NoahBryant

Agreed. I had been playing - then got bored with - A-10 until I got this stick. The stick turned into an immediate game changer for me and completely changed how I enjoy A-10. Coupled with Track-IR I think it's more immersive than a real A-10 sim, lol.

i had just planned to use it with A-10 but I immediately started using it with FSX and threw away my yoke. I love being able to lift the throttles backward to simulate the reverse thrust. I also use the two switches below the throttles as the fuel cutoff switches. Yes I think it's an all-rounder. Even though it doesn't look all that realistic flying the 737 with the A-10 stick, I still much prefer it.

I love the stick. Within a week of owning it I threw away my yoke, although my intention had been just to use the hotas for A-10. Everything about it is amazing, plain and simple... Except... Out of the box I noticed that the china hat switch was sticking in the forward position about half the time. If you don't know, the china hat switch is a switch on the throttle that you push forward or backward and it springs back to center. Mine would sometimes stick forward requiring me to manually push it back. In A 10 this is a big deal because pressing the switch forward and letting it spring back is a completely different command than holding it forward. On a 100 dollar joystick I wouldn't have cared but this cost over 400. It was a birthday present for me and it had been sitting in the box for over a month before I opened it. Therefore I couldn't replace it through the store so I contacted Thrustmaster who was very receptive. They had me send them a video of the problem and they suggested some oil in the switch. I tried it and it didn't work, so they took my address to send me a new part with instructions on how to change it. After a month I had not received the switch so I contacted them again and they apologized and said they were sending it that day. That was almost 4 months ago and I have not received the part and my switch still sticks forward.

Please don't start out with the impression that the fsx ATC is anything at all like real ATC. It's not even close. Craig gave a great overview. You file a flight plan and plan it yourself. ATC rarely changes it and never does it for you. If they do change it, its for excessive traffic or weather. When you take off, they will direct you to the first waypoint on your route, then generally will leave you alone until you're almost at your destination and need to be vectored to the runway. You are expected to fly your flight plan yourself. You aren't constantly told to make turns etc. SIDs and STARs are typically only used by commercial flights as the entire purpose of them is to get a large amount of planes into large airports. They are only for IFR flight. There's no way to use them using FSXs ATC. So to directly answer your question, if you file for a SID or STAR or ATC assigns you one, you are expected to fly it without further instruction as yo do with the rest of your flight plan.

Yeah Goodreader is great for reading the PMDG manuals, or anything else for that matter.

That's not what he asked though. He asked about only letting certain people buy it. Having a special login would work, but it's still going to cost money. PMDG would have to develop it and Boeing will want their cut, just like the printed manuals.

It's not

I had to call them for reactivation several years ago because I suppose you can only install it on so many computers. However, I have changed computers twice since then and it automatically activated fine. So perhaps they removed the max number of computers limit and only require you to have a valid code?

Doesn't this have specifically to do with copy protection on mobile devices though? Although I agree with you that it's the exact same concept and there shouldn't be a difference as far as patents go, that's probably how Uniloc got around that requirement. You're absolutely right though - if the patent office knew anything at all about software, things never would have gotten this bad.

Haha, I missed that. Lucky guy.

What in the world makes you think he is rich?

Mine are about the same

Lot's of good info here: http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Arguments I myself COULD have patented something that first appeared in FS Kneeboard almost two and a half years ago. Six months later another developer copied it exactly. What did I do? I made mine even better. Maybe they did the same, I never checked. But the point is, the consumers benefited from it. They got an even better product because two developers competed to create (invent?) a better functioning piece of software. If we were talking about a 100 million dollar investment that developed a fusion powered car, I could completely understand the purpose of a patent. My idea (invention?) cost me nothing but my own time (and very little of that too). However, this other company COULD have patented the idea that they copied from me, then sued me. This is the problem.

Yet another classic example of one of the many things wrong with America. If this is allowed to continue the only people with any money will be the lawyers. Everyone should become familiar with this stuff. Software patents are a HUGE waste of resources and do nothing but cost consumers money and put little guys out of business. Not knowing the specifics of the code involved, but if many developers used Google's APIs and are now being sued for it, Google should do something to back the lawsuits. I know Apple has done this several times in similar situations.

Devin - You are verifying the LEGS page with the actual chart prior to departure right? Sometimes the database can have an erroneous way point stuck in there that causes the plane to do something like you describe. Has this happened to you more than once? Also, you say it's starting a 180 degree turn, so did you by any chance let it turn just to see what it's doing? You probably interrupted the turn and manually flew it to where it was supposed to go but I would be curious what the plane would have done if you just let it do it's thing. Which AIRAC cycle do you have installed? PS it's "low and behold" not "lone behold" :smile:

1) Depends on your system. I too get much better FPS in windowed mode. 2) Of course.

Oh I understand - although I don't think we are anywhere near a release date now

No, Anders was right about the timeline, but I doubt the NGX timeline will correlate to the 777 one, since printing some manuals has nothing to do with the actual development of the plane. I suppose releasing the manuals early gives us time to learn but gives them a way to make a little bit off the plane during the long development cycle.

In a game like that the only interaction you have with people is when you kill them, lol. It's just fun playing against another thinking human being instead of a poorly programmed bad guy who you can always predict. I'm a BF3 person myself and if actually had to interact with the other players I'd probably not play, lol. I can only take so much Internet speak. "U r such a noob, I totally pwned you" lol

Loved Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis... The other one I really loved was The Dagger of Amon Ra (plus all of the Leisure Suit Larry games!)

Mini iPads are probably coming in a month or two if cost is a big factor for you. Make sure you research what apps are available to do what you want before you choose one too. A lot of people buy a good Android tablet only to discover the apps they were hoping for aren't available.

Cool - I'll have to check that out. I was just flying FSE the other day and don't remember seeing anything like that. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm not following...

I love FSE, but have they changed the jobs system at all to account for the larger planes? Part of the problem with the larger prop airliners that they had was it was next to impossible to get jobs that could actually show a profit with them. Especially with skyvector's world charts I will be playing FSE even more (as soon as I have functioning pedals)

Just up select the next waypoint into where it says vector