Hi folks,OK, so I'm addicted to FSX and bought several add-ons such as FSPassengers, Radar Contact and various sceneries. But I want more realism - such as a decent co-pilot (who can take over the controls for a few hours whilst on long-haul because you can't speed the rate up with FSP and RC; as well as read check-lists and do some co-pilot stuff). Also, the planes look a bit pants with no-one actually sat next to you and no people in the plane. Is there a decent add-on anywhere for that? And people milling around on the tarmac etc. And the jetway that comes to you. I know it's REALLY geeky, but hey, I'm a geek!Mucho thankio.Harry

Radar Contact has an option for the copilot to take over the plane and the comms so you can take a break.

Radar Contact has an option for the copilot to take over the plane and the comms so you can take a break.

Yeah, but it doesn't seem to work. I press CTRL-SHIFT-M and it ackowledges the hand over, but then nothing . . . what am I doing wrong? :(

But I want more realism - such as a decent co-pilot (who can take over the controls for a few hours whilst on long-haul because you can't speed the rate up with FSP and RC; as well as read check-lists and do some co-pilot stuff).

Take a look at Its Your Plane -- that's about the best co-pilot addon I know of, and it uses speech recognition too -- which can be applied to Radar Contact responses now, as well!http://www.itsyourplane.comRegardsPete

Aerosoft's AES will give you more details at airports, or you could use an object placer scenery design package to do so yourself, such as Flight1's Instant Scenery utility. You can even create your own missions in FSX that will do that sort of thing, and there are one or two 'instant mission maker' utilities kicking about that simplify that process to a drag and drop type of operation, so if programming is not your thing, it is no barrier to trying that stuff, and would let you 'pretty up' your favourite airports.There are a number of co-pilot add-ons that will do varying levels of stuff. Vox ATC, Cockpit Chatter, FSHotseat, Multi Crew Experience and things such as FS2 Crew for specific aircraft, will all do various things of that nature, so I'd advise you to read some of the AVSIM reviews for those products, especially for MCE, which has a ton of features. Most of those products are good, but you will find that one or two particular ones will 'do it' for you personally in terms of features and operation, so read and try demos of as many of them as you can before handing over any cash, because not all of them will be 'up your street' in terms of what they do and how they work. You will find many of them have demos, so you can audition them and find out whether you want to stump up the cash for the full product. In the case of FS2 Crew, they have one or two products for the default FS aircraft, such as the 747, which don't cost very much, and so afford the opportunity to try things out for not much outlay, to see if they are something which appeals to you.One or two FS aircraft add people and other stuff to the proceedings. For example, Wilco Publishing's Cessna Citation X business jet gives you a cabin crew member (a shiny blonde bimbo with outrageously large breasts) who wanders about the aircraft doing various bits and pieces throughout the flight, such as sitting down for take off and preparing drinks etc. On the other hand, the multifunctional FS utility, Flight Keeper, has the ability to add cabin calls and such stuff automatically to your flights for various stages in the proceedings so you can hear all that going on, which means it is worth checking out very many products, as a lot of them have such surprising features.For more 'hands on' involvement in stuff outside the cockpit, the slightly controversial developer Ariane, is unusual in concentrating a good deal of effort to such things, so their products will allow you to do a lot of the stuff the cabin crew and airport personnel would do, such as operate the airstairs, play in flight music, adjust the cabin lighting and even sit in and drive the pushback tractor to get your aircraft away from the terminal ready for departure(only in FS9 that one incidentally). In a kind of similar fashion, both CLS and Captain Sim airliners tend to add a lot of airport eye candy to things, such as service vehicles, cargo elevators and even animated cargo loading operations. But you will find that some of that is actually built into FS so long as you know the key presses. So Control J for example, will animate the jetways up to your airliner if it is correctly parked, and you can call for fuel trucks and other vehicles too in FSX with other key commands, making vehicles show up if you have the detail turned up. Some of the bigger airports have extra fancy stuff by default, Paris Charles DeGaulle (LFPG) for example, has deicing vehicles which can spray your aircraft as you near the holding points for the runways.The AVSIM review section is well worth a look to discover all that kind of thing, for products you might be considering spending you cash on.Al

Take a look at Its Your Plane -- that's about the best co-pilot addon I know of, and it uses speech recognition too -- which can be applied to Radar Contact responses now, as well!http://www.itsyourplane.comRegardsPete

Man, i just got to speak out about some of these product videos lately. Quit putting a bunch of ads, contest, whatever at the beginning of your preview videos! There is no faster way to have someone skip the video (and most likely exit your site) than doing this. I want to see what it is, what it's about and what it looks like. Give me that and place the credits, ads, and fluff at the end of the video. If the product wows me, I'll watch the other stuff also.

Yeah, but it doesn't seem to work. I press CTRL-SHIFT-M and it ackowledges the hand over, but then nothing . . . what am I doing wrong? :(

Hitting CTRL-SHIFT-M :-)Try CTRL+SHIFT+K for comms.Radar Contact will handle only default aircraft as far as the copilot actually flying it goes, I believe.

I always use Aerosoft's Flight Keeper anyway. It is a must-have for me. The least of what it does is keep track of all your flights and display them on a beautiful map. The map alone has an amazing number of options. It also generates reports, such as how many hours in a certain aircraft, or for a particular carrier. It supports multiple logbooks if you want to keep your test flying separate from your revenue routes and private flights. It will critique your flight for you (picky things like starting your engines with doors open) and record your -496 vs touchdown. Check it out for all the other stuff it does.In-flight, though, you have the option for different crew nationalities and sounds triggered by events. Everything from boarding ambiance and arming doors to asking for a cup of coffee once cruise is reached. Turbulence can trigger comments from your co-pilot ranging from "did the weather report mention this," to "we've gotta get outta here!" All highly configurable and works with any airplane. Copilot does not actually do anything, though.FS2Crew takes a completely different approach. It models checklists for specific airplanes (Wilco Airbus, PMDG MD-11) and is highly interactive. Your copilot will actually perform many tasks himself, which is nice. It is pretty hard core and has a decided learning curve, but you are learning to operate your aircraft properly. Highly recommended for supported products.For just about any product, I like to substitute the safety video .wav with audio from airline-specific videos to add to the aural experience. I do that using Audacity to strip the audio from YouTube videos. Virgin America has a great one. Southwest has a real video of a flight attendant doing a rap safety briefing. The others are pretty boring.Radar Contact is great because even though the copilot won't fly anything but default aircraft, he will handle comms for you, which is what the PNF is supposed to do anyway. This really relieves your workload, especially during takeoff and landing when you are trying to do a lot of other things.

Aerosoft's AES will give you more details at airports...For example, Wilco Publishing's Cessna Citation X business jet gives you a cabin crew member (a shiny blonde bimbo with outrageously large breasts) who wanders about the aircraft doing various bits and pieces throughout the flight, such as sitting down for take off and preparing drinks etc.the slightly controversial developer Ariane...both CLS and Captain Sim airliners tend to add a lot of airport eye candy to things, such as service vehicles, cargo elevators and even animated cargo loading operations.Al

Did I read correctly that AES is now available for FSX?I think Wilco's Ejet has that same robo-stew. At least she sounds very familiar from somewhere, although she is not so useful in that product. Is she actually animated in the Citation?... hah ...CLS's 747 does an goodjob with the external gear. In some ways, it is for me an unexceptional airplane, but it is a good example of how extra details can elevate the experience of a particular product. Reminds me of the old Jet City stuff for the Maddog and (if I'm remembering correctly) the classic DC-9 from Flight 1 (I think).Talking positively about Ariane and Captain Sim in the same thread may risk a rip in the space-time continuum. I imagine someone will be along shortly to say how the loader doesn't go down :-D When I first heard about the real-time freight loader for the CS 757 freighter, and saw the icons added for the low loader and high loader, I was like, oh, I see, this little 2D panel comes up and you can use it as an in-sim load manager for cargo.I was surprised to find, no, there was actually a vehicle sitting outside my UPS 757 which I could move backwards to load a container, forwards to the big cargo door, and raise the platform with the container up so I could watch it slide inside. That didn't get old. I'm just that way. When I had loaded all the containers into the main cargo bay, I still had a different loader to put stuff in the lower bay. And, at the other end, you can take it out again.For the first time, I wanted to fly a cargo run.But it did make me wonder, why does the freighter get two cool loaders, but with the passenger plane the poor stewardess in the correct uniform teeters at the open door 20 feet off the tarmac? What would be so hard to provide stairs and a bus that lowers for people to get off? Even at big airports, not every flight involves a jetway. (Not that I would expect little people to actually emerge.)

somebody mentioned at the default fsx airport there was the cleaners for the airplanes. is there a key command to get them to do this?