I notice that no one in the U.S. complained when us in the UK was paying the same amount in pounds as they was in dollars for FSX?

And your point is?

Victor,That's an easy question to answer: Yes and Yes!If you peruse the company's store, you'll quickly see that even if you are in New Zealand (and thus we can eliminate exchange rate issues), this particular aircraft is priced far above anything the company has offered even its local customers. By a lot. This aircraft is 40% more expensive than anything the company has offered its customers before. The previous price point for an FSX-designed aircraft was $40-50 NZD.This is also a case of a company which has chosen to price its product the same everywhere in the world - regardless of the economic logic of doing so. They have chosen to price their products in New Zealand Dollars. Everyone pays that price, regardless of what currency their country operates in.Nothing inherently wrong with that approach - however it can produce some surprising results that can negatively impact sales. In this case, the result is that this package costs $70 USD ... making it the most expensive add-on aircraft in the 26-year history of Flight Simulator - by a factor of 25-40%.I find it odd that they would choose this approach, because I have always believed (and it's just an educated guess) that the largest market for Flight Simulator add-on products was the United States. Maybe this company has sales data that indicates otherwise and feel they cannot leverage the economics of the scale of the American market.Usually, a company can make up in volume and market share what it loses on an individual sale from exchange rate differences if the market for its product is large enough.So ... this add-on is expensive for two reasons:1) The company has increased its prices significantly2) It is not interested in the additional volume potential of the largest market in the world.Whether it is worth the price is quite another thing. You'll have to buy it first to find out.Cheers,Kevin

My point is, (you must be new here!) We paid double the cost for the program.

They are just trying to take advantage of people. Just don't make a purchase.

>I find it odd that they would choose this approach, because I have >always believed (and it's just an educated guess) that the largest >market for Flight Simulator add-on products was the United States.

Snip: "Is not Europe inhabitant-wise, larger?"Markets aren't based on population (strictly) ... but rather sales. More people in the United States purchase Flight Simulator (again, this is just my guess), even though the population is smaller - primarily because the penetration of home hardware is greater in the US than in Europe.

McC,I couldn't disagree more. They are no more "taking advantage of people" than anyone else selling anything else at any price.Alphasim is one of the very few operations that even produce aircraft from this era. The external models are some of the finest you'll find, even if the VCs are too unfunctional for my tastes.)They have a niche market, and there (must be) plenty of people who find the price/value relationship to be compelling enough for them to purchase these products.(I myself have two of their helicopters, the newest purchased just yesterday while I was perusing their store for these comments!)I'm glad they're in this business, and wish them well. I don't find enough value in their newest product to make a purchase - but I certainly think others will find value there.

>Snip: "Is not Europe inhabitant-wise, larger?">>Markets aren't based on population (strictly) ... but rather>sales. More people in the United States purchase Flight>Simulator (again, this is just my guess), even though the>population is smaller - primarily because the penetration of>home hardware is greater in the US than in Europe.MS would know because they sell FS and also they did a survey a couple of years ago. Anybody here know anybody at MS they can sweet talk and find out the answer? :-lol

McAdd-ons.Mystery meat "chicken" nuggets for the price of a good steak.

I bought Alphasim's Merlin HC.3 in early February and was unimpresed. Their site said it "works great with FSX too!". The only part of it that was unquestionalbly compatible with FSX, however, was the exterior model. I was particularly frustrated when I discovered that only 2 VC switches worked, as I had intentionaly sent them an email before I bought it, asking if the VC switches worked in FSX,and had been asured that "ALL BUT 1-2 work". I sent them an email asking for a refund because the helicopter simply wasn't FSX compatible, as it had been advertised. I provided examples, such as the VC switches not functioning. I received a reply saying they felt they'd provided a product that was "99.9% usable", and suggesting a $2 refund "just for the switches". I replied, pointing out more areas where it was incompatilbe and he countered by telling me that a patch was due in June. After this series of emails, I noticed that the claims of FSX compatibility had been removed from the Merlin's webpage.After waiting until early August, I sent them an email asking for a refund and telling them that I would delete it from my computer and then reconsider repurchasing it when the patch was done. They all but refused giving me a refund and so I kept the model until the patch came out - which finally occurred in late August. I installed it right away and could barely tell a differenece except that the "invisible" refueling probe was gone. Remembering the hassle I had trying to get a refund "pre-patch", I finally gave up on getting a refund and have deleted it from my computer. $24.99 down the toilet. Based on my experience with their product and poor support, I would be hesitant to buy another Alphasim product. Perhaps in the future, once they've demonstrated that they've made major and effective changes in their VC modeling, provide their models with COMPLETE sound packs(not all of their models come with complete sound-sets), and improve their customer service, I will consider their products.This summary is not meant to be a "rant", but simply an account of my personal experience and disappointment.

I was luckier than you. I recently considered purchasing their Kamov KA-27/32 Helix. That ended when I had the good fortune to be able to test it before hand. The interior, exterior, panel & VC artwork is very nice and the sounds are outstanding. Unfortunately the rotor system has some serious inaccuracies. But, what really turned me away is, they modeled the main rotor shaft to be perfectly perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage when it should be inclined 5 degrees forward. Makes it impossible to lift off and set down realistically the way the gear is (correctly) modeled.From what I've seen, it looks like they got the MJ-53E right.Cal - CYXX