Ok, I know you're saying "What are product reviews for Flight Simulator 98 (FS98) doing on Combatsim?" Well, let me tell you the reason: believe it or not, Microsoft's Flight Simulator 98 has a huge selection of Military Aircraft to fly. For those stuck with a flight sim program with only a couple of planes to fly in preset theatres, ask yourself… would you like to fly an A6 Intruder or that huge beast the C-5 Galaxy? FS98 gives the hardcore pilot a taste of the real thing.

Now you're saying "What military aircraft? I didn't see any military aircraft in FS98?" You're right. There are no mil planes bundled with the program. But if you have a browser and use a simple search engine, you can find scores of military aircraft to fly. For those who are too lazy to search for some standard aircraft, here are two places to begin your search: Flightsim.com AND Simflight.com.

Still with me? Ok: you're all set. You now have the panel, sound, and a B-52 downloaded and installed. You're flying around… man those graphics look evil… Su-27 1.5 even looks better than all those crappy blocks… and the clouds…eccch. Wake up and smell the Jet Fuel! Hit ALT-Enter to full screen mode… still crappy?

FS '98 Beautician

Ok… you're one of those guys who likes to load a game and not bother reading the manual. Open up 'Options-Preferences'. Click the display tab. Click the nice blue and grey button with your left mouse button…ooooh ahhhh… If you have a decent machine, you now can turn on all the fancy effects.

Now, one last tab, 'Hardware Acceleration' Microsoft offers D3D for video cards that can support this mode. In the full screen device, select your D3D card. Don't forget to turn on all 'Advance 3D hardware options' and make sure the 'Enable hardware acceleration' is turned on. Now, go to full screen mode again, everything now should appear in D3D mode… if you have a D3D capable card.

Final point… check the maximum resolution for your D3D card in the resolution pull down menu. You may be able to achieve resolutions as high as 1024x768 in D3D mode depending on your graphics accelerator (which looks stunning in FS98).

My ears are burning… someone is saying "What in the hell does this have to do with FSClouds and Wetter2?" From my perspective, it's no good selling someone a Ferrari unless you at least give them some lessons how to maximize performance out of the machine. The same goes for FS98. I'm offering a 'turbo kit enhancement' for FS98, but I'm not telling you how to turn it on. Now I have to show you what kind of rims and tires to make it perform well. FSClouds are like Rims on a Ferrari…they make the rest of the car look sharp. Wetter2 is like the tires you can buy, it gives you dynamic atmosphere changes which makes the weather appear real in FS98.

FSClouds from Flight1 Software

My adventure purchasing FSClouds reads like a story "A funny thing happened to me on the way to the office". All I can say is it was a trying time both for their shipping department and myself to receive this program… (no fault but my own for trusting my office mail room). I originally ordered FSClouds from the online ordering on Flight1 Software's web site (it's so nice to do business via secure Internet Connx) Te first shipment never arrived.

I waited 2 weeks, contacted their excellent customer support and was immediately mailed another (registered) copy. Finally, a third mailing was sent FedEx (wow) a week later until I realized my office was refusing the parcels. I was finally offered the program via download, which I received without errors. Many thanks to their service department… now where was I, ah yes… the program.

The install went very smoothly. On the desktop an icon called "SAM for FSClouds" appeared . SAM stands for 'Scenery and Aircraft systems Manager'. This is a real easy tool to use. Basically this interface is the control centre for FSClouds, allowing you to use pre-built scenery settings or your own custom designed flights. All default 'sam' files come with a nice picture to give you, the pilot, the ability to see what you're going to fly. FSClouds offers a lot of nice features that can be navigated with simple clicks of the button from the main SAM menu screen. Features in FSClouds:

• 1. Winter ground snow
• 2. Summer fields, forests, rolling countryside's (green grass… oooohhh ahhhhhh oooooohhhh)
• 3. Beautifully textured clouds and enhanced coastlines
• 4. Flight Editor with allows you to create your own weather setting

Remember your B-52? Well, now plot a flight from Edwards AFB to a simulated bombing run to Moscow in the winter over the frozen planes of the USSR. Take your B-17 Bomber from London to Paris in the summer… Or better yet, fly through storms in a C-17 Globemaster or a C-130 Hercules!! The possibilities are endless. The clouds look real and the ground scenery spectacular.

Wetter by Klaus Prichatz

Klaus Prichatz saw an opportunity to take advantage of what FSClouds has to offer and then make a tool that gives dynamic weather to FS98. He designed Wetter as a simple GUI which runs in the background of FS98 that give you multiple weather areas, or dynamic (changing) weather.

Wetter allows you to pick multiple weather areas as well. You can choose a destination list of airports and by turning 'More Areas' on, it's dynamic weather for multiple FS98 airports. You can take off on a clear sunny day from Toronto Pearson International and an hour later land at Kennedy International in Thunderstorms, poor visibility, heavy turbulence, and rain showers.

Imaging flying your Hercules to a short runway landing somewhere in Africa on a relief mission… The sky is grey along the coast, it's starting to rain, your plane bounces around, it's rough going… suddenly it clears up, you can see the runway just in time at your decision height…. You close in on your IFR approach… but wait… far off you see a rain shower coming in, visibility all of a sudden goes to crap seconds from your landing… With 0 miles visibility, do you abort the landing or commit and punch through the poor weather? Sound exciting? Now add a Force Feedback Stick.

With these two simple and inexpensive programs (FSClouds sells for around $40US, and Wetter for $15) you can turn the simple FS98 into a complex multimillion dollar like program that most Airlines pay millions for. Not a bad deal for $100 total. ;-D