someone

Keep in mind Vista has lots of "eye candy" which I personally don't care for. I'll bet that Vista will run on much lower spec machines once those "eye candy" features are turned off.Even in XP, I turn off useless things such as minimize/maximize and menu animations. When I click to minimize a window, I want it gone, I don't care to see it slide down to the taskbar. Same for when I click the start button, I want access to my programs, not to have to wait for it to slide up or fade in.

Some of the fixes on GPS approaches seem to be random letters, but most of the established intersections and fixes that have been around are usually named after local landmarks. One intersection/fix on an approach where I did my instrument training was SKENE intersection. When practicing the approach, when you reached SKENE, you could look down and see a water tower with Skene printed on it. Skene is just some little farm town in the middle of nowhere, there's not much there other than the water tower. I always thought it was cool how the intersection was right over the water tower. I wonder if it was just a coincidence or if the put it there on purpose.

I thought it was something I had done. I'm still re-installing stuff for FS, and it was working fine the other day. Whenever I try to do get real weather, it gets to 1% or 2% then FS9 quits responding and I have to kill it.

I should have mentioned that I need to stick with freeware right now since I just dropped quite a load of cash on the new computer. I saw a video of FS9 with the 6-DOF TrackIR and I'm probably going to pick it up. I've got plenty of payware aircraft already, but I do plan to purchase the DF Baron.If I remember, I had FS Sky World installed for clouds, but I can't remember what else. I know I had some replacement ground, runway, taxiway, water, night textures etc. I wish I had kept a backup.

I just built a new computer and I'm ready to get back in to flight sim. The only things I have backed up are my payware aircraft.I'll be starting from scratch, so besides reinstalling FS9 and patching it, what cloud textures, water textures and other enchancements are popular now.

Why was this moved here? I only mentioned what hardware I use, but the question is related to configuring Microsoft Flight Simulator, not the hardware.

This topic has been moved by the moderator of this forum. It can be found at:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...7&topic_id=6741

I bought the CH twin engine throttle quadrant a while ago. I've created different configs for flying piston singles, piston twins, and turboprops. I'm having trouble finding things to set all of the switches to.For single engine planes, I've just been flying without the TQ plugged in and using the throttle, prop and mixture controls on my CH Yoke. Eventually I will get to the singe engine config for the TQ. I don't fly very many turboprops, so I haven't even started on the config for it yet.I'm mainly working on the config for piston twins right now. Here's how I have it set up currently:On the Yoke:left trigger = both brakesbottom left thumb button = AP mastertop left thumb button = FD masterleft rocker switch = elevator trimright trigger = spoiler toggleright rocker = left/right differential brakeshat swtch = view controlleft switch = gear up/downright switch = flaps up/downOn the TQ:[pre]Lever | Throttle1 | Throttle2 | Prop1 | Prop2 | Mixture1 | Mixture2------------|------------------|------------------|-------|-------|----------------|--------------Switch up | Cowl Flap 1 up | Cowl Flap 2 up | Empty | Empty | Mag 1 Decrease | Mag 2 DecreaseSwitch down | Cowl Flap 1 down | Cowl Flap 2 down | Empty | Empty | Mag 1 Increase | Mag 2 Increase[/pre]As you can see, I haven't dicided what to do with the two switches under the two prop levers.I also just got the Saitek gaming keyboard with the programmable button pad (9 buttons + 2 shift buttons = 27 functions). I can't even figure out what to do with all of the switches on my yoke/TQ, now I've got more buttons to program. I'm just looking for ideas, so for those of you with the CH TQ and/or the Saitek Gamers keyboard, what have you programmed all of the buttons to do?

Ok, I tried that, but still don't see the 3D cockpit. When I look left, I see part of the wing tip. The only view that works is the back-right view.http://img198.exs.cx/img198/1527/screen001...IS_TEXT_TO_VIEW

How can I have the 3D cockpit views instead of the bitmaps when I look left, right, etc.? I tried removing the bitmap's for the views, but when I look around all I see is black.

If I remember right, the original release date was June 30, and they keept pushing it back. I had kind of given up, but I thought about it today. I noticed they've changed their web site, with the throttle quadrant being displayed on the main page now. They've also released new Control Manager software, and the readme says it has support for the throttle quadrant.I've looked at a few places online, but they are still not available. Some places are shoiwing a November or October Est. ship date, some haven't been updated and are showing September release date.Has anyone heard anything?

It depends on alot of things, aircraft, wind, weather, terrain, etc. You do not have to stay below clouds, you can fly above anything but a broken or overcast layer.For flying in the US, this link will cover basic VFR weather and clound clearance in different airspaces:http://www.faa.gov/aim/Chap3/aim0301.htmlAs for performance, if your flying non turbocharged aircraft, it's usually not worth flying above 10,000 ft. unless you have to fly over some terrain or there's a really nice tailwind up there.

Where did you find GaugeClean4? I've been using GaugeClean3 since FS2002 without any problems. It will remove some of the default gauges, but they aren't used. Most of the default planes use gauges in .cab files now, but MS left the old .gau files for compatibility with older addon planes. With FS9 I get alot of reports about missing gauges, but that's because FS9 now supports gauges in the aircraft folder. All of the new aircraft that came with FS9 have the gauges in a .cab file located inside it's own panel folder, that's why you get the error.

I guess there aren't any trees where you live.

>Thanks for that. I couldn't read any of the text on the>site, but the link was fairly obvious :)http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Putting your swap file in RAM drive kind of defeats the purpose of a swap file. First of all creating a RAM disk decreases the ammount of available memory for programs to use, so that there will make your performace worse. The swap file is where things are placed in when you run low on memory. By putting your swap file on a RAM disk, your forcing less memory and more swapping.To answer the original poster's question, using a RAM drive will not make FS run any faster FPS wise. It will load faster, but then again you'll still have to copy FS into the RAM drive first.

ASOS and AWOS stations will report visibility if it's 10 miles or less. Some older type stations will just say "visibility 10 miles" while some say "visibility greater than 10 miles." I'm talking about the actual recording, not the METAR. My local airport's AWOS will say "greater than 10 miles" but the old AWOS at my college where I did my flight training would only say "10 miles." I've heard some ATIS stations report more up to 20 miles, or some say unlimited/unrestricted, but those are recorded by a person.I've read that it's due to the instrument used in measuring visibility that it isn't sensitive enough to report accurate visibility beyond 10 miles.In flightsim, the ATIS/ASOS/AWOS will say 20 miles, but the real weather download always sets the visibility to 50 miles if a METAR reports 10 miles.

Just because the Baron's max altitude is 20,000ft, doesn't mean it's designed to cruise there. I think the FAA's definition of service ceiling is something like the max pressure altitude that the aircraft can no longer maintiain a minimum of 100fpm climb. That is pressure altitude, not altitude above sea level.The recommended climb power setting for the baron is 25" MP and 2500RPM and cowl flaps open. Remember the Baron isn't turbocharged, so somewhere around 5-6000ft. you will no longer be able to maintain 25" MP at full throttle.You will lose about 1" MP for each 1000ft of altitude, so at 20,000ft you're only going to be able to get 10" MP out out of those engines. The Baron's cruises best between 5000-8000ft.

What aircraft is that?

A friend of mine has the exact same one, except he has a polished aluminum spinner and retracts on his.http://www.pbase.com/image/29558833/original.jpgI've got more RC pics in my gallery if anyone is interested. I've only got two days of pics up, but I've got over 300 more pictures that I haven't gotten time to upload yet. The gallery is here:http://www.pbase.com/jchaney/rc_aircraft

The one I learned for writing down IFR clearances is CRAFT:C - Clearance limit (cleared to)R - RouteA - AltitudeF - Departure FrequenceyT - TransponderBefore getting your IFR clearance, write CRAFT vertically on a peice of paper. Then when they read your clearance back just fill in the blanks. In flight sim it doesn't really matter since you always get as filed, but you're not always that lucky in the real world.A more realistic example:Cessna 700MS cleared to XYZ VOR, fly direct ABC VOR then Victor-123 to XYZ, expect as filed at XYZ, climb and maintain four-thousand, expect six-thousand at ABC VOR, contact departure on 123.45, squawk, 3456.C - XYZ VOR exp A/F @ XYZR - D-> ABC, V123 - XYZA - 4000, exp 6000 @ ABCF - 123.45T - 3456

I bet you have your spot view set to "fixed." With the fixed option on, the num pad view is fixed to orient with the magnetic north. For example, 8 is North 6 is East, 2 is South, 4 is West. Go to your view options and pick "Roll" and it will then orient the view to the aircraft (8 to view nose etc.).

There is no freeware or payware Archer III that I know of. The DF Archer II is my favorite plane to fly. The only difference in the Archer II and III is the interior and avionics, and about $150,000 price difference if you were buying a real one.

I run the card's default "high quality" setting, which uses 2x AA and 8x AF.

What is strange is when I use the real weather in FS, I get real overcasts, but if I try to set manual weather and chose overcast, it's not overcast.