mnmon

I have a book at home called "Instrument Flying Using Flight Simulator", or a title close to that. Pretty old book as its references to FS was back when the FS world consisted of New York, Chicago, LA.. FS4??. Anyway, it's a great book for learning all the procedures both precision and non-precision. I doubt it's in print, but you might be able to find it somewhere. If not, email me and I'll send it to you as I never use it anymore. Mike

A good suggestion to look at in many cases. However, here I have a temp gauge for my CPU and it was not above 85. After getting some advice from the AS folks I turned off the auto-submit feature for ASG. Re-ran with filemon, and the continous activity I was seeing before was gone and fps was up 5-7. Now why ASG was doing that is another question for AS people, but I guess if any are having similar issues, then go uncheck that option in AS. Mike

Seems leaving ASG in this mode is always the way to go then. It was amazing to see ASG constantly active in the auto-submit mode. Thanks again for the help. Mike

Turned off ASG auto submit and ran with filemon. ASG continuously accessing was now gone; fps up about 5. How does turning off ASG autosubmit affect the weather displayed? Mike

Thanks, Jim.I'll try turning off the auto-submit and will re-run with filemon. Mike

I started a post on the FS9 forum about performance loss in my FS system over the last few weeks... down to around 10 fps and then at times down to slide show level. It was suggested one thing was to use filemon. Running FS9 by itself filemon showed no errors in opening files or no missing files. However, when AS6 (build 533) is running then filemon reports that ASG is continously trying these two items: SUCCESS Options OpenDir access 0010001 No SUCCESS FilebothDirectInfo: trigger.dat Filemon shows ASG is doing these continuously unless FS needs something. Bottom line: is this normal behavior for AS6/ASG, or has something changed and ASG is now hogging resources. I haven't changed anything since I did the build 533 upgrade. Already done all the usual things: virus, spyware, rebuild FS.cfg. Mike

I rebuilt the fs9.cfg file and it seemed a bit better, but not much. I then ran filmon and there were no problems with FS not finding files, etc. Then ran FS with AS6 and with filemon and ASG was continuously having "NO SUCCESS" with "FILEbothDirectInfo: trigger.dat" and it also was continuosly running "Options Open Dir Access 0010001" These two itmes were scrolling all the time except when FS needed something else. Guess I'll head over to the AS forum. Mike

Thanks, John. I'll try some of these. I don't have any force feed back systems, nor do I have any add-on sceneries, except reworked AFCADS for airports. I also never display the GPS, but some glass cockpits are essentially the same material just displayed in a different window. What has happened is some installs/deletes of various planes so maybe the gauges folder has some problems. I'll try a rebuild of the cfg files first. I have filemon, so I also give that a shot.Reinstall is definitely not what I want to do at this point. Mike

Anyone else seen this: over the last few weeks my FS performance has degraded significantly. I've always had reasonable FPS for my system, but they now consistently degraded down into the 10 fps range and even sometimes turns into a slide show. I can still get reasonable rates with a very unsophisticated plane, clear weather and no AI, but I used to be able to do the same with a glass cockpit, heavy overcast and 100% AI. I've checked all the usual places: spyware, virus, I defrag regularly, shutdown services, etc. Basically nothing has changed in the FS configuration or my system. Does the code in FS "wear out"? Meaning that with continuing access and also defraging, maybe some critical bits have been lost. Is a reinstall worth the effort? any ideas? Mike

Now, Now! The comments about golf courses are entirely out of line :+ As a double-addict of both golf and flight sim I probably need to check into Betty Ford. Golf usually wins out in the summer with the nice weather, but siming is it in the winter. Well... I did find that using PC latency and FSAuto start helps make EA Tiger Woods run great ;-) Mike

I've been searching all over trying to find an answer to a very simple question: Where are the fuel tanks for the Beechcraft Premier (390) 1A? Are they primarily in the fuselage, or are there both center and wing tanks? Thanks in advance. Mike

Ahh.. but the real question for the flight SIM is does it fly CORRECTLY ?? Mike

I won't get into the RA question; I haven't used any of their planes either. However, I will back up Tom in this debate. As a physicist one of the first things that caught my eye in the cfg file was the MOI's. And the reason they caught my eye is that when I started using a new plane I would discover aspects of the flight model that weren't right. These varied from stall characteristics, turn rates, low speed flight, cruise pitch, etc. you name it. Well, the bottom line that I've found is that fullly 90% of those payware planes out there have messed up MOI's. Once I fixed those, many of the problems certainly improved, if not disappeared. My starting this thread was just to point out that the MOI's are a start, but now I've also discovered that the entire Weight & Balance has to be correct also. The really GREAT part of this is that this parallels exactly my real world flying experience: ignore W&B at your peril. L & Z: just a quick question: when you get a new plane how do you evalute its flight characteristics? I'm asking because if all one does is T/O; climb; level flight; approach and land; then there are many planes out there that perform adequately. However, just push the envelope a bit and you'll soon discover their limitations. I always take a new plane up with about an 80% load and do the following: power on/off stalls, full flaps stalls, slow flight configuration, steep turns, short/soft field T/O techniques, high speed cruise looking for hands off stability after proper trimming, and finally I hand fly an IFR approach. Most of these are things taught at the basic private pilot license level. NEVER turn on that autopilot! If the plane can't be hand flown 100%, then something is messed up in the FDE. The amazing part is the MSFS can give a very realistic simulation of ALL aspects of the flight envelope with a properly designed plane. Mike

I understand. Both you and Zevious are more interested in the "bottom line". As the title of thread suggests, there's another aspect of the hobby for those of us who like to dig into the "guts" of the FDE. AND I am no where near the experience level of Tom. Case in point: as was suggested previously, yesterday I played with the default C182. Got the scale drawings, did some adjustments, loaded FS and laughed all the way as the plane promptly tipped over onto its nose sitting on the ground :( I think I know what I did wrong and the hint was in the original cfg file where MS had shifted the ref datum by 3.6 ft forward and the Cg 3.6 ft aft. I don't think I was using the right model center. I'll have some more fun tonight fixing it. As Tom mentioned though, knowing that the physics is at least in the correct ballpark, makes me at least more confident that what I am experiencing is a correct flight model. Doing the 182 is going to be important, as its a plane I have actually flown. Can't say that about an 737 ;-) Mike

"So which performance characteristics of the almost universally lauded RA planes are not realistic in your estimation? I'm intrigued. What do you mean by "bending the laws of physics?" We're talking here about a computer simulation. There really are no physical "laws"." As a physicist by profession, I can't let this one go by ;-) . It comes down to what one means by a 'simulation'. My dictionary says for 'simulator': "device that enables one to represent conditions likely to occur in actual performance". To me, that means putting in the actual physics and getting the plane to fly as it should. What I've recently found out is that MSFS actually responds to the "real physics" much better than I had previously thought. i.e. the flight engine in the simulator is actually pretty good in doing the physics. Therefore, if one is "bending the laws of physics" and doing unrealistic physics things to get a certain behavior, then one is engaging in computer fantasy, not computer simulation. A common poster around physics departments is a very funny one depicting "Road Runner Physics"; some very humorous stuff from the cartoon, but again just fantasy physics. I know one can respond that they are just overcoming the limitations of the flight engine, but again, my point is that the MSFS engine seems fairly well-developed in handling the real workd conditions. Mike

I haven't looked at the the default planes. There's definitely an issue of copyright infringement in terms of distributing the modifications, even with some freeware. I'm doing these mods for my own enjoyment and benefit. Doing the modifications is easy once you have the drawings and basic specs on the plane. It's really a matter is just taking measurements with a ruler and inputting into the cfg file. There's one rule for placement of the CG (1/4 of MAC) but that's easy also. Calculating the MOI's is also easily done using a table Tom Goodrick has published. If you have a particular plane, email me and I'll look at it. Larry: you're probably right about x-plane. I haven't used it in about 7 years. I do note that Austin has gotten x-plane to be used to drive some full-motion sims I believe which may or may not say something about his flight model. It's the rest of the x-plane "world" that eventually frustrated me. Mike

About 2 months ago I got a freeware airliner. generally it's very good, but the CG mark on the Fuel and Payload page was sitting on the nose. This kept bothering me. I spent a lot of time with Tom Goodrick and Ron Freimuth ;-) Not literally! Just reading all their posts and tutorials. I also spent time reading over carefully the MS aircraft container SDK. The work paid off: I was able to modify both the cfg file and some tweaks on the air file and not only fixed the CG location, but the plane flies great. I then tackled a payware RJ that I could never hand fly on approach without the AP as it would Dutch Roll like crazy. Fixed it in about 1 1/2 hours time and didn't even touch the air file. Did the same for some another planes. What I've learned, and haven't seen discussed much, is that a large number of planes out there (payware included) seem to have the basic parameters of the planes wrong. The major offenders are the location of the CG, the values of the MOI's, station load positions, and the entire airplane geometry section in the cfg file. Want to have some different fun with FS? Here's what to do: Get some scale drawings of the plane usually from the manufacturer's web site. They don't have to have anything but top, side and front views with the basic dimensions. Print them out. Take a ruler and get the scale for the drawing, ft/inch. Find the geometric center for the plane, This is the ref_datum_point in the cfg file if it's set to 0,0,0. EVERYTHING else is measured off this point. You can then place the CG, station load points, fuel tanks, and everything else in the geometry section properly. How bad are things out there? Well, the payware RJ I worked on has a T-tail. Guess where the horiz stab. was set in the cfg file? In the middle of the fuselage like a 737. That was just one error, there were more such as listing the wing sweep as 0 degress when it's actually a 30 degree swept wing. The crew was positioned 10 ft in front of the nose of the plane! The payoff, after doing about 4 planes now, is that you get something that actually flies very well. In fact, I now think that if done carefully, the FS FDE can come close to what x-plane does. It's rewarding to do that work and then go fly the result! Mike

Go to the library and get this: nicks_lightfix_v2.zip Very easy to use and will take care of all your problems :-) Mike

The issue with the texture loading in the Cheyenne has come up before. See http://www.digital-aviation.de/ewpforum/vi...ghlight=texture The solution is to reduce the texture sizes. I changed all the files to DXT1 (lower quality) and the file sizes went from about 1 MB each to around 600k if I remember correctly. I used Martin Wright's program http://fly.to/mwgfx It's a bit overkill for what you need to do but it's a fairly simple process: Use his program, open a texture file and then just resave in the format you want. Experiment on the default aircraft before doing it on the Cheyenne ;-) In fact, I now do the conversion with almost all my planes if the the texture files are too large. It really helps if you don't care that the outside views may not be perfect. I cna't really tell much of a difference. Mike

Yesterday, I got from the Boeing site some scale drawings and went to work ;-). First thing I discovered is that the wing_apex_long was wrong, but not for some of the reasons given. Since FS defines the center of the model as the "geographic" center this has a BIG effect if we have a swept wing aircraft such as the 707. If the ref datum point is set to 0, 0, 0, then it coincides with the geographic center. The CG is then set off the ref. datum point, now also the geographic center. The model center does have an effect if you set the ref. datum to 0. First I found the geographic center, extended the leading eges of the wings into the fuselage and then measured the distance the apex was from the geographic center which is also the ref. datum point. Guess what?... 34 feet in front! I then set the wing_apex_long value to 34. Next I located the MAC (1/4 chord from leading edge) and then set the CG at 25% of MAC as given in the FAA cert sheet for the 707, which was about 12 feet in front of the geographic/ref datum center. Fired up FS and VOILA!, the CG symbol was now sitting where it should be! In effect the original file had the 707's wings about 25 feet too far aft! If the plane did not have swept wings, this wouldn't be such a problem. Tweaked some other locations such as the vstab and hstab, and engines in the air file to conform with the measurements from the drawings, but were mainly minor changes. I still can't get the station loads to affect the CG, (fuel does) but I'm working on that now. Fun learning experience with a payoff! Mike

You noticed that too! I changed their positions, but no effect. Ed apparently has the cfg file, but I'll list it here also.Mike[fltsim.0] title=HJG B707-320B American Airlines 1978sim=B707-320Bmodel=323Bpanel=sound=texture=american_1978_323b_n8433kb_checklists=kb_reference=visual_damage=1description=HJG Boeing 707-323B repaint by Yannick CHARLANDui_manufacturer=Boeingui_type=707-320Bui_variation=American Airlines (1978)atc_id=N8433atc_airline=AMERICANatc_flight_number=760atc_heavy=0atc_parking_codes=AALatc_parking_types=GATE,CARGO,RAMP[General]performance=Length: 152.9 ftnWing span: 142.5 ftnMGTOW: 335,000 lbs.nPower: (4) P&W JT3D-3 @ 18,000 lbs eanPassengers: 121 Range: 5,350 nmnOriginal Design: Gary Carlsonnatc_type=BOEING AIRCRAFTatc_model=B703[WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE]reference_datum_position = 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000 // (feet) distance from FlightSim Reference position: (1/4 chord, centerline, waterline)empty_weight_CG_position=10.000, 0.000, 0.000max_number_of_stations = 50station_load.0 = "170.0, 59.0, -1.5, 0.0, Pilot" station_load.1 = "170.0, 59.0, 1.5, 0.0, Co-Pilot"station_load.2 = "170.0, 55.0, 1.5, 0.0, Engineer" station_load.3 = "20.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, Crew"station_load.4 = "20.0, 46.0, 0.0, 0.0, Fwd Galley A"station_load.5 = "510.0, 40.0, 0.0, 0.0, Fwd Galley B" station_load.6 = "1360.0, 29.5, 0.0, 0.0, First Class 1-8" station_load.7 = "6120.0, 2.0, 0.0, 0.0, Coach 9-15" station_load.8 = "10200.0, -24.5, 0.0, 0.0, Coach 16-26"station_load.9 = "35.0, -39.0, 0.0, 0.0, Aft Galley A"station_load.10= "30.0, -45.5, 0.0, 0.0, Aft Galley B" station_load.11= "10000.0, 30.5, 0.0, 0.0, Forward Baggage" station_load.12= "4000.0, -25.5, 0.0, 0.0, Aft Baggage" empty_weight=140525.000empty_weight_roll_MOI=7837897.000empty_weight_pitch_MOI=15313596.000empty_weight_yaw_MOI=14379742.000empty_weight_coupled_MOI=1300.000max_gross_weight=335000.797CG_forward_limit=10.000CG_aft_limit=1.000[fuel]LeftMain= 0.000, -57.575, 9.056, 439.000, 0.000 //#1 ReserveLeftAux= 0.000, -40.600, 7.306, 2323.000, 0.000 //#1 MainCenter2= 0.000, -19.250, 4.681, 4069.000, 0.000 //#2 MainCenter1= 0.000, 0.000, 2.691, 10193.000, 0.000 //Ctr WingCenter3=0.000, 19.250, 4.681, 4069.000, 0.000 //#3 MainRightAux= 0.000, 40.600, 7.306, 2323.000, 0.000 //#4 MainRightMain= 0.000, 57.575, 9.056, 439.000, 0.000 //#4 Reservefuel_type=2.000000number_of_tank_selectors=1electric_pump=0[airplane_geometry]wing_area=3050.000000wing_span=145.750000wing_root_chord=20.667wing_dihedral=6.998wing_incidence=1.000wing_twist=-0.500oswald_efficiency_factor=0.75wing_winglets_flag=0wing_sweep=35.000wing_pos_apex_lon=8.000wing_pos_apex_vert=0.000htail_area=776.000htail_span=45.750htail_pos_lon=-76.917htail_pos_vert=0.000htail_incidence=0.000htail_sweep=35.000vtail_area=430.000vtail_span=23.643vtail_sweep=35.000vtail_pos_lon=-70.250vtail_pos_vert=5.833elevator_area=194.000aileron_area=120.600rudder_area=73.100elevator_up_limit=15elevator_down_limit=10aileron_up_limit=19.481aileron_down_limit=14.897rudder_limit=23.491elevator_trim_limit=15.481spoiler_limit=60.000spoilerons_available=1aileron_to_spoileron_gain=2.000min_ailerons_for_spoilerons=5.000min_flaps_for_spoilerons=0.000//0 Class <0=none,1=wheel, 2=scrape, 3=float>//1 Longitudinal Position (feet)//2 Lateral Position (feet)//3 Vertical Position (feet)//4 Impact Damage Threshold (Feet Per Minute)//5 Brake Map (0=None, 1=Left, 2=Right)//6 Wheel Radius (feet)//7 Steer Angle (degrees)//8 Static Compression (feet) (0 if rigid)//9 Max/Static Compression Ratio//10 Damping Ratio (0=Undamped, 1=Critically Damped)//11 Extension Time (seconds)//12 Retraction Time (seconds)//13 Sound Type//14 Airspeed limit for retraction (KIAS)//15 Airspeed that gear gets damage at (KIAS)[contact_points]//landing gearpoint.0=1.000, 54.586, 0.000, -4.400, 1874.803, 0.000, 2.136, 40.000, 0.897, 0.800, 0.500, 5.000, 6.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000point.1=1.000, -3.083, -10.017, -6.400, 1874.803, 1.000, 3.536, 0.000, 1.500, 0.800, 0.580, 8.200, 9.200, 2.000, 275.000, 300.000point.2=1.000, -3.083, 10.017, -6.400, 1874.803, 2.000, 3.536, 0.000, 1.500, 0.800, 0.580, 8.000, 9.000, 3.000, 275.000, 300.000//scrapepoint.3=2.000, -27.750, -65.833, 9.833, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 6.000, 0.000, 0.000point.4=2.000, -27.750, 65.833, 9.833, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 6.000, 0.000, 0.000point.5=2.000, -54.250, 0.000, 5.167, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 9.000, 0.000, 0.000point.6=2.000, 65.167, 0.000, 4.500, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 4.000, 0.000, 0.000point.7=5.000, 12.167, 47.957, 7.642, 1600, 0, 0.00, 50.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.00, 1.0, 1.2, 0, 0.0, 0.0point.8=5.000, 12.167, -47.957, 7.642, 1600, 0, 0.00, 50.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.00, 1.1, 1.4, 0, 0.0, 0.0//CoGstatic_pitch = -0.9 //degrees (pitch when loaded on ground)static_cg_height=4.843 //feet, altitude of CG when at rest on the groundgear_system_type=0[Flaps.0]type=1span-outboard=0.500extending-time=11.000system_type=0damaging-speed=250.000blowout-speed=300.000lift_scalar=0.000drag_scalar=0.000pitch_scalar=1.000flaps-position.0=0.000, 0.000flaps-position.1=14.000, 0.000flaps-position.2=25.000, 0.000flaps-position.3=40.000, 0.000flaps-position.4=50.000, 0.000[Flaps.1]type=1span-outboard=0.500extending-time=11.000system_type=0damaging-speed=250.000blowout-speed=300.000lift_scalar=0.500drag_scalar=0.000pitch_scalar=-0.400flaps-position.0=0.000, 0.000flaps-position.1=26.000, 0.000flaps-position.2=37.000, 0.000flaps-position.3=44.200, 0.000flaps-position.4=50.000, 0.000[Flaps.2]type=1span-outboard=0.500extending-time=11.000system_type=0damaging-speed=250.000blowout-speed=300.000lift_scalar=0.000drag_scalar=1.000pitch_scalar=0.000flaps-position.0=0.000, 0.000flaps-position.1=5.000, 0.000flaps-position.2=10.000, 0.000flaps-position.3=30.000, 0.000flaps-position.4=50.000, 0.000[GeneralEngineData]engine_type=1Engine.0=-17.416667, -46.500000, -2.916667Engine.1=-1.916667, -28.083333, -3.833333Engine.2=-1.916667, 28.083333, -3.833333Engine.3=-17.416667, 46.500000, -2.916667fuel_flow_scalar=1.0600000min_throttle_limit=-0.280029[TurbineEngineData]fuel_flow_gain=0.002000inlet_area=18.000000rated_N2_rpm=29920.000000static_thrust=18000.000000afterburner_available=0reverser_available=1[Reference Speeds]flaps_up_stall_speed=160.000000full_flaps_stall_speed=128.000000cruise_speed=478.698930max_indicated_speed=370.0max_mach=0.889000[keyboard_response]elevator=150.000000,250.000000aileron=150.000000,250.000000rudder=150.000000,250.000000[Views]eyepoint=61.297880,-1.563525,9.739993[exits]number_of_exits=2exit_rate.0=0.4 ;Percent per secondexit_rate.1=0.2 ;Percent per second[autopilot]autopilot_available=1flight_director_available=1default_vertical_speed=1500.000000autothrottle_available=0autothrottle_arming_required=0autothrottle_takeoff_ga=0autothrottle_max_rpm=90.000000pitch_takeoff_ga=8.000000use_no_default_pitch = 1use_no_default_bank = 1default_pitch_mode =0default_bank_mode =0max_pitch=10.000000max_pitch_acceleration=1.000000max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.000000max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=1.500000max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.000000max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=28000.000000max_bank=25.000000max_bank_acceleration=1.800000max_bank_velocity=3.000000max_throttle_rate=0.100000nav_proportional_control=9.000000nav_integrator_control=0.250000nav_derivative_control=0.000000nav_integrator_boundary=2.500000nav_derivative_boundary=0.000000gs_proportional_control=9.520000gs_integrator_control=0.260000gs_derivative_control=0.000000gs_integrator_boundary=0.700000gs_derivative_boundary=0.000000yaw_damper_gain=1.000000[direction_indicators]direction_indicator.0=3,0[sMOKESYSTEM]smoke.0=-2.91, -17.416667, -46.500000, fx_hjg_b707smoke.1=-3.83, -1.916667, -28.083333, fx_hjg_b707smoke.2=-3.83, -1.916667, 28.083333, fx_hjg_b707smoke.3=-2.91, -17.416667, 46.500000, fx_hjg_b707[LIGHTS] //Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landinglight.0=1, 0.881, 0, -0.201, fx_beaconb.fx ,light.1=1, 13.546, 0, 14.317, fx_beaconb.fx ,light.2=3, -31.285, -70.811, 9.110, fx_navredm ,light.3=3, -31.285, 70.811, 9.110, fx_navgrem ,light.4=3, -77.087, 0, 11.110, fx_navwhi ,[brakes]toe_brakes_scale=1.000031parking_brake=1[gear_warning_system]gear_warning_available=1pct_throttle_limit=0.099976flap_limit_power=35.00000flap_limit_idle=12.00000[hydraulic_system]electric_pumps=0engine_map=1,1,1,1normal_pressure=3000.000000[stall_warning]type=1[attitude_indicators]attitude_indicator.0=1[turn_indicators]turn_indicator.0=1,0[Radios]Audio.1 = 1, 0Com.1 = 1, 0Com.2 = 1, 0Nav.1 = 1, 0, 1Nav.2 = 1, 0, 0Adf.1 = 1Transponder.1 = 1Marker.1 = 1

I'll post the cfg file later today. The station load positions look fine and as far as I can tell, so does the rest of the plane geometry. This is the HJG B707 (freeware). Most of the users don't seem concerned about the CG resting on the nose, but it's a mystery I'd like to solve. There was some discussion in a HJG thread last year about the CG location and the "fix" of moving the wing_apex_long position, but it seems to me to not be the right solution. I'm learning a lot about FDE's in the process which is fun. Mike

Ok, so much for that theory. :-) Why would the CG show up on the nose then if I have set the ref. datum and the empty CG both at 0, 0, 0? Another little bit of evidence: changing the fuel will shift the CG around on the diagram, but changing the load will not. This is an airliner, so even getting rid of all the passengers and bags seems to not budge the CG. It's as if the payload stations are not being read, but they look fine in the cfg. Is there something in the air file I should look at? I get get the CG to the right spot by adjusting the wing_apex_long from the current 8 to 30, but that would put the wing too far forward. Mike

I've got a plane where the CoG, as shown on the fuel and payload diagram is sitting on the nose. I've done tons of reading and at this point I'm guessing that the model reference point does not agree with the cfg reference datum or the empty Cg point (both set to 0, 0, 0) This is in FS9. How do I open up the mdl file to see where the model ref point is set. It's a non-gmax model? Or am I just going about this all wrong? Mike

Jim, If what you say is true, then why wouldn't MS put up a simple banner on the site stating; "As our website is being upgraded you may find some files, etc. have become temporarily unavailable. We hope to restore full functionality soon." People would read the announcement and no more complaints would be registered. The fact that they didn't do such a courtesy with the FS9 files seems to point in a different direction. Mike (the other one ;-) )