I came across one or two Flight Unlimited 3 videos on YouTube today, and it has persuaded me to post this message here at AVSIM......

 

I really miss the days when I used FU3 (and the FU2 San Francisco scenery) exclusively. It was much more atmospheric and enjoyable than the versions of MSFS that were available at the time, even though the high resolution scenery regions were only a fraction of the size of the entire globe offered by Microsoft. Nevertheless, it simulated certain things really well, and there are a handful of items that have still not been surpassed! I am thinking here of the wonderful floatplane physics as my plane bobbed up and down in the water, with the sound of small waves lapping against the fuselage. I also remember those excellent water droplet effects on the windscreen and side windows when it was raining, the sound effects as a thunderstorm passed overhead and rain battered down on the roof of my plane, and the wonderfully atmospheric graphics as low cloud and mist partially obscured distant hills and mountains. The Beechjet very quickly became my favourite plane, and the simulation of those thrust reversers was the best that I had ever heard in a flight simulator (and impressive even by today's standards).

 

I also miss the friends that I made in the FU3 community, and this post is partly to see just how many of you are still around. I notice that quite a few usernames have the prefix "inactive member" at the front, so maybe some of those guys have left AVSIM (and maybe even flight simulation) forever? :(

 

I eventually switched to FSX over six years ago, and last year I upgraded yet again to Lockheed Martin Prepar3d. I have been a beta tester for UK2000 for the past six years, and SIM720 for the past two years. I am actively involved with UK2000 products, and have contributed to version 2 of the VFR Airfields Volume 1 (released nearly two years ago; I was responsible for completely updated versions of seven of the airfields), and VFR Airfields Volume 2 (due to be released very soon; I have made plenty of suggestions, and added extra details at several airfields). In addition, I have made personal modifications to literally hundreds of AFD files, so the legacy of Seattle 2006 and SanFran 2006 lives on :smile:

 

I would love to hear from as many of my old FU3 community friends as possible, so please let me know that you are still alive and kicking!

 

Best Wishes,

 

 

Chris

 

 

** Note to moderators: I have reposted this message here because many of the AVSIM members that used FU3 in the past have probably moved on, and no longer visit the FU3 forum on this website. It may be worth adding Bob's comment from the FU3 forum thread here, and then deleting that one **

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Regarding memories of the FU series:  I liked them all, but FU1 blew my sox off at the time with its adrenaline fuelled flights in the Pitts etc.

Circa 1995 it was one of the most advanced flightsim/games at the time......

 

Enjoy.....

 

Quick link (bypassing intro and flight manual etc) >

https://youtu.be/Iqnv1_GUWKg?t=412

 

Full video

 

That was a great sim indeed! I logged many hours back then.

That was a great sim indeed!

 

...and probably the only flightsim where your co-pilot/instructor actually yells out in fear at the moment of impact. ........

;-)

https://youtu.be/Iqnv1_GUWKg?t=555

 

WiKi quote...

 

"Flight Unlimited received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success; its sales exceeded 780,000 copies by 2002. Reviewers lauded its realism, flight instruction, graphics and sense of flight, but some criticized its high system requirements". ;-)

Still immersed in FU3 as much as FS9 (but thinking of adding a third horse to the softwware stable).

 

Still stuck with the old joystick on those evenings when I'd rather go retro, and still wondering if I can get my yoke & throttle to work so I don't have to swap hardware.

 

Here's me a couple of days ago, delivering out past Mt Rainier, and still getting lost in the generic textures of the outer terrain - the Grand Canyon this time.

 

 

 

D

I never used the outer terrain scenery. It wasn't of a good enough standard for me, and basic generic terrain textures were not why I was attracted to the FU series in the first place. I spent many happy hours immersed in the two high resolution photorealistic scenery regions, with "mirrors" on all sides to prevent eye damage :wink:

 

EDIT: Can a moderator combine both of these threads, and remove one of them?

Being a persistent flight devotee I spend a good deal of FU3 time making tea or fetching beer while transiting from Sanfran to Seattle or back.

 

Unless I'm clocking up the hours in the Discover Seattle download then just nosing about the extra Seattle farm fields is what I do most, but I've always felt the OT was under-populated. I occasionally make longer flights for the sake of OT airports but unless I'm terrorizing tourists or searching for the Curiosity rover in the Grand Canyon those flights are always at altitude, to the little oasis of scenery at the airport.

 

When I knew what I was doing, I managed to extend Seattle Approach and add more ATC to parts of the OT but was hampered by a lack of suitable sound files and resorted to filing flights to places called something like122point9...

 

D

The ATC in FU3 was amazing and sounded way better than FSX's. FU3 always felt special for some reason,I'm not sure why. I think I may install it on my old windows Vista laptop and see if I can get it working.

One of the aspects of FU3's ATC that I liked was the way that the ground controller asked me to "hold short runway xx" if I had to cross a runway, and then gave me permission to cross when I arrived (or when it was clear to do so). I preferred it to the "hold position/continue taxi" commands that you get in FSX/P3D.

One of the aspects of FU3's ATC that I liked was the way that the ground controller asked me to "hold short runway xx" if I had to cross a runway, and then gave me permission to cross when I arrived (or when it was clear to do so). I preferred it to the "hold position/continue taxi" commands that you get in FSX/P3D.

I also enjoyed the ability to declare an emergency.

Is it still possible to get this?

Is it still possible to get this?

Yea there are copies on ebay and also on a few sites for download. Im not sure if anyone owns the rights anymore or if they do, even care about it since the disks are no longer made.

There seem to be plenty of copies available from Amazon UK retailers at extremely low prices.....

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000A1OFPK/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Hi.

 

For about £10 in total, it's well worth getting. If you have a retro gene you'll love it.

 

When you do buy, bear in mind that to have the photo-scenery for the San Francisco area you'll need FU2 as well as FU3. FU3 only has Seattle area photoscenery. There are lots of upgrades in Avsim's library including, as I recall, a complete AI overhaul in one package. And - small plug for the OP's work - there are a couple of extensive scenery upgrades made by him and Jon Point.

 

The outer terrain covers the western half of the US and has reasonable mesh. The ground textures out there really are dull generic landclass. The screenie above makes it look quite reasonable but mostly the LC is rather unappealing.

 

The airline names, and some ATC phrases, suggest the developers had a lot of fun making it.

 

Regards,

D

Yes, that upgraded AI package (initially by Jouko Huovinen, and then updated by Ansgar Avermeyer) was worth its weight in gold! Several AI models that were not required (blimp, UFO etc) were replaced with additional (more relevant) models that expanded the AI fleet in FU3, and high quality models of existing AI planes were developed to replace the default (and rather basic) models. This transformed the AI environment, and made AI aircraft spotting a viable pastime in FU3!! This may have resulted in a rather bizarre combination of fictional and real world airlines (eg. Monarch is not generally seen at SeaTac!), but it was a significant improvement when compared to the default world. I also highly recommend Dave's suggestion of installing the FU2 San Francisco scenery at the same time. IMO, this region was always visually superior to the Seattle scenery in FU3, and I added a heck of a lot more scenery packages for this region (with the help of Jon Point and Robert Driscoll) :smile: