Why has Orbiter never been reviewed on AVSIM?

[Guest BigJimW]

Hi,I have been meaning to ask this. AVSIM does support the Orbiter Space Flight Simulator, and has been for quite some time, by providing a mirror site and forum here. But I wonder why AVSIM never really gave it some sort of formal review?Orbiter, you have to admit, is one of the finest Space Flight Simulators ever to hit the PC Market. Some folks may never have tried it because they think that perhaps a quality simulator certainly cannot be free. Or prehaps people tend not to because it does indeed have a very steep learning curve if you want to take on a monumental task,such as piloting the Space Shuttle to Orbit or simulate Apollo 11's historical moon landing, from launch to splashdown.I've been working with Orbiter for almost 2 years now, and have been beta tester for year of that. Right now there are things in the recent Orbiter beta development being added that will definatly blur the lines between reality and simming. What MS Flight Simulator does for your flying experiance, Orbiter will certainly do for those in the Flight Simulator world who want to take their crafts to the ultimate limit and see the planet as a blue marble.You all have to admit, have you ever wanted to breach the atmosphere in Flight Simulator and see stars? You all must have, at one time or another, flew your craft as high and as fast as she can take it. I know I have on a few occations, taken that Flight Sim fighter jet to its limit, only to find I cannot climb any higher. Orbiter gave me the fix to the crave of whats "out there".All astronauts started their careers by flying planes in one form or another. Either commercial airlines, combat jets, or just buzzing around in a Cessna. Astronautics has a very deep root in Aeronautics. One can't survive without the other. Flight Simming is much more than just atmospheric flight nowadays. I remember "Tom Mix World of Flight" where it was nothing more than a green wire frame graphic that appeared on a TRS-80 CoCo. Nowadays we have simulators so sophisticated, it would even rival commercial flight simulators pilots fly on. And you can buy them usually at your local Walmart. Same thing for space flight simulators.Nowadays, you can download a sim for free thats even more sophisticated than what some of the early astronauts actually used to train on! Thats Orbiter.I'd really love to hear AVSIMs view on this marvelious piece of software. To give you a quick sneek peek at a new Earth makover, take a look at this screenshot:The lines between reality and simming are indeed fast becomming a blur. Orbiter, I think, has come a long way, and is indeed worthy of some mention.- Jim Williams