prospect. But, where do they differ? Did the pilot say he didn’t like something that the reviewer did?

Take a moment to consider why a long time user hates something that the reviewer loved. Does it provide an annoyance after awhile or is it just a difference in opinion? Do you think you would find it annoying after awhile?

Also, when considering opinions do not give the flight sim reviews higher credibility over the pilot, but at the same time do not do the opposite. Both arguments are valid and should be considered equally.

Look at Flight Simulator Review Activity

Finally, consider the recent community activity. If the highest ranked fan sites on your search engine of choice appear to be ghost towns, with only a few hold outs keeping them alive, you may want to find out what happened.

• Did a patch break the sim for awhile?

• Did something better come out?

• Do you mind a flight sim that may be yesterday’s news?

• Are Upgrades to the flight sim program you choose available?

• Are the upgrades Free?

• Are Free upgrades available to you for a Lifetime? Or is there a time limit?

When it comes to checking things out on your own. flight simulators reviews can only take you so far. It is up to each pilot to find what fits their style best.

It takes a strong community to keep a flight sim alive for a long time. Without this support, the lifespan of the flight sim may be greatly decreased leaving you yearning to fly the skies with others far sooner. But, with a little detective work, you will be able to find the right flight simulator for you before spending your hard earned money on sims that don’t fit the bill.

FLIGHT Pro Sim Offers 100% Lifetime Updates & Upgrades

Helicopter in simulations games have long been overlooked. The fact that there are not that many popular flight simulator helicopter games is a testament to that fact. Why do you suppose that is? A lot of these reasons for the production gap can be narrowed down to two reasons: development and consumer demand.

The physics engine for  a helicopter sim is complex. Let me explain. The physics engine is how the game reacts to your input commands; your flight stick. Helicopters are not as easy as stick and rudder.

Pulling back on the stick while in a plane will force the nose up, the thrust is behind the craft, so up you go. With a helicopter the force is down and towards the skids, pulling back on the stick makes the craft go backwards.

This is an added dimension and coupled with hovering and side to side movement makes for a pretty complicated physics engine. Even a so-so physics engine can be hard to handle sometimes for some programmers. I’m sure there are those that disagree.

The other factor has to be consumer demand. There is a small and thirsty group of helicopter enthusiasts in the world who are dying for a solid game that offers more than just a Cobra, a Bell 202 and a Comanche. Finding a game that offers more than these three, or any amount over 4 or 5 helicopter types, is a tough proposition.

I attribute this whole deal in consumer demand to the “get it now” thinking most gamers have. Everyone wants to climb into the cockpit, take off, buzz the tower and be Maverick. (No one wants to be Goose because he died.) Flight simulator helicopters take some practice and a whole lot of it at times.

Beginning the flight with a hover is never a problem in most games, it’s nearly everything that comes after hovering that creates the issues. This type of control takes a lot of practice, but the payoff is incredible.

Think of this, all of your other flight sim buddies cannot match your level of aptitude, and probably never will. You will be able to land where you like, hover and shoot multiple targets and perform aerial feats that would be the envy of any jet jock. And what do you need to be able to perform these awesome maneuvers? Lots of practice.

Well some practice and a few options such as actually finding the right simulator that will allow you to pick a few different helicopters to use. And there is the kicker right there. Helicopters are like airplanes in that each model handles differently. So depending on what type of flying you plan on doing online, having options is a definite plus.

The cold hard truth is that helicopters and flight simulator helicopters are finesse vehicles. The ole crank and bank method will get you into a lot of trouble. But don’t worry about it too much, the trouble only lasts until you hit the ground.

If you are looking for a flying challenge and want to try something different, a good helicopter flight simulator can add an exciting new dimension to your flying skills.  These whirly birds can open a whole new world of flying experiences to you.

Fly Several Different Flight Simulator Helicopters

A bustling hive of activity, the airport is the central hub to your flight experience both in real life and flight simulators. Airports also provide some of flight’s greatest challenges and most thrilling rides.

Being able to safely bring your aircraft to a gentle rest on the ground is a great enough challenge in of itself. But, when other factors adds to the difficulty it requires a steady hand, nerves of steel, and the proper training to see you make it back safe. But once you are back on ole Terra Firma, you have to taxi to the right gate! Otherwise your textbook landing is a little pointless and your passengers miss their connecting flights, or worse still their ride home.

Flight simulator airports are about as close to the actual thing as you are going to find without actually going to an airport. Oddly enough, they simulate what goes on at an actual airport. How cool is that? Pretty cool.

Airport Landing and Take Off Practice

The airport part of a flight simulator is often one people just skip over and don’t think twice about. I submit this, next time you are a little bored with your flight sim, try putting the settings on “crowded” and taking off from Chicago O’Hare or JFK.

Yeah, the game just changed a lot. Getting her back down in those conditions is even more of a knuckle biter, because you just invested 20 minutes to an hour of your life just getting there. While the gamer has the added benefit of a do-over, the time spent trying to do it all perfectly is an investment in frustration is you can’t close the deal.

The time of day is a major factor in how dangerous it is to land a craft. While lighting in and around airports makes it easier to land safely, night time landings are still a skill that takes time to perfect.

Airport Dangers

Once again the flight simulator airports are pretty helpful, allowing for pilots to learn how to deal with low light conditions and fly in darkness in different weather conditions. These are two skills that you want to have and can intensify your gaming experience.

Some airports are just innately dangerous. This, of course, is not by design but due to factors that may have been overlooked during construction or that have arose since the opening of the airport.

These can be dangerous crosswinds from nearby mountains during various times of the year; short runways by modern standards; the airport being surrounded by cliffs or hills; or a runway near the ocean requiring a low, slow approach just above the waves.

While these may sound like extreme cases, there are airports that pilots fly in and out of everyday which has these dangers surrounding them. By accurately reproducing these conditions in the flight simulator airport, pilots are able to take on these dangers and learn how to cope with them in safety.

Airport Emergency Situations

Finally, using these flight simulator airports pilots can learn how to handle emergency situations around them.

For example landing with a mechanical failure at an airport is highly dangerous. From damaged landing gear, to faulty instruments the flight simulator airport is the only place pilots can really learn how to cope with these situations.

Teaching pilots how to land, or in some cases make a controlled crash, with the minimal amount of risk possible is only possible in a flight simulator’s airport.

Next time you are flying in the virtual skies, take a moment to ponder the role the flight simulator airport has in your daily flying experience. It is far more than just a start and end to your journey, but can provide for some of the most exhilarating and terrifying moments in your flight.

Practice Flight Simulation Airport Landings & Take Offs

at Many Different Airports

Military aircraft and flight simulators have a long and rich history together. The flight simulator was first created for the military. Nearly every military aircraft can be linked to a flight simulator, F-16 Fighting Falcon to the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” and every aircraft in between have had pilots trained in the seat of a simulator of one form or another. In the wide scope of the flight simulator market, the military aircraft perhaps has some of the best coverage of all.

Offering the thrills of combat without enlisting in the armed forces, a flight simulator mimics history’s greatest wars and the conflicts of today. You can climbing into a flight simulator F-16 and streak over the skies of Iraq or fly a P-51 Mustang over Germany.  The combat flight simulators give players some of the most intense action that the flight simulator market has to offer. The missions in the modern combat flight simulator are more realistic than ever before.

F-16 Flight Simulation Realism

Many of these programs pride themselves in a high degree of realism. They want pilots to feel as if they really were in the war zone. There is also a sense of unpredictability when it comes to a combat flight simulator’s missions. You won’t find this in any of the other game genres. No two play-thoughts of a mission ever turn out exactly the same. Neither do two dogfights feel the same. To be the best in the skies in the modern combat flight simulator means mastering the ever changing and unpredictable air space and battle field below.

The F-16 has been the U.S. Air Forces for a couple of decades now.  This premier and most dependable aircraft has the ability to climb and tear across the sky, performing death defying aerobatics.  Just cruising along, listening to the sweet hum of the engines is about as close as many of us will ever get to experiencing these workhorses.

F-16 Flight Simulators Test Pilot Skills

F-16 flight simulators also allow the player to test their piloting skills like never before. Will you be able to handle the full force of an F-16 as it flies over mountains and under bridges, while maintaining your cool?

If you are considering joining the air force to fly, a flight simulator may be a good place to  see if you have a bit of aptitude.  Let’s face the facts here.  You’re not pulling G’s and if you become a lawn dart, you always get another plane. These two factors are a big deal.

Whether you are seriously considering joining the military to fly the F-16 or are just a big fan of its streamlined airframe and lightening quick agility, you can get a glimpse of both in a flight simulator F-16, if not the real thing.

Climbing into the cockpit of a flight simulator F-16 can be a life changing experience. Okay, nothing that dramatic, but it can be a lot of fun, that’s why they call it a game.

A good flight sim offers a wide range of challenges for pilots of every skill level. If you have always wanted to see what it is like to fly behind enemy lines with a wing load of missiles and a mission to achieve, then a flight simulator’s F-16 may just be for you.

Experience Real Life Flying with Flight Pro Sim

The Evolution of Online Flight Sim

The online flight sim has changed a lot over the last 20 years or so.  So many things have progressed.  From white lined 6×6 scenery to gray polygons vaguely resembling airplanes streaking across green fields.  With greener triangles for trees to finally nearly seamless realistic 3D models.

Even the lower end online flight sims are light years ahead of the old days, as it should be. But the real evolution isn’t in the 3d graphics, but in the styles now accommodated in all the various titles, this, my friend is the real improvement.

Flight Simulators - The Early Days

The late 80’s saw massive improvements in flight models and graphics, but the real online games were still a ways off.

In the early 90’s it seemed like the time had finally come for the armchair, okay computer chair, pilot to hit the unfriendly skies. AOL got in on the act and introduced millions to their version of WW2 in a game called Air Warrior. The Air Warrior developers also had other titles on other services under the name of WW2 Online and Warbirds Online.

Literally millions of people from all over the world would fight head to head in “arenas” that could have as many as 400 people zipping around shooting at one another. And it wasn’t just fighters either, bombers were incorporated and before long everyone was getting into the act.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Games

Microsoft came out with their Jane’s series of games in the late 1990’s. These games were based on the international weapons encyclopedia and ranked well. The arena became smaller and could be modified to suit individual tastes. The games lacked continuity though and soon people were bored with bombing the same airfields over and over.

The challenges of civil aviation did not go unnoticed by Microsoft either. Soon they were supporting multi-player gaming as well. Some of their later titles allowed multiple players to even fly the same plane over a network or allow players to operate the tower. This was all kind of boring and just barely a half step up from playing offline.

That is until Flight Pro Sim and Microsoft FSX came out, then things got interesting.

Of the two many felt that Flight Pro was the better of the two titles, the graphics were smoother and the plane choices more diverse. Both support full online play, which means you can fly from your local municipal airport to anywhere you have fuel for.

Out of fuel? Stop over somewhere and get some more or call in and practice mid-air refueling.

Crash your plane? Good news, you get a new one for free. Now we’re talking!

The thing to remember about online flight sims is that the graphics load must be at least moderate. This will help keep things running smoothly and give the pilot a better “feel” for the aircraft.

With the speed of computers increasing and graphics cards keeping pace, a moderate load game is even better than a heavier game from five years ago. This is a good thing.

Choppy graphics lead to over correction and crashes. Crashing adversely effects game play.

There are plenty of quality titles out in the marketplace today and I highly recommend one you can download right away. By doing so, you allow for misplaced and damaged CDROMS to not be a factor and can easily have an online back up. For me and my huge pile of software, this is a plus.

So get up there and grab some air!

There are as many flight sim planes in the gaming world as there are planes in the world.  Maybe even more because I saw a guy flying a UFO once on Microsoft Combat. (Really, I did.)  The thing is, there are many types of planes to choose from in the world of flight sims.

Jets and Prop Planes

For those of us who are combat minded things can be broken down into distinct types of combat flight sims: jets and prop planes.

Jets

The jet jock loves to fly fast, hit the afterburners and light up the skies with his missiles and the like.  While it is great to enjoy the speed and danger associated with going “Mach 3 with your hair on fire,” killing your targets from 3 miles out isn’t the cup that some people want to use when pouring tea.

Prop Planes

The prop fighter loves to get his hands a little dirty and go “guns up” and get his kills in close. The hallmark of this type of sim has got to be ACM; Air Combat Maneuvering.  Half Cubans, rolling left then breaking right, ducking, jinking and ditching… oh yeah, this is what it is about. These guys generally have a little “online swagger” about them that the jet jocks lack. Who can blame them? When you are an online Chuck Yeager you can do what you want, ya know?

Commercial Planes

The other flight sims are the commercial ones (yawn). These can actually be more fun than I used to think. Once you get over the lack of adrenaline, they are very challenging. Taking a Boeing 777 off the runway and to Angels 30, finding and then maintaining the proper altitude is pretty intense stuff.

These do not handle like an F-4 Phantom. With some of these sims you can do things no one really wants to do in real life, like file a flight plan and then deviate from it. Unlike real life where you run the risk of having a couple of fast movers flying up your tailpipe. That’s too bad too, because the game play then would get really interesting.

Physics Engine

Whatever your taste in planes, there is some sort of flight simulator plane that will fit your bill.  The main thing about the planes has to be the physics engine. The physics engine is the part of the program that decides how an airplane will react in flight.

Some sims offer the option to use a “relaxed realism” setting which will let you put your TWA passengers going from London to New York on a “vomit comet” or allow you to do incredible aerobatics that would otherwise be impossible.

The main thing to remember when researching flight sims isn’t necessarily the graphics. Graphics, though important, do very little to enhance the realism of your flight sim plane. If you can turn a Cessna up on one wing at Angels 45 and hammerhead into a 44,000 ft dive and pull out of it. Yeah, you see my point? Still, who wants to auger** all the time either?

Definition of Auger

** Auger: n. A piece of farm equipment used to drill post holes or a dumb act by an “online aviator” resulting in the pilot being “pre-buried.”

Syn:  lawn dart, bite dust, crash n burn, pancake into the green

The perfect flight sim joystick is out there. I know it is, I can smell it. It is large, ergonomic and full of buttons. It swivels left and right so I can have some yaw control. Force feedback is built right in and works so that I can feel everything. The throttle responds instantly and I never have to worry about calibrating because it is self-calibrating. It glows in the dark when I tell it to. It will call me “sweetheart” and fly for me when I want it to. Okay, maybe I am going too far, but we all want the perfect joystick.

Joysticks are 100% the way to go if you want to play a flight sim. Keyboard flying is not a good thing and you will find you spend a lot of time correcting, over-correcting and over-correcting your over-corrections. Not fun. Flying with a mouse or trackball (remember those?) is right out as well. Get a stick, Rook, and we’ll talk, cool?

Basic Joystick Models

The basic models are good enough if you just want a quick fix. Usually it’s good to have one of these two button generic jobbers on hand to use if your main goes down from all the crankin’ and bankin’ you have been doing. Personally I keep one around and on the shelf, just to show people I’m serious.

The main? Well she’s a beauty! A two button on top of the flight stick, one triggered wonder with force feedback and yaw control. The throttle lights up as I accelerate and there are six buttons on the side that do what I told ‘em to do.

Advantage of Force Feedback

What is the advantage of force feedback? Simply put, when you are looking on the screen, that is all you are doing. Without some feel on the stick you have no idea what your plane is doing. For example, if I am in a turn fight, by definition, the “E” flight means someone is going to run out of airspeed first. When they do, they die- plain and simple.

Without the force feedback stick the player cannot tell when they are approaching the stall speed until they are stalling. With a force feedback stick, the controls will become mushy and the plane will not respond as quickly to your commands; you can feel it start to stall before she actually does. This is an advantage over the two button jock trying to kill you.

Throttle Control

Throttle control? Gotta have it. Here’s why. When you are in a dog fight, or even landing, having as much control over your engines as possible is a must. Keyboard commands don’t always let you know where your throttle is sitting either. Glancing down to your flight stick and taking quick stock is much preferred.

Extra Bells and Whistles

All the extra buttons are nice as well. It will keep you from having to do a lot of “cnt-shift-F5-W/P” stuff just to pull the gear up. There are some flight sims that are nearly that complicated. Having the more complicated commands on your stick makes things go much more smoothly. They will also help keep you from getting a hand cramp.

Another command to add to the joystick (mine are on top) would be the flaps up and down commands. This is nice for the prop driven fighter jock. Yeah, and it will save your butt Junior.

There are tons of flight sticks on the net and yoke/rudder pedal combos are almost exclusively found on the web. Personally I don’t like these, it’s a taste issue. I mean who wants to fly a F-18 with Cessna control? Not this flying leatherneck.