I just remembered the abundance of flight training options a user had in FSX where you could read up and take flight lessons with Rod Machado. You could even get your “virtual certificates” and take simulated checkrides with an FAA examiner!

Its probably too late for big feature requests but I thought it would be cool if Microsoft partnered up with Rod or maybe even King Schools again to have a flight training side of the simulator for individuals who would like to further their knowledge on flight and sharpen flying skills!

I feel like this would be beneficial for the hobby and turn more “casuals” into simmers or maybe even pilots!

what are your thoughts?

-Trevor

 

They did hire someone just for missions.  I hope they have a lot of missions and things to do to keep us busy for years.

Someone asked Rod this over on his Facebook page.  He said he hadn’t been contacted by MS.

What I hope is that the learning curve is not too steep for beginners! I remember former Microsoft Flight Simulators where only the simplest things were explained, in more complex themes the writers of manuals or help-textes reached their own limits of knowledge and they leave you alone with the simulation and the plane.

53 minutes ago, ual763 said:

Someone asked Rod this over on his Facebook page.  He said he hadn’t been contacted by MS.

That’s unfortunate. He’s really an entertaining guy and I enjoyed listening to some of his talks! Hopefully Microsoft/Asobo have something in the works.

For anybody that still has FS2002, on disk 1 in the "/data/help" folder, there is the "Rod Machado's Ground School" PDF book, file name GSCHOOL.PDF.  Read this when I got FS2002 cover-to-cover and still refer to it on a regular occasion. 188 pages, it can be printed on less than fifty pages by putting two pages to a sheet and printing double sided. Also have it on my IPAD.  Rod Machado is definitely fun and enjoyable as a flight instructor.  Was be nice to see him brought back for MSFS.

John Cottreau

 

Would love to have them back. I checked King Schools on Facebook and they made a post about the E3 announcement trailer. It probably doesn't mean anything, but at least they acknowledged the comeback of the franchise. If Microsoft can partner with Boeing and Textron, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to partner with those again.

On that note, I hope they create tutorials similar to the missions in Flight Simulator X which were really good too (or just port them over). The tutorials in Microsoft Flight and Flight Sim World paled in comparison, with the latter's being really buggy as well.

8 minutes ago, johncott said:

For anybody that still has FS2002, on disk 1 in the "/data/help" folder, there is the "Rod Machado's Ground School" PDF book, file name GSCHOOL.PDF.  Read this when I got FS2002 cover-to-cover and still refer to it on a regular occasion. 188 pages, it can be printed on less than fifty pages by putting two pages to a sheet and printing double sided. Also have it on my IPAD.  Rod Machado is definitely fun and enjoyable as a flight instructor.  Was be nice to see him brought back for MSFS.

Too bad I have no idea where those disks have gone. Do you know if the "ground school" material in the Flight Simulator X lesson briefings are pretty much the same thing?

Rod Machado's lessons are some of my earliest and fondest memories of flight sim. I printed out the certificates and my mom had them framed. They're still on my wall.

24 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Would love to have them back. I checked King Schools on Facebook and they made a post about the E3 announcement trailer. It probably doesn't mean anything, but at least they acknowledged the comeback of the franchise. If Microsoft can partner with Boeing and Textron, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to partner with those again.

On that note, I hope they create tutorials similar to the missions in Flight Simulator X which were really good too (or just port them over). The tutorials in Microsoft Flight and Flight Sim World paled in comparison, with the latter's being really buggy as well.

Too bad I have no idea where those disks have gone. Do you know if the "ground school" material in the Flight Simulator X lesson briefings are pretty much the same thing?

Had a quick look at the "Lessons" section of the learning center presented by Rod Machado and it looks similar to the PDF Ground School book that came with FS2002.  Same pictures and diagrams.  Laid out a little different, but the same info.

John Cottreau

 

I asked him about it on YT and at the time he said he didn't know a new sim was coming out and he asked me to send him info on it.

Apparently the instructions to get Rod Machado involved got lost in translation and it went to Ralf Macchio instead.

Wx on. Wx Off.

Forget Rod, I want the Kings in there 🙂

 

Ah, memories

I still have all the boxes since FS4. Can someone give me a hint where the Rod Machado pdf document can be found? Is it required to install the old FS again (not sure I want this as it might hurt the system with old libs) or can it just be copied from one of the disks?

Thanks an kind regards, Michael

Another option if you do not mind spending money, is to purchase a King Schools or other company's training product and practice techniques in the simulator.  Most training products can be viewed on computer or on apple/android tablets and phones.  I am just now the exploring the King training but I previous purchased the Sporty's Pilot Shop Private and instrument training and even though I am just a simulator pilot, I like to learn and try to operate the simulator as realistically as possible.

 

Mike

Rod does occasional flight instruction (in his own words) He resides in Orange County, California. So you can reach out and schedule flight out KSNA in his Cessna 😉