I have had a copy of FSX for a while now and had been "playing" it in Boot Camp on my Mac Pro with just a joystick. I have now got the bug and have ordered the following:

1. Components to build a PC with an i7 CPU, a GTX570 video card, and Windows 7.
2. 32" 1080P Samsung TV to use as a monitor (will get a second when I can afford it).
3. VR Flightmaster yoke
4. Saitek pedals
5. Some GoFlight modules.

My question is what software/expansion packs should I get? I have seen references to ORBX which I assume are scenery packs. What else do I need to make my flying experience more realistic.Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions.Alan

I hope you have plenty of money :( What kind of flying are you interested in? Airliners? VFR in General Aviation planes? Military jets?

You can end up spending a lot of money on stuff for flight sims (although there's a lot of free stuff out there too), and so it is worth taking your time to find out exactly what you like and what you'd like to improve, since FS is effectively a 'base program' that is intended to be souped up with the addition of add-ons. Thus if you like big jet airliners, or perhaps helicopters or maybe little private aeroplanes, and like flying long distances, or maybe short little local hops, what suits you will be different from what others may like.Your best bet is to hang about this forum and see what people are using and raving on about, as that tends to be a useful guide to what is good and what is bad. There is a reviews section link on the main Avsim page, and that can help you to decide on things, although you should keep in mind that all reviews are one person's opinion, even if they are in depth, so it is often helpful to check out a few reviews from the same reviewer to help determine if you are likely to agree with their opinions in general. What helps on that score, is that most Avsim reviews chip in on these forums too, so you can usually gauge a bit about their knowledge, likes and dislikes from that as well, to see if you would trust their judgement.Also bear in mind that you don't actually have to spend any money at all to get some good stuff, for there is the Avsim File Library, where you can search for things you might like, such as weather and scenery add-ons, aeroplanes etc, etc, and download it all for free, and much of it is every bit as good as payware stuff.Where payware stuff is concerned, it is often helpful to look on a big site that carries a lot of products, which can help you figure out what is new or available, or even simply what you might like to try out. I often find it helpful to do that on www.simmarket.com, but keep in mind that it is just one of many places you can buy flight sim stuff from, so it is certainly not the only place you should look at. Nevertheless, it does have the advantage of having a lot of stuff and plenty of customer reviews to help clue you up about things. It is important to note that simmarket is not always the cheapest place to buy, so I recommend using it as a kind of 'product search tool' but also recommend shopping around at other places such as www.fspilotshop.com, www.flightsimstore.com and www.pcaviator.com etc, in order to find the cheapest deals, since many places have special offers from time to time. One especially good place to look in this regard, is www.flight1.com because they offer a 30 day no quibble refund policy, which means you can buy, try stuff out, and if you are not happy, get a full refund very easily.You will quickly determine from hanging about these forums that there are a few 'good old standby' programs that many people like, such as ASE, REX, UTX etc, and a few developers who stand out from the crowd, such as PMDG, FSL, Level-D, iFly, ORBX, UK2000 etc, some of whom have support forums right here on Avsim, and so I'd go and check those out on their product forums or at online stores.If something takes your fancy, you could always post in here for opinions before you hand over any cash, and that's not a bad thing to do, since if there is one thing flight simmers will be happy to share with you, it is their opinion.Al

I hope you have plenty of money :( What kind of flying are you interested in? Airliners? VFR in General Aviation planes? Military jets?

trisagerI am retired so my SS check will cover what I need -- NOT. LOL I'm thinking of starting with general aviation. I forgot to mention that I also purchased GoFlights throttle quadrant so I can add levers for props as well as jets. I typically would fly either a Cessna or a twin engine jet. I intend to get a radio stack from GoFlight so I can fly IFR. Some years ago I purchased a program called Sub-Logic which (when it wasn't locking up) was very realistic and it came with a complete set of aeronautical maps which will be useful.Alan

Al

Thanks for that advice AlanAlan

As far as I am concerned REX is a must for anyone no matter what type of flying they do. As for the rest just hang out on the forum and see what people are using. I like REX, GEX, UTX, UT2, FS Genesis, Turbine Duke by RealAir, and anything PMDG. Carenado has some nice GA planes but anymore they seem more interested in quanity instead of quality. ORBX stuff is the best when it comes to scenery but they are limited to what they cover. Just remember the more addons u run the worse your fps will be.

I'm sure you will get pages of suggestions. Some of my GA favorites are:* Carenado's Cessna 185 (http://www.carenado.com)* Aerosoft's Diamond DA20-100 Katana (http://en.shop.aerosoft.com/eshop.php?action=article_detail&s_supplier_aid=11388&s_design=DEFAULT&shopfilter_category=Flight%20Simulation&s_language=english)* Milviz' Cessna 310 (http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=c310r)Have fun!

Your choice of scenery is going to depend on where you want to fly, Orbx is reputed to be fantastic - although their sceneries only cover certain areas. In my case I tend to fly around Alaska out of Port Valdez, Ultimate Alaska, UTX Canada and GEX North America really make it a great area to fly. UTX and GEX are also available for Europe.. ..I tend not to fly without Active Sky Evolution for weather, which really makes a big difference to the default.When it comes to aircraft I would recommend: RealAir Turbine Duke (the Piston version is also fantastic)Eaglesoft Citation X v2The Flight1 Mustang is also very nice, although I prefer flying the Citation X - I guess it depends how fast and/or complicated you like your jets !! With FSX it can depend how deep your pockets are .. .. .. all of the add-ons listed in my "sig" I would recommend, I have a lot more that I rarely touch !!G

As far as I am concerned REX is a must for anyone no matter what type of flying they do. As for the rest just hang out on the forum and see what people are using. I like REX, GEX, UTX, UT2, FS Genesis, Turbine Duke by RealAir, and anything PMDG. Carenado has some nice GA planes but anymore they seem more interested in quanity instead of quality. ORBX stuff is the best when it comes to scenery but they are limited to what they cover. Just remember the more addons u run the worse your fps will be.

Sorry to be uninformed here, but could you please explain what REX, GEX, UTX, UT@ etc are?Also do I need to get the FSX Acceleration pack (I think this adds DX10 functionality)?ThanksAlan

There are only a few add-ons that actually need Acceleration (i.e, some gauges in IRIS add-on warplanes for FSX don't display properly without Acceleration being installed), but for the most part you can live without it since the FSX Service Packs (i.e. patches SP1 and SP2) add most of what Acceleration adds in terms of updating the sim. You won't get the extra aircraft and missions that come with Acceleration by simply installing the SPs, and there are one or two other options Acceleration adds for engine wear and tear, but it isn't vital for most FSX add-ons. Additional aircraft that come with acceleration include a racing version of the P-51 Mustang, an F/A-18 Hornet, and an EH-101 helicopter. They are okay, but nothing that a half-decent payware aircraft couldn't put to shame.REX is Real Environment Extreme - It adds souped up cloud graphics, a replacement weather engine for generating more realistic weather, an improved flight planner, improved textures for aircraft and runway lights, improved concrete and grass surfaces at airports. It's a lot of bang for your bucks and makes your sim look vastly better.GEX is Ground Environment Extreme - It soups up the terrain quite a bit, by tarting up the way the sim draws the ground. There are different regions covered in various versions of itUTX is Ultimate Terrain Extreme - it does a similar thing to GEX, and again, there are different versions for different regions of the world, such as Europe, North America etc.UT is Ultimate Traffic - It adds realistic AI aircraft with real world airlines instead of the fictional airlines that are in FS by default. It is one of several AI traffic add-ons available, such as the aforementioned UT, Traffic X, My Traffic, World of AI (that last one is free by the way).Most of those are about eye candy, you can cheerfully live without any or all of them if you like, FSX will fly just as realistically, it just won't look quite so pretty.Al

Thanks Chocks, that helped a lot.Alan

Don't forget your mandatory copy of Radar Contact. If you want to fly IFR, RC is the only way to go.

Don't forget your mandatory copy of Radar Contact. If you want to fly IFR, RC is the only way to go.

Okay thanks for that woodhick. How about VoxATC? I understand that it's about as close as you can get to real ATC. I guess I wouldn't need both.Alan

If you like realism with your aircraft you can't go wrong with A2A Simulations. If you want consequences to bad airmanship, for example break engines and jam flaps, then they are just up your street.Bryan.

Also what flight planner do you guys recommend?ThanksAlan

Well, first up, don't underestimate the default FS flight planner, it gets the job done, can do VFR, IFR and use most nav aids and airways, and even though I have a few other flight planners, I still use the default one a lot of the time, as it is pretty capable. Moreover, you can edit the flight plans the default planner creates very easily in a visual fashion by dragging the route line onto nav aids or deleting waypoints, so it is pretty intuitive. Sometimes I will bang a flight plan directly into the FMC of an airliner based on what the default FS planner has come up with.Having said that, FSBuild is a pretty good payware flight planner which I sometimes use. It has lots of in depth aircraft-specific detail, such as fuel burns for various aircraft, and it has the ability to export flight plans in lots of different formats that the navigation systems on many add-on aircraft can use, so it does a lot of cool stuff.Electronic Flight Bag is an expensive choice and not merely a flight planner, but that too is a good flight planner even though it is not its main function, since it not only provides the en-route charts, but also lets you save out a flight plan in the FS format so you can load it up into FS with all the Standard Instrument Departures and Standard Terminal Arrivals right there on the map in FS.I also like the freeware conv2adeu - which you can find in the Avsim file library - as the name suggests, it will convert FS flight plans into INS ADEU format so you can simulate loading ADEU digital data cards into the freeware CIVA INS navigation gauge (also highly recommended), to save you having to key in all the INS coordinates! Of course that's only of use if you want to simulate INS flights in older aircraft, and not everyone is that much of a glutton for punishment!As I understand it, the makers of TOPCAT (the take off and landing performance calculator, which is also highly recommended) are developing something called PFPX (Professional Flight Planner X), and that looks like it is going to be really something, so if you can hang on until between June and August 2011, when it is due to be released, and if TOPCAT is anything to go by, you might find that will be worth the wait.Al