Tech
Software Pick: FlightGear
Andy Ihnatko's pick of the week on MacBreak Weekly 536 is FlightGear. This is a free, open source flight simulator. This is an obsessively true to life simulator of what it's like to fly, including pre-flight checks. It has over 20,000 real world airports in the full scenery set, correct runway markings and placement including the approach lighting, taxiways, and accurate terrain.
FlightGear can model a wide variety of aircraft. It has the 1903 Wright Flyer, military jets, a 747 and A320, and several light singles. It can realistically model real world instrument behavior, and even mimicks the lagging that some instruments have in real life. It even accurately models instrument and system failures.