>:) That's a great post..and one I can identify with. I too>make my living flying professionally (I think our jets are>only about $4-million each though..hehe..) and I also spendWow. Sometimes I do get ridiculed from the otehr pilots as they just "don't get it".... what do you fly? Where?

I have been flying 757/767 for the past 2 years, flew ATR, EMB135/145, 737 and always find myself firing up FS (especially when on reserve :) ) ... Lately I am interested in bush flying, as my computer needs a much needed upgrade, I cannot fly around major cities/airports in FSX... The Maule is fun to fly... Anyways, glad to see other pilots with the same passion for simming... Happy landingsJohn

>>Interesting story, cause I assumed the opposite would>happen>>too. I have a question. Does flight simming teach you any>bad>>habits that could possibly compomise your real world flying>>skills?? And if your flying through clouds but suddenly you>>see a blue screen, does it scare you? :-lol>>No bad habits as far as I know after all these years of both.>I would be scared if real clouds were blue inside ! :) Thank>goodness, FSX does have 0 vis inside clouds now ...Hmmmm,I have never had this problem with FS9 either. Clouds are zero visibility for me when flying through them (grey screen, like flying through fog)Do you mean the overcast problem where you suddenly go into blue sky and the cloud base below you disappears?Glenn

Great review, and I'm happy to get the links here. Otherwise I'd probably missed it!BTW, hopefully RealAir will get some of their airplanes with much improved rudder control for "knife edging" incorporated into FSX, not to mention "spins".And this quote: "Personally, after spending many, many hours with FSX over the past couple of weeks, I have grown to love it. And firing up FS9 to do the comparison shots made the differences even more clear to me." It's the same here. This morning I took a FSX Lear flight out of KSLC using real weather updated every 15 mins, and FSGenesis topography mesh. My mesh sliders are pretty well maxxed. The weather around here is rain, and a good mix of cloud cover. I also have the animation slider on, for whatever effects are added weather wise.To keep my target rate of 25 fps on the high end, I've elected to keep water effects & auto-gen off, for this type of city/mountain flight around 15,000 agl. Let's just say that the look of the climbeout out of KSLC was awesome! With rain & wet runway effects, my fps did dip down to 9fps on the initial climbout. No stutters, but I do notice the lower fps. But what's amazingly beautiful, is how the crisp photo-like city and mountain textures show between the cumulous clouds. The whole look is very effective & satisfying! So much, like real flight! At around 15,000 agl, my CPU is once again running very close to my target rate of 25 fps with lots of clouds below, and some to the sides. Very smooth and stutter free!And then of course, I just had to do the FS9 comparison. Another takeoff out of KSLC, in the default Lear, and real weather updated every 15 mins. With FS9, I'm running full auto-gen & mid level water effects. And why not?, FS9 requires auto-gento hide those blurry ground textures! :)With a lot more effects running for FS9, my rain soaked takeoff out of KSLC actually slowed down to 10fps for a bit with lot's of cloud cover in the climb. What's especially noticeable is FS9's "pathetic" look of the city and mountain textures as compared to FSX. In fact, there is no comparison! FSX's resolution of these textures has just improved too much, for me to appreciate FS9 again, at least in this area of the U.S. What I really found interesting, is that at 15000' agl, where a lot of auto-gen trees are not showing anyway, is that FS9 was running at around 14 fps with all the clouds, where FSX was running close or 25 fps with the same types of cloud cover. I do believe that FSX has made some gains in frame rates regarding clouds.All in all, I get more impressed with FSX "nearly" everytime I use it. Certain areas in FS9 still look better, although the lower res textures leave much to be desired. But in the city/mountain enviroment that I'm use to flying in, FSX is now coming out far ahead. And that's jet cruising high above the mountain tops, which isn't exactly bush flying. L.Adamson- Athlon64 3800/2Gig/Geforce 7600GS 256MB/1600*1200*32 res.

I have none of your "problems" ;). But I can certainly understand how flying an expensive "execu-jet" might get real boring. I would suggest the purchase of a Beaver or C206...and a long, enjoyable trip to Alaska and B.C. Does the wife "do" outdoors??

Hey Peter:God bless ya! But look man, trust me on this: As soon as you get to your layover, strip off that uniform and tell the rest of the crew where to meet ya!With that said, if you're flying corporate I dunno how much fun you can have with your crew as I'm sure it's smaller than flying commercial line, but I fondly remember my days at COA. Flying the 727 and the 737, the captain has already dictated the schedule for the evening and we haven't even pushed back from the gate on the first leg yet! Already assessed the flight attendants and placed them into the following categories:1 - Single and willing1a - Single and willing but ugly2 - Single and not willing3 - Married and happy4 - Married and unhappy5 - Married but doesn't give a rat's @$$!6 - I'm in room 323, be there!Category 6 is usually what makes the 24 hour LAX layover legendary and Category 5 causes one to assess one's own personal religious beliefs (hint: I'm a pagan WOOOOOO-HOOOOO!). Usually the one who is staring at ya at the crew briefing in the morning is the one you're gonna be having a drink with in the evening :-lolI envy you my friend. These are the best days of your life. I left after COA filed their last bankruptcy and had their furloughs and I regret every single day. If I didn't have the house, cars, and family I'd trade in my paycheck for that of a new F/O any day of the week.Now, I relive my 'glory days' through MSFS. But YOU! You live it for real. Close that laptop and get into some trouble while you can. As for me...well, I've got some great stories to share with my son when he turns 18! PS. ALWAYS carry a bottle of strawberry massage oil in your flight bag! It's more important even than your terminal maps...trust me!

>Wow. Sometimes I do get ridiculed from the otehr pilots as>they just "don't get it".... what do you fly? Where? Haha..all the other pilots at my company (MedCenter Air in Charlotte, NC) laugh at me and know I'm the ultimate nerd. I always carry my laptop with me..and always have my digital camera.Our company is an air-ambulance company...we have a Citation V, a Citation Ultra and 3 King Air 200s. I've been with the company for 8 years now and am a Captain on all the aircraft. I really enjoy the job. And I enjoy flight simming..and have since way back in the Flight Simulator 2.0 days...I'm always enthused to see other real-world pilots on the forums encouraging other people...being part of the aviation business we more often hear all the crap news and don't get to see the enthusiasm. I still love flying..and love my job...Regards..Chris "BeachAV8R" Frishmuth

Haha Mike T, great "review" :)And it's great to see the sim from a "pilot's point of view". Thanks for sharing and making such a great thread!---------------------------------------Kasper BehrentzsDenmarkhttp://img410.imageshack.us/img410/4853/bannerigifru8.gifALL NEWS FROM FSX COLLECTED AT ONE PLACE!MY SITE, http://www.xflightx.piczo.com

Mike T - That's a funny post... I tell ya'..I considered going to the airlines..but I'm glad I haven't. I enjoy the job I have now and I've seen and heard a lot of the bad stuff that goes with the good at the airlines. Every year I go out to SimuFlite in Dallas for re-current training on the Citation. The DFW area is loaded with retired American Airlines guys..and a lot of them teach at SimuFlite. They have the best stories...of the glory days of aviation (the 70s - 80s). This one DC-10 guy would recount some of his finest moments flying internationally with something like 10 or 12 flight attendants on the airplane..and the 24 hour layer over Paris or Rio or wherever.. Man..what a life! Anyway...guess I'm wandering now...hehe..BeachAV8R

BeachAV8R, Wow...amazing work on the articles. You really get at the depth and breadth of enhancements in FSX. I

I read your review on SimHQ a few days back. A link to it was posted by P-12C from ACES on his blog:http://blogs.technet.com/p-12c_pilot/archi...w-by-simhq.aspxIt was an excellent and very informative review, BeachAV8R!

I too, originally got into flight sims because I wanted to fly the real stuff. And sure enough, when I did finally get a pilot's license and start flying the real thing back in 1997, I just carried on using flight simulators anyway :-) I have several friends who have done the same thing, including people who have flown jet fighters in the R.A.F. too.One person on this thread raised the question about whether you could develop good or bad habits from FS and transfer them into the real world, and the answer is a resounding YES. So I'll tell you a few things that transferred to the real world from my simming - both good and bad - including one which I believe saved my life:First, because trimming an aircraft in FS is harder than it is in real life, I was initially reluctant to realise the value of it in real life, so that's one bad habit I had to get out of in the real world. Another one is remembering to touch the brakes after take-off to stop crap spinning up into the gear bay off the tires, because you don't have to do that in a sim!Second, because you tend to look forward much of the time in a sim, I remember being angrily shouted at by my real life instructor for turning an aircraft once without looking first in the direction of the turn to make sure it was clear, never forgot that one! I always do it in the sim too these days to reinforce the real world habit (airfield circuits are busy places).Third, I used to 'grease' aircraft in for landings because I'd done it so often in a sim, until one day I got it wrong and #### near bust the undercarriage when training, from that day, I actually decided to use the technique my instructor had recommended to me, instead of the one I developed myself from flying sims (which incidentally, is much easier to do in real life).Fourth, when I was originally learning to fly, because I had used rudder pedals as well as a stick in sims, and was used to looking at the instruments, controlling a real aeroplane came very naturally to me when I did it for real, so much so, that I was sent solo after just seven hours total instruction. If that doesn't tell you that simming can help you in the real world, then nothing will. My instructor thought I was a 'natural', of course we know that, in truth, simming was probably the one to thank!Fifth, reading up on aviation and practising in a sim, as I have over the years, literally saved my life once. I was being winch launched in a glider and had a cable break at a very awkward 350 feet, this was too far down the field to land ahead and with nowhere beyond the field that would allow me to touch down without hitting the perimeter fences of the surrounding fields (the majority of which were dry stone walls - ouch). Turning back towards the field in such circumstances is generally regarded as a dangerous thing to do, and in fact has killed many a flyer, including one of my flying heroes, James McCudden, who was certainly a very gifted pilot, but was nevertheless killed in this way.Generally speaking, disaster happens because pilots in these circumstances try to turn too flat and stretch their glide, invariably causing a stall or spin. However, in my case, after rapidly assessing the options (or lack of them) and being aware of the possible dangers, I decided to turn back; I stuck the nose down, doglegged left, got plenty of speed up (by which time I was pretty low), then stood the aircraft on its wingtip in a tight right turn to reduce the risk of a spin, all this just above the treetops to come in for a downwind landing back on the field. I had very few hours of real flight time when this happened, but confidence in my knowledge of what an aircraft can and cannot do enabled me to get down safely, and I am certain that much of this was due to many hours of simulated flight time. I remember an instructor saw all this and literally gave me a round of applause when I got back to the flight line, although he did say that any lower and he would have chosen to crash land it ahead :-)Lastly, when you learn to fly, you are initially taught using VFR techniques, before going on to instrument training if you want to. If you have flown simulators for some time, you become more used to using the instruments because the graphics generally aren't up to scratch for pure VFR navigation (of course with more photorelistic terrain these days, that might change). The first time I got caught out and flew into cloud in real life (when I only had VFR experience), it seemed very natural for me to transition to instruments despite at that time having had no formal instrument training, thus I was able to fly the thing without losing control and remained confident in circumstances which were new to me. Guess where I got all that instument knowledge from?Even if I had a Cessna parked at my back door and an airstrip in my garden, I'm certain that I would still fly computer flight sims, and of course there is even more reason to do so these days with FSX, as it does such a good job of creating the feeling of flight.

Mike,Did you have the chance to check out Virgin Atlantic stews? There was a FS98 VA 767 in which the author mentioned that in the VA first class section the stewardess chicks would wear bras and panties! Oh yeah! Fly the friendly skies!There was a survey done where it was found that those who drank socially made more money due to developing more career contacts, etc. But, flying to me is a lifelong dream, I started when I was eight, I think I had to sit on a thick cushion to see anything if I recall, and I couldn't reach the pedals, just held the plane on course during the cruise phase of the flight, and always kept an eye out for a good place to ditch just in case. So flying is a serious passion to me that I take seriously, when I'm involved with flying I don't drink a drop of alcohol at all. Sure, I'd like to pick up on hot chicks, but I wonder if my friends and colleagues in flying might shun me for being so serious minded? Then, I think if I got married, I'd be even more boring. My girlfriends have been breathtaking, one of my favorites resembled Reese Witherspoon only maybe with softer features, and with a figure like Pamela Anderson's. I think Pam Anderson is one of the most beautiful women in recent times, I felt incredibly lucky to have a girlfriend with the same type of figure. (Came to an end, death in the family, and someone else grabbed her.) Any way, such women are one of a kind, I've had girlfriends who are so hot that no one else really interests me. I once brought one of my girlfriends to where I worked, which was filled with whacked out feminazis, my girlfriend's appearance made them all angry. Any way, if I'm fortunate to find another hot chick like them, and got married, I might be even more, boring. I think I'd be like Peter, bring my laptop and FS or X-Plane and fly in the hotel room, plus put in a call to the babe at home to make sure there wasn't anyone pickin' up on her that needed decking! Ha ha!So, tell me about these VA chicks?Hey I was wondering if any of you FSX guys have tried out X-Plane 8.5, and what do you think in comparison? To try the X-Plane demo out, I have to borrow one of my other computer's hard drives to install as a slave on my FS9 computer, as my FS9 hd is way over stuffed.

Nah, never dated (or did anything else to) a VA stew. However, what you are describing can easily happen on a ferry flight.Many times we had to ferry the aircraft...full crew, from point a to point b (usually after maintenance or for an aircraft swap) and if it happens to be the last leg of the evening, let me say, the bar cart can end up empty long before I engage the sterile cockpit light! (And there was usually nothing sterile about the cockpit by that point *oink*) Now how to mimic that in MSFS! A wild flight attendant party addon is what's desperately needed!!! :-badteeth

Oh yeah!