Is Alaska next?

[Torg Smith 31]

The autopilot certainly wasn't left out to prevent people from inflating their flight time... You can simply bag out a plane with full fuel, trim it out, and send it on it's way, out to sea.

 

Similarly, the "no skip" XP is more for putting the time in I think, than hand flying. Again, the Maule trims out very well, needing just a little nudge every few minutes. So long as you're not in rough weather, anyway. But, if the "no skip" XP was for hand-flying, you'd think they would have a rough weather bonus.

 

Yes I agree with this.

 

I think if you do skips you will probably get XP faster than to get the “no skip” XP.

 

I like to look out the windows when flying and not have to worry about staying straight. I can trim out my altitude but can’t seem to nail the direction. I even tweaked the settings to map the rudder trim to the keyboard and set the increment to 1.

[noffa 0]

OK then, so anyone have exciting theories as to why the autopilot was omitted in all aircrafts so far? I'm thinking if it wasn't for some gameplay reason, it must be implementation complexity?

[RoboRay 126]

Well, it was only omitted from one plane.

 

And it seems possible that they want players to learn to actually fly the planes. I still chuckle about the "hard core simmers" from FSX who had no idea you could fly an ILS by hand, rather than letting the autopilot land for you.

 

[Glynn 405]

it must be implementation complexity

 

Hello

MS did not find implementing an autopilot too difficult in previous flight sims, so its not that.

[Prune 0]

Maybe they did not consider the Hawaiian Islands large enough to warrent an AP. It`s only a short hop between each one so why would you need an AP anyway? Maybe as the game(hopefully) expands there will be a greater need for one so they will add one in the future.

[kentoo 0]

Well, it was only omitted from one plane.

 

And it seems possible that they want players to learn to actually fly the planes. I still chuckle about the "hard core simmers" from FSX who had no idea you could fly an ILS by hand, rather than letting the autopilot land for you.

.... I thought the same when Flight was released. Things may have changed since I took RW pilot training. The aircraft I trained on did not have an autopilot... It didn't even have VOR . That dates me to the early 70s. At what point in a pilots training does the use of an autopilot begin?

[Mickel 42]

At what point in a pilots training does the use of an autopilot begin?

 

In mine, late CPL (not that I got it finished.. :-( ). Main reason was so that Mr Instructor could explain something I screwed up on the homeward leg while having more of the students attention. If there wasn't anything really to discuss, it was hand flown home. I understand that in multi-engine IFR training it really hits its straps. This should be as no surprise since this is where training gets close to actual commercial operations. The C152 I did my PPL in didn't have one...

 

Before I got my PPL I had the good fortune to be in the LH seat for flying some of my colleagues around in a twin on business with a multi-IFR rated instructor in the RH seat. I did 95% of the flying. Very rarely used the AP, but then I had a navigator and a radio operator sitting next to me so I only had one thing to concentrate on. Without doubt, those were the best days flying I had.

[Guest]

About the AP: I do not only wonder if MS will ever add one but also if they will ever fix the one in the Maule... for free. I am quite amazed they didn't fix it yet because it's a very obvious er... mistake/ommision that they put a inop ap in the Maule.

 

It's funny: the side effect of NOT releasing any DLC that's worh my money, is that I now long so much for Alaska, that I don't even really care about fixes and updates and what not...! When you are starving you are happy with a small piece of dry bread... Maybe MS 'starved' us on purpose?

 

I can't stop being amazed by the low amount of DLC for Flight. I expected Train Simulator amounts of DLC, thousands of dollars worth of goodies... Such a shame...

 

BTW Totally OT (and I mean TOTALLY OT) but sometime ago some people posted about a train sim on this forum and I've been looking at it, but I found out there are two, one from Railworks and one from Trainz...? Which is the best or 'real' one...? I need another toy to keep me happy until Alaska is released. Never mind: Railwork's sim seems to be the far better looking one. And it's cheaper too.

[jcomm 5,984]

In RL the airplanes I fly are gliders :-) We do not have an AP although we do have some rather fancy navigation aids,

 

including flight path computers coupled to the GPS, with lot's of information important to optimize your competition flights... Yet... I never even switched it ON in flight... As far back as 1980 when I got my license all we had were maps, a wisky compass, and our balls... (sorry...)

 

When I fly with my fellow PPLs on the airclub's C152s, C172s, etc... they do not have AP, although they are almost all GPS equipped... I would like to have a GPS in FLIGHT, and I am almost sure we will get one!

 

When I fly in airliners and are luck enough to get into the jumpseat (I tend to be lucky given that I work exactly on the Aviation Meteorology area...), I enjoy true to life IFR flying and airline operations (the thing I ever dreamed doing for a living. I look fwd for the ONLY sim that will be able to simulate such an environment to the perfection - Aerowinx PSX!!!

 

OTOH FLIGHT's FM is so ahead of what we have on other sims (ELITE Pilot excluded... because that's also excellent at modelling stability, etc...) that I have already completed a few Job's of 200+NM leaving the aircraft properly trimmed and walking away from the puter, or switching programs with no problem :-)

 

BTW Totally OT (and I mean TOTALLY OT) but sometime ago some people posted about a train sim on this forum and I've been looking at it, but I found out there are two, one from Railworks and one from Trainz...? Which is the best or 'real' one...? I need another toy to keep me happy until Alaska is released. Never mind: Railwork's sim seems to be the far better looking one. And it's cheaper too.

 

Try this one...: [media=]

[/media]

 

Great for learning Russian too :-)

[Torg Smith 31]

OK then, so anyone have exciting theories as to why the autopilot was omitted in all aircrafts so far? I'm thinking if it wasn't for some gameplay reason, it must be implementation complexity?

 

The reason I think they have not implemented the autopilot yet is that it interfaces with flight planning for IFR flight. It also interfaces with GPS when the flight plan is stored in it. I get the impression Microsoft doesn’t want to nail down any interfaces yet as it might limit things they can do for future optimizations and requirements. This is just my opinion.

[RoboRay 126]

The reason I think they have not implemented the autopilot yet is that it interfaces with flight planning for IFR flight. It also interfaces with GPS when the flight plan is stored in it. I get the impression Microsoft doesn’t want to nail down any interfaces yet as it might limit things they can do for future optimizations and requirements. This is just my opinion.

 

Not all autopilots do all that. A very simple system offering just basic "HDG Hold" and "ALT Hold" would be sufficient to alleviate most of the problems of having to fly hands-on at all times. Heck, that would be enough to get me flying long-range Jobs in rough weather.

[HiFlyer 9,372]

BTW Totally OT (and I mean TOTALLY OT) but sometime ago some people posted about a train sim on this forum and I've been looking at it, but I found out there are two, one from Railworks and one from Trainz...? Which is the best or 'real' one...? I need another toy to keep me happy until Alaska is released. Never mind: Railwork's sim seems to be the far better looking one. And it's cheaper too.

 

Answering way OT, Railworks, aka Rail simulator 2012 seems the one to get. (at least for me) I just did, and so far its great; especially as it has a simple mode to let me play while I learn the harder stuff. Another train sim I tried once wanted me to start with rocket science right from the beginning and it eventually departed my hard-drive. (sims that want to start newbies in hard mode tend to do that)

 

[media=]

[/media]

 

We now return you to your normal thread!

[KSU__EMAW 0]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the biggest DLC that this game will have come out with so far would make sense if it were announced at E3 Expo. I haven't been following any of this until a few minutes ago, but it would make sense. And based on what everyone is saying that it is expected for June, I would not be surprised if this were the case especially considering that E3 Expo is going to be held June 5-7.

It would be nice, but there's no actual sources behind what I'm saying. It is purely speculation.

[fsxkitty 62]

New Alaska screenshot! Check FB page!

[OMGBBQ32 12]

This is what fsxkitty is talking about.

https://www.facebook.com/msflight