Night Flying

[Guest nbl957]

I used to like night flights but I find that now I never do them in FS2002. Reason, I can't find my way around the airport in the dark. "Ctrl S" produces a black screen and most airports seem to have poor or non-existent lighted taxiways.I'd love to return to the time when I could fly without concern for the time of t/off or arrival.Can anyone give me any help with this.Thanks

[fbobum 0]

I usually just the brightness up on the monitor; or you can change the gamma settings for your display.

[Guest dkukla]

Wow, you hit on one of my big time issues. Night departures from airports and Top View is basically black and you need to find the active runway. I use Radio Contact V3 now and you can also access the standard MS Ground Control for assistance here. There is an option for directions to the active runway with ground control that will highlight the taxiways to the active for you. Follow the purple lines and you will get there per your request. This is assuming that you are using MS FS 2002 Professional.

[fbobum 0]

My beef is that I seldom (in fact, never) fly big iron. Just don't. My interest lies with GA and smaller airports. Many of which are uncontrolled. But many still have lighting systems of some sort. And it's still hard to see where you're going.Rick

[michal 44]

>Reason, I can't find my way around the >airport in the dark.Welcome to reality !The same is true in real world. If you do not have an airport chart and it is a big airport - very hard to find your way.My problem is that I find nights in FS2002 still not dark enough - the sky is never pitch black like it often is in real world.The taxi/runway lights are just about right.Some scenery designers (SimFlyers) try to help pilots by giving you very strong center green taxi lights - and they are STRONG. They call it a 'feature' and I highly dislike it.I do most of my flying at night (though I tend to stick around mid-size airports) and I can live with no artificial 'help'.Michael J.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[Guest]

Theres also a difference in how bright the lights look depending on if you're using a 2d panel or a VC. The difference is that in a 2d panel, the visible screen is shrunk vertically, and the lights are smaller (and harder to see). For me its a lot easier to see the lights in a VC view. I can't say which is more realistic. At least 2k2 doesn't have that bluish glow at night like 98 did.