It seems everytime I load up flight simulator all I ever really do is mess around. Like climbing to 37,000 feet, switch to the Wright bros glider and do aerobatics, etc.Could someone recommend me a free addon or something to give the game more structure?

Hello nbv4,You might try a great freeware add-on called the Fanda Dash 8. It's a great turboprop airplane that requires the procedures be followed to a "T"http://fandafans.fscentre.com/Great plane and if you want to fly it correctly, it will take a little study and practice.

I would suggest going back and taking Rod Machado's flying lessons, accessible from the start-up screen. Also studying some of the learning center articles that catch your fancy. Sometimes we overlook these outstanding resources included in fs9.HTH, Steve J.

Hello,You could try out 'Flight Creator' by Jon Masterson. Go to http://library.avsim.net/extsearch.php and search for the filenames:version_06_released.zipfc06ac.zipIt gives you some objectives to achieve by creating random flights. Like take off from your home base and deliver such and such cargo to this destination, pick up passengers there and take them to their destination, then return to base, ect.I want to let you know a couple of things though. I used an earlier version, v0.2. I thought it was pretty cool. I e-mailed Jon to thank him and let him know I thought so. He asked me to beta test for him and I said ok. He then sent me v0.3e. It worked ok and had a a few more features. I would load up v0.3e and create a flight with it, and then fire up FS2004. I would leave v0.3e running so I could ALT-TAB back to it at any time. Since then he has obviously posted this 0.6 version. I tried it out and could tell that he had advanced the program considerably and was going for making a program that was not your average, ho-hum or ordinary Flight Creator. I ran v0.6 and then fired up FS2004. After I flew for a bit I got a message that my system had run out of memory and FS2004 would be shut down. I had the feeling that v0.6 had a memory leak and was unstable, so I uninstalled v.06 and went back to just using v0.3e. Perhaps I didn't give v0.6 enough of a chance and should have tried it out for a longer period of time. I only tried it that one time. Perhaps v0.6 just takes up quite a bit of memory and I should close it out before running FS2004. What I was really looking foward too was v1.0! ;) In the v0.6 README Jon states that he will be using a different(and newer perhaps?) compiler for future versions of FC. I have hope that this will help cure any memory leak or stability problem if there is indeed such a problem with v0.6.This same topic came up in the (old) Eaglesoft forum, and I posted a reply stating the same thing I am told you above. Jon Masterson posted v0.6 back in December 2003. His posted v.02 only a about six seeks prior to posting v0.6. So I wondered if Jon was continuing development of it and I said so to the person on the Eaglesoft forum that was inquiring where to find such a program. This person e-mailed Jon and asked if he was still working on it. Jon replied that he was, but that other things had come up in real life that hadn't allowed him to put as much time into it as he had been in the past. This was a couple of months ago, so I hope that Jon is still working on it, but who knows. Another thing to keep in mind is that if he ever does release a version 1.0 it might not be freeware. I really don't know but just something to consider.Give this program a try if you want. And if you can, and let me know what you think of it and whether or not you find it to be stable.By the way, welcome to the Avsim forums! :-sun1Cheers,Jim

Hi Jim,Why not join a VA, that certainly added a lot of purpose to my sim experience.BestsMartin

The greatest thing I find is to think of FS as an RPG (role playing game), in this respect it is limitless, and only restricted by your imagination.Maybe start by thinking you are flying a small prop for charter, give your self a base, and make up some routes and imaginary passangers and start flying.When you have had enough of that, what I do is pick a plane and a airline, then I will gather together all the various flightplans for said plane and airline, look at there destinations, find some good addon scenery for each of the destinations and become your own virtual airline, give yourself deadlines, like minimum turn around etc, try to do each flight in the safest, fastest and most economical way possible.I find that I am my own worst critic so that works great for me.Failing that, learn to fly a chopper, that'll keep you busy for a while, there is pleny of info about FS choppers at www.hovercontrol.comDan.

VatSim

Don't want to sound to simplistic here, but have ya considered firing up FS with a specific goal in mind? Something like I want to use this plane to fly from here to there -- then just do it?Whether using a little Piper Cub or a 777, the process is the same, just one is a wee bit more comples than the other. ;)Course, as someone said, go to "school" but be sure to follow the course religiously.-------------------Racartronit means something, but I just can't remember what

>Don't want to sound to simplistic here, but have ya>considered firing up FS with a specific goal in mind?>Something like I want to use this plane to fly from here to>there -- then just do it?>Yeah that is where to start. Do a search for lots of things to do, for example, follow your favorite sports team as it travels, follow a concert tour, etc. Then as you get better, you can add in some elements, like weather, fuel planning, etc. You can also download real-world airline schedules from most airline websites and follow those.

>Hi Jim,>>Why not join a VA, that certainly added a lot of purpose to my>sim experience.>>Bests>MartinHi Martin,Thanks for the suggestion. It's just that I would rather devote my time to doing some other things. A while back I was starting to work on learning how to do a paint job. My motherboard went bad and I had to order new parts, take out the old stuff from my case, and then put in the new. I haven't got back to the paint job since. We've had a lot of stuff happen around here. A tenant in one of our rentals up and left without a word, and the place needs work with the way the left it. I am considering learning how to do an FDE for an aircraft, ect. I also like playing some Battlefield 1942 once in a while. I have flown online on occasion in the past though and it is pretty cool.Sometimes I mess around and download stuff generous folks have made for MSFS and see what it does, like I did with Flight Creator. Then I e-mail them and sometimes am asked to do a little beta test. I made the 'WinXP and FS2004 Optimization Guide V2' to try and help people get a little better performance from their systems. Quite a while back I did a very small update for Geof Applegate's Beechcraft B33 to make it work in FS2004. For whatever reasons I'd rather do these types of things than get into flying in a VA. I'm just not really interested in a VA partly due to what I posted here. Just personal interests/preference you could say.Thanks Again Though,Jim

How about trying my ActiveSky weather adventures? - volume two is a flight of 10 legs for VFR fliers that traces the route of the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia over three days with real weather - and, now with volume 2, you don't even have to own ActiveSky to enjoy the flights!Link is in my sig...

While you're at hovercontrol, look into their liquid scenery adventures - stuff like find the lost boat, rescue missions, or pick up lumber from a remote camp - fun stuff...Here's a thought:Something I came up with a while ago, and actually suggested the idea to Markus Brunner, author of GA-Traffic. Markus' utility generates various "types" of traffic, like taxi, rental, corporate, etc. What if the GA-traffic utility contained an added level of interaction - the user was able to choose one of the randomly generated "missions" like "take Mrs. Hoohah from your current location to someplace else for her monthly buffing" and the mission has an assigned pay rate. The missions you decline get compiled as AI flights, or are available the next time... Front end keeps track of your gains, allows you to trade cash for the ability to use larger planes or some such...It could easily work. Of course, lacking any programming skills whatsoever, I'll have to leave that "easy" part to the likes of Markus :-smooch!Kind of like privateer for FS9.Someday.Best,sg

I get a lot of pleasure from flying good approaches (I have a number of saved flights for practicing) in various weather conditions; I also enjoy trying my hand at real world approaches off of charts (all US approach and departure charts are now available on line for free - search the forum for a link); I like navigating with the older planes, especially vfr with a real chart. I agree with the main constant in all of these threads - set goals and objectives that you want to try and see how well you do.

ActiveSky Weather Adventures are complete flights from departure to arrival - 20 in total, with various real weather situations. Volume 2 INCLUDES sectionals that you can view in the Kneeboard, annotated with flight plan and the route of the AT...great VFR flying. I've flown the whole route in the Lyons' Apache...the third day's legs (7 to 9) I find myself flying over and over...I can also plug my other addon here - FSX-ionals! Download Matt Fox's jpg sectionals in the navigation section, and you can use the FSX-ionals utility to view them in the kneeboard too! Not quite the same as having a nice paper map to unfold, but it's totally free!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/79429.jpgThanks for this thread- I got to plug both of my new releases!Best,sg

Scott - that's a great idea actually (about the charts). Will have to check that out. Would simplify flight planning somewhat since you can simply draw the flightplan on to the image, rather than having to mess with pencils, protractors and so on and then try to erase the lines after the flight without ripping the chart :-lolRe: "Could someone recommend me a free addon or something to give the game more structure?"I don't think it comes down to addons, really. The gaame (or sim if you prefer) is only as structured as you make it. I'm not sure how much you know about real flying? Try to learn a bit about it (see the FS help+lessons, aviation books, websites, magazines), then fly as realistically as possible. This is probably more fun to do with GA planes since there isn't all that much planning where as it would be quite time-consuming to prepare a scheduled airline flight 100% realistically.The default planes should be enough to get you started. Start with the C172 and work your way up to the Mooney.Then you can check out some freeware planes such as the amazing Maule from www.fsnordic.net (maybe it's at AVSim too).I haven't checked it out, but the payware RV-7 (reviewed here: http://www.avsim.com/pages/0604/rv7/rv7.htm) looks interesting for those who want more structure in the game. It allows you to simulate owning and operating your own aircraft. I hope more aircraft come with this in the future and that it eventually becomes part of FS itself.