One thing I have noticed is that I have found it hard to appreciate the relative size differences in various a/c. I know that the handling characteristics of different a/c are very different as they should be - but when sitting in the c'pit or viewing an a/c externally, it is difficult to get a feel for the relative size of an a/c that I have never seen before.I was recently at an airshow and was surprised and almost overwhelmed by the size of a Pilatus PC12 which I saw in RL for the first time. Of course, one way to do this is to have another a/c of known size alongside the a/c being flown -- but in the sim , to appreciate this size difference , they have to be immediately adjacent to one another and that is not easy to achieve except to chase AI a/c. .It would be good to be able to "manipulate " the positioning of a/c more to allow this - any ideas?Thanks Barry

"It would be good to be able to "manipulate " the positioning of a/c more to allow this - any ideas?"Have you tried slew mode to slip your 172 under the wing of that 747 parked over there? R-

I like slewing a 737 on -top- of a 747 and pretending I'm the Space Shuttle.

Barry, I can relate. I recnetly went to a museum here in Addison and they had a flyable B-25 and the comparison to that of the FSones was staggering. I also got close up tp a Caravan and a King Air B200 and it gave me a much greater feel for the size in the sim. I fly the FSD PC-6 quite a bit and it's kinda neat to open the door and be able to look down at the wheels next to scenery, gives you a little depth perception.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/PBTMCa.jpgCalVirAir International VACalVirAir International

"I was recently at an airshow and was surprised and almost overwhelmed by the size of a Pilatus PC12 which I saw in RL for the first time."I felt the same way the first time I saw a Cessna Grand Caravan, a bit larger than I expected!David

I just went to the show at Westover last weekend, and I it was stunning to see some of these planes. The C5 Galaxy is unbelievable! The tail looked 100 feet off the ground. It was amazing too how low the B-52 actually is to the ground- the end of the wings hang down to about chest height. And the bottom of the plane was maybe 5 feet up. I got to stand in the bomb bay too which was cool (I had to duck and slip by the bay doors to get in). I didn't think they'd let you do that in this day and age. My favorite part was talking to the pilot of an F-16, which is my favorite plane. I'll post some of the pics in another forum if anybody wants to see them. Which forum does one post real life pics in? I have some small movie clips too.*I almost forgot, I got a suprise when leaving- The day was ending, and all the static warbirds started taxiing out and taking off. I was 50 feet from a B-17 when they started the engines and taxied out!

What we need is some friendly scenery designer to create a lone person standing on the tarmac at , say, Meigs where we can create a startup file with the a/c alongside the 6' person. That way we would be able to get some perspective for unfamiliar a/c.Barry

I've stood under the Cessna Grand Caravan on wheels as well as a DH2 Beaver on floats. Just the floats for the Beaver are above waist high when the wheels are deployed.:)

You want to know what plane impressed me the most size-wise? That would be the XB-70 Valkyrie. OMG!!! I went to the Air Force museum in Dayton and it was in the Experimentals hangar. Yeah, I saw B-52s, etc. but the XB-70... WOW!!! Now that is a huge plane!!!

What about the opposite situation? I'd got very used to my room-sized Dreamfleet Piper 'cockpit' with big chair and plenty of desk space. When I got a ride in one for the first time I felt like I'd been rammed into a torpedo tube. It felt a bit claustrophobic. Getting into the left seat is even worse, involving all sorts of contortions to avoid stamping on something important - like the instructor's lunch.I had a tour of a Lancaster once - again much 'smaller' inside than I'd ever expected. But people were smaller in those days weren't they?!Sorry I can't help with your actual query, Barry.Ian

You could try using Active Camera (no, not a plug and I have nothing to do with them!) - you can literally walk around the aircraft, stand under the wings, look in the engines etc. I tried it with PMDG's 737 (see brackets above) and you really do get a good impression of the size of the aircraft.Plus, you can stand right in front of the engines and gaze at the turbines doing xx,000 rpm without (a) being permanently deafened and (:( permanently minced.Only if you have nothing better to do though ...

Hi,I think part of it for me is that I'm always looking in spot view for "walking around" and looking at aircraft, but spot view seems to be off the ground a bit like I'm riding in a small truck or something. The cessna caravan is really the biggest thing - man, that thing should be huge but it's more like a 172 on my system.. Have also heard that active camera can help this but I guess that's a whole different thing..On a kinda similar note, I just found out the value of running in a higher resolution. At least on my system going from 1024x768 to 1280x960 and running desktop and sim at same resolution has made my sim nicely a lot bigger in that airports seem bigger with the distance further away and a bigger sense of height when in the air. Doesn't help my fps much though :)Pierre

In spot view I find there's a BIG difference in the sense of scale between `zooming` in on an aircraft, and setting a spot view that is a realistic distance away. Worth experimenting with setting different spot view distances.Allcott

You can get a good sense of the size if you take each aircraft in turn and begin at a runway of known width.For example runway 25R, used for departures at KLAX, is 150 ft wide. Smaller fields tend to be 75ft wide. These widths are published for pilots in many references.Take a C172, and look at it on the runway, then a B747, or other aircraft and you'll get a good sense of how large they are.

>You can get a good sense of the size if you take each>aircraft in turn and begin at a runway of known width.What I have done is to save a startup situation at Meigs - that includes a AIC172 and a AI Baron with a parking space with my startup a/c in between them. So all I have to do now is change startuop a/c and I can instantly see how large/small this new a/c is compared to the 2 AI. But I would still like a little 6 foot man that I could place in a piece of scenery somewhere .Does anybody know of a piece of scenery that includes a man standing up.Barry