Hi Glenn,Not disagreeing with you here but considering the target group of the software and the common attitude of the industry we are bound to get an over representation of unrealisticly proportioned females as pilot.Maybe the soloution is a 'face tool'. Just Flights 'Flying club' has one and with it it is easy to replace a pilots face with a scaned photo of your own. In such a setup you only need two models(one with a male and one with a female pilot) and everybody's happy.GreetingsHarry

Check out the default Douglas DC-3, Glenn.Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

Thanks, Mark. That was exactly what I was thinking when I read Glenn's post. And let us never forget, the DC-3 is a valued workhorse in aviation history, with some still pulling service today. Being a pilot of one of 'em must truly be a rewarding job.-JeremyThe Ozark DogfighterHappy Flying!

What is representative of the real world? The number of minorities as pilots is very small in the US, which MS seems to base their entire concept of the world on. (transition altitude, voices, etc)But many add-on aircraft show what you want, check out the Ready for Pushback aircraft at www.panelshop.com

Don't foget that minorities depends on where you live. There aren't many ATC with american accents on the UK!Andrew Brownhttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

The default 777 Captain is Black :) (in FS2002)

Greetings Glenn!I guess a reason why there are only very few Black pilots in the default MSFS planes, is that there might be only very few Black developers on Microsofts FlightSim team.It's sort of an understandable (and in itself not evil) "human thing": when we make something wherein a human being is depicted, we tend to make that human being quite automatically and unconsciously look more or less like ourselves. As I said, in itself that's not evil or bad or racist or so, but it does truly *become* racist when it's done consciously in an inappropriate context. Like designing a Ghanese airline and deliberately populating its fleet with White faces. That sort of thing would make me mad, for I wouldn't be able to see anything else but a racist background in it.There's a similar thing going on with add-ons. Several add-on developers put their own selves and/or their shapely wives in the cockpit, or if they don't go that far, at least their pilots are in a more general way "made in their own image". Again, that's a normal human thing, and considering the results I guess that there are very few Black add-on developers in our flightsim community, on account of just about every add-on pilot's face being White, not to mention the shapely shapes of their wives (grin)!Some developers have solved the "identification issue" by supplying the option of changeing the cockpit crew's looks and ethnicities. I find that a VERY good solution, and I don't think it would be very difficult for MicroSoft to make this a default option in the next version of our favorite flightsim.Be well!Jaap Verduijn.

Glen:Speaking as a Black person, please, if you are gonna be politically correct, please no AfroAmerican. An Afro is a hairdo and I know some white guys who have afros and I am sure you aren't including them in the reference :-lol. Black will do, especially since all Blacks in America aren't "African American". Take me, I've never been to Africa and I was born in London. Black!!! :-lolNow, everything doesn't have to be politically correct. I for one, could give a rats @$$ who is represented in the cockpit. It could be a black, gay, rabbi, lesbian, arab, hindu wearing a rainbow clown wig flying the plane for all I care...since I am actually flying the aircraft, it matters not.In this day and age, why does EVERYTHING have to be flagged for political correctness. Should the rest of the world complain to MS that there are no British, Arabic, Turkish, Austrailian, German, French, Nigerian, Indian, Pakistani, etc. voices in MS...does that mean they are being discriminated against? Nope. Furthermore, their races aren't particually represented in the cockpit in MS either. Heck, I'm in India right now and I have not seen one white flight crew here, for some reason...all the pilots I've seen in India...are Indian!!! I should ask one of em how they feel about how they are represented in MSFS :-)Sorry, Blacks make up around 13% of the US population and less than 10% of the pilot community. I think your friends should worry less about virtual black pilots being represented and worry about REAL black pilots being represented.I appreciate the spirit in which your post was written, but in all honesty, Black people have A LOT more to worry about than representative cartoon characters flying virtual airplanes! Like why we are lagging behind, financially, educationally and professionally but leading in crime, divorce and AIDS! I am sure it has nothing to do with us being discouraged due to the lack of black faces flying FS aircraft.Focus Gents, I think getting more black pilots in MSFS ranks up there with the need to get more black hair products on the shelves!!!! :-lol We don't need more black faces in FS, we need more black faces in colleges, on wall street, and other real life professions.And as a final point. Since Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the American popluation, I don't remember seeing any MSFS faces that look the least bit Latino! Ok, off my soap box.Regards,Mike T.PS. Hey Tom A. why are all the smileys yellow? Where are the black smileys?!?!?!?! :-lolMT.

"PS. Hey Tom A. why are all the smileys yellow? Where are the black smileys?!?!?!?!"Groan... I knew this thread was going to give me a headache. And it has. :-jumpy

Hello MikeAs someone living in the obsessivly PC united kingdom i find your post very refreshing.

>Hello Mike>As someone living in the obsessivly PC united kingdom i find>your post very refreshing.MAN! Mike T, thank you sir for your reply. I personally think that we should have a better selection of voice sets for FS, but your reply hit the nail on the head regarding the 'everyone must be very PC' in this day and age. Well done, and youre right concerning the stats. Im a white southern from South Georgia who thinks that for MSFS, there should not only be some UK, Hispanic, Black, European, Asian, Mid-Eastern voice sets, but accents from within at least the US, such as a few 'southern' accents. Also, some inherently 'north-eastern' accents and etc. It makes it better, but I again agree that it's not an intentional thing either. Think about all the work it would take to record a female/male script of all the major ethnic groups!Anyhow, thanks for your reply.

>MAN! Mike T, thank you sir for your reply. I personally think>that we should have a better selection of voice sets for FS,Yeah, this is something I've been thinking about for a while. If only a new version of EditVoicePack or some other, all-new utility could designate voices with different accents for ATC in various parts of the world. I think FS2Crew already has something like this, though you have to choose the voice sets you want manually depending on where you're flying.Now, of course the interesting thing would be to see if such a utility made a proper distinction between Australian and New Zealand accents or simply copped out and used a single one for the entire region. ;)

nahh...ain't it a little nit-picking? the colour of the cartoon figure, the accent of the ATC guy.....what about some REAL improvements? say a decent FS ATC or something like that...//Michael

I think Microsoft have better things to do with FS than making it politically correct with a "representative" amount of minorities and women as the props...

Now there's an idea - I don't know women would be much good as a prop but they sure can deliver a solid jet blast at times.Andy b