aerofly FS for Apple iPad

  • Dear aerofly FS users,

    we are happy to announce that aerofly FS is now available for the Apple iPad. Experience the great graphics and flight physics of aerofly FS on your iPad as well. aerofly FS requires an iPad 2 or newer. aerofly FS has full support for the new iPad 3 or 4 Retina resolution.
    Click the App Store to view aerofly FS in the Mac App Store:

  • After playing the iPad-Version of AeroflyFS for a while now, i'd like to thank IPACS for this awesome sim. Looking at the other available Flightsims for the platform I would not have thought that anything that comes so close to a Mac/PC game could be done at this point. The Sims runs incredibly well on my 3rd Gen. iPad and controlling the plane by accelerometer while touching the screen to look around in those beautiful cockpits works way better that I expected.

    There are only a few things that could be improved in my opinion:

    1. The upper part of the screen that shows the PFD or menu once tapped should be optional. The idea is great and the PFD is really helpful to stay level while looking around, but I would personally still like a reduced interface better.

    2. The rudder-slider should be moved to the right side of the screen. Using throttle and rudder simultaneously during take-off doesn't work well right now. All control axises including throttle should be accessible at the same time.

    3. The speed brake of the F-18 could be bound to the lower throttle/wheelbrake axis. Same with the Discus, although the demand of fast change between acceleration and deceleration is reduced. I have never flown a Discus bM in real life (only Duo Discus T) but newer Ventus M-Models definitely have adjustable throttles unlike the non-selflaunch capable Turbos. This is of course not a "real" issue, it would just add some realism to have a throttle axis.

    4. The angle in which the wheels of the planes can be moved for taxiing appears really small - it could be alright for the Robin, but I don't think an F-18 made for carrier decks needs that much room to drive a circle.

    That brings me to more complex suggestions:

    Add more real competition to the Game Center Achievements. Take a look at F-Sims Shuttle sim. The game is (compared to Aerofly) not really complex, but it is really challenging to get up in the Game Center list. This is what makes it so popular among players. You can take your iOS-Device and make a 2 Minute approach without great preparation, just using fundamental skills and its still HARD.

    Hitting a defined touch-down zone is a good start, but in Aerofly you can also do complex Aerobatic programs, Airraces and once adding other planes Glider-Towing, Dogfights, and Airracces with several planes. Don't be afraid of frustrating users, as long as its doable there will be several people who really spent time with your sim and get other people to buy it for everyone who fails and writes App Store Reviews with more spelling mistakes than this text right here.

  • Mnemonic: We currently don't have any plans to convert aerofly FS to Android. Programming for this platform is a lot more challenging due to the many different devices out there. But we might consider a version in the future.

    Hoinz: Thank you for your detailed feedback regarding our iPad version. We really appreciate this. We have planned an update for this month that will add an option to disable the flight information bar and fades the controls when the user doesn't touch the screen. The Rudder Slider on the right is also a good point. We will check and see how this works with the interface when "touch control for aileron and elevator" is enabled.
    Consider this version of aerofly FS as a starting point. We already have plans for improving the iPad version and we have lots of ideas! Making more "challenging" achievements is a good point however, we just didn't want to make this first version too frustrating :-). The "Stall Turn" is an example of a fairly difficult achievement.

  • IPACS Support: Thanks for your reply! Wish you guys good luck, and would be great to see Aerofly FS on Android some day too :)

    By the way, so far I played mobile version of Aerofly FS on iPad2, and I noticed lack of antialiasing, for example one of the Need for Speed games for iPad I saw had implementation of antialiasing, so it should be doable.
    Question - maybe you already use antialiasing for newer iPads? Will app enable antialiasing on iPad4? Thanks!

  • I already sent a message directly through the support system, but wanted to repost here to see if other users are experiencing the same issues I am. Maybe some of it is user error?

    1) Controls are sometimes reversed when using accelerometer controls depending on screen orientation during calibration
    2) Glider winch launches do not seem to be possible unless I am missing something. When selecting a runway, I find myself already in the air, about 1000 ft AGL
    3) The Swift climbs very slowly using ridge lift versus the Discus. I did not notice such a performance difference in the desktop version, and I enjoy soaring with both models.

    I agree with the suggestions by Hoinz. One other suggestion - I really like the smooth zoom feature. It might be neat to make the camera panning feature smooth as well inside the 3d cockpit view, if this is an easy thing to do.

    Overall, a great start and the best flying experience I have had on the ipad!

  • I really want to congratulate IPACS on this Update for the iPad version of AeroflyFS. As I have written in my german review on the App store, you are now selling the by far best flight simulation for mobile devices, leaving Infinite Flight and X Plane far behind. You were making it really hard to believe that there would be an update someday, but now, given the quality of the already released products, it has never been so easy to spend 17€ on the App Store (obviously I am not the only one thinking this way - 24. place in revenue on the german App Store! You earned it!).

    I want to especially emphasize the quality of the flight model of the A320. This is JUST AWESOME! Envelope Protection, Ground Effect...you really blew my mind on what to expect from a mobile simulation here. Again.

    When you get back to development after fixing the few bugs (I don't have any so far, but updates of this size...) I would recommend that you get on Flight Planning and NavAids next. The Airbus, KingAir and Learjet are just crying for VOR Navigation and ILS Approaches! Your solution for entering values in the Autopilot (big buttons on the right side, actual values depicted in the corresponding part of the Virtual Cockpit* is working perfectly and should be extended for NAV/COM purposes.


    *...at least in the Airbus. KingAir and Learjet could use a depiction of the values in the PFD.

  • Thank you for your nice feedback. Its good to see that people like the new version. The work we have put into the new aircraft is tremendous and it was really challenging us, to get good performance on the iPad, will putting in all the details, especially on the Airbus A320.

    Like we have said, this is of course not the last update, we intend to also improve aerofly with respect to navigation features and we would also like to add a flight recording feature. New areas as well as new aircraft are of course planned, but this all takes time.

    So stay tuned for future updates.

  • Amazing update! Can't wait to try out all the new planes properly.

    Just on thing: on my iPad Mini I'm getting crashes to the desktop when I get close to Zurich or if I try to take off from it. Happens 100% of the time. Even with all other apps closed. Looks like it's running out of memory...

    Worth mentioning on the App Store before you get too many negative reviews.

    Awesome work anyway!

  • Hello Mr. Haddock,

    we will publish an update that will reduce memory usage on iPad 2 and iPad Mini, we are probably hitting a limit on these devices. On our test iPads (2 and Mini) we didn't observe this issue, so you might want to try the following two steps:

    1) Terminate all running apps:
    To close running apps, you must get to your task bar. Do this by pressing down the home button at the bottom of your iPad twice in a row. (The home button is the circular button you use to close iPad apps.) When you double click the home button, a task bar will appear showing your most recently used apps. Touch one of the app icons and hold your finger against it until the icons begin to shimmer. A red button with a minus sign will appear at the top of the icons. When you see this button, you can release your finger and then simply tap the button for any app you want to close. Don't worry. This doesn't delete the app from the iPad. (You will only delete an app when you touch a black button with an X in the middle.) This will simply close the iPad app, purging it from memory and stopping any processes from running.

    2) Restart the iPad:
    - Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider.
    - Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.

    Again, we intend to release an update with reduced memory usage for the iPads with only 512MB of memory. But in the meantime try the above steps and see if you problems disappear.

  • Thanks for the quick reply!!

    Restarting the ipad did the tick! Thanks for the suggestion :)

    I was already closing the apps on the background as you suggested but it wasn't enough. They clearly leave stuff behind, even after closing the down, but after the restart everything works. I can start a flight in Zurich without problems. Awesome stuff!

    Thanks a lot! Truly amazing stuff :)

  • Congratulations IPACS!

    I don't have your iOS app because I still own an antique iPad 1 but the screenshots above speak for themselves!
    Can't wait to see what you will bring us for the desktop version... :)

    Small detail: I would suggest to have the 3D switches in the virtual cockpit setup to match the actual state of the aircraft.
    Meaning for the A320:
    - EFIS control panel map switches in ARC
    - EFIS BRT buttons turned up
    - Engine master switches in ON & the switch between them in NORM
    - Put two pilots in the A320 flightdeck

    Cheers,
    Sylvain

    Corsair 600T - Intel i7 2600k - Asus Geforce GTX 1660 Super - 4 x 4Gb Corsair DDR3 Ram - Asus P8P67 revB3 - Windows 7 SP1

    2019 Acer Predator Helios 300

    aerofly FS, aerofly FS 2 & aerofly RC7 Professional

  • Wow ! thank you for that GREAT upgrade ! The visual quality is truely amazing, even on my iPad Mini (I don't have a Retina model). Great to have so many new planes too, so well rendered.

    I just spent some time flying across the Alps and found out a small bug in Locarno (Southern Switzerland) : a fancy polygon displayed across the aerodrome, as shown in the attached snapshot.

    [Blocked Image: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/93773613/Images/AeroflyFS0001.PNG]

    Thanks again for that impressive upgrade. The desktop version is of course much awaited ;)

    Best regards
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • Guys, thanks for an amazing upgrade, particularly the King Air and Baron. In my opinion, it is the GA aircraft that make this game so good. It is definitely the most accomplished mobile flight sim and is leading the way. I think you guys have got it right with the variety of aircraft and so may I ask that in the next update, you focus on features. Although the game is great and already impressive, I am selfishly asking for guys to consider adding the following features to future updates:

    1. Working switches and knobs in cockpit view such as mags, starter, carb heat, landing lights, pitot heat, fuel select, fuel pump, alternator etc. It would be great to be able to start up the aircraft and conduct power checks and shut it down at the end of the flight,
    2. An option in the settings menu that onces selected adds sliders for prop pitch and mixture if applicable.
    3. A seperate button for a parking brake.
    4. Failures such as engine failure, throttle stuck open, carb icing, hydraulic failure etc
    5. Let the engines overheat if ran too long at a high power setting and let the fuel gauges run down so that players must land and refuel. Also please add carb icing if carb heat is not applied often enough in icey conditions.
    6. A button that expands out aircraft checklists with all the relevant speeds and a button that expands out to show a chart and the aircraft's position.
    7. Multiplayer. This would be the icing on the cake especially if it could be linked to a VATSIM type system with the ability to talk to other pilots over the radio (the freq could be changed in the comms stack).
    8. Radio navaids and ILS apporaches at some airfields.
    9. Weather, including different times of day and clouds and rain.
    10. Some grass airstrips with a grass flying package with some cool tailwheel aircraft such as a piper cub, Jodels etc.

    If you do plan on adding more aircraft in the near future, please continue to focus on the GA aircraft. I think a PA-28, Piper Cub, Boeing Stearman, Antonov AN-2, BN-2 Islander and DHC Twin Otter would all be excellent additions to your current fleet. If you are looking at adding a Jodel 150a Mascaret taildragger, you can model mine (G-CGMH) as it would be amazing to see it in the game!

    Guys, thanks again and congratulations on a great game and I can't wait to see what future updates will bring.

    Please add this aircraft: