Fly!: presentation Articles

Fly! is a civil flight simulator (competitor of Microsoft Flight Simulator product) published by the Interactive Take 2 company whose official site is http://fly.godgames.com.

What are Fly! advantages ?

• a complete flight generator (choice of way, weather, aircraft, fuel loading, passengers and freight) but also ready-made missions (for the hurry ones) which charge FPL in GPS or FMS.
• instrument panels (without comments, it's perfect !) with realistic starting up (and always possibility of avoiding it, but what a pity !).
• it covers all the planet (but, only USA are represented with satellite pictures and covered by FAA aeronautical charts). Some strangenesses exist concerning airfields situation in our country. Fortunately, some voluntary developers have mainly remedied these anomalies (among other things ROTW group for France).
• a virtual chart function displayable in transparency on any view. Better than a GPS moving map. Allows to directly load pointed frequencies in radios, VOR and ADF.
• Fly! has a superb and more than realistic clouds representation: when they are crossed, you couldn't believe your eyes ! It's a pity that this clouds representation isn't so good in Fly! II, but it remains higher than what MSFS proposes. Please note also condensation streaks at high altitude.
• exceptional ! allows to directly generate local weather (nearly) from METAR files provided by national weather servers. Some changes are necessary because American files do not completely follow the international standard. Infometar allows to extract only the METAR corresponding to the flight plan. The generated weather cover is visible on FPL generation chart (red circles).
  For those which do not know the METAR, please refer to the explanatory file, in the "Weather" heading.
• correct ATC which manages GROUND, TOWER, APPROACH and EN ROUTE frequencies. Be careful, acknowledge the messages. Caution, Fly! II seems to be in regression with this function.
• Fly! II is accompanied with a very simple scenery editor allowing, in a few minutes, to "fill" a scenery with quite satisfactory generic buildings. You can access it by keys "Ctrl + E" when Fly! II is running.

What are Fly! disadvantages (youth defects for version 1, commercial haste for version 2 ?)

• some bugs (soft euphemism !!! - many successive patches released by the editor correct numerous ones) in both versions. However, Fly! II version 240 is very usable.
• some nonoperational devices (like twin-jet aircraft FMS) in original versions.
• cockpits are more difficult to visualize and use than those to which we have been used in FS98 (necessity to make a scrolling to display some instruments), but we gain in realism.
• need to have a powerful PC configuration and some space on hard disc (several Gb).
• complexity for 3D graphics board parameter setting (according to the brand name and the model).
• incomplete airports outside detailed zones. Europe has been neglected, relief is represented in a not very precise way and all airports are limited to simple runways. Fortunately, latest Fly! 1/2K editor version allows to remake all, and ROTW group took a France creation in hand on a level never equalized in another simulator.