I'll bet real world pilots don't get told to watch the youtube video tutorials and tough luck about not having hard copy/printed materials to study for aircraft & flight proficiencies.

I really liked having pdf tutorials & detailed manuals back in the days of FS9>FSX>P3D>XP12. Made for easy quick reference on certain areas I needed more clarification, etc. Easy to search using key words, too. Not YT Vids, good luck finding specific items without spending a lot of time. I also think the content of yt video based tutorials is not always as in depth or 100% factual (based on a/c POH), all dependent upon the creator.

I realize many use ai to help build their video tutorials, which to me is a shortcut that can diminish clarity/accuracy, imho. Why don't most sim pilots these days like written tutorials & manuals/guides? I sure do.

Perhaps most don't prefer in depth, study level aircraft procedures and prefer to get in the air as quickly as possible. I prefer starting cold & dark, hence the desire for written documentation instead of videos. I glean a lot of detail from these documents to create my own normal procedures/flows for each aircraft. I then display that normal procedures document on a second monitor to use for the flight. Sure, I can find a few detailed checklist that will suffice. However, they routinely don't cover MSFS 2024 version of a/c or all of the details and specifics that I prefer.

I realize I am in the minority both age wise (Baby Boomer) and flying style/preference(s).

Am I going the way of the Dodo bird?

I have stated elsewhere that I prefer written PDF "step by step" tutorials for my aircraft. I have ones for the PMDG 737 and the JustFlight Fokker 70/100, but I seem to have lost the printed tutorial that I had for the P3D version of the PMDG 777. Unfortunately, it is no longer available, and the "upgraded" online version that PMDG provides these days is not as good for my requirements. It may be considered to be an improvement by PMDG, but that is not the way I work.

Christopher,

I think I still have a copy, hopefully on an older pc that is still in use in my son's garage. Next time I'm there, which hopefully will be within the next few days, I will look and if so, make a copy for you., Fingers crossed, as I too would like to have it.

I have never done well with manuals.

Even with work. I prefer the visual.

I admit it can take a lot of videos to get the right info at times

I also make my own checklist for all planes from the videos And input from over here and elsewhere.

Also a baby boomer but tube has been a godsent for me.

Edited Sunday at 09:45 PM4 days by Ron Lefebvre

I prefer both. The combo of the two is better than either alone

I’m more a visual person. Back in days of my flight training I got a lot of training videos from Sportys , King School and etc which helped greatly. I wouldn’t call flight manual tutorial though as their purpose is purely technical information.

Not referring to manual as tutorial, but rather, "I really liked having pdf tutorials & detailed manuals..." So much info used to be gathered from aircraft poh and included in the respective aircraft user manual/guide pdf as reference material for the sim pilot. Not so much any more.

I am old enough to remember hard copies in game boxes.

We were so nutty we (ok, me) would cut the rapping with an xacto knife on the opening edges so we vould keep protecting the box.

At some point we threw them out. Those boxes are probably worth a fortune today. (a small one anyway)

Falcon 4.0 (Huge manual)

Baldur gate that came with a map.

Grim Fandago

Anyway, I digress.

You just made me think about it. I miss those old days.

I believe (at least for GA) that the actual aircraft POH is intellectual property of the manufacturer, so they can't just freely include them. I think this is even why you're seeing the company name not used in addons (note that the latest A2A plane does not have Lancair anywhere in the description - it is an "A2A Legacy 550RG"). I'm not a developer, so if I'm speaking out of turn, please let me know.

The same thing happens in first person shooter games, you often see fake or changed names on guns.

I would like to see GA plane makers include a simple pattern/tutorial flight. Sometimes the checklist has what you need, other times not. I'm not throwing stones at anyone in particular but I know I struggled landing a newer taildragger addon because I didn't know the proper approach speed (was coming in way too fast).

As for paper vs digital, I haven't printed anything out in years. Less clutter is good for me. If you want to print something out, you can do so. The high cost of ink comes into play. Personally I love my 10 inch Amazon Tablet. They are on sale right now. You can throw any PDF into Google Drive and view it on a nice big tablet screen, even large enough for my old eyes. I've got no stake in Amazon, but their hardware is more reasonably priced than other brands.

I use those old paper manuals to start a fire in my grill.

Edited Monday at 05:10 PM3 days by kerosene31

Ah, Falcon 4.0. Ron, you just turned a light bulb on in my memory. That was a highly detailed/study level sim well before its time. Yes, a very cumbersome but useful manual. What a time that was!