On 8/21/2020 at 8:15 AM, jon b said:

Well there’s this available, but don’t know how good it is...https://sofly.io/product/flight-simulation-guide/

I’m sure nothing will compare to the good old days when we had proper manuals like this....https://www.ebay.com/itm/A2-FS2-Flight-Simulator-II-FLIGHT-PHYSICS-AIRCRAFT-CONTROL-SUB-LOGIC-BOOKS-/124062184210

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you - I grabbed it and it is very well done.  Covers all aspects of setting up the sim, covers all the settings, options, etc., then takes you thru aircraft operations from basic thru the TBM.  There is a 'pro' version to come for airline operations, etc.

Agree, the Sofly guide is informative and well done, In addition all updates are free to download. Currently at 200 pages with lots of good visuals.

Cheers

Martin

I made a wishlist item for wanting official documentation in some form on tbe official forums - https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/add-a-learning-center-or-other-official-documentation/284765

I'd recommend people upvote and comment there if you'd like more.  If we get rebough votes it will go in the feedback summary.

21 minutes ago, marsman2020 said:

I made a wishlist item for wanting official documentation in some form on tbe official forums - https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/add-a-learning-center-or-other-official-documentation/284765

I'd recommend people upvote and comment there if you'd like more.  If we get rebough votes it will go in the feedback summary.

I'd have voted it up if it'd been put more politely.

On 8/16/2020 at 5:04 PM, 2reds2whites said:

"... That level of detail is more than enough for beginners."

Hardly. The checklists demonstrate how to operate the [woefully poorly] functioning G1000? The checklists describe how to begin a session from a cold & dark state? The checklists indicate how to..................? Yes, you and I may know how to do such things, but for a "beginner" these tasks are not 'instinctive' and the software release is daunting. If MS/A is wants to broaden its user base even more robustly than it is now, baptism by fire would not seem to me to be the way to go.

The lack of [.pdf] documentation for a software release of this magnitude is appalling. If one purchases a $15 Hamilton Beach toaster at Walmart, it is accompanied by an instruction booklet. I can download a 320-page .pdf User Manual from Nikon for its D6 camera, and I can download a 1061-page .pdf User Guide from Adobe for Photoshop CC. That MS/A did not include a .pdf version of a manual for software of this magnitude is inexcusable, and I would say disgraceful. Help menus, YouTube videos made by enthusiasts, tutorials spread around the internet, and all such things are fine and dandy; but producing a complex product such as this piece of software without a manual or without comprehensive documentation is akin to Garmin not offering manuals for their products (Garmin has a robust support section wherein product manuals may be downloaded in .pdf format). There should be available a .pdf reference manual for a software package of MFS's complexity... period (and I have been flying the many iterations of MFS since the dinosaurs).

****************************

 

"Hey guys, before we hop in our new airplane with our newly installed Garmin unit, let's simply look at some checklists, let's watch one or two YouTube videos, let's simply ask questions of some buddies or other contemporaries & enthusiasts (not experts), and then, hey... let's just start pressing a bunch of buttons and go flying! Yaayyy!!!"

The (to paraphrase) "well-this-is-just-the-way-it-is-these-days" excuse/rationalization simply legitimizes mediocrity. Those who stand for it deserve it.

Nonsense.

8 minutes ago, spacedyemeerkat said:

I'd have voted it up if it'd been put more politely.

Christ you can't make anyone happy here.

I believe these are some online checklists for the game

http://www.freechecklists.net/simchecklists.asp

On 9/27/2020 at 7:41 AM, marsman2020 said:

I made a wishlist item for wanting official documentation in some form on tbe official forums - https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/add-a-learning-center-or-other-official-documentation/284765

I'd recommend people upvote and comment there if you'd like more.  If we get rebough votes it will go in the feedback summary.

Yeah, whilst I get the need for a manual for some people, How do you propose it would actually work..  let me give you an example...

Last week in the 1.9.3 patch there were 700 changes for Bugs, edge cases and nice to havs.   3 were things I reported to Zendesk as nice to havs, but they changed things in the cockpit somewhat..   this now means that your nice printed manual is already out of date.

They have already said (in the video this week) that they are planning on doing a LOT more training excersises for people to use when they have got past the initial options and problems, and that they are changing their mind about some things..  eg making the Garmin much more operative instead of leaving it to a 3PD...    all of this makes the manual redundant every time a change happens..  

Then you get people complaining that the version of the manual they have is incorrect.

If you are releasing a product and then not planning to change it for a year (read FSX) then yeah, I can see a manual, but these days, we know that the majority don't read (see the number of posts on here about things that are clearly listed in writing on the update etc) and frankly, it's probably a huge wste of paper, or it means a constantly changing PDF, and then you have to keep that PDF upto date...    so  manual...  I can think of better things to do that produce a manual that is out of date before it's even published 🙂

Just my opinion.

Graham

https://store.flightsim.com/product/sofly-a-guide-to-flight-simulator-msfs-2020/

this is a perfect manual for msfs.

I won't be happy until I see titles like "How to tweak your Cessna 152's Flight Dynamics with the MSFS SDK   Wind Tunnel App" or "Programming the MSFS Aircraft Systems in Visual Studio."