First off I'd like to say that I have been viewing AVsim for quite some time and found the site to be very helpful before, you all seem to have a very nice community and I was not sure where to post this so please don't kill me if I made a mistake :mellow:. I did look around for awhile before posting.

 

Secondly I would like to say that I love FSX, Have always had a strong interest in Aviation since I was a small child. And that is an interest that has not changed as I got older. Been having a lot of fun in FSX as it is lately, mostly patrolling my local area of utah and exploring with helicopters. Logged a lot of hours in previous flight sims but only recently was able to run FSX on reasonable settings..around 30 FPS. and so I have not posted here in the few years that I was glancing at the site.

 

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to plan flights using FSX...I can set destination and departure but despite the tutorials have a hard time following the plan in flight, though I'm sure i'll get that worked out shortly, I do love my area a lot and have spent plenty of hours basically flying circles around the state and finding interested area's to set down in a copter in. I have noticed the ever present and i'm sure very well known bug in helicopters when I put the throttle all the way up (in under almost any circumstance this kills the bird for me and I sink)

and some of the ground is messed up but that's to be expected..

 

AS for my questions I only really had a few. One would be if anyone here knew of any passable (not expecting greatness) scenery for my area (utah)..don't have much money so payware is iffy and would have to be good but any suggestions would be welcome. any good aircraft would be welcome as well but I'm more then capable of looking that up myself..tried to look up Utah scenery myself as well but did not come up with anything...hence why I'm asking.

 

Anyways thank you for putting up with me and thank you for any replies in advanced, If anyone would like to add any tips or area's they enjoy flying in themselves it would be more then welcome. (and anything that would make advanced flight planning a bit easier)

Well, first off, welcome to the community!

 

In regards to scenery, here is a very good start to finding freeware scenery. It helps to also check out the sites it takes you to like the AvSim library here, and also FlightSim.com. If you search those sites, you most likely can find what you are looking for: http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx/us.html

 

AvSim: http://library.avsim.net/login.php?Location=%2F

 

FlightSim: http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=displaysearch

 

Also, MegaScenery has a lot of Utah covered. It is payware photoscenery. That means photoscenery of the ground, but no autogen (that I know of). You can find that here: http://www.megasceneryearth.com/maps/html/USAMaster.htm

 

If you are interested in LA, Aerosoft has a scenery called US Cities Los Angeles X, which contains over 150 helipads around the city. You can also complete/supplement the scenery with FSDreamteams KLAX and MegaScenery for that area:

 

Aerosoft US Cities X Los Angeles: http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd,,D11721

 

FSDreamteam KLAX: http://fsdreamteam.com/products_klax.html

 

 

Now, since it seems you are in to helicopters, these are my suggestions to start with:

 

The everything-helicopters sim site, Hovercontrol, loaded with freeware and a great and informative forum: http://hovercontrol.com/

 

Fantastic payware helicopter website, Cera Sim, I have everything they offer (Bell 222, 212, 412, and soon UH-60): http://cerasimaircraft.com/

 

Another, Nemeth Designs. I have most everything they offer, and they are pretty good on the whole, the EC-135, MD500, and MD902 are fantastic: http://www.nemethdesigns.com/

 

 

Hopefully this helps you get started! I'm sure many others will come with other suggestions as well.

Welcome. :smile: Find a ton of free scenery for the US here. http://www.freewares...com/fsx/us.html There's a package for Utah (Utah Complete) and you should also find some freeware from Blue Sky Scenery covering some parts.

 

As for planes, would do you like? The folks over at OZx have enhanced some default ones, including a chopper. http://aussiex.org/f...6-hd-ozx-redux/

 

http://aussiex.org/f...e-hd-redux-120/

 

For nice and inexpensive payware, check Anthony's planes for example. There are freeware models too. http://www.antsairplanes.com/

Hello, welcome to AVSIM, while others have covered a great deal of planning websites, I'll mention one thing that will become an issue sooner or later, because of what FSX is. You will come to the point where you will not be getting 30fps, or your FSX will stutter in turns etc.

What I suggest, when you get time or lust, read through this: http://forum.avsim.net/fsx_guide.pdf

This will give you many insights in how to set-up FSX to run the best it can and as smooth as it can.

This guide is also located in AVSIMs tutorial selection albeit above link is the most up-to-date version.

Thank you to all who have replied so far, looking at the Utah complete package right now and the nemeth design page which looks really good. I'll also look into Kostas guide tomorrow.

 

been looking up the flight planning and found something called Plan-G, guessing it's well known but it looks quite in depth. though I'm most likely getting ahead of myself, not completed all the missions yet or anything..more absorbed in general flying, though I would like to learn the 747 soon as well and start going to airport to airport *only reason i'm looking into learning flight planning anyways..self made up airline runs* and thank you for all the welcomes!

Plan-G is great. You have a V2 and V3 there and both differ a bit, but allow for great planning when it comes to VFR and even IFR. I guess the serious IFR planning may happen with payware only or on some websites which offer their services for free and on a payment basis.

 

A ton of plans and infos plus an export feature is here. http://www.simroutes.../showplans.aspx And Sky Vector offers charts and planning tools for free too. http://skyvector.com/

Ok, let me add one more suggestion. When you get in to more advanced flightplanning, with more advanced aircraft, this is a great, free, site for it: http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

 

This will give you flightplans for the enroute portion. SID's and STAR's though will be up to you to decide on, but that tool can give you SID exit waypoints and STAR entry waypoints, so you just have to choose your SID/STAR's based on those points and the landing runway/approach you choose.

 

Lastly, here is a nice little free fuel planner to help you as well: http://fuel.aerotexas.com/

 

Put those two together, and picking up some charts from Google or Navigraph, you'll be set!

 

As for enroute charts, you can't go wrong with this site! It includes Lo/Hi Enroute, and VFR sectionals for the US and Europe: http://skyvector.com/

If they pin this thread, newcomers to FSX have all they need. Good work, folks! :Applause:

I have noticed the ever present and i'm sure very well known bug in helicopters when I put the throttle all the way up (in under almost any circumstance this kills the bird for me and I sink)

 

Are you talking about the collective or the throttle?

The throttle should always be at full when in flight otherwise you fall off the sky(The exception would be when you're doing a controlled Autorotation). The collective is used to control the pitch of the rotor blades wich controls your lift.

 

The FSX helicopter controls are like this in FSX, kinda opposite of fixed wing aircrafts:

"With helicopter operations the throttle axis on the joystick controls the collective and whatever joystick axis or buttons that you have assigned to control propeller pitch controls the throttle."

 

And last If you really want some challenge with helicopters i reccomend the Dodosim 206.

Trying to learn this now, never really flew the bigger aircraft to much, practicing on the Rome-Naples Airline Run.. Figuring out how to utilize the auto pilot correctly but it seems to pull me off course. and finding my way back on course can sometimes be tricky ...

Did you figure out the helicopter "bug"?

Sorta, I knew about the collective and throttle differences, I have also been able to fly the Agustawestland and Jetranger just fine, it's the Robinson (this is all base game, not add on aircraft, there is no extra content currently installed) that does it. you throttle up up in it and move the collective forward and the RPM drops instantly and you go into a death fall, slewed it up to high altitude and I can't seem to do anything in flight to stop it once it goes either, been flying mostly the bell and sometimes the agusta because of this, most likely me doing something wrong but it is weird, Have no issues with any of the other helicopters.

move the collective forward and the RPM drops instantly and you go into a death fall

 

You mean moving the collective upwards?, the collective only moves up or down. Have never had this "bug" in any of the default helicopters, that's what got me thinking that you maybe reduced the throttle and that what's made you fall off the sky.

 

The throttle(prop pitch) should be set to 100% before you take off (and not be touched again in normal conditions before you have landed safely), then you pull the collective(throttle) up to create lift to take off. right?

 

Edit: Just did a test with the Robinson, I get the "Low RPM warning light" but I don't fall off the sky(But I had to move the mixture lever to prevent this, so there is something really weird going on), also there seems that the throttle functions are not implemented so no need to worry about using the throttle(Now i remember why I bougt heli addons). I would like to add that you should not exceed the yellow arc in the manifold pressure gauge(happens when you pull the collective all the way up, and that creates the "low rpm" warning).BTW if youre into helis get a good payware addon, much more realistic and you get a throttle that works.

 

When I come to think about it don't use the Robinson at all It sucks, you're abselutely right It has bugs maybe that's why It says beta Forget everything I've said my bad and sorry for cluttering up your thread :blink: .

yes and it is, and threw carefully experimenting around with this I have noticed something weird If you move the thorttle (prop pitch) in this case to 99% and NOT all the way up you can take off and it will work, the exact second it gets to 100% the RPM issue occurs and you drop. and like I said. this is ONLY happening in the Robinson craft..the others do not seem to have this issue for me. maybe i'll just reinstall and see if that fixes anything.

 

and sorry for the slow supplies, just flied all three including choppers to confirm this.

 

(EDIT, No worries about cluttering up the thread, was wondering if many I was just doing something wrong with the robinson, but any comments are welcome here know really)

I have noticed something weird If you move the thorttle (prop pitch) in this case to 99% and NOT all the way up you can take off and it will work, the exact second it gets to 100% the RPM issue occurs and you drop

 

But I still think you're mixing up throttle and collective. The Robinson doesnt have throttle implemented as I said in the post above. And I think you mean collective when you talk about throttle. The collective is what gets you off ground, the throttle in this case doesnt do anything with the Robinson heli, I tried using it but it doesnt work.

But in some bad implemented way It's behaving right, because you should never use the collective at 100%. You should always stay within the yellow marker in the manifold pressure gauge. So in some way it's more realistic than the other default helis in the way that its learning you howto use the collective right.

 

 

maybe i'll just reinstall and see if that fixes anything.

 

Nonononono, It's the Robinson not your FSX install, there is nothing you can do too fix this. Its just the way it is. Enjoy what you have and when you feel comfertable with the default helicopters then you can get something more realistic.