I thought that maybe the board could use a happy thread for a change. 😃

I recently had surgery and I'm right smack in the middle of 4 weeks time off of work so I've had lots of P3D time i the past 10 days. Fortunately for me, the sim has been running great, and I have been enjoying the heck out of it. PBR and dynamic lighting are the best things ever for night flying! I just wish LM would turn the Sun into a dynamic light so the sim would look as good during the day as it does at night. LM (as well as FSDT, FlyTampa, LatinVFR, and Flightbeam) has made P3D night flying a thing of beauty. The light splashes on the tarmac from my airplane and all of the GSX vehicles look fantastic. The newer PBR vehicles and jetways in GSX look very realistic. P3D has certainly advanced from it's FSX roots.

I just "chased" this morning's Southwest 2126 flight from Boston (FlyTampa) to Baltimore (LatinVFR) in real time (using Flightaware, Simbrief, Radar Contact, and Littlenavmap). I didn't time the ground services in Boston properly and ended up starting the push about 3 minutes late. During the push I check Flightaware and it showed that the real flight had pushed 4 minutes early, so I was 7 minutes in the hole from the get go. I've been practicing my hand flying in the PMDG 737 for most of last week by extending the amount of the flight I hand fly after departure. In my prior 3 or 4 flights, I took it all the way to TOC before letting Otto take over. This morning, I hand flew the entire flight without ever activating the autopilot. It was a perfect flight from push to engine shutdown. A very satisfying experience for sure. I landed 10 minutes behind the actual flight (1 hr 55 min flight time for me - 1 hr 51 minutes for SWA). 

Here's a tip for the newer simmers. When I started flying the 737 more by hand, I was having a hard time following the flight director. It felt like I was constantly chasing it on both axis. The problem was the calibration of my joystick. I sorta set the null zones and sensitivities to something that felt close to correct and then just flew with them set like that (for over a year). Following the flight director turned out to be an excellent way to fine tune my stick calibration (I'm using a Microsoft Sidewinder Pro 2 that I bought in April, 2002, BTW. This thing has taken a beating and has performed flawlessly. It doesn't even make noise. It is still perfectly silent when in use.). At any rate, I suggest that if you haven't ever really put any thought into calibrating your joystick, pick an airplane with a flight director, take off, and during the climb to altitude, try following the flight director as closely as you can. Pick one axis to tune first, I started with the elevator axis. As you try to follow the flight director vertically, take notice of how the aircraft pitches up or down as you move the stick back and forth. If there feels like a delay or lag from when you move the stick until the plane starts changing pitch, reduce the null zone setting a notch or two. If it feels like the plane is changing pitch too easily, like when you just lightly touch the stick, then increase the null zone a number or two. Keep making adjustments until you are able to follow the flight director using smooth control input. You'll know it when you get it right. Once you are able to follow the flight director, then play with the sensitivity setting for the elevator axis to adjust the amount of stick movement you apply compared to the amount of control reaction in the airplane. Once you get them right, adjust the aileron axis in the same fashion. After just one climb out making these adjustments, I am able to control the airplane 1000 times better than I could before. I'm kicking myself for not taking the time to fine tune my joystick properly earlier. Doing it during a long climb gave me plenty of time to make and test adjustments. I did forget to mention that I used the aircraft trim as usual during the process (set so the nose won't drop or rise when I let go of the stick). The perfect settings on my setup ended up being the same for the elevator, rudder, and aileron axis. Sensitivities set to 66, null zones set to 20. I hope this helps someone. Happy flying!

Edited November 1, 20196 yr by MDFlier

Good info - glad you are enjoying the sim!

 

Vic

Very cool! I remember when I was able to just pick up United's tail number and spend the entire day (from the first AM flight) chasing it with every hop to the last one, so much fun if you can burn the entire day on doing just so! These days are over, my recently born son makes it impossible.

Thanks for the positive counter balance. It was refreshing. 🍻

😊

4 hours ago, MDFlier said:

I just "chased" this morning's Southwest 2126 flight from Boston (FlyTampa) to Baltimore (LatinVFR) in real time

Did this just yesterday. ASA 500 KSEA to KIND. Beat it by about 20 mins.
I was just outside with the dog and living halfway between CLANG and RWY 23R APP I spotted an ATR 72. Checked Flightaware it was a Mountain Air Cargo flight 8802. Now I need to add a FedEx ATR 72 to my hangar.😊
A Cargolux flight is due here in about an hour from now. A weekly Friday flight. A good 8-9 hour flight out of Luxemburg.

https://imgur.com/a/0NNkSmi
How lucky is this? The same reg. number as the one in my PMDG hangar.

Edited November 1, 20196 yr by BillS511

best thing about this hobby is that every flight is different.  Weather/Traffic etc.  Had a flight earlier from RDU-CLT where I would then go on to LAS.  I figured leg 1 would be super easy since basically an up and down.  But with the vatsim event (and me expecting traffic to be on a north landing pattern) I had my hands full.  But rewarding to make it in and taxi to the gate despite a continuous string of variables I had other expectations for.  Quite frankly I am still very satisfied with P3D.  This is a very great time to be in this hobby.  It hasn't always been this way. 

I spend most of my time just reading on these forums, but this a great post and refreshing to read so I thought it best to say so. Will also have a go at fine tuning my controllers to improve my hand flying.

 

Cheers, FP.

On 11/1/2019 at 8:36 PM, Rob_Ainscough said:

Great post, there is so much flight simulation has to offer for everyone, at every level.

Cheers, Rob.

And thanks to you directly for the tweak information you post. I'm using several of yours (albeit at 1/2 to 2/3 of the values that you posted) and I've got a real nice balance going on between FPS and visual content. I've enabled object shadow casting and receiving and it make a tremendous impact on the daytime visuals around the ramp.  

I'm running an i5-8600K @ 4.9Ghz (air cooled, or I'd lock it to 5Ghz. The voltage required for stability generates too much heat) and a RTX2080Ti.

Reading the flightsim threads from various sites is a morning ritual for me with a good "cuppa joe". 

I am not sure how I would get through work days without my "flightsim forum fix"

I have to say I recently bought Aerosofts new Lukla and have been having a great deal of fun flying the Himalayas in the Milviz PC6 🙂 Top aircraft, love short field rough strip uphill landings....

How dare you enjoy flight simulation!

I'm going to read some negative posts to offset yours!

😉

This morning didn't have time for a full flight, but just to test new Nvidia driver settings I positioned the small Carenado Hawker Business jet at Chengdu Airport (Bridge scenery) and using real weather settings took off and climbed through 100 percent low cloud coverage heading east.. As i emerged from the base into the pale blue morning sky I flicked to outside view and I have to say that the sun highlighted the cockpit surround in a manner I have never seen before (more realistic) and the sharpness and clarity were outstanding !! It was like really being there in person somehow it was that convincing.! a moment of FS nirvana!! 

I have a 4k 27" monitor and a GTX2080 card.. I have not made any special settings in P3dv4.x but have turned off Hyperthreading and use Global Gsync on, DRM on (low) and set FPS to unlimited.

Great post. I am enjoying it too 😀

regards, Gerard