As you become more comfortable with the controls and the cockpit you can take on more and more of the responsibility. You can then turn the AI back on for your landing. It can start the plane, taxi out and take-off before you turn off the AI and take control. X-plane is a very realistic simulator and is not a game – so for a beginner I strongly suggest letting the AI fly the plane for your first few flights. The base product comes with 30 different aircraft to fly from gliders to the huge 747 and you can start and end your flight at one of its 33,000 airports. This is available for download at or by using Allison’s Amazon link for a DVD version. Laminar Research produce a flight simulator program for the Mac called X-plane. The first thing you need is a flight simulator program. I can sit at my 27” iMac and fly wherever I want, whenever I want and it can be an incredibly immersive experience with some of the software, hardware, and services available. There is no problem to be solved here, merely a way to use our computers for fun – I am talking about flying around the world on your Mac. This is Tom Stewart again and I am hoping to take a few minutes of your time to discuss a topic which has only a very slight Macintosh bias.

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