Hi im still fairly new to MS2004, can i have some suggestions on the must-have 3rd party mods out there? doesn't matter if they are payware or freeware, as long as they are good.

Welcome. By mods, do you means aircraft, scenery, utilities, etc? What kind of flying do you do? GA, airliners?Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/tfbeta.jpg

If you fly your first priority must be the weather.Look no further than Active sky version 6http://www.hifisim.com/I also think a registered version of FSUPIC essentialhttp://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html...plus a decent set of yoke and rudder pedals. :-hah

regardsCapt. P[/font color]i[/font color]c[/font color]a[/font color]s[/font color]s[/font color]o[/font color]

My FS9 Videos]My sig needs to be redoneIf it doesn't have a VC, it would be my pleasure to fly it![/font color] AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1024Mb PC3200 DDR, 300Gb HD 256Mb DDR Nvidia 7800 GTX PCI-E, Audigy 2 ZSCH Products Yoke, Pedals and Throttle Quadrant[/font color

Opinions will vary on "must have", so leaving aircraft aside I think the most important thing is to set up your environment with the following;Weather generation - ActiveSkyGround Textures - Ground EnvironmentClouds, Skies, Water - Flight EnvironmentCoasts, Water, Roads - Ultimate Terrain (US and EU)These will enhance your sim massively without getting too complex or expensive. Then you can start looking at your preferred aircraft and airport sceneries. Welcome to the addiction.

Seconded. Active Sky v6, Ground Environment and Ultimate Terrain are must-haves, if you want to make your FS setup look great.However, the purchase prize of all 3 add-ons is fairly steep with about $100 and most of it (maybe expect ASv6) will become obsolete as soon as FSX hits the shelves in a few weeks. If you don't plan on upgrading to FSX anytime soon or want a great-looking sim now, then absolutely go for it.Plane-wise is can recommend Flight1s 172, Eaglesofts Cirrus SR20/22 (along with everything else with the Eaglesoft label), everything PMDG, PSS, Dreamfleet, Carenado, Level-D - all are top-notch developers with excellent support. Pat

Check out my site (below) and click on "Using Microsoft Flight Simulator". I've got lists of both freeware and payware addons for scenery and aircraft, as well as hints for installation and maintenance of FS9.'Tis true FSX will be out in a matter of 10(?) weeks, so you may want to save your money at this point. But for low level VFR flying, I highly recommend Ultimate Terrain and FSGenesis Landclass. There are several freeware mesh products around for almost whereever you fly and I'd stick with those.I've done without ASV for this long, plus my computers aren't super powerful, but many people really like the weather it provides.You'll probably also want to check out the freeware Bird'sEyeView summer textures as well, since they are free.Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have some downloads for New England on my site as well.And absolutely get FSUIPC.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

Stick to photorealistic scenery - and freeware mesh -to fly as real as you get !marco

Other than the ones mentioned, start searching the files here for your home airport or your favorite airline/aircraft. I am sure you will find something.If you have a favorite airline (and a decent computer), go to PAI http://discuss.projectai.com/ and install some traffic for your favorite airlines.Go to www.flightsim.com and look at their tutorials for installing aircraft, sound, scenery... They also have a good selection of free add-ons.