Pre-Flight Flight Sim

[skorp_ian]

Has anyone out there tried Pre-Flight (latest version is 2.90, I think). It is supposed to work with any USB controller recognized by Windows, and you can also get adapters for certain transmitters. Any opinions / observations on how it compares with Clearview and other flight sims, in particular for helis? Thanks.

[bluesky123]

You can download a "demo" of the latest PRE-Flight version. The limitation is that the demo only supports two joystick axes (i.e. two transmitter channels), while the remaining channels must be controlled from the keyboard. As soon as you try to engage the other transmitter axes, the sim says "buy a full version".

How PRE-Flight stacks up against other simulators, that's a different question. It is certainly not in the same league as the "big boys" like Reflex, G3.5, AeroFly.

Boris

[skorp_ian]

I did download the demo version, but I find that limiting the demo to only 2 channels makes the trial quite useless. In order to assess whether it is worth getting, you need to get a feel of how realistic or useful the sim is. You need at least 4 channels to do that. Is anyone out there using the full version, and if so what are your impressions?

[FreeFlier]

The last version - 1.95 - did support 4 axis joystick interface, but was quite different from any other sim I ever used. The default sceneries were very simple, but did allow for both training as well as quite a level of modification. The aircraft were well developed and able to be modified extensively. Unfortunately the physics of the aircraft flying were totally unrealistic, and the spatial visualization, both going away and coming back were strange to say the least.

There were many add-on aircraft from the Transcendental website, and the two last scenery add-ons were photorealistic - one a park next to a major Australian city, perhaps Sydney, and were much better. There were other sceneries available that were better than the default, but not up to the level of most of the payware sims.

I used a USB interface that is long out of production, and my first transmitter, a Hitec Focus 4, that all worked well with Pre Fiight.

If you search for version 1.95 on the web, it is still available, but the last time I did that it took hours to find a viable link. You might try that version - if you can find it - I no longer have it - just to see whether it fills your needs.

Considering what's happened in the model simulation area over the last few years, I certainly wouldn't pay for that sim, but it may have been improved in ways that might make it worth a look, but somehow I doubt it.

Good luck

Stew