OzWhitey

Don’t know if anyone already said this, but the Fenix now does 4x sim rate. The update would have come out on the same day you posted. 🙂

Yeah, if you can run the sim. Even Randazzo says he can’t get the platform to work. This debacle, this day of infamy in flight sim history, is partially your fault, Bert. I tried to organize an Occupy Redmond Three protest prior to the sim launch to try and address these issues. Given that you are a veteran of Occupy Redmond One back in ‘12 I thought I might have your support, but when I turned up at MS HQ I was pretty much on my own. So the complaints that you read on Avsim now are pretty much on you and the other OG Avsim “Occupy” crew. People who had the power to change things, but chose to stand idly by and do nothing. Whatever happened to “Solidarity Forever”??

The fools decided to release worldwide simultaneously. What did they think was going to happen? I warned them. The solution was never complex. Release in Kiribati first. My countrymen and I would test the servers’ stability, without causing them to melt down. Once Kiribati was stable, the rest of the world could have followed. But, oh no, “Kiribati isn’t special this time.” So, MS/Asobo. I hope you’re happy with the outcome of your disrespect for my country and my people. Kiribati - Maai ara butimwaane n te simu, ngkana ngkana ao akea.

In a worldwide exclusive, we spoke to sim-aviation superstar, h3dland. As you can see, he's currently the #1 sim pilot in the world in the MSFS 2024 Challenge League - so, he's basically like a cross between Lewis Hamilton, Usain Bolt and Cristiano Ronaldo, but for flight sim. We were lucky to catch him just before a new world record attempt. Interviewer: "Hello, sir. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview today. I know you must be busy training and flying." H3dland: "No problem." Interviewer: "So, how does it feel to be ranked NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD?? It must feel pretty good." H3dland: <shrug> Interviewer: "Watching you fly low over the Pyrenees in the F/A-18 was like watching an artist at work. Maybe Picasso. Or even better - Da Vinci." H3dland: "OK." Interviewer: "So, people are speculating that, given your F/-18 sim-flying skills, you might be a real-world combat pilot. Is this true?" H3dland: "I can neither confirm nor deny that. But if I was, I would totally be a Sierra Hotel combat pilot." Interviewer: "'Sierra Hotel?' That's like pilot talk for..." H3dland: "Yeah." Interviewer: "And you're like literally number one in the world at landing helicopters right now. It was just so cool to watch you put that heli down on the oil rig. Do you feel proud of your world beating performance?" H3dland: "Nah." Interviewer: "Why...why not?" H3dland: "Because rotary wing aircraft are a crime against aviation. They should be banned." Interviewer: "Uh...Ok. But you're literally the best pilot in the world at landing one. What is the secret to flying a heli?" H3dland: "Don't know, never asked." Interviewer: "I've heard you often post on Avsim? When you're not too busy training?" H3dland: "Yeah." Interviewer: "Under what user name?" H3dland: "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Interviewer: "Haha. Lol. Uh...I can't tell if you're serious??" H3dland: "..." Interviewer: "Um...anyway. I do feel honored to be talking to the sim pilot who is literally NUMBER ONE in the world right now. And...just for our readers at home...MSFS 2024 is absolutely massive. How many people have bought it, or are downloading it via Gamepass?" H3dland: "Uh...I believe it's 1.5 million." Interviewer: "So like...you're the best pilot out of 1.5 million sim pilots? Wow!" H3dland: "Well...some of those people haven't been able to download it yet." Interviewer: "Ok, I see. So...how many people are you competing against then?" H3dland: "Fifteen...wait, no, there are sixteen of us now I think." Interviewer: "Six...sixteen? Um...well, that's not as impressive...uh..." H3dland: "Getting the download working is part of the sport. Don't hate the player, hate the game." Interviewer: "Haha, yes. That makes sense. Anyway, to finish up, let's hear your famous phrase." H3dland: "Are we still doing phrasing?" Interviewer: "Uh...yeah. You know that thing you're famous for saying." H3dland: "Oh..." Interviewer: "Come on. SAY IT!" H3dland: <sigh> "Ok...'Who's the best pilot you ever saw?'" Interviewer: "Haha. I don't know? WHO IS IT?" H3dland: "You're looking at him." Interviewer: "It's so cool that you're copying the catchphrase from that Mercury astronaut guy." H3dland: "No, Gordy Cooper copied it from me." Interviewer: "Uh...really? Well...OK. Oz, I mean H3dland, I know you need to get back to your flight training now. Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us about what it's like to be WORLD NUMBER ONE. Congratulations, sir!" H3dland: "<nods> <flexes joystick arm> <returns to simpit>"

Ha, I’d forgotten about this post, but I’m glad I could be of service. 🙂

Surprisingly, my install didn’t go too badly. Yes, had to,wait in a queue, and it crashed the first time with the avatar selection. But overall, not a complete disaster. However, still haven’t got to fly yet because when I select an area in free flight it just seems to take an infinite time to load. Anyone else find it gets stuck when loading into a location for free flight?

This will go down in history as one of the “big three” aviation disasters along with the Hindenburg and Tenerife. Oh, the humanity!

“Reee…it’s not a game.” next post: ”My only goal in this simulation is to splatter as many birds on my windshield as possible.” 😉

A long time ago, I read a comment that Avsim was run off a 486 laptop in Tom’s garage. 1. Can anyone confirm if this is true? 2. Is it also true that MS/Asobo rented part of this laptop’s server bandwidth for the MSFS release? 3. Would it help if we all posted less on Avsim for a few hours so that people can download and fly the new sim? 4. Moving forward, streaming is going to be kind of important. Have MS/Asobo/Avsim considered buying a second laptop?

A few weeks sounds about the right timeframe to get the sim downloaded.

You also told me that I was going to LOVE (all caps) Microsoft Flight. spilok, you are an eternal optimist. 🙂

If you can’t wait, I have bad news for you… 😉

The trailer was great, and I had a lot of fun talking about it here on Avsim. The release, much later, was pretty rough and didn’t really live up to the hype of the trailer. There were a glorious few weeks from the 30h April 2022 when we finally got some decent payware airliners (Maddog, Fenix, etc) and we’ve never looked back since. Team Asobo has done an amazing job getting the sim to where it is now.

It’s got to be done. Interesting to see that PDE is the most popular option in this survey. Lots of people here and on Reddit saying they’re just getting the Standard, but the stats here do not support this. I learned to always get the Deluxe+ edition back in the MSFS 2002 days. I’d be sad if I couldn’t fly aircraft that other people were recommending.

Left my preorder late, but just dropped the hammer on the Aviator edition at AUD$299. Meh, the dollars per hour over a four year period is pretty good value. And I’ve spent that much on a single aircraft before (PMDG P3D 777 + upgrade, to give just one example). So Aviator Club it is. 😊