Customer Reviews
Realistic, fun & worth the cost 
2007-07-09
Model RC flying is just something you either enjoy tremendously or disdain completely. For those of us that enjoy it, nothing could be more daunting a task than taking our pristine polished birds of flight up into those scary skies. Even though I am a certified private pilot, I can still recall the first time I flew my first trainer RC model plane. It was just a few years ago and I had been flying the original version of Realflight for a few months before the maiden flight. Along with my best friend and experienced RC pilot, we trekked out to an abandoned factory plant with nothing but long concrete roads, and empty foundations a couple miles off the road, pretty much ideal for learning the ropes.
Needless to say, I flew the plane better than my instructor and was more confident. (mainly due to my thousands of flights using Realflight along with hundreds of crashes!) --- I took off, did some rolls, loops, Cuban8s and then I got nervous about the landing, so I let my seasoned pro take over. Well, suffice to say he managed to introduce my trainer to the only tree within 10 miles, and my first day of flight was quickly rendered complete.
Realflight was good back then. It provided me the raw confidence and ability to understand the dynamics of flight as well as the inherent advantages of each different model aircraft without incurring the cost or the build-time. Last week on a whim, I decided to get back into RC planes. I lost my whole collection to Katrina and wanted to start off small again, but it has been at least 3 years since I last flew by Futaba, so off I went to find out about RF 3.5!
Well, I purchased Realflight 3.5 thinking it probably had a lot more than I needed or wanted included, but all things being equal, it probably was still the best available on the market. I was right, it is the best available for my needs, but it does have FAR too many options, variables, scenarios, settings and parameters that most of us will probably never care to use, much less actually need. I wish they sold a scaled down RC plane version only with a few flying fields and maybe a dozen aircraft for 1/2 price, then maybe a "Premier" version with everything else included, but I guess that is not in the scheme of things at KnifeEdge. In any case, the new multilink controller (made by Futaba) is superb --- precise, accurate & can be configured for custom applications by the end pilot.
All-in-all, highly recommended. Excellent software, fabulous graphics, accurate control, and definitely worth the $ to me. If you are serious about learning how to fly, flying when the weather is poor, experimenting with different aircraft or simply reducing your % of accidents into this wonderful hobby, then RF3.5 in my opinion is the best out there bar none.
Even if you, like me, don't have much time a year to fly, it is the best fun you can have practicing without picking up too many discarded pieces of balsa wood and monokote!
:)
Keep the greasy side down,
Andy
Saving me a lot of busted up planes 
2007-02-28
I'm new to the hobby so to have this sim available is saving me a lot of busted up planes and frustration (and money). For comparison my system specs: AMD64 3000, 1GB RAM, 7900GS, 19" widescreen. I've set all the graphics qualities to 100% (except lighting and contrast which I left default) and I'm running the sim with no noticeable slowing or stutters. Installation was straightforward and I was up and flying in no time - well, up and crashing in no time.
PROS
- Great way to enjoy the hobby and save the frustration and expenses of real-world crashes.
Nice visuals and nice sounds.
- To me, the controls feel accurate, but I don't have a real RC to compare to.
- Nice assortment of aircraft to choose from right out of the box and more expansions available for purchase.
CONS
- You may not be able to find a match for your real RC plane.
- Graphics are nice but not top-notch. At times it can get difficult to recognize the orientation of the aircraft.
- No beginner airfield that does not have visual obstructions (trees, buildings, etc.). For those of us just learning it is horrible to lose sight of the aircraft even for a moment. It also makes those landing approaches less forgivable when there are fences and such alongside the runway that make those less than perfect landings more costly than they would be if you were in an open field.
In summation, there is something that I wish you could enable and that is an orientation (bank) indicator. When the aircraft moves too far away it is really, really hard to tell the aircraft's orientation anymore, more so than when I'm watching the true aircraft in life. As for what is included, I've only scratched the surface. You can modify the existing aircraft and airports and that is where I will go next to see if I can't remove some of the scenery and give me a more forgiving airfield.
Mixed bag upgrading from G2 
2007-01-29
The fact that I used G2 for months saved me many crashes at the field, I'm sure. I eagerly anticipated upgrading to G3, but it was a huge disappointment. The "photorealistic" scenes were a good idea, but the implementation didn't work out so well. For me, flying with G3 was disorienting due to the poor quality of the photos they used for the backgrounds. The G3 flight model is supposed to be a more realistic physical model that should work better with "3D" flying. But this didn't compensate for the difficult time I have orienting myself to the surroundings. Maybe it's just me. But I'm going back to G2.
This is fun, fun, fun 2007-01-12
Quick shipping and easy installation. You definately need some high powered graphics on your computer for this Flight Simulator, but well worth it! It is almost like the real thing!
Sort of alright 
2007-01-09
I had problems with the video working properly on this sim. I have a brand new AMD64 bit gaming maching with 512MB of graphics ram. This software is really picky on the video drivers that are supported. Check out the support forums before you buy. You will find a lot of users with video compatability issues. Even on new systems. I wish I would have read the problems that others were having before I bought it. Mine is going up on ebay within the hour.
