I feel that one of the largest shortcommings of FS2K2 are the Aircraft Failures. If I am correct, a failure can only be set between 1 and 999 minutes. 999 Minutes is a little over 16 1/2 hours. And considering there are about 4 or 5 systems you can set to fail, the odds of having at least 1 failure is relitivly high on something as short as a 3 hour flight. Much Much higher then realistic odds on the average real aircraft. One of the hardest factors with dealing with in flight emergencies are their element of suprise! And this element of suprise is not realisticly simulated with a 999 minute limit on the timer. It seems to me that this would be a realitivly easy thing for Microsoft to do. Just increase the upper limit on the timer?Does anyone know if their is a 3 party product for FS2K2 that more realistically address aircraft failures?Thanks,Mark McLeroy

The best and only thing I know of is FSMaintenance. It is a program that runs in the background and actually monitors how you fly your plane. Fly it hard and violent, and you will get a failure very soon in the area that you are being rough with. Make a hard up or down pitch and you will get your ailerons damaged. Make a hard landing, and your gear will be damaged. Etc, etc. However if you fly your plane gently and with care, you'll have a long-lasting aircraft. An added plus, this is also a maintenance system. Over time, certain systems in your aircraft will need to be maintained/repaired. You earn money by flying. Fly bad, you get no money. Fly nice and smoothly, you'll get all or most of the money you earn. I could go on and on about the features, but I'll let you take a look at the websire and read about it there. If you have any more questions at all, dont hesitate to email me at [email protected] or you can just reply on here, and Ill answer them. To sum up, this program comes very highly reccomended on my addon list. Hope this helps! P.S. Forgot to add a link... hehe... http://www.lagoonline.com/ENG/prodotti/pdt.asp?id=100003

>failure is relitivly high on something as short as a 3 hour >flight. Much Much higher then realistic odds on the average >real aircraft. One of the hardest factors with dealing with >in flight emergencies are their element of suprise! And this Mark,Notice the paradox of what you are asking ...If aircraft failures would happen in realistic intervals .. you could be waiting 10 years for one (I know United 737 pilot who could not recall when he had any time of failure last time).On the other hand if they were so rare (per realism !) how one could practice to cope with them ... ;-)I know, increase the timer .... and I agree this could have been done.Michael J.