I am newbie to FS2004 but have spent a lot of time on it since I bought it. Duh!! I have mastered takeoffs and landings on my favorite default B747-400. Yesterday I downloaded a POSKY B747-400 and it was totally different expirence!! Not only I was crashing on take offs and landings but the actualy ascend rate is very different.Can anyone tell me why it is so different? Personally I feel that the POSKY is more realistic.Also, my POSKY aircraft is like a few feet above ground (like hanging in the air) when its taxing or parked. Does someone know how can I fix that?Thanks in advanceBobby

Yes, the Posky planes are more realistic. However, there is another big difference: take-off weight. The default aircraft are set relatively light, while Posky aircraft are simulating aircraft which are loaded with much more cargo and passengers. The defautls take off so much easier, because they aren't carrying near as much weight. You don't have to do fuel planning and worry about step climbing. The Posky planes take a little more preperation to get off the ground. Many of them are actually over minumum takeoff weight if you start them with 100% fuel. Read the manual, and take much less fuel.

Hi thereI'm no expert but I think you'll find that POSKY do their best to make their aircraft as realistic as possible. So they are more tricky to fly. Usually you can find a manual that'll help you master them though. They are much nicer looking that the default aircraft in my opinion.If you go to their website http://www.projectopensky.com/ you may find a really interesting article written by their FDE designer (Warren I think) on comparing a real 747-400 sim with FS9.A great bunch of guys!Cheers!Gavin

Don't fly the default heavies, they fly like fighter jets, the fde is very unrealistic not to mention the visual models which have totally false shapes. In fact they look so bad you can hardly which aircraft you are looking at.Not very objectiv, sorry for that but believe you don't want to fly the default heavies after realizing how bad the actually are modelled. For freeware try posky, idgf, sga or kittyhawk studios all found here at the avsim library! The second important thing to a good fde is a good panel which realisticly simulates aircraft systems. The default panels are very, very basic. To fly the default b747 you haven't have to know more than when flying a cessna...my two cents,cheers,Claudio