I find I can't see far enough to the right or left from the cockpit view to properly judge when I should begin leveling, and I want to be able to read my instruments because it's kind of a critical time. If I go to spot view from behind the aircraft and zoom out a bit I can see the runway fine and know when to level so as to come out of the turn lined up but I can't see the instruments. So I'm switching back and forth. No big deal, just wondering if someone had some better ideas. Thx!billg

I use the GPS to see where the runway is. Best view is for ILS equipped airports but the runway direction seems more or less in line even on the airports shown that do not have ILS. Of course this is no help if you are flying a plane not equipped with GPS.

I find it best to use the VC as I look down to the left from time to get a much better feeling for my altitude.I strongly recomend using the VC + TrackIR. IMHO this is the only way to fly a controlled visual short final. You can look at the RW at all times during base and can perfectly adjust your turn to final.Alex

When approaching the airport and you pick a runway OR are assigned a runway by the tower set your course arrow on the HSI to the runway heading, ie runway 9 is 90 degrees on the HSI. If you don't have an arrow use the heading bug. This will orient you and the airplane to the runway direction at the airport without seeing the runway. It will also help you in flying square corners in the traffic pattern.In VC use the number pad with Num Lock on. This way you don't have to pan your view. 4,7,9,6 gives you instant snap views other than straight forward. Releasing the num pad number snaps you to the forward view. In the pan mode remember that the space bar will always snap you back to the forward view.I use the rate of climb gauge more than the artificial horizon to maintain a constant altitude. Also using the upper or lower surface of the wing near the wing tip with a ground reference, ie roads that run at right angles to each other, can give you clues as to the attitude of the airplane without having to look at the instrument panel.The vasi lights (if the airport has them) will let you know if you are on the glide slop or not. try and maintain two white and two red lights. This is the middle of the glide slope.

I zoom out and pan the view.Allcott

I use the VC with an increased pan rate. Also, I use a Zoom setting of about 0.75x for a wider FOV.

I saw a guy at the Avsim convention using .60 Seemed very realistic to me.

For me, it's the VC view & pan with the mouse using active camera. Takes a little getting used to initially, like in a real aircraft but seems to me to be way more realistic than snap views.LonelyplanetXO

Active cam is the way to go and you can save and load config files for each a/c. Set a veiw so that your looking backat about 7:30 and zoomed out a little will allow you to quickly see the runway and then you can go back to your forward view.

Combination of fsnav on a second monitor, and spot view on a third monitor where the aircraft and airport density allow it.Most locations and birds do, but with a really complex panel and/or scenery like some of the SimFlyer locations become killers when trying to implement a second view.

I use VC view, although I use that for everything now. Started using it in FS2002 and found it much better for "spacial awareness", also "feels" more realistic than the 2d panel - even if the gauges are harder to read !!G

>>When approaching the airport and you pick a runway OR are>assigned a runway by the tower set your course arrow on the>HSI to the runway heading, ie runway 9 is 90 degrees on the>HSI. If you don't have an arrow use the heading bug. This will>orient you and the airplane to the runway direction at the>airport without seeing the runway. It will also help you in>flying square corners in the traffic pattern.>I do the same thing, and it helps a lot. Also, I prefer 2d panels to VC views. Just my personal preference. Then I use the snap views to go from instruments to the window.

"For me, it's the VC view & pan with the mouse using active camera. "How do you do this? I already have the yoke/stick in one hand and throttle in the other so it's kind of hard to operate a mouse as well..."I saw a guy at the Avsim convention using .60 Seemed very realistic to me."Unfortunately this makes the VC gauges unreadable in most aircraft.

Nothing beats TrackIR 3 PRO and VC on approach :). All I do is raise the seat if necessary to get a better outside view. It

Hi.1-Use VC with forward view between .5-.62-Set Pan rate in your fs9.cfg to about 700KBDAIL=64KBDELEV=64KBDRUD=64PAN_RATE=700 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< CHANGE3-Adjust your cockpit inside view to see only the top line of instruments( Ctrl and Shft Bk sp and Enter), when on the runway looking forward.4-Save your flight with those settings and go into your