hi allive been watching alot of real world aviation videos of landings from passenger views and is it just me or does FS seem a heck of a lot slower when landing while you look out the wing view / passenger view.There have been numerous real videos of landing from the plane ive seen and the feel of motion seems a lot faster in real life than in FS.What do you think ?

I kinda agree. When I fly on FS, and the 1st officer calls out 80 knots, it looks a little slow. Maybe it is because the aircraft if higher then an auto. Not sure.JimCYWG

Looks right to me.Next time you are driving down the highway going 60-70 mph-look at the forward view of the highway-then look out the side view. The side view will give a greater sense of speed while the forward view will look fairly slow. That is about the initial approach speed of a Cessna, Piper etc.I think MSFS has it about right-there have been some past sims that I won't mention that were way too fast.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

These visual appearances would depend quite a lot on the focal length of the video camera (ie 'zoom' factor) and also the zoom setting in FS2004

Percieved speed can depend on zoom factor, and real life speed can also appear to vary from what seems rediciously slow, to rather fast. Wind speed will also make a difference to ground speed.IMO, FS looks about right.L.Adamson

That depends significantly on the headwind component. Of course, your airspeed indicator reads just that...airspeed. So, if your are indicating 80 kts with a 15 kt headwind, you are only making 65 kts over the runway.Speed perception is also considerably influenced by peripheral vision which is, say, 170 degrees in real life and maybe 40 degrees the sim world.Granted, the cockpit view tries to simulate a wider view but actually, the view as measured from the bridge of your nose to the sides of your monitor screen is only about 40 degreees...if that.Regards,Jim

When you set correct zoom the perception will be identical. Zoom setting is something that can be precisely set in FS9 for a given panel to achieve the same effect as in real life. You have to do some arithmetic but I would say you won't be very far off with zoom settings in the 0.6-0.8 range. Have you ever been in the cockpit of a real big aircraft during landing? I have in a 767. And in fact it does seem kind of slow on final approach/landing - it has nothing to do with speed observed from a passenger seat.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

This must be entirely subjective, because Michael

The key to speed perception is peripheral vision, not zoom. Obviously the zoom factor can provide some measure of peripheral vision, but at the end of the day a 19" monitor is still only a 19" monitor and represents images in a flat plane.If you want better depth and speed perception you simply need a two- or three-monitor setup. Thats what I'm looking at next providing the next generation of FS supports SLI and hyperthreading...Allcott

Lets assume that (real) pilot in (real) 767 doesn't use his peripheral vision - it is perfectly OK to imagine pilot who is landing and focusing solely on the runway in front of him (if necessary imagine him wearing a special hood cutting his peripheral vision). This runway is getting larger every second, hence perception of 'speed'. We want to recreate the same perception on the monitor. If you state the problem this way it is well defined and based on geometry you can calculate what the zoom should be. I once wrote a very long post on the subject and described how calculations can be done. In FS2002 and using 767PIC (2D) panel the resulting zoom was about 0.7. Many transport pilots agreed with this result. No, we can't get the peripheral view in FS9 with a single monitor but we can still recreate most of the (forward) speed effect with good accuracy.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

I think it's a matter of perception above anything else. Interestingly, I noticed on first trying out the new version of the RealAir Marchetti SF.260 that the landings felt a lot faster, and were in fact a bit "hairier" in general. I tried to pinpoint why it was that this particular aircraft feels so much more immersive during the landing phase, and I think it can be attributed at least partially to their RealView gauge that controls head movement/latency. I know you're probably asking yourself "what the heck does head movement have to do wtih speed?" I wish I had an answer, but truth is, I have no idea. All I know is I can break into a sweat landing this plane whereas almost all the others in my hangar are fairly docile. The critical wing probably has a lot to do with it as well.Just my $.02thanks,

I think some landings seem faster because of increased fluidity as well. A frame-friendly plane on a clear day with little traffic always seems faster in the flare IMO. X-plane always captured the sense of speed better, I think because of the fluidity. You will notice a higher ground speed at a given IAS at high altitude airports as well, which is normal given the decreased air density. I think the zoom is a huge factor as well, as others have pointed out.David

Unfortunately, you just don't get the same sense of speed in a simulator as you do in real life. Takeoff in a jet, let's say a heavy (our E-3 for example) from the flight deck; taking off when you get close to rotation speed seems very fast, I've sat upfront now for so many takeoffs (and landings/touch and go's for that matter) that instead of being too excited to pay attention to everything, I now pay attention to all aspects of what's going on in the flight deck and how it compares to our beloved sim. And my last flight speed and distance was what I was actually focused on and I'd have to say that it's pretty close especially when flying the same aircraft in the sim as the one you were riding in, because while flight dynamics might not always be right on in our addons, the dimensions of the aircraft are usually right, and since you can adjust the view to what you experienced in the real thing, you should get the same sense of speed, especially with a smooth sim.So that was takeoff, as far as landing, flying through the air at 250 kts until the final approach fix seems pretty slow to me in both the sim and in real life, once you configure for landing and approach Vref, yes final is slow again both in real life and in the sim. Now as a passenger on a commercial jet, yes looking out the side windows on landings and takeoffs also, it seems a lot faster.Jeff

>Unfortunately, you just don't get the same sense of speed in>a simulator as you do in real life. On a PC that may have to do with the size of the monitor. Even though all geometry seems to be right the size and close distance to the face is troublesome. Therefore I use a Fresnel lens for magnification and depth perception - it is a huge difference. As to real full-blown simulation - I was flying a KC-135 simulator years ago (and B-52) at Castle AFB in California (no longer exists) and distinctly recall excellent sense of speed. The visuals were done correctly and your eyes were focused at infinity, you were not staring at some monitor 2 ft from your face. It looked and felt 100% real to me.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg