So what's your setup?

Microsoft Flight Sim user?
Probably. Why else would you have landed on this website?

Microsoft Flight Sim enthusiast?
Possibly. Many of you now have more than 10 software add-ons, one or two fancy joysticks, and some of you even have a VATSIM account where every Sunday afternoon you practice your RT.

Microsoft Flight Sim home cockpit builder?
Aah. So you’re one of the few who spends most of their time building the ultimate home Flight Sim experience, in what used to be your dining room.

Strap yourself in, here's the pitch!
Whatever your flight sim setup, FSNightingale is about to make your flying hours a whole lot better!

The view from 10,000 feet...

Remember 'Merrill C. Meigs'?

It's 2003. You’d just rushed home from the shop carrying your eagerly awaited copy of the brand new FS2004 ‘A Century of Flight’.

You made a pot of coffee, inserted the DVD-ROM and began the install. Your drank your coffee, 2 cups at least as I remember while you waited for the install to finish...

Eventually, install complete, your first view of the FS9 world was looking through the 172 windscreen down runway 36 at Chicago Meigs.

Remember now? Of course you do. Every version of Flight Sim that I can remember, from the wire frame graphics of ’Microsoft FS2’ (1984) all the way through to FS9 has plonked you on the ground at Meigs. I’m sure the only reason FSX didn't do the same is because Meigs field was closed and destroyed by the end of 2003.

Anyway, I know what you did next. You hit CTRL-Z, slammed full throttle, and climbed away through the aerials atop Sear’s Tower, all the time with a watchful eye on your frames per second. You were trying to make a judgement about whether FS9 would run at a reasonable 20 frames or more once you’d installed all your favourite aircraft and scenery. That’s presuming it was compatible of course.

Somewhere between recalibrating your CH yoke and completing your first international overnighter, while you were flying between your local fields in your favourite general aviation add-on (mine’s the Carenado 182RG) you hit ‘W’ a couple of times to take a peek at the ‘world view’.

It’s a shame that ‘autogen’ just isn’t smart enough, or have enough data, to place all your local roads and buildings just where they really are. Its an even greater shame that it sometimes places trees right on the runway threshold, but you’ve got to admit it, whatever continent, whatever the time, whatever the weather, FS9 and FSX both do a great job of giving us something to look at until we reach the top of our descent.

And let’s not forget, world view gives you those valuable few more frames per second.

Now, if you’ve replaced the Microsoft scenery with your favourite VFR photographic scenery, then added a high resolution terrain mesh to boot, you’ve got such good scenery to look at that you’ve gone and created yourself a dilemma.

Your nearing your destination. You want to have a look for the Visual Reference Point that marks your entry into the CTA, you want to because you can, because you’ve got the scenery that can. So you press ‘W’ - world view. You need to take a look at your IAS so you can lower your flaps, so you press ‘W’ - instruments. You need to check your position on your downwind leg. You press ‘W’ - world view. You need to check your prop RPM. You press ‘W’ - instruments.

Ok, ok, but you see my point. ‘World view’ has always been a frustration of mine. I don't want to keep hitting ‘W’ to make a choice between instruments with a porthole view of the world outside, or a clear view of the sky but with no instruments.

I want to know my IAS and the prop RPM, and I want to use World View to keep a watchful eye on all you would be TCAS alerts.

And by the way, I want those extra frames per second that World View gives you, all of the time.

Introducing FSNightingale Cessna 6

FSNightingale displays your aircraft instruments on a second PC, allowing you to run your Flight Sim PC, whatever your setup, in full screen mode all of the time.

FSNightingale Cessna6 is designed for pilots of general aviation, single piston engine aircraft, similar to any of those you may learn to fly in such as Cessna 152, 172, 182, Piper Cherokee etc...

FSNightingale Cessna 6 is the first version of FSNightingale to be released and is free to download and use!

Features

Looking ahead to FSNightingale 2.0

FSNightingale 2.0 is the next version of FSNightingale. It will feature... FSNightingale 2.0 is due for take off later in 2008...