I Updated it for 2020, how I do it for 2024  ? Thanks

13 minutes ago, solito said:

I Updated it for 2020, how I do it for 2024  ? Thanks

You just run the installer and choose MSFS 2024.  Blue skies,

-B

3 hours ago, JYW said:

This is a genuine question and not intended to be condescending in any way ->  I read with interest how you said you tend to use the sim - no technical aspects, etc, mostly for visual use.  How would you use a plane like this?  (I'm only asking because it's so systems-focussed).  Would you do an autostart and just handfly at low altitudes?   If I'm being too nosy just tell me to flip off!

Indeed, I don't have any interest in being a pilot. I spent most of my working life dealing with technical stuff, decoding IBM manuals, writing my own materials and teaching mainframe systems internals, and I also used to be a prime nerd for the PC world. End result is a huge sense of "been there, done that" as far as dealing with knobs and buttons and logic. When I started simming I started to look into all the stuff about flight planning, setting up FMCs and so on and just found the whole thing a huge turn off and too much like work. The pleasure for me is indeed just flying around looking at the world outside and also looking at my aircraft moving through the environment.

But I'm also a bit of a wingnut. I'll buy any aircraft that interests me, whether that's because it's something unusual or reminiscent of my childhood modelling/reading habits, or just good looking (to me) and well modelled. I don't care about the flight model or cockpit accuracy, all I want is the ability to either ctrl-e it or have a ready-running option via the EFB or similar. And so yes, most of my flights start with a hotstart on the runway. Not always, sometimes I'll start at a terminal and have a play with GSX and suchlike, and then I'll either taxi out and take off manually, or just decide that the whole prep thing has been enough for this session. When I'm doing this sort of session I am mostly outside with the drone camera grabbing yet more screenies.

If I do a runway start, I rarely fly more than about 20 minutes once I'm away, and I rarely fly at altitude. And again, it's 99% about external views and camera shots. I can honestly say that there's almost nothing I find as boring as just sitting in the pilot's chair staring at a bunch of dials or screens. 

With a big tube like this, it is extremely rare for me to do a whole flight as one session. Given that I don't do any flight planning either, and just head off in a direction that takes my fancy, I might find myself getting bored with a flight but spot somewhere reasonably close to put down - I keep LittleNavMap running on a second screen most of the time - in which case I will attempt a landing. I say "attempt" because due to my way of doing this I'm often too close or too high to make a well managed landing, but I probably manage it 50% of the time.

If I want to document (screenies) something with a definite departure/arrival pair I will do that as two flights. Take off and run for maybe 20 minutes, shut down the flight, restart in the air in the vicinity of my target and hand fly in. Again, all for screenies and/or recording.

Of course, GA is another matter. Same basic premise but really low and slow and from and to anywhere I like the look of. With 2024 that includes depart/arrival points including fields, freeways or truly whatever looks interesting. I initially got quite excited about helicopters, but most of them are too "realistic" (i.e. impossible to control without a lot of effort) for my taste. Bell 47G and Chinook are ok for me but that's about all.

So for me, the beauty of this MD-11 is that it is a beauty. I don't mind paying for a bunch of features I'll never use or appreciate, I figure that's the cost of using these aircraft. I've also just bought the Ini A340 just because of the VIP version - same deal. And I will almost certainly buy the CSS 737-500 package once my current 5 buck trial is over for similar reasons.

What I'll never buy again is anything that insists I pilot the plane the "correct" way. I've got a couple of these buried in my metaphorical backyard. I think the concept is a nonsense. It's a sim, running on a domestic PC, and to pretend you've bought a professional and serious package and you really are emulating a real pilot is just not realistic. There's no way you can get anywhere near the real experience of driving your own car, for example, let alone a jumbo jet, sitting in an office chair in front of your desk.  If you've built a proper cockpit like some of the folks here, that's a different thing, but on your desktop?

But as you say, each to their own, and I know that's probably how most people here think of the sim. For me, it's more a case of "fly like a bird", not "fly like a first officer" <grin>

As long as developers keep putting out planes like this, I'll keep buying them. As long as I can get off the ground without having to read the manual first (I don't mind reading the manual once I've decided I want to know more about something, but I don't feel I should need to do so just to get in the air).

Happy flying, or even happy piloting!

3 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

 

What I'll never buy again is anything that insists I pilot the plane the "correct" way. I've got a couple of these buried in my metaphorical backyard. I think the concept is a nonsense. It's a sim, running on a domestic PC, and to pretend you've bought a professional and serious package and you really are emulating a real pilot is just not realistic. There's no way you can get anywhere near the real experience of driving your own car, for example, let alone a jumbo jet, sitting in an office chair in front of your desk.  If you've built a proper cockpit like some of the folks here, that's a different thing, but on your desktop?

 

I think theres nothing wrong with a developer simulating how the aircraft is supposed to be handled, after all thats what a flight simulator is, simulating the charectersitcs and behaviours of an aircraft during all phases of operations and flight. And if you were to operate it wrong, there should be consequences. 

I do agree however, that you can never get the true feeling of an aircraft on a desktop flight sim (unless youre on a motion platform with VR, that would be something else), but there should be some sort of consequence for not operating the aircraft properly, or atleast the option to. Failures etc are a good thing on addons as they can be set to on or off in most aircraft. As you said, each to their own!

I guess @andy1252 the best aircraft for you are the ultralights or the ones based on drone technology like the Jetson.

That one is just a blast to fly in VR. You never get far, because it does not fly faster than a car, but it is so easy to operate and you can look at everything from close up. I love flying as low as the top of the trees in that one.

10 hours ago, Farlis said:

I guess @andy1252 the best aircraft for you are the ultralights or the ones based on drone technology like the Jetson.

That one is just a blast to fly in VR. You never get far, because it does not fly faster than a car, but it is so easy to operate and you can look at everything from close up. I love flying as low as the top of the trees in that one.

The problem with that theory is that an ultralight does not look anywhere near as impressive as a (for example) fully modelled McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Andy clearly enjoys looking at his aircraft as well as the scenery.

11 hours ago, rick celik said:

I think theres nothing wrong with a developer simulating how the aircraft is supposed to be handled, after all thats what a flight simulator is, simulating the charectersitcs and behaviours of an aircraft during all phases of operations and flight. And if you were to operate it wrong, there should be consequences. 

Totally agree with that, Rick. I just don't want it forced on me to the point that I can't even start the thing without pretending to flip switches etc.

10 hours ago, Farlis said:

the ultralights or the ones based on drone technology like the Jetson.

I do tend to use ultralights occasionally, but things like the KitFox are more of a fave for pootling around

37 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Andy clearly enjoys looking at his aircraft as well as the scenery.

Indeed I do. What's the point of just sitting in the cockpit of something like a Vulcan, or a Spitfire (or Concorde, or a P-51, or a B-36, or a Stratocruiser, or indeed any three-holer, or . . . . the list goes on for ever)

I actually do stay in the cockpit for my flights, but I like to switch to the drone camera to have a look at my aircraft when I have parked it on the ground.

Now I know why Captain Sim and has a viable business.😂 Just joking, I totally understand wanting to start on the runway with engines running. I often don’t want to go through a full start-up and after buying a new plane I just want to get it into the air. I also got into this hobby to admire the scenery and revisit places in the sim I’ve been to in real life. But then I caught the aviation bug and have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about it. Started mostly flying bush planes, helicopters and general aviation planes. Took me a year before I even learned to use the PMS GTN750. Then started reading approach plates and flying IFR with GA. Then got into warbirds and military jets.

Flipping switches and turning knobs is the least favorite part for me too because I view repetitive sequential processing as uninteresting and a chore. But what changed for me was my curiosity about what each knob and dial does. In low fidelity planes, it seems like a waste of time unless you’re practicing for real life. But in high fidelity planes, those actions matter and it’s easier to see how it impacts the planes making it interesting. Like forgetting to turn on carb heat in the A2A Comanche and wondering why your airspeed continues to decline!

So the next step for me in my journey is flying the heavies. I own the PMDG 777-300 and 777F. But for now I just start on the runway and manually use AP and hand flying to get me to my destination. It’s crude, but I have been put off by needing to learn Simbrief, programming an FMC, learning all of the knobs and switches, etc. But I’m to the point that I want to fly them correctly so need to put the time and effort into learning about them. And the MD-11 is the plane that’s captivated my interest enough to want to do it. It’s not an inexpensive purchase and I don’t want it to mostly sit in my hangar while I occasionally take it up to admire it. That’s why I’ll be purchasing the Extended Simulation package too so that when I flip switches and turn knobs, I know my actions will matter.

Also, I believe people who get into this hobby to admire the scenery may be put off by how inefficient it can be to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. I highly recommend the videos below, along with the others ones from this creator, because they are thoroughly in-depth, comprehensive and well delivered. I wish we had something similar for flying the airliners. Or if someone is aware of something similar please share. There are so many videos on YouTube that filtering out all the less effective ones takes as much time as doing the actual learning.

 

Edited January 16Jan 16 by Gulf76

Forget all the "dear diary I do XYZ in real life" yip yap.

Is the TFDI MD-11 worth the price in 2026 or not? 

Just now, blueshark747 said:

Forget all the "dear diary I do XYZ in real life" yip yap.

Is the TFDI MD-11 worth the price in 2026 or not? 

Of course she is. So far one of the most reliable aircrafts I have flown. The Early Access phase seems to really have helped TFDI in polishing it.

 

It still is missing a few items, like track offsets, but overall I'd say she it the best widebody currently availbale after the PMDG 777's.

Edited January 16Jan 16 by Farlis

8 hours ago, blueshark747 said:

Forget all the "dear diary I do XYZ in real life" yip yap.

Is the TFDI MD-11 worth the price in 2026 or not? 

Yes.

i’ll put it this way: IRL, the 777 largely made the MD-11 redundant.  In my sim, it will be the reverse.  This is an excellent product that will soak up a great amount of my wide body sim time and I find a lot more fun to fly than the 777 on similar missions.

13 hours ago, blueshark747 said:

Forget all the "dear diary I do XYZ in real life" yip yap.

Is the TFDI MD-11 worth the price in 2026 or not? 

So YES, it is, one off the best Add in older and heavy Airliners very well done from the TFDI Team. 😚

And worth the money in my opinion..

I love that MD-11 !!

cheers 😉

Edited January 17Jan 17 by pmplayer

Having been mostly super satisfied with the MD after art update etc, i wish they would update sounds also, they feel faint and missing some firm bass, i hope boris etc. would make sound pack for this if sounds remain as they are now

First of all - I don't own the MD11. But kudos to TFDI for charging 5$ only for the 2024 upgrade. Well, that's a cup of coffee.

I saw some discussions on YT, comparing the MD11 with the PMDG 737. And sometimes there was mentioned, that the MD11 isn't a high fidelity plane like the PMDG 737. I wonder where this comes from.

As far as I see it, PMDG lost it's quality through the years. It's not that PMDG stuff is totally bad right now. But they were much better in the past. What I have seen from the MD11, I would rate them near, if not the same standard than the 2020 and 2024 737 from PMDG. When you hear from testers, how the 737 behaves in 2024, you can assume that most of the systems and (most important) the partly unrealistic flight model of the 737 simply was ported from 2020 to 2024. Without having the motivation to make things better, that were wrong for the whole 2020 era. So mainly they put some effort into sound and visuals for the 2024 release. Which lead me to not pay that price for some visuals. As far as I saw it, the same did TFDI with the MD11. Maybe they did more (again, I don't own it)?

But one charges 5$ for an upgrade, and the other charges 30$ - with their boss having the guts to tell us, 30$ is a cup of coffee.  😑

Edited January 17Jan 17 by Watsi