I shelled out the cash for Ultimate Terrain X USA today. I must honestly say... I am very, very impressed... so impressed with it, that, well, I'll put it this way... I would pay four times the price of FS Global X 2008 for Ultimate Terrain X USA in a heart-beat. Did I mention that I am very impressed with Ultimate Terrain X USA? ...                    Semper Fi, Dave

Hmm... Yeah, I didn't notice that at first. I had to go back and read the advertisement again. They've got USA X & Canada X, but...  Just doesn't seem right. I don't "fly" that far north, so it doesn't bother me. It would seem that if you're doing that much work all the way around an area like that, that you may as well just do the whole area, but that's just me.



I have to brag about the Active Sky X/X Graphics bundle also. I did a 5.5 hour VFR night "flight" in a Cessna 172 from north of New Orleans, LA along the gulf coast across "Hill Country" of central Texas to my hometown of Laredo, TX. I HAVE TO brag about how real and accurate the clouds and lingering misty, vapor that you really experience in the gulf coast area. In the "Hill Country", the clouds look different, but still accurate in that area, along with type of turbulence that you would experince in that area also. Now I have to do a day "flight" and see if I get caught in one our infamous "pop-up thunderstorms"    Semper Fi, Dave

Yeah, Active Sky X/X Graphics are that good in my opinion. I could see a definate difference in the way the sun shines on the water the cloud cover is very nice and realistic. there are definate fog layers here and there across bodies of water depending on the size of body of water. You have a definate mist in the air in hilly and mountain areas along with snow caps at the higher mountain elevations. The road and the road traffic are awesome with a myriad of types of vehicles on the roads. Lakes, streams, and ocean sections seem to have the proper water colors, meaning, smaller inland lakes are a bluer color and the Mississippi River and Delta are a much dirtier color. The Pacific Ocean is blue and San Fransico Bay is a mix of "not-so-dirty,not-so-blue" color. Trees, buildings, residential, and industrial areas look really nice and are extremely sharp and very detailed also, even at 2-3,000' AGL. ASX also seems to have endless weather themes. You can get real time updates,  pick a pre-designed weather theme, or you can design your very own hybrid weather conditions by mixing and matching all the different textures - which I haven't done yet. I've only used the real time and pre-designed stock weather themes so far, and again, I am very, extremely impressed.

Now, as far as I know, I cannot use X Graphics and Ultimate Terrain X USA simultaniously, but I can use Ultimate Terrain X USA and Active Sky X simultaniously though. Ultimate Terrain X USA is equally as nice and shines in different areas than X Graphics. UTXUSA has less sharper road images and less variety of road traffic, but it still looks way better than stock, and the roads are still jam-packed. UTXUSA seems to out-shine X Graphics in the land to water transition areas though. You can really see the water depth changes and whether a cliff or beach type area, the transitions are very smooth and quite realistic.  It has very a very sharp 3D of close up, and also distant mountainous and hilly areas also. It is misty in places in the hills and snow caps at the top of higher elevation mountains. I've only had the programs for two days so far, so I'm still tinkering and testing different configurations between all three programs. One thing is for sure though, I definately feel that my $105 USD ($35 for UTXUSA and $70 for the ASX/XG bundle) are well spent and very much worth every penny that I spent, and I feel like I will have a great variety of flight graphics and weather situations for many years to come.

Hey Esselbach, You wouldn't happen to have cleared those minefields for me in Desert Storm, back in '91 by any chance, did you? Either way, I'm alive today because of you guys, the Army's "Tiger Brigade" and two Air Force A-10 Wart Hogs. I found myself in a "little situation" while driving about ten thousand pounds of 81mm mortar rounds in a six-by out there. I made it through the first minefield without any harrassment, but while moving through the second minefield, I had some Iraqi arty "walking" towards me quite quickly. Their last shot came in at about 800m out, not danger close, but still, it was a bit distracting to say the least. One of our heavy machineguns mounted on a Hummer took care of pesty sniper also. Thanx and Semper Fi, Dave

Nevertheless, You did a damn good job out there. Thank you for your service and most of all... welcome home, Brother.


And, just some real friendly advise, make absolute sure that you get a full copy of your SRB (Service Record Book, I don't know if they still call them that) and a full copy of your Medical Records before you leave active duty, or get them from St. Louis immediately if you have already been discharged, and try to get some "buddy statements", listing approximate dates and whereabouts of certain key events that you and your buddies experienced and hang on to them - You'll thank yourself in fifteen years or whenever you decide to go to the VA and get a pension. A Vietnam Vet told me this not too long after I got home, and I didn't listen. I am "lucky" that everything has turned in my favor in my dealings with the VA, it's a nice check  ... PM me if you need anything. Semper Fi, Dave

Does it improve FPS as well as the graphics?

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Oh yeah, and what really sucks is when we were mobilizing, the Army lost my shot records, so I had to restart a couple shot series...


Yesterday,I snuck into a local motel's parking lot, and quickly bought and downloaded Active Sky X. A twelve hour download at home was a 12 minute download with high speed internet...