You might enjoy the letter I sent to MS last year while I was working with
them on COF. It deals with exactly what you are saying here.

Dudley Henriques wrote;

"MS has done such a beautiful job with their simulator program, that I can
literally sit here in
the den after retiring from aviation after fifty years as a professional
pilot and literally relive almost any flight
I ever made in real life in a photo quality reproduction of the exact
aircraft I flew on any given day or night and in the exact weather the
flight was flown . I can pull almost any cross
country flight out of my logs and re-fly it exactly as it was the time it
was
done.
For example, I was honored when I was asked by a fairly well known add on
software developer who specializes in developing aircraft for MS flight
simulator to help out a bit with the flight model for their absolutely
beautiful T38
Talon . I had flown research and test in the T38 and naturally knew a few
things about how the flight model should "feel".
The purpose of my help was to make the model as
realistic as possible for the sim pilot. The finished product; a freeware
download, is an absolute masterpiece of finished effort by the developer. I
have the
Talon on my Microsoft flight simulator .
Just to give you an idea of how wonderful the Microsoft sim experience can
be,
consider this.
I'll just pick one flight for an example here, to give you a handle on
how amazing the MS simulator coupled with this particular airplane (the T38)
is for me
personally.
I had occasion to fly a NASA T38 Talon, tail # 38200 from the ramp at the
Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxant River Maryland to Dover AFB Delaware on
Feb. 8th 1975. No big deal really...just routine....but now, 29 years later,
lets set up Microsoft's flight simulator and see what happens.
Using the T38 in Microsoft's flight simulator; sitting in my den at home, I
can literally set up that flight on the ramp at Pax in exactly the
same spot the actual airplane occupied in real life, file a flight plan
using
the same tail number, taxi out using the same taxiways I used in 75, take
off on the same runway I used in 75, see the same scenery on all sides of
the aircraft I saw as I took off in 75, fly the route over the same scenery
as it was then, fly the approach and land on the exact same runway at Dover
I used in 75, taxi in on the same taxiways I used then, and park the Talon
next to the exact same building it was parked that day in 1975.
As if that isn't enough emersion, consider this as well. I did many air
shows as a professional demonstration pilot flying a P51D Mustang. I have a
P51D on the Microsoft simulator.
I can take that virtual P51 and fly it through almost any air show I ever
performed, at the exact airport or air base the show was flown, and see
everything from the cockpit virtually that I remember seeing back then.
I can also park that P51 on the exact spot it occupied as it's home on the
exact ramp where it lived for several years, at the same home airport where
I was based at the time I flew this airplane.
And if all this isn't enough reality, I can take Microsoft's default
aircraft in the simulator and duplicate any hour of dual instruction I ever
gave in all the years I was a flight instructor.
THAT'S what I call a wonderful thing to have on my computer.
Simply to realize that this kind of window to the past is possible to
reproduce in virtual reality, and that this entire experience can be called
up at the press of a keyboard key, and that the entire thing exists on a set
of 4 tiny discs only 41/2 inches in diameter, and that this capability is
made possible to me at such a low price by Microsoft is truly one of the
marvels of modern technology.
Just imagine for one moment how unique to my life, and the moments that made
up the tenure of my career in aviation, this product represents.....and all
this without Microsoft ever knowing how directly personal what they coded on
these four little disks were to me as an individual.
I can literally hold the four disks that make up MS COF simulator in my hand
and
say to someone......."This is my life".
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired

"James" wrote in message
...
Today I was at my local airport (KDYB) with my wife and grandson. We were
sitting at one of the picnic tables they have along side of the office
watching the planes. I commented to my wife how impressed I am with this
new
software I bought, FS 2004. I told her that what amazed me is how
accurately
things were located in it. I had my Garmin 12 GPS with me and I told her,
I
bet the location on this GPS will match the location in the software. So I
wrote it down to see. From our sitting point directly across the airport
there was this white house on the edge of the airport facing us. She ask
me
who lives there? I told I that I had no idea but they sure have a great
view
of the airport. Then we seen this yellow plane taking off and my wife
said,
"There something wrong that plane is going so slow it's going to fall
(stall) or something." I said no, "that is and old J3 cub". It takes off
at
60 mph and is it heading into the wind, that is why it looks like it is
going so slow, it's not going to stall.

When we got home I went to the computer and checked the location of KDYB.
The parking area on FS 2004 was the exact reading I got on my hand held
GPS.
I called my wife into the room and said look at this, "except for no
parked
planes this is actually what we seen today for real". I said "see the
signs
by the taxi way pointing which way to go and the painted markings on taxi
ways". The layout was flawless. Scanning around, there it was, "the white
house". I know that it was a pure coincidence that the house would be
there
but I could not help teasing my wife. I said see how accurate this thing
is
they even have the house where it belongs. She said, "How did they know
that?" I said, "I don't know but they are pretty smart." Then I asked
her, "Do you want to fly a J3 cub just like the one you seen today". I
said
"You can even take off from the same runway (6)." So when I put the cub on
the runway she said " WOW, it's even the same color, yellow". I think she
was impressed too.

Seriously. I don't seen how Microsoft (or anyone else) could write a piece
of software like this and only sell it for $50.00. I am running it on a
Dell
2.5 Gig P4, 1 gig Ram, 128 video card and a 21" monitor. I runs good with
this system.