thepitts

The Stropopause: The prequel to the menopause due to initial instability in oestrogen / progestogen levels marked by excessive ...... . Now who am I to remark; never having had to deal with a massively varying hormonal environment for half my life or losing 50 ml of blood every four weeks (I start blubbing after a pinprick.) Kudos to the fairer sex.

Such sentiments make you a completely inappropriate candidate for modern day air crew training ! 🙂

Thanks for the additional inmformation. Cheers Tim

Forgot to ask ! Does it work in X-plane 12 ? Cheers Tim

Thanks Costaldriver/bendyflyer. (I think I understand the origin of the first moniker, the second one ...eeerrhh slightly worrying.) Always appreciate criticism and validation from the "Been There, Seen That, Got the T-shirt" brigade; coupled with a zero level of monetisation or conflict of interest. So your positive experience of the simulator in its' present state and Manky's Dash 8 actually means something real in an ocean of fake. Also good to see a still thriving Freeware community in x-plane able, through the skills of hardcore flight simmers, to design test and produce quality addons. Downloading Manky's Dash 8. Blue Skies ..... or not ! Cheers Tim

Hi Jcomm, Not x-plane related but would still value your opinion on Aces of Thunder; in particular the quality of the flight model, ballistics model and damage model. Cheers Tim

Looking forward to round 2. Which hopefully will be better than the second test is shaping out to be, at least from an Englishman's perspective.

Another recommending the JF BAe 146, a great value deal. Interesting market / flight profile niche coupled with 70's era "you have to get off your word not allowed to operate/monitor" systems. If you can't afford a C-17 Globemaster then fly around in it's "Love Child."

I'd like to add my congratulations to the above posters with that of the Moderator for an illuminating discussion on a potentially contentious subject. In thinking why the discourse represents such a statistical outlier in on-line behaviour I think I've hit on the reason. The Forum is a virtual form of the UK Light Aviation Association whose president / chief officer noted in a recent interview that there were more over 80's members than there were under 40's. Thanks for the interesting Sunday morning read. Cheers Tim

I've not been on the forums for a week so a delayed further thank you for your time and effort in detailing some of the idiosyncrasies of seaplane flying in the real and virtual worlds. Cheers Tim

Hope that helps ! ........ it certainly does ! Thanks for the time and effort . Who needs Large Language Models when you have access to Coastaldriver. I know next to nothing about seaplane operations so I'll need to do a little digging. I'm looking to get a "flavour" of this type of aviation so someone knowledgeable saying the models are good and the simulation's representation is , with caveats, okay spurs my interest. Picking from the eclectic range of aircraft you have provided I think i'll test the water (pun intended) with the float plane version of the default C172. If that "learning to crawl" phase goes okay, being the word not allowed I am, I fancy skipping the "walking phase" and going straight into the PBY Catalina before ascending to the responsibility of paying passengers with the Boeing 314 Clipper. I vaguely remember a review of the Catalina back in XP11 era. What you lost in workload through sedate airspeeds you more than made up for in seaplane operations and old school engine management. Thanks again for your time and effort. Cheers Tim

Any x-plane 12 seaplane recommendations ? Any tips on configuring the simulator for seaplane ops ? And finally any recommendations for on-line resources for seaplane flying ? Cheers Tim

Appreciate the "Been there, done that (properly), got the T-shirt" educational input. I can well understand the need to "knock out" the Get-Home-itis" from us GA. "The Force is strong Luke, the Force is strong !" Thanks Tim

Depends on what you want. If your are chasing the "As Real As It Gets" fantasy then I'd agree with the last poster adding that it would also need to be area specific as VFR ATC in the UK is a different thing to VFR ATC in the USA. If on the other hand your aim is to use the Flight Sim for fun and as an adjunct to flight training then the present state of X-plane ATC fulfils my requirements; those are simulating the additional stress, over and above flying, of simultaneously processing another stream of information. Another good example is BMS Falcon 4. If I want to practice ATC for real I'll go to the nearest field and listen on the airband (or do the equivalent through the magic of the internet.) Cheers Tim .

Thanks for the alert, downloading (1.4GB ?!) as I type. Following your technical / historical summary an aircraft which previously I hadn't given a second thought about has now become fascinating. In modern parlance "my bad". Stick and rudder that needs to be flown. Sounds good to me. Cheers Tim

Those pictures ! Now that’s what I call a pitching deck ! Interesting thoughts on the relative difficulties of getting on board. Holding at altitude then transferring to a lengthened straight in approach on a moving ship, both electronically and visually defined, flown to very tight tolerances. Compared with ... approaching a beacon at very low altitude, coming to a hoverstop adjacent to the moving ship then laterally translating and finally descending with reduced visual references. Throw in poor weather and a pitching deck (tend to come as a package) with Carrier trapping limited to 3 degrees and vertical landing to 6 degrees movement. Both of these procedures done in the pitch black with nothing to distinguish a dark overcast sky from the dark water beneath. Leading to the potential for all manner of forms of visual disoriention. Pilots frequently describe it as flying into a black hole. It’s no surprise to hear seasoned Naval Aviators stating that overtime they became comfortable with Operations around the boat. All that is except night landings; one operation they never felt comfortable doing...ever. Very few aviators have trapped on board a carrier in all conditions. Even fewer those that have vertically landed on ships in all conditions. The number that have done BOTH you could probably count on the fingers of one hand with fingers to spare. Commander P.Tremelling (rtd) is one courtesy of an unfortunate / fortunate series of circumstances. He was at the peak of his military career as a Royal Navy(RN) Sea Harrier Weapons Officer (think Top Gun Instructor...the elite of the elite...you get the idea) when out of the blue’ish (2006) the UK Government retired the whole harrier fleet RAF and RN. Not good ... at least for Mr Tremelling. Some sensible individual in the navy thought it might be worthwhile maintaining some naval aviation skill / knowledge during this enforced “Capability Holiday” and arranged with the cousins for a select few RN pilots to join their carrier attack squadrons. ....Now you’re ahead of me. Yes he got one of the slots and ended up flying Superhornets; not just learning the ropes but on Active deployment with his squadron. This is one of the reasons he ended up as a guest on Vincent(“Jell-O”)’s Fighterpilot podcast. It was here he was asked, given his wide experience (including helicopter flying), what was the most difficult flying he had done. Vincent, not unreasonably, was expecting the Commander to say “poor weather night carrier trap”. Instead he was quietly taken aback when the Commander said without hesitation “night vertical landing on a pitching deck” ! All I know is I don’t have, never did have, and probably never would have in any potential future life(if you’re into that thing)...anywhere near the skill and nerve to perform either of those tasks. There is also the possibility it was just a “pissing contest” given the fact it was two FAST JET FIGHTER PILOTS chatting ! Cheers Tim

Helicopter ... aeroplane ........ why choose ? (Sounds worryingly like those combined shampoo / conditioner adds !) When you want to "oneupmanship" Tarquins' Parents helicopter arrival at the school summer sports event ..it has to be a HARRIER AV8B The OP talked of enjoying the challenge of helicopter flight and landing. Excellent ..now take it to the next level. The hardest landing in aviation. Fast jet trap at night on the carrier ? .....err...no. Harrier vertical landing on a Through Deck Carrier / Assault Ship at night, pitching .... double the max allowable for trapping. (If you don't believe me go search Commander Paul Tremelling.) All available in Xplane... well 11 and please please 12 when / if X-Trident ports it over.

Result: Open Planemaker--load F14 model--Click on the "Expert" drop down menu--click on the "Invisible Parts" sub-menu,( ironic given the effects are anything but invisible)-- then unclick the Built-In Visual Particles (bottom of the page) to taste. Cheers Tim

RealAir Lancair Legacy. Is it just me or is the RealAir Lancair just stunning. After bemoaning the fact I couldn't reinstall my beloved RealAir SF260 the discovery of the lancair more than makes up for it. Outstanding performance, basic aerobatics (watch you don't overspeed) and looking like a modern day civilianised Spitfire. Stunning simply stunning. Cheers Tim

Many Thanks Leclercq A. Cheers Tim

Thanks for your replies folks. I'll keep hunting. Cheers Tim

Hi Folks, Almost completed my reinstall of FSX including my favourite aircraft...except the RealAir SF260. Flew it in 2004 and FSX and it was one of my favourite models. Found the defunct RealAir site and was able to download the decathalon but no installer for the SF260. Any info gratefully received Cheers Tim

Hello Ray, Can I also have the link to RC4 Thanks Tim

Simple answer yes and a big thumbs up for Quality Customer Service. Decided to reinstall FSX (don't ask) after 10 years away. Vaguely remembered having some OrbX UK scenery so hunted around some old files and found a purchase date and registration number. Went onto the OrbX site but it didn't recognise my email address so I re-registered and unsurprisingly I had nothing associated with my account. Forlornly sent an email via their support service on a Sunday and to my surprise had received a reply by lunchtime, and by the evening the said software had been accredited to my new OrbX account ready for usage. It turns out that I had purchased the software from The Flightsim Store (now defunct) OrbX not directly selling to customers until 2016. Anyway they were able to confirm validity of the purchase...happy days. So, with the advertisers proviso "your mileage may differ", I'd just like to say It's a pleasure to come across a "can do " attitude and a company valuing customers new and old; and to thank Nick Cooper and the OrbX Team and hope I didn't spoil their Sunday too much. Cheers Tim

Trying to remove wing / wingtip vapour effects from the default F14. Every time it manoeuvres it turns into a fast moving cumulus cloud and even straight and level it looks like it is continually dumping fuel. Does anyone know how to suppress or delete the wingtip contrail/vortex, wing condensation particles in the aircraft system.pss file ? Is this the most efficient way of achieving the desired result ? Cheers Tim