I'm flying

I began loading Flight Simulator X at 11:30 yesterday. Two and a half hours and 41,000 files later (including download and install of Service Pack 1) I was flying an ultralight aircraft out of Centennial Airport (five miles south of the house) to sight see the Denver area. Centennial's layout is spot-on, major roads are easily found, but photo-realistic FS is not. That, really, would be too much to expect, though if a way could be found to tie Google Earth's imagery to the FS topography sightseeing would be lots more fun.

In this version of the sim lighting and weather are tied to the actual location conditions you're playing in, though you can override that and set your own. For me weather was clear and calm. I flew towards the mountains with the intention of following I-70 up to Georgetown. Things were going well until I passed 9400 feet in elevation. Suddenly I was being pitched and bucked all over the sky by wind made turbulent by its passage over and through the mountains. Fighting that wasn't fun so I went to Plan B, following the Red Rocks formation south to near Larkspur. It was interesting to see Arrowhead Golf Course pass below my feet Dinner was approaching so I had to abandon my flight before getting back to Centennial.

This sim has several aircraft to fly: an ultralight, a Cessna, a DeHavilland Beaver float plane, a Red Bull class racer/stunt flier, a twin Beech, a sailplane, a helicopter and a couple commercial jets. Way more than enough to keep me occupied. There is also a pretty good ground school complete with certifying flights to be performed. This could be a lot of fun.