FS2 - the Apple of Flight Sims?

Truth....
I use three other sims for specific things Aerofly does not offer but ONLY when I have a few hours to kill...
75% of my flighttime is in Aerofly, and I am very gratefull that we can choose between four helicopters now...

Quote from psionmark

MSFS 2020: 5 minutes or so to load the sim. Switch to VR, it crashes to the desktop. Go and make a cup of coffee. So zero minutes flying out of 15.

I totally agree that FS2 is the quickest & easiest route to smooth VR that just works every time - but - if it takes 5 minutes to load your MSFS then something isn't right - then it crashes - so definitely not right.

Load times used to be night & day at first, now in the same ball park at least. Still FS2 wins on many fronts though MSFS now has an EC135 from the community while VR frame rates & smoothness are improving, MSFS VR is still beta.

So it is ...

but .... It surprises me ... that not many thinks written about FS2 in many sim forums and show on youtube etc ... .

Even people who seems to be very deep into sim flying things .... on youtube (for example)

often don't even know anything about Aerofly FS 2?

How can that be?

Anytime I show other simmers my FS2 ...they couldn't believe that it existed and they didn't know it

( and they are "Flight-Sim-Profis" since years )

So I think only our community here can change this

Well...I have been promoting Aerofly a lot on the Facebook group Helicopter Flight Simulation.
Most people over there are aware of Aerofly, biggest complaint is the lack of worldwide scenery, and the quality of water, lack of dynamic weather etc....

So they prefer X Plane 11 mostly, more helicopters too for that sim, but some became aware of the good helicopter flight dynamics of Aerofly.
Quite a few of them have started with Aerofly now we have four helicopters, a few years back it was only the R22 so interest was low.

I have been using FSX-SE and even FS9 for years. But as the saying goes I don't like AeroFly 2 "I LOVE AeroFly 2". I totally agree what others have said. Thanks so much for all the hard work others have done to make ASF2 tops IMO.

Quote from PjotR22

Well...I have been promoting Aerofly a lot on the Facebook group Helicopter Flight Simulation.
Most people over there are aware of Aerofly, biggest complaint is the lack of worldwide scenery, and the quality of water, lack of dynamic weather etc....

So they prefer X Plane 11 mostly, more helicopters too for that sim, but some became aware of the good helicopter flight dynamics of Aerofly.
Quite a few of them have started with Aerofly now we have four helicopters, a few years back it was only the R22 so interest was low.

Hello Peter,

I dont know why it should be more interesting ( and they dont buy or use ) because of " to less helicopters"

Why is it necessary for a Sim-pilot fly every X weeks (or month) get new different new Helis ? ( its nice ... ok .. but not necessary)

I think 98% of most AF2 Pilots fly and check everything you can do in the Sim and echaust all possibilities ..and even when ... I can fly every 2 weeks the same Plane or Heli in same scenery .. without to bore ...

but it looks like I am not like most other pilots .....

I totally agree, some people like to have a new helicopter every other month, collectors I guess...
Half of the time I'm flying Aerofly's R22 and I still love it, the others are good for more speed.
But I would welcome more options for water and weather!

Yes ... water should be great

What many Simmers pilots are looking for nowadays is this search often exaggerated of scenarios, airplanes .... For me Aerofly satisfies me in the most important question of a virtual simulator: (Realism, physics and flight system) I can reproduce everything an Airbus A320 and all the planes do I can reproduce the reality of realistic Stall and I can witness the deformation in the wings caused by variation of speed, Speed brake action and efforts in the elevators ..... apart from the systems of the airplane that the makes it more of a simulator, for Virtual pilots who seek reality is enough especially for me, I especially look for test flights on A320.

When it comes to the scenario, we sometimes want countless scenarios and we do not explore and take advantage of the existing ones, which are already very real and detailed.

Of course, it is always good to have the evolution of the scenario as snowy scenarios ... but for me it is not an emergency issue to the point of judging simulators.

Quote from higgy

Yes ... water should be great

...and "real" taxi and landing lights...

Agreed...FS2 has the best flight physics of the sims I fly. I wish it had a good API for adding the instrument cluster to a dedicated secondary monitor or iPad (Like FSI-172, or Air Manager that X-plane and Prepar3D have)

Hmmm, yea, it would be awesome if Aerofly could be "the Apple" or "Swiss Army Knife" among all the well known flight sims on the market.

But, honestly, to me it is still in a kind of beta-state, and The King Of Boredom under the flightsims. And I'm an Aeroflyer since the very first beginnings of IPACS's Aerofly series in 2012.

• Still boring as hell if you get used to the sim (the content has not really changed in terms of challanges for pilots or some kind of missions since 2012).
  
• Still no dynamic water, no dynamic weather, no seasons, the same boring appearance of scenery all day long.
  
• Still the same and only one, ever lasting summer day/night, even not scheduled for at least seven days.
  
• Allthough the placeholder clouds have changed since version one (2012), there are still almost the same looking and boring placeholder clouds in version two (cumulus clouds in Aerofly are still performance hogs !!!)
  
• Unbelievable , but the developers couldn't even change the look of weather and water within almost 10 years (next year it would be the 10th anniversary of Aerofly).
  
• In comparisson to other flightsims like FSX, P3D, X-Plane and MSFS2020 (well resourced through addons) Aerofly FS2 appears most outdated meanwhile , at least to me. But that's not a surprise, because the look of the terrain/textures is almost the same since 2012.
  
• Very abhorrent and disgusting is the complete absence of sharpness close over terrain (low level flight with helicopters become always a challange to me: danger to puke !) . Attention: Terrain level soup !!!!
  
• There would be a lot more points I could quote, but I'm tired of this. I would fall in deaf ears towards the developers of IPACS; its like trying to wreck a wall of bricks with a tennis ball.

Regarding flight dynamics and helos: Yes, they've improved, but some models got even worse.

It's like in all other flightsims on the market: the depiction of the flight models pretty much depends on the developer and his outcome, the model itself, not so much on the sim. You'll find bad and good ones in any flightsim.

• IPACS has cut down the flight dynamics of their Robinson R22 some time ago (now it is "less twitchy"). I still miss their first iteration of the R22 professional flight model a lot. Ever since there is almost no difference between professional and normal physics-model;
  
• now its easier for less capable persons, of pilots with no joystick/collective, or only with a smarthphone in their hands to feel like a " Professional R22 Pilot ", lol
  
• The Eurocopter still lacks of a propper crash detection model during vertical landing. If someone exceeds the vertical landing rate in the EH135, nothing will happen, even from 10.000 feet above ground - this is absolutely arcadish in its worst meaning.
  
• Even helicopters in FSX are still better in terms of more realism (e.g the Milviz 407, Bell206, ND AS350...), compared to Aerfoly, if you equipe/enhance them with the gorgeous freeware from Freed Naar, Helicopter Total Realism or HTR Tool in short.
  
• With this little but genius FREEWARE tool your helicopter experience in FSX (I'm still running FSX SE with Steves DX10 Fixer), turns in a top notch helo experience, if you use the right models (my experience: HTR doesn't work with every model/developer on the same level, it takes time to find the correct profiles/models, but good results are very,very rewarding).
  
• E.g. HTR let you know within milliseconds if you've accomplished a good, rough or crash landing. It even let you know if you are entering a dangerous "Retreating Blade Stall" and other occurrences.
  
• This little freeware gem equipes the dedicated PC helicopter pilot with immediate feedback within an environment of inherent lack of dynamics & physical feedbacks, respective "the environment in front of a PC".
  
• Aerofly FS2 doesn't offer the capabilities of HTR, but in my opinion AFS2 elusively lacks of a similar tool (HTR was made by ONE MAN during his spare time and as a freeware).
  

Long story short: There is still a looooooooooooooooong way to go for Aerofly/IPACS, and I honestly doubt if its developers will go this way further significantly or even close to its end (a flightsim will never become perfect ), compared to Apple.

Just for me it is absolutely no surprise that develpors like ORBX or Flying Iron have thrown the towel towards Aerofly.

At its present day the splendid freeware developer community keeps this sim alive.

And those selfless freeware guys are the only reason why I'm coming back to Aerofly every now and again: Just to have a quick look which new gem has come out of their sleeves .

Cheers,

and a big THANK YOU !!! to all freeware developers of AFS2.

We LOVE Aerofly

Thanks KalEl,

This answers my question I just posted as to whether or not to try FS2 again; resoundingly "no" is the answer.

I think its worth staying with AFS2:

Screenshots from the upcoming part 3 of the Hawaiian scenery: Molokai, Maui, Lanai

Quote from producerguy

Thanks KalEl,

This answers my question I just posted as to whether or not to try FS2 again; resoundingly "no" is the answer.

He didn’t mention VR though which in Aerofly is very well implemented and compares very favourably when set against some of the newest sims. This together with all the community development that has taken place, still in my my view makes Aerofly FS2 an attractive destination.( BTW I have got and tried just about every other flight sim)

Quote from Paulish59

He didn’t mention VR though which in Aerofly is very well implemented and compares very favourably when set against some of the newest sims. This together with all the community development that has taken place, still in my my view makes Aerofly FS2 an attractive destination.( BTW I have got and tried just about every other flight sim)

Yes, from your perspective this is probably a good point of view, because I don't have VR and no intention to use or even buy it (still an old fashioned TrackIR pilot ), so I have nothing to tell about this.

Don't hold back KalEl

AFS2 is my #1 even without VR or being bothered with using my TrackIR, I think it still beats the pants off of my FSX or other games.