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Track IR4 Pro simply one of the most interesting developments for flight simulator and the flight simmer to date. This amazing little piece of hardware and it is little, 1.7”, in length and accompanying software has revolutionised my VFR flying beyond imagination. To be able to simply look right and be looking along the starboard wing out over the rolling Welsh countryside is stunning, but I’m getting ahead of myself, lets go back to the beginning. Christmas Day 9:25am my youngest daughter and son in law give me a small box no bigger than a piece of A4 paper in size, I knew that I was getting the IR4 for Christmas but didn’t know which box or package it would be. Anyway I open the box and there its sits within it’s plastic packaging looking for all the world like a small mini plasma screen all black and mysterious, turning it over there is a circuit board at the back where all the magic takes place. There is also a cable coming from the back of the small device with a USB plug on it and a CD. There is also a strange three pronged clip thingy which attaches to the free Flightsim.com Baseball Cap that was also in the box. I had to wait until the day after Boxing Day when we returned to Cardiff and the sanctuary of my study before I could install it. Installation was simplicity itself, in the usual manner install the software first and then plug in the hardware, when I say it was simple, I mean easy, it has an installer so it’s just a matter of telling it where to install itself (c:\) and that’s it. The IR4 receiver sits on top of your monitor or in the case of flat screen jobs the legs of the unit can clamp the flat screen at the top, it’s best to site the unit in the middle of the monitor for best pickup of the passive infrared feedback from your baseball cap mounted three pronged thingy (you notice I use very technical terms). One has to start the IR4 software before either your FS2004 or FSX simulators, as IR4 is standalone software and not a module it seeks the game you’re using when you start the game up, as opposed to installing software into the game registry, (I like software that does that) At this point once the game is running you will see a green led at the top and a blue led at the bottom of the unit, this just lets you know that all is working ok. Its now time to configure the unit which is once again simplicity itself, when you have the IR4 software open you have the option to choose heads, by choosing this you will see two heads depicted in their own frames one is your actual head movement and the other is the game movement. It’s all a bit technical here but simply put you move your head an inch and the game head moves six inches. Best to look at this film here. Once setup though and you have mastered the pause key press (F9) and recenter key (F12) your in VFR heaven. The first couple of flights from Cardiff doing circuits where I admit a little disconcerting especially taxiing as one can over compensate but to look down the runway whilst still on the taxiway is really quite breathtaking and the transition is silky smooth. Of course you can only use Virtual Cockpits for this to really work but to be able to move ones head up, down, left, right, zoom in, and zoom out is remarkable. It’s also a little nauseating at first. So I take off rwy 30 right turn out for the downwind leg and as I look right I can see the runway and my wing just touching the edge of the runway so to speak. Fantastic. Look a little further to my right and I’m actually looking down the fuselage to the tail fin. Incredible I can see RAF St Athan out of the rear windows. At this point I have to tell you I have VFR Gen X scenery installed, read the other review for more info on that. I look left and down and I’m over Barry Docks, hang on to the right do I see sheep in the fields, I sure do and cars on the roads but they're not autogen cars, these are cars in the Gen X scenery, WOW. Ok time for my base leg turn look to the right and watch for the runway to come into view. As I turn the Cessna towards rwy 30 it appears in the right upper corner of my cockpit, curiously and without having to think about it my head slowly comes back to centre as I turn towards 30 and their I am all lined up on 30 perfectly. This is terrific, the really strange thing about this is that very quickly I have gotten used to the software and the experience, that when I open an aircraft in normal cockpit view it looks really horrible and quite alien. So in conclusion, go out and buy this product immediately or wait until next Christmas and get someone to buy it for you. (not) Blue Skies. Wycliffe

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