Just to add to my last.

I have found that with MSFS, almost since I first installed it, that  I very rarely fly IFR or the airliners any more. I am now very definitely a GA flier and I tend to just pick an Australian airport and fly low and slow around the area, occasionally just doing circuits and bumps totally ignoring ATC which I know is the worst procedural thing to do ever. However, I keep a close watch on other aircraft movements and just do my own thing.  This of course, is all because of the scenery and VR, using the Quest 2, has simply enhanced the entire experience. I really do wonder sometimes if I will ever get back to the formerly beloved IFR airliners and all the cockpit procedures and flight planning etc, which go with that.  Maybe I will be tempted to finally purchase the PMDG line of aircraft if they happen to fall into my price range.

Don't get me wrong either here, as I simply love to just sit in a 747 or A320 cockpit (VR) and just look around in absolute awe at what has been achieved be even the default aircraft. However, I have to admit that I have only flown these "biggies" very few time particularly in comparison to all the GA aircraft.

As an Aged Pensioner, I cannot really afford the payware aircraft anymore, but the absolute joy I experience flying the default aircraft in VR is something I really cannot put into words.

Speaking of that, I have purchase three payware Australian sceneries only for MSFS and the wonderful thing about that, is that with P3D and Xplane, it is almost unplayable (read, not entirely enjoyable) to fly with no payware aircraft or sceneries. I wonder if anyone does fly those two platforms without the "extras" which, over the years, I have spent a fortune on.

We really do have a lot to be grateful for with MSFS and, bugs and problems taken into consideration, I am one very, VERY happy little vegemite.

Regards to all

Tony   

 

1 hour ago, icewater5 said:

Thats very good to hear. I wonder what those obscure questions was .

I think my 2nd favorite experience was passing some exams to pass vfr flights tests in a cessna (FS2004/FS9 i thinks?).

 

The Nav Canada PPL exam consists of 4 sections - general knowledge, navigation, air law and meteorology. As a teacher I know the importance of wording questions properly for an exam.  Some questions were poorly worded and difficult to interpret exactly what was being asked, especially with a multiple guess format showing two out of the four possible answers very close to each other in meaning.

Low and slow sounds good. I was all about the heavies . 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 20224 yr by icewater5

58 minutes ago, icewater5 said:

I dont like unfocused use of language in general. By examiners though (not excused)

HH: Low and slow sounds good. I was all about the heavies .  I was cleared for takeoff (MS ATC, around 2016) and my computer literally imploded. So i would say that was my worst experience.

I think that there is another post for worst Msfs experience ever.

ns

Edited April 16, 20224 yr by bean_sprout

Yep. Lets stay witht the OP here🙂

Been involved since the early beginnings, 64K IBM PC with 160K floppy disks (late 1981).  The best period of flight simulation I have experienced was during the heydays of subLogic's Flight Assignment ATP.  ATP was the first simulator to provide comprehensive coverage of the USA, including all published and approved IFR approach procedures.  Though enroute weather and winds had to be user controlled, live weather factors were available online (Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, Pointcast) to work from. 

The aircraft included in ATP were much sophisticated for the day.  The ATP sim was predicated on completing a series of 50 graded or evaluated flights, leading to certification.  ATC was perhaps still the best native ATC experienced in a flight simulator, and still today embarrasses any native ATC of any other version. And the place in my heart for Flight Assignment ATP was personal effort as Chief Pilot in the first Virtual Airline, SunAir - Airways of Imagination https://sunairexpress.com/, founded on the Prodigy network in 1992.

After the demise of subLogic, a skillful programmer/developer, Simon Hradecky, of Austria, kept breathing life into ATP for us for several years through his patches and later founding of Nomisoft https://www.nomissoft.com/simon.html.  Simon deserves along with Bruce and Stu to be initial inductees into any Flight Simulator Hall of Fame!

Due to my business career I fell away from SunAir in 1998, but it and Flight Assignment ATP are still near and dear to my heart!  

I have found many rewarding FS experiences, but have not yet found a superior FS experience. It is easy to acknowledge the advancements in visual effects such as Megascenery Earth USA versions for FSX/P3D, xplane; aircraft models from A2A, RealAir, PMDG, etc,; weather and weather elements from REX and HiFi, avionics from F1 and more recently RXP;  and of course MSFS 2020 and its badly needed surrounding developer/developments. 

ATP was about flying.  And it was great!

 

Edited April 16, 20224 yr by fppilot

My first flight sim was FS 5.1 in late 1995. MSFS 2020 has blown me away multiple times since release. I recently bought a Quest 2 and flying in VR has been mind blowing! 

One more point from here (annoying for me becauase i was working yesterday and didnt read your post in full).

So i will add that the community is important, and here it is very good. MSFS 2020, in particular, is not a picnic to set-up for some of us and the technical expertise here (even down to registry editing, script file entries and the like) is impressive, to say the least.

 

 

On 4/15/2022 at 11:30 AM, jcomm said:

Hey Mario ! Long time no see... now I kind of know why 🙂  Writing a book requires allocation of pretty much all of the "spare" time...

Hi jcomm, thanks a lot for your awesome reply! Well, yes, I was quite busy and that book was not easy work. Sounded simple at first when I had the idea, but it took much more time, focus and patience; I have written a lot of stuff before, but this one was somehow special (esp. with my crazy goal of covering not just MSFS, but also XP, AFS and even FG in mostly equal scope).

 

Your post is awesome, since it is bascially a personal history of flight simulation and shows that your "uninstallation" is actually a sign of your love for flying and flight simulation, and I'm glad that despite the un-installing you're still with us 🙂

On 4/15/2022 at 11:30 AM, jcomm said:

Soaring simulators were never my beach, although I did appreciate SFS v2 and then v3, later Condorsoarin ( 2006 ) and SilentWings ( 2007 / 2008 ). I returned to Condorsoaring later, but I seldom played it.

Is that because of your real-world gliding experience?

Is it ok if I quote you in my book?

On 4/15/2022 at 5:27 PM, cobalt said:

1983, taking off for the first time in FS2 with scenery that consisted of a runway that grew smaller as I lifted off the ground. No buildings, ground universally green with no texture, sky and water the same shade of blue, "clouds" represented by a white strip at the top of the screen, no external view of the plane, just six instruments -- but wow!  (You had to be there).

Thanks for this!

Reminds me of my first "flying game" experience on an old East-German Z80-clone home computer. It was not a simulator, mostly a tiny quick reaction game with a plane, but it had a take off phase where the runway moved, the green was slowly replaced with blue and the plane took off. When I experienced that for the first time, I shouted excitedly to my mother "look, look, I'm flying!!" - and then I crashed because I had no idea of what to do.

May I quote you in my book?

Edited April 17, 20224 yr by MarioDonick

On 4/15/2022 at 9:56 PM, ryanbatc said:

I started with FS5.0 - after seeing a short demonstration by a family friend.  I was easily hooked and have flown almost all the civilian simulators since that point.  This also jump started my love of aviation, and lead me to obtaining my pilot's license and encouraged me to start a great career in air traffic control.  I still use MSFS to keep current on instrument approach procedures which pertain to the area I work ATC in.

Thanks Ryan! This is interesting - did simulation help you with getting your pilot's licence?

For my own, unfinished, real-world flying, simulation was in parts helpful (when it came to better understand theory, for planning, for navigation etc), but I also had moments when I felt: No, I should stop using flight simulations for a few weeks, to not get confused by the simplifications in the simulated environment.

Also to you the question if it is okay to quote you in my book?

On 4/15/2022 at 10:40 PM, Doering said:

I should also add, that in terms of educating, my background knowledge of aviation all acquired from Flight Simulator accelerated me through ground school and my flight training for my PPL except for those obscure and misleading questions on the Transport Canada exam! 
Aspects of aircraft speed, distances and height for circuit training, approaches and landings were almost like second nature in real life as a result of several previous years of flight simulation. 

Thank you for this! Did your instructors know that you were using Flight Simulator and if they did, did they appreciate this, or have they been sceptic about it?

May I quote you in my book?

Edited April 17, 20224 yr by MarioDonick

On 4/16/2022 at 12:48 AM, himmelhorse said:

I am now very definitely a GA flier and I tend to just pick an Australian airport and fly low and slow around the area, occasionally just doing circuits and bumps totally ignoring ATC which I know is the worst procedural thing to do ever. However, I keep a close watch on other aircraft movements and just do my own thing. 

Well, flying at uncontrolled airports does not require ATC anyway 😉

Can I quote this passage in my book?

On 4/16/2022 at 2:49 AM, fppilot said:

After the demise of subLogic, a skillful programmer/developer, Simon Hradecky, of Austria, kept breathing life into ATP for us for several years through his patches and later founding of Nomisoft https://www.nomissoft.com/simon.html.  Simon deserves along with Bruce and Stu to be initial inductees into any Flight Simulator Hall of Fame!

Thanks for reminding me of this sim! I immediately contacted Simon if he has still copies to sell, but unfortunately it's totally sold out and I also can't find it on eBay. Alas!

1 hour ago, MarioDonick said:

Your post is awesome, since it is bascially a personal history of flight simulation and shows that your "uninstallation" is actually a sign of your love for flying and flight simulation, and I'm glad that despite the un-installing you're still with us 🙂

Is that because of your real-world gliding experience?

Is it ok if I quote you in my book?

Thank you for your kind words Mario.

And yes of course ! Feel free to quote whatever you find useful.

The gliders seldom feel well represented in most of the flight simulators I used, with exceptions being those of Flight Unlimited I and then III ( with the Stemme ), and later Silent Wings and Condorsoaring.

Gliders in AFS were almost there too, with some limitations though, but I suspect that a "spcialist" on their FM approach could fine tune it to the level of being also very acceptable.

Edited April 17, 20224 yr by jcomm