Guys,Am I the only one seeing birds in free-flight mode???Attached are two pictures. The first taken in Austin, TX several months ago and the other one today just above McChord, AFB in Tacoma, WA. I was under the understanding that birds didn't appear in free-flight. Add-on's are GEX, NA PNW. Believe me, these are not screen anomolies, but the real-deal. Sorry the pictures aren't clearer. - Blake

Birds are there if you have selected "natural" for the Thermal visualization option in the FSX Settings menus (General?).

Thanks Wayne, yep, that would explain it as I do have "natural" selected. Hmm, never knew that.

You can have birds show up in a number of ways...First up, they can be the natural visualisation for thermals if you select that preference in FSX, which is realistic incidentally. I've used birds to locate thermals many times in real life, and once or twice I've actually had birds join me in a thermal when they've spotted my glider doing well, which is a remarkably flattering thing for a glider pilot! I once even had one formate on me literally about three feet from the canopy, and we circled together in that formation up through about 4,000 feet whilst I watched it make gentle steering movements from tiny adjustments on its wings, and all the while it was literally just outside my canopy - which I have to say was the most magical thing I've ever experienced, you can't buy a thing like that.Second, you can have them as part of the scenery, for example, there are many wild creatures in the Aerosoft African Airstrip Adventures add on. There are lots of them flying around the freeware (and excellent) scenery of Archangel (ULAA) which you can find at the Russky 'Avsim' site. Alternatively, if you install the SDK or have a mission or scenery editor, you can place them yourself.Third, you can get plenty of them if you get hold of Earth Simulations sceneries, since there is a freebie enhancement called 'freebirds' which fires up when you use their product installer, and that plonks a load of them in FSX for you.Al

You can have birds show up in a number of ways...First up, they can be the natural visualisation for thermals if you select that preference in FSX, which is realistic incidentally. I've used birds to locate thermals many times in real life, and once or twice I've actually had birds join me in a thermal when they've spotted my glider doing well, which is a remarkably flattering thing for a glider pilot! I once even had one formate on me literally about three feet from the canopy, and we circled together in that formation up through about 4,000 feet whilst I watched it make gentle steering movements from tiny adjustments on its wings, and all the while it was literally just outside my canopy - which I have to say was the most magical thing I've ever experienced, you can't buy a thing like that.Al

They probably thought you were their mother :(

Wouldn't be the first time someone thought I was a mutha. :( Al