Microsoft Flight Simulator X

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I enjoy flying simulators. Having said that I am not very good at flying them, especially combat sims. But FSX is a joy, it can be as easy or difficult as you want. There are many 3rd party addons, from aircraft to terrain and even weather. I dont use many addons but I have got a couple, this is a Realair Beech B60 flying from Nice to Nimes at sunrise. It is a very serene and relaxing game, until you screw up of course.

 

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

yes I know several folks who fly this simulator, including my father

 

Once while visiting I got on his comp and fired up his microsoft X sim. I took a lear jet out of San Diego, Calif.

I was going to fly up to the Grand Canyon and do some sight seeing. (he had several addons)

 

I was out over the ocean climbing out from San Diego In a slow turn to go back east when suddenly.... I saw an aircraft carrier.... I could not resist.

I tried landing the Lear Jet on the aircraft carrier... this proved rather challenging. But on my fifth attempt I succeeded

as somehow the carrier put up a catch net. (the emergency net they deploy for crash landings) and the catch net did stop the lear.

 

It is a really good simulator and as Zeno said, you can make it as easy or has difficult as you want.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Zathrus~SPARTA~

[Inimigo~SPARTA~]

I still love flying as well.

Mainly combat sims, however I surely don't feel the need to (dog)fight per sé. Coop, formarion flying, making it home safely is what I enjoy most.

I've been doing Falcon 4 BMS for about 2 months now. My IL2 background and also DCS helped a lot in this immensly difficult sim.

Never was a big fan of FSX though, guess (contradictingly) because of the lack of combat (possibilities).

 

If not mistaken, Zeno, have seen you in Cliffs of Dover too?

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Yes, I have had a bash at Cliffs of Dover but I prefer the old IL2 because of the mods that let me fly planes that I enjoy. I just enjoy the smaller GA aircraft like the Beech, Pilatus and Piaggio over terrain that I know, which surprisingly is in the south of France as opposed to the south of England. Occasionally I enjoy the airliners and even military aircraft, usually older stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these such as the F104 and the B25 have highly detailed interiors with many working switches, not bad for freeware!

[Pringle~SPARTA~]

I've never given much thought to this sort of flight sim. Seems a peaceful pastime.

[Inimigo~SPARTA~]

Forgive my ignorance. Hows online flying in fsx?

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

I have to admit, I still have a copy of IL2-Sturmovich.

I think, that was one of the best WWII combat flight sims there are...

You could fly coop or head to head.... or challenge the map

 

One of our favorite past times used to be this one standard map that had a lot of bridges... we raced each other to see how fast we could fly under the bridges...

or in some cases... can I get this big twin engine under that bridge? (sometimes yes with only a foot or so to spare... many times no LOL)

 

Now who here remembers trying to out fly each other under bridges??? I am pretty sure Floyd.... Possibly Zeno and Dai... but I don't remember for sure.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Floyd had a great youtube video of flying under a bridge. I have done it with the Fortress many times, but a few times I came out the other side without a tail.

 

 

Forgive my ignorance. Hows online flying in fsx?

 

I have never tried multiplayer, I just fly around on my tod. It has a multiplayer capability (originally using gamespy). There are servers running, with varying degrees of seriousness and even human ATC.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I just did an IFR flight from LAX to SF in a Dassault Falcon. The problem is the US flights all seem so long.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Approaching Lyon St Exupery Airport in a Boeing T45 Goshawk USN trainer. This aircraft is freeware and magnificent inside and out.

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

You can even fly under bridges in FSX, although the Golden Gate bridge might be a bit of a cheat. But still maneuvering an A380 at low level is mildly challenging.

 

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

This is X Plane 10. A morning take off from Marseilles Airport using real weather, which is stormy. The clouds are stock, the airport and terrain mesh are free addons. The plane is freeware with payware level quality, with most switches in the 3d Virtual Cockpit being clickable.

 

 

X Plane is beautiful to look at especially night flying. But the UI is a pig until you eventually set it up. Its a 64 bit platform so it takes full advantage of the PC (and in my case shows its limitations) and is therefore upgradeable. The flight dynamics take a different approach and it shows when flying the aircraft. Overall because of familiarity and abundance of scenery and aircraft (both freeware and payware) I prefer FSX, but I am trying to get as familiar with X plane so I will stick with it.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Until recently Two things came to mind when Connie was mentioned. The first was the beautiful blonde who worked in the computer room inputting trade tickets (it was the 70s) and the other was a beautiful aeroplane. I now know that Connie is the affectionate name for the Constitution as well.

The Lockheed L 049 Constellation is the most attractive civilian airliner of all time. I have "flown" freeware versions of it in FSX and the latest, the L1049G super Connie has a detailed engineers position requiring a lot of management. I have just purchased the A2A Constellation which is even more detailed, it comes with captain of the ship software that can handle the engineers job for you if you want.

Here is my Connie just after departure from Zurich heading to Innsbruck.

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

ah yes.. beautiful. the Constellation had a wing design almost identical to the P-38 Lightning wing, except of course scale of the constellation made it a much larger version of that wing.

 

But don't forget... there is another Constellation now also

 

[DaiSan]

I still play CLOD on a regular basis on the ATAG server. Fond memories of IL2 days doing stupid shit. DCS World I play occasionally too.

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

Yes... IL2 was fun. I seem to remember people daring each other to fly under various bridges.... at high speed...... which we did a lot of.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I am tempted by DCS but I am useless in combat sims, there is too much going on, I remember blackshark, I was excited that I could start it and fly around a bit. Its a shame they never added the two seat ka52 in DCS, that would be more manageable. There is 3rd party software that allows 2 people in a plane in FSX/Prepar3d which is cool.

 

I have bought a few other planes, a bombardier Dash 8 and a set of Airbuses (318/319/320/321). I didnt read the manual to start the dash 8, It took me 40 minutes to find the buttons and switches.

 

On the Connie you can autostart or you can get the engineer to take care of business, or you can move over to the engineers seat and start it yourself.

 

Plug into ground power unit

open cowls to full

start inertia flywheel

turn on aux fuel pump for engine 3 (verify fuel pressure)

mixture for engine 3 to "off"

crack open throttle

turn on primer

engage starter

switch magnetos to both for engine 3 (awkward since this switch is at the pilots station)

If the engine catches before the energy in the fly wheel runs out -

Mixture for engine 3 to "auto rich"

Turn off primer

Turn off aux fuel pump

although not in the checklist I add a bit more power to stabilise the engine.

 

It is somehow very satisfying to get these complex machines to start. I have flown it to Innsbruck and landed successfully, I mostly understand radio navigation it just a question of sorting out the rudimentary gyroscopic autopilot, then I will be set for longer flights. Every flight is rated technically and by the passengers as well.

 

X plane 11 is coming out soon and I will be trying that as well. The demo was very good, it has a much better flight dynamics engine and its 64bit, but has far less support from the addon companies.

 

Back to flying.

[Cent~SPARTA~]

looks nice - i like the detail in the plane managment

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

This a freeware Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation, One of the last generations of the Connie. The payware version is one the first generation. The Super Connie is longer, carries more payload, has more powerful engines and has variable pitch props with reverse capabilitiy.

 

 

 

 

Here is a promo video of the A2A Constellation

 

Just to bore you all I will post my Favourite planes soon!!!

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

My Father was an Aeronautical Engineer for Convair.

He had two favorite aircraft in no particular order.

 

1) The Lockheed super Constellation. He got to take flights in one of these several times. He always told me of all commercial aircraft, in his opinion the super constellation was the most beautiful looking on the ground... and even more so in the air. It was a very fast and smooth ride compared to many other similar aircraft of those days. A classic beauty that also had great function.

 

2)The Convair B-58 Hustler. he loved this aircraft for what it could do. In addition, it is probably one of the more beautiful bombers designed to date. He told me it was ahead of it's time and as a result never really viable. It was only put into service and used because nobody else had a supersonic bomber that could out run most interceptors. Unfortunately, the B-58 Hustler had a very long list of very expensive parts that had to be replaced after every flight because it could achieve sustained speeds that were beyond our capabilities in systems, metallurgy, etc. Then as ICBM's became more accurate, dependable, etc. it was no longer needed and taken out of service... it cost us a fortune to fly them.

 

In addition, it was found that the B-58 could out maneuver many other aircraft while supersonic. It's enormous delta wing allowed it to make very sharp turns even at speeds well over mach 1.

During "fighter escort" testing they found very few fighter/interceptors could stay with it for any length of time. Several required full afterburner to keep up with it and with many that was not enough. The F-104 Starfighter could keep up with it in a straight line, but unfortunately during high speed turns over mach 1 the starfighter did not have enough wing area nor the correct configuration wing (delta) to make these sharp supersonic turns and would end up more than 20 miles down range from the Hustler before he actually made the turn. So we did not really have any fighter escort for it either... although it was pointed out the reason we did not have one... is it really does not need an escort.

 

But it was way too expensive to fly... but I have to agree it was a very nice looking aircraft.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I agree the B58 was a beauty, James Stewart made a film setting out its record achievements called the champion of champions, he was a former bomber pilot and got to fly it at Mach 2 as he was still in the reserve. The B1 and the F16 have very appealing flowing lines that you dont see to often in modern era jets.

 

This is also why I like the Connie design. Even in its era, airliners were tubes with wings on them, the Connie hardly had 2 bulkheads the same size. Lockheed also gave her very powerful engines that were understressed and when she got to her cruising altitude, economical as well. Plus there is drama surrounding the history of this aircraft. Ordered by Howard Hughes for TWA, planes taken by the military at the outbreak of WW2. Used to develop and operate the Airborne Early Warning System a version of which operated until 1978.

 

In flight sims I prefer the faster versions of piston and turbo prop planes, they are more involved and there is more time, which I need. I flew the Airbus A320 yesterday. The startup from cold and dark is straightfoward and logical. Then inputting the flight details into the Flight Management Computer (MCDU in the Airbus), these include every turn, speeds, altitudes from just after take off to just before landing, all I did was verify altitudes from the plan and make some changes on route, the plane flew the plan. It is interesting to learn the systems but not so much to fly.

 

With the older aircraft (pre GPS) you have a flight plan, you navigate from beacon to beacon using the instruments, you change the beacon frequencies, you fly the plane to cruising altitude, there is sometimes a rudimentary gyroscopic autopilot that tries to keep the plane level, but that needs to be constantly checked as well and of course, you handle the descent and landing.

 

In IL2 my favourite mission was the fictitious 633 squadron Mosquito mission which Dai san modified to include the take off and landing from England (or Scotland), we flew that in mulitplayer a few times.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Here are a few planes from my hangar.

 

This is a freeware plane the Pilatus P9 Trainer. Its a turbo prop trainer used as a stepping stone to jets trainers. But it is also a Light Attack aircraft

 

 

It has a 3d virtual cockpit with many functioning switches and buttons.

 

 

 

 

 

I like turbo props because they are fast enough but not too fast.. Things get busy when you fly with atc and you have to manage the aircraft and the frequencies. In a jet you come in fast with little time to prep.

 

France was being battered by a storm last night and this morning, when I was trying to fly from Geneva to Paris the simulator picked up the actual weather which made for an unruly descent, I had to drop to 1000 ft to see the runway. There is an ILS but I have never been able to make it work, anyway the plane had to hand flown as the wind was too violent for the autopilot on the Bombardier Dash 8.

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

AH!! speaking of Turbo props... yes they have great power and speed for a prop aircraft.

 

If you have not flown a crop duster Zeno, I can highly recommend it. Consider it the A10 close ground support of civilian aviation.

 

I believe one of my favorite flying videos which is below, was flown in a crop duster similar to the one above.

 

 

While what the pilot in the above video does is very dangerous.... he is obviously a very good low level pilot. But when flying between trees following a river the way he is, even a momentary cough by the engine can end up fatal. You are at very high power most of the time, periodically you are required "to manhandle" the aircraft forcing it through very restricted space. A falter in engine power during those maneuvers is normally catastrophic. You have no room for any error. This pilot is actually very smooth considering what he is doing... which indicates he has a lot of experience flying low.

Also... a very good song.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Zathrus~SPARTA~

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

The next Freeware aircraft is the Boeing T45c Goshawk, a US Navy jet trainer. It is based on the BAE Systems Hawk. It is a really nice model with a lot of detail both to the exterior and the interior.

 

Its not as polished as the best Payware aircraft but its better than a lot of them.

 

 

Again a lot of the switches in the 3d virtual cockpit can be operated

 

 

 

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

If you are interested in FSX but have little flight experience here is a useful series of videos that work through the important aspects of flying

 

 

Here are 2 resources I use for downlioading aircraft and scenery, you may have to register, but they are free.

 

https://forum.flyawaysimulation.com/- Forum

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/fsx/- Library

 

 

http://www.avsim.com/- Forum

https://library.avsim.net/index.php- Library