Interested in buying Ideal Flight

[dlarrok]

I'm interested in buying Ideal Flight, but the unregistered version is not sufficient to get information on the features I'm interested in.

My main interest is in the random failure simulation of Ideal Flight. How does this work? Can I use it outside of a 'mission' framework?

I'm also interested in the flightplanning. Can I enter my own route and fuel information? The information IF isn't sufficient to plan a realistic flight, and change the settings to see if I can put in my own information isn't possible in the unregistered version.

This software is far too expensive to buy without being 100% sure it's what I want.

[Steve Waite]

You really need to understand what IF does first:

The best thing to do is run the demo and fly the default setup and let it make a route and fly it. Try pressing the big red right arrow icon a few times to see what comes up, look at the briefing (orange button), fly the route (blue button) and accept the assessment (tick) and check out the records. There's not much left to the imagination with the demo package e.g. there are only Intersections missing from routes in the demo.

Flaps and gear are affected by overspeed and gforces, flaps and gear get stuck in the position they were in when failed. The probability failures increase with gforces for the other items. You can set probability failures (MTBF) values of your own or choose from a preset list. The failures system rielies on IF running as an FSX client.

You can enter your own route by opening a pre built plan file or specifying departure.

It is easiest to set your own fuel in the FSX Fuel/payload or FMS menu. With IF you set Range to adjust the fuel amount which mainly goes by the fuel you use in cruise flight, it adjusts for approach, departure and so on. If you set your own fuel then you can leave the IF fuel off and fill up in the sim. When the range is set properly the IF fuel planner is exact. IF fuel calculation relies on the fuel you actually use in the sim with the model.

Thanks very much for your interest.
Steve

[dlarrok]

Steve,

Thanks for your response. To be perfectly honest, I am not at all interested in most of what IF does. I plan my own flights using charts from skyvector.com and plan my fuel using the charts from the aircraft's POH.

The only features of IF I am interested in is the assessment and random failures features. Is it possible to use only those two features of IF, and the assessment feature is really just a bonus. IF appears to be the only random failure generator for FSX, so that's what I'm interested in. What do you mean by run as a client?

[Steve Waite]

IF runs as a network client of FSX and takes care of the failures via those communications, but runs on the same PC as the Host FSX due to having to make files on the FSX Host system. You can plan your own flights and run them in IF, use your own fuel calculations, ATC, Weather, Ai traffic, do whatever you want, utilise whatever aspects of IF you want. You can modify the assessment criteria. IF has a lot of functions you may not be aware of and may find very handy, the scenery list for example lists all the airports in a specific package, the aircraft DB remembers where you left your aircraft, and many other unique functions.

[dlarrok]

Steve,

Thanks, I'll purchase IF once I get the money together.

[Steve Waite]

Thanks, if you use up all the flights in the demo just remove/reinstall for more.
All the best
Steve