Maybe I should start by saying that I'm aware of a demo version of it. I have tried it and my impression is that I really can't test it out since there are so many restrictions in it. I already have an overall picture of what it is and what it can do.

I would like to ask someone who has used a registered version extensively. What are your impression after that?

Have you encountered minor issues? Or do you discover more potential and you like it more and more? Does it function well with complex addon aircraft? Do you prefer to use its weather instead of Active Sky. Do you like its flight planner or do you prefer to use other programs for that? Can it do something that can't be done with other addons ? Or doing it best among competitors? Is it worth $40?

I too have tried the demo and am trying it again to see if it can make custom tailored plans to use in FS Passengers. The UI is still not very understandable and demo is rather confusing. All I want to do is make a water flight from A to B with 2 quick, reasonable on the way stops in between. Is this possible in IF? I certainly can't figure out how in the demo to do this.

Maybe I should start by saying that I'm aware of a demo version of it. I have tried it and my impression is that I really can't test it out since there are so many restrictions in it. I already have an overall picture of what it is and what it can do.

I would like to ask someone who has used a registered version extensively. What are your impression after that?

Have you encountered minor issues? Or do you discover more potential and you like it more and more? Does it function well with complex addon aircraft? Do you prefer to use its weather instead of Active Sky. Do you like its flight planner or do you prefer to use other programs for that? Can it do something that can't be done with other addons ? Or doing it best among competitors? Is it worth $40?

 

Jfri,

 

My impression is that it is a great piece of software. I prefer to use a dedicated weather engine such as Active Sky or REX. It does function quite well with addon aircraft. It's flight planner works very well for what I use it for.

Out of all of the addons that I have purchased I would have to say that by far this is the best $40 dollars I ever spent on FSX. This little gem of a program does alot for a mere $40.

 

This thread is a little dated however, I suggest you give it a read.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/324028-this-changed-fsx-for-me/page__hl__ideal%20flight

My impression is that it is a great piece of software. I prefer to use a dedicated weather engine such as Active Sky or REX. It does function quite well with addon aircraft. It's flight planner works very well for what I use it for.

Out of all of the addons that I have purchased I would have to say that by far this is the best $40 dollars I ever spent on FSX. This little gem of a program does alot for a mere $40.

 

One reason for my interest was the option to use IF weather instead of Active Sky since it takes a lot time to load and setup AS2012 and also maybe better performance in IF.

My impression is that its strong point is that it can do a lot things from within a single program but I feel that the individual part has to be good. Easy to setup a flight isn't enough.

For weather it can be setup in FSX itself or by using Active Sky 2012.

For flight planning I have Plan-G and FSbuild and FSX own flight planner.

For evaluation of flight I have FS Flying School

IF doesn't do anything new that you can't already do on your own...the reason for using IF is that it will save you time creating a full "flight" over doing it all yourself manually.

 

It's flight planner builds the flight plans automatically for you and there's very little room from what I've seen to customize waypoints. You can customize a little bit but it can be a bulky experience...So, if you enjoy just being able to simply enter departure and destination airports and have the planner come up with the rest of the plan waypoints (including approach and landing waypoints if you desire) then you'll like the IF planner. If you insist on a fancy customized route then you'll have to create the route yourself using a true flight planner and then import that plan into IF so it can use it in the "flight" it's about to create for you.

 

IF does not do real live weather. Instead it creates canned but somewhat random weather themes based on your preferences in the settings for either good or bad weather. Using IF's weather system is not mandatory and you can disable it from within the settings if you prefer to use real weather from within FSX or another 3rd party wx program. To do this however, you will have to load the weather after the flight begins/loads into fsx.

 

What IF does well IMO, is this:

In a couple minutes it can have you sitting on the tarmac, taxiways and skies all filled with traffic along your planned route, your flight information already entered into the gps AND all the needed flight info you could ask for already entered into the kneeboard for you, It can start the flight either cold & dark, or engines running for you (whichever you prefer in settings). It can keep track of many different flight parameters and offers an evaluation/grading feature (that will accrue points for you over time) at the end of your flight (or you can end the flight without it if you prefer.

 

It also remembers where you left (parked) your plane when you finished the flight so that the next time you have IF create and start a flight your plane will be exactly where you left it on your last IF flight.

 

There ARE some other smaller features included, but i feel that the way i explained it here is the real CRUX of what IF is about generally speaking. Also, the author is always working to improve upon with lots of new beta's releasing on a regular basis as he has many more features he would like to implement over time.

 

Yes, it's got a few bugs/issues/growing pains, and operations to perform some advanced things may not always be so easy to figure out without a trip to the forum to ask for help....but essentially it all works.

 

I bought it...it's a pretty neat piece of software IMO (im very picky and difficult to please i fully admit) and I use it now about 40% of the time that I startup FSX. Some folks seem to like using it 100% of the time.

 

Dave

A useful front end for FSX but I don't use it any more as it tries to do too many things and has become over-complicated. Support is good though.

I tested the demo a few months ago, not a bad addon but the developer put too much restrictions for me to really get into it. Also, I had some problems with installing it in different directory other then the C drive for me. Also, had other little niggles with my setup as well. Maybe it was a bad code/old version at the time.

 

The part I like from IF was the flight planer. The information it gives you to prepare you're flight is very good. Lots of info. This alone is worth the price IMO.

 

I wish the developer would include in the future a type of mode/feature like FS passengers or FS Captain, or maybe something like Just Flights Airliner Pilot.

 

hope this helps a little

 

peace

Ideal Flight is simply the most revolutionary front end package around. Imagine a program that with a click of a button allows you to create flight plans that take you from airport to airport, from country to country, without ever having to worry about which airport to start or to land to.

This feature alone is , for me, the reason why I enjoy it so much.

It handles AI in very unique ways by placing AI airplanes at the departure airport and having them land and take off around the time you land.

It grades your flying, and it keeps track of your career points.

It can create complete flight plans, including IFR approaches.

This is just a tiny sample of what IF provides.

The support and the added features are next to none.

Since Flight 1 has a 30 day refund, there's no reason to try the demo.

tc

It handles AI in very unique ways by placing AI airplanes at the departure airport and having them land and take off around the time you land.

 

Does this mean that you can have your departure and arrival airport filled with AI planes and have much better performence compared to accomplish this with for example My Traffic? Does it work independently from the FSX traffic sliders?

Yes. IF allows you to set the number of AI that you want to use at your departure airport and arrival. You can use anywhere from 1 to unlimited, so that when you create a flight plan, your briefer will show the planes and times at both the departure and arrival airport.

You can, therefore, have your FSX AI slider set to zero, and when you create flight with IF, you'll have AI.

 

IF picks aircrafts at random, and the airport must have parking spots in order for AI to show.

 

With IF, when I am in the mood for a flight, I click one button, and it creates a flight plan from the airport I landed at, with the same aircraft. I can set the flight duration and it will always generate a flight plan for me ready to go.

 

For busy guys like me, IF eliminates all the time needed to set up an aircraft, figure out which airport I landed last, which is the nearest airport based on my last landing, distance, weather, etc, etc.