My annual "confession" to my fellow FSX friends!

[Pe11e 812]

FMC bus driving crap? I fly every Airbus in FSX without FMC. What is the difference? Both Boeing and Airbus are FMC driven, if you want it to.

[Jetblst 23]

FMC bus driving crap? I fly every Airbus in FSX without FMC. What is the difference? Both Boeing and Airbus are FMC driven, if you want it to.

 

Not everyone likes to run around in an Airliner or Corporate Jet as if it were a kite.  The idea for many is to [simulate] what it is like to fly sophisticated aircraft.  Hence the term Flight Simulator.  Many people have or had a dream to be a pilot and with FSX/FS9 those people can realize in a small way what it is like to be in command of a heavy airliner or high performance corporate rocket.  Why spend all the time, effort, and money, building a sophisticated computer, tuning that computer, then load sophisticated software JUST to turn around and NOT use every aspect of your equipment and software?  Putzing around with no respect to procedures or regulations is just not everyone's cup of tea.  If it were, I'd bet these forums would be whittled down to only a few pages.  That said, if running an FMC in your world is Verbotten, drive on and enjoy, but it would be better advised to at least respect others ideas of what they are here for.

[BeechPapa 32]

The cool thing about buses is that they run like clockwork. The term "bus" for some reason is used as a dysphemism for commercial flight simulation, but I see the term "bus driver" as a compliment. Buses know their precise route and get to their destinations in a predictable manner. You can say whatever you want about the FMC (I have my share of ill feelings toward them too) but the FMC-guided flights I take land without drama, on time, rain or shine. With an FMC guided flight the X factors are reduced. My GA or bush flights (even those conducted under IFR) don't have nearly the same predictability. To some that means boring, but I have zero problems with the term "bus driver". Kinda like it actually.     

[Mickel 42]

c'mon... If I was anti flying an airliner using an FMC for navigation, my top five aircraft by hours would look a little different. That was my point. Like Stan, I hadn't used anything with V/LNAV in many years of simming, and couldn't see what the interest was. Compass, map, clock and Mk.1 eyeball for me (or GPS direct, with default ATC vectors to final, shhhhh, don't tell). Then I got a couple and started to see the attraction. I'm not going to fly an NG or A320 VOR to VOR. Can't see the point. They're not intended to be used that way. There are 732s and DC-9s for that, with zero consequences to the punters in the back if I get lost in bad weather and run out of gas - the very thing modern GPS/INS/FMC/RNP is trying to avoid.

 

Mike

[ShawnG 1,823]

I have been primarily since 2004 or so a "bush pilot". And I did not understand the appeal of the big airliner sims and the fmc. Recently though, after being able to easily throw down a supercub or beaver down on just about any bare patch of ground, it got a little boring to me, as I never had the possib ility of instant death that real bush pilots have to face all the time. I looked at the big airliners as anew challenge and have been enjoying learning all sorts of new stuff, and even trying to be fairly procedural. I generally now really enjoy the fmc, as it is a bit more liberating than loading up the default gps with a flightplan from the built in planner, you can easily make route changes on the fly if need be. It is also good having all those years of bush pilot practice too, whenit comes to having to land a manual approach.

[Jetblst 23]

 

 

I generally now really enjoy the fmc, as it is a bit more liberating than loading up the default gps with a flightplan from the built in planner, you can easily make route changes on the fly if need be. It is also good having all those years of bush pilot practice too, whenit comes to having to land a manual approach.

 

Hey, GREAT POINT for Stan, and the rest of those on the fence about FMC work.

 

One item that I have NOT seen very well simulated so far is ATC.  I run Radar Contact and it get's the job done but you can only do so much with our systems.  Maybe over at  VATSIM they do this well?  I have never tried. 

 

Ok.

 

What happens in the Real World, ALL THE TIME are re-routes.  When I was flying some older equipment back in the late 90s time frame we had the old VOR transposing RNAVs.  What this simple computer did was to figure out waypoints based on VOR radial and distance solutions.

 

That was fantastic until ATC gave a Full Re-Route that basically trashed your entire RNAV flightplan.  That would send a pilot scrambling for the charts while operating in the busiest of airspace say around the North East Corridor. 

 

THANK Goodness for FMC/FMS.

 

A good pilot who knows his/her FMC can almost key in the new Re-Route as fast as the controller is spitting it out.  My co-pilot was like that, but he knew the area extremely well.  LOL

 

Too bad we can't get better ATC simulations that really would make the FMC issue a non issue that is for sure.  They are an indespensible piece of equipment and they get better all the time. 

 

Once again depending on what kind of flying one is tyring to simulate.

[TurboTomato 90]

Confessional?

 

Hello, my name is Paul and I;

 

• Use freeware planes and sometimes even default ones
• Use the default GPS for navigation
• Use time compression
• Sometimes I even start on the runway  -_-

Do your worst! 

[Pe11e 812]

Confessional?

 

Hello, my name is Paul and I;

 

• Use freeware planes and sometimes even default ones
• Use the default GPS for navigation
• Use time compression
• Sometimes I even start on the runway  -_-

Do your worst! 

 

Everything is acceptable (at least for me) even default planes, but I've never started a full flight from a runway. Passengers can't board the plane when on runway, can't they? 

[TurboTomato 90]

Everything is acceptable (at least for me) even default planes, but I've never started a full flight from a runway. Passengers can't board the plane when on runway, can't they? 

 

They do on my airline cos that's how I roll - budget prices but you have to run the gauntlet of jet blast as part of the experience  :ohmy:

 

To be serious for a moment - I think quite a lot of it depends on how much time you can dedicate to the hobby. Currently I have a full time job which is an hour's commute away, a partner, and a very active 2 year old. Yeah I'd love a payware aircraft where everything is modelled to the nth degree and you have to go through all the real procedures, but if I spend an hour starting from cold & dark to being ready on the runway for the takeoff roll that may be all I get for a couple of days. So I'd rather make do with the freeware stuff and sometimes start from the active as it just means I get more time in the air. One of the benefits is that freeware aircraft are very seldom anywhere near as taxing on the system as payware ones so I get to crank up the sliders more and get a very nice looking sim for my relatively modest system.

[bönan 7]

A2A Simulatons Boeing 377 Stratocruiser! No such modern nonsense in that bird! B)

[Christopher Low 5,353]

In short......everyone is entitled to do what they want, how they want in a flight simulator, without being criticised for not doing it "by the book". This even applies to "study level" simulations like PMDG. As TurboTomato has stated, some people do not have the time to spend starting a flight from "cold and dark", but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't purchase the very best and most accurate software available for their chosen flight simulator. If you want to start on the runway with a full load of passengers and fuel in your PMDG 777, then so be it. If you want to fly a Pakistan International real world schedule in an Emirates plane, then so what? If you prefer using a zoom factor of 0.5 in the VC, well......that's just fine :wink:

[JoshuaC 61]

Interesting topic....

I am a mid-level simmer at heart.

1. I mostly do SID to STAR direct routing without any Flight Planners. I do sometimes use PFPX auto routing and random weights to get a OFP when I have extra time.
2. I use time accel as much as I can.
3. I fly without ATC 100% of the time.
4. I sometimes start on the runway too when I am too lazy to taxi.
5. MCDU/FMC setup only needs three mins of my time because of the simplified way I do things....
6. Lastly.... IRS INSTANT ALIGN is what I go for.  :lol: