GEFS - Free Google Earth based Flight Simulator
Instructions Blog Forum
Sportstar Piper Cub Douglas DC3 Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet Sopwith Camel Hughes 269a light helicopter McDonnell Douglas MD-11 Major Tom hot air balloon Sukhoi Su-35 Airbus A380
GEFS is a free, online flight simulator. Whether you are a licensed pilot practicing VFR, an aviation enthusiast or just looking for some fun flying a plane in beautiful sceneries, you can enjoy GEFS quickly, directly from your web browser. GEFS is still in beta: please help improving future versions! Report your findings and suggestions to the GEFS Google Group.
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Instructions

How does the simulator work:

GE Flight Simulator requires to install the Google Earth plug-in. The installation should begin automatically as the game starts.
For sound to be enabled, the Flash player must be installed too, but you should already have it.
Finally, if you want to play using a Joystick, you will have to install a browser extension: more details here.

Option bar

The option bar, at the bottom of the game screen, is the main way to interact with the simulator:

Where can I fly?

Virtually everywhere!

How to control the simulator?

Keyboard:

Configurable: Fixed:

Mouse:

Joystick:

Note: see how to enable the joystick by installing the browser extension.

Flying helicopters:

Helicopters are by definition much more difficult to fly than airplanes. The basic principle is to play with collective pitch (going up and down), cyclic pitch (going forward, backward, right and left) and anti-torque control (rotation/yaw). By default, mouse and keyboard controls are mixing roll and yaw (aileron and rudder). This has to be disabled (in configuration panel) in order to properly fly the helicopter. Idealy, you would have to use a joystick to be accurate enough with the helicopter but the mouse should be enough for a start. In GEFS, the collective pitch is controled using the same input as the throttle for airplanes: if you press '+' several times, the helicopter will lift-off, if you press '-' it will go down. Cyclic pitch can be controled using the arrow keys or the mouse. When roll/yaw mixing is disabled, use the rudder keys (default are keys A & D) for the anti-torque (yaw). The rest is just practice and finesse.

Flying Major Tom:

Major Tom is probably the easiest and most relaxing way of flying in GEFS. With just two keys you can take to the skies and look down at the earth. The 'up' arrow key fires the burner and when air is hot enough the balloon will take-off. The 'down' arrow key open the parachute vent to release some air and initiate a descent. To navigate, you can try to climb to different altitudes and reach different direction and speed of wind.

Camera:

Five cameras are available. You can choose between these five modes from the option bar or by pressing "C" to cycle through all modes. In "Follow" and "Cockpit" mode, you can left-click and drag your mouse to change the camera orientation. In "Follow" mode, you can right-click and drag to set the camera's zoom factor/distance.

How to use the map?


See the standalone live GEFS map

Open the map using the "map" button in the option bar.
Two types of map are available: standard and aeronautical.
Every coloured dot marks a runway threshold. You can click on these dots to open an info balloon in which you can see two links to "take-off from" or "fly by" the clicked runway. When chosing "take-off from", the aircraft should be positioned on the threshold and facing the runway. note: due to some imprecision in the collected data, this is not always true (especially for small airfields).
Dots are colour coded depending on the length of the runway: blue for major runways (>3,000 ft), green for airfield size runways, yellow when length is unknown.

In "Aeronautical" mode, the map shows a layer of airspace areas. This overlay has been generated using DAFIF data. While this can be useful to practice some flight patterns, these data are to be used with this game only and should not be used for real life flying.

How to enable Joystick control:

You need to install the Javascript Joystick Plug-in (by Carl Woffenden)
Or get the latest from the project page(Recommanded)

Known issues and troubleshooting:

The plane or some of its parts are not visible:
The Google Earth plugin cached half loaded resources. Try the cache clearing procedure described bellow and restart the game.
Your joystick model is not working properly:
GEFS uses a browser extension to enable joystick control. This extension has been build and is maintained by Carl Woffenden. You can file bug reports on his Google Code page at http://code.google.com/p/javascript-joystick

GEFS is slow
For any other issues, please submit a bug report (see below, and remember to mention your web browser and operating system version).

Bug report:

You can report bugs or propose new features on the GEFS Google Group.
When reporting a bug, please be as descriptive as possible and indicate what operating system and web browser you are using to run this game.

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About:

I am Xavier, a web developer by day and building GEFS in my free time. I have always been fascinated by flight simulators ever since I ran SubLOGIC FS1 back in the 80s. I built a few simulators over the years, GEFS being my best shot at it I believe.

GE Flight Simulator takes full advantage of Google Earth and enables a realistic flight experience in a fantastic scenery.
While simple, the flight models are complete enough to deliver a realistic flight simulation experience. More than just a game, GEFS is a real flight simulator.
From the Piper Cub to the Airbus A380, the range of available aircraft should satisfy every aviation enthousiast. Flight simulation is a vast subject and I hope to be able to improve and enhance this game further. Even though GEFS is built on top of Google Earth, I am not a Google employee and GEFS is not related to - or a product of - Google.

Credits

Aircraft:

Joystick extension:

by Carl Woffenden (http://code.google.com/p/javascript-joystick/)

Weather Data:

Airspace Data (served by Google Fusion Tables):

Thanks to:

© 2011 - GE Flight Simulator - contact@ge-flightsimulator.com