Christopher Low

The March 2015 solar eclipse was really nice. At maximum eclipse in my home town of Ulverston, around 90% of the Sun was obscured by the Moon. That was more than enough to notice the dimming, and produce those strange light effects that can be seen as totality approaches. I was lucky to see it that day. I was at work, and the weather was cloudy. However, the clouds thinned just enough as the eclipse progressed to enable me to see most of it. In fact, the cloud enabled me to look at the solar disc without having to wear any eye protection. It was a memorable sight

Wow, that needs to be a precise experiment! If I remember correctly, the bending of light by the Sun's gravity is around 0.8 arc second.

What on Earth is that gorge next to the car park at 2:21 in the video? Is that supposed to be there?

You need to have VOR/LOC engaged before pressing the APP button. If I am conducting a circuit at an airport, and I want to fly a race track pattern in the 737, I usually press the VOR/LOC button when I am turning onto base, and then the APP button when I am turning onto final. That always results in the VOR/LOC capture during the final turn, followed soon after by G/S.

I have never seen the totally eclipsed Sun with my own eyes. I was hoping to do so in August 1999 in Cornwall, but unfortunately it was cloudy during totality However, experiencing the darkness during the middle of the day as the Moon's shadow swept over me was still breathtaking. I am hoping to see the "eye of God" in Spain in a couple of years.

Sorry if it sounded like I was being critical. That was definitely not the case.

I have purchased three airport addons using the IniManager (including LEIB Ibiza yesterday), and all transactions/payments/downloads/installations were flawless.

Getting old has not taught me to ignore little flaws. I become more and more critical the older I get! That is probably why I have not played a first person shooter game in many years. I need considerably more depth than they appear to provide these days (and also less brainless shooting).

My targets are the two Spanish total solar eclipses in August 2026 and August 2027.

Did I hear the howl of the flaps being retracted shortly after take off in that video?

I am still trying to work out if this "black lines" issue is connected to the "land bars" issue that I have mentioned elsewhere. The "land bars" that I see on my PC do not look like these "black lines" (they are much thicker, and more like straight and narrow strips of land that should not be there), but they are generally located in estuaries and other coastal bodies of water.

If you think that's a stretch, have a look at "Stockholm" Skavsta. Absolutely nowhere near Stockholm, and right next to the city of Nykoping.

I appreciate that DX11 may not be the latest technology, but it is worth remembering that those of us with less than top end PCs can enjoy running MSFS at impressive detail levels in DX11 mode without worrying too much about VRAM. I agree that MSFS 2024 should be able to harness the full potential of DX12, but I hope that MS/Asobo continue to recognise the "little guys" at the same time

I shut down the PC and rebooted. When I started loading MSFS this time, I was asked to sign in to my Microsoft account. I did this, and it loaded to the main screen. I then quit MSFS and tried loading it again. This time it loaded properly without any stalls on the "Checking for Updates" screen. Hopefully, that has resolved the issue.

I have a minor issue with loading MSFS that has only appeared this morning, and I would like to know if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. I clicked on the MSFS icon to start the loading process this morning, and it seemed to stall on the "Checking for Updates" screen. In the end I had to sign out, sign back in, and start the loading process again. This forced the software to load the "MSFS did not start properly" screen. I selected "Start in Normal mode", and everything worked fine after that. I assumed that this was an isolated glitch, but it has now happened three times in succession when loading MSFS from the desktop. The loading process has worked fine on the second attempt each time, so it does not seem to be an insurmountable problem. However, it should not be doing this. Is this happening to anyone else? I am going to shut down the PC completely, and restart it to see if that cures the problem.

I did not run it in admin mode.

Talking of delays.....I would have thought that the Easter Sale at the MS Marketplace would have started by now. I have been (im)patiently waiting for another big sale since Christmas, and I am keen to spend some money!

I fly my 737-600 with no cargo or passengers

I would have thought that rendering sections of land that do not exist in the Bing data would be a software problem.

Some of you may think that everything is perfect with the Beta, but are you really sure? Have they resolved the "land bars" issue at some coastal waterways? Have they eliminated the problem with the terrain tiles? I have been informed that the Isle of Man problem seems to have been resolved, but maybe MS/Asobo have nailed one or two other outstanding issues in recent days that they would like a bit more time to confirm and implement in the final SU15 release build.

To be fair, I have seen some that are OK (where the area covered is very minimal), but extensive use over relatively large areas (like terminal buildings) just does not cut it with me. In those situations, even opaque window textures make me feel more comfortable.

What do you guys think about parallax interiors? I personally hate them. They move in a weird way when my plane moves, and they just look fake. A complete immersion killer. I would prefer to see opaque window textures rather than parallax interiors if a fully modelled 3D interior is not an option.

It must be the first one that I have noticed. I guess this one is not that big of a deal, but it always makes me feel a bit uncomfortable when I see it.

I do not think it is that. The mismatch in the scenery only runs for a relatively short distance, the textures south of the line are darker than those to the north (which seems to be opposite to what I can see in that screenshot above), and there is also a significantly greater difference in brightness.

Has anyone else noticed a tile colouration mismatch line a short distance north of EGNC Carlisle? It is definitely not just adjacent fields of different colours, because the line runs through fields etc. I wonder if MS/Asobo are aware of this issue? This is not the same problem as mismatched tiles loading as the plane moves. It is a fixed boundary with a lighter area to the north, and a much darker area to the south. I really hope that this can be fixed, as it is the kind of thing that drives me nuts.