Been a casual simmer for years having only limited time to devote to flight sims. Now I'm retired the world and 45000ft above is my oyster!

Alan

Hi Alan, welcome to Avsim , good to see you are on full throttle now!

Have fun,

Cheers

Hey, I've been in flight sim for 30+ years and 12 years ago I got pretty serious.  Retired 3 years ago and now I devote even more time to the hobby.  I manage a private group of older flight simmers who devoted to airliners with a focus on shared cockpit.  PM me if you've interested.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, alanrco said:

Been a casual simmer for years having only limited time to devote to flight sims. Now I'm retired the world and 45000ft above is my oyster!

Alan

You have to check out Pilotedge.  http://www.pilotedge.net/

It brings a level of reality to flight simulation like nothing else.  All of a sudden there is consequences for not paying attention, or pushing the wrong buttons.

Also there is great satisfaction for making the perfect flight under the pressure that interacting with real ATC brings.

 

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Happy to have you join the rest of us retirees here in the community.  It is truly amazing to have all this time to dedicate to flight simulation.  You're among friends, so dig in and enjoy!

simming is a great way to grow older with a purpose . I cant imagine retirement without it and looking forward to getting even older for the ORBX seniors discount

 

 

1 hour ago, FSXtreme said:

pressure that interacting with real ATC brings.

 

I'm assuming you misspoke my friend!  Pressure?  ATC is there to help.  Nobody should ever feel pressure, just the opposite.

I'm sure you meant performing procedures, I just don't want to needlessly scare off more people from PilotEdge and VATSIM.

 

 

57 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

 

I'm assuming you misspoke my friend!  Pressure?  ATC is there to help.  Nobody should ever feel pressure, just the opposite.

I'm sure you meant performing procedures, I just don't want to needlessly scare off more people from PilotEdge and VATSIM.

 

 

 

Yes, don't get me wrong. The pressure is a good kind of pressure. It's pressure to perform procedures and fly correctly.  Pressure to respond to instructions correctly. Pressure to listen and write down correct frequencies, altitudes and directions. Pressure to fly the aircraft of your choosing correctly, while complying with ATC instructions. Without that pressure, you loose a great dimension of enjoyment. Without the real ATC of Pilotedge, missing correct procedures is a non-issue.  If the FMC is not setup right, or the autopilot does something unexpected, it is a non-issue. You fix it and go on, without having to concern yourself with explaining why you're heading south instead of west, while you're trying to twist knobs and push buttons to correct the problem.

It's not cool to get on Pilotedge without some good trip preparation (although I have run short on fuel and had to get instructions to land at an alternate airport. But that was a lot of fun, and I never had to admit to ATC that I needed to land because I was running out of fuel). 

The pressure is a very good kind of pressure that adds consequences to non-performance or lack of preparation, which is what makes it a real learning experience.  It is what makes flight simulation 10 times more exciting and rewarding with Pilotedge.

You're right, In real life, ATC is there to help real pilots stay safe. Since I'm not a real pilot, for me, Pilotedge ATC is there to add excitement through realism at a level that I cannot experience on my own offline. The Pilotedge controllers do help me by teaching me the right way of doing things, even to the point of sometimes pulling me to a separate channel to explain the correct way of handling some procedure.  On the other hand, I don't need them to help me stay safe, because I'm not going to fall out of my chair (at least I haven't yet ).

When I fly offline, I don't need any help from ATC.  I can bump into a mountain and just keep going or start a new flight (depending on if I have collisions turned on or not).  When I'm on Pilotedge, bumping into a mountain can be pretty embarrassing because it means I didn't follow instructions, and the desire to do it right when I'm interacting with real ATC is truly added "pressure", but  it's good pressure that makes for a fun experience.

Welcome aboard. 

Thanks for the welcome guys (gals?) Thinking about a new PC atm as mine is showing its age. Will change to X-Plane 11 as this seems to be the best around. Just hope PMDG patch the DC-6 Cloudmaster to work properly for version 11. Just the type of plane I would like to master any time soon.

 

Alan