Ah yes Flight Unlimited 3 still have a copy of it and Flight Unlimited 1 sitting around somewhere. Those Sims were so ahead of their time I think Microsoft only release at the time was FS98. With Orbx PNW,Rex clouds and P3Dv2 I can almost recreate the feeling of FU3 but for some reason FU3 still feels better in my mind I don't know why.

Thx Christopher!

 

I still have FU1 FU2 and FU3 disks, and those are the only old sims I still keep. None of them is presently installed on my rig though :-/

I have two copies of FU3 (including an original boxed copy) and two copies of FU2!

Makes me sorry I missed it. By the time I hit the scene, FSX was "the one" and everything else was old and largely uninteresting history.

Great times, FU, Propilot ending with v99, even the rebirth of ATP - Airline Simulator 2.

It looks like the updated Aerofly might eventually become something similar........ Once version 2 hits the PC

I really wish that I could contact my old FU3 buddies. Lars Peter Galaasen appears to be still active here, but Hans Petter Roverud hasn't visited the AVSIM forum since October last year, and there are a whole host of names (including Jon Point, Ansgar Avermeyer, Robert Driscoll, and a guy called glidernut) that are classed as "inactive member" :(

I was a beta tester on FU. It was a lot different back then how we tested compared to today. Machines were sooooo...much slower back then. I can't remember how we received any updates back then.

Nice sim. Clouds were ahead of their time.

Bob G.

I am almost certain that Flight Unlimited 3 was released without the full weather engine that was being developed for it. The reason I say that is because one or two screenshots displayed during the software installation showed cloud models that I never saw in the simulator itself. They looked good, but sadly it seems that they never made it into the release version (probably because FU3 was booted out of the door before it was 100% complete). Whatever the case, it's nice to meet an FU3 beta tester after all these years. To be honest, many of the FU3 community members here were disappointed that none of the development team (or anyone else involved with the project) made contact at the time when we were all actively trying to promote it. Even Peter James seemed to be reluctant to speak about it, which is something that remains a mystery to me to this day. Maybe it had something to do with the ridiculous legal issues that surrounded FU3 after Looking Glass Studios folded (and which delayed the budget release for a considerable amount of time).

 

I would love to hear from more people who were involved with FU3 (and indeed the entire Flight Unlimited series). They were excellent products.

Chris,

 

These nostalgic moments come upon us every now and again, but there's at least one of us still flying regularly in FU3, though I gave up modding stuff a long time ago & doubt I remember more than half of what used to come so easily.

 

I think glidernut is John Lewis of the terrorble speling (see some of his uploads - Tak Off Backwoods comes immediately to mind).He made one of my favourite planes, the Vigilant motor glider, the other being Jon Point's Dash-8.

 

D

My modern recreation of FU3

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/96993-the-flight-unlimited-series-lives-on-flight-unlimited-4-released-well-kinda/

Thanks for pointing me to that thread over on the ORBx forum, David B)

I have found text versions of my FU2 and FU3 freeware articles....and also an updated FU2/FU3 article that I compiled for myself in 2006 (two and a half years after the FU3 freeware article was published). The first two articles were around two thousand words in length, but this one is pushing four thousand! Some extracts have been taken from the two original articles, but overall it is a very nice review of Flight Unlimited 3 and the community as it was nine years ago. I compiled it back then with the hope that it might be published as a review of the (then) recently released Sold Out version of FU3, but "Flight Unlimited 3 memories" would work just as well these days :wink:

...everything else was old and largely uninteresting history

 

 

Shame to think of those old titles as "uninteresting." The late 90's and Early 2000's were a REALLY interesting time for flight sims for us old guys. Flight Unlimited, Fly!, Pro Pilot...and X-Plane was out there too, though back in those days It was really lost in the conversation. I have some great memories of Fly! and Flight Unlimited II. Each series pushed the other...good times.

When I had FS98, I too had FU, though I don't remember what version, and I also had FLY!  The cockpit graphics on both were amazing for that time, even with really slow PC's.  I do remember one version's scenery looked like a nuclear wasteland, however.

 

I think on FLY!  the ATC told anyone who strayed off of the tarmac "We appreciate you mowing the lawn, but could you keep it on the asphalt" or something like that.  Lot of found memories...