I purchased Cushman Meadows and two other ORBX products early last week (because yeah, I really needed yet another ORBX airfield to call home...:D). In well-designed aircraft such as the RealAir SF260, the Dodosim B206 and the Aerosoft DHC-6 combined with REX 2 and a couple of other addons I am getting very good frame rates and am truly enjoying myself. Cushman has certainly become my new homeplate for GA. From the Grumman Goose for water landings to the Bell 206 for some scenic viewing, it is simply in a league of its own. I can't wait for what ORBX can do to Colorado, as I really enjoy mountain flying around Aspen, Grand Junction and Telluride.

It hardly takes the best hardware to get good performance out of Orbx stuff. We've got a lot of users on our forums who don't have supercomputers but are enjoying themselves immensely.

It's definitely possible to enjoy the scenery on a less than cutting edge system, but it does require some compromises. -Pay attention to the FPS hit of addon aircraft. This is not always something you can read about in reviews, but it's fairly easy to find out in forums. If an aircraft is known to hit the framerate heavily, simply find a more FPS friendly substitute even if you really want that particular plane. -Max out what's important to *you*, lower something else to compensate. For example, if you just love detailed autogen, you may have to turn down AI, weather and water effects. -Learn to live with a slightly lower FPS. You don't need 60 FPS to enjoy FSX. 10 FPS was long considered the minimum acceptable FPS in a flight sim (back in the FS2k to FS9 days). When FSX came out, you were lucky to get 10-15 FPS with everything turned up. -Avoid landing in the most demanding areas. I find downtown Seattle and Portland to be more demanding than any of the OrbX airfields. However, after just a few minutes of flying from the immediate downtown area, the FPS improves dramatically. You don't absolutely *have* to land your C152 at KSEA when there are hundreds of thousands of square miles to explore. The real strength of OrbX scenery are IMO the mountains, fjords and smaller towns and airfields.

The real strength of OrbX scenery are IMO the mountains, fjords and smaller towns and airfields.

This is particularly true for those of us with less than stellar performing computers. My system is happy with just the base Orbx FTX regions. I don't even bother with any additional freeware/payware airports from Orbx or Ozx as these drag the frame rates down unacceptably. The Orbx regions also represent fantastic value for dollar spent per area covered.

I find that ORBX regions and airports are the best value I've received since I started flight simming over a decade ago. I really enjoy VFR flying and ORBX has done an outstanding job creating a world that is full details with excellent performance. I try to keep things organized by having settings for VFR, IFR, and Commercial flights. I crank up all the eye candy when flying VFR and simply lower the SC and AG when I'm ready to fly a jet in IFR conditions. It's simply remarkable what FSX has become thanks to the FTX regions and airports, REX, and planes like the Katana 4x, Carenado 337, and Realair Duke. It's simply pleasurable.