FS5 FEEDBACK NOTE NUMBER ONE
By: Mark Stotzer
Product Reviewer
Pacific Grove, Ca.
17 Nov 93

This is intended to be a continuing follow-on series of notes that I
will post on various BBSs to share FS5 problems.  This note is a direct
descendant to my notes FS5SUCKS.TXT and FS5SUKS2.TXT uploaded earlier
this week.  I ENCOURAGE ALL OF YOU THAT NOW HAVE FS5 TO UPLOAD YOUR
THE PROBLEMS, BUGS, ETC. THAT YOU FIND WITH FS5 AND RELATED PROGRAMS-TO
SHARE WITH THE REST OF US!!

FOR THE RECORD:  I am running FS5 on a 386/40 system with a Trident
8900, 1MB video card, a CA Products joystick, and SoundBlaster Pro
sound card.

The latest FS5 notes from here in "Butterfly Town" USA:
1.  FS5 is being marketed under the "Microsoft Home" group of
programs...but really requires that "at home" you have at least a
386/33 or faster computer!  I guess that what they mean by the FS5
marketing slogan "As real as it gets" is actually that most users 
will need to "really get" a new computer from Santa to run FS5!
2.  There is no snow in Austria in the Winter.
3.  Sometimes the runway lights disappear while sitting on the
runway at night.
4.  The airport/runway lighting appears far too late on approach
and disappears far too early upon departure at night.  This same
type of problem happens during the day with the detailed scenery.
5.  Agree with others that that runways are impossible to find
when flying VFR.  It's the dark grey on dark green that seems
to cause this problem.  Try finding/flying into Monterey VFR!
6.  When trying to just cruise around, I find the aircraft all
very hard to trim into a stable cruise mode.  The changes made to
the throttle have me stumped.  I liked the way the FS4 version
worked better.
7.  I have not tried it yet..but read that the NAV1 lock function of
the Autopilot is just as useless as the FS4 version.
8.  I think it is because the memory manager NETROOM 3.0 dislikes
FS5...but I get very slow scenery transitions/lockups.
9.  The README file that comes with FS5 suggests restarting the
program for many sound problems....now there's a solution!
10.  Can't believe that COMPUTE magazine just picked FS5 as one of
their best product, category winners for 1993!  Obviously, they
installed it, saw the graphics and were impressed, and then went
into their word processor and gave it a wonderful endorsement!  From
the look and feel of the "final" product is this how the Beta testing
was done too?  Have read that Microsoft ignored many of the problems
noted by Beta testers....some of them we get to discover on our own!
11.  I bought and returned the Mallard FS5 San Francisco Scenery.  In
my opinion, 17MB is too much hard disk space to pay for "scenic" flying.
Most of the time, the scenery I could see out the windshield stayed grey
until I flew almost right on top of it.  It also slowed the already slow
program execution/scenery transitions of FS5 down even more.  These
comments probably apply to the other "photo-realistic" add-ons now
being sold.
12.  I just keep asking myself this question:  Who did they have in mind
as the target users for this program?  It is not operationally realistic
enough for true "computer pilots."  It is not exciting enough for older
children.  It is too complex for younger children.  It is too slow!  Given
these facts....who does that leave to buy it for?  I think they blew it.
A good "flight simulation" program keeps the "computer pilot" too busy
flying to notice the scenery except as a navigational/attitude reference!
MORE NEXT TIME IN FS5REV2.TXT!!!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!