The mission plan seemed pretty simple. All I had to do was follow a tortuous course through the hills, avoiding enemy missile sites, at about 200 feet and 500 knots to the tiny building which was my primary target.
Once there, a simple matter of precision bombing would leave me the straightforward task of navigating my way back to base through a solid wall of seriously annoyed, and by now very alert, enemy defences.

All in a day's work for a Tornado pilot, I thought, and, tossing my white silk scarf carelessly over my shoulder, I winked at the ground crew, shouted "chocks away!" as an added touch of bravado, and powered off into the gathering dusk.

Things went well enough at first, and I slipped through the first line of missile sites without incident. After only a few more miles, however, I realised with a trouser-endangering shock that the flight planning map had not been entirely up to date.
Smack bang in my path there loomed a SAM site, and I heard the threat warning begin to whine in my ear.

Praying for luck, I flipped off the autopilot and wrenched my Tornado round in an accelerating turn, almost blacking out from the high G I was pulling.
Too late! The threat warning, by now doing banshee impressions, was suddenly blanked out by the roar of an explosion and the HUD flashed a damage warning.

No need to ask what had been hit, however, as the controls began to sag like someone had coated the wings with lead. I flattened out of the turn with difficulty, hit the deck at 100 feet, and punched the throttle for all I was worth, reaching 800 knots in no time. Then I noticed I had another problem - an airborne one.
The MiG was above me and on my seven o'clock, so I pulled up as sharply as the controls would allow, hit the air-brake to lose speed, and went into a yo-yo roll.
The manoeuvre worked! Unfortunately for mu opponent, he obviously had slower reactions than I, and before he knew I was now on his six, I'd sent a Sidewinder up his tailpipe, Scratch one bird!
All that was left for me to do was return to the correct flight path, finish my precision bombing attack, and nurse my damaged ship back to base. As I said, all in a day's work for a Tornado pilot.

HiSoft's first entertainment release may be a serious flight simulation, but as it revolves around one of the world's fastest warplanes, it also comes with a comprehensive combat option, allowing it to challenge F16 Combat Pilot and Falcon for the crown of the flight combat simulations.

ProFlight starts off on the right foot by concentrating on the Tornado which, as the fastest aircraft in the world at low level, is ideal for a flight combat sim. Fast flying and a healthy wadge of combat options carry the program along so well that it's possible to forget ProFlight is designed to be more simulation that stimulation.

From the word go the program was developed to be as realistic as possible, and was built around complex flight algorithms to match as closely as possible the feeling of flying the real thing.

I was relieved, therefore, to discover that my version of ProFlight supports analogue joysticks. The first version sold did not contain this feature, but owners of these copies can receive a free update from HiSoft if they register as a user before July 1st to send in those cards now, folks!

Without the analogue option, control is centred around the mouse which as a proportional device goes some way to providing realistic flight controls.
There is a digital joystick option for those with a perverse need to cripple the aircraft before it gets off the deck, but I wouldn't recommend it.

With an analogue stick, the armchair flyer has the best possible simulation of real aircraft controls, so the omission would have been a serious one, especially considering the realism angle taken by HiSoft. Please take note, software companies!
With analogue joysticks such as the Voltmace Delta 3A selling for only £17, there's no excuse for not providing for them in flight sims. Now I've got that off my chest, I have to admit that ProFlight flies like a dream, and both mouse and analogue joystick control works very well once you get used to it.
Digital joystick addicts might need some time to adjust, but with practice, both offer a much more sensitive and manageable form of control.

Once on the runway the pilot can configure his or her aircraft to make the level of realism, and hence flight difficulty, as high or low as required using the extensive autopilot option.

Flaps and stabilisers can be taken care of by the computer, as can a host of other tricky flight controls, to make life as easy as possible for the harassed pilot lining up for the final bomb run. It's even possible to have the autopilot take the aircraft all the way to the target via several waypoints, though it won't drop the bombs for you.

For beginners there's a crash inhibitor, so you can bounce the plane off the ground as hard as you please while you've still got your L plates. All in all, the extent to which the program can adjust to the individual pilot's needs is very gratifying.

Combat, rather than being a thrown-away concession for adrenalin freaks, is an integral part of the program, and includes a detailed mission planner, ground and air targets, and a campaign option.
The map area is very large and conveys the impression of space often missing from other flight sims. There's nothing like a "now leaving map area" message to burst the realism bubble.

Dogfights are very enjoyable, with enemy fighters acting intelligently and using tactics of their own. Locking on and firing a missile is not the end of a fight, as the MiG will often decoy your missile with chaff or flares. So towards the end of long missions I usually found myself having to resort to cannons, all six of my missiles having been used.

Bomb runs are also rather hairy, as many of the targets are protected by missile sites. This forces you to plan the final approach to a target carefully, so that exposure to SAMs is kept to the minimum. In some sims it's possible just to fly straight to the target and back again, but in ProFlight, mission planning means just that.

ProFlight's long term appeal is guaranteed if you're a sim buff, and it will be a big hit for people who enjoyed F16 Combat Pilot. Those who prefer the more simplistic flight combat games might give up at the prospect of having to master aircraft controls, or fly within the realistic limits of pilot and airframe.

Any serious gamer who perseveres with ProFlight, however, will be rewarded by a simulator that blends flight realism and excellent combat in a way that few can match.

What weighs 30 tons, travels faster than the speed of sound and flies low enough to knock the chimney off your house? A Tornado IDS of course! The pride of the Royal Air Force and the world's top strike air craft.
Pro Flight from Hisoft gives you the chance to fly one of these multimillion pound military toys. And if that's not enough your given the occasional missile silo and enemy plane to blow up.

The package comes with one disk, a clip binder and a wad of hole-punched papers. After spending fifteen minutes clipping skin off my fingers with the binder's rings I finally rendered my DIY manual readable. It starts with a brief history of the Tornado followed by a quick start guide, control summary and everything else you need to know to fly a multimillion pound plane. Interspersed between the instructions and tutorials are sections such as the theory of flight and advanced flying techniques which, although not necessary to play the game, provide interesting reading.

The presentation is a let down. Each menu is explained in detail in the manual, though poorly presented in the game. F1 calls up the main menu table which is badly superimposed over the main display, meanwhile the game carries on and it's left to you to juggle the pause key and fly the plane.

My first feeble effort at piloting a Tornado was a resounding failure. Plowing into the ground at Mach 1 is highly inadvisable. After wandering through the game's various menus, I found the crash inhibitor option, which knacker-proofed my Tornado but did nothing to enhance my flying prowess.

The first challenge is keeping the plane in straight and level flight. The controls are so sensitive that it's all too easy to over compensate and go into an unrecoverable spin. After practising a few basic manoeuvres, such as turning without crashing, it's time to try some of the trickier stuff. The first advanced move you're taught in the manual is looping the loop which, for all the detail it's explained in, didn't prevent my loop from ending up as a Mach 2 power dive into a village.

The instructions recommend playing with a mouse instead of a joystick, words of wisdom I can vouch for. For a start, the mouse buttons are used to operate the rudder, joystick users have to keep reaching out to the keyboard every time they need to perform a turn. The mouse also allows you to easily compensate for pitching and banking, whereas digital joysticks cause all sorts of problems as you fight to stop a plane going into a flat spin.

All the dials and readouts are dear and easy to read, an essential feature of any flight sim. The control and feel of the plane is excellent. Banking and pitching is very easy, using the mouse gives you complete control. Once you are fully at ease with the controls and the way the plane handles it's possible to pull off some really amazing moves. This, coupled with the smoothness and speed of the graphics, make this one of the most realistic sims I have played.

It's obvious that a lot of thought and calculation have gone into the main simulator. Having only sat behind the controls of a plane once (and that was a single prop Cessna) I'm not the best person to judge a flight sim's realism, but this is how I imagine a supersonic aircraft would handle.

In real life a Tornado pilot doesn't have to worry about map reading as he usually has a co-pi lot for that. Unfortunately, you don't get a co-pilot in the box, so mission planning is down to you. Up to eight way points can be set before take off which designate primary and secondary targets as well as your home airbase and routes around objects you might wish to avoid. Although the presentation on this section could have been better, it's still easy enough to use and a necessary part of the game.

Pro Flight can be played with solid or wire frame graphics, the latter of which enables the game to run at maximum speed. Even in solid graphics mode the visuals are crude and interesting objects are few and far between. However, everything moves so fast that there's scant time for site seeing. The impression of speed and movement given by the graphics is incredible, contributing a huge amount to the games playability.

This is not a simulation for the trigger happy or faint hearted. It's a complex, detailed and accurate simulation of one of the world's top military aircraft. Pro Flight achieves all its objectives, delivering a top notch flight sim.