JRMurray

A bit of an aside ...I'm a big fan of David's work, so much so that I did something at Christmas time at the end of 2006 that I had never done before: I sent him a small donation via PayPal (the link is on his website) and a note thanking him for his freeware. He was kind enough to answer my e-mail, and he was appreciative of the donation.

A while back (2004?), there was a discussion about how we all use FS 9, and one of the methods mentioned was to use an airline's schedule and fly the real-world flight (thus replicating the aircraft, time, date, flight number, etc).I've found a great web site that contains an archive of timetables of airlines around the world; it covers 317 airlines and contains 2248 different timetables, according to the author. The archive comprises mostly PDFs, although some of the schedules are in HTML format.Although the archive doesn't cover every airline, it's pretty extensive. I've found it to be very useful.Cheers!Joel

I've had this problem myself. If you can't see the aircraft rotating, it is more than likely related to the antialiasing settings for your graphics card. You may have to turn down the settings a notch or two.If you don't know how, let me know and I can walk you through it.Cheers!Joel

I have the same problem. Have you found a solution?Joel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

>Dude, someone wrote "my sex desire is on level 50", so i>corrected him and said, the is missing. He is trying to>persuade me that the is NOT missing.>>Do ya get it now? :)Okay, it's time for me to comment. Before I do so, I've been teaching this stuff at the university level for decades (just administered a final exam yesterday, in fact), so I've got a pretty good handle on grammar, vocabulary, and so on. :-)Anyway, the other person is correct; there is no need for the article. As someone else has pointed out, "the" is a definite article, a word that is used to make nouns in English definite. Without going into a long explanation, "level 50" is used generically, so the definite article is inappropriate in this context.As an aside, the rules involving the use of articles, both definite and indefinite, are complex and remain one of the hardest things to learn for English as a second language learners. If you want to investigate further, for a good explanation of articles, I recommend Practical English Usage, by Michael Swan. More information about the text can be found here:Cheers!Joel

I bought Flight 1's Super 80 some time ago, and I've flown it a lot, but I prefer the "modernness" of the ex-Lago MD83.

With some many excellent add-ons available, it's pretty tough to choose only five. Here are mine, both freeware and payware, and not necessarily in order of preference:Project Tupolev Tu-154B2 (freeware)- An excellent "study sim"Anything by David Maltby (freeware)- His Trident and BAC1-11 510 ED are my favouritesRussian airports USSS and UNNT (freeware)- One word: WOW!Maddog 2004 (payware)- Now out of LAGO's hands, the LevelD sim of the MD80MAAM Sim's DC-3 (payware)- Simply the best classical aircraft available (IMO)Making the five choices above was actually difficult as there are so many excellent other freeware and payware add-ons. Honourable mention goes to the Aerosoft Cheyenne, LevelD Sim 767, any CanUK scenery, Ultimate Terrain, Ultimate Traffic, EditVoicePak, Radar Contact, FSNavigator ... I could go on and on. :-)Cheers!Joel

>Mate I should really qualify my previous answer.> You haven't stated your CPU or ram.Thanks again for the reply, Roger. Of course, you're right: I should have listed the specs of my computer:CPU: AMD Athlon 64X2 3800+RAM: 1 gbSound: Soundblaster AudigyCheers!Joel

Thanks for the reply, Roger. I would have assumed so, too. Time to use some Xmas gift money ...:-)Cheers!Joel

I'm thinking about upgrading my video card from a 7600GT (256 meg RAM)to a 7950GT (512 meg RAM).I fly mostly FS9. Would it be worth it to upgrade?Thanks in advance for opinions....Happy New Year!JoelJoel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

I was one of the first to buy FSX, but even with a powerful system, I just can't get the same degree of performance out of FSX with a level of graphics equal to what I have now with FS9.Since I've decided to stick with FS9 for the foreseeable future, I've starting doing some things that will keep FS9 fresh for me:* I've recent added a number of freeware airports--something I had never done before. Wow! Many of them I've added are very impressive! I've already added some great airport scenery from Russia (e.g., USSS and UNNT) and from Canada (e.g., CanUK scenery) and I'm looking to add more from the US and the UK.* I've added a number of freeware Russian aircraft to complement my favourite, the Project Tupolev Tu-154B. The aircraft are free and are easily as good as if not better than some payware aircraft on the market. There's something about Russian aircraft--so basic yet so powerful, and for the most part, they make great study sims. In addition, they are a lot of fun to hand-fly.* I've made it a point to have cold and dark set ups for all my aircraft--both GA and large commercial, even if this is unrealistic for some of the larger aircraft. I've learned more about aircraft systems this way than I have just reading about them.* I am revisiting many of my payware add-ons, installing them when necessary, to fly them again. Even older add-ons, such as Ready for Pushback 747 and Iron Knuckles DC-9, are enjoyable to fly around--especially when you pay close attention to proper procedures.* I'm using FSPassengers more and more for many of my flights--getting addicted to the atmosphere it creates and the attention to details and proper flying it demands.Anyway, doing these things is guaranteed to keep FS9 fresh for me for a long time yet.Cheers!Joel

Think I replied in the original thread, but ...I'm 46 (about to turn 47 at the end of December), and I have been noodling around with flight sims since the Timex Sinclair ZX (anyone remember that computer?).I'm a college professor who has a dual role: half of my time at work, I teach people how to write decent essays, and the other half I am the co-chair of my department. The teaching is the fun part of my day; the administration is the challenging part.Anyway, I've been married for 14 years and have two beautiful children, a daughter who's six and a son who's eleven.It is really interesting to read who else is involved in this hobby!

The best freeware aircraft for FS9 I own are the Project Tupolev Tu-154B2 and any of David Maltby's aircraft (I especially enjoy the Trident).I've been flying the Tu-154 a LOT lately and love the complexity. You really have to work hard to set the plane up properly, and once doing so, you have deal with an entirely Russian-language cockpit. What a great study sim.I've also spent a lot of time flying David's Trident. What a quality piece of work.As an aside, with freeware aircraft like the above, I have little to no desire to use FSX....

>Cheers from the turn into the CYVR Localizers....North Delta. :-)I'm just east of you--at the beginnings of Cloverdale, on the way to CYNJ. I wonder how many of us are here in the Fraser Valley? It might be fun to try to meet....

Are you a bad person?Nope. I did much the same thing myself, and I _know_ I'm not a bad person. :-)Joel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

Forgot to mention the cost:$79.99 + PST/GST = $90.39. A bargain, really, considering all the hours of entertainment I'll enjoy over the next three or so years.Joel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

Finished teaching my class, postponed my officework until tomorrow morning, and left my office at Kwantlen University College early :-) just to see if FSX was anywhere to be found in Surrey. Success! I bought FSX Deluxe at FutureShop in Surrey (Scott Road and 76 Avenue).As of 1:45 p.m., the FSX Deluxe and FSX Standard packages were not on the shelf yet but were in storage boxes by the shelves. Picking a package out of the box, I asked one of the sales associates if I could buy FSX Deluxe in spite of the fact that it wasn't labelled, the answer to which was something about stocking the shelves later today but no problem buying now. Yeah!I would imagine that within the next hour or so, FSX will be on the shelves at FutureShops around Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.Now to install it....Joel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

>I've also switched over to Perfect Disk after using O & O. I>like Perfect Disk better overall.Interesting. Like many others, I've switched from o & O to Perfect Disk as well. Two reasons I did so: (1) Perfect Disk's interface is much cleaner, and (2) with O & O, I found that a NAME defrag was taking too long than what I thought was "healthy" for my HD. Since I have have a schedule set up to defrag once every two days, whether justified or not, I felt that a defrag that took much more than 1.5 hours three times a week was far too taxing on the HD (too much disk activity too often) than necessary. Perfect Disk takes a much shorter time (not much more than 0.5 hours)--and frankly, I can't tell whether there is any difference in performance between the two defrag applications.

>I tried Radar contact but the>voices are not real even if you have the speech speeded way>up.Now I try to fly all my flights without ATC.I felt the same way about Radar Contact when I first bought it, but I soon got used to the slow speech and now will not fly without it. I find the experience with Radar Contact much more realistic.You might try giving Radar Contact another chance....Cheers!Joel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

>If I entered any antialiasing in the fs9 profile then I had>the black screen. On the other hand if I entered AA x8S in the>global settings and set the profile to global then the black>preview problem disappeared.>>Since I don't use any other profile but fs9 setting everything>up as global and the fs9 profile to global has cured the>problem for me.Unfortunately, I tried this work-around, but it didn't work for me. Perhaps it has something to do with global settings in general. Mine are the following:Nvidia driver 91.31Anisotropic filtering: 16xAnisotropic optimization: onAnisotropic sample optimization: onAntialias settings: 2xQ (the highest I can go without a blank aircraft screen)Conformant texture clamp: onExtension limit: offForce mipmaps: TrilinearGamma correct antialiasing: offHardware acceleration: single display performance modeIgnore OpenGL error reporting: offImage settings: qualityNegative LOD bias: onOpenGL threading: autoTransparency antialiasing: offTrilinear optimization: onTriple buffering: onVertical sync: force offJoel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

I have the following system and am thinking about replacing my video card:Pentium P4 HT 3.2 GHzAsus P4P800SE motherboard1 GB RAMWinFast A360 LE (FX 5700 LE) video cardSamsung 712N LCD monitorWinXP ProFS 2004 1280x960x16 / 75% traffic / UT / 3d clouds @ lowest settings / 22 fps set in frame rate slider / most other sliders set about mid-pointI'm thinking about replacing my 5700 LE with a BFG 7800 GS OC AGP. Would I see much of a difference in FS 2004? Would it be worth the CAN $380 to upgrade my video? If not, any suggestions?I've done searches on this topic in this forum, but the advice given seems a little mixed. Thanks in advance.Joel @ CYVR (near CYNJ, really)

Not being able to tune the radios is a known bug, and there is a service pack that addresses this problem. Have you downloaded and installed it yet?Cheers!Joel @ CYVR (near CYNJ, really)

>Anyone remember "Jet"?Yes, I do. I bought it and just about every other flight sim, whether civilian or military.Anyone remember the UFO "simulator" from subLOGIC?Joel @ CYVR (near CYNJ, really)

>Even before SubLogic's "Flight Simulator" and "Air Transport>Pilot", I had a flight simulator for a Timex Sinclair 1000,>and then another one for the Commodore VIC-20. Since then>I've had every version of MS Flight Simulator, plus "Fly!" and>"Fly! II" and Sierra's "Pro Pilot" and "Pro Pilot 2".Me, too, Jim! The flight sim for the Timex Sinclair was really, really basic. I could hardly run the sim, as it had to be loaded via a cassette player, and mine never seemed to load programs well.Ah, memories!Joel @ CYVR (near CYNJ, really)

It's been around 22 years for me. I started with subLOGIC Flight Simulator for the Commodore 64 in 1984 (if my memory isn't deceiving me) and have bought pretty well every version of Flight Sim since then.Joel @ CYVR (near CYNJ, really)