Retrospective of a very active simming year...

[jcomm 5,945]

We're getting close to the end of 2023, and many things happened this year flight simulation wise, so, I decided to ask myself what were the best options I did, and also what options I now think weren't the best ...

Being positive, and trying not to mention the negatives, I would place two items in 1st and 2nd among the "Flight Simulation Best Buys 2023" for me:

1st place goes to ==> MFS 2020 expansion for Premium Deluxe, since I owned only the Standard version, and the access it gave me to all of the default fleet, plus some special prices for tittles like the ATR72;

2nd place goes to ==> FSHUD, the best ATC robot I remember having used, so far, since the times of fs9, for the kind of use I can give to this type of addon.

3rd place goes to, ex-aequo ==> P3Dv5.4 and somehow P3dv6 too, the iFly 737 MAX, the FSLabs A321 SL and Airlinetools FlightDeck A32x.

For the first time in more than 10 years I can enjoy more than one flight simulator and one of the addons - FSHUD - is even usable in 3 of these simulators, the P3Ds and MFS.

I think this is one of the most rewarding years I've been able to enjoy in terms of flight simulators and my passion for them 🙂

Edited December 9, 2023 by jcomm

[vadriver 248]

4 hours ago, jcomm said:

2nd place goes to ==> FSHUD

With P3D54 I see.

Have been interested in reading more about the "finer" details of the addon, but can't find any reference to a user guide/manual other than some short notes on the forum site.

Do you or others have a link to a pre-purchase download of such.

[Fielder 3,686]

The great captain. My stars, what a musical voice and talent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike A 343]

1 hour ago, Fielder said:

The great captain. My stars, what a musical voice and talent!

I’ll see your It Was A Very Good Year and raise you a Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds:

 

[jcomm 5,945]

5 hours ago, vadriver said:

With P3D54 I see.

Have been interested in reading more about the "finer" details of the addon, but can't find any reference to a user guide/manual other than some short notes on the forum site.

Do you or others have a link to a pre-purchase download of such.

Negative, the manual pages are inside the application launcher, and they're rather superficial but good enough to point the important aspects of how to properly use it, being it in P3D or MFS.

But the interface is, IMO, very effectively designed, intuitive, so, we progress rather fast on learning how to use it.

Updates happen at a regular pace.

The author is active at the Flight1 forums, tries to answer user questions and address potential bug reports the best way he can. I've seen people complaining about his "mood", but honestly the thing is, some users complain in a rather aggressive way, one that would make me lose my temper if I was a developer...

I am enjoying FSHUD maybe because I don't need a very sophisticated ATC robot, with all the details of ATC operations in IFR environment (VFR is still under development) and since development is very dynamic (quite a few patches since I purchased it 2 months ago) I am sure sooner than later we will get there...

Then it incorporates an AI Traffic functionality, which for me is the cherry on top 🙂

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by jcomm

[vadriver 248]

48 minutes ago, jcomm said:

Then it incorporates an AI Traffic functionality

so how does that compare with VATC, many years older

[jcomm 5,945]

25 minutes ago, vadriver said:

so how does that compare with VATC, many years older

I assume you're referring to VoxATC? Well, I honestly don't recall - used VoxATC with FSX and one of the problems I have is that I don't want to use voice recognition, so, any ATC robots with that "feature" which most will like to have aren't really the best option for me...

Edited December 10, 2023 by jcomm

[FDEdev 955]

10 hours ago, jcomm said:

I think this is one of the most rewarding years I've been able to enjoy in terms of flight simulators and my passion for them 🙂

I'm almost jealous. MSFS was such a disappointment for me from a simulation POV, that this was the first year in more than 40 years without simming!

But at least I found something close, and I'm  thinking about using these models for MSFS 2024....if there's a substantial improvement over MSFS 2020.

Bernt Stolle - Art for Sale | Fine Art America

Edited December 10, 2023 by FDEdev

[jcomm 5,945]

2 minutes ago, FDEdev said:

I'm almost jealous. MSFS was such a disappointment for me from a simulation POV, that this was the first year in more than 40 years without simming!

But at least I found something close, and I'm  thinking about using these models for MSFS 2024.

Bernt Stolle - Art for Sale | Fine Art America

Wow!!!! Didn't know that facet of Bernt !!! WOW !!!

Thank you for that PRECIOUS link !!!

I see your point regarding MFS FDEdev !!! I see it so clearly has by having shared exactly your feelings, but all weighted, the goods and the not so goods, I have to be honest with myself and simply accept that MFS 2020 is INDEED the best that happened to desktop flight simulation in the last 10+ years.

I'm still ready to say bad things about MFS, but heck!!!! I have to be honest and express how close to "being there" it can make me feel specially when used with selected addons of the quality of the PMDG 737, Fenix A320...

[Patco Lch 1,468]

With addon developers pretty much abandonment of P3D I’ve discovered a gold mine of free/donation-ware available I’ve ignored over the years. Wonderful sceneries and some cool aircraft. My P3DV5 has gotten better on a much less capital expenditure. A thanks to those guys. 

[FDEdev 955]

On 12/10/2023 at 3:17 AM, jcomm said:

I have to be honest with myself and simply accept that MFS 2020 is INDEED the best that happened to desktop flight simulation in the last 10+ years.

Thank you for your kind words 🙂 and I fully agree.  MSFS IS definitely the best what happened to desktop flight simulation.

If x-plane, Aerofly or DCS would be even remotely comparable, especially regarding immersion, I would have installed one of these.

I'm pretty sure that I will buy MSFS 2024. 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

[Fielder 3,686]

13 hours ago, Mike A said:

I’ll see your It Was A Very Good Year and raise you a Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds:

 

Even Bob Dylan's Nobel prize winning poetic songs would lose much of their power when declaimed by the spoken word. Apparently, William Shatner did not believe that.

Comedian Steve Allen in the middle 1950's: