UDflyer

My parents bought the first LED TV in the Quad Cities when they came out here and I have to say that the TV is amazing. The picture and colors are so much better than any other TV I've seen, and it's amazingly thin and gives off no heat. Aside from that, because its LED it'll never run out and it is extremely cheap to leave on because it uses only pennies for electricity. If you have the money and are in the market for a TV, this is, in my opinion, the only TV you should look at.

I'll preface by saying I don't fly jets yet, but in my years of flying single and multi-engine piston airplanes I've never seen anything like what FS does in turbulence. I've never seen such abrupt airspeed changes in real life as I've gotten in FS, although I will say that I've never flown in windshear or a microburst before, either. :( However like everyone said, you don't fly at VMO or MMO during turbulence anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem. I did experience something rather interesting not too long ago when I was flying from my hometown down to Atlanta on ASA. I was in row 4 or 5 and I could hear them disconnect the autopilot, which is normal, but I could tell we were high and fast. As soon as I was thinking that they extended another notch of flaps and I could hear the flap overspeed warning go off for about 5-7 seconds. I wonder if they wrote that one up or just let it go. :(

Sitting in the Crown Room, excuse me the Sky Club, in the E Concourse in Atlanta waiting for my flight for Paris... or wherever I end up! :(

I've wanted to be a pilot since I was ten, and now that I'm 22 I've finally finished up with all my ratings except my CFI, but the current economy still makes me wary. Not about flying in general, but about being an airline pilot. I really have no desire to teach kids how to fly because it wouldn't be fair to them. It's not something I have a desire to do and therefore I feel like I would be cheating them. I, nor anyone else, knows what the economy is going to look like next May when I graduate, so I'm signing my contract with the Marine Corps in two weeks. I've got a guaranteed spot in flight school when I graduate college, OCS and TBS, assuming I do well on my ASTB which I take very soon. Being a military pilot is always something I've wanted to do, but I honestly never thought it was a feasible option, but I finally woke up and realized that it IS, so I'm doing it and I couldn't be happier. I of course by no means want to shove that down anyone's throat, but it is an alternative that a lot of people are going to and the benefits are great. Steady employment, travel, great pay and benefits, and a good chance that you'll escape the regionals entirely and head to the majors, which is a nice thought.

That sounds like a lot of fun. We didn't get to do quite all that, but we did get a few failures and a V1 cut, which was pretty fun. I also found that FS helped me out a LOT, especially with the landing. We had a little competition going on and I won the softest landing competition, which I attribute almost solely to the PMDG 737-800. I definitely want to go back and do it again, though.

My school just got some of the SP model 172s with the G1000 and the better of the two autopilots available. I flew it in solid IMC last fall and it was SO much easier than the standard R models. The scan is a lot easier and the flight director worked really well. I used the autopilot on the way home and that also worked flawlessly. It's an amazing system and every time I fly it I learn something new.

A little pricey, but check out http://www.b737.com. I did this with a couple of my college roommates in December and it was a lot of fun. We also paid the extra money and got the high altitude endorsement, but I don't think anyone else in our group did. The ground school was very informative and now I've got 1.5 hours of logged 737-800 time that I put on my resume. Not much, but it might be enough to get an airline to notice me...if they ever start hiring again. :(

I'm actually a little disappointed. I bought it the day it came out and only had a few days to play with her before I had to head back to school where I don't have a flight sim computer!!! :( All joking aside, what little I did get to play with it was great, and I'm looking forward to heading back home for Easter so I can play around with it even more. Then only a few more weeks until summer and then I can REALLY start playing with it, when I'm not working, that is. :(

Agreed. If I knew anything about pirating software I'd almost consider doing it just so I could "meet" those girls. :( ...seriously

Well, I'm a little disappointed. I'm sitting here at the airport in Moline, IL (if you haven't heard of it, have you heard of John Deere :( ) getting ready to board my flight to Atlanta and then on to Brussels. Shame on you for releasing just before I leave the country! :( I'll only be gone for a day, so I'm all purchased so I'll be ready to go when I get home tomorrow afternoon! Thanks for everything guys, ESPECIALLY your tolerance and patience.

You're 15 minutes late! I've remained quiet throughout all the bantering back and forth about the release date, but I can't contain myself any longer. I've been waiting for this plane for a long time and I'm extremely excited to hopefully have it in the air soon.

No worries, I work for an airline that serves DXB (not United), so my Business Class seat would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-$70. It truly does pay to be an airline employee! :(

I completely agree! I started flying when I was 18 and a senior in high school, knowing full well that I wanted to be a professional pilot someday. Now here I am at the ripe age of 21 and I just passed my Commercial Pilot checkride last month and am almost done with my multi-engine rating already. I love flying and while it does require sacrifice, I wouldn't do anything else in the world. Good luck and I hope you decide to bite the bullet and take lessons. Good luck with your music, by the way! :(

That would be great, but I don't think I'll be headed there until after the 12th of December at the earliest. Another think is that I don't know for sure if I'm going to DXB yet because I might go somewhere else instead. I really want to get there this coming summer if I don't go in December, though. One of the many perks of being an airline employee. :(

I'm thinking about going to Dubai for a couple days over my school's Christmas break next month. I'd originate in Moline, IL and head down to Atlanta and then over to DXB. I need to play around with the dates a little bit because the flight is pretty full and I don't want to get stranded anywhere. How was Dubai? Was it reasonable insofar as price? Could a poor college kid make it for a couple days over there without going broke?:) Thanks and I'm looking forward to hopefully making my way over there.

I'm a "fan" of the Piper Seminole (which I'm currently training in) because it's a pretty decent airplane, but it's a little on the slow side for a twin. As far as airliners go, I love the DC-9 family of airplanes because the DC-9 is the airplane I was flying in when I decided I was going to be a pilot at the age of ten. Eleven years later and I'm still plugging away. ;)

>>>Ah, you went to the ATOP program. I'm headed down December>>5th with two of my roommates from school. Did you enjoy the>>program?>>I most certainly did! I plan to do it a second time -- this>time with my wife. It's the best thing I can think of to give>her a glimpse at my world firsthand :-)That's good to hear because my roommates and I are pretty excited about going, and I think it'll look great on my resume when I start applying for the regionals. Thanks for the info! :)

>>"That's almost as thick as my CoA 737 and 777 manuals!>Those>>are 2800 and 1900 pages a pop as well.">>>>Don't copy them, just tell us where we can get them!>>>I made some friends when I spent time in a "Drinking From A>Fire Hose" type 737 experience in Houston. Base cost for the>weekend was around $500 USD, but with trip expenses and a high>altitude endorsement it came to more like a grand. I have to>admit, with 43 hours flight time in a Cessna 172, my log book>looks odd with a HAE, but it was worth it :-)>>It's been coined "Drinking from a fire hose" because you get>weeks of training shoved into an "introductory ride from h***">on a 737 full motion flight simulator.>>Prior experience with PMDG products and another (will not>mention name here out of respect) product made the weekend>remarkably "familiar">>Ah, but this thread is about MD-11's . . . . and this product>has me VERY excited!!! I fried 2 of my GPUs, so hopefully>about the time I get the money for the new cards this will be>released (that could be a while LOL) -- it'll be awesome to>see this bird on the GPU I am getting. I won't run FSX on any>less than 3 cards Crossfired.Ah, you went to the ATOP program. I'm headed down December 5th with two of my roommates from school. Did you enjoy the program?

>I have always used the rule of thumb that descent rate is 5>times your ground speed. So 450 knots will be 2250 fpm>descent.>>>>I learned a slightly different method in flight school, but still gets you the same number. I was taught that if you take your groundspeed, in this case 450 kts, and add a zero and divide by two. So, 4500 / 2 is 2250. Same thing, just a slightly different way of getting the number.

I flew back from Ireland a few weeks ago and told the flight attendant that I'm currently in college to become a pilot and that I just finished my Commercial Pilot's License (which is the truth), and she told me that she would talk to the captain right away. I got to go up for a brief tour and a picture and talked to the Captain about the industry, etc. It kinda reminds me why I love Delta so much. ;)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/189910.jpg

You can also try http://www.aviationweather.gov. There's everything you need for a flight there, including standard and decoded TAFs and METARs.

>My vote would be to stretch the term "easter egg" a bit and>instead of easter EGGS lets add easter CHOCOLATE... and for>that let's use the famous Swiss chocolate Swissair used to>provide, and spread it all around the flight deck! That>wouldn't be unrealistic at all... because if the cabin crew on>those MD-11 flights knew the pilots liked chocolate, a huge>pile of those was always delivered forward before the>flight... with a usual re-supply half way in the flight :)>I'm sure we could then connect the chocolate peaces displayed>to the time estimates from the FMS... the more hours passed>the less chocolate is laying around in the virtual cockpit. >Good thing then we will not add the window opening mechanism.>I would hate to see Vin spending nights and nights trying to>animate chocolate flying around the flight deck when a window>is opened...!>>MarkusSwiss actually still hands out chocolate at the end of every flight. I went to Europe in March with a class trip and we flew Swiss and were given chocolate before landing in Zurich and before landing in Berlin, and then on the way back before we landed in Zurich and before landing in Chicago. It was wonderful chocolate and I wish I still had some left, but unfortunately it's all gone! ;)

As much as I love Cessna, I'd go for the TBM. One of the companies based here where I go to college has one and it is an amazing aircraft. Fuel burn for a turboprop is going to be much lower, and in most cases you have pretty close to the same performance figures. I don't know what the max gross weight of the TBM is, but because the Mustang is a pure jet, it requires a type rating in the airplane despite being below 12,500 lbs. The TBM is one #### of a powerful airplane, too, and does pretty well hot and high.

That sounds great! It sounds like it'll hopefully be ready in time for my birthday in June. I look forward to this release and can't wait to take this bird to the air.

Wilco is very slow to respond, so don't worry. I don't think it'll do much good, but try out the feelThere forum to see if anyone can help out. If not, I'd expect a reply soon. From my past experiences it takes the better part of a work week to get a response from them.