airplane simulator games
Airplane simulator games were created for people to have an accurate experience of flying an airplane without actually stepping into a cockpit. Computer flight simulators are airplane simulator games used on PCs in homes. Full flight simulators are used to train commercial or military pilots and are much more complex to run.
Most airplane simulator games can be played on the hardware commonly found on most PCs, but there are add-ons, plug-ins, modifications and upgrades that are available and desirable depending on how realistic the user wants the experience to be. A joystick, headset and even a simulated cockpit are some possible additions.
Joysticks have several features including levers for multi-engine aircraft and buttons that control various aircraft functions. Pedals for simulating rudder control are also available. Good flight simulator games have an accurate instrument display for each type of aircraft being flown.
Traditional airplane simulator games allow the players to fly existing aircraft in a realistic environment including weather, landing and taking-off at existing airports, air shows and a real-time view of the land. Combat flight simulators require the players to have military missions, and fly in battle situations. They may have dog-fights, land on an aircraft carrier and bomb targets during a simulated war. Science fiction flight simulators use planes that do not really exist. They may be spaceships, go to other planets and have intergalactic travel.
Student pilots often use flight simulator games in their early stages of training to familiarize themselves with the instrumentation and controls. It doesn’t replace real-time in an aircraft required for licensing, but airplane simulator games are a good early training tool. Astronauts use high tech 3D flight simulators that are the closest they can get to flying in space before lift-off.
The time of day modeling is highly detailed in the latest airplane simulator games. The software uses the computer clock to calculate the sun, moon, stars and planets in their real time positions while the game is being played. If the pilot wants to fly from San Francisco to New York the position of the sun will be accurate throughout the trip.
Pro Flight Simulator and Flight Pro Sim are two airplane simulator games that offer an extremely realistic flying experience. They both include over 100 planes, but Pro Flight Simulator has 150 planes and helicopters while Flight Pro Sim starts with 20 planes with 100 more to download once you have become a member. They both offer real time integration with Google Maps and over 20,000 existing airports for landing and take off with accurate runway lighting and elevations. All the scenery is actual military data for rivers, cities, towns, highways, lakes and railroads as well as foliage.
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The controls accurately replicate actual instruments. They lag correctly, gyro drift correctly and the magnetic compass reacts to aircraft body forces. They can calculate the airport nearest to you and get the current METAR for that station from the NOAA weather service. This includes temperature, pressure density, dew point, wind and visibility.
They also have support for landing on two aircraft carriers and air-air refueling. Both offer free lifetime updates and upgrades, and both offer the San Francisco Bay and Pacific area maps, but with Flight Pro Sim other world areas need to be purchased separately.
Pro Flight Simulator offers four bonuses when customers order early. They are time limited and include an Interactive Scenery Designer to create scenes and landscapes, a Kelpie Flight Planner, Aeron combat Flight Simulator for very realistic combat flying and a professional Airplane Flying Handbook.
Both airplane simulator games offer a 60 day money back guarantee, instant 24/7 online access with staff who can help with questions or any problems, a multi PC license for any number of computers and more photo-realistic scenery. The Pro Flight Simulator also offers more planes and helicopters, world scenery included, four bonuses, video tutorials, no extra charges and no lag in flying with faster acceleration.
Pro Flight Simulator gives full support for all operating systems including Macs. It can be downloaded on any computer running Win95, Win98, Win2000, ME, XP, vista and Windows 7. Flight Pro Sim will download on all of these Microsoft Windows OS.
With the wide variety of flying experiences available in these airplane simulator games there is no chance they will become boring. The possibility to fly planes from history as well as jet fighters, small aircraft, wide body aircraft and planes no longer in use becomes real in airplane simulator games. With Google Maps and realistic scenery you can fly over your hometown or even over your own house.
Playing airplane simulator games online can be very complex and exciting. There can be online fighter squadrons, virtual air traffic controller and pilot interactions and virtual airlines. You can put on air shows, fly in formation and easily locate other pilots on Google Map integration. Pro Flight Simulator has over 4000 members online, so it’s easy to find other pilots.