Real world flying with MSFS2002 WOW!!!!

[Guest]

Hello guys,I wanted to share this with all of you, as a real world student pilot I'm learning all about navigation, specially VFR navigation also known as Dead Reckoning (or looking out the window to find your way around), here you don't really use any VORs or NDBs or any means of electronic aids to find your way, you just use heading, time and ground references. I have been flying "Flight Simulator" since the original version by SybLogic, so I wanted to see if MSFS2002 was really up to the challenge to simulate a real world visual flight, and you know what?, the darn thing came out with flying colors!!!!!I made a flight plan just as I would in real life with visual check points, wind corrections, magnetic variation corrections, temperature, engine peformance, fuel burn calculations, performance to climb and descent, time en route, distance, etc, etc, etc.Then, armed with all this info in my flight planner and my trusty sectional chart I made a flight from Toluca Mexico (my home airport) to Acapulco Mexico, every single thing was there!, every road, every lake or pond, every hill!, I was really amazed!!!, the detail in the terrain and the position of every feature is just as it showed in my chart!!!, and remember this is Mexico we are talking about, not the US so having that kind of detail all over the world is really amazing, I made the flight in time and on course I never used the GPS or a VOR, it was a great flight!My flight sim hardware is as follows, I recomend every single unit, the felling is the closest it can be to the real thing:-ED Glasses from eDimensional (My favorite, finally 3D effects!!!)-IR Tracker from eDimensional (really amazing, turn your head to look around the cockpit!)-Yoke USB from CH Products (3 levers, it fells just like the real thing)-USB Rudder pedals from CH Products (a must!)I can only imagine the kind of sims we'll be flying in 5 years!!!, but for know it is getting pretty darn close to the real thing! =)Happy flying!!!Alex Pimienta.

[Guest Twister]

Hi Alex,Let me first wish you luck and success with your training ! You are lucky to be able to fly VFR with FS2k2, I guess that the digital elevation data of the Americas is much more accurate than it is for my country (Israel).I also tried to fly VFR but the terrain elevation and landmarks (roads and rivers)were far from being accurate - I had to dump my carefully prepared flight plan and switch on my VOR...I remember the experience of flying over satellite-imagery scenery in Fly! - take it from me: this was ultra realistic VFR flying!The downside was the huge size of the files (I guess there's a price to everything...)As far as I'm concerned , auto-gen is only eye-candy to me, definitely not realistic enough for VFR.CheersTwister

[Guest]

I too have been doing a little VFR flying in FS2002 recently as I have started training for my ppl. Its quite amazing how I can fly a plan in MSFS before I go up in the real plane the next day and know what to expect. Some of the detail that I have found around NY & CT is amazing. I recently did some sim-flying down in the Florida Keys as I was going down there for business. I thought i found an error in the scenery because I saw what I thought was a tower that went up to 14,000 ft. On my actual trip down there during our descent into the Key West Intl. (KEYW) I looked out the window and saw a huge wx or surveillance balloon out the window right where it was in MSFS. Amazing!Just some trivia: "Dead Reckoning" is actually "De'd Reckoning" short for Deduced Reckoning. (Seems as though it has been twisted around over the years)-------------A simple "Thanks" to all of you freeware designers out there.

[Guest KenG]

>Just some trivia: "Dead Reckoning" is actually "De'd >Reckoning" short for Deduced Reckoning. (Seems as though it >has been twisted around over the years) Also, the original poster is describing pilotage. That is the process of navigating by visual landmarks. Ded reckoning is the process of determining your speed and time (and therefore fuel usage for the trip) and wind correction (in combination with pilotage or nav aids) based on time calculations (deduction) made between waypoints. Both pilotage and ded reckoning are used for VFR flight. Flight sims are great for practicing these skills even if/when you can't get up into the real blue sky.