If you like flight simulators, you’ll enjoy this application I just learned about from Michael. Called FlightGear, it’s open-source, so as long as you abide by the terms of the license, you’re free to download, use and share it.
And while it may be free, don’t think for a moment that it’s not full featured. Professional polish and attention to detail are evident in flight variables like wind effects and real-time day/night. That’s the beauty of open-source—programmers around the world contribute to a project.
Flightgear includes real-world scenery taken from photographs and comes with the San Francisco area pre-installed. But you can visit the FlightGear Web site to get additional settings from around the world, including thousands of real airports.
FlightGear runs on Windows, Mac OS-X, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and IRIX platforms allowing the user to “fly” their platform of choice. If you’re a flight-sim enthusiast, give it a try. New challenges keep your flight-sim skills honed, and you sure can’t beat the price!