I have rediscovered something I have had on my computer for ages and had never fully 'realised' I had....
For those of you that do not know, Google Earth has a built in Flight Sim. Yes.... For those of you that do know, you are probably thinking, riiiiiiiight... This is boring.
I was like that too. Till this weekend. I was in a region in FS2004 that had no real photo-real sceney (Northern Arizona) so I finished my flight, then booted up GoogleEarth to look at the surroundings (like KFLG airport) and noticed all the extreme detail. So then I happened to remember that GE has a built in FS. I turned it on and man, I have been flying it every day since. I flew down into Sedona, over to Jerome, over Prescott, etc, etc, etc.
I explored Phoenix, saw my car in the drive way with the car cover on it (literally). I expolored all the airports and dirt strips down to Tucson. Last night I spent 1 or 2 hours over Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San Diego.
I cant get enough!!!
Now, some pointers.
* You can turn on Joystick
* Turn off HUD view with H key
* Flaps down=F, Flaps up=Shift/F
* You can turn on Mouse by clicking in center and using that as your joystick. Actually works fairly good if your rudder trim is centered. Click again in screen to turn off mouse control.
* No sound. I need to find a way to get sound working as its quiet. I am going to see if I can make a engine sound loop somehow to play in the background.
* You have a choice of Cirrus or F-16, and can land these on the ground. Hint; the F-16 will fly faster then your refresh rates. You can pause with the Space bar key and allow the textures in the GE world to load up.
Its utterly fantastic to be able to see cities and country side in high detail. I can see swimming pools in peoples backyards in such detail that if there is someone swimming, I see them there, lol... Pretty darn cool...
No sound, no outside plane view, no night time textures, no clouds, but free, photo scenery, in 3D mesh (mountains and valleys), and you can practice landings!
Try it, you might like it...
For those of you that do not know, Google Earth has a built in Flight Sim. Yes.... For those of you that do know, you are probably thinking, riiiiiiiight... This is boring.
I was like that too. Till this weekend. I was in a region in FS2004 that had no real photo-real sceney (Northern Arizona) so I finished my flight, then booted up GoogleEarth to look at the surroundings (like KFLG airport) and noticed all the extreme detail. So then I happened to remember that GE has a built in FS. I turned it on and man, I have been flying it every day since. I flew down into Sedona, over to Jerome, over Prescott, etc, etc, etc.
I explored Phoenix, saw my car in the drive way with the car cover on it (literally). I expolored all the airports and dirt strips down to Tucson. Last night I spent 1 or 2 hours over Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San Diego.
I cant get enough!!!
Now, some pointers.
* You can turn on Joystick
* Turn off HUD view with H key
* Flaps down=F, Flaps up=Shift/F
* You can turn on Mouse by clicking in center and using that as your joystick. Actually works fairly good if your rudder trim is centered. Click again in screen to turn off mouse control.
* No sound. I need to find a way to get sound working as its quiet. I am going to see if I can make a engine sound loop somehow to play in the background.
* You have a choice of Cirrus or F-16, and can land these on the ground. Hint; the F-16 will fly faster then your refresh rates. You can pause with the Space bar key and allow the textures in the GE world to load up.
Its utterly fantastic to be able to see cities and country side in high detail. I can see swimming pools in peoples backyards in such detail that if there is someone swimming, I see them there, lol... Pretty darn cool...
No sound, no outside plane view, no night time textures, no clouds, but free, photo scenery, in 3D mesh (mountains and valleys), and you can practice landings!
Try it, you might like it...
