18 hours ago, hangar said:

@Funky D Commander 115 isn't it? From Flightsim developers?

Yup! I loved all of FSD's planes back in the day.

13 hours ago, Naki18 said:

At Emma Field?  With Dreamfleet Archer in 2nd pic.

The Archer it is... and you got the developer for the scenery, but it's actually LAGO's Ranger Creek (21W) from the Georender series. The first pic is Flying M Ranch (OR05) from the same series. I actually didn't know about Emma Field, looks like this was a great looking scenery back in the day as well!

There are a few freeware versions of Ranger Creek out there for MSFS, but I don't think I'll ever get the same feeling of landing there that I did back in the day with this scenery.

Performance though... I have screenshots where I locked to 15 fps. I always had pretty beefy processors with mid-range graphics cards. The performance of MSFS these days is a dream in comparison.

7 hours ago, JJ_ said:

I am disappointed that no one has mentioned the SF260 Marchetti. I flew that one and the Citabria, Decathlon and Scout and then on to the two versions of the Duke and the wonderful Legacy. All are greatly missed!

I loved the SF260 so much... I almost posted a screenshot where I was attempting a tailside in that bird, but my attempt was not as impressive as I thought it was 20 years ago. I was fortunate enough to get about 10hrs of IRL flight time in a Citabria, and I remember the RealAir version nailing the awesome visibility and maneuverability of that plane. The ground handling though... after all this time, Microsoft still can't figure out proper ground handling and the consequences of lateral friction. My instructor saved me from losing my lunch (or bladder) during landings more than once.

I understand what you say about "not getting the same feeling" of landing in an equivalent scenery in today's sim compared to good old FS9 (or older), but you might be positively surprised.

Back in that period, I couldn't join to the Emma Field crowd, but I was really enjoying the North Cascades freeware scenery by Holger Sandmann in FS9. Then I was flying everywhere low&slow around Seattle, down to Packwood and Strom, going though Ranger Creek (a simple dirt strip with nothing else, at that time). I could also get the feelings you were getting.

However, having made the same flights in the same area with MSFS, I can safely say that the added effects combined from the ortho scenery, the weather systems (3D clouds/fog) and the lighting, really brought that pleasure back. With a big level up.

16 hours ago, Nickbe said:

 

Project Tupolev freeware. ProTu TU-154-B2.

 

THIS!! was a brilliant piece of freeware, little of which was known outside the ex-soviet/ eastern block  community.

No FMS of sorts but its own tricky navigation system that would keep one busy instead of magenta-watching. If one could port this one over to one of the modern platforms, be it MSFS or P3D it would still be considered as one of the most advanced add ons.

As for the RealAir, I don't feel the MSFS'  physics/ aerodynamics engine is polished enough to provide the required fidelity at this point in time.