Top 5 Favourite Add-Ons for FS2004

[noodldoodl 0]

Hi all, I've got a nice fund to buy add-ons for my favourite hobby and I need some help in knowing what will enhance my simming experience the most. I already have a new plane (SF260....AMAZING!) so I'm really looking at the envoronment side of things. Knowing what everyone's top 5 is will help me to decide what to buy, as well as getting a better idea what to purchase in the future.Over to you...Many thanks in advance :)

[Gavin 99]

For me:1. Active Sky V6.5 for weather. For me flightsim without Active Sky is a bit like having a computer with no monitor ;-)2. PMDG 747-400. Using the type rating courses to learn to fly this aircraft has been one of the most interesting, educating and enjoyable experiences I've ever had with flightsim.I'm sure many would agree with me that the support offered by these two products' producers is just about the best in the business.

[CV990A 0]

alright, here we go..1. Active sky 6.5 it simply transforms a great part of the FS experience2. Project Tupolev TU-154B-2 (freeware) simply the most complex add on ever produced for Flightsim (and yes I do own the LDS 767), recently rewarded by the real Tupolev as a training tool...says enough imo :)3. Ultimate terrain (either Europe or US/CA), very handy if you fly VFR and the night lighting really transforms the FS experience.4. GE Pro, although IMHO Birds Eye View has better textures, GE pro transforms the entire world for all seasons...AS6.5 and GE pro can also be linked together.5. FlyTampa's freeware Boston Logan V2 (found here in the library), it's a great scenery and it's to the same standards as the payware sceneries FT produces...so if you like this one you might want to check out there payware stuff too..hope this helps-Sander

[ubersu 78]

1. FSUIPC (registered)2. ASV 6.5 (best weather)3. GE Pro 2 (great textures)4. UT USA, Canada, Europe (depending on where you fly)5. Reality XP GPS and Instruments (if you like modifying panels)6. RC 4.x (best ATC around)7. FS Genesis MeshDJ

[EngineRoom 205]

The commercial addons that will enhance your FS experience the most, in the sense that you can use them on *every* flight, regardless of where and what you fly:ActiveSky Version 6 - As said above, the best weather programme available. Most people who have it absolutely swear by it and won't fly without it.A good mesh scenery - There are a few choices here. FS Global will give you 76m resolution mesh for the entire world at a fairly modest price. With 76m mesh you'll notice a huge difference in most parts of the world compared to what FS9 comes with "out of the box". There was a recent thread here about FS Genesis, and there was universal praise for their mesh products, so you might want to check them out too.Ultimate Terrain - Currently only available for US, Canada/Alaska and Europe. These will give you accurate coastlines, rivers, lakes, roads and railways.MyWorld 2005 Landclass - Far better than the default landclass, and it covers the whole world. You'll see much more variation in terrain types, more accurately places towns and cities, and less repeating textures.Ground Environment Pro - Replacement terrain textures for the entire world. These textures are almost photo realistic, and will greatly improve the appearance. GE Pro also replaces the autogen so it will be accurately placed on the new textures.Flight Environment - Many, many, many sets of replacement water, sky and cloud textures.Radar Contact V4 - Replaces the default ATC system with something more versatile and realistic.If you are prepared to invest the money and avail yourself of these packages your FS9 will be transformed almost beyond recognition :) Some (ok, *many*) even believe to a level where it is superior to FSX! ;)Addon aircraft are far more subjective, depending on what your tastes are. For commercial jets the pick of the bunch are the PMDG 747 and Level D 767. For classic Jets you may want to check out the Dreamfleet 727. Business jets are a little sparse on the ground, but the Wilco/Feelthere Embraer Legacy 600 is pretty good. For turboprops you might want to check out the Flight 1 ATR 72, the Aeroworx King Air, or the Digital Aviation Piper Cheyenne. If your taste is for GA type aircraft, anything by Carenado is pretty good, as is the Dreamfleet Baron and Bonanza. If you want a rugged little bush plane then the Digital Aviation Dornier 27 is a masterpiece. If you like warbirds then the RealAir Spitfire is a joy to fly.If you're looking for an addon aircraft that will provide you with a real challenge, and requires many hours of reading manuals and learning procedures, then I would heartily recommend the SST Sim Concorde package.An honourable mention goes to Dave Maltby's Classic British Jets (Comet, VC10, BAC 1-11 and Trident), which are freeware, but absolute must haves in my not so humble opinion.Definitely worth checking out are the RealityXP addons. These are sets of replacement avionics and gauges that you can use to improve your aircraft panels. They represent great value for money in this sense as you can use them to enhance many different aircraft. There's quite a range including EFIS sets for jets, analogue instruments for GA types, GPS units, and some feature packed Sandel EHSI and terrain avoidance units.In a similar vein to RealityXP, Ernie Alston of FSBuild fame has recently released "Integrated Sim Avionics" package which features a new EADI/EHSI along with a fully programmable FMS that can be integrated into your existing panels. I haven't tried it yet but it certainly looks interesting.As far as commercial addons are concerned, the botton line is:1) Read the reviews published here and on other sites.2) Read the forums here and on other sites.3) Take (1) & (2) with a pinch of salt.4) Decide whether or not you want to spend the money!

[Manny 1,293]

1. Flght scenery Portland2. Megascenery North West and So Cal (is that two addons?)3. Fly Tampa's Seattle. 4. Real Environment Pro (Freeware)Manny

[bkeske 0]

1)ASv62)FS Genesis Mesh3)Ultimate Terrain4)GE Pro II5)FSUIPC (commercial version).....although, after all those, I would still need all my great aircraft ;)But, to me, I've found my flying environment to be the most important ingredient.

[zfehr 1]

>1)ASv6>2)FS Genesis Mesh>3)Ultimate Terrain>4)GE Pro II>5)FSUIPC (commercial version)>>>.....although, after all those, I would still need all my>great aircraft ;)>>But, to me, I've found my flying environment to be the most>important ingredient.I'll second Brian here, these are all the best of the choices for enhancing your environment and making it more realistic.If you want to enhance your radio experience I would recommend these in this order:1. Editvoicepack (freeware)2. Radar Contact 4 (very realistic IFR ATC)3. VoxATC Deluxe (realistic VFR/IFR radio using voice recognition and enhanced ATT voices for text to speech)If you're just getting started with add-ons you will find it very addicting and like most of us won't be able to stop ;).

[JRMurray 214]

With some many excellent add-ons available, it's pretty tough to choose only five. Here are mine, both freeware and payware, and not necessarily in order of preference:Project Tupolev Tu-154B2 (freeware)- An excellent "study sim"Anything by David Maltby (freeware)- His Trident and BAC1-11 510 ED are my favouritesRussian airports USSS and UNNT (freeware)- One word: WOW!Maddog 2004 (payware)- Now out of LAGO's hands, the LevelD sim of the MD80MAAM Sim's DC-3 (payware)- Simply the best classical aircraft available (IMO)Making the five choices above was actually difficult as there are so many excellent other freeware and payware add-ons. Honourable mention goes to the Aerosoft Cheyenne, LevelD Sim 767, any CanUK scenery, Ultimate Terrain, Ultimate Traffic, EditVoicePak, Radar Contact, FSNavigator ... I could go on and on. :-)Cheers!Joel

[bkeske 0]

>3. VoxATC Deluxe (realistic VFR/IFR radio using voice>recognition and enhanced ATT voices for text to speech)Zane, I have considered Radar Contact, but it seems to be more geared towards the 'heavy' flyer, not the GA 'addict'.Do you think Vox does a better job with this, or will either program work? I like the idea of voice recognition, as I fly with a headset most all the time anyway.I had Vox on my system as a demo, but never took the time to figure it all out, and removed it......As a side, I took a two hour flight today in my Carenado Mentor sans AP (obviously) and simply weaving my way from West Virginia (W99) to Cleveland (KBKL) with sectional charts and NDB signals. If I had tried to do that without UT it would have never been as easy, as most all those rivers, lakes, and roads referenced on the charts show up in UT. Very nice feeling actually 'flying the plane' in FS once in a while ;)

[zfehr 1]

Hi Brian,My personal preference is VoxATC since it requires actually talking so it keeps me on my toes for what to say next. I think Radar Contact is more comprehensive when it comes to IFR options and actual protocols but it still requires key presses. When I set up a VoxATC IFR flight I will many times use the SID/STAR setup utility so ATC will put me through a more realistic set of instructions. Try the demo out again, the current US offering is version 2, there is also a UK version which is version 3. Version 4 is still in beta being delayed since VoxATC for FSX will be released first. The FSX version is also still finishing up beta testing but promises to be even better with the abilities SimConnect have made available to the program. Download the demo again and run through the demo flights so you can see what it's capable of and how you find you like it. There's a VoxATC unnofficial support forum here in the AVSIM forum area (a little below the Active Sky forum) so check in there for more info and any help you might need.

[bkeske 0]

Thanks for that Zane, perhaps I will try it out again.Now that you mention it, the limitation to only the US being covered (at the time)was a big draw back for me considering it's cost, as I do fly in Canada and Europe/Scandinavia about 30-40% of the time flying (typically on extended jaunts).That said, as I like to fly 'by the numbers' and as close to real procedures as possible, (given my understanding), I do think this would add a tremendous amount of realism (thus enjoyment) without having to depend on something like VATSIM.

[Guest j_merv]

>Maddog 2004 (payware)>- Now out of LAGO's hands, the LevelD sim of the MD80>>>Cheers!>>JoelLookup "Super 80" from Flight1...

[Guest ruudpel]

wow there are too many great add-ons just to name five..it's all very personal of course, but these are absolute musthaves in my opinion..FlightScenery - FlightZone 01 & 02FlyTampa - Pretty much everything :|Cloud9 - KLAX (and possibly EHAM)PMDG - 747-400(F)Level-D - 767-300ERRealAir - SpitfireCarenado - Cessna 182 RGHiFi Sim - ActiveSky v6.5Flight1 - Ground Environment ProfessionalBurkhard Renk - Landclass 2005 (worldwide!)Any FSGenesis meshbut, again, it's all very personalif you like Europe, go for Aerosoftif you like USA, go for FlyTampa and FlightSceneryif you like props, go Carenado and Flight1if you like military, go AlphaSim and Cloud9if you like civil jets, go Level-D, PMDG, and possibly Captain Sim & PSS (though I would never say the latter are must-haves)hope this helps somewhat..probably not..lol :(

[Bob Scott 7,716]

Here are a number of "top 5" lists, but it's really hard in a lot of cases to get it down to just 5...UTILITIES1) FSUIPC/WideFS (registered version)2) ActiveSky3) Radar Contact 44) FSBuild5) ActiveCamera 2004VISUAL ENVIRONMENT1) FS Genesis Mesh (also in my top 5 for FS2002, FSX, and undoubtably FS 11 as well.2) Ultimate Terrain USA3) Ultimate Terrain CAN/AK4) Ground Environment Pro5) TrackIR 3 Pro + VectorAIRCRAFT (HEAVY)1) PMDG 737NG2) Level-D B767-3003) Lago Maddog MD-80 + JetCity models4) Dreamfleet B7275) Ready for Pushback B747-200AIRCRAFT - GA/REGIONAL/BUSINESS1) Flight1 ATR 72-5002) Digital Aviation Piper Cheyenne3) Aeroworx B200 Super King Air4) Flight1 Pilatus PC-125) Eaglesoft Cirrus SR-22ADD-ON GAUGES1) RealityXP Garmin 5302) RealityXP WXR500 weather radar3) RealityXP Sandel ST3400 Terrain Avoidance Warning System4) Integrated SimAvionics Group FMS/EADI/EHSI suite5) RealityXP Sandel SN3308 EHSIADD-ONS I REGRET BUYING AND/OR WOULD NOT BUY AGAIN1) FSD Piaggio (or any other FSD product)2) Captain Sim 7273) Ariane 7374) LAGO Flight Sim Scenery Enhancer 5) Flight1/RealityXP Piper MeridianI didn't get into sceneries, as there are far too many to boil it down to just five.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile