Hello, I just bought Flight Sim 2004 (reg box w/ rebate). I am an avid Flight Simmer for decades and have been using TRI Fly!II for the past few years. I have a couple of questions I hope the community might answer for me.I would like to upgrade the land, mesh and textures of Flight Sim 2004 to be photorealistic, what product(s) should I investigate?Also, I've done some homework and I have decided I would like to purchase either "Flight Deck Companion" or "fsHotseat". Does anyone have an opinion on either product?Finally, I would like to know if there is a Pilatus PC-12 available for download (or purchase) for Flight Sim 2004? I had on using Fly!II and it's my favorite aircraft. Can anyone suggest another single-engine turbine aircraft instead? Thank you in advance for your suggestions!!

Hiya Kickin and welcome to FS9!There are a ton of ways to upgrade the mesh.I do like FSGenesis payware mesh. There are also tons of meshes available for download here. Well when the library comes back up. :^)However everyone could make their own as well.Landclass is the same as above... FSGenesis is nice.. also plenty here for download and could find tools to make it yourself.Photorealistic is tough... I hear about Megascenery but have heard yea and nay. I suggest you visit the Microsoft Scenery forum here at Avsim. Plenty of people there to help you figure out what you want. Very helpful guys.I am mostly a scenery designer... so I am always building and not flying. So maybe someone else might want to take a venture on aircraft. I know they have a Pilatus out somewhere.Welcome once again Kicking... nice home here. :-)

Hi, welcome to FS9... I too have used the Fly! simulator for a long time, but have now totally switched to MSFS. As far as best addon planes go, I'd suggest you get the Flight1 Meridian from www.flight1.com. It is a superb single engine turboprop and will make you forget about the Pilatus...Also, you are likely familiar with Rob Young and his aircraft...go to www.realairsimulations.com and get the free C172 and the payware Marchetti SF260..Photorealistic scenery is a matter of taste... I'd suggest first flying around the default FS scenery in San Francisco, New York, Seattle to get used to the new look.. If you still want photorealistic scenery, look into the Megascenery product for LA and NY... BTW if you really like New York, you may like the recently released Manhattan scenery better..

I own both FSHotseat and FlightDeck Companion. While they might sound the same both are very different in the end results and it really depends on what you want to use them for.FSHotseat - I purchased it solely for the AIBlast which adds realistic sounds to your AI aircraft. It is amazing. I don't use any of the other features of the program. It is a very intellegent and automatic type program but the voices are computer generated and I lose the "real as it gets" feeling. But others swear by it. I suggest doing a flight with their free demo to see if it is your cup of tea.Flight Deck Companion - Well thought out program, voices are real humans. More setup on the front end is required. You need to know what the charachteristics and checklists requirements are first. Then set them up in the program so the flight will react accordingly. But you only need to set up one for each aircraft as it save it's profile.I actually don't use it though. Why? Tooooo lazy. Ya gotta do some research on your aircraft first to be able to put in the info and I usually just want to get up and start flying. But when I did use it's great. Some simmers have already posted pre-made profiles so you can just d/l and fly.(If you just wanna hear cockpit chatter, sounds, etc when flying, try the FlightDeck SOund Effects panel by yours truly. It's quick, simple and Free!) ;)Hope that helps...

Welcome kickin, I agree with Bert, photorealistic scenery in MSFS isn't my thing, to blurry close up and usually no autogen (although magascenery does have it) For mesh, FSGenesis - payware, Holger Sandmann - freeware.For the PC-12 do a search for Brian Gladden, he has a model for FS9, great exterior model and flies well. There are 2 more in development that will be more detailed. One from AFG http://www.alliedfsgroup.com/and the other from Flight 1 http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...p?TID=6585&PN=1which looks really sweet!Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/PBTMCa.jpgCalVirAir International VACougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviation[link:www.cgrmthelos.com]Cougar Mountain Helicopters