Software advice for High School sim class

[Jaaron 1]

Hello All,

I'm a long time GA pilot recently scooped up by the local rural schoolboard to teach an Introduction to Aviation class.  The school board, God bless them, bought four flight sims (Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo, 3 screens, and top of the line CPUs and graphics cards for P3Dv5 Academic). I bought one years ago for my Multi-IFR tickets and only used it for that purpose (wouldn't have gotten the tickets with out it!).

I have five days left of healthy budget and am asking for your advice on what add-ons to purchase. Am feeling quite overwhelmed with all of the options. 

I understand a lot of your add-on purchases are based on taste. I'm looking for those add-ons that really made a difference to your experience so the kids can feel fully immersed, and the parents and grandparents looking over their shoulders can have an equally immersive experience.

Thanx,

J

[Bob Scott 7,848]

I'm moving this to the P3D forum where it will get better visibility.

For basic flight indoctrination, I'd start with P3Dv5 plus weather and training aircraft add-ons: ActiveSky P3D together with Active Sky Cloud Art (ASCA), and the A2A Cessna 172.

[tymk 111]

4 minutes ago, Bob Scott said:

For basic flight indoctrination, I'd start with P3Dv5 plus weather and training aircraft add-ons: ActiveSky P3D together with Active Sky Cloud Art (ASCA), and the A2A Cessna 172.

Absolutely! 🙂 The 172 is likely the first plane they'll encounter if they choose to start flight school, and there's just nothing that comes close to the A2A C172 when it comes to immersion. If you have time, check out this playlist on YouTube for an overview of the level of detail they went for in this add-on.

[thepilot 653]

I was also going to recommend the A2A Cessna 172, as I'm flying it myself in order to study the basics of flying. It does require reading the manual (and maybe some additional material), but at the same time it's also visually (and acoustically) appealing, making it a gem all along... so, in other words, likely exactly what you're looking for.

[Jaaron 1]

Thanks guys for such quick responses!

The HIFI Active sky (and Cloud Art), as well as A2A 172 are first on the list. The kids are asking, of course, for weapons access in our Academic version. Do you know anything about VRS's TacPack^®/Superbug^™ ? 

Also, I'm wondering if the collection of Canadian Airports from SIMADDONS is still a relevant add-on for P3Dv5.3?

J

 

[Bunkie 43]

Jaaron,

The SIMADDONS Canadian airports are reasonably good, certainly better than default.  I use them all, but they aren't "cutting edge" like Flightbeam etc.  If you have the money, they're worth a go for the ease of installing them all by region.  There are individual airports by various other developers which may/may not be better, but they're all "one off" installs.  SIMADDONS is definitely easier.

Mark

[Jaaron 1]

Oh thanks Mark! Without a review, I had stricken SIMMADONS off my purchase list. You just put it back on and I'm looking forward to checking it out!

J

[VHOJT 202]

I think the RealTurb add-ons can add a lot to the immersion too.  Without it, wind does not interact with hills and terrain around you.  Makes it far more like real-life flying for me.  Fairly cheap too.

Depending on how you like the default camera system - I would say chase plane or EZDOK (only used EZDOK myself) for ease of camera use.  You can assign hotkeyes to views you preset inside the cockpit (or outside)- I wouldn't sim without it.  Someone more enlightened might correct me if you can do this by default with P3D, but I don't believe you can.  Just be sure to turn any effects off if you do decide to use one unless you know what you're doing. - they can interfere with the flght dynamics of the aircraft if you don't know what you're up to.

Cheers,
Rudy