The Premise Throughout the history of Microsoft Flight Simulator, most aspects of the sim have continued to improve over the years. Scenery and other graphics have become more vivid and realistic, and the aircraft have taken on a much more authentic look and feel. Yet one constant remains, there has never been a storyline. Sure you can recreate historic flights, take lessons, and even get your simulators pilots licenses, but what about after that? This is where Just Flight Ltd steps in. With the creation of the Just Flight Airliner Pilot add-on utility, simmers worldwide can now live the experience of being a commercial airliner pilot in Flight Simulator 2004. The Airliner Pilot add-on is an innovative utility that monitors an assigned flight and scores the pilot based on their ability to operate the aircraft within set limits. Pilots are rewarded for following a given flight plan and landing safely at the assigned airport. Failing to adhere to any of the set tolerances will affect the pilot’s final score adversely. The ultimate goal is to achieve a rank by earning points through skilled flight. The flights are assigned to you by your company, and will optionally increase in length as you advance through the sim. Initially, you will be limited to regional flights in a de Havilland Dash 8 Q-300. This aircraft is included with the program, and will become your bread and butter for at least the first four or five flights. As you advance in rank, other aircraft will become available to you. These aircraft include the default Boeing 737, 747, and 777. If you would prefer to use your own add-on aircraft instead, the program includes an aircraft import tool that will allow you to do so. So what does it take to become a commercial airliner pilot in this sim? First off, the program already assumes that you are proficient at flying a twin engine radial aircraft. This includes operating the aircraft within its tolerance levels, following a flight plan, and responding to air traffic control commands. If you are confident in your abilities to follow an IFR flight plan, then you will have no problems understanding the sim and performing well. As you complete flights, you will be given a report card that informs you of just how well you did. If you followed the flight plan and refrained from performing any aerobatics, you will be rewarded with a percentage of points based on the total amount of points allotted for that flight. Departing and arriving on schedule will also help you to earn the maximum amount of points possible. If you choose to stray to far from the flight path, or nose dive to your destination airport, your point count will be greatly reduced or non-existent. As you might have guessed, crashing your plane will lead to negative results, including a demotion, end of your career, or the need for you to fly the mission again. What really defines this sim is the close relationship to reality that it provides. Just as in the real world of commercial aviation, you will be required to follow certain rules and regulations. There are departure and arrival times that must be adhered to, and “show boating” is not an option. Exceeding pitch and bank angles will also affect your scores adversely. Essentially, each flight is considered to have passengers aboard, and having them fall out of their seats will not look good for your company. For those of you still honing your skills, the sim offers a selection of difficulty levels that can provide you with more or less leniency when you violate these rules. The post flight analysis will show you what requirements you failed to meet. Deviating from waypoints, violating the speed threshold of the aircraft, and other certain failures will all be counted against you. With all of this said, the most exhilarating aspect of the sim is exposed each time you are awarded and advancement in rank. There is nothing quite like returning from a flight to discover that you earned enough points to become a First Officer, or Captain. Having other aircraft become available for use adds to the excitement of your promotion. The true reward comes when you have finally achieved the rank of Training Captain. But does that mean the end of the sim? Absolutely not. You must maintain your rank by completing successful flights. A failed flight could mean certain demotion if you do not have enough points established to spare. In addition to continuing to gain points and record flight hours, there is one more aspect of the sim that makes it virtually never ending. I am referring to the player’s board on the Airliner Pilot dedicated website. Here you can compete with other pilots from around the world to see who can earn the most points. This website also contains free downloads including liveries, adjusted settings, and much more. Installation and Documentation The Airliner Pilot program is available via direct download at www.justflight.com, or by having the product shipped directly to you. If you choose to have the program shipped, you must have a DVD drive in order to install this add-on. In addition to the DVD, you will receive a paperback manual with all of the information you need to learn the program. The download version also includes the same manual in PDF format. Regardless of the method you choose to purchase the program, the installation is quick and easy. Both the download and DVD versions include an automatic installer which will guide you through the installation process. The only information you need is the location of your Flight Simulator 2004 directory, which the program will try to locate for you. After following the steps in the auto-install process, the program will be located in a folder within your main FS9 folder titled “Airliner Pilot”. You will also notice an icon link to the sim located on your desktop. The Airliner Pilot folder does not contain any files that you need to concern yourself with, as they are primarily used for running the program and maintaining statistics, which you can access from within the programs “profile” menu. The manual will most likely become your best friend throughout the process of learning the program. This is also where you will find all of the information you need for using the aircraft and scenery import tools. Just in case you can’t find the answer to your question, the Just Flight Ltd website has a forum with helpful information. In addition to this, you can also access a link which will allow you to e-mail any questions you may have directly to the publisher. One more important note about the installation process. As aforementioned, you will earn the privilege of flying the default Boeing 737, 747, and 777 as you progress through the ranks. Therefore, you must have these aircraft installed in your main FS9 aircraft folder. If you have purchased the download version of the program, you may wish to keep the original zip file located in a safe place, just in case you ever need to re-install the program. Using the Program Utilizing the Airliner Pilot program is fairly direct and straight forward. The first step is to create a profile, which will give you the opportunity to name your pilot, choose an airline to work for (or create your own), and select the difficulty and tolerance settings. In order to do this, you will need to enter the Airliner Pilot main program, which can be accessed either by double clicking the icon created on your desktop, or by use of the airliner_pilot.exe file located in the main FS9 folder. When the program opens, you will be taken to a screen that looks like an office with airport scenery outside your window. There are three items within this scene that you can click on to access the menus. The first is the computer located on the left side of the screen. Clicking on this area will open an options menu where you can alter a few of the sim's settings. Next is the map located on the back wall. Clicking on the map will take you to an area that generates flights and displays pre-flight briefings. Finally, you will notice the filing cabinets located on the right side of the screen under the map. Clicking this area will take you to the profiles menu, which is the first area we will discuss. This program actually makes the process of creating a profile fun by giving you a wide variety of choices throughout the process. While creating your profile, you will be asked to create a name for your pilot, choose your base of operation, select a career mode and difficulty level, and to select an airline company to work for, or create one of your own. Choosing a name for your pilot is self explanatory. This name will be used to identify your profile, and to view flight records and statistics. When selecting your base of operation, you will be given the option to select one of seven areas where you would like to be home stationed. These areas include Austria-Switzerland, Benelux-Scandinavia, Europe South, France, Germany, United Kingdom-Ireland, and the United States. Next, you can choose the career mode, which allows you to configure the time frame that it will take for you to advance through the sim. You may choose a regular, quick, or extended setting. Moving on, it is now time to decide the difficulty level, which changes the tolerance and leniency of the program in the event you make an error during your flight. You may choose to use the easy, medium, or difficult setting. In addition to this, you can also select the consequence in the event of a crash. Here you can decide to fly the mission again, accept a demotion in rank, or end your career completely. Finally, you will need to create your airline. You may wish to select a real-world airline such as United, Lufthansa, KLM, Iberia, British Airways, or Air France. If you prefer, you can also create your own airline by selecting a paint scheme from a moderate list of options, and naming the airline and airline code on your own. A neat feature of creating your own airline is that you can add your name to the aircraft fuselage with a vast range of font types, sizes, and colors. Unfortunately, all of the choices you make while creating your profile are permanent. The only way to change any of these settings is to create a new profile, which will not allow you to transfer your flights, so it is essential to review your decision before saving your new profile.
Before you take to the skies, you may want to review the settings in the option menu, which is accessed by clicking on the computer in your office. Here you can choose the language that the sim displays, the weather generation timeout settings, your pre-flight preparation time, and the date used to record your flight. The language selection list will allow you to view the program in the English, French, or German. The weather generator timeout setting permits you to select the amount of time the program will wait for the weather to be created before proceeding on to the flight. Your pre-flight preparation time can also be adjusted in the options menu. This setting will determine the amount of time that you have to perform your pre-flight routine before you will need to begin taxiing. Finally, the flight date setting gives you the choice of flying during the current system date, or on a randomly generated date. Unlike your profile settings, these options can be changed in between flights.
Now that your options are set, you are just about ready to fly. There is one more thing that you must do first however. This is where the map on the wall comes into play. This menu is referred to as the flight menu. Here your flight will be scheduled for you, and you can view the pre-flight briefing. The briefing will show you the departure and arrival airports, weather settings, waypoints throughout your trip, and much more. You may even choose to print the briefing to have available during your flight.
Once you have reviewed this information, you can select the “fly now” tab located on the bottom of the screen to go to your departure airport. Once you do this, Flight Simulator 2004 will automatically open and you will be positioned at the gate in the cockpit of your aircraft. At this point, you will have no need to access the Airliner Pilot program until you have arrived at your final destination. Once your flight is complete, which involves a safe landing at the destination airport and taxi to the arrival gate, you be asked to shut off the engines, and exit Flight Simulator.
Now you can enter the Airliner Pilot program, which will be left open during your flight, and review the statistics of your flight. Your flight log will be maintained in the profile menu, which is also where you can see the points that you received for your flight. You will be rewarded for following the flight plan closely, operating the aircraft within the safe operating ranges, and landing safely on the assigned runway. Points will be held back if you violate any of the proper flight procedures, and of course you will be penalized for a crash based on the crash consequence settings that you predetermined. With this said, it is time to discover just what you need to do to obtain the maximum amount of points possible. Let’s go take a flight and walk through the steps to success. Let's Take a Flight Perhaps the best way for me to explain what this add-on is all about is for us to perform a walk-through by taking a flight. To begin, I will open the Airliner Pilot program and click on the map located on the back wall of my office. The first step is to select the aircraft that I wish to fly, and the approximate length of the trip. For this walk-through, I have chosen the de Havilland Dash 8 Q-300 to be used for a regional flight. Next, we need to navigate to the pre-flight briefing, where we will see the departure and arrival airport, as well as the rest of the flight plan. This particular plan has us departing Chicago O’Hare in route to JFK International. Finally, we can click on the “fly now” tab, which will open Flight Simulator and position us at the gate area of our departure airport.
The first thing you will notice is that the aircraft is parked with the engines off. This is always the case, regardless of what type of plane you will fly. Prior to starting the aircraft, you will need to turn the flight tracker on. The flight tracker is a unique gauge included with the program that provides thorough information about your flight. This information includes the distance between waypoints, overall distance, estimated time of arrival at each waypoint and the estimated arrival time at the destination airport. By clicking the “on” button, the gauge will load the flight information and inform you of the current status of the aircraft. The current time compared to the set “off block” time will be presented to you as well. The gauge will also provide you with a set of instructions upon landing. You will also notice that you are positioned in the co-pilots seat. As you increase in rank, the pilot's chair will become available to you.
As far as the flight plan is concerned, the Airliner Pilot program will automatically create an IFR plan which is ready when you start the game. Therefore, all you have to do is remain in contact with air traffic control throughout the flight. You will not be penalized if the ATC deviates from your scheduled flight plan. With that said, you are ready to start the engines and receive your IFR clearance. Now that you are ready to taxi to the runway, you may want to take a look at the fuel gauge(s). You will notice that the aircraft does not load with a significant amount of fuel (around 5% per tank). A brief stop at the fuel pumps will be necessary in order to have enough fuel to get where you’re going.
Once we have are takeoff clearance, our sole purpose is to obey the tolerance levels of the aircraft and follow the flight plan. Attempting to violate the aircraft speed, bank, or angle restrictions will lead to a negative report at the end of the flight. As far as following the flight plan is concerned, the air traffic controllers will guide us through every step of the way, providing us with heading and altitude requirements. In fact, once airborne, you may choose to engage the autopilot and simply make the heading and altitude changes as directed. This will give you the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Over the next hour or so, we will have to make a series of heading adjustments until we arrive in our destination airports traffic pattern. Throughout this period of time, it would be wise to monitor the speed and altitude so we are not penalized after an otherwise successful flight. It is important to note that the altimeter may need to be reset a few times during the flight. If the controller advises you that you are above or below your assigned flight level, a simple press of the “B” key will reset the altimeter to the correct altitude, at which time the autopilot will make the correction, or you can manually adjust your altitude. Once we have reached our final waypoint, the controller will direct us to the traffic pattern with a series of altitude and heading adjustments. It is now our responsibility to follow the traffic pattern and land the aircraft safely on our assigned runway. Upon landing, the flight tracker will advise us to taxi to the gates and shutdown the engines. The ground controller will advise you of the taxiways to follow to reach the gate. As soon as you cutoff the engines, the flight tracker will inform you that the flight has been recorded, and we can now exit Flight Simulator. So how did we do? To find out, we need to go back into the Airliner Pilot program and click on the map. A flight report will be displayed informing us of the total points available for the flight and how many we actually received. The report will also show us what areas we failed to perform well, if any. The flight is now stored in our profile menu along with our total points, rank, and monthly salary.
In this case, we achieved 42 out of a possible 42 points and have been awarded the rank of First Officer. A congratulatory screen will appear to advise us of this accomplishment. This screen is followed by an introduction to the next aircraft available for use, which happens to be the Boeing 737. Earning rank is a rewarding experience, and you are given the chance to accomplish this reward seven more times throughout the program from Junior Officer to Training Captain.
Conclusion From the get go, this add-on offers a fresh approach to using Flight Simulator. Even those of you who have dedicated you’re time to shorter general aviation flights will most likely find the Airliner Pilot program to be a welcomed change from your normal routine. Any concerns about flying the large “wide body” aircraft will be swept away with the evaluation at the end of each flight, which provides you with a clear and understandable advisory of your errors. To be fair, I should point out that there may be a few of you out there who will not find this program as exciting as I have. The inability to select the length of your flight could prevent you from taking one last “before bedtime” or “lunch break” flight. I should also point out that the cost-value of this program may not seem as reasonable to some at $44.99 U.S. dollars. As far as I am concerned, however, the cost of the program is very reasonable given the manner in which it adds life, and almost resurrects an otherwise increasingly dull Flight Simulator. Additionally, it is notable that this program does not have any adverse affect on your frame rates. With the ability to earn rank, and work your way towards flying from the Captain's seat, this sim will keep you coming back for more. In fact, even after 90+ hours of reviewing this program, I can’t wait to get back at it. Even in between flights, the profile menu will keep you busy reviewing your previous flights and creating more pilots for your company. In fact, with all of the options and settings within the program, including the creation of your airline, you will find that there is far more to this sim than takeoffs and landings. Plus, keep in mind that any of your favorite aircraft can be imported to the sim to use in place of the default aircraft. Any scenery upgrades you have can also be imported to prevent any misalignments. Overall, I would define this program as a “must have” for anybody looking to increase the realism of Flight Simulator. The ranking structure, flight tracking system, and wide selection of real-world airline liveries will transform your normal flight experience into a near mirror image of flying for an actual commercial airliner. The only fault with this sim......it may be a little too addictive.
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