FS2002 downloads?

[Guest]

Hi all,WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!I've finally purchased FS2002 Pro - what a sim!!! It is everything I've always wanted in a flightsim and then some! I do not have enough words to describe my feelings towards this sim - now I understand why so many left this group never to return. I am IMPRESSED to say the least. For the first time EVER I can fly in my favourite microlighting areas in South Africa and actually feel at home!I'm not starting another flaming debate on FU3 versus FS2K2. No sir! All I want to know is what do you recommend I should download?I've just loaded all the new clouds, weather effects and Stearman. Most of you see flightsims in the same perspective that I do and that's why I post here.Any advice much appreciated.Regards,Hennie

[Guest Ansgar]

Hi Hennie,fine you like this sim, it

[Christopher Low 5,353]

I'm glad that you like FS2002 Hennie, but I certainly don't share your enthusiasm. I hope that this doesn't mean that you will be leaving us all here at the FU3 Forum, since I for one count you as the main driving force behind my decision to start creating add-ons. It would be a sad day indeed if you left.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Ansgar,I agree that the scenery textures can look extremely bland in FS2002. However, I would add here that one of the biggest problems that FS2002 suffers is the archaic interface. It hasn't really changed all that much since FS5, and this ISN'T because it was any good in the first place. It's about time that Microsoft developed a far more intuitive interface for its flight simulator. They may have removed the menu bar, but it might as well still be there for all the good it's done.In many ways, MSFS is a victim of its own design. I like to be able to access the map in FU3, where selecting an airport is easy. However, with over twenty thousand airports in its database, how many maps would this require ? Even more to the point, how many of these airports are actually WORTH visiting ? In my opinion, QUALITY is far more desirable than QUANTITY, and that's why I like the Flight Unlimited series. Many users of MSFS criticise the restricted scenery area, but that's probably because the vast majority of those users fly AIRLINERS (at least, according to the AVSIM survey). Small scenery areas are no good for airline pilots, but DETAILED scenery areas are great for GA pilots.Of course, FS2002 also suffers from the annoying "cycle through four different views with the same button" syndrome, but I've said enough about that already to last a lifetime..............Chris Low,ENGLAND.NOTAM: This is not another stab at FS2002 by an FU3 flight simmer. These are simply my personal views regarding why I don't currently use FS2002. Have a good day.

[Guest juvat2]

Hi Hennie,I did a google search for "fs2002 south africa terrain mesh", and could only come up with shareware/buyware stuff. So I didn't post their links. Strange I couldn't find any freeware of your country.There is tons of freeware out there and I'm sure you'll get a hit on that aspect. Microlites, I remember seeing several of those throughout the fs2002 freeware world. FS2000 stuff can work for '02 as well.Though I've had '02 Pro for a while now and have been downloading terrain meshes and aircraft for it, I mainly use it for Bush flying in Alaska/ Canada. I've downloaded many things to enhance places I've been to, and upon flying there have come away disappointed. I think maybe FU3 spoiled me and maybe my voodoo5-5500 may not be rendering the terrain to bring out their intended beauty.Avsim has a bunch of nice and helpful folks at the fs general forum. Don't forget to drop into the BFU forum as well, they fly both FU3 and FS00-02 there and have lots of knowledge on aircraft and scenery sources. They also have extensive knowledge on FS should you run into any problems or have questions on the sim. 'Course, several of the fellas here at FU3 forum have FS'02 and are some of the same helpful individuals you'll find at the FS specific forums. I suspect folks aren't "permanently" leaving FU3 behind, just taking a small hyatis and enjoying the most they can out of simming; finding pleasure in the various attributes that all sims have to offer. Please don't be a stranger here Hennie, as I, for one, will miss your sage advice and great enhancements for FU3.Ummm... Now for a "selfish?" inquirey: Will you continue your improvements for FU3 and JAS?I'll stop here, there was a "tongue/pen" lashing at another forum when some folks were seen to be bashing another sim, which caused the moderator to have to step in and don't want that to be occuring here.You take care Hennie,Jim B.

[Guest Allan_D]

Hi Hennie,I agree with the Wow, Wow part. I think it would be safer to pop into our BFU General discussion forum and ask this question.There are a lot of us that use both FU3 and FS2K2.Depending on what downloads your looking for, Sceneries, I have close to 200 of them added, Dynamic effects, dynamics objects, some fantastic looking stuff,Or Bush stlye planes that fly as close to the real thing as I've every found.We'll help you in that forum without starting a quarrel.Have Fun :-jumpyhttp://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gifAllan

[Naji 5]

Hehe... Hennie :-). Welcome to FS2002 world! The past week or two, I was flying all over Austria and Germany in FS2002. With the addons I have for these countries, both freeware and payware, I could almost swear I was flying above the real places! It is so lovely zipping past small villages realistically grouped around country roads. GA flying has never been better than this for me!But today, I fired up FU3 and kept flying in it for I don't know how long. I re-arranged some packages, checked places I haven't visited before, flew in a lovely rainy weather. I've known this for some time now: I could never leave FU3. There will always be that time when you want to go fly in it.What FS2002 addons? I don't know where to begin. I'll just say that to me, there are two addons that I love so: Gerrish Gray trees, version 2 (mstrees2.zip) and Autogenious (it enhances Autogen in a subtle but very charming way). Landclass addons (I have payware Europe and freeware California) are fabulous; these simply allocate forests, farms, cities, towns, etc., where they actually belong. In Austria, I was following the placement of villages by the map!Planes? The Canuck80 is a favorite. Also the Bobcat. These are freeware. In payware, the Archer and the Bonanza are just fabulous.Tell us what you're interested in, then we can help more.Cheers.

[Guest Lizardo]

I think I'm probably going to echo what all owners of both say: They are both great, but in different ways. There is "so much" (or in/with/of) in Fs2k2 that it blows you away. But, FU3 has a quality, an endearment.

[Guest Motormouse]

Hi Hennie,long time no see?I can add my own thoughts to this debate,I started using Fs02 pro for the Alaskan 'Bush' flights, but for Seattle,I try to come home to FU3,there really is no comparison,the 4m per pixel scenery means I can fly real vfr!For downloads,there are many good ones,try and pick some of the more unusual types,the 'heavies' are over subscribed IMHO.At the moment I'm having fun with a Hercules!!:-wavePete

[Francois_Dumas 10]

Hi Hennie,if you like Microlights you also might like sail planes?There is a great site for that, find it here: http://virtualsoaring.org/index.htmlAs for SA, there must be some freeware available, I remember I installed a file covering most of SA with 'mesh' one time. My download system has 'crashed' recently, so I cannot give you a link right now.... sorry. But if you search AVSIM or flightsim.com (with extended search) you are boudn to find some scenery files !And yup, I think FS2002 is a great sim... but so is FU3 (that I acquired quite recently :-) ), and FlyII, and ... :-lol :-outta Francois :-wave[table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0][tr][td valign=bottom" align="center]"At home in the wild"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:avsim.com/alaska/alaska_051.htm|Don's Alaskan Bush Charters]"Beavers Lead the Way"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:www.avsim.com/vfr_center/mainpages/vfr_flights_main_page.htm]VFR Flight Center]"Looking Good Outside"[/td][/tr][tr][td valign=top" align="center]http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif[/td][td valign="top" align="left" colspan=2]http://www.fssupport.com/images/moose2.gif[/td][tr][/table]________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online![/bemail: fdumas@avsim.com________________________

[JimmiG 244]

I'm also impressed with FS2002. It's excellent for longer flights, because you can fly just about anywhere in the world. One thing I have enjoyed a great deal recently is to download repaints and add them, then use AI Shuffler to make them into AI traffic. It's very easy with the right tools. I've got most major European and US airlines in the sim now, with the correct callsigns, and they all fly where they should. I'm currently adding airlines to southeastern Asia. Those real airline names and routes makes flying into big airports very exciting. Sadly, there are no planes doing touch'n'Go s in FS2002, so you are pretty much alone in the pattern around the airports. The AI planes just fly from A->B. FU3 is still better for VFR, IMO.You should download all the meshes you can find. :) There are many of them. There's one excellent mesh for Alaska, and one for Hawaii. I also have found one for Greece+islands. I love to fly to those exoting locations. I'm sure there must be a mesh for your country too, somewhere.My fav. freeware planes are:DebonairFalcon 50Tom Miller has done an excellent Twin BonanzaFred Choate's 1966 Piper AztecProject OpenSky Airbus seriesI also spend a great deal of time flying the default planes.

[Hans_Petter 1]

Apart from the "please don't slam the door" I do share your enthusiasm for FS2002. This being said I will never leave FU3. Right now I'm trying to rebuild my FU3, this time without conflicts. This brings up my major frustration with FU3. It's neither the limited scenery nor the lack of aircraft -- it's all those strange FLED conflicts and outer terrain versus HiRes clashes. I guess it's all about closed architecture where various tweaks interact in mysterious ways.The MS sims have always been open and orderly in architecture. Most add-ons are just that, add-ons rather than "add-ins". You can't go wrong by trying out a scenery add-on since it won't affect the progam "engine". If something doesn't look right or you get terrible frame rates you can delete it and get back to square one.The FS2002 scenery is good but it's hardly accurate UNTIL you add local add-ons. The mesh sceneries are great for mountainous regions but there is a frame rate penalty. Since you're a small plane pilot in South Africa I would consider the South Africa scenery, even though it's payware. As planes are concerned, just be aware that there are more polygon creators than flight dynamics experts out there. Still, if you find something that looks great it isn't that hard to tweak the dynamics.I've added scenery for Norway (mesh and airports), Britain (mesh and airports), the Faroe islands (textures) and Iceland (mesh and textures). Then I've added enhancements for the areas of the US where I've lived. What I'm saying is, everyone can enhance his areas of the world in this sim, expanding the local scenery as he pleases.Highly detailed panels may look great, until you try to fly them. In most cases a change of the view angle (aka head_tilt) will help. However, in cases where 70% of the screen is being filled by the panel there's no way a GA pilot will feel at home.Yesterday I carried out the ultimate FS2002 flight -- I flew from Bergen, Norway to Bangor, Maine in a bizjet IN REAL TIME. It took 6 hours 35 min. I'll admit that I left the cockpit over Shetland and just checked the heading, air speed and the GPS at regular intervals. It was sunny with a breeze from the south as I took off while it was raining in Maine (yes, real weather). This is the kind of thing one may do in the MS sims. Tonight I'll fire up a small plane in FU3 and check out the mountains east of Seattle :-) best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest]

Hi all,Thank you for all the replies. Downloaded most of your suggestions and will check them out.Ansgar: It's amazing to see how fast this sim runs on my PIII 459! Thanks for the suggestions on aircraft.Chris: I don't think I'll leave this group easily - everyone here is like family to me!Jim: I'm sure I'll continue with mods for both FU3 and JAS. I don't think I'll easily get involved in the frenzy at the FS2K2 add-ons and also that's way out of my league.Allan: I'll visit your forum soon - it seems like we're talking the same kind of aircraft here!Naji: Thanks for the advice. Got mstrees2.zip, but cannot find any reference to Autogenious?Pete: Nice hearing from you again. Yes, I'm not into the heavies exept for the vintage ones like the Connie etc.Francois: Thanks for the link - I've found and installed some freeware South African scenery add-ons; they do slow my frame rates down quite a bit on my pc!Jimmig: Thanx - got your Debonair and Falcon50. Will get the rest soon. That default Corsair that comes with the Pro version must be one of the most difficult yet realistic flighsim aircraft I've ever had the opportunity to fly!Hans: The default FS2K2 aircraft flies extremely realistic! I like the heavy feel and long runway requirements - they are close to the real thing even by default...This time I'll not end up with hundreds of aircraft and sceneries throughout the world that I'll hardly ever use - I'll stick to light aircraft, the vintage airliners and South African scenery. FU3 will stay on my HD for a very long time still to come. At least I'm not so much dissapointed on no future prospects for an FU4. The next MSFS will be AWESOME, guarranteed! Those guys are doing it right!Regards,Hennie

[Guest]

HennieRead this thread with interest. I too spend more time with FS2k2 these days but FU3 (and 2) remain like former special girlfriends - always good to get re-aquainted.Please do try to download the upgraded DH Tiger Moth (Avsim - Aircraft - FS2002 - just search with "Tiger Moth"). It's by John Woodside and has an excellent engine sound care of Mike Hambly. In my view it is ideal for low slow flying, and has a great feel in the air. Cross wind landings are good to master, with that powerful rudder authority.And it is that indefinable "feeling" of flying that will appeal to all FU3 pilots.All the best,Nick

[Guest]

Hi Nick,I'll go hunt for it straight away. I'm having a feast with all the suggested goodies at this time - flightsimming has never before been this good.Keep well,Hennie