My Dad loves the challenge of flying and landing an airplane. He switched the flight model to accurate so that low speed handling would be realistic. Things got interesting to say the least..

What REALLY floored my Dad was the navigation and real ATC. As he panned around the cockpit I pointed out to him all the systems he had control over. I pointed out the cockpit layout and the back up NAV system, which was very familiar to him because of the similarity to NAV systems in Microsoft Flight Sim.

I showed him that he could manually set course and heading and follow the deviation bars to his destination. This just added to his first experience with Falcon 4.0, making it a good one. By the way his first landing was a bit rough on the gear. :-)

Many Combinations of Realism Are Possible...

Just say you know you are a good pilot and can handle the realistic flight model of the F-16, but you don't have the time to sit and learn the systems of the jet and all the weapons delivery modes. After all, these are MANY and often complex...

Never fear! You can customize the simulation to fit your level of commitment, time and skill level. Best of all, you will be able to grow with this simulation as your skills improve. One by one you will be able to inch toward realism OR you can find a level that is good for you and stay there. The beauty of this approach is that it removes the intimidation and sheer frustration of having to enter in the deep end.

But keep in mind that NEWTONIANS LAWS OF PHYSICS are followed in every mode: so the ballistics in the sim are not effected. This makes Falcon 4.0 unique. Simple mode doesn't equal "Magic" weapons and Faketonian Laws Phyics. This approach means that while your learning curve is greatly eased, you are still in a realistic environment. You are learning the response curve and how your systems and environment interact, while staying alive long enough to learn!

Examples: Simple Avionics:

In Air To Air Mode:

Method 1: Slew the target designate cursor over a red dot and press target select In Air to Ground Mode:

Method 1: Slew the Target Designator cursor over the red dot and press target select.
Method 2: Slew Weapons Camera over the target and press target select. If you have Maverick or Laser Guided bombs selected, you will see what you have locked up in the weapons camera on the MFD.

What’s really nice about simple avionics was that the technique was the same for both Air to Air and Air To Ground Target selection. This option allows you to get the job done.

Click to continue . . .

Splash Two! Twilight action.

My Final observations:

Using my Dad as my example of one type of non-hard-core combat flight simulation guy, who is into complex navigation, good flight models and graphics. I feel he falls within that core FS98 and Flight Unlimited group. Since there are so many levels of non-hard-core sim people it is kind of hard to identify all the levels.

Now I don't pretend to know what YOU WILL like. That’s not the purpose of this article. This is intended to ease any fears that might come about from hearing all the talk about HOW HARD this sim is. This sim is hard but as I hope this article has shown it has another side to it.

Summary

As a final example of Falcon’s flexibility and Inclusiveness, all levels of players can fly in the same networked session. This allows people that are into ultra realism to team up and/or fly against folks that want to just fly and shoot up stuff. Finally a combat simulation for everyone. Those that want some quick fun shooting down and blowing up stuff, Falcon will provide that to you.

Scramble!!

Those that want a sim that will require you to seek advice from Real F-16 pilots, Falcon 4.0 will give that to you. Because of this sims high level of customization options, Falcon will allow you to have the sim your way. Falcon will provide anyone that wants to fly an F-16 simulation with the proper level of challenge mixed with a heavy dose of FUN, that’s rare for a simulation this complex... but its true!!!

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