While we were preparing the Instrument Landing Systems article for publication, we were reminded that Microsoft Flight Simulator also caters for Instrument Landings – and is probably the closest thing that many readers would ever come to taking control of an aeroplane.

We’d heard that you could "almost" learn to fly a real plane by first learning how to "fly" MFS. There were many news reports not too long after September 11 which stated the terrorists first learnt to fly using MFS. And we’ve seen other reports claiming MFS is not only used in flying schools but is also used by pilots to maintain their skill levels or to learn new skills without spending the sometimes huge amounts of money required to hire a real aircraft.

Is that true? And what about the Instrument Landing System? How does that compare?

With the quick co-operation of Microsoft, a copy of the latest version of MFS was soon installed in my computer and I went flying. Well, sorta flying. Taking off and crashing would be a more honest description (honest, boss, it was all for research...)

Microsoft Flight Simulator has been around for twenty years. Somewhere in my software library there’s a copy of the first MFS. I remember thinking at the time that it was a very good simulation, particularly given the standard of computer graphics at the time. I also remember getting pretty frustrated at the time, taking off and crashing (yeah, nothing’s changed). I confess I haven’t looked at MFS in the ensuing two decades.

So just how good is the latest incarnation of Microsoft Flight Simulator? (While it’s called MFS 2004, it was released in 2003 to mark the centenary of the Wright Brother’s first flight).