Question on Ideal Flight

[Guest Mik75]

Lately, the add-on "Ideal Flight" caught my attention.

Normally, when flying airliners in FSX, I use my networked laptop for running Flightsim Commander and Active Sky.

But for GA flying, I would like to have a "lighter" option which gets me going within a few minutes.

Therefore, I took a look on Ideal Flight which seems to provide real weather, a flight plan and a complete flight setup in a short time. My understanding of it is that it starts FSX with these parameters and I am good to go. (sitting in the correct airplane on the correct airfield with real time weather and a loaded flightplan)

Could possibly some users of this software provide some information and opinions on it here?

And, is it possible to load a flight plan created by Plan G into Ideal Flight?

Also, I wonder if Ideal Flight uses the FSX database for creating flight plans, so that airfields like the fictive ORBX Cushman Medows etc. will be recognised?

Thanks in advance and greets,

Michael

[Jean-Paul 167]

Michael,

 

Therefore, I took a look on Ideal Flight which seems to provide real weather, a flight plan and a complete flight setup in a short time. My understanding of it is that it starts FSX with these parameters and I am good to go. (sitting in the correct airplane on the correct airfield with real time weather and a loaded flightplan)

 

Exactly. You can also pick up your plane where you left it last time you landed, specify if you want to start cold&dark, define the duration of the flight and let PF determine a destination within reach, get a complete debriefing after your flight, including information about the mistakes you've made, etc... And so much more

 

And, is it possible to load a flight plan created by Plan G into Ideal Flight?

Yes. I've attached a PDF file of a direct-to flight plan first generated by Plan-G (LFMP-LFBO) then imported into Ideal Flight. You'll notice that IF added a few waypoints.

 

Also, I wonder if Ideal Flight uses the FSX database for creating flight plans

 

Yes. Every time the scenery.cfg is altered, Ideal Flight updates its database.

[sargeski 16]

Ideal Flight is indeed a nice little program. I use it all the time for GA flying. It does use the FSX database.

Here is a link describing how flight plans are/can be generated within Ideal Flight:

 

http://codelegend.co...light_plans_pos

 

The developer is very active supporting the product and you can download Ideal Flight and try it for free. I would suggest that you give it a whirl. I find it to be an invaluable tool and money well spent for a product that will help you to explore areas in FSX that you otherwise would have never visited. I have purchased too many addons to mention over the years but this in my opinion is one of those must haves. It adds a whole new experience to FSX when randomly generating flights.

 

Regards,

 

Bob

[Guest Mik75]

Thank you for the very helpful answers!

Now I have two more specific questions:

Does the cold & dark panel state work flawlessly (all the switches set to off) with add on aircraft?

And, is it possible to reduce the general maximum visibility to 30 mls or something like that?

[Jean-Paul 167]

Michael, I can't guarantee that cold&dark works with all addons. Probably not with aircraft that use non standard commands or DLLs.

 

 

 

Reduce maximum visibility ? Yes. The weather generated by Ideal Flight is nicely done but do not expect it to be on par with AS2012 or similar weather addons.

 

 

[Guest Mik75]

Thank you very much Jean-Paul! I don't expect IF's weather engine to be as good and complete as AS is, I really want to have a quick setup for a relaxing, relatively short hop!

I'll probably will download it and give it a try tonight.

One more thing: I start FSX through the Shade.exe (Mogwaisoft Shade) which injects its textures and thereafter launches FSX. Will that still work with IF?

[Jean-Paul 167]

I burned-in my favorite Shade settings so I didn't try it myself but IF can launch a program before or after FSX

 

Start other programs before FSX

 

Open Config.ini

 

[RunOther]

RunCmd_1=C:\Program Files (x86)\NaturalPoint\TrackIR4\TrackIR.exe

Params_1= ← Optional program command line params

ShowWindow_1= ← Optional Show Window default False

..

RunCmd_99=

Params_99=

To stop using a command temporarily:

[RunOther]

RunCmd_1=

//C:\Program Files (x86)\NaturalPoint\TrackIR4\TrackIR.exe

Params_1=

ShowWindow_1=

To wait for a delay of milliseconds between programs starting:

[RunOther]

RunCmd_1=IF:WAIT_MS ← milliseconds

Params_1=5000 ← milliseconds

ShowWindow_1=

 

Start other programs after FSX

 

Open Config.ini

 

[RunAfter]

RunCmd_1=IF:WAIT_S ← seconds

Params_1=5 ← seconds

ShowWindow_1=

RunCmd_2=C:\Program Files (x86)\FaceTrackNoIR\FaceTrackNoIR.exe

Params_2=

ShowWindow_2=True ← Optional Show Window default False

..

RunCmd_99=

Params_99=

[jfri 42]

Thank you very much Jean-Paul! I don't expect IF's weather engine to be as good and complete as AS is, I really want to have a quick setup for a relaxing, relatively short hop!

I'll probably will download it and give it a try tonight.

 

Am I correct in thinking that AS weather engine is more complete and realistic than IFs in these aspects

1) In AS the weather can be different at different places while it's identical everywhere in IF. Therefore for example when you get weather briefing in RC the report

will be identical to the weather at the planes location. While with AS they could differ.

2) In AS you can have realtime weather which is not the case with IF.

3) Vertical air movement possible in AS but not with IF

[Breeze 17]

Does IF have to be installed on your FSX PC or can it be installed on a networked PC? Thanks.

[Guest Mik75]

Ok, Jean-Paul. But in this case it wouldn't help to start another program before FSX, but start another program exclusively which will then launch FSX. Or am I missing something?

And by the way, how do you "burn in" the Shade settings? Since I found my favourite setting too, there is no need for me to change something on every start...

[Jean-Paul 167]

Ok, Jean-Paul. But in this case it wouldn't help to start another program before FSX, but start another program exclusively which will then launch FSX.

 

I guess the developper will eventually chime in and provide you with an answer

 

Burn in your favorite Shade setting ? That's easier :

 

 

[Guest Mik75]

Thanks Jean-Paul! I just discovered the ShadeNL.exe that doesn't launch FSX automatically. When I run that exe a few seconds before I command IF to load FSX, everything should be fine...

Or I'll burn in my settings... ;-)

[Jean-Paul 167]

@ JFRI

 

Weather in IF

 

@ Jim

Dunno ;-) IF probably uses Simconnect so it should be possible. On the other side, I see no framerate impact whatsoever when I run it so why bother ?

[N1125Y 22]

Hello Guys !

 

Would IF work with VoxATC ????

[Guest Mik75]

I bought it tonight and already did 3 flights with it. Very intuitive, a few clicks and I am ready to go, exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks for your help, it made my decision a little easier!

Greets,

Michael