Hi all, I just had a terrific time planespotting in the tower offline at Heathrow with real airlines (Courtesy of Ultimate Traffic) and listening to ATC radio traffic! Sad I know but it was amazing how time flew as I watched and listened to the planes arriving and departing. For those that maybe missed it or dont know yet, the way to get tower controller offline is to simply set up your tower controller online in multiplayer and then once you have it all set to your liking, save the flight. then exit multiplayer,choose freeflight and load the flight you just saved. Once it is loaded if you choose cockpit view, you will be able to switch from desk to desk around the tower. You will also be able to switch radio frequencies from approach to tower, to ground etc. One word of warning on changing frequencies though. I had to click on the frequency number at the top and use the mouse to change frequency rather than highlight the desired frequency on the list as doing this always resulted in a system crash for me. This may be specific to my machine but I thought I should mention it anyway. So there you go. If you get tired flying and fancy something different, a spot of observing from the controll tower may just be the way to spend some time as you relax with your cuppa and watch the world go by. Aces, you guys have surpassed yourselves with this sim. Thanks for all the enjoyment I am getting from this product.

Thanks for the suggestion. For ATC enthusiasts, this is just the ticket. I was amazed at how well the program simulates radio communications around the airport. It's easy to change frequencies and follow a flight as it moves through the system. I really dont mind the "passive" nature of this activity-- similar to plane-spotting at the local airport with your radio scanner except that you can see the planes better! I posted a new thread on this subject so that others may discover this feature.

something else you can do if you get bored with flying:take the ultralight up into the mountains and land at the top and then'sled' down the side. see how far down and how fast you can get withoutbecoming airborne. I did that a lot in the demo.BTW: I know this has nothing to do with ATC but it has everythingto do with 'things to do when bored'.I FS9 I used to enjoy playing a game with the glider. Slew up to an altitudewhich would be high enough to get you to one of the nearby airportswithout 'cheating'.It was fun trying to guess the altitude. In FSX, you don't have to do that.

Thanks, I spent several hours playing this at KBOS, KASH, and KMHT. It's awesome with a TrackIR. Too bad you can't switch between airports (well, you can if you set a parking spot at the tower location. Where's AFCAD3???). They did a really nice job on the tower room. Very nice texturing.I wonder why they don't let you enter the tower in free flight mode as a regular option? I, if they don't add that functionality, that they don't take this backdoor away. I think it's a lot of fun.Hmm, as a workaround, I wonder if you could create a program which creates a Helicopter landing pad at the top of the tower of each airport in FSX. This would be a quick and dirty way of being able to switch between airports once you are in.I don't know much about traffic, but I found it interesting that, even though I left the default spots, and added lots more just normal blank parking spots in my version of KASH from FS9, that I didn't get any default traffic at the airport till I used the default version of KASH. Can anyone clue me in on what I am doing wrong?Even with the default KASH, I didn't get much traffic. KBOS was great right off the bat, and KMHT built up to a good level over the course of a half hour or so. And I could see what looked like was a Maule doing circuits at KASH. I wonder if that is designed in. There often are a lot of circuit people at Class D airports like that. Especially so at KASH since Daniel Webster College is there with its flight school.I did watch a Maule come into KMHT. Boy, did he bounce that thing on landing. But he (or she) got it under control quickly and didn't ground loop. And its amazing how quickly the big iron AI can come to a stop (hehe).I can imagine in the future being able to control the AI by voice. I'm assuming that'll be FSXV, but I can imagine it.Thanks again,Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

Question on those who have been plane spotting in SFX. Do you hear/notice any difference in the updated AI sounds as compared to FS9. I usually plane spot with FSHotseat because of their AI effects but have never done this with FSX (Gee... guess I should). Wasn't sure if FSX actually supplied new AI sound files or that is just capable for the simmer to edit/add new and improved AI sounds? Be curious to hear feedback.thxClutchProject 9Dragons