The Best Windows Flight Simulator Computer: Apple’s Intel iMac!

If you’ve been looking for an ideal PC to run Flight Simulator 2004 or XPlane , look no further. As unlikely as it might seem, Apple’s 20 inch Intel-powered Core Duo iMac is the best all-around personal computer I’ve found for running computer based flight simulations. I say that after spending a few hours during the past weekend flying a Grumman Tiger in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2004 using a yoke and pedal set by CH Pro and my Logitech S530 wireless keyboard and mouse.

What makes the iMac so ideal is its overall design. The screen sits at just the right height and has enough resolution to present a very realistic perspective of an aircraft instrument panel to the pilot. I set Flight Sim to use the iMac’s native 1680 x 1050 resolution, 32 bit color, at 30 frames per second. The ATI X1600 video set with 128MB of video memory had no problems producing a vivid, colorful, and artifact-free scene including very realistic looking clouds and some aircraft traffic. Overall machine response was excellent. Not once did I find myself concentrating more on the machine than the simulation. Controls were easily manipulated using my Logitech mouse and keyboard, though the latter was only required to release the parking brake. The only problem I had from a control standpoint was a mechanical one, i.e., trying to keep the yoke from slipping around on the keyboard shelf where it was mounted. I solved that by using a hand towel as filler between the bottom of the yoke and the shelf.

As you might guess, since I actually own a Grumman Cheetah, I was interested in setting the simulator up to fly one. While I couldn’t find a Cheetah model, I did find online a third-party model for a Grumman Tiger and, luckily, its colors are very close to those of my airplane. The model was actually built for Flight Simulator 2002 but seems to work well with FS2004 once I overrode warning messages about possible incompatibilities. The model’s major flaw is that its engine revs up to close to 3000 RPM and produces much too much power; after playing with the power levels a bit, I decided that a 2500 rpm setting was a relatively close approximation to what the Cheetah’s power really looks like. (Note: 2500 RPM is high for a real Cheetah; 2200-2300 during takeoff is more like it.)

The biggest artificiality of the simulator has nothing to do with FS 2004 itself. In an aircraft, especially when flying in the traffic pattern, you’ve got lots of visual clues out all the windows to help you establish, maintain, and manage your position. With only a single screen sitting in front of you, even if you can pick one of several views, flying a traffic pattern is a real bitch. Depth perception suffers in the sim, and lineup is always much harder in the simulator than in the real aircraft. But this is a problem with the sim, not a problem associated with flying the sim using the iMac.

Let me finish with a few words about the mechanics of my set-up. The CH Pro flight controllers were all USB .0 types and were hooked into the iMac via a Belkin 7 port USB 2.0 powered hub and a Belkin USB 2.0 switch (the latter lets me select which computer I want my USB peripherals to hook up to a computer). I wasn’t sure whether Windows XP Pro running on the iMac would have trouble seeing the peripherals, but it didn’t. That said, I did have to reload drivers the first two times I booted into XP Pro with the items attached.

The trim wheel on the CH Pro also is not marked or notched so you know where the center is, so I’m still trying to figure out how to rig it so that there’s adequate trim. It is possible to calibrate the yoke so you run out of trim in one direction.

But back to the iMac…

When I first considered setting up an iMac as both my primary Mac and Windows machine, how it would perform as a flight simulator was one of my primary concerns. Even considering I was using a 20 inch ADC Apple monitor with an AMD 2800XP powered PC, I believe the 20 inch Intel iMac is absolutely the best “PC” I’ve owned for running flight sims. It’s ironic that’s true, but it’s adding up with the other pluses of the machine to make the Intel iMac one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I’m tickled pink!