Fly!2 always amazing

[Macflyer 2]

Just wanted to express my feelings I got about Fly!2 and X-Plane since I am using both. There is a lot to love about X-Plane and I get some features Fly!2 cannot offer on Mac but comparing the visuals (although vastly improved now with Global Scenery 8) there is always something steril in the look of X-Plane whereas Fly!2 and the Terrascene is so much more "lively" (although completely static due to the missing animated environment).I don

[KenWood 5]

One of the few things I liked about X-Plane was the blowing and drifting snow on the runways... past that, though... it really did not excite me all that much... especially for the price on each big release. :-eekKen Wood :-sun1http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/dfdg/bannernewkw.jpgGateway 700X; Intel P4 2.4GHz; 512MB RAM; NVIDIA Ti4200 4X AGP 128MB; SB Audigy; Thrustmaster TopGun Fox 2 Pro Shock

[Macflyer 2]

Funny that: back in 98 I was disappointed by FS98 what it still was not capable of (for example ai-traffic, weather system) and my salvation was Flight Unlimited (but of course it was too limited in the area coverage); nowadays FS got it all (or at least via add-ons) and I am putting up (Macintosh) with the combination of X-Plane and Fly!2. I really should consider buying a nice PC with the arrival of FS X.But I have to admit: in X-Plane land good things are going on. The "minor" update to version 8.50 is a huge step forward and there is more and more 3rd party development around. What a handful of person is doing there compared to MS games department is a miracle.

[Guest angels355]

Hi,I am a fan of many flight sims, I run very frequently, Fly!2K, FS98, FS2000, FS2004 (FS9), hope to get Fly!2, Fly! Legacy, FSX, FS2000 pro, FS2002 pro, and maybe X-Plane. I'm sorry you haven't tried out a modern MS FS, it is very good, especially the inertia, and many incredibly great flight dynamics in many great planes. W/ regards to "MS Games", a rose by any other name is a rose, and MS FS's are extremely good. You are missing out if you haven't tried it.For FS9 you'll need a good processor, a fair video card, and usually it is recommended that you have a minimum of 1 gb of ram. FSX is going to be a lot heavier, however it appears that it will run on ordinary pc's also as on MS FS's you can turn the graphics down to run on a lower level system.I'm really glad how much you enjoy Fly!2, I'm looking forward to getting it myself. I've been installing and building a new installation of Fly!2K on a slightly better machine than the last one, those blue skies are so breathtaking.Any way, all these simulators are very good, I still run FS98 very often, I'm flying it right now, flying a Johan Dees 747 from Guam to Nevada (Dees is as good as Rob Young especially in his specialty of 747's). I think the most important thing is to relax and have fun. I enjoy the variety, and the different things each simulator can teach me.I used to be a Mac fan, however I've been completely converted to pc's, although I think the Mac tv commercials are amusing.Attached is a recent screenshot from my latest installation of Fly!2K, this is one of Rob Young's V88 King Air B200's in West Wind livery, flying over the high resolution Seattle scenery by Klaus. I'm in the middle of trying to update my airport and navaid database, haven't gotten it going yet, good thing I backed up those files just in case I want to go back, so no more screen shots until I get it going again.Glad you enjoy your sims, when you have the chance try out MS FS's they are very excellent.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/156407.jpg

[Macflyer 2]

Wow, you must have a fair a mount of time maintaining and enjoying all those sims :-)Well, I always see and read in Computer Pilot a Borders what is going on in MSFS world and I love the variety one can choose from to construct one

[Guest angels355]

Hi Macflyer,I just now landed that Dees 747 in Nevada, it was a nice flight. I'm still trying to get my Fly!2K going. I've been trying to update the ICAO Aeronautical Information Regulation and Control (AIRAC) from 2002 by B. Bauer ( flynavdat_cycle0209_full_epd.zip ), the directions say that the epd replacement is much easier plus apparently the the country.dbd / country.dex won't import with DBImport so Fly!2 users have to use a special procedure using FlyEdit's database editor to import country.dex . Any way, on my Fly!2K I backed up the epd files Waypoint.epd , Navaid.epd , and Geograph.epd , then pasted into the System those new updated epd Fly!2K pod files from Bauer. When I try to select an airport in the Flight Planner, immediately I get an Access Error message, and the details say "Unknown", then if I try to go with the airport that the program randomly selected on its' own and just press "Fly!", then it goes to the load screen and the gauge quickly spins around to about 95% loaded then just stays there until finally "clicks" and unboots down to the reduced sized window with all black w/ the desktop visible behind. I guess I'm going to have to uninstall that new ICAO database until a later time. Good thing I backed up those files. For Fly!2 users that program has to be manually installed usingthe DEX files he offers as a different download and the dbimport tool and also the Fly!Edit program it's much much more complicated and also time consuming; I guess I could do the same thing, but perhaps at a later time, plus perhaps my skill level might improve by that time also. That upgrade is available in DEX format also which is required for Fly!2 users, as the EPD version I was using is podded Bauer says in his readme in Fly!2K pod format which won't work in Fly!2, so they have to use the DEX version of the upgrade. Oh well. My skill level in upgrading MS FS's is really high, on Fly!2K I'm maybe midlevel, so I ask lots of questions about Fly!2K. I might see if Mr. Bauer's email is still working and ask him if he can help.Actually I have very little time, I'm frantically busy all the time with career related things, and errands, and also my dedication to flying sims, and wind up staying up until 3 am, and getting up at maybe 9 am in order to try to get everything done, but I never do, I'm always trying to catch up. I'm very good at multitasking. Speaking of desktop space, I have to build a special desk for myself that might be maybe L shaped that might be five, maybe six feet long in front of me, and maybe four or five feet long on the side. This is to hold my computers, I have six up and running right now, but am trying to build two more at the immediate moment, but perhaps I might get lucky again and find a very good used computer and just buy that too. Most of the time I fly three simulators at the same time (more challenging, sometimes I also play chess against my 486 computer, I'm terrible, my 486 crushes me every time in chess!), and when my Fly!2K installation is ready, that will make four simulators that I can fly at the same time. I'm running out of hardware resources, but it could conceivably be possible to install a fifth one too, however that computer has very little hard drive space left. This is not only fun for me but also I've been interested in going to school to be a commercial pilot, I've found a very good school, however it is unbelievably expensive. $82,000 for one year, not including living expenses, but nowdays many students are paying as much as $140,000 for their four year college education, and financing it for a total cost of around $210,000! I paid very little for my four year BS, basically because I starved down to 117 lbs while a "starving" student back then! I've been interested in a PhD in physics also, or maybe even medical school, however becoming a commercial pilot is an interesting idea I have been exploring. So that is one reason I fly a lot on my flight simulators.Fly!2K and Fly!2 ARE definitely beautiful incredible simulators. I flew Fly!2K for 1,500 hours in maybe seven or eight months before I started flying MS FS's also. I have very fond memories of Fly!2K, I think I will always have a Fly!2K simulator going because I'm very sentimental about it. I have two Fly!2K licenses and both are up and running (althought as you know I'm still building one). I have to get more hardware to run Fly!2, FSX, and maybe X-Plane and Flightgear, but eventually that will happen, might have to build my desk bigger, or make it a two story desk! I'm sure sad that Richard Harvey passed away, he was a great man with a great vision. I'm looking forward to Fly! Legacy also, need more hardware!With regards to an MS FS pc, if you're careful and know what to look for you can buy a very excellent used pc for very little money. If you buy one that is 1.8 ghz processor or higher that is adequate for most things, but it needs to have the capacity to expand the ram memory to at least 1 gb of memory, and you need a good video card, if you get an nvidia 256 mb video card that should be good enough for FS9, FSX has been shown to run on that also but I'd be a little wary of that, FSX is going to be very graphically heavy. Any way I run my curent FS9 on either Medium Low or Low graphical settings for normal long flights, but if I'm testing new scenery on it I can run it at Medium High. It is a 700 mhz pentium III, with 768 mb's of ram, and an nvidia geforce 256 video card--it was an extremely rare find, for only $20! It runs everything great, it really has no limitations I've found yet. But I would recommend getting a faster computer definitely! A low end computer won't come near to the full potential of FS9 or FSX however, a really good setup can be very breathtaking, and other simmers can very easily pay $5,000 US or much more for their FS9 computer.Thanks for going into such great detail about X-Plane, I was planning on getting it earlier, however at that time I didn't have a computer that could stand a chance of running it! Then I got a little discouraged about that idea because I heard a few negative things about X-Plane. I could run it on this FS9 computer however I would have to get another hard drive, this hard drive is overstuffed with FS9 addons! My FS9 I think is theoretically about 25 gb's in size (compressed to a smaller size on disk) but they can be as large as 125 gb's. I wonder if it might be too much trouble to ask if perhaps you could post a screen shot from X-Plane with one of your favorite airliners?Here is a screen shot from my FS9 computer, this is an award winning F4U-7 Corsair, flying over an incredibly great Hong Kong scenery addon, both freeware.Nice talking with you and hope you continue flying with such enthusiasm!Edited for grammarski:-spacecraft http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/156444.jpg

[Macflyer 2]

Well,one of my favourite scenery-addon-makers is about to release Final Frontier.Take a look here what X-Plane looks like together with Global V8 scenery (if you buy the newest version of X-Plane you get 7 dual layers DVD

[Guest angels355]

Macflyer,Thanks very much, I appreciate the photos and the good advice on X-Plane, it looks really nice. I'm much more interested, I'm going to have to buy more hardware. My big desk is one step closer to coming together.I put my new Fly!2K installation back into working order with the backup files (whew!), and set off on my first long distance flight in it, using a Qantas livery 747 SP which I think is by Vigetti. I'm flying from McMurdo to Chatham Islands. Here is a screen shot from this flight I'm on.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/156484.jpg

[KenWood 5]

Glad to hear you got your Fly!2K back up and running smoothly!WoW! :-eek A 747 taking off from McMurdo (am assuming you left Williams Field, Antarctica)... Largest aircraft from my time in Operation Deep Freeze was the C-141-B (1978-1981). How well did she do the run to lift-off? Now, did you use the the fun to figure out method of "Grid North" flying??? :-lolHappy Fly!ing !Ken Wood :-sun1http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/dfdg/bannernewkw.jpgGateway 700X; Intel P4 2.4GHz; 512MB RAM; NVIDIA Ti4200 4X AGP 128MB; SB Audigy; Thrustmaster TopGun Fox 2 Pro Shock

[Guest angels355]

Hi Ken,That's really cool, so to speak(!), that you were down there at McMurdo. I saw a recent documentary about C-130 pilots from the NY Air National Guard who took over the supply flights from the Navy I think it was, they have ski pads attached to their landing gears. That documentary was a lot of fun, they would also supply bases on Greenland. I was tempted to try out for them, but I'm taking care of my Mom and if I go into professional aviation she would prefer that I stay more close by and warmer. If I'm very lucky perhaps I'll fly 747's, I could probably turn the air conditioner up just to get into the spirit of those Greenland and McMurdo missions, support them in spirit :) . Good thing that when I was a candidate for USMC OCS that I volunteered for everything, they didn't take me up on it, however I felt it was a matter of pride and duty to give 'er all I got, blood n' guts n' everything! The cold and conditions down there at McMurdo are very fascinating, if I remember, the C-130 is only able to operate in -55 degree weather and above. There was an Air Force or Navy (?) Constellation down there that had crashed and had just been left there.McMurdo base is very pleasant in Fly!2K, perhaps nicer than KEDW, not really true to life, however it is still very enjoyable. I've flown over the N and S pole many times in my sims. At first I learned to navigate purely by numerical GPS, it was really fascinating navigating across Antarcita that way, I flew over it a million times about a year ago, until I started flying more Microsoft Flight Simulators. The FS9 rendition of Antartica is really amazing, and gives me a better idea of what it's like down there, FSX will probably be better. I have an Antarctica freeware addon for FS98 that is LOTS of fun, and also one for a North Pole station also, I also have an Antarctic addon for FS2000 it's OK.Yep got my Fly!2K going again last night and have been flying for nearly 24 hrs, I think I'm on my third long flight since then. Attached is a screenshot from my latest flight, in warmer latitudes, Maui to Cabo San Lucas (oh brother, now that's a cushy flight!!!) The graphical performance on this 2nd installation is much better than my first installation of Fly!2K on an older computer, the graphics look dazzling. But I need a new processor, this is a pentium III class 'puter but only has a 334 mhz processor in it, w/ 768 mb's of ram and a 128 video card. I get very excellent frame rates even with the resolution and graphics maxed out, 18 to 25 fps. But in ordinary applications it acts very strangely, I'll click a few things outside of the sim while the sim is off, and the processor will max out for minutes before anything happens, I think it is a little overloaded. I have a pentium II set up almost the same only w/ a 333 mhz pentium II processor, 256 mb's of pc66 ram, and a bit weaker video card it runs ordinary applications like a snap, however it has very low frame rates in FS2000 in just about every view except for the cockpit where it is OK. I definitely need to do some upgrading in many areas, but that also is part of the fun of this hobby.I have over 12,000 hours of flight sim time now (well on my way to 13,000), my flight skills have been completely revamped since I was a kid. My Dad was a Navy fighter pilot when he was younger, and he would allow me to take the controls to act as the default "autopilot" in the cruise phase of the cross country flights we used to do, we had no actual autopilot equipment. I flew about maybe 10 such cross country trips for a total of around 50 hours from 8 to 10 years old. It was extremely easy holding it on course, that '46 Funk. I was very enthusiastic also, and learned about aircraft design and aerodynamics also. However my flight skills on these simulators has completely totally been revamped, there's no comparison. I still have a lot to learn however I'm pretty good. A nice aviatrix has invited me to go fly a few hours in a Learjet, however my budget is not very good at this time, but when I got the bucks again I definitely want to fly those Lears. It's too bad I'm old and in the way for the service.Could you tell me/us more about your adventures on Antarctica?Happy flying!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/156633.jpg