Aerofly Erfahrungen

Excellent Flight Simulator

The world of desktop flight simulators has some big players so where does Aerofly FS 4 fit in? In brief, it doesn’t have the realistic scenery of the Microsoft sim nor the flight handling characteristics of X-plane but it scores high on several very important parameters: price, ease of installation and use, frames per second, screen resolution and overall fun of flying. POSITIVES very reasonably priced for the basic software includes most of the globe installation (on mac) was totally straight-forward loads up very quickly fast response moving around different settings runs very smoothly with good frame rate high definition instrument panels overall a very satisfactory screen experience has a good range of aircraft in the starter pack most functions can be allocated to user preferred keys joystick (Logitech) worked very well good selection of overlays including HUD and landmarks quick set option for basic settings replay works when pause is activated and is intuitive ability to reset aircraft back in time in an existing path ability to set aircraft forward in a planned path lots of active aircraft on ground and in the sky option to fly some of the commercial routes vast array of settings good range of camera views clouds very realistic full global terrain access in the desktop sim (included in price) no need to download scenery areas excellent map for locating aircraft (with approach or runway options) map shows real-world coordinates extra aircraft available for reasonable price beautifully presented online tutorials (but could be bet NEGATIVES the online tutorial information is quite good BUT does not offer a quick start option some onscreen icons do not have clearly explained purposes does not present the tutorials in the sequence that a beginner would require does not have a basic autopilot tutorial dismissive support when I requested a simple intro tutorial water surfaces are very static strange artefacts in the sea sometimes (e.g., Co Dublin coast) buildings too many and too neat (though OK from 20,000 ft) too many random artefacts in airports that are otherwise quite accurate in some cases houses and even aerial masts at the end of a runway even at low “tree density” setting, too many trees and in odd locations gear up/down is a toggle no airport signage no moving vehicular traffic the software sometimes freezes on choosing aircraft or on exit weather settings are terribly vague (no wind speed, no real cloud levels) unclear layout of key assignments a few key assignments did not work (e.g., sound variometer) aircraft trails look like kitchen paper unrolling no fuel setting! WISHES to be able to programme a single camera view to a single key to be able to save flights to replay later to have a “local weather now” option to have Favourite Locations (with specific aircraft and runway settings) more detailed wind and cloud settings (or, at least, give the numerical values of the existing settings) and rain or mist effects tips appearing when hovering over icons would be useful heights on the maps would be important There are lots of features I have not tried (tutorials, challenges, navigated flights). There is a whole area of career statistics that makes interesting viewing after a few flights. There is a big list of possible achievements, all well documented. This review is about the desktop Aerofly but I found the iPhone version of Aerofly also very good, perhaps the best small-screen flight simulator I have tried. Aerofly charges a subscription for access to global scenery on the mobile version and, although good enough for the small screen, gives a very poor impression of what is available for the desktop version and for free. Overall, this is a very good FS. Yes, it has drawbacks but the flying experience is excellent.