Hello folks,I'm getting the hang of MS Century Of Flight and I really enjoy flying it. I just have a few questions:When you click Fly Now and you start in the plane, the engines are running. Is there any way to set it so the engines aren't running?I have the Saitek X52 Flight Control System. Are there any rudder pedals available which would go with this control system?What types of addons would you recommend? I've seen ones like ATC and Traffic addons but what do these actually do?As I live in the UK (Midlands), are there any addons for airports/terrain?Thats about it. Many thanks for your time.Karl

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!The easy way is to enter a flight. shut down the engines and exit the sim. If you reenter the sim, either right away or after you restart your computer even at a later date, you can go to "select a flight" and choose "previous flight". Everything should be as you left it, even your set radio frequencies. You can even quit and restart in midair if you want! I like this option, feeds my fantasy that I own this plane and it's right where I parked it. You still have the option to switch planes once in a flight. But if you "end flight" on the "Flights" dropdown menu instead of "exit", the sim will not remember unless you save the flight and name it.There is a file in the library called bc_dark.zip in MSFS 2004 utilities category. You will always start a flight cold and dark with it. I haven't tried reentering a flight in midair with it yet, not quite sure what would happen. It will also set your default zoom to .69, which you may or may not want. There may be other utilities that accomplish the same thing.Best Regards, Donny:-wave

Hi Karl<<<http://walhalla.mine.nu/fs2004/uk.phpHope this helps,MarkMark "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 mate...Never thought of using that option, and would also feed my "roleplaying"Best wishes,Karl

Not so much airport scenery, but you can get freeware power stations inc the one that sits at the end of East Midlands easterly runway!I think these were for FS2002, but seem to work reasonably in FS9.Be careful how you install scenery - always try to get it into separate directories for each item within the Addon_Scenery folder, then if there is a problem, you can delete it and know it hasn't mucked anything else up.

Hello Karl. I get a real kick when I see someone here that has just started up. Without dwelling on the subject too much I would say that before rushing into payware take a close look at what is available on the web for free especially here at AVSIM which I think of as the number one site. The direction I first went in was to download everything I saw which even hinted to me that it would be good to have. I experimented a little with a lot from AI through aircraft, scenery and anything I could get my greedy little hands on. I suggest that you do the same. Go to the file library and get a pile of stuff from this years, this months and yesterdays favourites (I am not sugesting all of it). Push it poke it decide what is not your cup of tea and delete it.I have to say how good it is to see someone from the UK. I am sort of downhill from you in Plymouth (thats SW England for the foreighers out there ;-) ). I look forward to seeing you around the forums.Andrew BrownROARING THIRTIEShttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/:-beerchug

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!To add to what some others have said, it is better to stick with default or freeware for a while. It's sometimes enough trouble to get the default tweaked right before you add much more. Payware is in most cases created by dedicated individuals to serve those who desire high fidelity to the real world, but can put an added strain on your system, which can result in more tweaking being needed, or in the worst case might require a system upgrade. Some freeware projects can do that too, but if you don't like the result just uninstall it and it just cost you some time and bandwidth. That being said, I have had some very good experiences with some payware products, and I run a Pentium III 533 with 192 meg RAM, 32 MEG video card.There are some very good freeware utilities specifically designed to help you tweak FS9, like FlightSim manager 2.8. FSAutostart also helps, it serves to close programs/services to give more resources for your sim- any sim.If you want an even better Cessna 172, try RAS_172.zip in Avsim library FS 2004 original aircraft and follow the installation instructions included in the readme.txt.Best Regards, Donny:-wave

Hi KarlFlightsim offers many avenues of interest to the hobbist. Painting aircraft, panel design, aircraft modeling, scenery design, screenshot and video capturing, plane spotting, etc. Just to name a few.If you have a powerful computer and flying is what you really enjoy, I'll go out on a limb here and recommend you not hesitate to buy at least one of these excellent payware aircraft. These addons are considered some of the best and offer what I consider to be essential- great documentation!! They come with extensive operating manuals, tutorial flights, and configuration utilities.Level-D 767, http://www.leveldsim.com/sevensix_home.aspPMDG 737http://www.precisionmanuals.com/html/73767.htmPMDG 747-400http://www.precisionmanuals.com/html/747400.htmAeroworx King Air B200http://www.aeroworx.com/products.htmlAlthough there are a few very good freeware offerings available, IMHO life is to short not to experience the best flightsimming has to offer.CheersSteve

I'll echo the previous comments here. You should definitely start out learning to fly just one or two of the default aircraft. They are not 'as real as it gets' so to speak, but flying the default aircraft will do two things: 1) Learning FS, how to fly, how your computer works with FS, how your joystick/mouse interact, etc., can be time-consuming and frustrating. Before you spend and extra money, you should get your computer system tweeaked for best performance, especially regarding weather settings and graphic detail. You need to carefully experiment with the FS settings and your computer setup to get the smoothest performance. That might mean a computer upgrade, a BIOS memory tweak, reducing FS graphic options, etc. Once you are satisfied with how your system run, then you can make the next step. 2) I flew for months (years actually) using just the default aircraft. I learned the Cessna 172 backwards and forwards (since Flight Sim II for the Apple). I learned how to fly the Mooney and Baron 58. These default aircraft gave me a lot of good training. Flying these aircraft well in all conditions takes practice. Because they are 'default', they are just not as accurately modelled as say, the Carenado 182 or FSD-International Seneca V. When you feel that you need 'something more' from the default aircraft, you should step up to freeware. Freeware can give you a taste of some of the best aircraft ever designed for a flight simulation computer program. Payware can be even better, mainly because of the financial incentive to increase features and detail. My first payware aircraft was the Flight1 Piper Meridian. That aircraft simply blew away any default aircraft or freeware I downloaded. I then purchased the FSD-International Piper Cheyenne. I currently own 7 payware titles and 6 freeware ones. I am very happy with my purchases, and they have added another dimension to my flight sim experience. I figured out that there were some planes I liked to fly (twins and turboprops). Some people like to fly GA aircraft. Others like heavy iron. Whatever you fancy, there are plenty of free or payware aircraft that should suit your needs. I have recently stepped up to the next level of building my own home cockpit simulator. Although it is not 'realistic' in the sense that it doesn't look like the interior of an airplane, it is fully enclosed and I have dual monitors and various other joysticks and mice to support 'no-keyboard' flying. It was fun to build, and when I can afford it, I will even upgrade my simulator too! Good luck with Flight Sim, it's an awesome hobby! You should at some point, try out online flight, maybe with Vatsim.net, to get real human interaction via other aircraft and ATC.Derald

Wow thankyou for all your info and advice. I keep coming back to the thread and scribble notes hehe..My email is [email protected] if required.I really like the addition aircraft, from the info they look and seem very detailed. I think I prefer the smaller aircraft, the GA's I think they are, single and twin prop craft. I'll leave the jets till later :)Best wishes,Karl

Hi Karl,Since you are just starting out, once you start thinking about add-ons, I recommend you peruse the thread I started linked below. It contains plenty of add-ons mostly General Aviation Aircraft which is what I mostly fly.Freeware Add-Ons thread:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=searchWithin in, you will find many recommendations from myself and others who graciously contributed to the list.If you have questions about any of them, just ask away in that thread, or start another one if you like.Sonar5

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!Hi Karl. Just want to let you know it's not a good idea to put e-mail addresses in the forums. I have heard there are special programs scanning these forums and if they find an address they spam it. Avsim has a great "private message" and "send e-mail to user" function that works great while keeping spam down. It's in the user's menu, you can enable or disable the option to have either PMs or e-mails delivered to you. To send a message to someone, just click on their handle (like ShalomarAKADonny ) If they're not enabled, you'll find out, if they are, you can do it right on the page that opens up. Even this is not totally foolproof, every once in a while someone's computer gets infected and reads their contact list or something and the result is spam that seems to come from Avsim. Avsim is a great, fully ethical site. It wasn't smart, but my 'puter was on the waeb for months without a firewall or antivirus. 90% of my traffic was to Avsim or one of their direct partners/links. Three separate scans each of antivirus and spyware programs, including a few more stops for checks at comercial antivirus programs, came up clean.If you are considering payware, one thing that may come in handy is a program that lets multiple pilots be on the same plane thru the internet. Great for useful flying lessons especially as you "move up", or a buddy to share the load and make it more realistic because two pilots are *required* by law for certain aircraft. There may be others, and I have not yet bought this one so take it with a shakerful of salt. The name of one program that accomplishes this is FSnet.