Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: As a user of MS FS 2000, I was looking for a more realistic simulation of the Cessna 172. I am rather disappointed. The environment graphics looks very poor compared to MS FS. Yes, there are a few more knobs to turn in the cockpit, but the scrolling you need to find them is ackward. Definitely not my choice.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: As a user of MS FS 2000, I was looking for a more realistic simulation of the Cessna 172. I am rather disappointed. The environment graphics looks very poor compared to MS FS. Yes, there are a few more knobs to turn in the cockpit, but the scrolling you need to find them is ackward. Definitely not my choice.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Flight Sim! Better than FS2000
Review: Finally, a flight sim that's able to unseat the dominant FS series in the flight sim market. Fly 2K! is the updated version of Fly!. This game was designed to cater to flight sim enthusiasts and not to gamers like what FS2000 was designed for. You may get frustrated with the controls of the plane, and you might even say it's buggy. But in truth, the game is now stable thanks to TRI's dedication to patching and releasing an updated version of the game. FLy 2K! comes with several neat add-ons like Roger Wilco support, INFOMETAR to download actual weather patterns of the day, a scenery utility from HowintheWorld software called Sky! which completely overhauls the cloud details of the sim. Flight dynamics are very real. If you got used to how easy FS2000's dynamics are , you'll be suprised just how difficult it is to fly a plane. The sim requires a good background knowledge of flight dynamics. The reality of flying the modelled planes could be very unforgiving at times. My only gripe about this game is that you cant crash yourself. The plane will just bounce off the ground and continue flying which then brings my stars a tad lower. Also, I've been having problems calibrating my USB Flight Sim yoke with this game. Graphics are beautiful. There are a lot of free downloadable utilities so you can add more life into the scenery. Look for a free utility called Ground Control-www.howintheworld.com. You'll be amazed at how it'll transform the flight graphics to real life terrain. Although, there are just two third party add-on planes for this game so far, nevertheless, these add-ons raised the realism level of the game even higher, an add-on from PMDG for a 757 series and from Wilco Publishing for a 737 series. Overall: get this game. You'll love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Best on the market but......
Review: Fly! 2K is the most recent development of the original Fly! In creating it, the developers have tried to increase the realism beyond the commendable level of the original product, and for the most part they have succeeded. As a bonus, more aircraft models are available as well.Be forewarned: This program is a resource hog! A full install will take up an astounding 1.6 GIGABYTES of disk space. It also needs a video card of at least 16mb or, better yet 32mb. I would also recommend at least 128 megs of memory for adequate play. My system had the disk space and memory, but not the video. As a result frame rates, while adequate at altitude, become very slow during landings, which has on occasion resulted in massive overcontrolling on final. I do view this as a limitation of the computer, and not of the game. You have a choice of which screen you wish to view first, choosing from flight planning, environment, and aircraft setup. Flight planning allows you to choose start and endpoints from all US airports (Imported directly from the FAA database) and navaids (ditto), and at least the major airports worldwide. You can choose to fly direct, via gps, or using the more mundane vor's and ADF stations. Next you can go to the aircraft setup, where you can choose from Cessna Skyhawk, Piper Malibu, Piper Navajo, Beech KingAir and a Hawker-Siddley Bizjet. From there you can set weight by adding and removing passengers, changing the weight of each, and by setting the amount of baggage in each available compartment. Fuel volume is also adjustable. A nice touch not found on some sims is actual air traffic control, including atis, FSS, clearance delivery, ground (which will display arrow markings on the pavement to guide you where you need to go), tower, approach/departure, and centers for ifr. It's all there, and reasonably realistic, except for the fact that they seem to ignore the wind settings (which are, accurate from atis) and frequently guide you into a takeoff or landing with the wind behind you. They seem to have a default runway and direction, and ATC chooses this regardless of winds. (not good) The environment setup page allows you to either set up the environment by hand (same settings world wide) or import metar's from the FAA/NOAA. When setting by hand you can set wind speed and direction, temp, barometer setting, visibility, precipitation type and intensity and the height and thickness of up to 3 cloud layers. A very nice touch. With the exception of 5 urban areas, the scenery below you is composed of generic overlays, which are used for various terrain types: Urban, suburban, rural, etc taken from landsat satellite imagery. This causes the scenery, while quite realistic, to become very repetitive. This program is definitely for flying, not sightseeing. Even in the more detailed areas major landmarks are not particularly accurate, and are missing all together in smaller towns (Example: Michigan Stadium, seating 110,000+/- is nowhere to be seen in the town of Ann Arbor). Rather disappointing. The Instrument panel on the other hand is an absolute delight. The panels are rendered with absolute authenticity, and they are appropriate to the aircraft being flown. Instruments, radios, and navigational aids all work just like the real item. For a program of this type, this is in my opinion a major plus. Flight dynamics are all in all pretty good, however the inherent stability of some planes is pretty much missing. I have a lot of hours in Cessna Skyhawks and I can guarantee that they are as stable as a concrete slab on a flat surface (and about as maneuverable). The skyhawk in this sim is quite unstable, particualarly in pitch. (At this point, I should point out that I am using a joystick, not a yoke, which I am informed is a lot more stable.) With practice, I am able to trim it out after a while, and maintain altitude within about 100 feet of target. Now the bad news: The Skyhawk is the stable one! The Piper Malibu is a little less stable, but can again be held to about 100 feet +/- in level flight. Pitch trim is also somewhat sensitive. Using a 1% (the minimum) change in trim will cause a noticable change in vertical speed. Moving on to the Navajo, and even heavier BeechCraft KingAir, these ones are even less stable. A single click of pitch will take you from +500 feet per minute climb to -1000 feet per minute dive....WAY too sensitive. It is equally hard (impossible) to maintain altitude using throttle: enough change in throttle settings to be detected results in major swings in vertical speed. Stability settings in the setup screens for pitch, roll and yaw would be greatly appreciated. Airport representations are pretty good, with major airports having accurate depictions of the ramps, taxiways and runways. Buildings are either quite rudimentary, or missing entirely however. Minor airport have no taxiways. One final gripe: Some airports simply aren't where they should be. Boston Logan is 5 miles inland, rather than right on the harbor, and Mackinac Island (Michigan) is located 5 miles inland on the mainland. The island itself is still there, but shows no airport, or town, for that matter. All in all, however, this is a credible attempt at a simulation of the experience of piloting an actual aircraft. One does need to remember that the point of this sim is flying, not sightseeing, however. The 3d simulations are good with the proper equipment, and most of the experience is there. Yes, I am looking forward to the next version, Fly II, which is due out later this year.
Rating:
Summary: Fly 2K: A Pilot's View
Review: Fly! 2K is the most recent development of the original Fly! In creating it, the developers have tried to increase the realism beyond the commendable level of the original product, and for the most part they have succeeded. As a bonus, more aircraft models are available as well. Be forewarned: This program is a resource hog! A full install will take up an astounding 1.6 GIGABYTES of disk space. It also needs a video card of at least 16mb or, better yet 32mb. I would also recommend at least 128 megs of memory for adequate play. My system had the disk space and memory, but not the video. As a result frame rates, while adequate at altitude, become very slow during landings, which has on occasion resulted in massive overcontrolling on final. I do view this as a limitation of the computer, and not of the game. You have a choice of which screen you wish to view first, choosing from flight planning, environment, and aircraft setup. Flight planning allows you to choose start and endpoints from all US airports (Imported directly from the FAA database) and navaids (ditto), and at least the major airports worldwide. You can choose to fly direct, via gps, or using the more mundane vor's and ADF stations. Next you can go to the aircraft setup, where you can choose from Cessna Skyhawk, Piper Malibu, Piper Navajo, Beech KingAir and a Hawker-Siddley Bizjet. From there you can set weight by adding and removing passengers, changing the weight of each, and by setting the amount of baggage in each available compartment. Fuel volume is also adjustable. A nice touch not found on some sims is actual air traffic control, including atis, FSS, clearance delivery, ground (which will display arrow markings on the pavement to guide you where you need to go), tower, approach/departure, and centers for ifr. It's all there, and reasonably realistic, except for the fact that they seem to ignore the wind settings (which are, accurate from atis) and frequently guide you into a takeoff or landing with the wind behind you. They seem to have a default runway and direction, and ATC chooses this regardless of winds. (not good) The environment setup page allows you to either set up the environment by hand (same settings world wide) or import metar's from the FAA/NOAA. When setting by hand you can set wind speed and direction, temp, barometer setting, visibility, precipitation type and intensity and the height and thickness of up to 3 cloud layers. A very nice touch. With the exception of 5 urban areas, the scenery below you is composed of generic overlays, which are used for various terrain types: Urban, suburban, rural, etc taken from landsat satellite imagery. This causes the scenery, while quite realistic, to become very repetitive. This program is definitely for flying, not sightseeing. Even in the more detailed areas major landmarks are not particularly accurate, and are missing all together in smaller towns (Example: Michigan Stadium, seating 110,000+/- is nowhere to be seen in the town of Ann Arbor). Rather disappointing. The Instrument panel on the other hand is an absolute delight. The panels are rendered with absolute authenticity, and they are appropriate to the aircraft being flown. Instruments, radios, and navigational aids all work just like the real item. For a program of this type, this is in my opinion a major plus. Flight dynamics are all in all pretty good, however the inherent stability of some planes is pretty much missing. I have a lot of hours in Cessna Skyhawks and I can guarantee that they are as stable as a concrete slab on a flat surface (and about as maneuverable). The skyhawk in this sim is quite unstable, particualarly in pitch. (At this point, I should point out that I am using a joystick, not a yoke, which I am informed is a lot more stable.) With practice, I am able to trim it out after a while, and maintain altitude within about 100 feet of target. Now the bad news: The Skyhawk is the stable one! The Piper Malibu is a little less stable, but can again be held to about 100 feet +/- in level flight. Pitch trim is also somewhat sensitive. Using a 1% (the minimum) change in trim will cause a noticable change in vertical speed. Moving on to the Navajo, and even heavier BeechCraft KingAir, these ones are even less stable. A single click of pitch will take you from +500 feet per minute climb to -1000 feet per minute dive....WAY too sensitive. It is equally hard (impossible) to maintain altitude using throttle: enough change in throttle settings to be detected results in major swings in vertical speed. Stability settings in the setup screens for pitch, roll and yaw would be greatly appreciated. Airport representations are pretty good, with major airports having accurate depictions of the ramps, taxiways and runways. Buildings are either quite rudimentary, or missing entirely however. Minor airport have no taxiways. One final gripe: Some airports simply aren't where they should be. Boston Logan is 5 miles inland, rather than right on the harbor, and Mackinac Island (Michigan) is located 5 miles inland on the mainland. The island itself is still there, but shows no airport, or town, for that matter. All in all, however, this is a credible attempt at a simulation of the experience of piloting an actual aircraft. One does need to remember that the point of this sim is flying, not sightseeing, however. The 3d simulations are good with the proper equipment, and most of the experience is there. Yes, I am looking forward to the next version, Fly II, which is due out later this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Potential Galore
Review: Fly!2K is a solid simulation right out of the box. It's systems modelling, clouds, and panels are second to none. However, it is the Fly! community that is its biggest asset. This includes all the third party developers that have developed incredible add-ons for the sim, Todd Klaus and his TerraScene2 program, which makes high quality scenery creation incredibly easy. It also includes everyone who participates in AVSIM Online's Fly! forums, which also includes the unprecedented participation of the Fly! development team, especially Rich.
Rating:
Summary: Potential Galore
Review: Fly!2K is a solid simulation right out of the box. It's systems modelling, clouds, and panels are second to none. However, it is the Fly! community that is its biggest asset. This includes all the third party developers that have developed incredible add-ons for the sim, Todd Klaus and his TerraScene2 program, which makes high quality scenery creation incredibly easy. It also includes everyone who participates in AVSIM Online's Fly! forums, which also includes the unprecedented participation of the Fly! development team, especially Rich.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Program
Review: I found this product to be strong on instrumentation and realism regarding the cockpit. Although the recommended requirements to run the program are hefty, I was fortunate to have 128 meg of memory and a 16 meg video card. I really appreciate the transparent overlays that can be placed over the cocpit window for GPS, Vectors and more. The outside scenery is fine but not as detailed as the cockpit itself. The manual is good for learning the navigational techniques using NDB, VOR etc. The manual did well in explaining these concepts in easy to understand manner. I am personnaly using it to learn more as I strive towards obtaining a private pilot license. I also have Flight Unlimited III which requires less hardware but has it's value also.
Rating:
Summary: The best on the market.
Review: I'm a 29 year old aviation junky. I own flight sim 95,98, x plane, and usaf. In my opinion, fly 2k is the best one of them all. Hell, the best on the market! The cockpits are so detailed, every dial, switch, and button performs a task just as it would in a real aircraft. It is totally realistic. I've never flown an actual aircraft, but when I fly any aircraft in fly 2k I can't help but think that this is what it feels like to fly a real aircraft. You can actualy "turn your head" to look out of your side windows without being put outside of the aircraft, you remain inside the aircraft and see things just as you would inside the aircraft. Look down to see your throttle, elevator and aileron settings, switch fuel tanks. Look at the overhead controls to turn on lights start engines etc. The sound! Sit inside the Raytheon Hawker 800XP and start the engines! It sounds like a real jet! Set the parking breaks first, as you may start down the runway before your're ready. The game is extremely realistic, I can't stress that enough. If you're looking for a "no joke" flight sim, Fly 2k is the one you want. You have to try it!!
Rating:
Summary: NOT FOR IDOTS!
Review: The game is a great game and is for the most part very realistic. The only problem with it is that the manual that comes with the game does not show you half of the things that you should know to be able to have fun with it. It took a friend and myself about 4 weeks to be able to configure and learn all of the diffrent buttons. It takes the whole keyboard and a joystick or yoke to play it. The manual that comes with the game does not really teach you how to fly in the way a flight sim should. It is very benifical to have some flight training before you play this game.
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