Having seen the other post asking what will be the first thing you are going to do in FSX, it got me thinking.It's always a joy to open the new sim up and go to the default flight and have a fly about just to have the "first look". I do like Tacoma as an airport but it's not as spectacular as Meigs was.I thought it maybe a really nice idea if the ACES team could run a poll or a competition for the community to chose the default flight airfield ! It's always this initial flight that can also capture a new users imagination. So it needs to be a "cool" location, or somewhere with some aviation history. Somewhere with some really nice scenery like one of the Swiss or Austrian valley airfields. Or one of the large metro location like Hong Kong or Mexico. Another idea with the default flight is the country location. Could it be possible to load the default flight dependent where the user is in the would ? Just an idea or two :)

I like your ideas but keep one little thing in mind:That first impression is so very important. As spectacular as it would be to have a first flight that looks like "Brazil Control 2" (an incredible FS video if you haven't seen it) you also have to keep in mind that urban areas really kill the frame rates of a lot of users.Awesome graphics, high frame rates, exotic location... I can think of 2 off the top of my head, but there are many more I'm sure. My 2 are anywhere around 20 miles north of Brisbane Australia at the beginning of sunset and somewhere near the shores of the big lake (is it Victoria?) in Kenya with all the new animals roaming the African plain.Scott / Vorlin

One thing to keep in mind is that the field should be close to sea level. Imagine a newbie trying to take off in the 172 at a 5,000 ft. elevation.-Gary Letona

meigs was approx 600' AGL

Did you mean to say MSL? - doug

A nice long runway is needed too... ensuring that the beginers in an overladen 747 can get airborne. It needs to be somewhere with nice scenery but one that's not going to kill the frames. I say Heathrow but I am biased. Then again, I don't really care because the default flight is pretty irrelevant.

> Did you mean to say MSL? - dougah yeah that's exactly what I meant, lol spent too much time in the troposphere lol... oxygen depletion you know... :D

>don't really care because the default flight is pretty>irrelevant.Yes it is, especially if you start with the menu, and not directly into a flight...Rhett

I think its absolutely imperative that there is NO poll for us to vote for FS startup airfield.I'd like to give that choice to the FS-team, let THEM have that privilege, it feels like their signature.Saying that, I do miss Meigs terribly :(

Hey, don't laugh, check out the default MA55 with FSGenesis mesh. I think it's at 50 ft agl :)Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

Meigs may have been pretty put it was also pretty useless for a beginer. The runway is too short for anything bigger than a Learjet to get up off, no ones ever heard of it (outside of us lot) and now it doesn't exist. Anyone remember "The Zone" (or as I call it - ####) with the tyro's in their 777-300s with full fuel going in to the sea? My point exactly... I think O'Hare or Midway would of been a better choice. I do have an idea for the default flight airport... London City! Well its about as suitable for beginers as Megis and probably prettier... Seattle is fine I think, there maybe better airfields and it is a little biased towards the USA and Boeing, but it does the job and if it ain't broken, why fix it?And I still don't give a toss lol. You can have the default flight in the Falklands for all I care! I think we should just leave the FS team to it.

Of course, anything outside USA is unacceptable!Its an American product and if for any reasons besides patriotic, the start-runway should be on US soil!

I like your style... I hold that opinion for most areas of Flight Simulator actually (just look at FS9 aircraft library) and probably most stuff from the USA I have experience of (like Windows, do you know how hard it is to convince that stupid thing I have a British keyboard) - but there you have it. This is not a forum on which to get political so I'll stop there. I doubt highly you'll see a default flight outside of the USA (but the MSFS team are entitled to have some pride :-) ), I predict it will probably stay in Seattle, which doesn't bother me at all.

Actually, since most of our sales come from outside the US it's really not all that American! ;)

hmm, that means Amsterdam would be a good choice. 18 ft below sealevel :)Or the Dead Sea, something like 300 ft below (but not much to look at, it's in the middle of a desert)...