Musings of a old bush flyer

[Guest missionballer]

and let me state first off, to you folks who may not know, a bush flyer is one who flies out away from the big hubs, and usually sees more polar bears than Polar Air 747's.While i was doind a nice cargo run from Prince Rupert(CYPR) to Bella Bella(CAF2) in the Beaver, i was also thumbing through the forum here and came across a post of someone complaining about how little addons have been released for FSX. This puzzled me as i steered my Aerosoft Beaver through a simulated world made better with FSGenesis scenery mesh, HiFi Simulation's ActiveSky X and ActiveGraphics X, and a sky made prettier by Real Sky Pro Edition for FSX. I wont even mention the other payware planes i have sitting in my virtual hangar, but oh my that Eaglesoft Columbia 400 is one fun plane to fly, and can almost hang with the jets in the fast lanes. While people say that FS9 is still the best effort MS has put out yet, I remember a time when even that sim was a dog to perform when it first came out. Im two systems down the road from the rig that first ran FS9 and can now say it runs OK. But I am now a full time FSX convert for one simple reason, it is just a better sim, just no doubt about it. The reason you dont see a huge add on being released everyday for fsx like you did fs2004 in its prime is because to be honest, just about everything worth putting out as a product for fs2004 was done. Im not going to deny that. But put yourself in the shoes of some of these developers. Many of them don't do the flight sim add on development thing full time, they have other commitments, and many have simply moved on to the next thing that comes upon them in their lives. I suspect this is a major reason why one of the greatest addons of all time, FSNAV, has not been updated to FSX standards. I have found a perfectly good replacement for FSNAV called FS Commander. Once again, another fine piece of payware that is happily for both FSX and FS2004. People gripe about not having the ease of using the F9 key to go to your moving map ala FSNAV, i found the remedy for that in just adding a second monitor, which also enables me to do other things such as write this post while flying my flight sim.Yes i consider this MY flight sim. So should everyone who is serious about this hobby of ours. I take it probably a bit more seriously than most, and get slightly offended when i hear people say "this game is better" or something like that. I discount remarks like that because this isn't a game. This is an ongoing means for those who don't have the ways and means to be a REAL pilot to achieve things that REAL pilots never get to do. While my next door neighbor may be a pilot and do some weekend 100 dollar hamburger runs, i can almost bet he hasnt flown into Heathrow, or any other multitude of places i can fly into in any given session. Thats the beauty of our hobby. Throw in a little imagination, and BAM we all have little silver wings on our chest.I have forgotten where i started with this, this IS a rambling after all, and i am closing in on Bella Bella. Time to take the yoke and land. One last thing, Aces is tops in my book, Phil Taylor, I don't know how you deal with all the pressure, we simmers are a demanding bunch, sometimes way too much. But i am one happy simmer, FSX is a dream come true for us. My specs-- AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual core Processor 4200+@2.2 GHZ4 gigabytes of DDR2 system RAMNVIDIA GeForce 8500GT 256MB (soon to be upgraded to the 8800 GTS OC)300GB HD that is defragged every two weeks(very important)2 19" Westinghouse LCD monitors with DVI connections to the video cardSaitek X52 Joystick and throttle

[fbass 1]

Some words of patience might be in order here. Users need to remember, when reflecting on the number of addons to FSX, that almost everything associated with FSX is in transition/development. Vista is new and I would bet that there are some things that are being addressed that will change in some future service pack. FSX is in transition because of Vista and certainly because of DX10 and its development.With all of those things in the mix, it is no wonder that developers are being cautious with new products. DX10 requires all developers to address new graphics display issues. I think early releases of products may have to be modified when the DX10 issues and changes to FSX are finalized.My point - be patient and let MS get a more firm handle on all these transitional items. I believe the market will begin to really fill out when we get to that point. In the meantime - use the "teaser" and see what the future holds for all of us. Try it, you'll like it - just ask Mikey. :-)fbFSX BETA Test Team