computerflyer

Whenever flightsim seems expensive, I just think what I'd be spending if I were flying a real airplane ($100-150 per hour).

Real Air produced magnificent simulated aircraft. But what stands out more in my mind is their very strong commitment to their customers and to the flight sim community. They have earned our deep respect and our thanks.

I was having a lot of problems with stuttering (my computer, not me) and also with frequent FSX freeze-ups. The typical fixes, such as turning down autogen and scenery complexity settings in FSX, helped. But the stuttering/freezing problems continued. However, when I tried deactivating (unchecking) in the FSX Scenery Library the numerous add-on sceneries that I wasn't using in a particular flight, only leaving activated the sceneries that I needed for that particular flight, the stutters and freezes were completely ELIMINATED. Based on my experience, deactivating unused add-on sceneries appears to be very important. FSX Gold (w/acceleration) boxed DX10 with Steve's Fixer Intel 3770k overclocked to 4.3 Ghz GTX 670 gpu

I had serious problems with "Windows has stopped working." My problem might or might not be related, but I'll throw it out there. My system would work for around 30 minutes or so and then it would start stuttering, then it would freeze up and give the "Windows stopped working" message. At that time I had numerous sceneries activated (clicked) in the FSX Scenery Library. I figured that these activated sceneries would not put a load on my computer when I wasn't flying over the sceneries. Apparently my assumption was wrong. I deactivated (unclicked) all of the sceneries in the FSX Scenery Library except for the sceneries that I was going to use during a particular flight. This made a HUGE difference. It absolutely eliminated all stutters, and eliminated all "Windows-has-stopped-working" freezes. So maybe you could try deactivating most of the sceneries in the Scenery Library, although I don't know how you can do this if the system always freezes on start-up. I think there's a program available that allows changes to be made to the Scenery Library without starting up FSX. Of course, if you don't have very many sceneries activated in FSX, then this isn't your problem. FSX Boxed DX10 with Steve's Fixer Windows 10 Intel 3770k overclocked to 4.3 Ghz GTX670 gpu

"If you don't recognise that you are stalled (which they should have) and the stall warner is not sounded, but then you apply a control input and the stall warner goes off, you are going to start getting seriously confused." Agree. If I got a stall warning when I applied forward control input, I'd probably start to wonder if I was flying inverted.

This discussion reminds me of the movie, "The Flight of the Phoenix." A plane crashes in the desert and the passengers build a new plane out of the pieces. Luckily, one of the passengers is an accomplished aircraft designer. But then, after much work on the new plane has been completed, the passengers find out that he is a designer of model airplanes.

I agree with the idea that how a sim is used is very important in determining whether or not the sim is useful in the real world. One of the major criticisms of home sim use is that a sim can allow the development of bad habits. But, to a certain extent, that's not really a criticism of the sim itself, but rather a criticism of how the sim is used. Hypothetically, if a person were able to hop into a real plane and teach himself/herself how to fly without an instructor, the person would probably also develop some bad habits (in addition to destroying some planes and maybe getting killed). So, I'd say that the real-world usefulness of a sim is dependent on a serious, disciplined use of the sim, and is greatly enhanced by some oversight from an experienced instructor pilot. (I suppose I should add the disclaimer here that I'm NOT saying or advocating that a sim should replace all training in real airplanes).

Hopefully you don't have a Microsoft email (hotmail, msn, outlook) because Microsoft emails are blocked and won't work at A2A. Have you gone into the A2A maintenance hangar to see if it shows anything wrong with the brakes? If so, they can be overhauled with a simple click in the maint. hangar. You could also click control/period, or tap the plane's toe brakes, to make sure that the parking brake isn't set.

"I am just wondering how in the world a person using only a sim can realistically address any one of the above points." Great Ozzie, I never said that a sim can replace real-world flying, or that a sim is useful in all ways, for all issues. You're putting words in my mouth. I said that a sim can have value for real-world pilots. I said that there's no contradiction, or reason against, being both a real-world pilot and also being a sim user. I assumed this would be non-controversial. Pilots who have used a sim to practice in advance a planned real-world flight would be surprised to hear that a sim is of no use to real-world pilots. The FAA is allowing simulators to be used for some explicit, limited types of real-world training. Redbird is producing simulators (with assistance from A2A Simulations) for real-world training. Lockheed-Martin purchased FSX from Microsoft for the purpose of real-world training, not for entertainment. So, as I said, simulators can be useful, in certain ways, for real-world pilots. I'm really not interested in arguing this point any further.

Great Ozzie, I didn't say that sim flying and real flying are equivalent or the same. I said that both have value and there's no reason why someone shouldn't do both. They can complement each other. Do you actually disagree with that? Did you read what I said, or just read the first sentence?

There's absolutely no contradiction between flying a simulator and flying in real life. Real cross-country flights can be practiced in the sim prior to the real flight. Procedures that might be difficult or dangerous in real life, such as flying in bad weather, can be practiced in the sim. And the sim gives a pilot the chance to get a sense of what it would be like to fly many different types of aircraft. How many real pilots will ever get a chance to fly a P-51, DC-3 or modern airliner? And there's that pesky money issue - maybe get a little extra practice, keeping abilities fresh with the sim, instead of banging around the airport circuit at $100 per hour.

There has been further development of FSX since Microsoft shut down the Aces Team. For example, Steve Parson's program, "Steve's FSX DX10 Fixer," has allowed the boxed version of FSX to be effectively run with DX10 preview. This has been a very significant improvement to FSX. The latest version of the upgrades, version 2.11, came out last November. In regard to flight dynamics, the flight models for FSX by addon developers such as A2A Simulations and RealAir are highly accurate and realistic.

How about a really nice, polished aluminum, RealAir Luscomb Silvaire? With all of the RA vibrations, sounds and dynamics, of course.

I bought RealAir's outstanding Legacy V2 using Swreg and didn't notice any particular problems. But I did notice that when I had a question, Rob responded immediately - outstanding customer support. Thanks Rob!

I've been very impressed with the original RealAir Legacy, so I definitely intend to get the version 2. Based on the description of its new features, it sounds great. I'd also be interested in a version 2 of the great RealAir Citabria series. Heck, I might even be interested in an updated SF260.

As mentioned, my system is operating on Windows 7 and it automatically defrags every 7 days. Windows also automatically creates system "restore" points. If I screw something up, I can reset/restore the system to what it was at a point in the past. This is pretty neat, being able to fix a screw-up by going back into the past before the mistake was made. I've done this a few times, and it worked. Regarding my 2 TB of photoscenery, I have it copied onto 2 separate 3 TB hard drives in order to have a backup.

About 200 GB of FSX in my 1TB internal hard drive, mostly Orbx and photoscenery stuff; and about 2TB in my 3TB external hard drive, which is high def. photoscenery of the entire U.S. I only turn on what I need in the scenery library. This system is dedicated to FSX only, nothing else. It all works smoothly, crashes (of the computer type) being very rare.

In FSX you can not only set the winds that you want, but you can also set the altitudes where these winds (and also clouds) occur. Make sure that your setting for winds extends all the way down to the ground. There does seem to be a tendency in FSX for the wind velocity to decrease slightly very near the ground, which also happens in the real world. But this is only a slight decrease.

My water looks generally like where I often fly, Pacific Ocean off the U.S. west coast. It's dark blue with swells and some white caps. The problem is when harbors, lakes and streams have the ocean swells. But often with Orbx scenery or with Megascenery photoscenery they either have fixed this problem or its just a photo of the water which usually looks ok. Overall for me the water is a plus, not a negative.

I'm just using default FSX water. The only REX I'm using is their REX Soft Clouds.

I think I have FSX water set at 2x moderate. I remember trying other water settings in FSX and nothing horrible happened, moderate just seemed to be the best compromise between quality and frames. Regarding my Fixer water settings: Sky Reflections Max. 59% Sky Reflections Min. 38% Ambient Light 100% Misc. The only box checked under misc. is "Moon Phase Lighting"

I'm using FSX DX10 with Steve's Fixer and the water seems great, better than with DX9. I'm not using REX, except for the soft clouds.

Your flight in the Cub, pacing a truck, reminds me of something that happened about 20 years ago. I was riding my Harley motorcycle north up Hwy 101 in the vicinity of King City, CA. This is a rural area, mostly farm fields. Two Piper Cubs descended down next to the highway, adjacent to me. They were very close. Occasionally they'd ascend in order to fly over phone lines, then they'd descend back down. I matched their speed (around 70 mph) and we traveled together for about 10-15 minutes. Strange - I've traveled in formation with planes, but I wasn't in a plane, it was on my motorcycle!

I've had a lot of fun with the A2A Cub, flying in and out of small fields.. It's extremely realistic in my opinion (I've landed a Super Cub for real, but never a Cub). The RealAir Citabria series is also great. I wasn't real impressed with the flight dynamics of the Flight Replicas Super Cub. Then I tried out their Super Cub "Ultra". On the first takeoff I was a little shocked by the feeling of the thing, how quick it got off the ground, how steep it climbed. I thought that it couldn't be right. But it turns out that the "Ultra" Super Cub's flight model was done by Bernt Stolle, who is one of the most highly respected designers of flight models...and Bernt Stolle owns an Ultra Super Cub himself, so he ought to know how it flies. I recommend the Flight Replicas Super Cub Ultra.

It's pretty obvious that the real-life Piper Cub would not be for you, slow and under-powered (the Cub, not you). So, the A2A Cub simulation, being a very accurate rendition of the real plane, isn't to your liking. There's nothing wrong with that, "to each his own."