What was missing so much with flight simulation until now ?I am a RW (as they say) pilot and I have been a keen user of FSX for all sorts of reasons, could be IR training or just to keep my mental ability when the weather - or a plane U/S- makes it difficult for me to delve into my passion. Let's face it, FSX has reached unprecedented levels quality levels, both visually and in flight operations. Although new planes and sceneries are always welcome and form great addons, it's missions, in my opinion which we need most. Why ? Two reasons, the first one is the product of the mental laziness that inhabits most of us (could be a lack of imagination: eg I am sitting in front of my powerful PC, giant screen and all, hangar packed to the hilt, the world is mine for the taking, with every season and forms of weather available) It's so big out there, what shall I do today ? Well, in my case, and so often I end up doing this in reality, I'll take her up for 30mn -staying local !!- and come back to pursue more mundane occupations, until next time. So, the seeds are there but my lack of fertile imagination is the pain. The second is the lack of realistic environment. I refer to the "Americanisation" of the world through FSX offerings. I know, I have had wishes to fly in Viet-Nam, or say, in Brasil, and frankly, couldn't find much (indeed, any) difference in the experiences. It's not just the same terrain, the same voices, the same accents, giving me the same experience wherever I fly. I don't think anybody has seriously tried to address this problem. Yes, the world is vast and yet the FSX experience is debilitatingly similar. Until someone named Chris Kelin came along. (http://www.vertical-studios.net/) Using a very simple format that links all the necessary ingredients, he is inviting you to join him in a full immersion. It's a clever receipe. Taking good, visually stunning, environment, putting simple objectives in line and, above all, keeping it like it is in the real world: communication that matters and which addresses real situations. I don't think, until Chris arrived, that any mission sounded or felt so professional. Yes, you are flying… but with a real purpose. It is not the reward -the medal- that matters, it's the accomplishment. You want to do well because it seems so real that you don't want to fail as it would hurt; and, of course, in my case, with the Swiss mountains experience I really wanted to show that lovely instructor with a posh english accent sitting next to me that, yes, I could do it, I wanted to hear that oh so lovely voice of hers say "well done" to me ! Now, what would prompt an old (64 years,1600hr mountain and warbird display) pilot to write this ?:(

Welcome to the forums and interesting view of yours to follow.I'm just running into some kind of 'mmh'-mood when looking at this thread here. :Thinking:A dev nominating himself and a new user doing a first post with overwhelming praises towards just that stuff?As I don't judge people with out-of-the-box-knowledge, I'm just asking how to look at this picture of self-nomination and new user praises now. Please don't feel offended. :blush:Wouldn't have any trouble at all if this would happen with freeware, must admit.

I think so, obviously, for a couple of $ a mission...The advice is free :Hypnotized:and so is my fee !!Thanks for the welcome bit, my first post indeed.

But the picture is nice. Is that somewhere around Sion?

But the picture is nice. Is that somewhere around Sion?

No, this one is taken by my current location (LFMD-Cannes) en route to a cup of tea in Gap in the Alpes in an MCR4S.I understand your concern and comment well. My views on Vertical Studios were absolutely spontaneous - htey are on his site as well.Perhaps I should say the same regarding the A2A Cub I just discovered too. I was astounded to spin it (something I never dared do in reality with my old mount - see photo) but always wanted to do, but for fear of the CAA.Thanks for your interest, I have made a connection with Facebook through your site.sorry... ! forgot to add the photo...sorry I had not attached the photo...

Nice picture again. Shows a Spitfire, right? Love that thing in the sim.

Yep ! A two-seater at that !:( In Dutch markings both, hence the title "Double Dutch" (White Waltham 2009)

I kind of miss the old fashioned FS adventures with custom sound....

Yessss! Finally someone has come up with this idea...I hope it gains traction because I am fully aboard - once I get time to fly again :)I imagine some very neat experiences using both the fs aircraft AND addons such as the PMDG 737, and others like the LD767 with long flights across the ocean, etc. real world type ATC/voices and even chances of "something" happening out of the ordinary to keep us on our toes

It is virtually impossible to create missions with the add-ons you have referenced, due to the limitations imposed by the Mission Creator. I have investigated creating tutorials/missions with the creator, but have been unable to integrate any of the add-on features to the mission, as missions are created with commands that are event (ie cross at 7500) and action (ie takeoff and climb to 3000 feet) driven. I think the individual developers would have to create a new interface to allow users to create missions with their products.Regardless, Missions are a cool feature, and lots of fun!

It is virtually impossible to create missions with the add-ons you have referenced, due to the limitations imposed by the Mission Creator.

To me, it seems possible to create such a mission, however the aircrafts and other add-ons would need to not only be installed in the mission designer's system, but also in each of the customers' systems. This limits the potential market considerably. Most freeware missions use the default aircraft. As a user, you can change the default aircraft to something else installed in your computer, which isn't that hard of a task, however the mission is designed around a certain aircraft so changing it to something very different wouldn't make that much sense.A mission that crosses an ocean would be a lot of work, assuming you still want it to be of high quality (i.e., not just 8 hours of nothing inbetween 20 minutes of take-off and landing). A rule of thumb, based on our experience, is that for a high-quality, seemingly real FSX mission, it takes a little over an 1 hour of work per finished minute of mission. This includes everything, like writing the script, recording the voices, designing the mission in the sim, etc. A 45-minute HQ mission takes about 50 man-hours to complete. So, a mission that lasts 6-8 hours! using payware that not everyone has! is not a market that we'll be getting into :) It would be cool though!Kind regards,Chris