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Amen to that :) And let you have a "real" FO a couple of thousand miles away :) And make a voice client where 2 PTTs could be used, 1 to talk to you other pilot for checklists and such, the other to talk to either "real" online ATC, or he could just punch the numbers like we do now.

Wellthey do acknowledge that there havent paid much attention to 'multiplayer before' and that they have ripped out the multiplayer part of FSX and put in a completely new system,the best part was where they acknowldeged that there is now programs out there where you have ATC (VATSIM / IVAO) so there must be some great things planned in FSX multiplayer.

There was talk a few years ago of developing a system where two computers would shadow each other.Ie you could have two pilots in different parts of the world with the same aircraft displays and cockpit.They would be able to communicate.This would mean that you could have an instructor a thousand miles away in your cockpit seeing what you see and instructing you.You would be able to share a flight with a friend or have a real co-pilot with you.Dont know how far the developer got with that idea??? As that would be a HUGE breakthough not just for flightsimming but for real world training too.Peter

It sounds like you're talking about gates.to ?http://gates.to/LoadPage.php?page=WelcomeIn theory this allows you to have a pilot, a co-pilot and (I think) even observers (passengers) sharing one aircraft. I haven't tried it so I can't comment on how well it works, though.

>gates.to/fsnet is a platform allowing to add to Microsoft Flight Simulator a series of features that will revolutionize the way you fly. The first feature, let's call it module from now, is the ability to share aircraft over the Internet and/or a LAN. This mean that you will be able to fly the big irons with an human co-pilot, handling all the typical co-pilot tasks for you while you pilot. And, if you are an inexperienced user, you will be able to have an human instructor telling you what to do next taking care, of course, of what you are doing in real time! To give you a better idea about the gates.to/fsnet platform concept have a look at the following diagram

Gates.to is great. When I used it with a friend we took a B767 to Cyprus from the UK with my friend performing the takeoff and me controlling the ATC, gear and flaps etc. Then when approaching Cyprus we switched roles and I landed it. It was very good and totally different to share the flying. We used Teamspeak to talk to each other.The only problems were with the scenery and cockpit instruments. I had better payware scenery where as he didn't so while he was taxiing on the taxi way, I was on the grass. The other problem was with the autopilot. If I activated the AP the engines idled back but if he activated it the engines acted normally.

FSNet works great with the default aircraft but has problesm with 3rd party aircraft such as PMDG & levelD.If a plane complies with the FS SDK then it should work with FSNet, however the likes of PMDG & LevelD move away from the SDK to provide more acurate functionality.The main things you miss out on are instruments and switch states, AFAIK the aircraft will fly together, if you know what I mean.I had hoped that Concorde and Ready for Pushback 742 would be compatible as those are aircraft I feel would benefit from a two or three man crew.FSNet developers have tried to work with 3rd party developers but with no real success.If you only fly the default aircraft it is a great experience.The software was free for a long time while in public beta but is now payware, see their web site for details.