FSX-MS First Flights in FSX: My Impression

[DeskPilot518 15]

I have been considering buying ONE good plane that I'd use alot. I thought I'd wait a bit to see what kind of style I preferred first. The A2A C172 sounds good though. THe cub looks nice, but don;'t you get frustrated with the plodding speed? :0

 

I'll check out ORBX...

Yeah, I wanted to get one good plane too!

 

So I got the:

carenado C90, f33, senacca, and c185

A2A c172, B377, Cub,

Oh, and PMDG NGX, Aerosoft AEX, discus X, and twin otter,

Plus, the realair Lancair Legacy, and the Majestic Q400!

 

So, as you can see, there is no one good plane for me Lol! Each is unique and serves a different purpose.

 

The Cub is a different type of flying! But When you get that amazing addon payware scenery below you, with HD REX clouds above , you really appreciate it. I had some very relaxing flights in it this week thru wintery snow covered Idaho (orbx CRM). No FMC to program! No Ap to set. Just opened up a VFR chart, check the weather, and off I was.

Very realistic as i stayed out of regulated airspaces. The cub can land in some of those back country areas that others can't! But it can be difficult to fly too. One of my high altitude landings didn't go so

well : ( lol..

 

The A2A C172 is probably your best bet! You really want to experience accusim, which really adds a lot to the immersion factor. The C172 is slow, but not overly slow, and can be excellent for VFR or IFR.

 

B.

[Mithras 87]

B. I like your definition of 'one good plane'

Who makes the Twin Otter? That airplane really really appeals to me. Seat of the pants, STOL, island hopping, no nonsense turboprop. A sort of modern small DC-3 i might invest in a really nice DH6... if the price isn't too steep.

 

I live in the seaside town of Bridlington, on the East Yorkshire coast of England. Its close to the chalk headlands of Flamborough Head and a little south is the industrial city of Hull on the very large river Humber. It's all farming land around here, and 1000 years ago this was all owned by the Vikings!

 

Local fields are Eddsfield EG3A, Linley Hill EGNY, and Humberside Airport EGNJ

[DeskPilot518 15]

Ah you Brits, have to visit England one day! I have watched and read about a lot of British history. More than some of the Brits I met! And why is it always rainy and cloudy there? lol!

Vikings! They were pretty rough on the old English and Anglo Saxon kings.

But that's off topic....

 

Twin otter is made by Aerosoft and very well priced !

Most would agree it is very well done!

 

B.

[Portia911 9]

Not that you'll be able to stop at 'one', <wink> but the next couple of weeks usually provide some great bargains for FSX add-ons. The FTX/ORBX ones already noted above apply until first week of January (flightsimstore), Just Flight xmas sale is up and SimMarket are getting into the spirit too.

Best to do a bit of research on prices for what you want, then you'll recognise a good deal when it comes along.

 

+ 1 for the Aerosoft Twin Otter Extended

 

Mithras, I had a quick buzz from Linley Hill - was kinda familiar with this area after remembering I had a base at Humberside for one of my Air Hauler companies a while back. Flew out over Hornsea and could see the wind farm, then up to the headland where I found only one lighthouse, but didn't fly directly over Bridlington to check the harbour detail or high rise accommodation. I suspect your photoreal gives you more accuracy in that of that regard.

[flybytes 2]

Mithras,

 

The Ebor flats, Bridlington, the farm (Munton's Malt Factory) near Flamborough & Lissett wind farm are part of FSX Power Project (now at v4.2).

 

If you are looking for more East Riding of Yorkshire scenery I can recommend Peter Lane's excellent Spurn Point_FSX - find it on Mutley's Hangar web site.

 

http://www.mutleyshangar.com/

 

Unfortunately this does clash with FSX Power Project (fsxpp) - a fix will be included in its next version (v4.3).

 

If you download this & require the fixed version of fsxpp, contact my e-mail address in the fsxpp readme! doc' & I can send you a beta version of fsxpp v4.3.

 

Happy flying,

 

Ray Porter (fsxpp creator)

[Mithras 87]

Thanks Ray, I have the Spurn Point add on, but didn't notice any clashes. Your FSX Power Project is absolutely fantastic. Flying around East Kent, where I used to live, I instantly knew where I was once I saw the power station near Richborough. Taking off from Robin Hood Airport/Doncaster, again, I could see the 2 power stations to the north. They are all great navigational aids in the Real World, and equally so for my VFR flying. 

 

Many many thanks for designing these. They bring the VFR photo scenery to life! 

[HansRoaming 73]

The one plane idea won't last, I used to think so too but now have GA to tubeliners to military including carriers and helicopters, now getting into Tacpack aircraft so can do air to air refuelling and blow things up!

 

Gets real interesting and unexpected bonuses crop up like find out an AV-8B makes a great bush plane!

 

Enjoy flight simming as it's an awesome hobby!

[Mithras 87]

As an update! Five months later in my FSX experience, things have got even better. I've switched to Orbx England after a lot of soul searching and overthinking, I have lots of Saitek switch panels, etc and now three screens.

 

The versimillitude is exceptional. Flying the same flight as in my opening post, this morning, with ASN weather the experience was very real. The regional airport I did my touch and go at, Humberside EGNJ is always very quite, but I did notice lots of empty helicopter pads for the North Sea oil choppers. Heli Traffic 2009 let me assign flight plans for half a dozen choppers to fit that role, plus the Humberside Police Helicopter which is based there. On today's flight, sure enough I spotted Oscar 99 zipping along off to catch some bad guys (he turns up over my hometown in RL every month or so). There were two Bristow oil rig choppers on the pads too. Another chopper we sea a lot on the East Coast is a yellow Sea King SAR from Leconfield, and although HeliTraffic 2009 let me create a flight plan for him too, flying up and down the coast, I saw no sign of him today! If only creating conventional aircraft traffic was that easy, I'd be doing that, too....

 

I'm just not sure how more realistic I can make this! I wonder where I will be with FSX in five more months? Hopefully UK2000 will have brought out Humberside Xtreme, it is in the pipeline, apparently.

[captain_adf 16]

Thanks for sharing, this is very inspiring indeed. I frequently stopover at EGSS on long freight hauls in the MD11, but after reading your vivid descriptions I may have to rent a 172 next time I'm there and putter around the countryside for a few days.

 

Cheers!

[Patco Lch 1,465]

Its almost for retired or semi retired folks ... BTW count me there...

FSX was big factor in me deciding to semi retire two years ago. (Dont let my wife know)

[Lewis B 14]

Sounds great. I'm originally from Grimsby so Humberside is one of my old locals too, and also regular in my sim flying.

 

Sounds like you are having quite the adventure in your flying, always good to hear!

 

cheers,

Lewis

[Portia911 9]

Mithras, pleased to hear you are enjoying ORBX England. I'm pretty hooked on ORBX regions and by all accounts, Englamd is not ranked as one of their best - so when you get a little bored exploring England, Scotland gets a better rap, and then there's the award winning Pacific Northwest and the Central, Northern Rockies and Pacific Fjords packs that border it. And if you want to head down to my part of the world, there's the original Australia and NZ (North and South Islands) to enjoy!

[Mithras 87]

An old thread, hey but it was my thread

 

Well, I've been flying in FSX for almost exactly one year now. I started wth quite a nice budget, £1000 for a PC and £1000 for software, but after a year I suspect my total costs have been £4000. 

 

But I am having a real blast and thoroughly enjoy almost every flight. By April of 2014 I had reinstalled 4 times due to various concerns about screwing up FSX,  but by April I had made all my mistakes and since then have had a stable set up. I've deleted lots of freeware I initially downloaded, I've trimmed everything down and concentrated on a few good planes (RealAir, Carenado, A2A) and sceneries. I kept REX for textures, but now use ASN for weather and bought Orbx scenery for the UK and left my Gen X photo scenery on the shelf. Now, when I see messages flashing up, or errors in the display, I now know immediately what is to blame and how to fix it, so all the panicking is over. 

 

My fps has been great for a long time, especially now I use Display profiles that I Save and Load in FSX, I have about 6 I use. OOMS were getting me down over the summer, simply flying GA planes in Orbx England, but switching to DX10 fixed that too. 

 

In September I was confident enough to start a round the world flight, and replicated Amy Johnson's 1930 flight from London to Australia in a Gipsy Moth.

 

 

In October I decided to build myself a complete GA cockpit setup which resembles a Piper Archer or Cessna Caravan.

 

 

At Christmas I am getting a refurbished iPad and intend to give my steam-gauge GA home cockpit some versatility, I will be able to fly a full G1000 setup for a small twin or single, and can also use my iPad set up to replicate airliner instrumentation. 

 

I have come a long way!!! 

 

I am fitting a fuel selector switch too, and for that will need Pete Dowson's FSUIPC ... which I think is a hobby standard .... 

 

In summary. I really love FSX. I fly for an hour after work every day, which is a great de-stressor after working with tough to teach boys at a local primary school, and perhaps an hour before I go to bed. And of course lots of hours at the weekend. I'm always amazed by how cool the experience is .... fantastic!! Best of all my wife is all for it (she has seen photos of me aged 10 climbing into a Phantom and Jet Provost cockpit, and knows how far back my love affair with aeroplanes goes). She wants to buy me a set of flying lessons for my birthday ... in fact she suggests I should get my licence. I am damn lucky!!!

 

EDIT: Heli Traffic 2009 whetted my appetite and I downloaded AIFlight Planner and took the bull by the horns. Now I can write traffic BGLs like a pro for any airfield I settle on as a flying base for a few weeks, Gibraltar, Duluth, Doncaster EGCN, Nairobi and Wilson airport in Kenya, Basra, Baghdad, Sierra Leone ... anywhere I think some cool, appropriate traffic is needed!