Tim_Capps

I think you need to install a Tamil font. Yup.

Sorry for the delay, friends, and thank you for the responses. I've been finishing my initial 90k word draft of an aviation adventure novel and this was the only absolute dead end I ran into. PMDG is a great idea; I did not know that. One nice thing is when all else fails, a writer can just add "enough" men to get the job done. I was supposed to get all the way from Manassas to Ushuaia, but only got as far as Mayaguana in the eastern Bahamas. But 90k words is already very long by today's standards, so I'll be into the next after the usual editing, rewrite/de-write and finding someone else to proof. An airplane story practically writes itself, and flight simulation is very helpful. Stick some people with secrets inside a tube with a million things that can go wrong, and just sit back and watch. When you get tired of that, have them land somewhere and encounter other people with whom to have conflicts. Possibly armed ones, depending on how you're feeling that day. (Yeah, it's pretty pulpy.) Amazon has changed publishing a lot, for better and for worse. The better would start me on a rant that would probably offend some and bore everyone. So would the worse, come to think of it. Let's just say the biggest laugh I've had in years was watching Nine Perfect Strangers, a pretty bad HULU series. But Melissa McCarthy plays a writer and she's on the phone complaining that her editor won't let her describe the appearance of her main female character. Yup. Sometimes you might not need to. But sometimes it's a plot point. Hello Draft2Digital. Glad I don't have to do this for the money.

I found nothing online about this, and I suspect that C-47s had to be manhandled sometimes. Does anyone have any idea how many men it would take to move a DC-3 into a hangar by hand? It does have wheels, but it's also 8 tons. If not, does anyone know the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? I'm trying to get over to the excellent little aviation museum in Kansas City (actually there are two, but I have not been to the TWA one yet) and someone there would probably know, but thought I'd try here. Thanks!

I went to our local airport, KMDH (the one with the microbrewery) for a burger and two or three glasses of Cadence Porter and noticed a bunch of American Eagle CRJs, and a Mesa Airlines one. There is no scheduled service to this airport by anyone, although defunct Air Illinois used to operate BAC One Elevens out KMDH, weirdly. Apparently, they're parked because they don't have pilots to fly them.

That Cyprus BAC-111 looks familiar 🙂 I'll use them unless I'm flying high with heavy coverage. Unless I missed something, I still get waffling. But I also like ASCA, too. Either one can look fine, depending.

I'm entirely secure with P3D--I haven't even updated to 5.3. I'm aware of what P3D offers and what it doesn't, and P3D still ticks all of my boxes. I suppose what I find odd is how this thread has been allowed to dominate this forum, especially given how it has wandered and stumbled like me after liberty in Marseille. It just makes me look forward to visiting this forum a little less, that's all. I'm not sure what purpose it serves, especially given a risk of inviting contentious comments or invidious comparisons. Again, maybe that's where we're at, and there's just not much more to be said about P3D, and this thread should be the last word after 34 pages. I agree that it's more about how we use the sim than a lot of the things we usually talk about when we compare things. If you want to fly airliners, you have more options in P3D--and some very good ones. If you want to fly classic jets, P3D is probably your only option, because I think the market for those in any sim is dead. If you spend more than half your time looking at scenery, maybe you make a different choice. Depending on what you're willing to spend and your expectations, P3D can look pretty good. On occasion it has caught me by surprise and literally taken my breath away. I think we have different forums for different platforms for good reason, and it usually doesn't end well there's cross over.

I think it's been a stealth P3D is dead topic since the beginning. It's like when my wife comments, "It's been two weeks since..." (whatever) it's not small talk. But given the enduring popularity of this meandering mess of a thread, I suppose it doesn't look good for P3D. Why even check in on this forum just to see this as a virtual sticky and not much of interest being discussed? Begin countdown to: "But there's nothing else to discuss."

I think it makes sense to learn the basics of flight like we do in real life--in a single engine trainer. Not sure that mastering piston twins is going to help him much if he's really interested in a 737. Once he is confident with pattern work, I think he should pick whatever he's most interested in (with a good tutorial) and go for it. I don't have any idea how many worry much about radio navigation these days, for example. I think I learned 90% of everything I still use with Leonardo's Maddog--the FS9 one that came in a box and a nice spiral bound manual. And he can always backfill his radio navigation skills, etc. The reason I think starting off in a trainer is better is that they're slow, which gives a new pilot time to think and learn. When he gets into his jet, Edwards AFB is very forgiving to practice. YouTube makes things so much easier these days.

Cool. In my biz, we used to say, "You can't make this stuff up." I'm still not sure that's true, but if you did, it would be wrong. Couple of questions. Are military pilots superstitious? i have read that, like baseball players, many are. The other question is whether any pilots flying out of Thailand ever suspected they were facing Soviet pilots, or even Warsaw Pact? I believe some Soviets were in theater for training, but officially never flew in combat. A lot of things weren't official, though. I was told by an F4 pilot they could see a SAM coming at them "like a telephone pole." They would have to wait until just the right moment for their break so the thing couldn't quite follow them. That would have been nerve-wracking to say the least. I have a lot of admiration for any pilot, and especially the mud movers of that war. It was the dawn of the missile era and there was a lot to figure out and no safe way to do it. You would know better, but I've heard most of our losses were due to AAA, not missiles, because pilots would head for the weeds when painted by missile radar, only to be shot down by guns. Those stories by those guys are harrowing, especially that kid who was hit and got 40 miles before having to eject. That colonel's story about taking out the antiaircraft sites was amazing, too. Good post, buddy.

But your argument proves the reality of ET visits. Why go through the trouble of debunking something that isn't bunk? As for the "friendly and harmless" part, those are only kind of aliens we'd want to keep secret, otherwise the poor things would be hounded to death. This guy represented approximately 3400 people in the capital of the Granite State of New Hampshire before his retirement. I respectfully submit that we must not be quick to dismiss such testimony from the very highest political offices in these United States, especially one involved in Veteran Affairs. Of course, the nexus between the VA and UFOs is too obvious for comment. On the other hand, he did blink HELP ME in morse code and referenced "this evening" when it was clearly broad daylight through the window. I would be interested to know where he is now, or whether he has been "conveniently" removed from the scene.

I had the overspeed problem in FSX and QW went above and beyond in support, but we were never able to get it resolved. I assume it doesn't affect everyone, so I guess it's just one of those things. And that was FSX, not P3D. The Captain Sim 757 was their original transitional glass product, IIRC, and the current iteration works fine in v5.2. I think it's the better airplane, but, aside from the overspeed issue I had in FSX, I don't have anything bad to say about the QW 757. I haven't experienced the autopilot issues others have reported in the CS 757. It doesn't seem to be as nimble as it needs to be for certain approaches (I'm thinking of anything with a fish hook procedural turn) so I wouldn't expect a fire-and-forget airplane. VNAV works fine for me, although you'll see a lot people saying "VNAV is broken" (and a lot of other things). I think it may come down to how you fly the airplane, how "hands on" you like to be, and what procedures you use. I'm not going to say I've never experienced a busted limit or lateral excursion, but they've never been often enough to bother me. I think Aerosoft's Airbus series does automation durn near perfect, for example. I don't think CS ever really nailed glass airplanes as well as some other devs, and I regretted their decision to abandon their steam gauge niche, but I think more people are interested in newer airplanes. For a survey developer, though, which is what they've really been, I think they've done a good job. If you use ATC, you shouldn't have any autopilot issues. If you prefer to fly from start to finish using procedures, I'd monitor it for the rare excursion and be aware of its limitations, but I've probably logged more hours on it than any other airplane--I did the original review here on it and it used to be my favorite airplane. I don't fly it much anymore, though, for the same reasons it was retired from passenger service: it's niche got filled with other airplanes and it just doesn't feel different enough from the CS 737-300 or 767. I'd just rather fly something different for a route that length, like the iFly 737NG, an Airbus or even an L1011 or DC-8. So many airplanes, so little time! The CS forum isn't what it used to be for sure. There used to be a very friendly and active community that provided excellent peer-to-peer support and mods, which was pretty much what support there ever was. Do other developers provide a "90 day refund no-questions asked" refund policy or the like? In any case, it's true: CS does not provide refunds, but on the other hand, I think I have had every one of their products and have never wanted a refund. Expense is subjective, of course, but I agree that it makes sense to wait for one of their sales. Anyway, I've always liked Captain Sim--which puts me in the minority here--and would be happy to help out via PM on any of their jets.

I have only used Mike Ray's 737 Classic book as a manual and would recommend that. I never even downloaded the CS manual. [Heh, as you'll see below, there's a reason for that!] I'm no rivet-counter, but it seems to work well enough to me and is basic Boeing of that era. CS manuals are usually way over-complete, filled with stuff that is not modelled, and I can't say whether they included a tutorial or not. (Wouldn't be surprised if the answer was no.) Ray's book is not cheap ($54 on Amazon) but is nicely spiral bound, entertaining, well-illustrated and sticks to the more important aspects. Whatever complexities you're encountering, Captain Ray will cover them, so CS must have gotten pretty close on their 737. On a more general note, anything with an FMC is pretty intimidating if you're not familiar with it, but once you learn one, you've learned all of them in principle. (I'm assuming that's what you're finding complex, because the rest is pretty straight forward knob twiddling for lateral and vertical control.) I remember struggling to master the FMC until it clicked. EDIT: I saw this on the CS boards, which is too bad. It's ridiculous not to include a tutorial at a minimum. I know CS has described themselves as a "two guys and a truck" operation, but sadly, I think they've been down to one guy and a Vespa for a long time. The RW Boeing 737 manuals are available online and in retail.We do not include any flight ops related manuals into our products anymore. The 757 is, as mentioned, very similar, so you might take a look at the sticky on the FSX VERSION of the 757 section of their boards for orientation on the basics. I see I even made some contributions there back in the day. The 737 has more features through the FMC, but those have more to do with panel states and the like. If anyone finds a CS 737 Classic tutorial floating around, please let us know. Otherwise, I might have to tackle it myself. More than happy to help out in the meantime @Jonmal if you want to PM me.

English is deficient in not having a plural "you." I remember when I learned Arabic it has not only a plural you but a "the two of" you. In Southern Illinois dialect, "you'uns" seemed to be preferred, but you don't hear that nowadays.

Get Wingspan and play online with me. You'd love it. I swear on my honor as a bird with a lock of red hair in its beak. Why that? It was promo art for an urban fantasy book I wrote. Since birds fly, and I always thought it was kind of cool and weird, there it is. I think I'll change it though.