I recently purcased FLY! II on the web and expect it to arrive any day now. I am anxious to load it onto my P4 2.0Ghz; 512Ram; 80Gb; 128mb GeForce 4 machine. I am anxious to know what I need to download in order to get things going such as scenery. I understand that the scenery is not as abundant in FlyII as in FS2K2. I am aware of the full patch download I will need to get first thing. 1)Does Fly! II offer virtual cockpits? If not, in your opinion, how do you like the panels/views in Fly! II (if possible compared to FS2K2)?2)How much default scenery can I expect out of the box? Can I fly from say KDFW to KBTR (Baton Rouge, LA)? 3)Where do I find high quality terramesh and scenery/airport addons or downloads? 4)Can you all recommend where to find really good aircraft free or payware? Thanks for Any Input or Advice :-)Larry Brown :-newbie http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif

G'day Larry,Welcome to the Fly! community.>I recently purcased FLY! II on the web and expect it to >arrive any day now. I am anxious to load it onto my P4 >2.0Ghz; 512Ram; 80Gb; 128mb GeForce 4 machine. I am anxious >to know what I need to download in order to get things going > such as scenery. I understand that the scenery is not as >abundant in FlyII as in FS2K2. I am aware of the full >patch download I will need to get first thing. >>1)Does Fly! II offer virtual cockpits? If not, in your >opinion, how do you like the panels/views in Fly! II (if >possible compared to FS2K2)?No Fly! II doesn't have virtual cockpits.Imho the Fly! panels are the best in the business. Making comparisions with FS2002 is a pointless exercise. >>2)How much default scenery can I expect out of the box? Can >I fly from say KDFW to KBTR (Baton Rouge, LA)? Not certain - I don't fly in America.>>3)Where do I find high quality terramesh and scenery/airport >addons or downloads? You've come to the right place Larry. Here in the Avsim library is the largest bank of aircraft and scenery for Fly! II.Just click on the file library link at the top of this page and navigate to the Fly! II section.Another excellent site is http//fly.simvol.org This is the website of ROTW which is a french group of freeware developers.>>4)Can you all recommend where to find really good aircraft >free or payware?Payware is fading fast but the available freeware here at Avsim and Simvol is excellent.Try pmdg and realairsimulations for payware but I not sure if they are still producing for Fly!II. They are both internet download companies and have produced excellent aircraft for Fly! II but the small numbers have not really been a viable proposition.Enjoy your simmingcheers,Roger @YSSY

Hi there Larry, welcome to Fly!2. The program should run fine on your machine. I'll try to answer some of your questions.1. Virtual cockpits -- Fly!2 does not have virtual cockpits. However I find their default panels superior to FS2K2's default panels. Their cockpits appear more realistic in setup (IMO); you look "up" to find additional switches and such in certain planes, and you look "down" to locate what you would find in the real life place (fuel switches, etc.) While you can do an "easy start" (just like in FS2K2) of any of the default planes, you can also go through all the real world start up procedures if that's your preference. Everything is located pretty much where it would be in the actual plane.2. Default scenery is world wide coverage. The "look" is totally different from FS2K2 and takes some getting used to.3. You can find everything you need right here in the Avsim Library. I understand there is a new utility just recently released which allows you to import 3rd party scenery from FS2K2 into Fly!2. I haven't used it, but friends say it is quite revolutionary.4. The Avsim Library has 3rd party freeware planes available for Fly!2. The only commercial aircraft I know of comes from PMDG or RealAirSimulations.I like both Fly!2 and FS2K2, but they are really different animals. Comparing them to each other (while inevitable) is IMO a waste of time better spent flying them.-Lindy :-wave

"Can you all recommend where to find really good aircraft free or payware?"You'll find pics of every aircraft on my site!Just pick your choice and dl here at Avsim.Just click my sig :)Johnny"I'LL BE BACK"[div align=center]http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/josve/zone.jpg ][/div

Welcome Larry!1) Panel's concept is one of Fly!'s strenghts. Some tips: shift-click to open an analogic instrument into a new window, control-click to move the panel with the mouse, program with ctrl F1-F8 two or three different panel views.2) Not many airports, generic textures are fine.3) For beautiful landscapes (especially US), use Terrascene 2.1. It's very user friendly. There are not many TS sceneries uploaded because of their size.Airports: search the library. Give a try to FS-Import if you want to use your favorite (third-party) FS sceneries. Terramodels to easily create an airport yourself.4) Search for "ROTW" in the aircraft section. You'll find the TBM 700, PA-19 and PA-28. Visit http://fly.simvol.org/ to see what's coming!Commercial: http://www.precisionmanuals.com/ http://www.realairsimulations.com/home.htmlBest Regards!Pascal__________________________________________________FLY! II tips Anti-aliasing: On some machines, you must set FSAA to 4x (GeForce2) to make it work. No need to disactivate AGP.Don't like the blurried textures? Try with FSAA on, and these values in the Render.ini :mipLevelCount=4 (if it causes problems rather set 5)mipMapFlag=128

Hi Larry,The first thing you should know is that guys named Larry like Fly II! ;) Your going to find Fly II is a different sim than FS2002 so you should try to avoid direct comparisons to the obvious features of FS2K2 that you like. The biggest change is going to be in 3D models. that is just not Fly IIs strength. However, many here would argue that your only on the ground for a little while and once your in the air, Fly II really shines. There is also a built-in editor and a few freeware tools like Terramodels and Terrascenery that allow easy scenery creation. TS2.1 fully integrates with the 230 version of Fly II and it will allow you to easily generate highly detailed ground scenery with very accurate roads, rivers, lakes and geographic detail while you sleep. Don't even try to run the sim without updating it first. You'll need to do at least two updates depending on the version you purchased to get to 230, which is the latest version. Check the version level after your initial installation to see what patches you'll need. The European release of Fly II was a version or two ahead of the US release so the needed patch is different between the two. The US release needs the full 152 to 210 patch, while the European release only needs patch 4 to bring it to 210. The 230 patch is applied after updating to 210. With either release, do not install the video updates as these files are older than those contained in the newest updates. Rumour has it that another patch is in the works but you know how rumours go! It will take you a while to get everything set just the way you want it so don't be afraid to ask questions in here as you go. Be sure you set the exponentials for the three control surfaces to 100%.There is also a lot of information in the anchored threads at the top of the forum although I think some of it may be dated.

>Hi Larry, >>The first thing you should know is that guys named Larry >like Fly II! ;) I'll claim that I never read this....................two days ago! :)L.Adamson