Hi from a forum newbie...

[KevyKevTPA 46]

I'm new to Avsim (though I may have had an account many, many moons ago), and thought I'd just say a quick hi!

I'm Kevin, from the Tampa Bay area, and while I'm new to Avsim (well, maybe), I'm not new to real life flying, or sim-flying.  I learned to fly at KPIE here in St. Pete, then moved out to Vancouver, WA, where I was based out of KTTD, but found I just wasn't using my plane nearly often enough to justify the expense, so I sold it and got out of the flying game altogether more years ago than I'd care to admit.  I've since become disabled (my legs don't work right), so I'm not sure even if I had the money if I could get a medical...  ☹️

I've been sim-flying since the late 80s, most recently with FSX, but life got in the way and I got away from that, too.  But FS2020 got me back into the sim-flying game, and I'm loving it!  While I'm anxiously awaiting PMDG and others to release study level airliners (I just can't with the default ones, except it seems the FBW A320neo mod might be a game changer), I'm really enjoying some GA IFR flying with both default and Carenado planes (though those are broken for the time being).  The TBM is rapidly becoming my favorite, especially since I prefer to use real world weather, and we're getting into the heart of icing season.

I just ordered a T.1600 stick to replace my 8 year old Cyborg-X that I just happened to have stored in a box in the garage, that sucks, and that's the nice version.  I intend to get a nice controller setup, I'm currently thinking a Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant paired with their new Tango flight stick, but the Tango isn't out yet, and the Bravo is nowhere to be found.  I would go with their Alpha yoke, but my disability kind of rules that out because out of necessity whatever I use will have to sit on my lap, or on my bed beside my legs, and I can't use rudder pedals, so a stick with twist rudder control (from anyone) may be my only viable option.  Who knows, if I like it enough, I may keep the T.1600 in lieu of the Tango stick, and pair that with the Bravo when I can find one and not pay scalper prices.

As far as my rig goes, I'm currently running an OCed 10600K with a very OCed 2070 Super, all paired with a nice 32" 1440p display, and my old 28" 1080p as a second display.  I have an HP Reverb G2 pre-ordered as well, it should arrive around the same time that VR support for FS2020 goes live, so I'm really excited about that.  My 2070S is doing just fine, including for FS2020 (most of the time), so no current plans to upgrade, but when I can get a 3080 Super (which does not yet exist except in my imagination) for at least MSRP, I may be tempted.  But I figure that's at least a year out, probably more.

I use SimBrief, Navigraph, and pilot2ATC for companion apps, though P2A hasn't completely updated itself for FS2020.  I've also had issues recently with P2A expecting dive-bomber types of descents, but I'm hoping the new Airac (which came out today) might help with that!  We'll see...

Anyway, that's my story, at least as it applies to things related to Avsim, nice meeting y'all.

KevyKevTPA

PS...  Is there any way to set "Notify me of replies" to always on?  I only have a handful of posts so far, but I've already forgotten to turn that on several times.

[charliearon 3,023]

Go into your account settings/notification settings and scroll down and turn on what types of notifications you would like.

[HighBypass 2,339]

WELCOME! Sorry to hear about your condition, Kevin.

You mention that you have ordered a t1600 stick - does that come with a HOTAS throttle too? The reason I ask is that, from viewing the images, the throttle appears to have a proportional rocker lever on the front of it which could be used for hand-controlling the rudder.. I have a T.Flight HOTAS X and the rocker is how I used to control the rudder before I got a set of pedals even though the stick also has a twist axis.

For real life flying, the Ercoupe doesn't have any rudder pedals should you ever come by the money again..🍻

 

[Chock 17,769]

Welcome to Avsim. 🙂

[kowen 64]

I started my flight training out of KPIE but had to put it on halt due to a marriage, kiddos and divorce #1. Finished PPL a few year back out of VDF and loving flying around the area. Getting ready to make the same mistake you did, purchase a plane and regretting the expense. But simming got me hooked. 

Welcome

[stans 702]

Welcome to Avsim, Kevin!  Sorry to hear about your disability.  As for upgrading to a 3080 Super... or 3080Ti... or any 3xxx card, they might be available by the time Nvidia releases the 4xxx series cards. 😆

[KevyKevTPA 46]

On 12/3/2020 at 2:19 PM, HighBypass said:

WELCOME! Sorry to hear about your condition, Kevin.

You mention that you have ordered a t1600 stick - does that come with a HOTAS throttle too? The reason I ask is that, from viewing the images, the throttle appears to have a proportional rocker lever on the front of it which could be used for hand-controlling the rudder.. I have a T.Flight HOTAS X and the rocker is how I used to control the rudder before I got a set of pedals even though the stick also has a twist axis.

For real life flying, the Ercoupe doesn't have any rudder pedals should you ever come by the money again..🍻

 

Thanks!

The t1600 comes with an optional HOTAS, which I did not order because it looks subpar to me, and the Honeycomb Bravo just looks like it's infinitely superior.  It does come with a twist axis for rudder, and while I was initially concerned, those concerns have proven to be unfounded as after a day and a half of using it, I'm REALLY liking it.  In fact, I'm liking it so much I may have to reassess if I really want to replace it or not with Honeycomb's new Tango stick, or whatever they're calling it.  I was just assuming that coming from Honeycomb it would be head and shoulders above, and it still might be as many details have not yet been released, at least to my knowledge.

But it's not the slam dunk certainty that I'm going to replace it that it was 48 hours ago.

Gonna take some more experience to see what I think about it's performance on crosswind landings, I've found that to be a problem, but a global one, so we'll see.  I'm not sure the flight model really properly responds to hand flying a crosswind landing to begin with, but for better or worse, that's nothing new.  It's not something I feel like I've tested enough yet to have an informed opinion about.  

[KevyKevTPA 46]

On 12/4/2020 at 9:13 AM, stans said:

Welcome to Avsim, Kevin!  Sorry to hear about your disability.  As for upgrading to a 3080 Super... or 3080Ti... or any 3xxx card, they might be available by the time Nvidia releases the 4xxx series cards. 😆

Thank you, and indeed to everyone who reacted to my disability.  But, I look at it this way...

Yeah, it sucks.  BUT, by any available metric you might want to use, I should be dead several times over (and was, I just came back from the other side, and yes, I remember it.  Sort of, anyway...), as people just don't survive what my body went through, but...  I did!!  Somehow.

So when I look at it through that particular lens, it's not really that bad after all.  

As for the 30-series stuff, you were joking (I think), but you're probably not that far off from reality!  The only reason I'm even remotely thinking I may need an upgrade (other than the fact that I'm going to eventually no matter what) is that I'm concerned about how it's going to perform with FS2020 in VR with my G2s.  But the reality is that despite people's online bluster and bragging about upgrading to the latest and greatest 30-series shiny object, I can't imagine that more than about 2% of the FS2020 user base has actually done so, and I just don't think MS or Asobo would put their reputations in jeopardy over a feature that only such a relative small handful of users can use and enjoy.

But until I get them, I can only speculate, and sometimes I spend way too many brain cycles doing that!

[Matt B 33]

Hello Kevykev...

Welcome and how does the quality of the image look on that setup... I'm asking because I would like a bigger screen.  I actually used HDMI out to my 70 inch tv, but was a little disappointed as the picture on my laptop was far superior and more vivid.  Is there certain settings you use or a certain resolution I'm looking for?

Matt

[KevyKevTPA 46]

On 12/7/2020 at 4:36 PM, Matt B said:

Hello Kevykev...

Welcome and how does the quality of the image look on that setup... I'm asking because I would like a bigger screen.  I actually used HDMI out to my 70 inch tv, but was a little disappointed as the picture on my laptop was far superior and more vivid.  Is there certain settings you use or a certain resolution I'm looking for?

Matt

Well, I put the actual sim exclusively on my larger monitor (which is a 32" 1440p Samsung C32HG70) at it's native 1440p, but I do NOT use HDR.  I have been less than impressed with the HDR performance, but I'm not sure if it's because my monitor itself just isn't that good at it, if HDR is really just more mature and intended for TVs, or if I just don't know how to set it up properly.

As far as sharpness goes, it's sharp as a tack, and I don't see myself even dreaming about going to 4K as I just can't imagine getting a visually noticeable difference from it.  I mean, if someone offered to hook me up with a 4K monitor, a stronger GPU, and whatever else I might need for free, I wouldn't say no, but I'm not gonna rush out and do it with my own money even if it's not all that much.

I can see how a 70" TV might look less than sharp, but that's because older versions of HDMI couldn't do what DP could (though I think they're both pretty equal now as long as you have the latest and greatest), I think it's very important to be running at the display's native resolution (and whatever your TV's native resolution was, it was not 1440p as that's strictly a PC display thing), and viewing it from across your living room is very different than looking at even a smaller display from 24" (give or take) away.

In fact, I did an experiment once (to see if I could get better performance) and set FS2020 to 1080p, and it looked like word not allowed on my monitor.  (And it did not help performance a bit.)  I think that's because 1080p is NOT the native resolution of my monitor, even though I've viewed other 1080p sources (for example, YouTube) that do not look as bad as that experiment did, or even bad at all.

When simming, I put other things on my smaller 1080p display like Navigraph, p2ATC, Task Manager and other performance monitors if I'm using them, and life is good.

So, I hope I answered your question, feel free to ping me again if you'd like additional info...

[KevyKevTPA 46]

On 12/3/2020 at 10:32 AM, charliearon said:

Go into your account settings/notification settings and scroll down and turn on what types of notifications you would like.

Thanks, that worked and did exactly what I wanted it to.

[The Flight Level 2,113]

Welcome and enjoy your time here and while flying!

[MAJORQUATTRONUT 1]

Hey to everyone.  I'm also from the TPA area.  I have just taken up simming using Xplane and WOW is the learning curve steep when downloading plugins and ESPECIALLY ortho scenery!  I thought i knew my way around a computer but man has it been challenging.

Anyway I've been in love with Aviation since I was 11 (I'm 70 now) and got my VFR just before going into the FAA as a controller at MEM ARTCC then at KSRQ tower until the strike in 1981. Worked a few months at KPIE on the ramp last year but the work ethic of the "kids" was deciding factor in retiring.

If anyone is interesting in helping an old fart get Xplane :tuned", just hollar.  I'm in Dunedin.

FLY SAFE!

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by charliearon
email removed to prevent spamming. Contact members by PM

[charliearon 3,023]

Welcome MAJORQUATTRONUT! I did edit your email address out for safety reasons.  Spammers peruse these forums and copy them down so they can send you phishing emails.

[MAJORQUATTRONUT 1]

THANKS MUCH!