How do I do all these things?

[conura 45]

Hey all, thanks again for the help setting up the sim. Now I want to know....How do I do things like get passengers board my jet etc. Are there any realism enhancing mods that dont drain FPS? Also, how does VATSIM work? Is it realistic for a newbie to learn? How does the traffic get "integrated" in my game, or is it just imaginary and you follow ATC whatever. Does it slow FPS? Seems there are many incredible things which I don't understand!

[NGX 1]

Go to aerosoft and look for Airport Enhancement Services. This simulates cargo loading, passenger loading, fuel loading, cleaning, catering etc of the aircraft. It's payware and only works with the addon airports that they select.

[JSkorna 137]

Purchase X Pax and get passengers to board in any/all your planes.

[FlyData 7]

I like FS Passengers X...it can also be like a game within a game. You can start a career with single engine planes and build up flying the Heavies. You don't have to do, that, though. You can just load your flight with passengers and hear them board, de-plane, gasp during turbulence. I like the career mode as I've flown some planes I may have glossed over..regional jets for examples. I'm sure you can find comparisons of the products on sites like this. -Don

[Blaze 102]

I have purchased and used all of the suggested products above and based on my experience with them I would suggest the following...Wait! So long as your not in any big rush I would recommend downloading a vatsim client software either Squakbox or FSinn and learn about online flying. It may seem a bit overwhelming at first but after logging on and listening for a while you'll get the hang of it, there are lots of threads and information to read to help you along the way. Most users are helpful and if you elect to join a virtual Airline alot of them will help tutor you until your good to go. Now back to realism enhancing products... The reason I suggested to wait is most of the above have some form of a replacement or competitive product due out in the near future. AES is an excellent program that works well but you have to buy credits and apply them to the airports which you want it to work at. Most all of these are payware airports (a list of airports supported is provided by AES/Aerosoft I suggest you review it). If you don't have many airports or only want to fly out of a "hub" or two then this could be an excellent choice. If you have a lot of airports or plan on purchasing a lot of airports then AES is still an excellent choice but an expensive one. What looks to be a competitive product for AES is being developed by FSDreamteam they have an excellent reputation among simmers and I expect this product to take a big bite out of the airport enhancement utilities market especially with no credits to buy and functional at all airports. http://www.fsdreamte...hp?topic=4137.0 FSPassengers and Xpax: Out of these two I Currently only use FSP. Although they compete with one another they do different things that appeal to different people. Xpax IMO is very light and only provides some ambiance while at the terminal, it's a little dated now too. Initially when HiFi announced it's release I was overjoyed but could not help but feel disappointed after using it as it's novelty soon ran out of steam for me. FSPax offers more features but it's pretty expensive and development has all but ceased. It does offer more of a "game" inside FSX and can provide a limited sense of purpose for flying but the real reasons I still use it is for the failure models and that it provides a reporting mechanism for logging flights to my virtual airline. However, if I had neither I would wait and see what's in store from REX. They have an upcoming product called Simmair and while I have not read enough about it to know for sure if it will compete with either Xpax or FSP, I have a feeling it will incorporate some aspects of both of them as well as another worthy add on called Air Hauler. Hope this helps,Robert