DazB

Hi everyone. In short, I’ve decided to give P3D a go and want a new PC to run it on. I can fly planes but know very little about computers and I have a good friend who knows computers but not flight sims. So, what I’m after is the piece in the middle of someone who can tell me what I need to ask my friend to build for me please plus any advice or info he may need to know. I’d like a system that’s good so I’m happy to spend some money on it and whilst I know there’s always the next big thing that’s coming soon in the computer world I’d like to do it now so really I’m asking for advice on what’s currently available rather than waiting. If anyone can offer any words of wisdom that would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance. In case it may be of use, my current FS9 is some Saitek controls, TrackIR with one screen to fly with and second to place pop up panels etc on. My intention is to use P3D in a similar way so if there’s something specific for home cockpits, 40 screens and an integrated coffee maker / sandwich toaster they’re probably things I’m not looking to use.

So to put a slightly different twist on the topic…I totally agree about pre flight etc where you need to be taught what to look for (and more importantly why you’re looking for it) so lets incapacitate both pilots at cruise level and break the autopilot enough to eliminate an autoland. In one seat you have a seasoned simulator pilot who has many hours behind a desk and is therefore familiar with the systems, dials and switches in front of him/her. Should no major emergencies occur I’d say that person could probably cope system wise to work out approaches and speeds required to get the plane on the ground without killing everyone. Please note I said get it on the ground rather than do it by the book correctly. In the other seat is a GA pilot with hours in a real plane but no simulator experience of the aircraft they’ve suddenly taken charge of. In this scenario this would be me so whilst I’m happy to admit I would totally lost on some of the systems I would have an appreciation of what things are supposed to look like out of the window, an intuition of when things seem right or wrong and the experience to throw away and approach and go around if something didn’t feel right. Having driven a motorbike, a car and large truck I know all of them operate hugely different yet at the same time when it comes to visual and sensory feedback all of them are 100 percent exactly the same thing. In it's most basic form, 30mph in a truck or 138mph in a Mazda RX8 (yes I have done that) are no different in what is happening out of the window apart from the speed those visual clues reach your brain. As the rules of physics apply to both a 152 and an A380 I don’t see why the sensory input and seat of the pants feel would be too much different either. You’d be flying the approach quicker but other than that, you’re still flying the same approach and looking at the same runway out of the window. So I’m thinking with the real world person holding the stick and the simulator person pressing the buttons those two as a crew would have a very good shot of making a perfectly safe landing and most likely getting a good movie deal out of it afterwards where I’d probably be played by Bruce Willis who is a similar age and like me, a bit fat and also bald. So could it be done with that crew of two?

Hi people. Just wondering if someone could help with a few questions to point me in the right direction as I’m seriously considering P3D. I called them Newbie questions in the topic title as I never bothered upgrading from FS9 so I’m definitely short on the knowledge which other people might take for granted if you've spent a few years tinkering with FSX. For instance there’s a few words and phrases such as “migration tool” and “orbx” which have never been anything to concern myself with previously but I’m getting the idea that I should now. So what should I be looking at and trying to educate myself about to enhance my new P3D experience do you think? Possibly tied to the above, something I’ve done quite a lot of with FS9 is tweak airports with Afcad, make my own AI with Ttools and paint things utilising a DXTBmp editor. Is this kind of stuff still usable or are there alternatives I should be looking into now? As to where I install P3D I’m considering two options the first being the PC below if people think it might do the job well enough. I really don’t understand the specs enough to work that out myself unfortunately or take a guess at how far to the right I could set the sliders. Intel® Core i7 CPU, 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.79GHz 6.00GB ram (3.25 usable) 32 bit operating system ATI Radeon HD 5800 series. Saitek X52 throttle, stick and pedals Track IR Alternatively for a PC I might be willing to say to myself that I’ll get years of pleasure out of it so I could justify spending the cash and buying myself a really good brand new rig. If I did go down that route what should I be looking at as current high end components? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out with anything plus if anyone has any further advice I haven’t thought of yet it will all very welcome.

Guessing this might be the right forum section and I’m and FS9 user by the way. I’ve started trying to make moving ground traffic with Afcads and using the vehicles included in the DTTA Tunis scenery and while my handiwork still needs a few tweaks I’m generally very happy with how things are progressing. So the reason for this post is that I’d like some more and different vehicles to use that I can put straight in my Aircraft folder and if anyone could point me in the direction of some FS9 ground vehicle models to download that would be ideal as I’ve not got a clue how to make my own unfortunately. That said, if making my own models isn’t that difficult for novice then I’d be willing to listen to any input in that direction too. Thanks in advance for any info.

Excellent, I'll give it a go. Many thanks.

I’ve been on a worldwide scenery binge lately and I’m loving my QW146 too but I’ve found that it’s just a bit short on range for some of the flights I’d like to make in it. So, is there anything that a fairly novice tweaker like me can change to extend the range of the aircraft, ideally by roughly a quarter extra, without messing up anything else in the plane. I noticed in the cfg there’s an entry for “fuel_flow_scalar=1.65” which looks like it might be the thing but I’m not sure if the value needs increasing or decreasing or if that’s even the right value to touch so thought I’d ask for a little help first. Also worth noting, I generally fly by hand, autopilot and GPS so if anything would leave the feel and systems of the aircraft intact but ruin the workings and/or calculations in the FMC that wouldn’t matter to me. I use flight sims for fun rather than realism so I could quite happily live with the FMC being just a cockpit ornament as it rarely gets used in my 146 anyway. Thanks in advance for any assistance.