Hey Ron,The thing you gotta think about now is if flight shcools would make more or less money by utilizing fs2004. Because, let's face it, they're like drug dealers, they get their money on the comeback and if there is a tool out there that's gonna let students learn faster, than in a way they might actually loose revenue.

In answer to a question about flt plans from Fs2002 working in Fs2004, yes it works fine. At present i am creating my flt plans using fsnav in fs2002, exporting to fs2002 .pln format and importing into fs2004. Hope that answers the question posed earlierAidihttp://www.avsim.com/vfr_center/avsim_sig.jpg

The holding process requires you as pilot to hold missed approach;you navigate to it and decide when to leave. Here are some shots of Biggin Hill at 13:00 zulu this morning with live weather: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

Ah, I think I understand, thanks a lot Geof.

Does ATC start vectoring you at 50 or so miles like it did in 2002? Most of my flights are >100 mile IFR flights in a light GA single or twin. I never used FS2002's ATC because they'd start vectoring me as soon as I contacted center, and don't let me do my own navigation.

AidiMany thanks for that Aidi. I create my flight plans using a combination of the EFIS98 flight planner and the Fltrec recording utility. I am anticipating problems with Fltrec in FS2K4 since it requires FSUIPC which has now gone commercial. One way or another it looks as if I might still be able to continue flight planning in FS2K4. I hope that a limit on the number of waypoints an FS2K4 plan will accept does not apply.Denis. The Ancient Brit.

Hi Gang,One of the drawbacks of ATC in 2K2 was all the zig zagging. Has any of the testers noticed an improvement 2004?Thanks,Jim

I did get the answer: FS2004 is backwards compatible with FS2002 flight plans. But the FS 2004 Flight planner is a lot better. People will probably want to open their new flight plans, then modify them and resave as FS 2004.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

When the destination airport pops into

The schools do have an incentive to have students graduate in a timely manner... rentals once you get your ticket!I just did a 2 hour instrument training session with my instructor this evening... he likes to beat up on me, making me do three approaches into three different airports this time. Ugh. At least it wasn't partial panel. I'm on track to finish up in the minimum time required: 35 hours under part 141. I definitely owe it _all_ to Flight Sim II, 4.0, 95, 2000, 2002, and countless hours playing other intensive video games.

That's pretty realistic for most airports inside Class B airspace... I flew from EGC to IAD a week ago with my instructor and my wife in a 172SP, and we were vectored from a good 50 or so nm away. Potomac approach lined us up on a 20 mile final for 1L, then as soon as we got handed off to tower, we got this: "Cessna XXXSP turn left 330 for modified landing instructions." Doh! Too many heavies in behind us and nowhere to put us, so we had to scramble and negotiate with tower for a very tight pattern to land on 30. Wasn't pretty, but it worked.

This too was addressed as a bug in FS2004. 2004 is improved, and still has a concept of a