After having some good success recently doing some Panel merges with both the TDS 737-700 (Paul Scarratt) and the 787 (Hudetz/ Mitchell), it got me to thinking...

 

Do y'all have a favorite airplane that you've 'tweaked' by adding a Panel from the Library, or found an awesome Sound pack somewhere and added it to your bird? Or maybe you've fiddled around with the Aircraft.cfg, or added a couple extra lights for that personal touch? A livery from one Model to another, perhaps?

 

I've found that perusing the Libraries here and at the other sites always reveals that little jewel, hiding in the depths for years and just waiting for someone to re-discover it. Or, some VA out in the ether has the exact model 767 you're looking for, that has been MIA from the Libraries for years!

 

So... I'd love to hear about your 'tweaking' successes (and fails). Who knows... your hint(s) might be the seed that helps another!

 

Cheers!

 

Alan   

Sorry, currently tweakless at the moment .......

Being a GA guy, I have collected a number of freeware planes over the years, but I haven't really messed with them too much because they were so well done to begin with.  But the one I did mod the most is the default 172SP.  I've merged it with the RealAir 172 airfile, TSS 172 sound pack, shockwave lights,  RXP flightline gauges, RXP GNS 530XP, and a few Simflyer GPX package radios to round out the stack.  With a few downloaded repaints, it's a pretty nice ride.  And it's my default plane for testing other addon's now, too.

 

Cheers,

Jeff

Just changing sound files makes a huge difference, I have found.  I have the best results when I take payware sound files and copy them to stock or freeware planes, particularly turboprops, because you need good startup and prop reversal sounds.  I won't mention particulars because that might be a no-no.  

1) HJG MD80 + Lonny Payne MD80 panel + SGA FDE: An excellent Mad Dog if you don't want to purchase Leonardo's version. But I felt like Dr. Frankenstein while thinking how to merge all bits. Left it at my old family computer.

 

2) RFP panel and FDE + Posky B742v4 + CIVA INS + Lee Hetherington TCAS: The best 742 you can ever get. You won't worry if the airport has even AES.

 

 

Just changing sound files makes a huge difference, I have found.

 

Yes, this is an experience I particularly made with CalClassics DC-6B together with SkyHigh's DC-6 P&W R-2800 sounds.

Changing Sound files does make a big difference.  I've changed or aliased Sound folders on many airplanes, just to get away from the Default C-182 that's commonly used.

 

I imported the Aerosoft Beaver Sound pack to Steven Grant's version, and I think it makes flying the airplane more enjoyable to fly!

 

Personally, I'm a 2D Panel guy. I love nothing more than to piece together an airplane using a Panel here, Sounds there, etc. The Carenado C-185 is a good example. Normally it doesn't come with a 2D Panel, but someone (with Carenado's permission) made a 2D Panel using a VC bitmap and the stock Gauges. With that change, it makes the Skywagon a joy to fly (for me)!

 

I'm definitely late to the heavy jet scene, so I'm just discovering POSKY and SkySpirit; they're also very challenging to 'kludge' together, and in the end you get a pretty good result.

 

 

I actually fly a lot of the stock Microsoft passenger jets, but with custom sounds obtained from here at Avsim. I've added Ken Mitchell's panels where available for a particular type, and one or two other panels where they aren't.

I'm also a big fan of Project Airbus's A318-A321 series, and have most of their liveries. All with Ken Mitchell's panels and custom sounds, and with a few tweaks I made to the FDEs which may make then less realistic, but which bring their performance (and the skills required to fly them) into line with Microsoft's default jets.

 

Same thing with the DC10 series by SGA, for which I use a custom DC10 panel which I got here at Avsim, although I do not recall who created it.

 

I'm also partial to several HJG DC9 and MD80, MD90 planes, for which I did a few FDE tweaks for the reasons given above. They seem to pride themselves (probably rightly so) on the realism of their own FDEs, but I've never been a pilot, never wanted to be, and never will be. For all of them, I use custom sounds and the MD80 series panel (found here at Avsim) created by Tom Dennis and modified for FS9 by Bill Alexander.

 

Regarding my FDE tweaks: As stated, I am not a pilot IRL. The only aircraft I ever flew was a one time flight in a Cessna 172, back in the 1980s. I managed to do the takeoff properly (well enough at least not to damage the plane or kill anyone) and flew around for roughly 30 minutes before gratefully relinquishing the controls to the instructor before we landed. That I could do even that much was due solely to what I had learned fooling around with a very early version of Flight Simulator ported to 8-bit home computers, long before Microsoft bought the franchise. I learned there and then that I haven't the skills (or the coordination, not to mention the nerves or stomach) to be any kind of real-life pilot, although I will always cherish the experience. That is why I've always considered the flight models of the default FS9 aircraft to be about as close to realistic as I can handle. Sometimes, I am moderately challenged, usually only in particularly bad weather, but by and large I can take off, get where I want to go, and land successfully while having an enjoyable experience, not a waking nightmare.