Hi, could someone of the Beta testers please look, if crossing the poles works without probs. Some pictures of that area would also be nice. Jan-Paul

I think I read somewhere that Pole flights are possible with FSX... :-hmmm

Greetings Jan-Paul!It's been discussed here before, and undoubtedly by people who know more about it than I do (well, that ain't too difficult - grin)! They will certainly correct me if I'm wrong.I think that, even if FS models the earth as a sphere like in FSX, there needs to be at least 1, and possibly 2 oppositely placed "points" (read: poles), that cannot be flown over.Although getting (very) close to the poles seems eminently possible in a well-programmed flight simulator, I would be mightily surprised if FSX enables us to actually CROSS a (however small) patch representing the "actual pole". When depicting a sphere in FS there always need to be a "center point" from where all the rest of the earth "radiates out of". This centerpoint, by its very nature, cannot itself be part of that flyable world. So it MIGHT be possible that only ONE pole is "unflyable", I dunno.It's just like everybody's hair on the head needs a crown: that's where all the hair radiates away from, but the crown itself is an ever so tiny bald spot in the center of all that radiation. Tiny, yes... although it tends to be growing when a man gets older (grin)!Be well!Jaap Verduijn.

There was a post where somone flew over I believe the north pole without problems and took pictures. I believe the devs stated they've modeled the earth as an ellipsoid which should more accurately depict the slight difference in radius between the equator and the poles, whether or not flying across them is doable I myself can't confirm.Ian.

Has anyone tried to go to this FSX airport yet?NZSP,-89.999996983,0.000000000,2834.6,G,0,0.70,Antarctica{ RUNWAY,12000,300,SNOW}

Here are the 2 poles. There is some weird anomolies graphically when in these locations and I didn't try to "FLY" over the area.North Pole:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/156205.jpgSouth Pole:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/156206.jpg

I distinctly remember one of the devs confirming that polar flight is now possible.James

Wow!!! Did you actually slew to 100 million feet to get those shots?James

HEHE No James, that is the Outside Top Down View. Then you can just use + & - to zoom in and out.

Hi, thanks for the shoots. Will that graphical anomolies get fixed with final release? Jan-Paul

Well that's a 100 times better than what's possible in FS9. This is one advancement I'm looking forward to in FSX. Pilot's SR-71 and SSTsim's Concord will be awesome with FSX...

>HEHE No James, that is the Outside Top Down View. Then you>can just use + & - to zoom in and out.Which can be done with FS9 either, just in case someone believes this to be a new FSX feature.

I did a polar flight again last night. This time it was SEA-SVO and this route pretty much takes you right over the pole. I noticed some pretty odd behavior. Probably happens in the real thing as well. The compass was acting very strange and bouncing around from North to South. Eventually the heading mode on the AP was way out of wack and the plane would start to circle even though technically you are not at the very top yet. So you had to turn off the heading mode. The farthest north It would register was 89.799 or something close to that and then it would start ticking downwards again. I assume 90 is the top of the world and at that point it starts dropping as you go from north to south. The good news is no brick wall up there. BTW, it did not take all that long to reach Moscow go over the pole. The default flight planner can't program this route but it was about a 7 hour flight vs 9.5 hours going the traditional way. Done non stop in an IL-96.

>I did a polar flight again last night. This time it was>SEA-SVO and this route pretty much takes you right over the>pole. I noticed some pretty odd behavior. Probably happens>in the real thing as well. The compass was acting very>strange and bouncing around from North to South. Eventually>the heading mode on the AP was way out of wack and the plane>would start to circle even though technically you are not at>the very top yet. So you had to turn off the heading mode. >The farthest north It would register was 89.799 or something>close to that and then it would start ticking downwards again.>I assume 90 is the top of the world and at that point it>starts dropping as you go from north to south. The good news>is no brick wall up there. >>BTW, it did not take all that long to reach Moscow go over the>pole. The default flight planner can't program this route but>it was about a 7 hour flight vs 9.5 hours going the>traditional way. Done non stop in an IL-96. > I believe that the PFDs are slaved to the magnetic compass so once you get close heading hold doesn't work as well and you will need to go to GPS or VOR nav setting to keep you on the correct course.

Okay at S90* 00.00' - in Slew mode - the aircraft is constantly spinning - actually the view from the cockpit doesn't change but the Longitude number is moving faster than a Vegas slot machine.I cannot maintain an external view of the aircraft - it's almost like the sim can't make up it's mind where the aircraft is located and where the camera position should be. Duh!!!If I back off to S89* 59.99' - I can have a stable an external view though the aircraft / position cannot seem to find a longitude number it can hold.But back to the basic question - polar flights do appear possible.