I will not expand my views on other simulators that much, to each their own. At the least, I feel free to say that the heavy canon is Flight Simulator XXXX by Microsoft. But in the number of users is not the strength. So? What's wrong with FS? Nothing and all. Enhancing between each version, but still not convincing enough that the flight models are that good. The Concorde of FS2000 never could get off the ground. The helicopter is as unbelieving as its first appearance. Take away the users and this sim dies on the spot. The scenery was as flat as the palm of my hand, but for a few limited areas. FS2000 tried to fix that and the whole thing was so jerky and shuddering that even the fastest PC on the block could not fix that. The future seems better, but will the helicopter and its friends fly as always?

The next in line is/was the Flight Unlimited range. Unfortunately the programmers apparently got bored, the publisher was rushing things, some of the not so severe bugs too expensive to fix and the whole of the Looking Glass team took the road. And the publisher was sitting with a good simulator on their hands and had no means to expand or fix, as the programmers were "splattered" all over the "world" like bugs on a crops duster aircraft's windshield. But this sim doesn’t seem to want to die as new aircraft and great looking cockpits still appear day by day, with a very friendly bunch of users talking and playing and enjoying. I mean, even compared to the latest release of FlyII, this babe has, true to her name, unlimited, the best looking stuff on the whole block, uhh, town, uhh, world?

Speaking of the Fly stuff, all good and scenery to drool about. But, hoo-baa, ever tried to quickly do a scan of all instruments and part of the cockpit? By mouse, keyboard and joystick combinations I never could manage a true-to-life manner do that before I hit the deck - splat! out of control if you do not have the AP on. I bungled many a good approach just because of this, nope the workload is unrealistically realistic.

So? This is what you've been reading and waiting for: X-Plane!! That's it, you are so ferpectly right, I love this sim yes! Not that it is that hassle free, no indeed, one of the most frustrating programs I ever owned. Then again where else can you do a full cockpit in one evening, and get your favourite airport done the next evening? Also, with a bit of patience one can get the greatest looking close to FU-like scenery in a few weeks (but only with thousands and thousands and thousands of mouse clicking, is the bad news). I really want to quote what someone said, but that's not fit for public, just suffice with the words that he sort of did wear his index finger down by at least half an inch (1 cm). So what do I get by advertising X-Plane? Nothing! Just one spin-off, if you buy it, it will grow and stay alive and you will score one of the best aircraft developing simulation programs available.

Which simulator between the Flight Unlimited range (yes, you have to have all 3 of them) and X-Plane would I really recommend? Snoopy has the answer:

Picture by, with compliments, but not with permission, Charles M. Schulz. Sorry Snoopy, but I would recommend X-Plane, because the best of them all has died, but the running between them both will not stop. If you don't have any FU version and could ever still get a hand on any of them, buy it (only for PC, not Mac). But, skip the others and for the best versatility, and alive community go for X-Plane. See below why.

A picture in the hand is worth a thousand in the bush (to bend the proverb a bit more to my liking). The pictures were captured between 18:00 and 19:00 simulator time and compressed the same amount by using JPEG compression.

On our way to Mount Rainier near Seattle with FU's renegade:

Closer to the mountain, showing the cockpit (and the moon):

In my Beaver with X-Plane close at the same place, nice panel, but ughh, the clouds are doing something funny and the textures are a bit crude.

So I've landed at Ranger creek with the Renegade:

And here I sit in the Beaver on the same runway the way X-Plane sees it, ummmmm, look at the FPS:

But now before you want to say the scenery is a bit sparse, take a look at this frame of a movie captured by the designer of the Alps scenery (I think this one I have, was designed by Habakuk or perhaps Bruno Glaviano, not sure):

And here I am in my own Sabre F86 and my own designed cockpit, doing a low pass in a Norway ravine, scenery by Michel Verheughe, flying towards the hydro-electric dam. This image really does not do true justice to the scenery package as a whole, you have to fly it to enjoy it fully:

And finally to show you the "virtual" virtual cockpit of the Huey helicopter in flight. It took me 5 minutes to create this somewhat unconventional layout of gauges. I like to fly the helicopters this way in X-Plane, it shows one the outside very openly for much better aircraft control. The instruments are needed but should not obstruct the view and I threw in a full functional HUD for the fun!

Final word: these two simulators, FU2/3 for close-to real ATC and VFR flying with acceptable flight models and the versatile X-Plane and its ease of operation and tweaking (and the best program for the best flight modeling capability ever) are the only ones that will stay on my PC's hard disk for a long-long time!