This is a first time post, but I can't bite my lip any longer. I've been flying since the dawn of FS, and I have to say we are very lucky to have come so far in this hobby. As for the my idea to make this hobby better for "me" would take improvement on a few things. First let me say we have incredible 3rd party developers to build aircraft and airports. I would leave that up to them. I would like to see MS improve, 1. Atmospheric conditions, weather, lighting, aircraft lighting, watersnow, storms, clouds, fog, when SJC is reporting 1/2 mile vis. with no clouds I want to see that while I'm approaching and departing. The one thing that gets me is when I climb above 6000 ft and the sky becomes clear or just a slight haz. 2. More realistic terrain, almost like Mega Scenery with options on how complex you want it. So both fast and slow systems can handle the information.3. ATC improvement, we have come along way and hopefully we will keep on moving in the right direction. The main thing for me would be better use of multiple runways, separation, and taxi speed differential.I'm sure I could ask for more but this is just what I think MS should focus on, let the 3rd party aircraft and airport developers continue to improve our FS world. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft has done and will continue to exceed our expectation on a realistic basis with FS. I congratulate the team for keeping me hooked on FS over the years and look forward to all the hard work from both MS and 3rd party developers, like PMDG, Project Open Sky, MelJet, Fly Tampa, Simflyers and don't forget AVSIM, just to name a few. Thank to each and every one of you that contribute to this hobbyof ours.Fly High and Fast :)Will

I think the most sensible thing for MS to improve on is water, weather, etc. Videocards have improved tremendously over the past few years. The latest DX9 videocards are able to render effects like dynamic shine and bumps on runways (including ice and water/rain), reflective, accurate water that changes depending on wind and weather conditions, photoreal rain/snow effects on windscreens and so on. Check out the 3D Mark program and some of the latest 3D games to see some of those effects in action - it's already being done in other games and it would really be a missed opportunity if Microsoft chooses to stick with their essentially DX7-class engine (basically only the water is DX8) for another version of FS.

Have you sent your thoughts and wishes to [email protected] ?W. Sieffert

Just a quick comment on ATC:There is no established release date yet, but the new version 4 of Radar Contact (3.1 is current and I am using it very happily) offers some AI control (it currently can only read it) so you will be able to have some seperation control in FS9.Between AFCAD2 and the new "star" psuedo runway method established on Project AI, better runway use is now available in that simultaneous runway ops is no longer limited to parallel runways.The RC forum is here on AVSIM and you can also visit AFCAD forums on www.projectai.com.