Aerofly 2 Simulator

[Torie Crivello]

HelloI am a huge flight simulation enthusiast and I've used many flight simulators (and still do) including FS9, FSX, P3Dv5, MSFS, X-Plane 11 & X-Plane 12 as well as combat flight simulators. The only "major" flight simulator that I have yet to try is Aerofly FS4 and I was hoping to get some opinions on it as well as answers to some questions about it. I've had a difficult time finding all the information I want to know about it so I don't know a lot.

1. How much of the world has good scenery to fly over? I ask because I've read that the only places there are to fly with scenery is the east and west coast of the U.S. and part of Europe and that's it. I read the rest of the world just has no scenery at all.

6. What kind of navigation systems do the aircraft use? For example, good old radio navigation, Garmin units (for smaller aircraft) or full fledged FMC's/MCDU's (for airliners) or something in between?

I would also very much appreciate it if anyone has anything else they would like to mention about the sim, like other features, things I might not know or have thought of or any thoughts people may have on it. I just need to know what I'm getting with this sim and if it's worth my time and money to try it.

That being said, I myself use and enjoy Aerofly, primarily because of its still unsurpassed VR clarity and fluidity (and working vr hands!), as well as the well-kept-secret that its planes/avionics are in fact surprisingly complete and detailed for such an underrated sim.

Thank you both for the replies, I really appreciate it. @HiFlyer thanks for the advice, I will check out the official forum. I read that the VR is awesome in Aerofly FS4 too. I also read that the physics are really good which is very high on my priority list when it comes to flight simulators.

I think what I will do is wait for it to go on sale during the end of year sales on Steam so I can get a healthy discount. I tried every other "real" flight simulator made since 2002 except for this one so I am still curious...

From my experience with Aerofly over almost ten years I can say: No, it's not worth to buy, and it's not worth the hassle to wait years and years and years till IPACS has improved something substantially.

Unless you are totally in flying tubeliners 30.000 feet above weather conditions, unless you are a huge fan of VR or if you want to achieve 60 fps under any cricumstances, than maybe it's something for you.

E.g. I've payed some great payware sceneries for Aerofly FS 2, like Himalaya Extreme by Aerosoft or LOWI by ORBX (lowi came out in 2017 under the direction of Jarrad Marshal). These great sceneries are still not updated for Aeerofly FS 4, which is a big loss and grieve for me.

I would deny further cooperation with IPACS too if I would have developed payware for AFS2; a crucial point which I don't want do spread out more than necessary on avsim. Let's say, my own experiences with IPACS on their main site were not the best in the past.

Thank you, I appreciate you input. It is on sale right now, the one time of year it does go on sale, and I was really considering it. One of the reasons I haven't bought it yet is because, like you mentioned, there's no 3rd party development scene which is really disappointing. One reason I do want to try it though is because I've read it has very accurate flight modelling which is a very important aspect to me. I guess I still can't decide but after your comments, I'm leaning towards no.

Thank you for your kind worlds. Another point I want do highlight, which I haven't mentioned before and which become more important in Aerofly the more often you fly this sim (an experience which I've made for myself):

Because of the total lack of dynamic weather (which is still not implemented in AFS4), always the same looking clouds, the same date, only on summer day-season (still no seasons in AFS4, even not mentioned by the developers), no dynamic 3D water, blurrry textures close above the ground (which gives me the most headache as a former helicopter pilot) - the overall look and seceneries of the sim become very boring and stale very soon.

After reading this post I am definitely going to pass then. No dynamic weather, no seasons and blurry textures, no thanks. Also the flight modeling doesn't seem quite as good as I thought then. I do like flying realistic helicopters. For X-Plane I have a few that are awesome plus I have the Huey for DCS World and it's fantastic to fly.

I'll keep spending my money on X-Plane and P3D instead, those are my go to sims right now, I really enjoy them both for different reasons. I also use MSFS once in a while when I don't care about flight models and I just want to see pretty scenery ?

Well Kalnon, if you are into helicopters you'll be surprised that there exists a dedicated helicopter-simulator from IPACS/Aerofly. Internally IPACS called it Aerofly FS 3 (yes, there is a version 3 between version 2 and todays version 4); it's software engine is based on Aerofly FS 2 solely developed by IPACS.

That is very interesting, I always wondered why I never heard of AFS3, now I know why. I'm guessing the helicopter flight dynamics are significantly improved for ASF3 then if it's for professional training. It's sad they never made it available for consumer use because I would be very interested in that.

For helicopters, X-Plane 12 is a fantastic alternative, it has a new updated physics engine (compared to XP11) that allows helicopters to fly very realistic, better than any other simulator for helicopters, with the exception of DCS World but XP12 has finally caught up with DCS as far as helicopter physics/flight dynamics in my opinion. XP11 was close but XP12 is even better and for the X-Plane platform, there's some really interesting and well made 3rd party helicopters to choose from, including an AS350/H145 and more models to come as 3rd party developers continue to make new ones.

As for your other gripes about Aerofly, they are totally legitimate, I enjoy flying airliners too sometimes but more often I prefer VFR flying in GA aircraft. I like lot's of autogen in my flight simulator since I enjoy VFR flying but I don't want it all to look the same, that would destroy any sense of immersion for me.

For X-Plane there's a freeware developer called SimHeaven that has completely overhauled the X-Plane autogen (for both XP11 & 12), you can download their autogen packages for free (just be aware they are huge packages and take time to download and install) and they cover the entire planet. The best thing about SimHeaven autogen is there is a lot more details and variation in how the buildings look and it also mimics real world placement and designs of all buildings in the world.

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