Agreed. However, the director of the team (a well-respected Swede who
owns
the gorgeous V-tailed Bonanza in the hangar next to ours) apparently
decided
FS2002 was his most cost-effective "solution".
Jay, Tom is Swiss, not Swedish... He is very well funded, and making quite
a name for himself in his field. That's how he gets to run three separate
sims (at my last count) and fly around the country in his Bonanza on
business. Having Rockwell Collins right there in Cedar Rapids is sweet
because Tom's OPL gets to run and test Rockwell's future highway in the sky
interfaces.
It was fun to be a subject for a study he was running a few months ago. I
had to go through training and do 32 complex approaches, which took five
hours. It was draining, but fun, and I go the satisfaction of having helped
out research on future systems. And a cool OPL (operater performance lab)
patch :-)
More information about his lab:
http://opl.ecn.uiowa.edu/
All I know is this: With video screens out each "window", working
instrumentation, and an authentic flight deck, the realism is stunning.
They've done a really great job with it. Tom has a reputation for being a
bit of a slavedriver, but he produces some great work with his students.
-Aviv