Randy Farnsworth wrote:
Thanks. Like I said, I'm new to this, and I hadn't heard of X-plane.
That looks like a great product, and since another poster said I may
not be able to run FS on my Mac, this looks promising.

Randy Farnsworth
Author of "A Stand Yet Taken"
http://randyfarnsworth.com/


gerrcoin wrote in message ...

Hi Randy
The X-plane flight sim can run on the Mac and Linux as well as
Windows. It's one of the few rivals to FS (Fly III ?) but is not as
visually appealing quite yet, the flight physics are argueably better.
But work is ongoing and updates can be downloaded regularly. You
should also be able to find a Twin Otter model somewhere on the net.
Aircraft downloads and addons are usually free in the X-plane community.

Go to:
http://www.x-plane.com/

Gerr

No Problem. X-plane is a damn good simulator in it's own right,
comparisons to FS aside. I believe that it is also free - in the free
speech rather than free lunch sense of the word. It's a lot like the
linux Vs. Window debates. It's a hell of a lot more versitile but
somewhat lacking in user friendliness and aestethics. But it doesn't
have the mega buck backing of MS and is still a work in progress.

You still pay a fair ammount for a CD release. Updates for major
releases are free to download anyway so if you have, say, version
7.something then you can DL updates until version 8.0 comes along. The
only problem is that updates come along fairly frequently and there
can be some major changes between releases in terms of how it handles
addons,scenery planes etc. This can make life hard for the developing
community.