Strangest thing this whole 'default flight' issue - never seen it!I regularly start at 'Create a flight' and select my airplane, whether PMDG, PSS, LDS right from there - and NEVER have any problems. My checked 'default' flight is 'previous flight'I've never modified 'fltsim.flt' but I do always select a default jet, not the 172, before exiting - if that matters.I never, ever load the actual 'fltsim.flt' first - or do I misunderstand?regards,Markhttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/mar.../sup_banner.jpgXPHomeSP2/FS9.1/3.2HT/1024mb/X700pro256

I think what most people advocating MS not do the aircraft are asking for is either an "easy" option or a "realistic" option. either you can press a button and start flying or you can go through the checklist and get a realistic experience. MS aircrafts are always dumbed down and IMO give the simulation a bad name to the casual users who dont know who PMDG is or what avsim is. Personally, I believe that even though there were millions of copies sold, most of them were turned off by the bland graphics, the next to nothing scenery, and the extremely basic aircraft that after a few weeks or months of flying they went on to something else.I use to work in the game industry and got sick of most games. I could never play a game for longer than a few months, I never got through a season of hockey or baseball, football only twice. But flight sim I keep going back to, every week, sometimes every day. For YEARS. This is my 1st year of having a good computer and I have not gotten tired of the game because of all the great addons. I think if more people were opened up to the high quality addon experience and didnt have to pay an arm and a leg to get the fast computer to run it and all the addon scenery and airplanes, you would see a MUCH bigger "base"

Who says Flight sim doesn't come with complex aircraft. Tell that to the average Joe who has never flown anything and can't tell the difference between ailerons or elevators, can't fly straight cause he never heard of trimming, and thought the pedals were the accelerator and brake. A lot of us are forgetting where we came from. Gee I remember not that long ago I was happy to be able to fly the default 737 in FS2002 just flying around and landing in the same airport. I couldn't actually navigate or figure out why the landing gear would dig into the runway causing a crash (of course it was way over landing weight since it was full of fuel). I didn't know anything about VOR, ILS, GPS, PFD, ND, EICAS, TCAS, NDB, V1, VR, V2, Vref, FMC, CDU, MCP, and all the rest. You think regular folks have time to learn all this. No way, they just want to get up in the air and enjoy the scenery. Or they get bored to death when they realize they can't shoot at anything. We flight simmers (and real pilots) are a special breed. Something draws us to flying and aircraft in general. For most of us this started when we were very young and will continue for the rest of our lives. I myself built plastic models, then radio control planes, now flight sim. Next the real deal? If only I didn't have a "real" life. To the majority of people that buy FS it's just another game like Doom, or FEAR, or Quake, or any of those other games ive heard of but never play and Microsoft knows this. But not me, I have no time for games I have to go fly.

why do you think navigating is rocket science? it took me all of 5 minutes to learn how to do an ILS approach, and about 10 to learn how to have the game create a flight plan and load it. and maybe an hour to learn how to track VORs.again, people have a high regard for their own abilities and a low regard for the abilities of others. It reminds me of the topic of school teachers. in America, people have this belief that school teachers are bad and overpaid. But when asked about the teachers for THEIR children, they are the best!People sit down and learn the controls to doom, keep redoing levels over and over until they finish them, and play games like evercrack for days on end. Yet you dont believe people, when given high quality and great looking addons that run good, would want to spend an hour or maybe an entire session or 2 learning the basics?

How exactly does the fs demographic look? I simply cannot understand a game title as successful and long-lived as this one as being sustained by 'casual' gamers. I would think this plainly civilian sim appeals to 'aviators' at heart and in fact - a smart bunch imho.Never tried it but I hear the fs learning centre is brutal -harder than any fmc manual :)I'm not saying force hi end prices on anyone btwregards,Markhttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/mar.../sup_banner.jpgXPHomeSP2/FS9.1/3.2HT/1024mb/X700pro256

I know at least three people that have FS2004 and no longer fly, nor did they ever learn how to navigate using the default gps or radios or ever used ATC. After their initial aerial sightseeing tour of major landmarks which lasted a couple days their interest waned and FS9 now lies there unused. The desktop icon the only remaining evidence that Flight sim is on their computer. One of them was as I explained above bored with it because he couldn't blast the AI planes into oblivion. Nothing wrong with these people, they are friends and one is my brother, they just have other interests or priorities. Thats 3 casual users to 1 hardcore (me). So where is Microsoft making their money? Anyway read my post above about things I think Microsoft should include, just not PMDG,LDS,DF,etc. quality.

I have no special ability over others. It took me a lot longer than you describe to really learn FS an find out about all it's hidden features. Or that there even were add ons, then learn how to install them. I also did the sightseeing tour and had FS2002 unused for months sometimes while I was pursuing other interests (mainly college and computers). I then, almost by chance one day learned that you can navigate whith the FS8 GPS (VOR,NDB,ILS came later).At the same time a coworker of mine got a real GPS for his boat and he showed me more or less how it works. This opened a whole new world for me(litterally a whole FS world) and sparked my interest in navigation in learning how airplanes were actually operated. In a way I wasn't aware of what FS was capable of. Then I got FS9 and the rest is history.