Flight Video Productions and FS9

I recently purchased FVP's Pilatus and Meridian videos and I have to say they are pretty cool! At first I was content to just watch them then recreate the flights but it wasn't long before I'd figured out how to run the video on one of the LCD monitors on my cockpit panel while flying along on my primary monitor. It takes a little practice to synchronize the flights well but they are real time for the most part so it can be done.The Meridian is probably the better of the two to fly along with but I did notice that the Flight1 model is not quite as complete systems-wise as I always thought. The Meridian video spares you the preflight footage that is a significant part of the Pilatus video. Still, the Meridian pilot does a good job of describing his actions as he goes along. It took a few tries to realize the Meridian video has some scenes edited in from the return flight shortly after takeoff. I couldn't understand why the GPS looked so different all of a sudden. They must have messed up a bit but it's not a big deal. Pretty soon you will find the FS9 meridian is almost on the exact track as the video plane. It is very cool to scan the scenery and compare it to the video! It is amazing how similar they are and I found myself forgetting which view I was actually controlling! During a 360 turn on final for spacing I noticed a small deadend road on the video and sure enough it was in the sim (thanks to USA roads). I followed the video's ATC commands and the pilot's checklists and landed almost exactly at the same time as the video. The Pilatus video is also good with a lot more info about the aircraft and flight planning. I found it very easy to fly along with it and the scenery also looked very similar. I look forward to the C172 but frankly the C441 should be even better. These are big files to download and I thought I'd save money by downloading and recording to my own DVDs but my DVD-R software doesn't support the codec that compresses the video. Not a huge deal. Overall it's very cool to try the two side by side!David