Hello!First I got to say that 'm relatively new to Flight Sims, I'm more into Racing Simulations such as Live for Speed, NetkarPro or NASCAR Racing 2003 (by Papyrus, check those Games out if your interested in a serious Car Simulation, however you do need to have a Steering Wheel and Pedals to come to what these Simulations can offer, and Racing Simulations are getting very realistic !!...I have played Flight Simulator 2004 for a year occasionally, and now with FSX I'm really motivated of flyieng again.It is really interesting to fly over the earth and have a look at places one perhaps will never see in his life time, but threw this Sim one can see and imagine how beeing there and fly over the area would look like.So how does your average flight look like?My favorite planes are the Douglas DC3 and the King Air 350.I always talk to the Tower to get take off permission and take a look around with the TrackIR to get comfortable and relaxed. The Immersion is what I try to get threw this, forget the outside world, and just let yourself be carried away in this fantastic virtual World.Then I check some things on the plane before the start, engine running flawlessly, flaps down a bit, every now and then I take a look from the extern views to see "how it all looks like" at what I'm doing.After the flaps are down and the engine RPM up I release the brake and go back to virtual Cockpit to get the nice Immersion of starting while able to look all around with the TrackIR. This is really such a cool thing to do, I recommend it to you. Buy the TrackIR you wont regret it, except if you have 3 monitors and a adapter :)Problem with TrackIR is that it switches from virtual to 2d cockpit view every now and then, but thats maybe due to the alpha version of the TrackIR drivers.So after I lifted off and climped to a certain height, I take a minute and look around again in my virtual cockpit, putting the mouse over something to see how everything is clickable and what it does.Than sometimes I go to my 2nd PC which I have in the same room as my Flight PC and start Google Earth, I take a look at where theres a interesting Airport somewhere, after I found one, I go into the Map in FSX and look hows the name of the Airport.Than I program it into my GPS and get put the plane into the right direction using the Autopilot NAV.What I dont know is how to stay on the precalculated flight directions.So I take a look at the red line on the GPS display and go either 1 or 2 degrees up or down on the Autopilot NAV, that way I try to get as close as possible on the red line.However, after some minutes without readjusting I always drift away from the red line into some other directions.Than after I got on the direction and arrived at a certain height, like 20000 feet I start looking around with the outside view, zoom far out, take a look around, take a look at other views and check them out, then I go back in the virtual cockpit, and after some time of playing around I sometimes go and do something else where.No joke, I put the plane on the path, and literally stand up and do something else like watching TV.Perhaps sounds weird to you Flight Simulation guys, but I than go and watch some TV or surfe the net, take some drink or listen to music... than after a while I go back to the plane and firstly readjust the planes flight direction to match the GPS line again, I start looking around again, check the instruments, see how far I have flought already and so on,...Than I go away again.After about 2/3s of the way I slowly start playing again, first I redirect the plane again, watch on the Map where I am and wheres the Airport and slowly decline speed and altitude....Time to look around at the area again on the virtual cockpit, I see massive mountains, wonderful looking water and cars and trucks on there way on the streets. It feels almost alive to look outside the window of the plane and see all those tiny cars driving. I cant await for the 3rd party mods to bring even more life into what happens on the Ground in FSX. I think there is alot to come in the next couple of years, it feels very nice seeing something going on on the ground already.So, after I have relaxed and know where I am and how it exactly looks like around the plane, I start talking with the Tower again, wheres the Airport, can I land now, all this talking is very nice and raises the immersion factor alot.After the Tower told me where I have to land I start the map again and take a look where I have to land exactly... then I slow down more, lose altitude, look around a lot,.... get the Gear out, flaps out, and set myself on the path.I especially like to land when it gets a little dark and the sun is gone, but its still not totally dark. This does look so realistic I love it!So after I land I talk again with the Tower telling them I want to reload and need a line that show me the way to the Gas station.Then I steer the plane with the Enter and 0 buttons which is very hard to do even in such a smaller plane as the King Air. Sometimes I drive all over the place at the airports, the steering is just so hard that I find myself in big trouble staying anywhere close to the yellow line on the ground.I honestly cant think of how you guys steer the plane exactly on these yellow lines, I must be doing something very wrong as I struggle to keep the plane away from the Gras sometimes.How does your average flight look like? Is it close to mine? How do you people play this Sim?

Always neat to hear how other people do it. Sometimes I get up and do other things, while my plane is cruising, but often not.Sometimes I use 2x or 4x time compression on long flights. Sometimes not.I always use real weather (activesky). If I'm cruising high on ap, I sometimes look at the wx conditions of places around the world, just for fun.If a plane did not have GPS in the real world, I do not fly with GPS in the sim. I consider flying a DC-3 with GPS to be a sacrilege. :)I fly all kinds of aircraft, from low n slow to airliners. I do not have much time in really BIG aircraft, like 747 or A340. My biggest regular plane is a DC-8-70 series, but since FSX I have been flying A321 a lot.For some time now, I have been picking up my new FS session from where I last stopped flying. That means, if I want to see the Himalayas, I will have to fly there. It makes for some interesting flights. RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Obviously, you're new to flight simulation! By God, you didn't even mention anything about "blurry textures", nothing about "lousy" frame rates or needing a super computer to run the program, the horrible 3d and/or 2d panels, the bad flight dynamics and modeling, or rip the Aces Team for releasing the game early or give any professional suggestions to the Aces Team on improving the program. LOL! Sarcasm aside, I really enjoyed reading about the excitement you are obviously having with the new FSX. Your article was great and I'm happy to see someone else is having fun with this game too. I am having fun exploring the "new" FS world too and seeking various challenges provided by the game. I don't have TrackIR but have thought about purchasing it after seeing it in action at the AVSIM conference. I will also purchase 3 21" LCD monitors as I was really impressed seeing FSX running on the 3 large monitors at the conference. But I will wait until Vista, DX10, and DX10 compatible video cards are released before I take that plunge. Meanwhile, I am seriously enjoying flying various aircraft in different parts of the world such as what you have been doing. I like the missions too but have flown only a couple so far. I like flying the KLAX to KSFO route using various aircraft and checking out their systems and ATC. The scenery around Palm Springs is awesome too! I hope you continue to enjoy FSX and let me be the first to welcome you to the AVSIM forums. That was a great first post. Have a great day!Best regards,Jim Young

Thanks. I needed that. You enjoy it, you are on the right track. My average flight right now is similar to yours execpt it is with FS9. I do cold starts at the airport and don't let up until I'm shut down at my destination. I am doing a 48 state touchdown tour. I am currently in Phoenix. I don't speed up the sim, I don't leave the chair, I fly realistic lengths of time so I fly a fast plane (Learjet) and get where I'm going within an hour or so. (and beer drinking don't work well as you probably can guess)You might want to invest in some rudder pedals for that steering problem. It makes life easier, although it is still a challenge as you now have your hands AND your feet in the action. I have a twist rudder and am very very sorry my Thrustmaster system is so outdated. I really miss my pedals since I can no longer fly helicopters and cannot afford new ones.dolph

>If a plane did not have GPS in the real world, I do not fly>with GPS in the sim. I consider flying a DC-3 with GPS to be>a sacrilege. :)I can tell you that most DC-3 still in operation today (at least in the US) do have GPS units mounted in.Michael J.

>>>If a plane did not have GPS in the real world, I do not fly>>with GPS in the sim. I consider flying a DC-3 with GPS to>be>>a sacrilege. :)>>I can tell you that most DC-3 still in operation today (at>least in the US) do have GPS units mounted in.>>Michael J.>I do know that. And good for them.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Glad to hear that you are enjoying yourself. On a little bit of a tangent, The TrackIR shouldn't be switching you between 2D mode and VC mode. It does now work in 2D mode, as well as spot plane view, with FSX.

I love flying out of Aspen with trees loaded to the max.:) Also Las Vegas you have to try turning of your 2nd autogen slider. Turning the top one all the way to the right. Then take off to downtown.