Robert W

Yes, I have a Senior Staff Reviewer working on it...as soon as it is submitted for editing I will get it published right away as I know there are a lot of anxious simmers waiting for the latest report.

AVSIM is not "mostly" volunteers, we are ALL volunteers. I've been with AVSIM for 12 of those 15 years, and I've seen many a volunteer come and go. The dedicated ones stick around. I've read more than my fair share of those who agree to disagree within the forums. I'd say 95% of the participants have voiced their opinions, retorts, agreements, disagreements and personal views with dignaty and respect. But that small minority can't voice their opinions without slander, disrespect and/or ignorance and have to be deleted and/or banned in order for the rest of the forum users to not be subjected to their banter. I try to stay out of the forum arguments unless their is absolute "wrong" information being generated. Words written here can be taken so far out of context that some put their own spin on it and the thread continues from there. With regards to MS Flight, I was invited by Microsoft to attend their "media day" as AVSIM's Reviews Editor. I listened unbiasly to their "sales pitch" and what this product was and what it had to offer. Also in the room were 3rd party developers from various "brand name" companies we are all familiar with. At the end of the presentation I was free to develop my own opinion of the product based on what I had heard. The consensus around the room appeared to be unanimous, this "game" would not fly with the simming public. Microsoft's concept was that this was not for simmers but for the millions of people who wanted the opportunity to experience flying without having to have any knowledge or skills in the cockpit. Afterall, you play/control the game with a mouse. It's free yet you have to buy Microsoft points to purchase add-ons. By the way these add-ons are Microsoft owned so if you're a 3rd party developer, you have no rights over them once Microsoft gets ahold of them. In my opinion,they dissed these 3rd party developers as there's nothing in "Flight" for them. So Microsoft wants to launch a huge ad campaign with AVSIM. Why, we'll we're the #1 fan based flight sim website so we'll get the word out to our millions of readers. They hired a PR firm to run the campaign. This PR firm wanted signed contracts, a raft of agreements and total control over our webpage and how the ads were going to be run. Sorry, not going to happen boys. That's not the way we do things. We are "equal opportunity" space providers for whoever wants to run an ad campaign. You don't have to supply us with product before we'll let you run an ad like some websites. We're here to help you get the word out about your product. We started their campaign under our rules, but this "professional ad company" didn't like the fact that we were in control and tried to take over the "ad functions" again. Thanks, but no thanks....here's your money back. They got a week of free advertising over this mess, so you can see that we were NOT in Microsoft's pocket. We do just fine without their business dollars. So now Flight has come and gone. Let's get on with supporting our 3rd party developers for FS9, FSX and now X-Plane. Let's experience what Prepar3d offers to FSX. Let's try something new with X-Plane. The hobby isn't dead. That's obvious with all of you still hanging out at AVSIM. I'm still loving my time here and will continue supporting both the AVSIM staff and the AVSIM public. You're still free to express your opinions in our forums. But for that 5%, let's keep it civil and try to stay on topic. Remember, opinions are like belly buttons....we all have one.

I'm loving all the forum comments written about Flight but I have to chip in: 1. Flight is a game, it's not a flight simulator. We shouldn't be comparing apples and oranges. 2. The author volunteered to write about the game for AVSIM. He is not a staff member, he is a fellow simmer like yourselves. He was also part of the voluntary BETA team. 3. The author's opinion is his own, not AVSIM's. He reported on what he experienced with the game. Your results may vary and your opinions are your own. Not everyone agrees with everyone else. That's why they are called opinions. 4. I love the english language. Many say that the author is "biased". The Oxford Dictionary says that a bias is to enspire with prejudice. Everytime you make a decision and stick with it, you are biased towards that decision. Therefore we are all a victim of bias. 5. To make it clear, I'm biased towards FSX and X-plane. I don't like Flight either....there I said it. 6. During our visit to Redmond, the Microsoft team told us straight out that this is not aimed at us hard core Flight Sim enthusiasts, it's for the unwashed (my terminology) who have never experienced flying a plane before.

I hear ya. Remember this is a review from a contributing reviewer who is just "another simmer". There is no "you guys"....he's just an honest reporter getting the word out to the masses as to what to expect.Didn't we all know that MSFS died with Aces Studio shutting down. Weren't we all expecting a game to be released. From my own experience....it's Sunday afternoon brain candy. Fly a mission win some points, whoo hoo :Yawn: .Just my opinion....not the world according to AVSIM.

The review has been published

I have the G940, Thrustmaster Warthog and the CH Rudder, Yoke, Throttle Quadrant (yes it's good to be the editor :yahoo: ). I prefer to use the Warthog set-up for flying Mil Jets and use the CH set-up for yoke based cockpits. I'd like to see how the Thrustmaster T.16000M rates against older Thrustmaster models and how it applies to all aircraft operations.

Point taken on Aaron's use of developers screenshots and not all of his own. This is the first occurance for him.I too have used this product and will echo the comments that it does exactly as advertised and produces great environmental experiences.

Be gentle, and tactful.

If you want to submit a freeware review....Word is the best format with your screenshots embedded in the file so I know where to put them. However, when submitting the review, you have to send the screenshots along as well as they reside on your PC. Zip everything up and submit to me....I'll edit it and gladly publish it. If you don't have Word, then any text editor will do, just indicate in the text where the screenshots go. A caption with the screenshot is nice too.Who knows, you may become our next staff reviewer if you enjoy writing reviews of any kind :-)

For what category we win this award for?That would be in the "Utility" category.

I'm trying to get all the payware items in the hopper reviewed.....I'd love to have the excellent freeware items reviewed too, like we used to have. If I could only find a dedicated freeware reviewer. In the meantime, if anyone wants to write a review about a worthy freeware product, I'd gladly publish it.

You are correct....this should have been a tie between the 2 products.

I have to echo the bosses comment. There are so many titles in the review queue and I have a handful of dedicated reviewers trying to take on the workload. We are all volunteers with real world jobs. Our reviewers spend their "off-time" giving back to their "hobby" by reviewing material for your benefit. No they can't all be 20,000 word, in-depth reviews, but they do the best that they can. Please, if you feel strong enough to make derogatory comments about the reviewss (and the reviewers)....I ask that you take some of your "off-time" and help the community but submitting reviews of your own. I have the material....do you have some time? Contact me.

Re: "The iFly 737 NG IS also a very complex aircraft - actually it doesn´t lag much behind the PMDG. So why has that not got it´s share of interest from Avsim reviewers ?"Finn, these are both brand new releases....so reviews are in the works.

This is a first look at this aircraft, as it IS a very complex aircraft.Many simmers are sitting on the fence trying to decide whether this is or isn't an aircraft to add to their hangar. If there is a budding writer out there who has spent a lot of time with the 737 NGX, that would like to submit a comprehensive review of this aircraft, please let me know. I'm always looking for new reviewers.