Hi all.I'm intersted in knowing more about the FS community habits.Do you use FS's default plane? Do you fly only hardcore?Do you share cockpit? Do you fly with FS2Crew? What do you think about that sort of new tools? Do you use them and think it's a revolution or do you prefer just having nice scenries and nice looking plane in outside's view?This post is open; tell wich pilot you are and how you fly :( Cheers,Cyril

All of the above except FSCrew.And I use shared cockpit a lot, not only to fly, but also to teach (Im an X CFI). In fact for the last week I have been helping a friend learn some 'basics' with the Carenado 152 prior to him taking a lesson in real life. We are using his home airport so he is familiar with it and the surrounding area and it's amazing how much he has learned.I wish we has this when I learned to fly!

In fact for the last week I have been helping a friend learn some 'basics' with the Carenado 152 prior to him taking a lesson in real life.

That's very interesting... On my side, I had a similar experience. I don't have any grade and I'm not a real world pilot but FS gave me good knowledge about IFR. A friend of mine is a real pilot but only VFR. He was about to pass an exam and I gave him lessons on VOR and NDB using FS which helped him to have his exam :) I was quite proud and happy.People who say that FS isn't realistic and is just a gave aren't very fair I think.Cyril

Normally I use payware planes... general aviation from singles, light twins, small and large bizjets. I hardly touch airliners...I do a lot online using VATSIM.

It can vary.What I will say, is that some of the default planes for FSX are actually not that bad, and I'm not averse to using the ones that are okay. The Cessna 172 is not as good as some payware ones, but it isn't desperately awful by any means, the Mooney IFR version is quite good as well, and both of them are actually useful for IFR training. The default FSX glider is a pretty good emulation of the real one, although in real life that isn't one of my personal favourites to fly, since I don't like the rudder pedal layout on it, but in FSX I can happily fly it without that concern, since I'm using my Saitek rudder pedals for it when I do that LOL. The default DC-3 is of course not as good as the payware MAAM DC-3, nor the Uiver DC-2, but it's not actually that bad when viewed in isolation, and were it not for those payware ones, I'd certainly fly it. The default FSX Grumman flying boat amphibian is really excellent and just as good as some payware add-ons in my opinion. Finally, with a few tweaks and some extra gauges added to it, the default 737 isn't too bad either, although I do have other 737 add-on that surpass it. On the other hand, the default FSX Airbus is appallingly bad and that really is a hangar queen as far as I'm concerned.I've got a few FS2 Crew add-ons, but I don't tend to use them that much, although I certainly do use a few other add-ons, especially for airliners, notably MCE, Flight Keeper, TSR Autobrake, CS Weather Radar, DBS Profile Radar, Follow Me, Radar Contact and Aerosoft's good old Flight Calculator, plus some weather add-ons. But the one add-on that has made FS very much more fun for me, is Air Hauler; I really do use that one a lot and rate it as the best add-on for FS in years, by a considerable margin (I'd put the PMDG 747 in that category too).I have some photorealistic sceneries and some add-on airports, but to be honest, I tend to have a lot more interest in the realism of the atmospheric conditions than what is on the ground, and if I want to soup up the scenery, I will usually do that myself with Photoshop, GMAX or FS Design Studio (which is another excellent FS accessory that I rate very highly).My FSX does have a lot of add-on aircraft, and that's quite a mixed bag. Whilst I like realistic portrayals of aircraft, I also quite like some of the 'lite' treatments too, since I don't always want to spend an hour doing a pre-flight, especially on those Air Hauler flights, although I do usually fly proper routes and use correct ATC procedures. One other thing I do is historic flights with the online 91st Bombardment group in various WW2 aircraft, and that is often with multiplayer stuff going on. As a result of that varied interest, I have a lot of payware add-on airliners and historic military aircraft too.Dabbling in creating missions for FSX is another area of interest, and that is quite good fun on occasion, although I am by no means the best programmer when it comes to doing the fancier stuff LOL.Aside from all that, there is also the fact that I review things for Avsim, and that can end up being any kind of FS product, depending on what gets thrown my way. But whatever that ends up being, I'll always find something interesting about it, since I like doing all the research that relates to the subject at hand. That often involves a lot of work and sometimes not inconsiderable expense too (for example, I just this week bought a Boeing 727 flight operations manual, because I am about to review the CS 727 for Avsim, and wanted to check the fidelity of its systems in comparison to the real thing), but that is my way of contributing to the FS community.Al