Pacific Tides
My name is Thomas Sturm and I'm a programmer, photographer and writer.

Now go outside and look at the sky.

Flying Again

When I switched off my Windows PC for the last time about a year ago, there was only one piece of software left that I knew I would be missing on my Mac: Flight Simulator.

Thanks to its learning curve and complexity, most people will never even know what an amazing application the MS Flight Simulator is - it's not just that you simulate to fly a plane, what is so special is the feeling of really being there. The simulation of the world around you has reached ridiculous levels with the last two versions of the software, to the point where I could just sit somewhere in a corner of a busy airport and watch the simulated world around me for hours.

Well, once the PC was gone, I really missed that.

But one year without flying a plane is enough, so now I've bought X-Plane from Laminar Research.

X-Plane is actually the better flight simulation of the two, and I had to re-learn - and unlearn - a lot of my old habits to become a better pilot. The scenery around the plane is actually also very detailed with beautiful weather effects and a much better wind model, but - alas - the world is mostly devoid of life again as it was in MS Flight Simulator three versions ago.

But it's great to be back flying again!

© 1998 - 2024 Thomas Sturm