AVSIM Commercial Utility Add-on Review

I recently had the pleasure of receiving EZ-VFR from Abacus Software and here is my report about it.

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Did you ever find yourself flying over the sometimes 'not-so-clear' scenery of FS2000 or FS98, wondering where this little airstrip is? Or did you find yourself in clouds all of a sudden while on a VFR flight? Or having trouble with orientation at night?

Have a look at EZ-VFR!

EZ-VFR is a most practical little tool for MS Flight Simulator 2000 and FS98. What it essentially does is give you a visual clue about airports in your vicinity, in a 'heads-up display' fashion.

EZ-VFR will help you instantly. Hit <Shift>+<F12> (or assign it to a button on your joystick or yoke) and you will see all airfields in your vicinity, the heading to fly to get there and the distance remaining (can be adjusted). It will display the data such as airport identifier and other information in bright red superimposed on your screen, in the direction of the airport. It works in all views. So if you are looking out of the left window and there is an airport in that direction, it will show up. This is especially handy when flying in cloud all of a sudden, when on a VFR flight. Or at night when all there is to see is a small flashing beacon.

Installation

EZ-VFR is a 1 Mb download from the Abacus site. Installation is a breeze. After you download the tool just click on the .exe file, click 'next' and you're done. That is in FS2000, where it finds the FS2000 directory by looking in the registry. In FS98 you have to point it to the proper FS98 directory yourself. After installation you will see an extra 'item' on the menu bar at the top of your FS2000 screen. There you can turn it on or off or go to options to change your EZ-VFR settings.

There is also proper documentation that comes with it in the form of a Word document. It has clear textual installation instructions as well as screenshots and information on how to purchase the tool should you like it.

Editor's Note: We found that EZ-VFR does not install correctly in Windows 2000-based systems, and have so notified the author.

Test System Athlon 1.2 Ghz/VIA KT133 chipset Windows ME 386 Megs RAM GeForce2 MX200 32 Mb 40X CD ROM Creative CT5880 on-board sound Saitek X36F/X35T USB CH Pro USB Rudder Pedals 17" monitor Flying Time: 5 hours over 3 days

I made a few flights using it already and found that it comes in particularly handy when flying in mountainous areas and in areas with many islands, where it is not always easy to see where you actually are. Especially if flying in an area you don't really know. Here are some shots I took when flying to the Italian coast and back to Ljubljana in Slovenia:

Using EZ-VFR

The tool will let you tweak it to a certain extent (see center image below). You can change the range at which airports are displayed. If you set the range too big, and are flying in busy areas, your screen might get cluttered with all the names on it. Then turn down the range; I usually have it at 15 miles.

The display will show you a number of items, that you can turn on and off to your liking. Again, see below for the choices. I found that the ones shown here work perfectly for me, although I sometimes change to the Airport code to reduce the amount of text shown. Since it is a real simple little tool, there is not much more to tell or change.

Some issues in using it

There are some minor things that could be improved. The most important one would be the key combination used to activate it. I for instance had that combination assigned to my screenshot program. Since EZ-VFR does not let you change it, I had to change the settings of that other program.

Changing the color of the text is also on my wish list. Red text is sometimes hard to see; having the option to change it to white would be handy at times.

The fact that the text is hidden behind some of the cockpit frames sometimes cannot be helped I guess. Hitting <Shift>+<1> or <W> will provide you with a clear view so you can read any hidden text.

All in all this is a very practical tool (some might call it a 'cheat') for those of us that want to make sure we're heading for the right airport, or just locating it before it is in sight. It is not a replacement for proper navigation (that's why you might call it a cheat), but it does come in handy sometimes when the Mark 1 Eyeball spotting system (on the 17" monitor) just is not enough.

I will continue to use it and you will see it pop up from time to time in the screenshots of our VFR flights in the AVSIM VFR Flight Center!

About the product and author

EZ-VFR is developed by Konstantin Kukushkin and is published as part of Abacus' Premier Collection. It is Try-before-you-buy software that you can download from Abacus' website. The Demo version is limited to 50 miles around Chicago, but should give you a good feel of what it can do for you.

The price, should you decide you want it, is $15 U.S. and that includes a free upgrade (if necessary) to FS2002.

Have fun!