"And your daughter's name?...no! you didn't!??!...you named her Gates!!??!"LOL... She just recently told me she didn't like her name and wants me to change it (I went through that stage too--after all "John" is pretty generic). Having met Bill Gates, no way I'd name my daughter after him. No offense to Bill, but she's prettier :)

Not too long or my new rig will be too old by then.....again!

i think this summer.. i wish it would be next month but hey.

Well if you guys promise to keep it a secret, I will tell you that I'm testing FS10 and it's far from ready for release.here are some of the problems with my copy:1- The realistic oil drips from the engine, are too realistic. My wife can't get them out of the carpet!2- The jet exhaust needs some work. When slewing behind the jet engines, too much damage is created and it scares the #### out of my cat!3- The requirement for real Avgas to run some planes is realistic, but with todays oil prices I think MS will need to include a "Simulated Avgas" module! There are a few more minor items to work on. Other than that it is quite realistic and a lot of fun to operate, if you can ignore the neighbors' complaints.:-beerchug :-beerchug :-beerchugI think it'll be a while 'till they work it all out!:-hah

My "educated" guess (or a cute way of saying gut feeling) says Microsoft will take their time this time and release it late fall, so I agree with the November 2005 prediction. Hopefully, the extra time they take will mean no major bugs and better FDE's among other things!John

This is great news! Why? We know that a Dx9 shader programming expert is on the FS2006 team. This means that at the very least, the FS2004 engine has undergone a serious overhaul, if not a complete rewrite.

I agree with you on the flight dynamics... lots of things to correct there, specially the rudder on the air. >My "educated" guess (or a cute way of saying gut feeling)>says Microsoft will take their time this time and release it>late fall, so I agree with the November 2005 prediction. >Hopefully, the extra time they take will mean no major bugs>and better FDE's among other things!>>John

FS2006 will be released in late 2005, IMHO :). They won't wait until next year, otherwise they would miss the Christmas sales.FS2000 was released in Sept/Oct 1999FS2002 was released in Oct 2001FS2004 was released in Summer 2003I'm certain we will have FS2006 by the end of the year ;). There is no point in waiting for "new technology" ... the technology will have bugs, and will therefore need extensive testing.

I agree with your observations of past release dates. However, by May of the year of a release Microsoft would have teased folks with an upcoming release via interviews, screenshots, etc. By the Summer a demo in Oskosh would have also been arranged. This year is turning out a little odd if we are getting a new release. If anyone has hard news about a new release please point to it. I've been out for quite a while. Thanks.