AeroFly 2

Unfortunately, since I have only have the old iPad mini aerofly 1 is pretty much just the same s it was for me. I heard that air 2s get upgraded graphics though lucky people!

It is simply amazing! Just few more steps and will be better than the desktop version.;)
If the IAPCS make a tablet control version for the desktop Aerofly FS variant, it will be killer combo!
update:
I'm confused about the app name. It is the Aerofly FS 2 just lost the FS postfix?
And Need some bug fixing (iPad 4 with newest iOS), sometime the cockpit turn into black (my workaround: jump in different aircraft and jump back)

I am loving the new app and I can't wait until we can fly international and until we have increased functionality, particularly changing VOR and ILS freqs for ourselves. I am not going to request any major changes as the app is so new and I am still finding my way but I would like to request a few hot-fixes:

1. I cannot use both the power and rudder sliders at the same time, instead it just zooms in and out. This making landing tricky.
2. The autopilot speed gauge on the flight director panel on the A320 doesn't work, all the other gauges on that panel do.

I look forward to seeing the high resolution terrain if my iPad mini with retina display is powerful enough!

Gary

Still no 'Replay' Mode then? According to a review I just read on the iTunes App Store. Haven't the Devs been listening to it's customer/fan base? This was one of the most 'Wanted' features!

Another review states there's not much difference to the first Aerofly app and isn't pleased with the weather variations. What's up with that then?

I'm waiting for more reviews and thoughts and opinions on the new version.

Quote from Tailwinds

Still no 'Replay' Mode then? According to a review I just read on the iTunes App Store. Haven't the Devs been listening to it's customer/fan base? This was one of the most 'Wanted' features!

There is a replay function, hit pause and then the replay bar is at the bottom. Just tap the play icon in the bottom left and you can scroll through it using the timeline.

Thanks donka. I've just their Facebook page where it mentions the 'Replay' mode. I wish people would get their facts right when writing reviews.

Okay, my initial thoughts on Aerofly 2 and I will make some references to competitor sims but of course won't name them.
As some background, I have Aerofly 1 which I enjoyed to a point but ended up removing it as it was missing some much needed features which for the most part are included in Aerofly 2.
Also, I'm looking at this from the perspective of a mobile flight sim and not some hard core accreditation software.

First up I would like to thank iPacs for a great app. Although in many ways it is very similar to the first app, I can see where a lot of effort has gone and I have no problem with paying for this as a new app.

The good:
Great graphics. The plane models were always good but the new variations in time and lighting really add to this sim. The extra modelling of ground objects is also a great addition, it really is a big improvement over one of the other competing products in this regard. What also impresses me is how fluid things are. I have ran this on an iPad mini with retina and an iPad Air 2 and it is buttery smooth. One of the other competitors really struggles to hold a decent frame rate, even with the Air 2 which surprises me. Aerofly 2 is clearly well coded and optimised.

Sound again is very good, the variations with engines is well done although I do feel there are some additional sounds that could be added to enhance the game. I'll come back to that after I spend more time with the game.

Replay feature. This was one of my must have additions and it is in place and functions well. It is fairly basic in the sense it is just the last 2 minutes and you can simply play it back and scroll through if needed but it does all I need and have no complaints.

Time of day. This was another needed option and it looks good, especially when coming in to land at night with the excellent runway lighting. I just don't like how it is implemented. Instead of the option of simply picking daytime, night time or dusk, you select the time of day. This is based on UTC time zone but the region included in the US west coast. The result, to get night time, I need to pick around noon which I presume translates to around 4am. In its current guide, this isn't very intuitive as one would expect daytime when selecting noon although I am assuming it is done this way with having downloadable regions in mind. Again, I would have preferred a simple selection of lighting but the time zone setting may be required should the global flight model materialise i.e. it can't be daylight at both London and Sydney at the same time.

Interface. This is probably my biggest gripe with Aerofly 2. The interface works well enough but if you are holding your device with both hands and want to invoke autopilot to set to the current heading, you need to take one hand off to reach up to the heading indicator to turn on autopilot. In doing this, you are likely to knock yourself off course slightly. One of the competitors has interface icons on the left and right sides that can be activated without taking your hands off the side of the iPad. This to me is the right way to control things and I urge iPacs to introduce a similar feature of but buttons down either side that will automatically hide when not in use. As it stands just now, it also means you obscure your view when using the icons at the top of the screen.

One other thing with regards to the interface, I would love to see is a HUD only view. This allows you to see all of the scenery around you as you fly or come in to land but still have the needed information directly in front of you such as speed, altitude, heading, pitch and roll. It also assists with getting lined up perfectly with a runway because you have a frame of reference in the centre of the screen.
I have the option of using the follow camera view with no model to give me a clear outlook on things but it means I still need to keep glancing to the top of the screen for all the pertinent information which is actually distracting.

Camera views. One additional camera view I would like to see added would be from the airport or control tower. This would really add to the app in my opinion. Also, while I don't use the in aircraft views such as the passenger cabin in the Lear jet, they are really well done and I know a lot of people like this kind of thing.

I'm still new to Aerofly 2 and will give it a much thorough going over this weekend so will be able to comment more on the flight instructions and ILS etc. although I do like the flight instructions that I have been through so far as they are short and concise.

Bugs.
I have found a couple of small ones so far.
In the cockpit view for the Lear jet, looking around will let you look through the roof into the sky - presumably due to the proximity of the point of view being too close to the ceiling of the cockpit?
The engine sound on one the turboprops wasn't spooling down correctly with less power. If increased power, the sound was spooling up but if I decrease the power or even lower it right down to zero, the sound remained like full power. Only on a couple of occasions did the sound correctly spool down so it seems to be a glitch.

I'm hoping this is constructive criticism because unlike Aerofly FS, this will be staying on my device. I genuinely believe there are a few changes or additions that would make this the undisputed king of mobile flight sims.
I really do enjoy this and I'm sure I will do even more when I spend more time with it.

Thank you very much for this detailed report, its really appreciated.

We will publish updates of Aerofly 2 in 2015 in shorter intervals. So expect to see updates that will address some of the points you mentioned in 2015.

Never fly the A-Model of something.

I have waited for this app like for no other app before, and it is very hard to say, but in its current state Aerofly 2 is no fun to me. I somehow get the feeling that IPACS tries hard to make certain things different than the competition and fails. One of the most demanded features was radio navigation and proper flight planning. Knowing what IPACS is capable of, what we got now feels like the desperate try to do things different lead to something that is intentionally screwed up.

Lets assume we take the Airbus, put the viewing distance to the last quarter of the slider, and try getting from KSFO to runway 11 of KOAK. We set the start airport and runway, get to the navigation menu, set everything up. Fine. After takeoff, the trouble starts. On our unreadable "map" (what is the right display in the Airbus for???) in the right corner of the flight status bar we see that no straight climb included in our progrogrammed route. So after initial climbing, look how you get back on track (updating the route in regard to current position - heard of that?). We somehow manage to make it to the approach. Calculating climbs and decents is impossible, since, unlike the competition, there are no waypoints, ETE or ETA information. When you still, by accident, intercepted the glideslope and localizers (that sometimes, on a perfect approach from ten miles out, only show up 2 miles from the threshold - otherwise it would be far too easy) you can only hope that it doesn't jump to some other ILS (crossing finals in KOAK) what works in an awesome 50% of my attempts.

It is harsh and hopefully far away from reality, but here is what I feel about your product:

You have realized that people wanted airliners and big sceneries. So you made the Airbus and the Boeing for AFS 1. You saw that it didn't work in the setting that was made for gliders and Cessnas and that something bigger needed to change.

Now you took San Francisco, showed your competition right on their front porch who is boss on building nice sceneries (like there was ever any doubt with that) and then you where so happy with yourself that you forgot about the fact that the flight info bar, unlike the interface of the competition, will never work (like you have been told over and over again) and stuffed it up with whatever you could find. Than you took the beta-stadium radio navigation, and made your release goal "still in 2014".

You got your 5 star rating from me, for this is still the best flight simulator on the app store. But please, start thinking about the interface.

Jonas

hello,

after several tries on an iPhone 5s 32g :

Good work !!

• Great framerate and graphic for plane and cockpit, but photorealist textures grounds are too blurry in front of the cockpit.
• interactive flight school it's a good idea
• love realistic flight physic and active cockpit of this app.
• ILS, NDB, VOR very great and map navigation, i hope to have this with Switzerland map (because i prefer to use this map)
• I find the qualities of the first version for iphone with new good features (time of day, navigation : Essential ).
• no crash.

I don't understand, the time of day change during flight ?
Is it possible to know ILS runways of the airports in navigation map ?
Where's the DR400 ?

Quote

1. I cannot use both the power and rudder sliders at the same time, instead it just zooms in and out. This making landing tricky.

too

... I have two versions on my iphone, i will prefer one with two maps. :p

Quote from 4535jacks

1. I cannot use both the power and rudder sliders at the same time, instead it just zooms in and out. This making landing tricky.
Gary

This is the same problem I found with rudder/aileron confusion on the last version.

Here's my thoughts so far:

Good:

Cockpits look great
Replay is a great new feature
Time of day is a great new feature

Bad:

Rudder/throttle controls are almost unusable. They become unresponsive and you end up zooming view. Worse than issue in AF1
Bug when you crash puts you in an endless spin loop
Ground details don't look very nice
Often when flight starts aircraft is at some crazy high speed ie Cessna doing 200kn

I'm left a bit underwhelmed really - I think I enjoy AF1 more. I think too much time has gone into making the cockpits pretty - yes they look nice but really most of the time we are not zooming in to look at them, we are looking out the windscreen. The screen controls bug is really bad - how did they not see this? Sometimes, owning an iPad, I feel like I work as a beta tester for app devs.

Also, why is there so much yaw oscillation now? It seems unrealistic - I don't remember this happening in the aircraft I have flown.

I have just noticed the new liveries for the C172, very nice! I do hope you can add the robin in the future.

I do not agree with the remark about a HUD view. I think that is better suited to the arcade style of your competitors. I for one fly pretty much exclusively from the cabin view and appreciate the extra detail. I do hope you look to increase the aircraft functionality in 2015.

Have you considered using some of the avid and knowledgable fans on this forum as beta testers so we highlight the bugs on future updates before public release and provide customer feedback and critique?

There seems to be a lot of negative points on here. I think most people are very impressed with the release and it is certainly an achievement. People always prefer to pick faults rather provide praise where it is due. Most of us realise that this is V1 of the new app and is just a taste of what is to come and still fully support the IPACS team in their endeavours. So on behalf of the fans, keep up the good work and well done.

P.s. Can't wait for the 737 release.

Regards as ever,

Gary

Has anyone found a thermal yet? I have thermal activity set to max but am only finding small amounts of ridge lift.

Quote from 4535jacks

.....

There seems to be a lot of negative points on here. I think most people are very impressed with the release and it is certainly an achievement. People always prefer to pick faults rather provide praise where it is due......

If it were free, then I would agree with you. But, if it's a commercial product I think it is ok to express where the product has not lived up to reasonable expectations. If I were a business making apps I would definitely want honest feedback so I could improve my product.

Just my 2c

Cheers.

Being able to land on the Golden Gate Bridge is cool!

4535jacks
I know a HUD view may not be for everyone but it is no coincidence that the big two competitors feature such a view as an option. I occasionally select the cockpit view but it is compromised on mobile screens and a HUD view makes the most of the available screen space. As I say, if it is another optional view then I think it would be a great addition to Aerofly.