I don't see the appeal. Anything longer than about 30 mins in the cruise and I get bored. That rules me out of flights longer than about 70 minutes. Thankfully within Europe that gives plenty of scope.

2-3 hours is long haul for me, infact more than 2-3 hours with a headset on during  a busy Vatsim/Ivao   event is enough, anymore than that makes it seem more like hard work and less of a hobby.

 

36% online with Vatsim/Ivao is staggeringly low for simmers in my opinion, i believe there should be more efforts to promote these organisations from Avism because  flight simming is pretty dull without live interaction, Vatsim especially has very professional events which im sure once tried means most simmers would be hooked.

 

Vatsim and Ivao are freeware, it's the best upgrade going for flight simming , this real as it gets ATC is free. you can always download the software, park up at an airport and observe without ever doing a flight or talking to anyone.

 

Give it a go, Ivao software is easy to work with , Vatsim needs more paitence.

 

 

36% online with Vatsim/Ivao is staggeringly low

 

That is the number that belong to an online community. The amount that use it on a continuous basis is even considerably lower. There are 300 pilots online a given time. How many people are flying using FS in the world offline at a given time?

Well I usually notice more then 300 pilots, but I know what you mean..at peak times or during large events it can be quite busy though.

I know what  the numbers online are at different   times during the day , you can use dolomynum to show the figures with both Ivao and vatsim and they are pretty consistent  to the point that there is really no need to to check because they are so similar day in day out and that is way too low.

 

online networks need more members that's for sure and if 65% of Avsim members and that  probably means about 65% of all simmers  are not online members then i think they should give it a go,

 

Everybody is searching for real as it gets, realism, realism and more realism in every product , in my opinion the biggest plus point of flight simming is Vatsim/Ivao and the most real becasue it's live interaction and for this to be  ignored or  unkown to two thirds of simmers especially as its free is staggering and a shame.

Always online.
With PMDG, Level-D, AXE, AS2012, REX, Maddog, Majestic, etc,
Anything from 1 to 15 hours.
Never have problems.

Every flight I do is on vatsim. Can speak highly enough of it.

 

I do get ctd's every now and then, but I plan on reformatting my laptop back to W7, and networking it and my rig together to fix this.

 

Also, running SB outside of FSX is a good idea as well and is what I do now. Usy when I get a ctd, it's not SB or vatsim, but rather something like the aircraft I might be in. The king air crashed the sim on me twice last night.

Thanks to everyone for participating and the replies.  Some interesting insight.

 

Truth is I haven't even loaded the sim in well over a year.  I need to do a re-install, but just can't bring myself to do it.  I may do it after my next pc build some time next year and leave out Ultimate Terrain.  It also seems like ATI and Sound Blaster have finally got their acts together for the most part when it comes to drivers and such.

 

It looks like the poll is about half and half.  Everyone seems to have their own reasons, but CTDs don't seem to be an overwhelming reason.

 

Thanks again everyone!

I don't understand how people can get the most realistic addons, and try to be as realistic as possible and not fly on Vatsim, doesn't make sense to me

I fly Vatsim using PMDG and ASE. Fly about 80 hours a month with longest legs about 6-8 hours. No problems.

 

Billy Bluestar

I don't understand how people can get the most realistic addons, and try to be as realistic as possible and not fly on Vatsim, doesn't make sense to me

Because, unfortunately, unless you are willing to "chase ATC", you fly in un-controlled airspace 75-90% of the time. I have done about 10 flights within the past couple months since joining Vatsim. I want to love it and do it all the time. I really do. Because, when there is coverage, there is nothing better. It is real! 100% real!! But I don't want to chase ATC or fly only where there are events. Add to that that I live in the U.S. and am flying mostly in Europe right now and it's just too "un-realistic" to be flying into EGKK on a UNICOM freq all the time. Then, to top it off, you have to type everything when on UNICOM. It's a pain to try to control your flight and type every intention you have.

 

Again, please don't get me wrong, I LOVE Vatsim when it's good. If only there was a way to get it good for a greater percentage of flights. Maybe if more members here joined - though we need ATC to join, not pilots.

Fair enough, I see what your saying for sure

 

Lee

It's a pain to try to control your flight and type every intention you have.

 

Use your judgement, if there is no airplane within a 50 mile radius you don't need to announce your takeoff and landing intentions so I rarely type anything into unicom if its dead out there. But as for long hauls on FSX I did a few with multiple addons and did not encounter any problems.

I'd still rather fly into a major airport with just a few others on Unicom then default or addon ATC.

 

Also for those that fly in Australia -and maybe NZ- the Unicom over there is in voice, if you want it to be

 

Lee

I'd still rather fly into a major airport with just a few others on Unicom then default or addon ATC.

 

Also for those that fly in Australia -and maybe NZ- the Unicom over there is in voice, if you want it to be

 

Lee

If we could do UNICOM in voice everywhere(no typing at all), then I think I could use it 100% despite the lack of ATC coverage most of the time.  I don't know.  There are pros and cons both ways.  I use Radar Contact 4 when not online and that's definitely far from perfect too.  I get so sick of the predictability of it, lack of SIDS/STARS being handled properly(yes, I know you can still fly them but it's not like it would be in the RW), etc.  But, again, when you live in a time zone that's 6-8 hours off from the time zones you're flying in, it still is very challenging to be able to fly when there is ATC coverage.  So, that leaves me back to RC4 and its problems or flying in an un-controlled world all the time.  It would be nice to find a complete solution to this - the biggest lacking area in FS.  :(