As a flight simmer, you’ve probably tried your hand at flying all sorts of aircraft. Flying a cargo jet in to a smooth landing at minimums is something you might be able to do easily.

Try your hand at this scenario: landing a heavy C-5 in the harsh weather of the Poles as you touch down on an all-ice runway in McMurdo Station. One wrong move and your bird will skid off the mark and possibly damage supplies that are desperately needed by the area’s scientists. In this simulated scenario with real consequences to the mission, failure is not an option. Things like this happen every day during vUSAF’s Operation Deep Freeze within the Air Mobility Command.

Or perhaps you prefer speed and have logged many hours on Concorde, breaking the sound barrier to cross the pond in record time. As a virtual airman in vUSAF’s Air Combat Command, you’ll spend a lot of your time in excess of Mach 1. The ability to move with speed and precision is paramount when approaching your target with your hand hovering over the button to drop your payload of bombs. But, during events such as the recent Operation Key Resolve, the enemy is up in the air with you – an enemy that will do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t succeed in your mission. Where most others would panic, the vUSAF airmen uses their well-trained instinct and tactics to eliminate the threat and keep our airspace safe.

With the recent development of the ACMI gauge, a completely free utility available to all vUSAF airmen, the line between reality and fantasy blurs even further. All missile-equipped fighters come with two wing- loads full of armament, making the fight extend BVR (beyond visual range). If your missile misses, you’ll always have your guns…at least until you run out of ammo and the ACMI gauge gives you that heart- stalling click of an empty magazine. Popping flares and chaff as you race to land at the nearest Air Force base, decked out with completely free payware-quality scenery, you somehow manage to evade the enemy and land amongst framerate-friendly models of your brothers and sisters in arms. The parked aircraft in the Continue reading →