With AFPF and Reflex XTR:
-- Can I place myself in the Pit Area and fly as far away as I wish?
-- Can I trail behind the plane and fly beyond the field boundary? Would I see any terrain?
-- Can I fly over the pit area (or does it reset the plane to do so)?

Two other questions if you can help, please:
-- If I crash, can I control when to reset the plane (or does it do so automatically)?
-- Can I edit planes to not only behave differently but also look different (repaints don't count)?

With AFP and AFP Deluxe:

-- Can I place myself in the Pit Area and fly as far away as I wish?
Sure can.

-- Can I trail behind the plane and fly beyond the field boundary? Would I see any terrain?
Yes you can, but only without terrain. It will show you the planes position in the 2nd window top right.

-- Can I fly over the pit area (or does it reset the plane to do so)?
Sure can. There are no boudries on the field you fly your real planes, why should there be on the sim? You need to learn how to react when you get near the pits, not wish there was a wall.

Two other questions if you can help, please:
-- If I crash, can I control when to reset the plane (or does it do so automatically)?
Yes you can. AFP and AFPD gives you the option to time reset from 0-1 minute. You can also get into the program and make the timer as long as you want. Or you can use the spacebar to reset. This is good if one of the control surfaces break off AFP and AFPD will detect that the control surface is missing and will fly as though it would on the field. This feature is really cool, because it shows you that it is possible to land a plane with only one wing. Takes some practice, but can be done.

-- Can I edit planes to not only behave differently but also look different (repaints don't count)?
AFP and AFPD have almost a countless amount of parameters that you can change. Much more then you can do in real life like being able to control the prop wash factor and dozens of other parmeters.

To STLPilot,
Thank you for taking the time to respond about AFP and AFPD.

Can you please clarify one of your answers about them? When you say there are parameters that can be changed, do you see the the changes reflected in the appearance of the plane?

For example, in AFPD, if I choose to increase the wingspan of a 60" plane to 120":
-- Does the plane look (cosmetically) any different?
-- Does the wing loading decrease automatically as a result or do I have to manually calculate how the wing loading would change and enter a value in a field?

For example, in AFPD, if I choose to increase the wingspan of a 60" plane to 120":
-- Does the plane look (cosmetically) any different?
You can't change the size of the plane with the internal program editor, you can only manipulate the plane that you have. BUT there is an external progam you can use to make the planes larger or smaller. See pic of the 2 OMP Edge Hybrids, they were created large, but these used an external application to be made small and then added E-power. If you change the dihedral or the angle of incidence of the control surface it will show your changes on the plane. There are hundreds of changes you can make.

-- Does the wing loading decrease automatically as a result or do I have to manually calculate how the wing loading would change and enter a value in a field?
What ever changes you make to the plane the software will detect it, you don't have to do any calculations.

STLPilot,
Thank you for that clarification.

Your welcome!

Hi Dion...I don't have deluxe yet however I just doubled the wingspan in the AFP airplane editor[X(]. It doubled the span visually and the wing area increased in proportion. The rest of the plane remained the original size. I am glad to hear that this feature has been eliminated in Deluxe because a Cap Breitling looks funny as a glider[sm=bananahead.gif]. I complained about that to Hans last year. Oh yeah...the wing snaps at the fuselage when I do tight loops with the double span version. Check it out if you still have AFP on one of your machines.